Writing and Representing in the Elementary School Classroom: What is important in the Grade 5 classroom and how can it be supported?

 Writing and Representing are hard work. As an adult, I still have moments where I find myself staring at a blank page wondering how on earth I am going to start something. Sometimes, the words and images come easily, and the document writes itself. Other times, I fight with myself through the entire process, struggling through road blocks and distractions along the way. Organizing my thoughts into a clear and coherent product can be downright exhausting at times! I clearly remember the moment in upper elementary school when I realized that what I was writing would be GRADED. Somewhere along the way, it was expected that I  would go from writing creative stories with made up spellings to coherent, well laid out, grammatically correct documents. There was little in the way of support offered. It was just expected that this was the natural progression in the writing process. It was a shock, but I adapted. Much like Page in Casey and Hemenway’s article on the importance of balance between freedom and structure in the writing program in schools, I figured out what my teachers wanted, and adjusted my style and output accordingly.

The ability to express thoughts and ideas through writing and representing are integral in today’s society. As teachers, we are fundamental in the development of these skills in our students. We are expected to take them from children who cannot hold a pencil or form a letter to young adults who are capable of writing deep, meaningful and intellectual prose. When children enter kindergarten, the writing and representing process is new and exciting. They want to hold the pencil. Forming letters and drawing pictures is something that is regarded with excitement. The challenge we face, as educators, is to maintain that enthusiasm throughout our students’ educational careers.

I feel that it is of utmost importance to show students WHY writing and representing are important. As students get older, they increasingly need reasons for doing the tasks that we ask of them. Students need to see that what they are doing in the classroom has application in the ‘real world’. The project approach can be a useful tool for giving purpose to assignments, especially when students are allowed to follow their own interests. Julie Gellner used the project approach in her Grade 4/5 classroom to much success (Bainbridge, 246-250). The ‘Restaurant Project’ grew out of student interest in media reports of unsanitary conditions in some city restaurants. What started as a student generated idea in the classroom grew into a 3 month project culminating in a ‘restaurant evening’ at their school (which showed the students that not all projects need to have a formal written report as an end product). Her students conducted research, wrote reviews for restaurants they visited, applied for restaurant jobs with resumes and cover letters which they sent to the manager (Julie), wrote menus, designed time tables and did many other restaurant related projects. By providing a tangible purpose for the assignment and allowing her students the freedom to explore their interests within a framework (the Restaurant Project), Julie provided her students with an environment where their interests were piqued and their thinking and writing were challenged. “She created a community of learners that supported one another in asking and answering questions, and in which the children and teacher respected one another’s ideas (Bainbridge, 246).”

Providing real audiences and purposes for students helps to develop their writing skills. The students in Julie Gellner’s class were allowed to explore the writing and representing process in an area that was relevant to them and were given an audience other than just their teacher. “When children enjoy writing and discover they have something to say to a real audience, their skills will improve (Casey, 68).” Increasingly, the PLO’s in the upper elementary grades focus on developing a voice and writing for a wide range of purposes and audiences. In Grades 4-7, students are expected to develop a ‘voice’ and style suitable to the purpose, content and audience of their writing and to define who their audience is (BC IRP, 88). Students cannot possibly be expected to develop a ‘voice’ and write for an audience if they have not been given an audience to communicate with. An audience can be as small, such as a group of classmates or a parent, or larger, such as the entire school or the community. Giving students an audience to target their writing and representing towards gives a sense of purpose and importance to their work and helps keep them motivated to continue with the process.

The BC IRP Grade 5 PLO’s C1 to C4 focus on developing different writing styles and making meaningful representations to communicate ideas (BC IRP 108-111). It is important to provide students with ample time for the writing and representing process. Equally important is giving students’ balanced exposure to different writing styles such as narrative, expressive, expository, persuasive, explanatory, and poetry. Not all students will be comfortable with all styles of writing and it is important to allow students to explore different styles to help them develop their skills. Giving students options for their written responses (journal, draw, cartoon, chart, etc) can help students become more comfortable with the response process in the classroom. Students need to know that not everyone thinks the same way or understands at the same rate and that every student in the class will respond differently to a question, and that’s ok.

Students need to be given strategies to help with the writing and representing process. Often the hardest part of the writing process is finding a starting point. One thing that I have noticed in the Grade 3/4 classroom that I am volunteering in is that many of the student’s struggle simply getting ideas down onto paper. They do not know where to start and consequently fight their way through the entire process. Some become obsessed with spelling and rather than try to spell it the best they can and move on with the process, they constantly ask how to spell every single word. Others cross out every second sentence, in an effort to get it right the first time, and some simply avoid the process all together by doing something else entirely. I feel that these students would benefit greatly from strategies to help them get passed their writing hurdles.

