Writing Ordinary-Ordinary: Conferring with 4th Graders as They Write Slice of Life Stories

I was reminded today how helping writers to not to rush past their ideas represents important and challenging work. In the fourth grade class in Newark, NJ that I have been co-teaching, I showed students a slice of life story I wrote a month ago (Learning to Lie) and we discussed some of the writing techniques they saw in the piece that we have also been trying out in our notebooks. We also discussed how the slice of life story is highly focused and in may ways celebrates the ordinariness in our lives. I decided to teach this lesson as I noticed that many of the children were trying to tell such epic stories that the work was largely overwhelming. I thought a slice of life story might offer us the opportunity
to tell a more manageable story and to dig beneath the surface of our own ordinary lives.

The ordinary is, of course, fascinating. In an interview republished in 2004 by the New York Times, Andy Warhol explained to art critic David Bourdin that he was attempting to read what was not there in Warhol's work. The painter said:

I just happen to like ordinary things. When I paint them, I don't try to make them extraordinary. I just try to paint them ordinary-ordinary.

I had hoped that students might begin to dabble with the depth that comes by mining the ordinary. I had hoped that they might tell stories that were ordinary-ordinary. The students remarked that they noticed that in the story I had written, I wasn't heroic and in fact I had done something that was wrong.  They caught on to how telling such a story might well engage a reader.

So after our discussion,  I next invited the students to think about their own potential slice of life stories and when they had one in mind to partner and tell that story like juicy gossip. The partner's job was to ask questions like we had done before during another writing lesson. After this sharing,  all but two children were able to settle in and begin to write their stories.  The two girls who needed more assistance met with me on the carpet in the back of the classroom with their notebooks in hand.

"Why don't you take a look at your life map and see if there's a potential slice of life story you want to tell?" I began.
The girls opened their notebooks, looked at their maps, and after a few minutes, one said, "I could write about flying to Arizona."
"Flying to Arizona?"
"Yeah."
"I'm curious. Why were you flying there?" I asked.
"My dad was there."
"How come?"
"He was in prison there."
"In prison?"
"Yeah. He was coming back from California and the bus stopped and he didn't have the right identification and he didn't have the right papers and stuff and he was arrested and sent to prison," she explained quickly.
"Oh wow. That must have been such a shock."
"Yeah. It was really hard for my mom. It was a Friday morning. She got a phone call. We were watching movies."
"Where were you?"
"Snuggled in my mom's bed. We were watching movies. She doesn't like to watch scary movies at night so we were watching them in the morning. She got the phone call and then just sat and cried."  
We were both quiet for a minute or so and then she added, "It was the first time I saw my mom cry. I was 8."
"Oh my. Your story makes me feel as if I could be in the room alongside you two."
She nods her head.
"I wonder if your opening line might not be what you just said, The first time I saw my mom cry, I was 8. That's such a powerful opening."
"I know more about how my mom felt cause I was with her."
"I bet that will help when you tell the story."
"Yeah, I think so."
"I'm not sure if you know this yet, but where do you see this slice of life story ending?"
"I'm not sure." Again we're both quiet. "Maybe getting on the plane? Or when my mom got the ticket?" she offered.
"Sounds like either could be a good place to leave your reader. Do you have enough now to get started?"
She indicated yes and quickly moved to an empty table and began writing. 

Throughout most of this time, the other student listened and when I asked her if she had an idea for a story, she said, "Last year in third grade I had an attitude."
"An attitude? How so?"
"I was just like, nothing mattered. Mr. W. had to call home and he talked with my mom a lot."
"How'd that go?"
"I got a lot of punishments."
"That must have not been too good. What was causing the attitude? Did you ever figure that out?"
"Yeah. I wasn't seeing my dad. I didn't have time with him."
"That sounds like that would hurt."
"Yeah, when I finally told my mom she called him and she said he was coming on Friday to get me." We're quiet for a moment and she added, "It got better when I could see him again."
"It?"
"My attitude."
"Hmm. How do you see your story beginning?"
"Maybe describing what I was like in class."
"How would that sound? What might that first sentence be like?"
"I don't know. Like last year, I had too much attitude in third grade."
"Sounds like a good start. Why don't you begin with that?"
She nods her head indicating yes.
"Do you think you can get started writing now?"
"Yeah."

