Book Recommendation: S Is for Story

Esther Hershenhorn has written a wonderful alphabet book about writing. In S Is for Story, she writes in poetry and prose, she shares writing tips, she includes quotes from authors, she describes the writing process. In all, she covers a lot of ground, presenting a lovely overview of writing for students. I highly recommend this book.

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Prescriptive and Descriptive Writing Teachers

Prescriptive and descriptive. Lately I've run into these two adjectives describing grammarians and writing teachers. A lot. Here we'll talk about teachers, home and school.

Prescriptive teachers approach language as a list of rules students must learn. Rules such as...

• Always write in complete sentences.

• Never start a sentence with "and."

• Never split an infinitive.

• Start every paragraph with a topic sentence.

• Essays need five paragraphs.

These are the English teachers who haunt you in your nightmares. You shriek when you remember their weapon, the red pen, cutting and slashing through your text to find every last writing misdemeanor. 

Their students likely play it safe, choosing a word they know how to spell rather than one they don't, using a simple sentence structure because they aren't sure where to place the commas in a complex one. 

Meanwhile, descriptive teachers see beauty in language, how it can be shaped to create something powerful, even if that means breaking rules. They free students to experiment, to see what works (and what doesn't) in published writing and their own.

When they look at pieces students create, they notice the mistakes (and address them in future lessons), but the mistakes are not their focus. They instead appreciate the "hidden gems" (Katherine Bomer) in the piece. They 1) accept where students are, 2) remember that every student is trying to make meaning, and 3) look for what's brilliant, bold, brave, and beautiful.*

They understand that writing is a process grounded in strong ideas on a page (fluency) that can be later revised (clarity), and eventually tweaked to look conventional to readers (correctness).

Which kind of teacher are you?

I know I want to be a descriptive teacher who parks my pen as I read a student's piece the first time, even as it beckons me to fix and correct. I want to intentionally mine for treasures, to encourage my students, sharing with them what I discover, then sit back and watch what happens.

*Thank you to Katherine Bomer who presented these points at an LVWP seminar I attended over the weekend.

Wonder

In the last several weeks, I've seen the cover in pins and posts, its unique design burrowing into my memory. Finally, I looked for it. The only copy available, digital. I'd rather turn the pages of a book, but the touch pad accomplished the same thing, getting me from the first page to the last in a day. Now more than the cover has burrowed: the story also is lodged in my mind.

The book is Wonder by R. J. Palacio.

How can this book be useful in our language arts classes, home or school?

1. Read it as a reader. Enjoy. Apply.

2. Teach point of view. Each of the eight parts is written from a different point of view, sometimes Auggie's--the main character--other times his sister's or a friend's. For a picture book written with a similar structure, see Voices in the Park by Anthony Browne. Maybe reading these books will prompt students to write their own stories from various points of view.

3. Read it as a writer. Notice the author's creativity in including poems, book excerpts, letters, e-mails, a Facebook notification, texts, precepts, a graduation program, a commencement address...and even a high school boy's point of view with nary a capital letter. (I tutor a student who is allergic to capital letters. He may be fixing a paragraph or two.  Shhh, don't tell!)

Then investigate closer still. Below I show you the beginnings of my closer investigation into the text. It's amazing what you see when you slow down and study the author's craft. When students do the same, their minds are attentive to new possibilities they can try in their writing. Find a blank chart here.

(I'm sorry I don't have page numbers. The digital version doesn't include them.)

