Observations/examples
- Very passionate about reading and writing
- Enjoys writing for school but also during his free time at home
- When he walked in to every visit he was very excited to see me because he knew that meant he was going to spend at good amount of time writing
- Views himself as a good writer and feels very comfortable while he’s writing
- Does his best to spell a word even if he doesn’t know it
- He has a little trouble getting started writing unless he has a specific topic to write about assigned to him
- Has confidence in himself but doesn’t seem to trust himself to write on his own
- Also has trouble writing more than one or two sentences about a topic
- When he gets to a stopping point he often started tapping his pencil and looked up as if he was looking to the ceiling for guidance
- He told me that his writing is greatly influenced by his Chinese teacher
- His elementary teacher teaches him using the workshop model
Even with the little time I’ve spent with Steven I can still establish him as a very adept reader and writer for his age. From the beginning of our time together it was easy to see that he truly enjoys reading and writing and spends much of his free time doing one or the other to keep busy. Despite his seemingly intrinsic motivation to write, but still struggles a bit with getting started. I think that this could be a result of him having too many thoughts running through his head at once. I think that some sort of thought web or other organizing tool would be great for him to use. He has a lot of trouble staying on task when he writes as well. His mind will jump around from thought to thought and it takes him a long time to get an idea down on paper. Even though he struggles a lot while writing, Steven still has a very fun time while he is writing and is a wonderful young boy to observe. At no point during our interview did he seem to feel uncomfortable writing in front of me or with the topics he was writing about. He really enjoyed writing his stories and loved sharing them with me even more after finishing.
Recommendations
Starting with his struggles with starting a story, I think that the use of any of the pre-drafting or brainstorming schemes we used in class, such as the ‘Piece of your heart’ or the ‘Biing Method’ would be a great help for him because the schemes can provide him with means of organizing his thoughts. He has a lot of really good thoughts and ideas built up inside, he just needs some help with deciding which ones to use. However, it is very important to keep in mind what Fletcher says in his book, “prewriting should be a help, not a burden, for writers in school (Fletcher, 2001, p.63)”. I think that this is especially important to remember for a student like Steven because he seems to have trouble with the story-writing process as a whole. It is imperative that any prewriting strategy used with him is fresh and enjoyable so that the writing process stays fun for him to use and not a bland routine for him to follow every time he writes.
From my time with him it was also easy to see that he got distracted very easily. He loses focus very easily and any outside noise disrupts his writing process. I would recommend that when Steven writes he does so in as quiet a place as possible, such as a corner of the room when he’s in a classroom. He already had enough trouble concentrating when he was working one-on-one with me, so I think the quieter and less distracting the location the better.
Knowledge about genres and functions of writing (reported in interview and observed)
Observations/examples
- When I asked him what his favorite thing to write about was, he responded with ‘fantasy’
- His favorite book series is the ‘Diary of a Wimpy Kid’ series and he really enjoys writing stories and drawing pictures to accompany those children’s books
- His accompanying illustrations don’t really connect to his stories too much
- He said that in school his teachers make him write poetry but he doesn’t enjoy writing or reading it very much at all
- He enjoys writing notes in school to friends
- Steven also said that he enjoys writing letters in school to bring home to his family members
- He has experience in writing and making picture books in school
- Interest was expressed in writing a chapter book or a chapter story despite never writing one before in school or at home
Based in the interview I conducted with Steven I noticed that he has a fairly wide spectrum of writing genres that he uses, but he doesn’t like to use all of them. He told me that his favorite genre of writing is fantasy, which can be a good advantage for him. I think it is a great help when a student has a favorite genre or topic to write about, because it can guide him or her if they get stuck or don’t know what to write.
