Carol Crivelli
WHAT I DID ON MY SUMMER VACATION
Inquiry: Writing Mentors
I have never thought of myself as a writer, even when I was a kid. I remember hiding those papers with red corrections scribbled in the margins. I was too embarrassed to read the comments let alone let anyone see them. I don’t remember conferencing with teachers or that there was a revision process back then. Our first draft was our last draft. I learned very early that writers were people with a natural talent for writing; and if you didn’t produce writing that was original and without flaws you just weren’t a writer. I carried this misconception about writers into my adulthood. I avoid things, like many people do, that I’m not good at. I don’t play softball or sing in a choir.
So why I did I take a 3 week writing course during my summer vacation? Well, one of my best friends, who happens to be a director of the Redwood Writing Project has been after me for years, that’s one reason. And another, I knew I needed some support to improve my teaching of writing. Before this class I’d read a few good books on writing, but they hadn’t given me the confidence I needed to help me with writing. For years I’ve been hearing the words, “Teachers of writing need to write,” and they’ve been haunting me. I’ve been a closet non-writer and I just felt it was time to come out!
In my search for a topic of inquiry for the writing class, I decided to look for something that would help me improve my writing, help improve my student’s writing and improve my teaching of writing. In that search I met my friend and mentor, Carl Anderson. (I know him only through his book.) His book, How’s it Going? A Practical Guide to Conferring with Student Writers, teaches the skill of conferencing. In chapter 4 of this book, he describes how he helps his students during conferences, to use “writing mentors” to improve writing. In his book, Carl defines “writing mentors” as favorite authors that we learn the craft of writing from. Also in this chapter he shares a “secret.” The secret is Ralph Fletcher author of, What a Writer Needs, is his personal writing mentor! He writes that he could be yours (mine) too. And he said he’s inexpensive, (only $17.00, I checked on Amazon.com.) Carl Anderson goes on to explain when writing his book How’s it Going?, that he couldn’t figure out how to organize his first chapter. He struggled and struggled until he picked up Ralph Fletcher’s book, What a Writer Needs. Carl took a technique from Ralph’s book that helped him write that chapter.
So a writing mentor isn’t usually a person, but rather a text that a student or teacher, author, or anyone chooses to learn from. It’s an “I want to write just like that book.” Established writers, writers of writing even, get stuck and go to their favorite books for help. This was an epiphany moment for me! Real writers struggle that much? Now I’m asking, all the great books on my shelves, can they be writing mentors? The answer is yes! It’s like great paintings on a museum wall, many artists study Cezanne’s “Still Life with Curtain,” and Degas’ “Before the Ballet,” or Matisse’s “Red Room,” their craft of line, color, form or principles of design. Just like artists get inspired by artists, real writers get inspiration from the craft of other writers.
How come I didn’t see this connection to my own writing before? I think it is because as a child I learned that writers had to have a unique (not like anybody else) style. They don’t. In reading Katie Wood Ray’s book, Wondrous Words, she declares that writers make their own choices about their writing, but their styles can be alike, and very importantly this means writers are not entirely unique! WOW! That opens windows and doors for me! Being a unique writer was something I realized a long time ago was impossible for me, so I stopped trying. I stopped writing. In Ray’s book she reminds us that writers have been imitating other writer’s techniques for centuries. “Writers own words, but they do not own technique.” Writers choose their own topics but can imitate other writer’s craft techniques.
In The Art of Teaching Writing, Lucy Calkins points out that, “students must be aware of the author’s intentions and techniques when they read, to be able to borrow them.” In other words, students need to “read like writers.” I’m an artist and I love to visit art galleries. Over the years my husband’s appreciation for art has grown. However, when we look at artworks we are not “reading” them in the same way. I am noticing how an effect was created. He is looking for meaning “what is it?” I look at art with a plan to make art. “Reading like a writer” is reading with a plan to write. What Fletcher, Anderson, Calkins and Ray all say in their books is when we teach our students to read like writers they will write better! We need to teach students to read like writers. In Wondrous Words, Katie Wood Ray describes how to read like a writer in 5 steps:
1. Notice 2. Talk 3. Name 4. Other authors 5. Envision
The first step is to notice the part of the text that you really like. Second, it to ask yourself, what is the author doing in the part that you like? Third, ask yourself, how is the author doing it? And name the author’s technique. Fourth, is to think of other authors who use the same techniques. This is important because it teaches that experienced writers copy each other’s techniques and that demonstrates that if they can, we can too. Fifth, the last step is to envision; think of a way you can use the same craft in your own writing.
