CREATING COMMUNITY: FOR WRITERS AND BEYOND

Reading and writing float on a sea of talk

                                                                James Britton

I was first introduced to Britton's quote when I was in graduate school at The Ohio State University.
It still proves true in my teaching and learning encounters and in my reading and writing experiences.

Today, however, I would modify Britton's quote to read :

Reading and writing, and community float on a sea of talk

We are growing  readers and writers and learners in our classrooms-- they  flourish in community.

The glue that holds communities together is shared practices, protocols and language that support  each member of the community and also promote  the common good all members.

It takes time to develop the conditions of trust and caring in which our writers can share their finished work, works-in-process, and potential writing ideas.

Our writers are entitled to both an authentic audience and honest feedback.  Sharing their work provides affirmation of their ideas and process, opportunities to hear what is working in their piece, as well as suggestions for revisions.

In addition, the work shared by our student writers becomes models of writing for other writers-- and enters the community collection of  mentor texts.

For more on  practices and language support writing communities and  undergird sharing writing, see an earlier post,  Responding to Writing.


As we foster supportive communities what are the  conversations we need to have?

What are the discussions in which  we must engage our students?

How do we facilitate the discourses in our classrooms and other learning communities?

Although I knew about Britton's sea of talk, I first realized the power of language to mediate learning as I trained to be Reading Recovery teacher.  I witnessed the miracle of  well-chosen words and strategic conversations to accelerate  learning.  I marveled each time my words produced an immediate positive response. For information about Reading Recovery, click here.

I was hooked on the power of language.

I began to carefully consider language and conversations  in my classrooms.
I began to develop intentional language and initiate strategic conversations..

Several recent publications support us as we consider the sea of talk we facilitate in our classrooms.

Peter Johnston has given us two treasures which highlight the importance of the language we use ( and foster) in our classrooms ---and any time we have conversations.

In Choice Words, he examines how  effective teachers  use language,  not only to teach, but to also build  powerful relationships,  create supportive learning communities, and  foster strategic and critical thinking.

Teachers play a critical role in arranging the discursive histories from which these children speak. Talk is the central tool of their trade. With it they mediate children's activity and experience and help them make sense of learning, literacy, life, and themselves.

Opening Minds: Using Language to Change Lives extends this conversation about the power of language. demonstrating how we create, expand or restrict the worlds of learners.

Sometimes it is just one word that makes all the difference....

Introducing a spelling test ....by saying, "Let's see how many words you know" is different than saying, "Let's see how many words you already know" It is only on word, but the already suggests that any words the child knows are ahead of expectation, and most important, that there is nothing permanent about what is known and unknown.

 We create, open  (and reduce) worlds with  the words we choose.

As teachers, we choose our words and, in the process, construct the classroom world of our students and ourselves. The worlds we construct offer opportunities and constraints....
Teaching is planned opportunism... When we  put our plans into action, children offer us opportunities to say something,or not, and the choices we make affect what happens next.   Teaching requires constant improvisation. It is jazz.

We create the communities the lead ultimately lead to trust, growth, intellectual maturity and conversations at the highest levels.  This begins with our youngest learners, continues through the university, and carries into our world and everyday life.

 I recently received a big box of Amazon books--a common  and  frequent occurrence in my house--and among the treats was Academic Conversations: Classroom Talk that Fosters Critical Thinking and Content Understandings .


 Building on the notions that intentional language is important, Jeff Zwiers and Marie Crawford introduce us to the academic, intellectual aspects of discourse in shaping who we are, what we know and what we believe.

Conversations strengthen our comprehension of new ideas.
Conversations are also powerful sculptors.  They shape our identities, thoughts, beliefs, and emotions. We have all had intense conversations from which we walked away ( or lost sleep)  mulling over the ideas that we discussed. Conversations leave us pondering and processing ideas for hours,days, and even years. These ideas in turn, contribute to the inner dialogues that we hold in our heads throughout each day. (Vygotsky,1986), which sculpt our thoughts--whether we like it or not.
More than we realize we are the product of thousands of conversations.

Academic conversations, or sustained conversations in which we learn from each other and gain new understandings and ideas, are critical for our learners. In order for this to happen, we  have to be able to make the verbal and intellectual moves that foster and further these conversations.

We learn to paraphrase, negotiate ideas, clarify and extend our thoughts,  and support our thinking with details, examples and instances.  We must also learn to challenge and oppose ideas, agreeably. And most importantly, we must be able to critically analyze ideas and synthesize new thinking.

We learn the moves of academic conversations

What are the words that will foster new worlds?
What conversations will open a young--or old--- mind?