What I Notice	Specific Examples from the Text
1. The author varies the lengths of her sentences to give them a natural rhythm.	“I was really bummed when Christopher moved away three years ago. (11) We were both around seven then. (6) We used to spend hours playing with our Star Wars action figures and dueling with our lightsabers. (17) I miss that.” (3)
2. Lots of fragments	·         “Twenty-seven since I was born.” ·         “Or maybe I should say angelic.” ·         “A little peephole.”
3. Lots of compound sentences	·         “The bigger ones happened before I was even four years old, so I don’t remember those.” ·         “The last surgery I had was eight months ago, and I probably won’t have to have any more for another couple of years.” ·         “She once tried to draw me a Darth Vader, but it ended up looking like some weird mushroom-shaped robot.”
4. AAAWWUBBIS sentences	·         “Since I’ve never been to a real school before, I am pretty much totally and completely petrified.” ·         “When I came out of Mom’s stomach, she said the whole room got very quiet.”
5. Repetition	·         “So I’ve gotten used to not complaining, and I’ve gotten used to not bothering Mom and Dad with little stuff. I’ve gotten used to figuring things out on my own: how to put toys together, how to organize my life so I don’t miss friends’ birthday parties, how to stay on top of my schoolwork so I never fall behind in class.” ·         “My worst day, worst fall, worst headache, worst bruise, worst cramp, worst mean thing anyone could say has always been nothing compared to what August has gone through.” ·         “I wish I could ask him this stuff. I wish he would tell me how he feels.” ·         “We need to let him, help him, make him grow up.”
6. An extended metaphor	“August is the Sun. Me and Mom and Dad are planets orbiting the Sun. The rest of our family and friends are asteroids and comets floating around the planets and orbiting the Sun. The only celestial body that doesn’t orbit August the Sun is Daisy the dog, and that’s only because to her little doggy eyes August’s face doesn’t look very different from any other human’s face.”
7. Similes	·         “To Daisy, all our faces look alike, as flat and pale as the moon.” ·         “His head is pinched in on the sides where the ears should be, like someone used giant pliers and crushed the middle part of his face.” ·         “Out of all my features, my ears are the ones I hate the most. They are like tiny closed fists on the sides of my face.”
8. The use of the colon	·         “Mom remembers exactly what the nurse whispered in her ear when the doctor told her I probably wouldn’t live through the night: “Everyone born of God overcometh the world. ·         There’s one shot of me at my third birthday: Dad’s right behind me while Mom’s holding the cake with three lit candles, and in back of us are Tata and Poppa….” ·         “And on the other side of the peephole, there were two Augusts: the one I saw blindly, and the one other people saw.” ·         “And then Grans told me she had a secret to tell me: she loved me more than anyone else in the world.”
9. The writing has a conversational, kid-sounding tone.	·         “Me and Christopher were looking for snacks in the kitchen…” ·         “Like, she’d bring Mom some ice chips, and then fart.” ·         “And he was like, ‘No problem!’”
10. The pattern of three	·         “This school was very different. It was smaller. It smelled like a hospital.” ·         “I’d just get mad. Mad when they stared. Mad when they looked away.” ·         “But it’s hard. It’s hard not to sneak a second look. It’s hard to act normal when you see him.” ·         “Horrified. Sickened. Scared.”
11. Participles	·         “What I remember the most from the day Grans died is Mom literally crumpling to the floor in slow, heaving sobs, holding her stomach like someone had just punched her.” ·         “Not just the front rows, but the whole audience suddenly got up on their feet, whooping, hollering, clapping like crazy.”

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Ben Carson

Ben Carson, former pediatric neurosurgeon at Johns Hopkins Hospital, has a great story. It's one to motivate an unmotivated student. It's one to encourage a discouraged homeschooling mama. I'll say no more but leave you to listen and enjoy.

Dr. Ben Carson Talks About His Mom (Mother's Day) from Faith Christian Center on Vimeo.

This is the same story in a different setting.

A Vision for Writing

Please, please share this vision for writing with your students. Spectacular! You might even need a tissue.

A Blog Worth Visiting

All because of a pin, I stumbled onto Wonder Farm, a website written by homeschooling mom Patricia Zaballos who "loves to write and wants others to love it too." I was immediately wowed by both her writing and content.