Mining the ordinary requires us to not rush past details, but rather, to take our time and best ensure that the words we place on paper or screen match our emerging understanding of what we are trying to say. This is hard work and best learned when choice, agency, large blocks of time, and trial and error are present and permissible.  Writing well is rarely learned when writing time at school is dedicated largely to practicing writing responses to open-ended test items on high states tests like PARCC.  I mention this as I see evidence that some district leadership assumes practicing test items is akin to good writing instruction.  It is not.  It never has been.

Professional Texts about Reading, Reading Workshop, Conferring, Assessment, and Reading 2.0

Print Resources for K-6

Teachers engaging (Reilly, Newark, NJ 2014)

I.               Texts About Comprehension & Literacy

Allington, Richard L. (Ed.). (2010). Essential Readings on Struggling  Learners.  Newark, DE: IRA.

Barnhouse, Dorothy & Vicki Vinton. (2012). What Readers Really Do: Teaching the Process of Meaning Making. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.

Campano, Gerald. (2007).  Immigrant Students and Literacy: Reading, Writing, and Remembering . New York: Teachers College Press.

Dorn, Linda & Carla Soffos. (2005). Teaching for Deep Comprehension. Portland, ME: Stenhouse Publishers.

Fountas, Irene  & Gay Su Pinnell (2006). Teaching for Comprehending and Fluency: Thinking, Talking, and Writing About Reading, K-8. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.

Miller, Debbie. (2013). Reading with Meaning: Teaching Comprehension in the Primary Grades. Portland, ME: Stenhouse Publishers.

Serafini, Frank (2004). Lessons in Comprehension: Explicit Instruction in the Reading Workshop. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.

Strickland, Dorothy, (Ed.). (2010). Essential Readings in Early Literacy. Newark, DE: IRA.

Taberski, Sharon. (2010). Comprehension from the Ground Up: Simplified, Sensible Instruction for the K-3 Reading Workshop. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.

II.              Texts about Reading Workshop

Akhavan, Nancy. (2008).The Content-Rich Reading & Writ​ing Workshop: A Time-Saving Approach for Making the Most of Your Literacy Block. New York: Scholastic.

Barnhouse, Dorothy. (2014). Readers Front and Center. Portland, ME: Stenhouse Publishers.

Bennett, Samantha. (2007). That Workshop Book: New Systems and Structures for Classrooms That Read, Write, and Think. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.

Collins, Kathy. (2008). Reading for Real: Teach Students to Read with Power, Intention, and Joy in K-3 Classrooms. Portland, ME: Stenhouse Publishers.

Collins, Kathy. (2004). Growing Readers: Units of Study in the Primary Classroom. Portland, ME: Stenhouse Publishers.

Hahn, Mary Lee. (2002). Reconsidering Read-Aloud. Portland, ME: Stenhouse Publishers.

Heard, Georgia & Jennifer McDonough. (2009). A Place for Wonder: Reading and Writing Nonfiction in the Primary Grades. Portland, ME: Stenhouse Publishers.

Orehovec, Barbara & Marybeth Alley. (2003). Revisiting The Reading Workshop: A Complete Guide to Organizing and Managing an Effective Reading Workshop That Builds Independent, Strategic Readers (Scholastic Teaching Strategies). New York: Scholastic.

Parsons, Stephanie. (2010). First Grade Readers: Units of Study to Help Children See Themselves as Meaning Makers. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.

Reif, Linda. (2014). Read Write Teach: Choice and Challenge in the Reading-Writin​g Workshop. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.

Serafini, Frank (2001). The Reading Workshop: Creating Space for Readers. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.

Serafini, Frank & Suzette Serafini-Youngs. (2006). Around the Reading Workshop in 180 Days: A Month-by-Month Guide to Effective Instruction. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.

Sibberson, Franki. (2012). The Joy of Planning: Designing Minilesson Cycles in Grades 3-6. Holden, ME: Choice Literacy.

Sibberson, Franki & Karen Szymusiak. (2003). Still Learning to Read: Teaching Students in Grades 3-6. Portland, ME: Stenhouse Publishers.

