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DOCUMENT RESUME CS 216 013 ED 411 544 Barnes, Donna, Ed.; Morgan, Katherine, Ed.; Weinhold, Karen, AUTHOR Ed Writing Process Revisited: Sharing Our Stories. TITLE National Council of Teachers of English, Urbana, IL. INSTITUTION ISBN-0-8141-2815-7 ISBN 1997-00-00 PUB DATE 197p. NOTE National Council of Teachers of English, 1111 W. Kenyon AVAILABLE FROM Road, Urbana, IL 61801-1096 (Stock No. 28157-3050: $15.95 members, $21.95 nonmembers). Opinion Papers (120) Teacher (052) Classroom Guides PUB TYPE MF01/PC08 Plus Postage. EDRS PRICE *Classroom Environment; Elementary Secondary Education; DESCRIPTORS Higher Education; Peer Influence; Personal Narratives; Picture Books; Reading Writing Relationship; Student Needs; *Teacher Role; *Writing Instruction; *Writing Processes; *Writing Strategies; Writing Workshops *Process Approach (Writing); *Teaching Perspectives IDENTIFIERS ABSTRACT This collection of essays relates the experiences of teachers who have adopted and implemented a writing-process approach in their classrooms. In the collection, elementary, secondary, and college teachers candidly discuss their experiences--the struggles and successes, and the differences between their imagined ideal and the everyday reality. Each essay describes a personal journey, recounting how individual teachers worked within different institutional constraints and with diverse student populations to create communities of writers within their classrooms. Following an introduction, essays in the collection and their authors are, as "Defining the Writing Process" (Donna Barnes, Katherine Morgan, follows: (1) "A First-Draft Society: Self-Reflection and Slowing Karen Weinhold); (2) "Ring the Bell and Run" (Kate Belavitch); Down" (Robert K. Griffith); (4) (3) "Seeking Equilibrium" "ThiNG I Do'T, WoT To FGe'T" (Michelle Toch); (5) (6) "Beyond Reading and Writing: Realizing Each Child's (Katherine Morgan); "The Other Stuff" (Leslie A. Brown; Potential" (Tony Beaumier); (8) (7) "Picture This: Bridging the Gap between Reading and Writing with Picture "No Talking during Nuclear Attack: An Books" (Franki Sibberson); (9) (10) "There Is Never Introduction to Peer Conferencing" (Karen Weinhold); "A Touch of Madness: Keeping Faith as Enough Time!" (Donna Barnes); and (11) Workshoppers" (Bill Boerst). An afterword closes the collection. (NKA) ******************************************************************************** Reproductions supplied by EDRS are the best that can be made from the original document. ******************************************************************************** , " 4:** s! . 'AI ..ssyl, . ' U.S. DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION Office of Educational Research and Improvement EDU ATIONAL RESOURCES INFORMATION CENTER (ERIC) This document has been reproduced as received from the person or organization originating it. 0 Minor changes have been made to improve reproduction quality. Points of view or opinions stated in this document do not necessarily represent official OERI position or policy. "PERMISSION TO REPRODUCE THIS MATERIAL HAS BEEN GRANTED BY 1`(y-zit-s BEST COPY AVAILABLE TO THE EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES INFORMATION CENTER (ERIC)." 2 Writing Process Revisited NOTE Editorial Board: Pat Cordeiro, Colette Daiute, Bobbi Fisher, Brenda Greene, Richard Luckert, Bill McBride, Aileen Pace Nilsen, Jerrie Cobb Scott, Karen Smith, ex officio, Michael Greer, ex officio 4 Writing Process Revisited Sharing Our Stories Edited by Donna Barnes Mary Hurd School North Berwick, Maine Katherine Morgan Oyster River High School Durham, New Hampshire Karen Weinhold North Hampton Elementary School North Hampton, New Hampshire National Council of Teachers of English 1111 W. Kenyon Road, Urbana, Illinois 61801-1096 This book is dedicated to teachers at all grade levels who have struggled, as we have, in silence. Staff Editor: Kurt Austin Interior Design: Doug Burnett Cover Design: Doug Burnett This book was typeset in Futura and Garamond by Electronic Imaging. Typefaces used on the cover were University Roman, Avant Garde Medium, and Avant Garde Demi. The book was printed on 50 lb. offset by Bang Printing. NCTE Stock Number: 28157-3050 ©1997 by the National Council of Teachers of English. All rights reserved. Printed in the United States of America. It is the policy of 'NCTE in its journals and other publications to provide a forum for the open discussion of ideas concerning the content and the teaching of English and the language arts. Publicity accorded to any particular point of view does not imply endorsement by the Executive Committee, the Board of Direc- tors, or the membership at large, except in announcements of policy, where such endorsement is clearly specified. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Writing process revisited: sharing our stories/edited by Donna Barnes, Katherine Morgan, Karen Weinhold. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references (p. ) and index. ISBN 0-8141-2815-7 (pbk.) exercisesStudy and teaching 1. English languageComposition and United States. I. Barnes, Donna, 1942 II. Morgan, Katherine Redington, . 1946 III. Weinhold, Karen, 1944 . . LB1576.W746 1997 808' .042dc21 97-25804 CIP 6 v Contents vii Acknowledgments ix Introduction 1. Defining the Writing Process 1 Donna Barnes, Katherine Morgan, and Karen Weinhold 13 2. A First-Draft Society: Self-Reflection and Slowing Down Robert K. Griffith 32 3. Ring the Bell and Run Kate Belavitch 52 4. "ThiiNG I Do'T, WoT To FGeT" Michelle Toch 70 5. Seeking Equilibrium Katherine Morgan 81 6. Beyond Reading and Writing: Realizing Each Child's Potential Tony Beaumier 7. The Other Stuff 99 Leslie A. Brown 8. Picture This: Bridging the Gap between Reading and Writing 111 with Picture Books Franki Sibberson 9. No Talking during Nuclear Attack: An Introduction to Peer 133 Conferencing Karen Weinhold 149 10. There Is Never Enough Time! Donna Barnes 165 11. A Touch of Madness: Keeping Faith as Workshoppers Bill Boerst 177 Afterword Index 179 185 Editors 187 Contributors 7 vii Acknowledgments for this We want to thank Tom Newkirk for providing us with the inspiration book in his talk "Silences in Our Teaching StoriesWhat Do We Leave Out and Why?" We are indebted to Tom Romano, Lucy Calkins, Jane Hansen, Don Graves, and teaching in Don Murray, Jane Kearns, and Nancie Atwell for their research also the field of writing process. We have not only sat in their classes, we have read and reread their texts and learned the value of questioning our practices. 