The pin was about writing workshop. What's there not to like about writing workshop?! It's an excellent way for students to write the content they want in the format they want for an audience of peers who give personal feedback. She had my attention.

I saw a post describing a method of research using post-it notes. Someday, and hopefully someday soon, I will find a student to test it.

Then I saw her eight-part series: "Becoming a Writing Mentor to Your Child." Now here is a campground where you can pitch your tent awhile. She writes lengthy posts explaining her philosophy on nurturing student writers, including practical tips for application.

Come with me. I'll take you on a quick tour.

In the first post, Zaballos contrasts a teacher and a mentor. During my homeschooling years, my teacher hat has constantly beckoned me. I've had to intentionally resist it and wear my mentor one instead. Which hat do you wear?

In part two, she contrasts two approaches to learning writing: scope and sequence, on one hand, and osmosis in a language-rich environment on the other. This one came easily for me from Day 1 of parenting; bathing my girls in words was one of my favorite parts of their younger years. On which side of the spectrum do you find yourself?

In the third post, Zaballos shares three "gems" she learned from Verlyn Klinkenborg, author of Several Short Sentences about Writing. I had never heard of this book before reading her post, but you can bet I've already placed a hold on it at the library. The gems further illustrate what it looks like to be a writing mentor, especially helpful to those of us who didn't grow up with one.

Typically, homeschooling moms think they must appropriate the "eye for an eye" philosophy when dealing with spelling and grammar. We all had to suffer through pages of spelling lists and grammar exercises, so of course our children should, too, right? Not if you want to mentor your kids. Zaballos shares her views and tips on spelling in the fourth post. Then, in the fifth part of the series, she does the same with grammar.

In part six, Zaballos offers a mother of reluctant writers advice for engaging her kids in the writing process. One of her more intriguing ideas is list-making. Seriously. Did you ever consider building paragraphs (and an essay!) from a list?

We learn in part seven how to offer positive feedback to students' writing because, after all, don't we all thrive more when we see what we're doing right rather than focus on what we're doing wrong? She continues in a similar vein as she wraps up the series with an eighth post.

If you've ever read something and thought, "Man, I wish I had written that!" you know how I feel now. This is good stuff. Really good stuff. Let me know what you think.

On Suffering

Maybe it's odd, but I like to read theological books on suffering. Since we have to face it every which way we turn, in every shape and size, I figure that learning about it helps me navigate it with better focus, remembering that it's more than aggravating or intimidating or excruciating; it's a tool God uses to shape and refine me, helping me to trust Jesus who knows suffering--and sympathizes with me in mine (Hebrews 4:15). He's taking the "bad" and using it for good (Roman 8:28).

Lately I've been listening to a sermon series on Job, Job: The Gospel of Suffering, preached by Tullian Tchividjian. (Great name, huh?) The messages are meaty and encouraging; I highly recommend them.

Here's an excerpt from the sixth one (of eleven) in Tchividjian's series:

If the foundation of your happiness is your things--in other words, if you go through life concluding that the thing that makes me who I am is this position, the things that make me matter are these relationships or having this name or this money; if your things, your ambitions, your dreams, your material well-being, your relationships, your position, your possessions, if your things is what you are basing your happiness on--then suffering will be pulling you away from the uttermost foundation of your happiness because that is what suffering is. It's taking away something that's important to you...But if, like Job, your joy is anchored in God, then suffering drives you deeper into your source of joy and happiness. See the difference? If you build your life on things, suffering takes you away from the source of your joy, but if you build your life on God, suffering drives you deeper into your source of joy.

Mercifully, even when we build our lives on things that won't last, God uses suffering to show us our shifty foundation, and we are given the invitation to move from it, to Him, where we always find rest, security, hope, and joy, no matter the circumstances.

Food for Thought: How Schools Kill Creativity

The question: does your homeschool nurture or kill creativity?

Finding Patterns in Punctuation

Grammar in context is explained beautifully in this teacher's reflections on a punctuation lesson. She includes a handout, so you can use the idea with your students, too!

