Nora Carpon's writing prompt suggestion

Nora Capron, a graduate student in the summer 2012 session of Teaching and Assessing Writing with the Six-Traits posted the following.

With regard to this week's readings, I really liked Donald Murray’s questions to help uncover possible topics on page 172:

What surprised me lately? What’s bugging me? What is changing? What did I expect to happen that didn’t? Why did something make me so mad? What do I keep remembering? What have I learned?

These would be fabulous to use in my Creative Writing class! Sometimes it’s tough for kids to “get the wheels greased” with their basic ideas. I agree with the point Dennis made in his lecture when he said people write best when they write what they know, and I think Murray’s prompts would serve as a very comfortable starting point to get the pens moving. I plan to use these prompts next year in the first few classes when we are generating ideas for our writing.

One idea I have to share is a free writing exercise I recently did as a student in a creative writing course I am taking this summer. The professor passed out a bunch of books to the class. Once each student had a book on his/her desk, the professor instructed us to open our book to a random page, close our eyes, point to a random line of text, read the line, write it at the top of our page and use this as our writing prompt. The sentence at the top of my page was “How embarrassing for him, some stoner overhearing.” Needless to say, this got the creative juices flowing very quickly!

I went from feeling overwhelmed with the pressure of generating a new idea to writing something original that flowed really easily. All I needed was a little inspiration, and it came from a source that I had all around me all the time—books! This exercise was a lot of fun and very useful. I will definitely use this exercise in my own Creative Writing class this year. Has anyone done a similar activity with their students? How would you describe this experience? What variations of this activity could also be done?

Archive of articles about the 6-Traits focused on: IDEAS

6-Traits Resources: Ideas archive

Melville Brainstorms

Tag Galaxy: Writing Prompts from a world of images

Tag Galaxy: Sea

This site asks you to enter a keyword and then assembles a planet of images using Flikr photos. I entered the word writing and then played with a threeD planet of pictures. Click on an image and it floats forward. This could be a great way to prompt journal writing or poetry. Fun to play with! Use it for some idea generation the next time around!

Color Poems Word Choice & Fun!

Hailstones and Halibut Bones & Color Poems by Karen Grunder
That old Hailstones and Halibut Bones book motivated me to develop a lesson for color poems! We brainstormed ideas for one color (red) as a class, sense by sense. The students would do it individually first on their own paper, then we would share and record all ideas on chart paper. The next day we picked the ideas for each sense we thought were the strongest, and worked on putting a poem together and making each image even more powerful. We balanced the amount of sense images (didn't want to overload on the visual). Hearing and feeling (emotion) were frequently the challenging ones for 10 year olds, but sometimes ended up being very effective parts of their poems when they later wrote their own. "Showing, not telling" was a big part of this lesson. Finally, the children got the chance to choose their own color, and brainstormed their own ideas. Lots of excitement! Yellow is.... the smile in my mom's eyes whenever she looks at me the first notes of the ice cream song - "Run! Find the truck!" huge fields of daffodils rippling like waves as each gust hits… These poems were little treasures. The majority of children in the class got their poems published in a poetry book through a contest I entered. (Not a thing I regularly do, but someone handed me the poetry contest sheet just as we were doing the activity). This is an easy and effective way to get children to play with words to paint pictures and evoke emotions. A lot of talk went into the most effective way of sequencing ideas. Mood, balance, dynamics, and the importance of leaving the reader with a strong, final image/thought also came up. Such fun! So much covered in one much enjoyed writing activity! This year I'd like to get them to take digital pictures or use the web, and create a collage of any images or emotions from their poems that could be caught with a camera. I would tell them this after they finished their poems, though. I wouldn't want their inspirations to be restricted by practicality. Karen Grunder (Summer 2008: Teaching and Assessing Writing with the 6-Traits) Lesson Extension from Read Write Think: Color Poems—Using the Five Senses to Guide Prewriting