It seems that Steven’s teachers in school are doing a good job of introducing many different genres to him. He knows the proper format for writing letters, personal notes, and even poetry. However, even though he knows the correct formats, he doesn’t have a passion to write them. He seems to only be interested in writing short stories accompanied with pictures that most of the time don’t connect too well with what he just wrote. Although it is a useful tool to be able to draw pictures that connect to his stories, it is also important for him to be able to visualize the story in his mind. He did tell me that he has an interest in writing a chapter book but his teachers haven’t let him write one yet. I think that this is a very big problem that should be addressed to his teacher, and I think that Hindley and Fletcher would agree with me. As Fletcher says in his book, “establishing a safe environment so that kids can take risks in their writing,” should be one of our first short-term goals as teachers, and what better way to get students started than having them write about something they already enjoy? (Fletcher, 2001, p.22)
Recommendations
The two main changes that Steven needs to make to his writing are his creativity and genre choice. The overall creativity of his writing is very short, dull, and to the point. It is important for Steven’s teacher or anyone that works with him to help enhance his writing. Fletcher suggests that, “the best way to address this problem is to tap books with lyrical language (Fletcher, 2001, p.120)”. I think that by simply reading a book with Steven beforehand will introduce him to descriptive strategies other authors use and will help him get a better idea of what expressive writing is and how to incorporate it into his own writing.
Continuing along the same lines, Steven has a hard time expressing himself in any genre other than a short story with pictures. Although he writes in that genre fairly well, it is important for him to expand his genre knowledge spectrum. In her book, Hindley recommends introducing writers to objects they never actually realize that they read or write everyday, such as a newspaper or a cereal box (Hindley, 1996, p.86). This is also very similar to the poster we made in class listing all of the different times during a week in which we use writing. Introducing Steven to these objects would show him that he doesn’t always have to write a short story to practice writing. He could write his own newspaper, make a word search, or even make a comic book. There are so many different genres out there for students like Steven to try that we should not be holding them back from these experiences.
Perceptions of writing (mechanics, product, or process; print awareness for emergent writers)
Observations/examples
- Thinks that good writing come from lots of practice
- Uses teacher and parents as resources to help solidify his writing
- Thinks that good writing consists of proper grammar, good spelling, and sentences that make sense
- He seems to struggle a little bit when he’s getting started and has a hard time writing a story with more than one sentence at a time
- From the brief writing samples taken I noticed Steven show the following:
- Shows a logical sequence of events while writing
- Uses proper punctuation and capitalization consistently
- Is comfortable in using contractions
- Uses proper subject-verb agreement
- Has a good sense of keeping time while writing
- A few spelling errors, but overall mostly correct spelling
- He hasn’t developed the ability to draw pictures that support his writing
- Understands proper word order and checks for correct grammar use during and after his writing
After spending some time with Steven it was easy to determine that most of his writing is dictated by his teachers. He’s uncomfortable picking a topic to write on and has trouble writing for long periods of time. I think that these problems tie back to the classroom and his teacher. He told me that while he’s writing at school he often has to ask his teacher for help and guidance. This is in no way a bad thing because we should encourage our students to ask for help when they need it. However, I feel that he doesn’t rely on himself enough to write on his own. His writing is very clear and he likes to write, but I think he just feels that since his teacher is there to guide him, why not rely her?
He also worries a lot about correct spelling and grammar, which I think ties back to his teacher. He told me that good writing mostly consists of grammar, spelling, and sentence structure, but that his teacher only really grades him on spelling. It’s easy to infer that his teacher doesn’t follow Fletcher’s rule of trying, “to be there as a reader before you are there as a corrector (Fletcher, 2001, p.38)”. Although his short sentences make sense now, once he gets older this teacher’s ideology can cause a problem because more emphasis will be put on his grammar and he has the potential to become lost.
Recommendations
A recommendation given by both Hindley and Fletcher that I think would work perfectly with Steven in his position are individual conferences (Hindley, 1996, p.42; Fletcher, 2001, p.38). Individual conferences would be a great way to introduce new strategies (such as brainstorming ideas; see ‘pre-drafting’ section below) to Steven and help him with his individual problems, all while giving him the one-on-one teacher attention that he needs. However, the conferences would also be a great time to shy Steven away from that attention and move the teacher into more of a facilitator role. His teacher can not only help him with pre-drafting ideas, but also help him choose books in unfamiliar genres to broaden his reading spectrum, which will then help him, write more creatively in other genres. Each conference he has should help him to become a more individual writer.
Another method suggested by both Hindley and Fletcher as well that might work with Steven is pairing him up with another student or a small group. Having him work with another student or a group of students could help him choose topics and help him with his writing. He can use the other people in his group to not only bounce his ideas of them, but also use their ideas as well. At the same time this will also help shy him away from relying on his teacher because after writing he can come back to the group and share his stories with his peers and get some critiquing from someone other than his teacher.