Student Author

I really have nothing to do with Finding Faith, other than to have taught its author, Rachel Rittenhouse, in an English class last year. I'm proud of the way Rachel wholeheartedly pursues her dreams at age 16, and I wish her the best as she launches this, her first book in a series of three. Visit her website to discover more.

Words That Get the Axe

If you're literally looking for a list of really amazing words to cut from your students' very wordy papers, check out this thing. It's got quite good suggestions. Maybe it's just the stuff you need to help them follow the classic advice from Strunk and White: "omit needless words" (The Elements of Style 23).

No, really. See the ten words you can chop from a student's writing that no one will miss.

Literally.

Thanks, Cynthia, for sending me the link.

The Writing Process Described

A mother of a six-year-old girl wrote to Julie at Bravewriter.com to detail her experience with homeschooling. The part that struck me--and that I direct you to here--describes the process of working on a fairytale project with her daughter. She does well at showing the writing process, the goals fixed on nurturing her child's voice and building her confidence rather than insisting on correctness. You can find the description here in the fourth paragraph which begins, "I told her we were going to do...."

My Favorite Writing Projects

Short writing exercises and stand-alone assignments have their place, but when I am looking to foster increased motivation, I daydream about projects. What projects can I suggest that will hook and keep a kid's attention?

Ones that have worked well for me so far are...

Magazines: I love this one because students are free to follow their creativity. You can find an explanation here.

Portfolders (aka lapbooks) - Portfolders kept our family busy for years. You can read why I like them so much and take a peek into some of ours here.

Notebooks - When we were ready to venture beyond portfolders, we headed to notebooks. I show some of them here.

Pen Pal Project - I tried this idea with a group of eighth graders. You can read more about it here.

Coil or spiral bound book - What's better: to have a bunch of writing pieces spread here and there or to have the best ones bound together in a book?  I think the latter. See a post here.

Blog - When my girls were young writers, the four of us started a blog.  It gave them a reason to write and an audience outside of our home. It's old, but it's here. For an AP History class, my oldest daughter made blogs for Martin Luther King, Jr. and John Adams. So many possibilities!

If you're noticing your students plodding through their work, the vision for learning lost, introduce a project centered on a subject they love.

See if the sparkle returns.

Education in Stages

Now that my oldest daughter is in college and my youngest is leaning toward high school, I find myself reflecting on our homeschooling years, specifically the goals that motivated my choices during each stage. Here is my list so far.

My Goals for the Elementary Years

• Solidify the basics: reading, writing, and arithmetic.
• Breadth
• Flexibility
• Integrate subjects (i.e. science, history) with reading and writing.
• Develop/capitalize on the love of learning.
• Build a literate environment in the home.
• Make learning a lifestyle.
• Read aloud often.
• Living books
• Projects
• Exploration
• Field trips
• Limited out-of-the-home commitments
• Engaging, not tedious
• Develop an ear for Spanish.
• Learn to type.
• Learn to read music.
• Build a strong foundation.

My Goals for the Middle School Years

• Increase responsibility and independence.
• Increase the expectations for writing.
• Deadlines and time management
• Stretch reading skills. Nudge toward classic literature.
• Continue to read aloud.
• Begin taking outside classes to learn from other teachers.
• Study Spanish.

My Goals for the High School Years

• Independence
• Depth
• Develop ability to manage time and meet deadlines, preparing for college or work.
• Lots of classics
• Learn from other people, primarily through AP classes.
• Prepare for the SAT. (Take it multiple times.)
• Volunteer and work outside the home.
• Study Spanish.

My Goals for All of the Years

• Know and love Jesus.
• Serve others.
• Prepare for the next stage, keeping the end goal in sight.
• Expect excellence (not perfection) always.
• Discover strengths and weaknesses. Exercise both.
• Strong work ethic
• Responsibility
• Commitment
• Learn how to learn; strong study habits
• Well-rounded kids

The End
When our children are finished with high school, they may not choose to pursue a college education, but  they will be prepared for it--or any other direction God leads them.

