The Write Stuff Virginia

The Writing Life: Online Resources for Teachers Who Write with Their Students

The Write Stuff - Virginia
September 2015

Wow!  The Write Stuff – Virginia is a year old this month, and man did that year fly?  I’m looking forward to bringing you more fresh voices on writing from Virginia’s finest classrooms, but to start this year – a gift.  I’ve compiled a list of some of the most useful and creative writing resources to use with your students and to assist you with your own writing routine.  I’ll be back with interviews in September with Christina Ferber.  So, before the school year gets too busy, and before you are ready to pull your hair out over all those essays, sit back with your coffee, scroll and click, and let the inspiration flow.

Tom Conway: It Starts with a Slam

The Write Stuff - Virginia
May 2015

One of the major challenges for teachers of writing has always been finding ways to stimulate student buy-in during the writing process.  The days of spending time on work to please the teacher are gone for most, if they were ever really here in the first place, and students crave more authentic opportunities to share their creativity and opinions with a wider audience.  Often, however, these opportunities are daunting for teachers to implement and maintain, especially in the current environment of rampant national and state testing.  How does one carve out the necessary time to allow writing and the creative process to flourish while adhering to curriculum and content in the subject area classroom?

My guest this week has found an answer that works for his students at his school. Tom ConwayNVWP alumnus and 7th grade English teacher at Thornburg Middle School inSpotsylvania, VA, has been promoting authentic writing through poetry slams since he first started teaching ten years ago.  After graduating from the NVWP Summer Institute in 2014, he was encouraged by mentor writing teacher, Stephenie Fellinger, to jump start an idea that had been scuttling around in his brain for a bit – a student writing center at Thornburg Middle School.

Photo provided by Tom Conway - Tom and his students celebrate their upcoming poetry slam.

Janelle Martin: Freeing the Writer Within

The Write Stuff - Virginia
April 2015

As teachers under pressure from mandates and curriculum requirements, we sometimes see the developmental stages of our students become overshadowed by looming deadlines and requirements.  However, developing minds is our business, and Jennelle Martin, an 8th grade English teacher at Caroline Middle School, makes it her priority to draw out the writer in each of her students.  With an emphasis on creativity and innovation, the keys to success in her classroom are handed to those who are willing to free their minds to make room for the voice to be heard.

Photo provided by Janelle Martin

 

Ellen Smith Alden: Writing the Human Record

The Write Stuff - Virginia
March 2015

We’re back!  I know it’s been a while, but I am excited to share this latest interview with you.  Prior to the winter break, I was able to sit down in December with veteran educator and my good friend, Ellen Smith Alden.  And while I’m hoping she will forgive the long overdue posting of our interview, I know you will enjoy her wit, passion and expertise about the writing practice in her classroom.  Ellen currently teaches 7th grade history and English here in Virginia, and she is a certified NVWP consultant.  We met many years ago while working at a middle school in Stafford County, and I have always admired Ellen’s tenacity, sharp intellect, and evident concern for the kids in her classroom, both as students and as future adults.  She has the utmost respect for them, as is evident in the ways she teaches and in her consistent commitment to bringing them meaningful curriculum that will serve them their entire lives.

Photo by Ellen Smith Alden - Ellen and her students celebrate a great year of writing.

Will Mackintosh: Linking Thinking, Speaking, and Writing

The Write Stuff - Virginia
November 2014

One of my goals in creating The Write Stuff – Virginia was to gain insight from teachers of all content areas and grade levels about the function and importance of writing in their classrooms.  With this as a given, I was especially interested in interviewing Will Mackintosh of the University of Mary Washington.  Will is an associate professor in the Department of History and American Studies with a full teaching schedule keeping him busy each semester.  He offers thoughtful insight into university-level expectations for writing, including his own philosophies about the purpose of writing within his own content area.

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John Stewart: The Value of Writing for Freedom of Expression

The Write Stuff - Virginia
October 2014

John Stewart and I have been acquainted for many years through our extended circle of friends, but it was not until I ran into him at a technology symposium for Arlington County Schools in the summer of 2013 that I had a chance to see him in action as an educator.  As an instructional lead teacher for the school system, John was facilitating a class about apps and Internet resources to hook students into writing creatively.  With a career that began in the 1990s at Harvard University’s Graduate School of Education , and has since spanned over two decades in the classroom, providing adventures far and near, I knew he would have a keen perspective on writing with his students.   When I found his name on the NVWP resource blog, I realized it was time to give John a call.

John in his classroom 

Haley Hendershot: Student Writing as Authentic Writing Practice

The Write Stuff - Virginia
October 2014

Haley Hendershot and I first met when she was completing her practicum work prior to her first full time teaching position.  She was training with my colleague at school, and we struck up a conversation about poetry.  Haley was working toward her Master of Fine Arts through a college in Vermont, and we were both looking for people with whom we could workshop poems and short fiction.  That was nearly seven years ago.  Since that time, Haley has moved, finished her MFA, been head of her department at a middle school in Henrico County outside of Richmond, Virginia, and has developed a definite philosophy on the impact of authentic writing assignments and publication in relation to her students’ investment in the craft.