Use of writing process: pre-drafting (getting ideas)
Observations/examples
- Before writing I asked him if he had any strategies for brainstorming before writing, he responded, “no”
- I told him he could write about anything he wanted
- We practiced multiple ways to pre-draft including;
- Piece of your heart
- Bing method / Connections web
- Created a floor plan of his room to develop ideas to write about
- All of the pre-drafting ideas helped him tremendously in picking out a specific topic to write about
- For the first few writings he wanted to draw pictures first and write the story second
- For the final writing I wanted to challenge him so I had him write first instead
- When he decided that he wanted to write about the “Wimpy Kid” books I also had him write out some of his favorite and memorable events from the books that he could use as content in his own story
When I first started writing with Steven he often struggled with starting his writing whenever he wrote about a topic of his choosing. Only after practicing some of the pre-drafting ideas suggested by Hindley, Fletcher, and our class did he begin to feel comfortable starting a story on his own. I tried to leave the topic choice completely up to him so that he could understand the full effect of these pre-drafting ideas. We wrote out webs that not only helped him decide which topic he was to write about, but also the content he needed to complete his writing. He seemed to feel much more comfortable with his writing once he had a plan laid out for himself to follow.
After pre-drafting and writing a few stories he told me that he had a big problem with deciding which idea in his head to write about and that these pre-drafting ideas helped him out a lot. He now feels like he has the tools to start an open-topic story all by himself. Giving power like this to a writer gives them more confidence in their writing and can only help them as they progress to becoming a better writer in the future. This is clearly a crucial component of the workshop that his teacher did not spend much time on when first teaching him how to go progress through the workshop model process. Pre-writing should be viewed as a “rehearsal” and not a “rigid routine (Fletcher, 2001, p.63)”.
It would be a great idea for Steven to use these pre-drafting skills as much as he can, but as I quoted Fletcher earlier in the study, “don’t let it become a rigid routine (Fletcher, 2001, p.63)”. I thing the Biing method worked the best for him and he should probably use that the most in the future. I found that when he has the chance to look back on his own writing and dig deeper, he could almost always come up with a new topic to write about.
Recommendations
It is important that Steven remembers to write down and use all the webs and maps he makes while pre-drafting. While we were pre-drafting during my visits he would usually try and just listen to our conversation and remember it in his head, which is where I think most of his problems with starting a story come from. If he just takes all the thoughts running through his head and puts them on paper he can be an even more accomplished writer than he already is. I would recommend that whenever he writes for class or in his free time he makes a connections web or some other form of brainstorming web to keep his thoughts organized and in front of him while he’s writing.
Use of writing process: drafting (putting ideas on paper, physically writing)
Observations/examples
- After he finished writing a sentence, Steven would go back and read over what he just wrote and checked for errors
- As stated before, we drew pictures together that helped support his writing only after he was done with his story so that he could use his drawings to support his story and not the other way around
- When he got stuck writing, he would tap his pencil and look at the ceiling
- He could recall the full names of characters from the Diary of a Wimpy Kid story and could spell them correctly
- Skips out on adding punctuation, especially apostrophes, until done writing a whole sentence
For his published story, he decided to write about something that he enjoyed, his favorite book series The Diary of a Wimpy Kid. He often brought one of the books to our interview and always wanted to talk about it, so it was easy to tell that he was really excited to be writing about the book. I gave him a piece of paper and told him to write as if I wasn’t there. Right from the beginning he had problems because he didn’t know where to start, but I didn’t communicate with him. I wanted him to try and come up with the ideas on his own without any help from me. Eventually he started writing after a few minutes of thinking. Throughout his writing he would often stop and start fidgeting, tapping his pencil, or looking up at the ceiling. I once asked him why he did this while he was writing and he responded by saying, “it helps me think,” but he couldn’t elaborate on it anymore. I really think that when he pauses while writing he is actually trying to choose one idea from many that are floating around in his head. I think that it would be very interesting to see inside his head to see these ‘strategies’ helped him write his story. Even with this help from the ceiling it still took him about 10 minutes to finish writing three sentences, after which he seemed very relieved to be finished.