III. Texts about Teacher Language & Student Talk & Conferring

Allen, Patrick A. (2009). Conferring: The Keystone of Reader's Workshop. Portland, ME: Stenhouse Publishers.

Genishi, Ceila & Anne Haas Dyson. (2009). Children Language & Literacy. New York: Teachers College Press.

Johnston, Peter H. (2012). Opening Minds: Using Language to Change Lives. Portland, ME: Stenhouse Publishers.

Johnston, Peter H.  (2004). Choice Words. Portland, ME: Stenhouse Publishers.

Lindsfor, Judith Wells. (2008). Children's Language: Connecting Reading, Writing, and Talk. New York: Teachers College Press.

Nichols, Maria. (2008). Talking About Text: Guiding Students to Increase Comprehension Through Purposeful Talk . Huntington Beach, CA: Shell Education.

Nichols, Maria. (2006). Comprehension Through Conversation: The Power of Purposeful Talk in the Reading Workshop. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.

Serravallo, Jennifer  & Gravity Goldberg (2007). Conferring with Readers: Supporting Each Student's Growth and Independence. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.

Zwiers, Jeff & Marie Crawford. (2012). Academic Conversations: Classroom Talk that Fosters Critical Thinking and Content Understandings. Portland, ME: Stenhouse Publishers.

III. Texts About Assessment

Sibberson, Franki & Karen Szymusiak. (2008). Day-to-Day Assessment in the Reading Workshop: Making Informed Instructional Decisions in Grades 3-6. New York: Scholastic.

Yetta Goodman, Yetta  Gretchen Owocki. (2002). Kidwatching: Documenting Children's Literacy Development. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.

IV. Texts about Reading & Technology

Hyler, Jeremy & Troy Hicks. (2014). Create, Compose, Connect!: Reading, Writing, and Learning with Digital Tools. New York: Routledge. 

Johnson, Denise. (2014). Reading, Writing, and Literacy 2.0: Teaching with Online Texts, Tools, and Resources, K–8. New York: Teachers College Press.

Miller, Suzanne M. & Mary B. McVee (Eds.) (2012). Multimodal Composing in Classrooms: Learning and Teaching for the Digital World. New York: Routledge. 

Serafini, Frank (2015). Reading Workshop 2.0. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann. (To be published. Info here).

Vasquez, Vivian Maria  & Carol Branigan Felderman. (2012). Technology and Critical Literacy in Early Childhood. New York: Routledge.

One Hand, Your Breath & an iPhone: Editing by Ear

The Context

Today I was observing and modeling some ways to work with intermediate grade writers at an inner city public school. There I  had the pleasure of teaching one child how to edit by ear as her teacher observed.  Some years ago I heard my husband define punctuation as musical notation for the breath.  That understanding of what punctuation is has remained with me and informs the instructional decisions I make.  So today when I conferred with Kiara, a fourth grader who had written a terrific personal narrative, I was thinking about how to help her hear and feel punctuation as her text was largely missing most end punctuation marks.

The Process

I asked Kiara to take one hand and to place it close to her mouth so that as she read her text she could actually feel her breath hitting her hand as she said the words.  I explained that when her breath stopped hitting her hand that would be an indication that some type of punctuation (comma, period, etc.) was needed.  It was tough going at first as Kiara read very quickly.  I asked her to slow down the pace of the reading and she began to notice her breath and the absence of breath.  We practiced together and she slowly gained the confidence necessary to name those places where end punctuation was needed. She got better at naming the place where a period, question mark, or exclamation point was needed with each passing sentence.

After she completed the first round of editing, I gave her my iPhone and invited her to record (iTalk pro) what she had written and revised so that she could hear her composition.  This process yielded another round of editing as Kiara heard more places where she wanted to make both content and editing changes.  What was wonderful to see was the decision making that Kiara began to undertake.  She stopped checking with me and took control.  I was quietly cheering.

The Outcome

By the close of our 15-minute conference, Kiara had fully revised and edited the text resulting in a well told narrative about an afternoon she and her aunt played soccer.  I will be sending the audio recording to Kiara tomorrow so that she might share it with her family at home.  Involving the senses when writing can be an important method for writers to use.  This method often helps writers gain better control of the text so that they can convey their intentions.  Using technologies enhance that process.