In March, Two Writing Teachers hosts the Slice of Life Story Challenge. Everyone is welcome to share writing and comment on others in this special community.
Most of the work I'm currently doing with students is individual, so I both look forward to and worry about my weekly group of four. The group is a little tricky since they're both friends and siblings, they are not all in the same grade, and the readiness and attention levels vary,,, a lot! We've had a three-week hiatus, so it was easy to predict that I would have some writer-wrangling to do. At a recent conference I attended, Anita Archer stated that "if you can predict it, you can prevent it." I love this line for all aspects of my life, and in this case, I was going to prevent chaos in my writing studio!
The four of them came in predictably ready for chaos. I greeted them with hugs and welcomes and shhhh's. "Are we working on our books?" they wanted to know.
"You will," I assured them, "but first, we're doing a warm-up activity."
There was zero-chance that their work on graphic novels would occupy all four of them for the full sixty minutes. It wasn't even a prediction.
Reminding me of spring puppies, they sat on each other's laughs, interrupted each other, and spoke in louder and louder voices. How could four children create so much energy in one small space? Wow.
I handed each of them their notebooks and a pen, rolling my eyes at how much debate could happen at pen selection time. I explained that their job was to each take responsibility for a scene and write from the perspective of the character in the video. (I was using Snack Attack. If you've never used it, I highly recommend! It's a great one!) I let each of them know when their scene would start, and then I hit play on the 3-minute video.
It both depresses and relieves me that a video has the power to settle children. Maybe that's another slice for another day. They watched closely, and they took notes when "their" scene was playing. As they wrote their parts, I played it again for them, so they could catch small details, and then I set the timer for six minutes, telling them that was all the time they had to get their scene done. During those six minutes, they wrote with the same frenzy they'd entered the room with, but it was a quiet and purposeful frenzy. My coaching voice was almost the only one to hear during that time.
When we went around with each of them sharing their part, they were proud, and they should have been. Their renditions of their scenes were great!
"You only have about fifteen minutes to work on your graphic novels," I said, knowing that they'd have more like 25, but capitalizing on the time-crunch sensation.
For the rest of the time, they were focused and engaged in their work, almost annoyed when I began a closure conversation.
Just the way I like it. Some accurate prediction, and some relieving prevention!
What a joy for you to capture that frenzy. I love to see kids deep in writing, Congratulations!
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