Too Many Ideas...too few? by Elaine Soos

This post was provided by Elaine Soos as we were discussing Idea development in my online class Teaching and Assessing Writing with the 6-Traits. ~ Dennis

One strategy from our readings that I would like to try with students who present too much information in their writing is asking them to "cut the copy in half without losing content" (Spandel, p. 213). This strategy intrigued me when I read it, yet I don't know why, because it's something I myself have done many times in my own writing -- including any time I write my primary post for this class! I once worked in the features department of a specialty newspaper whose editor would accommodate my passion for covering talks (or doing interviews) about complicated issues. I'd have a very flexible word count for my magazine-style articles, and I was in heaven. Then, I went to a daily where I couldn't do this -- not enough time and not enough space. I still enjoyed covering the same types of articles, but this time I had to intentionally think, "Use stronger images that will say more in less space." It was a whole new skill to learn and took awhile to get used to. (A quote I posted in our Friday Fun activity for Week 1 sums up this still challenging experience for me -- "I have made this [letter] longer, because I have not had the time to make it shorter." (Blaise Pascal 1623-1662) J Maybe our students can relate to this as well. :)

I also liked Spandel's suggestion (p. 213) to ask "wordy" students to summarize their message, to help them focus. When I have asked students who write too long or too much to state their main idea in one sentence verbally and then to do it in writing using a "condensed, no-words-wasted" approach (Spandel p. 213), I've usually found they "find" their main idea and are better able to write to it.  I can't wait to get my hands on Geoffrey Kloske's "Once Upon a Time, the End (Asleep in 60 Seconds)" suggested by Spandel, who says that once students  hear/read a few examples of these crazy summaries of popular fairy tales, they will better understand the idea of narrowing and focusing their own writing.

Then there are the students who write too long, but not because they have too much to say. Students who just "pad" their writing, repeat words, etc., to make their compositions longer suffer from not having enough to write about, often because they have not done enough research (or don't have enough knowledge of the topic from personal experience). I enjoyed learning about two creative and fun ways to help students learn to include rich details in their writing:

• writing a "how to poem ... to explore any concept, term or person" (Spandel, p. 172) - e.g., "how to be Hestor Prynne, ... Nurse Ratchet... a democracy," etc.
• putting their writing "to the test"(p. 175) -- having students write a multiple-choice quiz based on their writing, to see if it has enough "detail-rich information -- enough for several questions."

I would like to try these strategies with the students I will tutor. Has anyone "out there" tried them already -- or something similar -- and if so, did they help? (As I mentioned earlier, I thought I was ready to begin tutoring before I took this class, but I'm so glad I am getting all these great ideas beforehand, from our readings, lectures, Web sites/software -- and all of you!)

Elaine from Ohio

Books for Teaching 6-Traits

Looking for just the right book to present a traits concept?

Checkout my Writer's Bookshelf!

6-Traits: Vickie Spandel

6-Traits: Ruth Culham

Great Writing Advice

Teaching Ideas & Content

Teaching Voice

Teaching Organization

Teaching Word Choice

Teaching Conventions

Six Traits Search Engine

Try this Six Traits Search Engine I built using a social search system called Swicky. You can vote for your favorite materials and suggest sites you'd like included in the search results. Go to the site and click on the keywords in the tag cloud. See what you think! ~ Dennis

Ideas & Voice

Let me share Audrey's response to the following question: --"Wouldn't a piece that has well developed ideas usually contain voice?"


She helps us see the interactions and differences clearly:

I started wondering about this very same question as I was scoring "The Note".

My first thinking was that a piece with voice = 4 or 5 would also have a high score for ideas. Topic focus and selection of relevant, compelling, personal (experiential) details are shared by both voice and ideas.

But #1: Would it be possible to have a piece of writing where the author is very engaging and personal (Voice 4 or 5) but the ideas are just a string of wonderings grouped together, a broad range of topics (Ideas 3 or 2)?

