Hmmm might have to read this book! Definitely the case with boys...I love to give them free choice writing 3 days a week and writing to a prompt 2 days but the boys do tend to wander to the gory and the weapons. They get so excited that they have written something they think is a great story and I don't want to edit that enthusiasm...just the story.
-----Original Message----- From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of [email protected] Sent: Sunday, October 25, 2009 3:41 PM To: Mosaic: A Reading Comprehension Strategies Email Group Subject: Re: [MOSAIC] writing scary stories or guns 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 _______________________________________________ Mosaic mailing list [email protected] To unsubscribe or modify your membership please go to http://literacyworkshop.org/mailman/options/mosaic_literacyworkshop.org. Search the MOSAIC archives at http://snipurl.com/MosaicArchive. _______________________________________________ Mosaic mailing list [email protected] To unsubscribe or modify your membership please go to http://literacyworkshop.org/mailman/options/mosaic_literacyworkshop.org. Search the MOSAIC archives at http://snipurl.com/MosaicArchive. _______________________________________________ Mosaic mailing list [email protected] To unsubscribe or modify your membership please go to http://literacyworkshop.org/mailman/options/mosaic_literacyworkshop.org. Search the MOSAIC archives at http://snipurl.com/MosaicArchive.
