The Teacher As Change Agent: Make Writing Year One

Angela Stockman was doing a one day writing workshop in her area, Buffalo, New York. I was determined to go.

So early in the morning, August 13th, 2019 I set off and with stops along the way, it was about 8 hours. Well worth it.

After all that driving, why not go a little further to see Niagara Falls! I loved the Canada side especially. What a treat!

Loving my hair in this picture. Priceless!

The next day, I arrived at the workshop to find lots of materials that Angela kindly included in the workshop. We did a few builds so that we could experience make writing for ourselves.

I love me some Play-Doh!

I knew I wanted to partake in some of the food staples of the Buffalo area.

Very new to me, Beef on Weck was ridiculously delicious!

So, yeah, I am a candy girl. This sponge candy, which I had also never heard of, was so yummy, I bought a bunch for family and friends.

Spongy goodness!

Every point on this chart is important!

Mic drop, Angela!

If you have a chance to see Angela in action, take it! Angela is an eloquent, succinct speaker and her charts are clear and chock full of pedagogy.

Angela was also very welcoming and invited us to hang at a restaurant after the workshop.

On the first day of school I had my third graders close their eyes and think of a moment in which they felt powerful. Then we went out to collect materials for the builds. Students were very thoughtful and intentional about the materials they gathered for their build.

They built the beginning of their personal narrative with clay.

This student chose to draw the heart of his personal narrative story instead of build.

So many amazing, useful charts in this workshop! I found this one to be especially helpful in my work this past year with my writers.

Assess You Target!

Above are some examples of labeled builds my students made on the first day of third grade. They loved building with their outdoor materials. Some commented that this was the strangest writing class they had ever had. So funny. The hum and excitement in the room was energizing. What came from the builds were feelings of power and pride in what they had accomplished. Many students eventually chose this as their small moment for their personal narrative work for the first unit of study. The prompt and the build helped students quickly find the heart of their stories. Students were silent as they watched and listened to their classmates share about their builds in a fishbowl kind of structure.

They built the problem in their personal narrative story out of wooden objects, paper, and cardboard.

These are just some examples of make writing that I used this year before the shutdown. I found this multi-modal approach refreshing and a game changer in third grade for narrative and informational writing. Unfortunately, due to the shut down, we couldn’t do our persuasive work in person.

I will continue to teach writing this way and I know I will get better at facilitating and supporting writers because of it. I am envisioning branching out into digital storytelling and possibly integrating coding using the elementari.io website.