Hi Sue,
I feel your dilemma! I was recently at a workshop by Ralph Fletcher and the
topic of boys' writing came up. He has a book out about boy writers. Here is
the excerpt about it from Amazon:
"Writing test scores indicate that boys have fallen far behind girls across the
grades. In general, boys don't enjoy writing as much as girls. What's wrong?
How can we do a better of job of creating “boy-friendly” classrooms so their
voices can be heard?
In Boy Writers: Reclaiming Their Voices Ralph Fletcher draws upon his years of
experience as staff developer, children's book author, and father of four boys.
He also taps the insights from dozens of writing teachers around the US and
abroad. Boy Writers asks teachers to imagine the writing classroom from a boy's
perspective, and consider specific steps we might take to create stimulating
classrooms for boys.
Topic choice emerges as a crucial issue. The subjects many boys like to write
about (war, weapons, outlandish fiction, zany or bathroom humor) often do not
get a warm reception from teachers. Ralph argues that we must “widen the
circle” and give boys more choice if we want to engage them as writers. How? We
must begin by recognizing boys and the world in which they live. Boy Writers
explores important questions such as:
• What subjects are boy writers passionate about, and what motivates them
as writers?
• Why do boys like to incorporate violence into their stories, and how much
should be allowed?
• Why do we so often misread and misunderstand the humor boys include in
their stories?
In addition, the book looks at: how handwriting can hamstring boy writers, and
how drawing may help; welcoming boy-friendly writing genres in our classrooms;
ways to improve our conferring with boys; and more.
Each chapter begins with a thorough discussion of a topic and ends with a
highly practical section titled: "What can I do in my classroom?" Boy Writers
does not advocate promoting the interests of boys at the expense of girls.
Rather, it argues that developing sensitivity to the unique facets of boy
writers will help teachers better address the needs of all their students"
We had a lively discussion about this at our table during the conference. How
do we honor the topics that get boys charged up about writing, while reining it
in a bit????
It seems like your student saw all of this as a video game. Seeing a gun
sitting there, blasting away a skeleton and getting a reward, the candy. Very
game-like scenario. Perhaps he could try it again, but seeing if he can explore
without weapons? Also, perhaps he could try writing a scene of action, then a
scene that shows readers what the character is thinking. Then back to action
again. Maybe if you offer it up as a challenge, "Can you have the character get
that scary skeleton by being clever and outsmarting it? Maybe design a
diabolical trap!" I am sure you've already pointed out what he is doing that is
so good ...all of that onomatopoeia (thank goodness for spell check!).
Also, there is a great place to pose this type of question. Do you know about
the Real Writing Teachers list? It is on Yahoo, and I have gotten a lot of
wonderful ideas from those teachers, many of whom belong to this list as well.
So maybe you can check out that book and get more ideas from other teachers. It
is something we all have to ponder and find a way to comfortably resolve.
Maura
5/NJ
----- Original Message -----
From: "Sue" <[email protected]>
To: [email protected]
Sent: Sunday, October 25, 2009 12:49:10 PM GMT -05:00 US/Canada Eastern
Subject: [MOSAIC] writing scary stories or guns
Hello everyone,
I teach 3rd grade and every year I go through students writing stories about
guns/violence or scary "not Halloween" stories. I teach in a rural area and
students do hunt and we talk about the difference between writing a story
with a gun that is about hunting or "video game" violence. Last year I had
a child obsessed with writing scary stories and I eventually let him write
but he could not share with the whole class because I had kids that would
get scared.
I am wondering how you handle this in your room. I don't want every story
to only be a "happily ever after" story or stop them from writing but I need
to have some limits.
I just had a little boy write this story and he is SOOOOO excited and he
wants to share it. I don't want to dampen his enthusiasm for writing but..
"Scary" is presumed here because they are Halloween prompts and we talk
about the difference here as well. Although maybe I shouldn't even
encourage this with the prompts.
It began with a prompt I got from Laura Candler: No one was ever seen going
into the old house at the end of the street. No one was ever seen coming
out. So when my friends and I saw lights flickering in the attic, we just
had to go check it out..
Here is what he wrote: When I went in I had to climb a creaky staircase.
Creeeeeeeeek. Finally I got to the top. I looked over to the other wall.
I saw a AK47. I grabbed it. When I looked back I saw..dancing skeleton
dragging a chest full of candy. I ran up to the skeletons and said "eat
led" BBBBBBBBBB Bones were scattered all over the place. I went home and
ate all of the candy. Buuuurp. The end.
Should I go back and help him think of "another way, without the gun to get
the candy"
Just not let him share it with the whole group.
Let him share it and use it as a lesson about not using the guns- maybe have
the class brainstorm other ways to get the candy.
It is early in the year and I want to get this under control now.
The other problem I have is kids writing something that happened in a movie
or tv show. Sometimes I think they have a good story but when they read it
to the class the kids are like.that happened on "blah, blah, blah"...
HELP>>>> Sue
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