8 ix Introduction Nothing is riskier than writing; nothing is scarier than writing; but nothing is as satisfying as a piece of writing that "works." Noth- ing, that is, except the teaching of writing. The purpose of this book is to explore the struggles, the risks, and the potential for failure that lurk just under the surface of teaching in a process-approach classroom. In a 1991 speech in Rochester, New York, Tom Newkirk called these struggles the "silences in our teaching storieswhat we leave out and why." His description and his questions prompted us to consider the available literature about teaching writing and compare our own teaching stories with those that have been published (many of them written by University of New Hampshire professors), such as Nancie Atwell's In the Middle, Torn Romano's Clearing the Way, Don Graves's Writing Teachers and Children at Work, and Lucy Calkins's The Art of Teaching Writing (just to mention a few). We found that our experiences didn't always match theirs, and because of this difference we thought we had failed in our understanding or perhaps our implementation of writing-process theory. Professionally, we teachers have existed in mute isolation. For years we've hidden behind closed doors, wringing our hands and wondering if there was something special in the water in New Hampshire. The three of us began to meet regularly to share our concerns, yet we felt as if we were just this side of sabotage. Leery of discussing our shortcomings, our "curriculum disabilities," even with each other, let alone with the experts who conduct and publish research on which we base our classroom practices, how can we hope to drive our future when we bury the present and deny the past? How do we open the floodgates and begin to talk to each other, and then to the larger community we serve? How do we learn to rely on our own experiences and instincts when the research of experts doesn't work in our classrooms? Instead of trying to dance a little faster, read more, attend more workshops, why not share these problems with other teachers? We hope that reading the articles included here will raise at least as many questions as those with which we have struggled. The writers are all classroom teachers who are trying to implement writing-process approaches in their classrooms. Because of our perspectives and experiences as teachers, we speak to these issues in a way that experts in writing-process theory cannot. Our classrooms are our laboratories in x Introduction which we carefully observe and thoughtfully reflect on the knowledge we gain from our daily interchanges. Because we are professionals who care deeply about our students, we are continually working to blend accepted theories in our field with productive, effective practices in our classrooms. We hope we have found the courage to weed out those practices which are not working, or to search for different approaches to make them work, while trying new ways based on what we know about learners and learning. The book which has emerged is a collection of teachers' stories about teaching writing in which problems central to the writing process are discussed and tentative solutions sometimes suggested. We focus on how process instruction flounders because of particular circumstances or personal quirks or idiosyncrasies, not on the failure of writing process as a theory. Obviously we are all believers or we would have abandoned ship a long time ago! Candid questions are raised, but not always an- swered. In keeping with the idea that we wanted to open a dialogue, and mindful of the importance of reader response in both our own confer- ence group and in our writing classes, we responded to each essay from the point of view of someone at a different grade level dealing with similar challenges. Our goal for this book is no less than removing the veil of silence which shrouds our classrooms and which keeps us from sharing the trials inherent in the nature of process teaching. This commu- nication across grade levels is vital to our growth as teachers and for the evolution of writing process as a method of teaching. We have been our own worst enemy, allowing just about anyone and everyone to diagnose our ills and to prescribe cures. For example, take the issue of timehow to balance equal amounts for different disci- plines in self-contained classrooms, how to "cover" everything in depart- mentalized situations, how to determine focus in integration, how to allocate for the many components of process approach (drafting, revis- ing, conferencing, proofreading, editing, publishing, etc.), and how to keep abreast of the current research and keep on top of the responses and assessments generated by the students' daily reading and writing. At different times, in different ways, each of the contributors has tangled with this overriding issue of time. Who knows better what works and what does not? Classroom teachers do. Yet where is our voice? Reformers see time as the panacea; keep the students in their classes for longer blocks of time, decrease the "free" time for teachers and students, extend the school year, and all will be right with the world! But time is only one of the many topics discussed in this collection; the value of reflection, the particular challenges of the beginning process U