The following strategies are just some of many that can be used to help students navigate the writing process. Writer’s notebooks can be used hold ideas whenever they occur. Students can then go back to these ideas at a later date when they are stuck. Drawing on previous experiences often produces the best pieces of work. Students need to be told that it is ok to draw on what you know in the writing process and that their opinions, feelings and experiences are valuable and worth sharing. Different outlining techniques for stories can be used in every stage of the writing development process to help organize thoughts and plan out stories. When local author Robin Stevenson came to our class, she had us do a ‘group brainstorming session’ to create a story idea. By asking us a series of questions, our class was able to come up with an interesting framework for a story (Stevenson, 2011). In the elementary school classroom, group brainstorming techniques can help students overcome barriers to the writing process. KWL charts and double entry journals can help students clarify and organize thoughts. A classroom full of language rich materials and access to dictionaries and thesauruses aids in language and idea development and provides students with examples of different genres. Grade 5 PLO’s C5-C7 focus on the student use of strategies during the writing process and provides examples of prompts teachers can used to help scaffold learning (BC IRP, 112-114).  Teaching students strategies to help navigate the writing and representing process is critical in their development as independent learners, especially as they make the transition from elementary to middle school.

Students need to know that writing can be hard. Page, in the Casey and Hemenway’s article compared the writing process to combing hair.  “Sometimes it’s boring, like combing hair . . . [but] then I keep on combing it, and that’s like revising it more and more times. Then, once I’m done combing my hair, or once I’m done writing my story, it’s fun and I feel proud of myself and I get a lot of compliments (Casey, 69)”. This quote perfectly illustrates the love/hate relationship that many students have with writing and the sense of teaching themselves how to write by trial, error, hard work and persistence (Casey, 69). Students need to be taught to appreciate and understand the revision process. Prewriting, drafting, revising, editing and presenting are all essential steps and increase our understanding of how and what to include in our written work. Writing is about taking risk and making mistakes. As author Robin Stevenson told us, students need to know that it is ok to write a ‘crappy’ first draft (Stevenson, 2011) and that the ‘first blurt’ is often not very good. Students need to see that even their teachers can struggle with the writing process and make mistakes. Showing students examples of your own writing and having them help with the revision process can make them more comfortable with the writing process. Writing with the class and going through the revision process with students helps them to see the amount of work that goes into a good piece of writing.

Providing students with a safe and respectful environment for constructive feedback is essential part of the writing and representing development process. Young writers want honest responses to their work. “All too often, teachers provide evaluative feedback in the form of grades and short (usually nonspecific) comments, often praise or censure. This kind of feedback tells students whether they are okay or not and affects their sense of themselves and their position in relation to learning, but it offers little direction for moving their learning forward (Assessment, 90).” Descriptive feedback “makes explicit connections between students’ thinking and other possibilities that they should consider. It is linked to the learning that is expected (Assessment, 90).” Feedback should build on what students know and have done, rather than simply criticise what is wrong with what they have done. “Kids usually write as well as they can. As you help them move forward, their best will get better. A piece of writing that isn’t working yet isn’t working yet; it’s not bad (Attwell, 225).” Feedback from classmates can be just as beneficial for students as feedback from a teacher. One tool that I feel would be particularly affective for student feedback is ‘two stars and a wish’ because it helps focus student feedback on a few areas and gives a framework for constructive criticism.

Using rubrics can greatly assist in the assessment process by helping teachers to focus on one or a few particular areas of assessment. Allowing students (and parents) to see the rubric being used for evaluation can be very helpful as it gives students an indication of what expectations are for a given assignment. It helps them to focus in on specific goals for their writing rather than trying to prefect the entire piece. In addition to providing a rubric for assignments, teachers should provide examples of what ‘excellence’ looks like. “When students are striving towards a difficult goal, especially one that is complex and requires integration of new learning and a number of different skills, they benefit from seeing how it looks when it’s done and from the process that an expert when to get there. Having an image of where they are going, how long it takes to get there, and what the stages look like both motivates and provides targets that students can visualize and strive for along the way (Assessment, 90).”    

In an ideal world, every student would love the writing and representing process. In reality, this will not be the case. Not all students love writing and representing, the same way that not all students love math. I cannot make my students love a subject, but I can help them gain an appreciation for the processes involved and become willing participants with the desire to go outside their comfort zones. You don’t have to love a subject to be good at it. Every student it capable of becoming a good writer and producing creative, thought provoking pieces of work with the right tools and support. As a teacher, it is my job to figure out how to keep my students engaged and interested in the process and to determine how to best support them on their educational journey.

Assessment as Learning, Chapters 9 and 10, pg 89-109.

Atwell, Nancy.  In the middle: New understandings about writing, reading, and learning.

British Columbia Ministry of Education. English Language Arts, Grade 5: Integrated  Resource Package (IRP) 2006.

Joyce Bainbridge, Rachel Heydon et al. Constructing Meaning: Balancing Elementary Language Arts. Fourth Edition. Nelson Education Ltd.: 2009.

Mara Casey and Stephen I. Hemenway. “Structure and Freedom: Achieving a Balanced Writing Curriculum,” English Journal, July 2001, p. 68-75.

Stevenson, Robin writer.  Talk Given at UVIC, October 2011