Katherine Narrative and status

I am starting my research for my burning question and I will go back to refine my narrative before including it into my final project.

Question

How can I motivate my students to edit?


Critical Incident Narrative
Second Grade Classroom


Twisted Fairy Tales



I always enjoy writing especially when it involves man-eating plants or totally twisted fairy tales. It was late April when my second grade class was reading classic fairy tales followed by fairy tales rewritten with humor. A favorite was The Stinky Cheese Man and Other Fairly Stupid Tales: by Jon Scieszka and Lane Smith. Neither my students nor I tire of reading these silly stories involving classic fairy tale characters. This year was no exception and my students were eager to get started on their own versions. Each student differred on the support needed during the writing process, but everyone did end up with a story. I have highlighted four different students from this class that represent different writing personalities.

Austin loved to write when he is free to use his humor and imagination in his work. He read a little above grade level and read for pleasure. He was eager to start a fairy tale and wrote three pages the first day! His story was a humorous version of Shrek, a favorite children’s movie involving an ogre. Austin’s ogre had different adventures than the Shrek character from the movie, but wass lacking description and action. He was very competitive and motivated to write the longest story. He had a tendency to write run-on sentences and and not end a story at a logical point. He understood that he lost focus when he wrote too many pages, but he avoided editing. Austin wrote dilegently for several days on his fairy tale. He shared the story with the class when he finished the first draft, but he put his story in his writing folder and did not tell me he was ready for editing. When the final drafts were due he finally pulled out his writng to show me. He still did not want to take the time to edit.

Jane also enjoyed writing. She wass a gifted and talented student that read at a seventh grade reading level. She acted very mature for her age and got frustrated when her peers play around. She wass frustated a lot in second grade because second graders love to play around! Her story involved a princess and combined several different fairy tale traits that came together into one story. She started right away and required no help with the rough draft portion. She naturally added action and description to her writing as I would expect a high-level reader to do. She wasn’t happy about editing, but she understood it needed to be done and did what I suggested. She did change a few hings on her own without my prompting.

Jon had a very active imagination and a great sense of humor. He was the all around good student. Good grades, good at sports, good at making friends, etc. He was an above average reader who occasionally read for fun. He was inspired by the stories we read and had no problem getting started. He quickly wrote an adequate story, but the story was below his potential. When I asked him to elaborate he became defensive. When I asked him to go back and add details he told me he was happy with his story the way it was even though he admitted he could improve on it. He became angry and pouted when I instructed him to spend more time on adding details. When it comes to editing he really becomes aggitated.

Keeanna liked school, but it was a bit of a struggle for her. She read slowly and was very self-conscious. She had extemely high expectations of herself and often cried when she was challenged. Since the whole nature of learning involves challenge she was ofen in tears. She was actually paralyzed with the fear of making a mistake. Writing a story was the most challenging and frustrating for her, because she had to use her imagination. She could not use the strategies that she depended on to help her, such as memorization or clue words. I usually have this type of student at least writing short personal responses by the end of the year, but not Keeanna, she continued to cry up until the very end! (However she was crying less and was a little more willing to try.) I find this personality type them most challenging to work with and Keeanna was the most extreme student I have had to work with. How can I get her to edit when she won’t even write? I eventaully got her to use a story frame I created for her to fill in the blanks, but she was not happy with herself having to use it. She didn’t want to make a mistake so she would just sit there staring at an empty page. She was thrilled to be able to edit because it was something she could see and apply rules to. Perhaps there is a way I can motivate her through editing.


Let me backtrack a little and reflect on what we did prior to writing the first draft. We began by reading several different fairy tales. Then we brainstormed, mapped, and discussed the characteristics of a fairy tale. We compared stories that were the same and then a few stories that were different using graphic organizers. We wrote a class story as a whole group using the graphic organizers we created. The students copied the class story as I wrote on a transparency so that the students were able to experience several aspects of writing a story. I made comments on some of the editing I would do if I was going to take the story to a final draft. I did not have the second graders actually make the changes on the class story because some of them got overwhelmed or lost interest in writing with too much time spent on editing. Next the students wrote a few sentences about the fairy tale they wanted to write. I had a quick conference with each one to make sure everyone understood the assignment. I helped those who had difficulty getting started. Some of the students required a story frame in order to write a story. I required those students to change the characters and the names. For example, The Three Little Penguins. Then I gave my students three days of 30 - 45 minute writing periods. As each student finished he/she shared the story by sitting in the Author’s Chair. Even my student who could not read or write stood up and told us his story! Author’s Chair was a popular part of the writing process. Keeanna did not share at this time because she still had not started a story. I was hoping she would get an idea from one of the other students. All of the other struggling writers did get started by this point. Keeanna required much more coaxing and eventually had to spend some recess time with me before she actually started writing.

One of the editing strategies we used was to highlight all of the ands in their papers. Then I had them cross the and out, add a period before the and, and a capitol to the word after the and. Then they reread their stories to see if the sentences made sense. If they didn’t make sense then the student was to correct the structure. I used similar techniques to highlight and check for other grammar or spelling corrections. I only had them look for one or two things each time we edited. We checked for complete sentences with capitols and end punctuation each time we read. After that one or two more rules was plenty for second grade. I didn’t highlight more than five grammar rules altogether. Even this controlled amount of editing was a challenge to get the students to do. (Except for the serious and/or overachieving students, which are usually white females. Perhaps that is a clue!)

My question is: How can I make editing fun, motivating or less intimidating for all of my students?