But #2: Would it be possible to have a piece of writing where the the topic is narrow; the writer speaks from experience, giving quality details; and the reader's questions are anticipated and answered, (Ideas 4 or 5) yet the writing is sincere but impersonal and lacking risk (Voice 3)?

Perhaps a high score for Voice or Ideas would mean at least a 3 or 4 for the other trait of this pair?

What do you think?

Are there any examples you can think of?

How to introduce the 6-Traits?

Peter, a thoughtful Middle School reflects...

As I dig into the course, I keep asking myself how I can efficiently and smoothly introduce the six trait framework to my students in a meaningful and engaging manner?

• One trait at a time?
• Teachable moments?
• Gradually introduce the lingo and zoom in through lessons and activities over time?

I suppose that I have more questions than answers! Currently, I frame my writing instruction in terms of genres more than traits, although I'm being strategic about introducing traits now that I'm in this course. So far, I'm having a blast and it's gratifying having new material and instructional practices to bring to class.

Relating what I do (or have done) to the ideas trait that we explored in module 3, I began the year by using Nancie Atwell's "writing territories" activity. The students attach the list to their writing folders and add to it once every couple of weeks. Clearly, recording the ideas is critical because they are so easy to lose! In class, we write about three days a week minimally, using quick-writes: question prompts, integrating weekly vocab. terms into a story or response, etc. Students also work building the genre pieces that I mentioned above (this is driven by the Vermont Writing Portfolio requirement).

Generally, we create a finished piece every six weeks or so with breaks here and there. The instruction is very process oriented and gives ample time to each stage, idea generating, research, prewriting, organization, writing, revision, editing, yada yada yada....

In addition to Atwell's idea generating process, I also picked up a couple of tricks from visiting author, Jack Gantos, who generates his content by making the memory maps as described this week's reading. These materials also go in student folders. The only addition or modification would be to make them as visual as possible, using small icons/sketches to truly illustrate the event and/or main characters. It's a fun, personally meaningful way to brainstorm and the kids discovered how many ideas they actually had at their disposal (this is, of course, after they complained painfully that they had nothing to put on their idea maps!).

The trick with the maps is to make them as focused or specific as possible. Jack Gantos, for example, showed us one that he created for his childhood years in Barbados, and one for his house. Each map could contain at least 20 stories! I also had the kids create a "life line" where they brainstormed and plotted a 20 events--highs and lows--over the course of their lives (that they could remember).

This activity also provided food for thought and stimulated the development of several very creative writing topics.The main reason that I like beginning with these types of activities is that they are conducive to sharing, they are visual, and the kids' ideas tend to build upon one other.

A last thought on ideas: throughout the writing process, I use a variety of graphic organizers to help students collect and select relevant details that support focus statements. This is one area, however that i'm looking to enhance. I have a couple of good resources on writing by Jim Burke (who seems to be making quite a name for himself recently). He's published through Heinemann Press--an excellent publisher.

Ultimately, my goal is to develop a growing resource of lessons and activities to help students practice idea development to in a variety of ways that they find engaging and fun, rather than tedious and arduous. Rather than make them groan and develop a rash when we discuss writing, my goal is to foster genuine enthusiasm and interest. Can pigs truly fly? Ideas?

Primary Ideas: Teach 'em to pick their own topics!

Jennifer shares these great ideas from her 1st Grade Classroom:

I believe that "Good writing" begins with meaningful topic selection. Writers take more ownership when they are in control of their writing topic. It is my responsibility to encourage, model and teach my first graders how to do this. In my classroom, we learn very early what good writers do.

What Good Writers Do:

• Good Writers write about Small Moments from our everyday lives (losing a tooth, dropping our lunch tray, losing a gym shoe, etc.)


• Good writers write about Memories (weddings, injuries, getting a new pet, etc.).


• Good Writers write about things that we are an Expert on (fishing, jumping rope, walking a dog, etc.).


• Good Writers write about things that they have a big feeling about.


• Good Writers write about things that they know a lot of specific information about.


• Good Writers write about things that are real in their lives.


