The Great December Fiction Writing Challenge

A few weeks ago, an ELA teacher friend of mine was challenged by a friend to write a short fiction story involving a scooter, due by December 31, 2012. She, in turn, challenged a mutual teacher friend of ours to do the same, but her story must involve a train. This mutual friend challenged me to write a short story including a 1972 Chevy station wagon with wooden side panels (I'm not sure why that kind of car for me, but there it is). My initial reaction was, "Gulp!"

Image from ucapusa.com website

You might recall that I recently posted, on December 7, about how I struggle to write fiction. In that post, I made up a term for my condition: dysfictographia (the inability to write fiction). It's not an actual inability, but I do find writing fiction hard for me. But how could I let my friends down, especially since they had similarly been challenged? And what excuse could I give, anyway? I had plenty of time on my hands during winter break. So I went for it. I sent it out to my friends and family yesterday. Here's what I learned along the way.

First, don't make any prior assumptions. When I heard about the 1972 Chevy station wagon to be included in my story, I thought, "OK, good, we used to have a car like that when I was a kid. I'll draw on a memory for my story." For some reason, when I started writing, I wrote about the time we were carjacked in Ecuador. How did I get from childhood memory to adult traumatic experience? Who knows, but the thought journey certainly contained brown cars and children in back seats. It was a much better story because it contained all kinds of strong emotions dredged up from the depths of my memory. This idea-generating experience reinforced the power of letting students choose story ideas drawn from personal experience and fictionalizing them. It also reminded me that plans can be changed, often many times during the process.

Secondly, the more personal the story, the more I wanted it to be good. This involved getting lots of advice and revising with a critical eye. My December 7 posting about struggling was written during our short story writing unit. I wrote a story with my class during that unit. It wasn't that great. I wasn't that invested in it. I was writing to model writing and thinking about writing. I asked for advice so the students could hear what kinds of advice could be solicited and offered. With my station wagon story, on the other hand, I wanted to talk through my idea with someone from the very start, getting feedback on "What do you think of my story idea?" Once I got an initial draft done, I asked my two young adult daughters to read it and give me feedback. I got advice like, "This part didn't make sense to me", "Why would the character...?" and "You should flesh out the middle" to which I responded, "What work does that need to do for the story?" (a question I never in my life thought of asking before, but was crucial for knowing what to write). I sent out draft two, and draft three, until they said, "Enough! You know what to do!" I did. I rearranged, cut, rewrote, fiddled with words and punctuation, expanded, and agonized over the title.

Image taken from sachachua.com website

During the short story unit, I had students share their stories with peers through Google doc commenting. The peer comments helped their stories develop, and cheered them on when confidence was fading, but was not the writing support I experienced with my daughters. As fate--or the shifting attention span of the academic calendar--would have it, I ran across an article from the December 2012 issue of Voices from the Middle, NCTE's journal for Middle School educators, called "Writing for a Built-In Audience: Writing Groups in the Middle School Classroom" by Gretchen Hovan. This article talked all about structuring writing feedback groups, describing a process much like I experienced with my station wagon story. I also found a Writing Workshop Feedback Protocol developed by the National School Reform Faculty of the Harmony Education Center which fit into the NCTE article nicely and laid out a procedure that students could follow easily. I will try it during the Poetry Writing unit in February.

Finally, there is great satisfaction in sending a story into the world knowing it is your best effort. It is also scary and makes me feel vulnerable. That's what comes of making it personal, I guess. My worst nightmare is laid out on the page for the world to see, but at least I got to choose a happy ending.

My Classroom Library Displayed

I've done some work with my classroom library this semester. If you recall, on July 31, I posted about being confused about what an eighth grade classroom library should look like, since there weren't any models out there for me to view. I'm not sure I've gotten it right, but here's how I dealt with my Middle School classroom library this year:












Comfortable seating: Kids are never too old to sit on the floor, beanbag, or big old stuffed chair to read or work. Here is the main reading corner in my room, near the library bookshelves and two windows for good natural light. I have another set of red cushions on the other side of the room, and a couple of beanbags in the far corner. This spreads everyone out during independent work time.











Books grouped by genre: I have books grouped by genre and alphabetized by author on the low white shelf: paranormal, fantasy, science fiction, thriller/suspense, mystery, realistic fiction, historical fiction, classics, short stories, biography/autobiography, nonfiction. Poetry books are in the blue bin on the bottom shelf of the tall white bookshelf. My labeling is written on a small yellow sticky note stuck to the shelf in front of the group. Not sophisticated, but so far, it's worked out. In my previous post, I was pondering: To use plastic baskets or NOT to use plastic baskets. I decided that labels worked just as well, and I like the look of the books on the shelf better.

