The Pyrenees---Southern France

The Pyrenees---Southern France

Thursday, October 1, 2015

Don't Get Stuck in a Rut

        This school year I am collaborating with Katie, a doctoral student. She and I team-teach three times a week. It's an interesting partnership. Both of us are navigating across unfamiliar terrain--we're working with a packaged writing "kit" in order for the students to improve their writing--and we're making modifications along the way so the students' work is as authentic as possible. 

         Our third graders got to the point this week (after writing several first drafts about several different story ideas) where they were ready to storyboard, write, revise and edit a story. Simple enough--my students do this every year.

        This year, however, Katie suggested the students go from the storyboard to the story via their laptops.

             You have got to be kidding me. What fresh not-heaven will this end up being? Their keyboarding skills will make them slower than molasses in January. This is ridiculous.

         "Sure, Katie. That sounds like a great idea."

               Bluck bluck bluck bluuuck. Okay, call me a chicken. So I shut my mouth and didn't express my doubts... so what? Perhaps it wouldn't be the total mess I thought it would be. 

         And as it happened, Katie had other work to do on Monday and Wednesday, so it was just me. I was tempted to email her and say, "I was thinking about it, and I believe the kids would make quicker progress if they write their stories down in their writing journals instead of hunting and pecking on keyboards. I hope you understand."

          But I didn't. And I am so glad...

          I will say for many of the students, the typing was slow-going. We worked on the stories for an hour or hour-and-a-half for three solid days. And although I'm well aware that the only way their keyboarding skills will get better is if they keyboard and keyboard and keyboard, I was more interested in their creative writing skills this week. The faster fingers could wait.

         Yesterday one of my students shared a mind-blowing story that she had written. She used a simile, even though that's not a craft strategy we've studied. She included some great internal dialogue. And for god's sake, she wrote an author's note. (She initially titled it "Credits" but after I explained what an author's note is, she changed what she called it.)

           At the end of the class, she asked, "I sure wish I could share my story sometime." Well, no time like the present. This usually-quiet kid proudly read her story to the rest of the class. Her classmates clapped for her. And when she was asked, "Was that a lot of hard work?" (Yes.) and "But aren't you proud of what you created?" (Yes. With a huge grin splitting her face in half.) it was such an exciting moment.

           Another girl's revision was going so much easier than if she had used a pencil and paper, because all she had to do was press enter a couple of times... she could separate a paragraph into smaller paragraphs... so she could then flesh out the story with more details.

               So today (or later this week) mix it up. Do something you do all the time--but do it differently. Be open to change. 

              (Don't be a chicken. Don't get stuck in a rut, And don't be a fool like Sioux.)

19 comments:

  1. Such new ideas and new tools...great to hear about...but how does an eight year learn to keyboard? Do they hunt and peck or is there something way you teach them first? I had a hard time managing keys when I was in high school!

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    1. Claudia--They're just hunting and pecking at this point. With more practice, they'll get faster,and there are some apps that we're thinking about that will enable them to work on their keyboarding skills during their "free time." (Not that kids in school have any free time.)

      I also had loads of trouble typing when I was a kid. Still do... ;)

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  2. My grand-kids, 6 and 4 are so fast with cell phone games and keyboards, I'm surprised any kids would not prefer the keyboard.

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    1. Joeh--The kids are enjoying it. It's the old teacher who was in a rut...

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  3. Not too long ago someone told me that the only difference between a rut and a grave is the depth. I loved that. It's always good to get out of a rut. It's so much more exciting.

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    1. Lynn--I love that quote. I'm going to have to make that a permanent thing near my desk at home.

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  4. Your students are so lucky to be in your class. I find keyboarding is much faster for me, but it wasn't always that way. It took some convincing, but once I got past hunting and pecking, my words flowed and I could revise as I wrote. I love Lynn's comment.

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    1. Linda--I think I'm the lucky one with this group of kids. (And that quote IS brilliant.)

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  5. I knew you could find something to do with all that time freed up by not teaching cursive writing anymore!

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    1. Val--Hey, she-who-is-on-the-brink-of-retirement--shaddup!

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  6. My kids learned to type because we always had a computer in the house. Our first was an Apple IIC purchased in 1985, and it came with a big-red-ball-mouse kinda thing that my son, then only three, worked like a master. I never got the hang of the thing, but he figured it out in no time. Now, of course, the kidlets are grown, and they all type, but not the way I do. I took a typing class and learned the old fashioned way...on a key-punch typewriter with ribbon. I'm faster than they are (90+ words a minute), but they probably do 40-50 wpm by whatever method they devised from repetitive use.

    Ah, yes. The Rut. So easy to fall into, tough to climb out of. I am a creature of habit, especially as I get older. My hubby bought me a brand spankin' new Surface Pro3 to replace my old Toshiba laptop. It took me three months to let go of the laptop and embrace the Surface Pro3. Of course, now that I have, I'm diggin' the touch screen and the ability to work with two separate devices, a feature of the Surface Pro that makes researching/writing so much faster and easier. Getting out of the rut is a good thing. Finding a toehold to climb up and out is the tough part.

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    1. :Lisa--My son picked up so many things--even in early elementary school--when it came to technology at such a faster rate than me.

      I can type 90 words a minute, too, but in those 90 words there will be 270 mistakes. (I make lots of typos. If I can include my backspacing and then retyping in my word count, it would be more than 90 words a minute.)

      Yeah, getting a toehold is the tough part.

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  7. Timely post, Sioux. Working on that very thing--doing things differently--just today. :-)

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    1. Cathy--Yahoo! Keep the momentum (out of the box) going.

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  8. I'm smiling ear to ear for the little shy girl!

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  9. Thanks for sharing that story, Sioux, I loved it! How exciting it must be to see a student bloom in such a wonderful way. You need to submit that one to the CS book on teaching.

    Pat
    Critter Alley

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    1. Pat--You're welcome, but I owe you thanks. I was so caught up in the moment, I hadn't even thought of doing that. But I am going to work on that story... Perhaps--thanks to you--this means I will definitely have something to share on WWWP night on Wednesday?

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  10. Sounds like you just birthed a new writer. Great post.

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