Today I launched the Digital Writing Notebooks in my virtual Zoom classroom. I am super excited that we will have a place to gather our stories and share them with each other, even though we are not physically together. As with all plans, some things went exactly as I had hoped and other didn’t. Here’s what happened.
We started our Zoom Room (this is number 5 of the year) with greetings, chit chatting about our lives as readers, talking about how we are growing stamina as readers and nurturing our reading lives… After a few minutes of that, I told the kids that we were going to get something really special – Digital Writing Journals. Predictably, some students cheered and others did not. (If you want to read about the crazy way I usually present the Writing Journals, check out this blog post.) Usually I present the students with their journals after a super silly routine, and then I tell them they can write about anything they want. Most write about their crazy fifth grade teacher who throws tissue paper around the classroom!
I didn’t have that opportunity today, but I still wanted to build excitement, ownership, and I wanted them to write! So, we began by watching a video about how to split your screen, an essential tech skill that they would need for the next part of the lesson. They then went to a break out room to work together to split their screen. The direction was to help each other so that everyone came back to the main room with a split screen – half showing Zoom and half showing our Google Classroom. Most students were able to do that successfully in 5 min.
Then we needed a Brain Break, so we played Strike a Pose. Basically, I call out silly poses (Superhero! Queen/King of the World! Monkey in a tree!) and they move into the pose quickly. It’s a good way to get their brains back on and ready for learning.
After our Brain Break, we all went to the Google Classroom and opened the Digital Writing Journals. That’s when the ohs and ahs started. The kids were excited by how cute the pages were and the idea that they got to customize the covers. I walked them through the journals and then asked them to open the one they wanted to make their own. I showed them the link to the video, and tonight for homework they are customizing. Our goal during class was to write!
So, we tried our first Quick Write! I gave them a prompt of a book or series that they love. We found the first “page” of our Digital Writing Journal, I set the timer and they began to write! I was worried that the typing would slow them down, and for some kids I think that was true. But I had one kid who typed 48 words, so clearly the opposite is true for some kids! Phew!
Then I showed the kids how to insert a horizontal line in Google Slides, count their words and insert a text box. The whole thing took longer on Zoom than in the regular classroom because of learning the tech, so we were only able to do one Quick Write. BUT, the kids were excited, their writing is pretty good, and all of the benefits of Quick Writes (see this blog post for more on that) seem possible through this digital resource. I think using Quick Writes regularly will help students increase their writing fluency, their typing proficiency, and when we get ready for some in depth writing instruction, they will have a place to go back to and try out ideas. I think this is going to be a very successful distance learning adventure!
Check out the other posts in this series about building a digital writing community.
If you’ve been following this series, you know that we are exploring how to build a strong writing community whether you have face to face instruction time or virtual instruction or some blend of both. The first post in the series outlined four principles that I’m focusing on as I work to build a virtual community for my students this year:
We started with building trust because, without that, we will never achieve a strong writing community. Today I’d like to focus on how to help students love writing. In my physical classroom, I have generally worked to achieve this by:
Modeling enthusiasm for writing.
Giving students choices within the writing workshop.
Giving students plenty of time to write.
Let’s explore each of those ideas to see how to make it work in a physical classroom or a virtual one.
Model enthusiasm for writing. – OK. I hear you. You don’t like to write. It’s painful, it’s arduous, it’s just no fun! Got it! It turns out, I do like to write. I have always liked to write. A blank page feels full of possibility to me, and I can’t wait to see what will emerge. I like the struggle to find the right word or turn of phrase….. You get the picture. But here’s the secret. Fake it until you make it! Here’s an example. I have never liked math. In fact, I have spent many hours openly loathing it. But I know I can’t show that to my students because they will borrow that hatred from me and make it their own. So, when I’m introducing a deep, thought-provoking rich task, I rub my hands together, smile with glee, and say, “Oh man. This is a great one! We are going to have so much fun with this!” Perhaps I overdo it a bit because in their end of the year reflections, most of my students told next year’s class that I love math as much as coffee (clearly, not true!) But, a strange thing happened as I pretended. I actually grew to like math. In fact, it’s become one of my favorite things to teach. All through pretending…..