Displays: Books need to be seen to catch readers' attention. Once a month or so, I group some books together for special attention. This narrow bookshelf is holding the Paranormal collection, which I put out in October (naturally). Above the shelf is a list of all the books that go into that collection. In the pictures above, there are books displayed on top of the low white bookshelf; in this picture, they are autobiographies of people from cultures around the world. Also seen in the pictures above, there is a display of Hot New Books (the hot pink sign) on the large white bookshelf. These are books I've recently purchased, and I want to show them off before I tuck them into the shelf. My last display area is at the front of the room on some narrow shelves above the sink (why?), where I display nonfiction books. The lists of previously-displayed collections are taped to the window, in case students want to find a book they remembered seeing but don't know where to look.

In July, I talked about building the classroom library collection. I started with about six books in August, 2011, and I now have about 200. It's certainly not enough yet, and I've ordered more for next year. I also ordered more shelving to accommodate the new books and then I can move the big ugly white shelf to the back of the room to store textbooks and teaching resources.

Another goal is to become more familiar with the books that I have. My Shelfari shelf is filled with books I've read from my own classroom library, but there are lots to go. I know this project is a work in progress, and I'm feeling much better now than I was six months ago! Suggestions and feedback are welcome!

The Hobbit Returns

Image from en.wikipedia.org

The twenty-five hardbound coverless copies of The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien have been sitting untouched on my eighth grade classroom storage shelf for the past five years. Some teacher in some distant past must have ordered them for a fantasy-based literature circle, along with Dragonriders of Pern by Ann McCaffry, The Wizard of Earthsea by Ursula K. LeGuinn, and The Seeing Stone by Kevin Crossley-Holland. Once that teacher left, and our schedule changed, cutting Language Arts time from 90 minutes to 55 minutes per day, the unit was pushed aside to make way for a leaner curriculum.

Last year, I tried to interest my students in reading the fantasy books as part of an "Informal Book Club." While we were immersed in our writing unit, they could be reading these books at home with their choice of friends, and I'd give them time once a month to meet and talk about them. Just like a "real" adult book club! They liked the "choice of friends" part, but were not interested in the books on offer. That's OK. They got together and shared their home reading books with each other.

Image from apnatimepass.com

This year I tried again. The Hobbit "sold out" immediately! What was the difference? The movie version and winter break both arrived the same day! As their friends in their Informal Book Club urged them, students who are not big fantasy lovers agreed to give it a try. They turned the plain blue cover over doubtfully, but got hooked by the map of Middle Earth on the end papers. They asked what it was about, and some who had already read it gave a synopsis and a glowing review. The prospect of the movie clinched the deal.

The best part of this story is that the movie version is in three, widely-spaced episodes! So even though my somewhat reluctant readers will rely on the movie to tell them the story, they won't be able to find out the end until they read the book. What a way to hook a reader! I am really looking forward to the conversations when we return in January! They will be a mix of movie and book comparisons, predictions, and discussions of the characters and ending. Thanks, Peter Jackson!

Struggling Publicly

Photo by jeffrey james pacres via flickr

We are in the midst of the Realistic Fiction Writing unit, and I am a struggling writer. This is not a brand-new realisation, but it is something I have been more public about this year. I have known for several years now, ever since I have committed to writing alongside my students within the genre of study, that fiction is hard for me. I can knock out an essay in 30 minutes flat, tell a personal narrative in 10, and jot a poem in 5. But stories... well, I often get stuck in the gate without an idea.

I know a variety of idea generating strategies because I teach them to my students. I try them out in my Writer's Notebook just like they do. But year after year, I come up with either boring ideas or no ideas. Once I settle on a (boring) idea to go with, I struggle to find the problem, the solution, the issue, and how to make characters into something other than myself or my own children. Do I have a disability? Something like dysfictographia-- the inability to write fiction (p.s. I just made that up)?

So this year, I shared my fiction-writing struggle with my students during the first week as we were building our writing community. I included my writing difficulty on my "About the Author" page of our Writing Gallery website. And I have been repeating it almost daily for the past couple weeks as we've been working through the fiction unit.

However, I've also been sharing my problem-solving attempts with them. I told them that I asked for help from my daughter, and we bounced ideas off of each other until we came up with something I thought I could write. I told them that I changed the setting to one that I had more experience with so it would sound more authentic. I showed them my Writer's Notebook of lead ideas, full of scratched out lines, inserted phrases, and questions to myself. I told them that, when reading aloud, I noticed my sentences sound clunky and I need to revise them to get rid of all those words I repeated. I asked them for help on the ending because it didn't show my issue as clearly as I wanted. Then I thanked them for their advice, which I will keep in mind as I write my next draft.

I want them to know that even grown-up writers, who they see as fluent and accomplished, work hard at writing and don't give up when the going gets tough.

I think they get it. I've gotten more comments this year that start with things like, "When you changed your setting because it wouldn't sound authentic, I think I need to do that too." Or "I noticed I repeat a lot of words too, so is it OK if I read this out loud to myself to catch them?" They give me encouragement and tell me they like my story, but then tell me something I can do to make it better. They are usually right. And I thank them.