Dear Colleague,
This week's newsletter is on publishing -- a topic I'm asked about quite often. I recently answered Linda Barclay's questions and received her permision to share them here:
In a first grade classroom, how many times on average would a child have conferences with the teacher before getting to publish a story?
Tom Romano said, "the amount of writing students do should be far more than a teacher can evaluate." The same goes for publishing. You want to publish students' best work, not everything they write. So, every now and then I will say: "Wow! You grew as a writer. Let's publish this piece!" Even though students are having conferences once or twice a week, they might publish only six or seven times a year. Most pieces that have been published have been examined in a conference 2-4 times.
Does the teacher keep conferencing until the piece is perfect?
No. First I recommend you conference for content and then for editing conventions. But I only work with a student as long as he or she is feeling engaged and successful. (The last thing you want to do is make publishing feel like a curse.) When I feel satisfied that the student has made positive changes, the piece is typed up perfectly by me or a volunteer.
Have you seen this blog post regarding publishing?
Happy Writing!
Jennifer |
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Publishing
Believe it or not, there was a time when primary schools established central "publishing houses." Students who had done an exceptionally fine job on a piece would be greeted by parent volunteers who typed up the stories and then carefully bound them into books. The books often had sturdy cardboard covers decorated with wallpaper samples, and pages carefully sewn with durable dental floss. The proud students would return to the classroom where they illustrated their books, which were later celebrated. Many books would find their way into the school library for the remainder of the year.
Very few schools still offer this model of publishing. Somewhere along the line, "publishing" came to mean "copying over your work without any mistakes." All students publish at the same time, removing the motivation to publish one's finest writing. Instead, students publish nearly identical teacher-directed products.
Here, I am going to suggest a publishing program that falls somewhere in the middle of these two models. Consider setting up an area in your room where you (or better yet, a parent or high school volunteer) can work with individual students. The volunteer sits at the computer, and the child sits next to the volunteer and read his or her work. Volunteers (who you have trained) type the work using all of the proper conventions: punctuation, spelling, capitalization, proper grammar-keeping the child's original language whenever possible. If while reading, the student says, "Oh, I should have said . . ." The volunteer types what the child wished he or she written, thus reinforcing revision right up to the end.
What do you do with the typed work? Here is a list of ideas:
- Place in a class anthology (binder with page protectors)
- Include in school or class newsletters
- Post on a Web site
- Have child read in a podcast
- Record a class radio show(audio or video)
- Perform as a skit or puppet show
- Read at an authors' tea or poetry slam
- Compile a class book around a single theme (poems, funny stories, holiday stories, etc.)
- Include in a class yearbook
- Include in the school literary magazine
- Submit to a student market, local newspaper, or contest
- Give as a gift
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Writing Tip
When observing editing conferences, I often detect a moment when the teacher has gone too far. It's the instant when the pencil has magically moved from the child's hand to the teacher's and he or she, sensing time is running out, is making marks all over the paper. The student is watching, but the light has gone out. The child will not retain all of the information, and it actually builds a dependency upon us. (Rather than applying what they learn, students are trained to wait unitl we show them all the errors.) Think of an editing conference as a teaching time and not a "correcting time." Use an editor's checklist to record skills taught and ask children to apply those conventions consistently.
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No More "I'm Done!" focuses on nurturing independent primary writers. In addition to suggesting a classroom set-up and routines that support independence, a year of developmentally appropriate minilessons is provided.
Preview the text online here.
To listen to a podcast about the book go here. |
 Small as An Elephant I'm pleased to announce that my new book Small as An Elephant has been chosen as an "Inspired Recommendations for Kids from Indie Booksellers." The middle grade novel will be out on March 8, but can be preorderd now. |
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