How I Became a Homeschooler

Once upon a time I was a teacher in an eighth grade classroom. 

One year a shy girl with illegible handwriting sat in the front desk. She had joined our private Christian school after homeschooling didn’t work for her.

“Sheesh.  Couldn’t the mom even teach the kid handwriting?”

A boy was supposed to be in my class the next year. His sister had been a cherished student; his dad, a colleague. The family decided to homeschool him instead.

“Oh, please; how can parents be so arrogant to think they can be the sole teachers? The mom isn’t even trained!”

After school one day, a bubbly girl, who planned to be homeschooled in high school, babbled on about the successes of homeschoolers, audaciously claiming that colleges pursue them.

“How ignorant! What a silly girl.”

Fast forward several years, soon after my first daughter was born. The details are sketchy, but somehow my husband and I ended up in a lively conversation with my family. He said something positive about homeschooling, insinuating that we might do it someday. I was horrified.

“Me? I will never homeschool.”

Then he did it. I remember standing in my daughters’ room—now we had two girls—next to the bunk beds. He asked me to consider homeschooling. Why there, I do not remember.

I laughed. I said I couldn’t do it. I said I would have to take my foot out of my mouth after all the things I had said about homeschoolers.

But I also agreed to pray about it.

I prayed and I looked for books. I requested a catalog from Bob Jones, the only name I knew associated with homeschooling.

Then some new families began attending our church: homeschooling families. I watched these kids in the youth group, amazed at their maturity, their respect for adults. I decided that if homeschooling could turn out kids like that, I wanted to do it, so I prayed and searched for resources with more resolve, even spending time with one of the mothers, asking her for any help she could give. (And she wasn’t a trained teacher. Gasp!) Foot removal had begun.

A short time later, a family organization offered Debra Bell’s The Ultimate Guide to Homeschooling in exchange for a donation. My donation got me more than a book; it got me a mentor. I scoured and marked Debra’s book, eventually researching the list of websites in the back, trying to find the curriculum that best fit me.

Meanwhile, I continued to be the mommy I loved to be, reading piles and piles of books to my girls, visiting the library, doing crafts, playing, drawing, teaching my oldest to read, and including them in almost everything I did. I was giving my girls the richest childhood I could, having no idea that I was already homeschooling.

Eventually, I got to Five in a Row on Bell’s list. A perfect match for four-year-old Michaiah and me. We read the same picture book every day for a week. We did short lessons inspired by the book, one day studying the art, another day the language arts, a third day, the science, etc. It was gentle but rich. Michaiah loved it, so much so that I had to let her know that we needed a break on the weekends.

Oh, but kindergarten was coming. I needed to put on my teacher hat and get serious. It was time for real school.

Once again, I researched, looking for curricula I liked, this time in each subject area.  I found what I wanted, ordered all I needed, and prepared to begin.

It wasn’t long before the eager little learner and her mommy began to wilt. Learning wasn’t as much fun anymore. Before this grand experiment, we would read a chapter book from start to finish, if we chose. Now we were supposed to read a certain number of pages, do a simple activity, and quit that subject for the day. Since I was playing teacher, that was okay with me, until I’d hear Michaiah say, “Read more.  Keep going.  I want to find out what happens next.”

I don’t know how long I tried making school work, but I didn’t like the thought of losing my precocious student to boredom or frustration. I decided to return to what had worked before, pulling out Five in a Row once again. This time, I planned unit studies around Five in a Row books, adding many hands-on activities and portfolder projects to our day. We found our niche!

At first it was scary to tell people we were homeschooling. I didn’t have grand answers for the wary questions, especially about socialization, the one question that intimidated me more than any other. I deflected, saying, “We’re taking it a year at a time.” With each passing year, though, my roots of conviction deepened, giving me confidence that we were doing what was right for our family.

