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

WRITING COMMUNITIES

The Columbus Area Writing Project Summer Institute ended Friday.


We began as individuals with our personal goals, issues and concerns. We each brought our confidences and our talents, our frailties and our fears.

We carried this baggage to Kenyon College for the opening retreat of our summer institute.

There we weathered a tornado warning and serious storm.
There we began to build our writing community.

We have been together-- sharing our stories and our writing and our questions,  learning, researching, crying, laughing, changing, and growing for the past 2 1/2 weeks.

We questioned our beliefs, challenged our long held stances, affirmed our work, considered many new resources, books, and ideas, and opened new doors-- as people and as educators. 

But... now the summer institute is over.

What do we do today?

We write individually.  Pages are filled by one.  

But writing is often best shared, revised, and honored in community.
How do we develop and maintain that community? 

The year I was a  participating fellow in the Columbus Area Writing Project summer institute (2005), I did not want to lose this writing in community. How quickly, once introduced, this becomes a necessary part of life!

In the fall, back in my school, I addressed this new need in two ways---I began a teachers' writing group, as well as an after-school writing group for students.  Both lasted four or five years and were extremely successful and fulfilling.

For several years CAWP also hosted writing happy hours throughout the year in which teacher consultants from various summer institute cohorts came together regularly to share food,  drink....  and writing.

More recently, our  CAWP inquiry group, having completed their research, culminating with a presentation at NCTE 2012, decided to continue to meet together, not as researchers, but in a new configuration--an ordinary (or extraordinary)  writing group. They did not want to give up their community.

Writing communities can be formal --as part of established institutions, like those within writing projects or schools, or  less formal--like those begun among colleagues or friends.  They can be composed of young  folks--like my after-school groups or classroom peer groups, or they can be adults of any age.


Jim Vopat reminds us in the introduction to his book of the long standing history and tradition of writing groups :

 Writers, sharing and talking about what they have written with other writers has likely been happening for as long as people have been writing. As Ann Ruggles Gere puts it in Writing Groups: History, Theory and Implications, " Writers have always asked friends and colleagues for feedback" (1987,22). For famous authors as well as kids reading stories they've written to each other,  there is something immensely satisfying in sharing writing and getting a response. ( p.3)

Vopat's book, Writing Circles: Kids Revolutionize Workshop provides a great foundation on which to build if you are interested in starting writing groups with kids. 

For additional support with writing groups for kids, I have always relied on the series of books by Ralph Fletcher, as both texts for my student writers, as well as sources of writing ideas.  Visit his web page to  learn more about this set of books.



For adult groups, there are many resources that are helpful.  I recommend my personal "writing teachers in my head": Natalie Goldberg, Georgia Heard and Bonnie Goldberg.  Their books will provide enough ideas  to keep a writing group going for years.  See my previous related post, The Writer's Notebook Part 2 (Resources) for a more complete list of recommendations of resources that will support your writing groups.

The writing prompts I use for writing groups of both kids and adults usually come from my own book, Deeper Writing: Quick Writes and Mentor Texts to Illuminate New Possibilities.  The ideas in this book can easily be adapted to fit your writing group's needs.


And finally, if you are interested in teacher inquiry writing groups,  Teachers' Writing Groups: Collaborative Inquiry and Reflection for Professional Growth by Sarah Robbins, George Seaman and Kathleen Blake -Yancey is an excellent resource.

 Today's Deeper Writing Possibilities

List  people that you might want to include in your own writing group.

What are the benefits in being a part of writing group?  What might be disadvantages that my hinder your writing?


Write about your expectations for  your writing group.  You may also want to create a list of rules to assist your group in running smoothly.  For example, there may be a limit on  the length of pieces shared or how often each member shares or how topics for writing are selected.