In a physical classroom, this is easy to do. When we decorate our writing notebooks, I flip through and exclaim in excitement over the blank pages. And then I stop, dramatically, and say, “Wait, I’ve got an idea. I have to get it down right now. Can you guys go do some writing and give me some quiet time to get this figured out?” The kids always say yes, and then I start writing, apparently so involved in my writing that I don’t notice them sitting there on the rug, then slowly trickling back to their seats and getting to work. They think they are working quietly so I can write, which is hilarious! And it doesn’t matter if I don’t have an idea. I fake it!
In a virtual classroom, I think it will be more difficult, but still possible. Certainly I can model enthusiasm, but how to show them that excitement? Well, I actually think I could do the same thing with some modifications. This year my students will create a digital writer’s notebook (check out these posts on how we will do that using Google or PowerPoint). So, as we get that pulled together, I will stop, dramatically, and then say, “Wait, I totally have to write something down. Can you guys do some writing too? Don’t leave the Zoom Room. Let’s just write for a few minutes, and then we’ll finish this up. I just can’t let this idea get away!” The difference is, I will have to have an idea because my digital notebook will be right on the screen for them to see. I think I will keep it short – maybe 5 minutes – and I might play some music. And to hold them accountable, I will send them to a break out room after 5 minutes to share what they wrote. I don’t usually do that in a physical classroom because I can see whether they are writing or not and hold them accountable that way. But, I think this modification will do the same thing.
2. Give students choices. – This is key, and I don’t see many changes whether I have a physical classroom or a virtual one. Teachers always want to know how to accomplish this when you have standards and report cards and other requirements to meet. Very simply, I give kids choices on what they work on each day and on what they turn in for a final grade. For example, I usually begin the year teaching lessons on strong narrative writing. Over and over I remind the students that they must turn in at least one narrative piece for a grade this trimester, and I remind them that the lessons I’m teaching will help them make their narratives stronger. 95% of the class will choose to work on narrative writing while I’m teaching about it. In fact, as we workshop, most students will write a couple of narratives before settling on one to really refine. I set up periodic check points where they turn their work in for feedback, but not a grade and I also give them feedback during conferences. I actually think that will be easier with digital notebooks (although I won’t be doing one-on-one conferences with students virtually). No more hauling notebooks home every night to give feedback – all I need is my computer. Yeah! As I close the unit on narratives, we talk about presentation and publishing. Most students have a narrative that they feel is good enough to turn in and get graded, but it is their choice. If they feel like they wrote an amazing poem, they can turn that in for a grade, as long as they remember that they must turn in one narrative before the end of the trimester. Then I choose another mode and we move on. I also do on-demand “assessments” in the mode that I need for the report card, so I usually have plenty of grades by the time the trimester ends. I think all of this will be streamlined in a virtual classroom. Finally, something that is easier to do virtually!
3. Give students plenty of time to write. – This is usually no problem in a physical classroom. We have time carved into every day for writing. Usually my mini-lesson lasts 15 minutes, and students have 30 minutes to write. How to make that work virtually… Hm. This is my best thought, based on experimenting last spring during distance learning. Flipping the writing workshop. I use a lot of mentor texts in my mini lessons. I have started to video tape myself reading the mentor texts and scanned in the text so students can follow along. I’m making narrated slideshows for the kids to watch BEFORE our Zoom Room. Then, during the Zoom Room, we can talk briefly about the mentor text and I can stress the teaching point again. Then, I’m going to play some nice music and ask the kids to write during the Zoom Room, and I will write too. After 15 minutes of writing, I will send them to a breakout room where, as a group, they will complete a short Google doc reflection about how each student did with accomplishing the goal of the lesson. Again, we have to build in accountability for the work, and I’m hoping this strategy gets everyone started on the writing, and that many of them will continue writing after the Zoom Room. The goal should be 30 – 45 minutes of writing a day, and we will hopefully build up to that.
So, will all of this result in students loving to write? Well, I think so, but I don’t know so. I know that it has worked in a physical classroom. But starting with virtual is going to be a whole, grand experiment! As always, I will put these ideas into practice, and tweak them and throw out the things that don’t work and try new things until I get it right. That’s what we teachers do!
I hope that you will leave comments about things that you try so we can all learn from each other. Be sure to follow me to get the rest of the posts in this series, and I will also update this post as I refine and get better at this. Stay tuned!
For a related post, be sure to check out Launching the Digital Writing Journals! And if you like them, you can purchase the Digital Writing Journals on TPT (they come with free instructional videos for students which you can see on my You Tube Channel!)
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:
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!
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.
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:
Morning Message with an anonymous compliment for Brock
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.