Now, with our oldest daughter successfully navigating life and academics at a state university, I am in awe of all God did to lead us. He truly provided all we needed to prepare her for the rest of her life.

And those crazies in my classroom? Now that I’m one of them, they don’t seem quite so crazy anymore.

Jules Verne on the Writing Process

If you have students moaning about revising their papers a time or two, let them read this quote from author Jules Verne who wrote (among others) Around the World in Eighty Days and 20,000 Leagues under the Sea. What a picture of determination, commitment, and endurance! "I rise every morning before five—a little later, perhaps, in the winter—and at five am at my desk, remaining at work till eleven, I work very slowly and with greatest care, writing and rewriting until each sentence takes the form that I desire. I have always at least ten novels in my head in advance, subjects and plots thought out, so that, you see, if I am spared, I shall have no difficulty in completing the eighty novels which I spoke of. But it is over my proofs that I spend most time. I am never satisfied with less than seven or eight proofs, and correct and correct again, until it may be safely said the last proof bears hardly any traces of the original manuscript. This means a great sacrifice of pocket, as well as of time, but I have always tried my best for form and style, though people have never done me justice in this respect." Click on the quote to read the full piece entitled "Jules Verne at Home: His Own Account of His Life and Work." Emphasis is mine.

Words from a Can

A note about voice from a fictional student:

"She [Francie] started fresh on a new page.

'Intolerance,' she wrote, pressing down hard on the pencil, 'is a thing that causes war, pogroms, crucifixions, lynchings, and makes people cruel to little children and to each other. It is responsible for most of the viciousness, violence, terror and heart and soul breaking of the world.'

She read the words over aloud. They sounded like words that came in a can; the freshness was cooked out of them. She closed the book and put it away."

A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith, page 229

Advice from a Teacher

Teacher Carolyn Foley sent a letter to the parents of her students. It's worth reading in full. Here is a quote she includes which piggybacks nicely with what I said here and here. Don’t worry too much about technicalities and misspelling.  (Some-times we over-stress spelling because it gives us something easy and clear cut to land on.  We mustn’t overlook what is being said.)  The school has primary responsibility here.  Grammar can always be repaired if sincerity and interest are present.  On the other hand no amount of “correctness” can cover up the empty world of a child who hasn’t been helped to get interested and excited about something, preferably many things.

Voice

I don't know if my English teachers' instruction about voice floated right over my head or if they didn't include it in their lesson plans. All I know is that I didn't learn it from them. What did sink deep was the importance of sounding smart and using correct grammar. But, as this article explains, an impeccably correct essay can be a painfully voiceless one. And who wants to read it? No one. The author says, "I would define voice in writing as the quality of writing that gives readers the impression that they are hearing a real person, not a machine." Let's be teachers who help our students develop their voices, providing practice, encouragement, and models. If their personalities and passions are welcomed at the writing party when they are young, they will likely continue attending when they are older. It's long, but this article about voice in writing is excellent.

Identifying with an Author

Here's a quick children's lit. quiz. I'm going to name some main characters; you're going to name their author. Ready? Murdley Gurdson Princess Penelope Fluffy Tacky Wodney Wat Okay. What's your answer? Did you say Helen Lester?  Ding. Ding. Ding. You are correct! Lester also has a book about herself. In Author: A True Story, she tells the good and the bad of becoming an author. Your young writers will see an experienced writer facing rejection, persevering, practicing, using the writing process, being frustrated, being inspired. They will see that they are much like Helen (well, except that they don't receive royalties for their work). Knowing that they are not alone may make a very difficult process just a tad easier to bear. If you're not familiar with Murdley and the rest of the characters I mentioned, go to E/Lester on your next visit to the library and fill your bag with Lester's books. They are the kind you won't mind reading for the 20th time. This post contains affiliate links.