Ms. Cotton's Corner

Writing is a risky endeavor. Through writing we expose our deepest thoughts, feelings and experiences to the scrutiny of others. Along the way errors, omissions and mistakes are easy to make. Failure is almost inevitable. Ask any writer – it’s never as amazing on the page as it is in our mind.

So, many students have a deep seated fear and dislike of writing. Until you build a classroom community where the kids trust you AND the other students, you have no chance of addressing that problem.

Face to Face in a Physical Classroom

The best way to build a trusting classroom environment is to begin with yourself and trust your students. In a physical classroom, I usually demonstrate this on the first day with a crazy little dance. I make an absolute fool of myself, and in the process, I show that I trust my students. I trust that they will laugh WITH me and not AT me. I trust that they can manage a little craziness and get themselves back on track. I trust that they understand that I’m a human too. (You definitely want to read this blog post about it and see the pictures to really know what I mean!)

Students also need to trust each other. One way I build trust in a writing workshop is through Rainbow Revision. When students have a decent, working draft, I ask them to sit in a circle of 4-5 students. They pass their draft to the student sitting next to them. Each student has a different colored pencil. As they read, they underline up to 3 parts or passages that they like. Then they pass the paper to the next student. In the second round, some things are already underlined. The second student can choose to underline the same parts or different parts, but only 3 things. As the paper is passed from student to student, some things get underlined multiple times. When the writer receives their paper back, anything that is underlined multiple times is clearly working and doesn’t need revision. This builds their confidence that they have done something well, and also helps them trust the students who found such value in their paper. Writers now have something great to launch them into the next phase of their writing, and stronger connections in the community to help them do it!

In a Virtual Classroom

So, how can I accomplish this at a distance if the pandemic keeps us apart? Well, the principle still holds true. I need to build a trusting community so that we support each other as we grow as writers (and readers, and mathematicians, and historians, and scientists….)

So, I may not be able to do my crazy dance and then present students with a writing notebook. But I CAN take a risk and show that I trust them. And so can you. Here are a few ideas:

1. Step out of your comfort zone. Sing. Dance. Lip Sync. And make a video to share with your students. For their first digital homework, I’m going to ask each student to upload a picture of their pet (or favorite stuffed animal) into a class Google doc. I will sing the song “Never Gonna Let You Down” by Colbie Callait which has a great inspirational message (and the video features rescue animals). I’ll use my audio track and their photos to make a slide show in We Video and post it in our Google Classroom at the end of the first week. This will be a risk for me (video editing! singing!) and also bring something they love into our Google Classroom. My goal is to model trust for my students and build connections as they ooh and aah over each other’s cute pets!
2. Be Consistent – If you are consistent, students will know what to expect and that builds trust. If you are distance learning, that means setting a consistent schedule for Zoom or Google Meets, and then showing up a few minutes early so that the students can all have time to join the class. It means setting a consistent communication schedule for parents and students and being clear with directions and deadlines. And it means starting and ending virtual instruction sessions in a similar manner each time. I like to begin our Zoom Rooms by greeting each child by name, just as I do in the regular classroom. We spend a few minutes chatting while everyone joins. When I’m ready to begin instruction, I signal that by saying, “OK. Today we are going to be learning strategies that writers use to connect their ideas” (or whatever the target of the lesson is). And I wrap up each session by opening it up to questions, and then repeating key ideas and deadlines. It’s a predictable format and it helps students know what to expect – which is key for building trust.
3. Share your Writing – This is essential, whether you are in a physical classroom or a virtual one. Students need to see that your writing is sometimes messy, sometimes really bad, and occasionally, pretty great! They need to know that it isn’t easy but that it’s worth working on. And your true writer’s notebook will help them see that. This year my students’ notebooks will be digital, so I’ve started building mine in Google docs. One of the really amazing things about this is the Version History. It will be really easy to show my students how many times I revise a piece by looking back at all of the versions.

Students also need to trust each other. This is going to be tricky if we are not together. Luckily, Rainbow Revision works digitally! Here’s how.

4. About two weeks into the school year I will ask each student to identify a piece of writing from their notebook (which will be digital this year!) and copy/paste it into a class Google doc. Before the activity, I will create a Google doc with a page for each student and a simple star graphic at the top of each page. The first student will read the text below theirs and underline 3 things that work for them. If another student wants to “like” the same passage, they will drag a star to that part of the text (or copy/paste it). Some passages may end up with only an underline, some passages may have several stars, and some passages may have nothing at all. In this way, writers will find out what is working for their reader and jump off to the next phase of writing with confidence and trust. Rainbow Revision revised!

5. One more idea for building trust between students is establishing a Virtual Compliment Jar. Create a simple Google Form asking for the student’s name, the name of the student they would like to compliment and the compliment. Every morning I post a virtual Morning Message in my Google Classroom and incorporate the compliment. It looks something like this:

Although our classrooms may be dramatically different this year, I absolutely believe and know that we can build a strong community of writers. It starts with trust, and even if we are not together, I know we can create vibrant learning communities with our students.

This series will continue with Building a (Virtual) Writing Community – Get kids to love writing!

Be sure to check out the other posts of this series.

Building a Strong (Virtual) Writing Community in your Classroom.

A Strong (Virtual) Writing Community Writes to Learn

Launching the Digital Writing Notebooks

Get ’em to love Writing!

And follow me so you get the whole series over the next few weeks!