Class 7- Mentoring Student Writers (Hawthorne Day 2)

Today was our second session at Hawthorne mentoring student writers. Unfortunately, our regular class was away on a field trip on Monday so we weren't able to meet with our previous partner. It would have been nice for consistency, but I was happy to work with a new student, regardless. 

I worked with a grade 7 student named Andy, whose first language was Mandarin but he still spoke English fluently. My last session with a student felt unproductive because there were no errors in his writing- I felt I had no reason to assist him. To prevent that same feeling, I brought a few worksheets and activities all about the English language and the difficulties that can arise during writing, speech and pronunciation (they will be listed at the end of the blog post as well as the Resources page). 

I started off with the famous English Pronunciation Poem by G. Nolst Trenité. I thought this would be a fun read-aloud activity for my student because even though it's difficult, there is fun in making mistakes and guessing the pronunciation of words by trial and error. It's an extremely well-written poem with lots of difficult and unusual words (even for a native English speaker). Unfortunately, my student gave up within the first 10 lines and said it was boring and that he wanted to do something else. I was taken aback and quickly moved on to the next thing I prepared. In hindsight however, I recognize that this student was feeling particularly overwhelmed by the material. I should have scaffolded for his learning by reading some of the poem to him first or pronouncing certain words that I could have anticipated would be challenging. 

Next, I moved on to some writing prompts. I handed the page to Andy and instructed him to choose a writing prompt that inspired him and to fill the blank space below with what came to mind. We did this twice and his results are below:

Although his responses lacked depth and sometimes substance, I was pleased that he humoured me for both of these activities and chose the writing prompts that appealed to him. 

The next activity we did was reading a list of English homophones (words that are pronounced the same as another word but differ in meaning and/or spelling)  and explaining the use and/or definition of each one. Andy seemed to enjoy this activity thoroughly and he liked the challenge of figuring out which word was which. I also included a sentence at the bottom that required him to re-write a sentence using homophones:

The last activity we did together was taken from our workshop with Deanna Young on poetry. I gave Andy the guidelines for the Math poem and let him create a piece of writing that reflected his feelings on the subject. I actually found his poem very interesting because he is very skilled in math (he said it was his best subject) but he isn't too fond of it. You can read his poem here:

Overall, I felt like I helped this student more than I was helpful in my first week at Hawthorne. I was more prepared and I had resources ready incase the student's writing was near perfect. Next week I will try to prepare material for Midsummer Night's Dream to help Edward.

Resources I used: 

Class 6- Rules of Writing (Hawthorne Day 1)

            Today was my first day as a student mentor at Hawthorne Public School in Ottawa, Ontario. It was a whirlwind of a day: finding a new school, getting a tour, and worrying how well I could help these students. We are working with John Harder's grade 8 Gifted class and I am paired with a student named Edward. It is surprisingly a really good match- we are both in the gifted program since grade 3, we both play instruments, we both love Latin, and he speaks Mandarin (a language I studied for 3 years in high school).

            Edward and I retreated to the library where he showed me some samples of his writing on his tablet. I was pleasantly surprised― he was very articulate and intelligent for his age. I read through numerous written assignments and found zero grammatical or spelling errors. I was at a loss for how to help him; his work was easily Level 4 material. I began asking him how he felt about his writing, if he did any creative writing during his free time, or if he had any personal goals for his writing (either for scholarly purposes or private). Again, I had little suggestions to make because Edward hadn't formed any personal goals. So, my task this week is to find resources that could help him improve his writing and how he feels about writing in any subject in school.

            Here are some helpful tips from resources I found:

Elmore Leonard (from here):

- "Try to leave out the part that readers tend to skip."

- "If it sounds like writing, I rewrite it."

Stephen King (from here):

- The magic is in you. “I’m convinced that fear is at the root of most bad writing.”

- Don’t worry about making other people happy. “If you intend to write as truthfully as you can, your days as a member of polite society are numbered, anyway.”

- The research shouldn’t overshadow the story. “Remember that word back. That’s where the research belongs: as far in the background and the back story as you can get it.

- You become a writer simply by reading and writing. “You learn best by reading a lot and writing a lot, and the most valuable lessons of all are the ones you teach yourself.”

More writing tips (from here): 

- Try not to edit while you're creating your first draft. Creating and editing are two separate processes.

- Learn the rules of good writing... then learn when and how to break them.

- Write as if you’re on deadline and have 500 words to make your point. Then do it again. And again. (I especially like this one because it emphasizes concision and efficiency)

- You are what you read.

- While editing, use a text-to-speech software to listen to your writing.

From this website:

- Never use jargon words like reconceptualize, emassification, attitudinally, judgmentally. They are hallmarks of a pretentious ass. -David Ogilvy

and lastly...

- Don’t take anyone’s writing advice too seriously. – Lev Grossman

            Ultimately, you have to determine what works for you. Of course reading and practicing writing as much as possible will have a positive influence on your work; there is no set formula that produces a quality writer. My advice for the students I work with is to try things out, be creative, and always take a break and edit your work with a fresh mind. 

Class 5- Poetry and Prose

During this week's class, we had the privilege of listening to guest lecturer named Deanna Young discuss the benefits and struggles of writing and poetry. Deanna is a published Canadian poet who has written three books of poetry. She led us through a workshop that analyzed a variety of poems and instructed us to write our own poem about one of two topics: the Beauty of Math or the Trouble with Math. 

I already felt the anxiety building up... not only was I uncomfortable with math in general, but now I had to write a poem about it? Another reason why I felt anxious was because this poetry task came first thing Monday morning. I hadn't had my morning tea yet and the thought of writing something― let alone something creative― seemed like an impossibility. The rules Deanna gave us for our poem are below:

1. Cannot say the word "math"
2. Cannot include numbers
3. Must include one emotion
4. Must include one colour
5. Must be 9 lines long

The added difficulty I found was something Deanna said immediately before giving us this task:she can never write anything out of the blue without a writing warm-up. So why was she making us do exactly that? We had 7 minutes to write a piece of poetry that followed all the rules and explored our feelings, whether they were positive or negative, about mathematics. I sat at my desk completely blank. I was excited to write poetry, yet I wasn't expecting so many restrictions. How is one to write a poem that explores their emotions and feelings when an outside source places so many limitations on that piece of writing? The following picture shows my "success" with this activity.

What I got out of this workshop is that I cannot force students to write. Instructions and restrictions work for some, but for others it will feel too constraining. However, other students will be overwhelmed when given little to no instruction, while other students will embrace the challenge and show their creative writing skills. Every student is different, and it is up to me to make my students feel safe to explore beyond their comfort zone and to help foster a trusting relationship that allows them to be vulnerable when trying a new task.