Students and teachers purposefully make reading and writing connections when we model reading like a writer: read and talk about what the author did and how the author accomplished it. We make reading and writing connections when we teach craft lessons, and during writing conferences when we encourage students to use techniques in their writing. We make reading and writing connections when we read aloud to our students and they hear and notice words in beautifully written texts. Students can also make these connections during independent reading. Carl Anderson explains, “When we are successful in showing students how to learn from writing mentors, we teach students how to teach themselves.”
In our classrooms we can make charts to document what students notice about books and record techniques the author used. The connections students make during reading can also be referred to by students during writing!
Craft Inquiry- Reading Like a Writer
| Author Book Title | Text (example) | What type of craft? (leads, endings, etc.) | Technique- How is it done? (dialogue, describe setting, etc.) | Have I ever seen another author craft this way? | Student tried this technique |
| | | | | | |
| | | | | | |
Revised Inquiry chart found in Wondrous Words, by Katie Wood Ray
In my reading I found many sources of books lists for “touchstone” or “mentor texts” or “writing mentors.” Picture books are popular on these lists because they are short and have illustrations. A variety of text is necessary because student choice of writing mentors is important. Students will more likely try to write like their mentor when they chose it, because they like and connect with that text. Below find sources of booklists.
Anderson, Carl. 2000. How’s it Going? A Practical Guide to Conferring
With Student Writers.
Calkins, Lucy McCormick. 1994. The Art of Teaching Writing.
Culham, Ruth. 2004. Using Picture Books to Teach Writing with the Traits.
Fletcher, Ralph and Portalupi, Joann. 1998. Craft Lessons – Teaching Writing K-8.
Harwayne, Shelley. 2001. Writing Through Childhood, Rethinking Process and Product.
Ray, Katie Wood. 1999. Wondrous Words.
Web Resources
100 Best Books for Children
www.teachersfirst.com/100books.htm
Selected by the National Education Association as great reading for children and young people, this site offers recommendations are grouped by age level and include links to the books and authors.
Writing Fix
www.writingfix.com/Picture_Books_and_Traits.htm
Designed by teachers for teachers, this site features writing lessons inspired by favorite picture books-designed by teachers for teachers.
I’m thrilled to find so many books that have been researched and identified for specific teaching purposes but I wonder still, how do I know which ones to choose? There are so many! Carl Anderson suggests coming up with 25 mentor texts. He suggests we first look at the texts we have, the ones we love and read often.
When I read words by Carl Anderson, Lucy Calkins, Ralph Fletcher, Katie Wood Ray, and others I recognize my need for new conference revision strategies, my need to pay closer attention to reading and writing connections students make, my need to help students read like writers and to take what they learned from authors and move it into their own writing. All this I learned from my inquiry into WRITING MENTORS. And they can be addressed using writing mentors. This year I’m going to continue my inquiry. I’m going to change my approach to writing from a prescriptive one, to a more descriptive one. I will focus less on following the “rules” and focus more on noticing and talking about what we see and how it works. Hopefully this will lead my students to use text they love, use text as writing mentors to help them structure a piece, make transitions, use flashbacks, or describe a character, lead or ending.
I definitely feel I have found enough evidence to where I am now envisioning teaching my students to read like writers and introducing them to mentors. I think I’m ready because of the Writing Project, I’ve had time to notice what I need to do, talk about it and write about it. I hope this will bring me success. I am ready to experience it. The really big idea I’ve learned this summer is that we can all be writers! I want to teach that to my students. I want all my students to see themselves as writers. I plan on sharing my own writing. When I get stuck, I will do what other writers do, get help from writing mentors.
References
Anderson, Carl. 2000. How’s it Going? A Practical Guide to Conferring
With Student Writers.
Buckner, Aimee DiMuzio. “Using Authors as Mentors”. Primary Voices Volume 7, Number 4 (April 1999).
Calkins, Lucy McCormick. 1994. The Art of Teaching Writing.
Cappelli, Rose & Dorfman, Lynne. 2007. Mentor Texts, Teaching Writing Through Children’s Literature, K-6.
Culham, Ruth. 2004. Using Picture Books to Teach Writing with the Traits.
DeCristofaro, Dina Sechio. “Author to Author: How Text Influences Young Writers”. The Quarterly (Spring 2001). National Writing Project.
http://www.writing project.org/cs/nwpp/lpt/nwpr/146
Fletcher, Ralph and Portalupi, Joann. 1998. Craft Lessons – Teaching Writing K-8.
.
Fletcher, Ralph. 1993 What a Writer Needs.
Greenfield, Eloise. 1986. Honey, I Love, and Other Love Poems. Illustrated by Diane and Leo Dillon.
Heard,
Ray, Katie Wood. 1999. Wondrous Words.