• Good Writers write about things that are important to them.


• Good Writers write about things that they think others will be interested in.
  
  We also learn that: Good Writers are inspired by other writers: An old piece of writing might inspire a new piece of writing. Someone else's writing might inspire a new piece of writing. A good book might inspire a new piece of writing.
  
  My students and I create charts with this type of writing language. These becomes my focus lessons during our Writer's Workshop.
  

Status of the Class

Another great tip to help kids select their writing topic before they actually have the paper & pencil and begin to write about the first random thing that comes to mind, is "Status of the Class."

This means, I pass out the writing journals at the carpet. The students "warm up their brains" by rereading old pieces. They decide if they will be revisiting a piece of writing to write & write or make changes or they decide if they will be moving into a new piece of writing. They have about 3 minutes to do this.

Then, I begin calling out names. As a student hears their name, they share their writing topic. ---Yes, they truly use this language. It's fantastic!

• "I'm revisiting my story about learning to trot on my horse."


• "I'm making changes to my story about my b-day party."


• "I'm writing about a Memory when I twisted my ankle ice skating."

Once a student gives me their topic, they head right to their writing space and begin writing. The entire Status of the Class experience should be quick (5 minutes max!). It feels a bit chaotic at first, but if you stick to it & train your students, it's extremely beneficial.

My first graders have truly made a connection to the importance of meaningful topic selection which directly connects to Ideas, Ideas, Ideas.

Ideas for teaching Ideas in primary grades

Kathy shared the following in my current 6-traits online class. Her ideas about ideas should spark some ideas for all of us! ~ Dennis

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"This is one area that I have done a lot of exploring with my classes over the last two years. I agree with Spandel* that writer's need the skill of finding and defining their own topics. If you provide the topic routinely, you will encourage students to depend on you for this.

We are working on learning to "spot the moments or ideas within their experience that are worthy of writing time." I agree that we must tap into their personal experience, expertise, and interests. I think students can learn to become good observers. As I have mentioned before, we make lots of lists and we record them in our writer's notebooks.

One book that I have used the last two years to introduce the concept of personal experiences and using a writer's notebook is I'm In Charge of Celebrations (by Byrd Baylor). This is a book about a woman that celebrates unique and wonderful occurrences in her life as she lives in the desert: seeing a triple rainbow, seeing dust tunnels(?) swirl all around her, a coyote, etc.

After reading the book, I send home a note asking parents to help students make a list of things that they celebrate in their life, other than holidays. Parents list 6 or 7 experiences( holding an alligator, saving two kittens, riding my first roller coaster, loosing my first tooth). This was our first entry into our writer's notebooks under the heading of celebrations.

Then students chose 1 celebration to use as our first piece of writing. We started by making a class list through interactive writing. Then they each wrote individually about the experience. Spandel states that students need modeling and practice in order to learn how to list everyday events and random thoughts in their notebooks. This is why we started with a class writer's notebook. We recorded ideas together on chart paper.

Another point that Spandel makes is that students need to talk to one another before they write - to suggest ideas for writing. I also previously mentioned that we have Lightbulb Lab almost everyday in my class. This is time to write ideas in the writer's notebooks. During this time students can chose to have idea talk time. They can sit with one or two classmates and talk.

I have talk time cards they can use to guide their conversation. For ex. Did anything different or unusual happen last night? or Did you notice anything on your way to school today?

I also have a bin of pictures I pulled from magazines that they can look at to try to come up with ideas.I found two ideas that I would like to try in my classroom. I liked the idea chart "Picturing Writing" on pg. 24. I thought it was a great way to get kids to plan out descriptions and details for their story. I also like the Snapshots idea, "Show, don't tell", in which students turn vague sentences into snapshots by piling on adjectives and creating pictures in the reader's mind. "

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*The text we use in the k-4 course is Vick Spandel's Creating Young Writers. If you've read it you know it is extraordinary. If you haven't read it... do!

~ Dennis