Dr. Paul Rogers: Learning to Write, Writing to Learn

The Write Stuff - Virginia
September 2014

Amidst the rush of graduate classes this past summer, I had the opportunity to meet, share writing with, and learn from Dr. Paul M. Rogers, Associate Chair of English at George Mason University in Fairfax, Virginia.  He was ending his three year leadership role as the director of the Northern Virginia Writing Project, and was finishing his fifth year as leader of the Invitational Summer Institute.  With NVWP as the impetus for this blog, Dr. Rogers, Paul as he prefers, was the first name that came to mind when I started considering people who might have excellent advice for teachers seeking to use writing in their classrooms.

Lee Schleifer Brosius: Tapping into the Elementary Goldmine

The Write Stuff - Virginia
October 2014

Though middle and secondary teachers often don’t think to seek advice from their elementary school counterparts, there is a wealth of untapped potential for writing integration and cross-curricular lessons in the initial levels of education.  Not only do elementary school teachers have the expertise of teaching all subjects, but they often develop ways to reach a number of different levels in a single lesson that bridge subjects and genres.  I recently had the pleasure of speaking with veteran elementary school teacher, Lee Schleifer Brosius, about writing integration in her elementary school classes. Lee has as Masters of Education plus thirty extra graduate hours and seventeen years experience as an elementary teacher in 2nd grade, 3rd grade, 5th grade, and now in 1st grade.  She currently teaches in Prince William County, Virginia.

Robin Simmons: Taming the Blank Page

The Write Stuff - Virginia
October 2014

I was beyond excited when Robin Simmons agreed to talk with me about her philosophy and practices of teaching writing for this week’s post.  Robin and I met seven years ago when she was teaching social studies in Stafford, Virginia.  Even though she was fairly new to teaching, we could all see that she had a certain spark that made her a gifted and natural teacher.  As life goes, Robin and her family left Virginia, but she continued teaching in each state where she and her husband, Scott, moved.  In Oklahoma and Kentucky, she ignited her students’ desire to grow as learners and collaborators.

It has been ten years since Robin started teaching.  While she has taught English at both the middle and high school levels, her latest position is with 8th graders at Calloway County Middle School in Murray, Kentucky.  In the time since I first met her, Robin has pursued further training through  National Board and National Writing Project Certifications and has developed a definite philosophy on the role and importance of writing in her classroom. (Continue Reading)

Robin Simmons (right) with colleague Kimberly Barrett

Editorial: Position on Writing

The Write Stuff - Virginia
October 2014
 

Throughout my years in school, writing was a foundation that grounded me and allowed me the freedom to explore my beliefs, focus my creative energies, and feel successful in a climate where I often felt like the odd one out. From this, I would have to say that my position on the teaching of writing and its use as a tool for learning is one that allows it to remain organic, allows it room to change and breathe, and one where criticism remains limited to what works well in student work, rather than what the student has done incorrectly. Writing is such a personal venture, and no matter which form it takes that must be respected.

Writing should always be approached relative to the writer’s experience. When it grows out of a natural understanding of the world, students have the opportunity to explore any subject on their own terms. Writing is unique in this way, especially when we are locked into a rigid climate of curriculum and standards that may seem irrelevant to many of our students. Our students should have the freedom to approach content with personal connections and by exploring interests as unique and varied as themselves. This authentic connection with the world through writing provides an environment rich with learning opportunities and growth.

Given to change, writing requires room to breathe. It should be viewed as an organic component in our curriculum that should not always be subject to rubrics and grades. Drafts are changeable; nothing has to be forever. Even a final draft may one day have revisions. We should impart to students that the final draft required on a due date or test is simply the best version they can possibly create on that date. It is a vivid lesson on living in the present, but also one of loosening attachments – attachments to ideas about fixed ability, perfection, and mastery. By facilitating an environment where students see their writing as a living thing, we provide a model for the way ideas and constructs in society change and evolve.

Criticism should be limited and constructive in nature. We, as teachers, should focus on what works well in student papers, encouraging them to do more of these things rather than highlighting what is wrong. Form and function should be taught for what they are – tools for communication, for the reader’s ease, and to drive a point home. Some of the best writing happens when the tools are used in ways that fall outside the norm. Writing should be innovation and mind-expanding. This is where we want our students to be comfortable in their learning.

The personal nature of the written craft must be respected. Even as English teachers, we cannot approach this tool as one over which we have actual domain, as it is a tool that is as inherent, unique, and personal to each of us. It is our voice. It is our self.