Entry 8

In this entry, I would like to address the following ideas presented by Sara in her Learning Log Entry #7:  

“Something I might struggle with as a teacher and a writer is deciding when description is just right, overdone, or not enough.  Such a scale is subjective and I know that in my own writing I have difficulty determining if I have included too much information.  Teaching students to be concise and precise in their word choice is a difficult task and I'm still not sure of the best way to do this" (http://sertel618sp12.blogspot.com/).
 

Sara,

I definitely struggle with knowing when enough is enough in terms of descriptive writing.  I feel as though I have been trained over the course of my education to pad my writing with unnecessary detail and wordiness in order to reach a page requirement.  By the time I was in college, I must admit, I had become an expert at this!  It was not until graduate school that I was assigned writing tasks with only a page or two within which to concisely express my ideas.  It is the shorter writing assignments that force me to sit down with my words and determine which are the most important in conveying my ideas and which can be omitted.  I find this task to be more challenging than filling up page after page with superfluous details.  I agree with you that it is important to help students discover how to “be concise and precise in their word choice” because I think that good writers are intentional writers; powerful writing is all about word selection.  With writing, longer does not necessarily mean better.  I have been learning in my online course this semester that keeping writing short and sweet seems to be especially applicable when it comes to digital writing because who wants to read a two page long Moodle or blog post/comment?  

An issue related to this idea of overdoing description in writing is the inappropriate use of sophisticated language from misuse of a thesaurus.  Tompkins (2012) addresses the following question at the end of her chapter on descriptive writing: “I've seen kids who start using a thesaurus and then their writing gets worse because they substitute inappropriate words- words they don't even know the meaning of- for the words they've written. What can a teacher do?” (p. 153).   I had to laugh when I read this question because I am the queen of right mouse clicking to find a “better” word to use in my writing so as to avoid overusing the same old words.  I like your idea of creating individual or class lists of descriptive words so that students have an accessible thesaurus comprised of words that they can define and use appropriately in their writing.  I definitely agree with Tompkins' (2012) response that, “When they consult a thesaurus, students learn new words and shades of meaning for familiar words; this new knowledge will make them better writers” (p. 153).   I often appropriate words that I find as suggestions in the thesaurus into my writing vocabulary once I familiarize myself with their definition and use.  

During my second student teaching placement, my cooperating teacher encouraged the students to use “chewy delicious words” in their writing.  This was her way of helping them to consciously choose words that enhance their writing.  She also challenged the students to use "words other then said” as a way to make dialogue more descriptive.  I think it will be important for me to make explicit the attention that good writers pay to word selection when I establish writing workshop in my own classroom. 
 

References 
Tompkins, G. E. (2012). Teaching writing: Balancing process and product (6^th ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Merrill. 

Entry 7

Emily and Sara's expert presentation on biographical writing got me excited about the creative opportunities for writing assignments in this genre.  I really enjoyed participating in our class collaborative biography of Susan B. Anthony, and I thought that using a Google doc to complete this task served as a great example of authentically incorporating technology into writing in the biographical genre.  One of the project ideas from Tompkins (2012) that I thought would be great to incorporate in my future writing curriculum was the bio bag, so I decided to try it out for myself (in my case, it is a bio blog).  Tompkins (2012) points out that, “The best part of the project is the sharing” (p. 234), so here it goes!

Carly's Bio Blog 

All Tutus Should Be Pink, written by Sheri Brownrigg and illustrated by Meredith Johnson (1992)

This easy reader is important to me because of its significance in my early literacy development.  This is the first book that I remember being able to "read" on my own.  I had asked my mom to read this story to me so many times that I had memorized the words on the pages.  I loved this story because it was about some of my favorite things: best friends, ice cream, and the color pink! 

Homecoming, written by Cynthia Voigt (1987)

This chapter book is important to me because it was the first "long" book that I read.  In my fifth grade reading class, our reading groups were based upon student text selection.  I was apprehensive about choosing this text because of its length, but I was determined to be in the same reading group as my friends who wanted to read this book.  I really enjoyed this story and even bought the next book in the series. This book gave me the confidence that I could tackle any text that came my way no matter the number of pages!

Dear John, written by Nicholas Sparks (2007)

This novel is important to me because it is the most recent pleasure book that I have read outside of required academic reading in the last few years.  As I mentioned in Entry 4, an overwhelming emphasis on efferent reading experiences later on in my educational career discouraged my reading engagement, and I have struggled with rediscovering my motivation.  Sparks (2007) sparked my excitement about reading aesthetically for pleasure with this text.  I enjoyed going to see the movie version of this book and identifying the differences between the two modes (my poor boyfriend got dragged along). 
I hope this bio blog has helped to illustrate my life so far as a literate person!  

Tompkins (2012) emphasizes that, “Students' greatest source of information for writing is their own experiences, and when they write autobiographies, they draw from this wealth of experience” (p. 233). Tompkins (2012) points out that children tend to have success with personal narratives early on in their literacy development because they are writing about, “what they know best- themselves” (p. 231).  This week we also discussed expository writing, and I think Tompkins (2012) makes a great point when she provides a caveat for the classification of the biographical genre: “It's important to compare and contrast biographical writing with narrative and informational writing, because life stories involve characteristics of both.  Biographies- personal narratives, in particular- read like stories, but they're nonfiction so writers must stick to the facts” (p. 243).  It is important for students to understand the purpose and characteristics of biography writing. 

Tompkins (2012) addresses the following question at the end of the chapter: “I don't have my students write autobiographies because they aren't middle class.  Many of them are homeless.  Others have parents who are in jail or deal in drugs.  They don't have anything good to write about.  What do you think?” (p. 249).  I agree with Tompkins (2012) that, “all students have some experiences they could share in an autobiography” (p. 249), but I am not sure how I would approach autobiography writing with a student with a troublesome home life.  My main concern would be that when students share their writing, which is the culminating component of the writing process, they might expose their peers to difficult issues that parents or administrators would object to.  What would be the best instructional approach in this case?

References 
Tompkins, G. E. (2012). Teaching writing: Balancing process and product (6^th ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Merrill.