What conversations do we need to have to create community?
How do we respond to the many important conversations that we witness? In which we participate?

Click here to read my Haibun written in response to the many rich conversations in which our CAWP Teacher Inquiry Group engaged.

Today's Deeper Writing Possibilities

Think about the last important, sensitive or meaningful conversation in which you participated.

This can be an intimate, friendly, business or academic conversation.

Recall as much of the exchange as you can.

What words stand out from that interaction?

What were the effects of the words you selected?

Write an essay about the importance of the conversation or the selected words.

Write a poem capturing the mood of the conversation.

Click here to read my Haibun written in response to the many rich conversations in which our CAWP Teacher Inquiry Group engaged

RESPONDING TO WRITING

How do we respond to the writing of others?

How do we give helpful feedback? How do we make suggestions or give constructive criticism?

How do we tell someone what we think about their words, their writing, their exposed heart ?

There are several settings in which we may share our writing and give and receive feedback.
There are several approaches  for this most delicate activity.

We can sit as partners, side by side, each sharing and responding to the other--or it may be only only one of those partners shares on a particular occasion.

We can gather in a small group of three or four or five, or not many more, to hear a chorus of responses to our work and add our own voices to the chorus for someone else.

We can gather in a large group of writers--- or an entire class-- for a read-around, for a whole group sharing.  
   
Read-around is a strategy for sharing writing developed by Linda Christensen.  You may read

more about this effective strategy in her book, Reading, Writing and Rising Up on pages 14 -15 or in her online article at Choice Literacy entitled The Read- Around: Raising Writers.

In my own classroom, we had several guidelines for large or whole group sharing  that served us well:

• Time may not permit everyone to share, so if you shared the day before we asked you to wait until others have shared.
• You have the right to pass and not share.
• You have the right to receive no feedback or specify the type you  would like to receive. (For example, I would like to hear only what works, or I would like to know if the setting description is enough.)

Whatever the platform for sharing and responding, it is essential to consider the words that we use to express our thoughts about the writing shared with us.  We must strike a balance between approval and useless gush,  between the creative tension of criticism and that fine line that crosses into cruelty, and between an intelligent intuition about useful suggestions versus controlling comments.

In the introduction to my own book, Deeper Writing on pages 10-12,   I  describe how early in the year, prior to our first read-around, we also began to learn language that would support our

responses, providing a scaffold for our opinions, and both guiding and guarding our responses so that we created a safe, sharing community.

I would model the use of this language extensively, and then guide 
students' practice. They easily took on independent use of the language and were able to extend it to include their own language.  




Helpful responses for us included:

• I like... ( words, phrases, sentences, ideas, metaphors juxtapositions, connections, strategies, etc)
• I want to hear more about...(call for more details or specificity)
• I don't understand...(call for clarity)
• I suggest...(specific suggestions for the writer with examples)

• I am wondering if...or I noticed... (general reflection)

If I were still working in my own classroom I would also add the following:

You may want to look at... (pointing to a mentor texts or other resource-- this writer, that book , this poem... or talk to this person.)

In addition, sometimes we need more information or understanding about a piece of writing before we can confidently and helpfully respond.  The following questions have always 
served me well in talking with writers about their writing:

• What are you trying to do?
• Why are you writing this piece?
• Who do you want to share it with?  Who do you want to read it and why?
• What do you feel needs to be revised, still accomplished?
• How can I help?

During the read- arounds or other forms of sharing, students were encouraged to take brief notes so that their responses could be as specific as possible.  

The student receiving feedback was the only person to write on her paper.  Even in partner sharing, this was my policy.  

I often encouraged the use of different colors of pencil or pen for recording feedback for possible revisions --one color for revision or notes made by the writer herself before the piece is shared, and then another color for recording notes made about comments by others while sharing.  

An additional excellent resource that you may find helpful as you set up writing groups and other platforms for sharing and responding to writing is Writing Circles: Kids Revolutionize

Workshop  by Jim Vopat.  Not only does he share many helpful strategies for responding, but also an entire framework for establishing student-led writing groups--including information about topic selection, keeping notebooks, publishing,  time management,  and more.

Today's Deeper Writing Possibilities

Select a partner, small group, or whole group setting in which to share a piece of writing on which you have been working.

Before sharing, reread your own writing and consider  the revisions that you think are needed.

You may want to refer to the previous related post on revision, Rewriting Texts,  for suggestions.

Write a list of the revisions you are considering.

Also write a reflective paragraph about the kind of feedback you would appreciate for you piece.

After sharing, write a summary paragraph detailing the actual comments and responses  you received about your writing. 

What did you learn about your writing? about this specific piece? about sharing and giving and receiving feedback to writing?