SPOOKY STORIES CONTINUED....

An interesting thing happened after we had been doing a lot of story starters, discussions and sharing.  We discussed the idea of writing our own spooky stories from scratch using all of the things we had been working on, and using our criteria.  I thought this would be a great ending to this unit and that the students would leap into it with enthusiasm  Our purpose to was to create our own book of spooky stories for the classroom.

They were all very keen and we used graphic organisers to plan our stories.  (A simple narrative one and a 'kapiti island' story starter. Kapiti Island looks like a short story with its events (hills) leading up to a climax and then down to a conclusion).  It was not long after they started drafting however, that I realised, particularly with my target group, they were reverting back to their dialogue-laden, this happened and then this happened, events-based writing, instead of their rich atmospheric and descriptive writing they had been doing when completing their story-starters.  It was like they could not transfer their new skills over to their 'own' work.

I stopped the class and I actually told them what I had been seeing and we discussed why this might be happening.  Most of them said that they hadn't realised that was what they had been doing.  I modelled writing my own story and reminded them of what we had been working on and how to pull it all together.  The power of modelling!!!!!  Some of them started again and some re-worked their stories.  Their end products were particularly good.  Some of the boys really worked hard on improving their drafts which was a first.  One of the target group who is usually sitting at 2a/3b, mostly because he can't be 'bothered' writing, wrote an amazing story that was at least a 4p/4a.  The whole class loved it and when they discovered who wrote it, were very impressed.  It boosted his confidence heaps! 

I chose 5 examples of their writing and we worked in groups to level them using the 5 star writing guide.  The groups were very accurate and levelled them well.  We put these on the wall.  The students liked having their writing used as exemplars.

This whole spooky story writing has been a great success.  I think my challenge now is to keep these boys motivated whilst writing in other genres.  How can I keep this enthusiasm when it comes to information reports, exposition, procedure etc.  Do I need to actually do these in a big way?  Would continuing with fiction work still continue to improve all of their writing skills anyway.....and at least they are writing and enthusiastic?  Maybe I could continue with a mixture of both? Mmmmm.....

SPOOKY STORIES

We had just finished our WW1 work where we had been looking at information reports and persuasive writing and I felt the students needed a change.  Thinking about how to engage the boys I wanted to try the story starters again.  They had all been talking about scary movies and video games so I decided to show them some spooky story starters and try to do some narratives that created an atmosphere and painted a picture in the reader's mind.  We were also working on inference in reading so we could look at 'showing not telling'.

I knew that if I just said write a spooky story, my target group would struggle and say they couldn't think of anything.  I found some great spooky mini short stories on video on the Literacy Shed.  I watched them to make sure they were appropriate and chose a good place to stop them.

Literacy Shed - the ghostly shed 

All of the class loved these stories and were very engaged with these.  They loved sharing and even the target boys were eager to share.

This is one sample of a target boy's starter for his own story:

Kate wearily opened her eyes.  The darkness engulfed her.  Her surroundings were unfamiliar, her head was pounding.  She was in a world of pain.  Her chest rising and falling, snippets of the night before racing through her mind.
"Need a hand?" asked a familiar voice.
He pulled Kate up.  She felt like a train wreck and probably looked like one too.

Example 2:

This is an excerpt from one of the boys who found it very hard to start but worked on this quietly and was proud of his 'short sentences to create tension'.  This is his first draft, he obviously has to work on surface features but for this boy he's made a great start.

Not only the target students benefited from these activities.  My able writers were also loving it:

(unfinished)

NEXT:

I found some great story starters on the TKI website made specifically for boys in mind.  They use well-known personalities, that boys can relate to, and they have written their own short stories.  The videos stop at an exciting spot and the students have to finish the story off before seeing the celebrities end to the adventures.  These were very popular.  The boys find creative writing very challenging and often 'don't know' what to write.  These take away the pressure and give the boys immediately a base with which to start.  They are also extremely humorous and silly.  It was during this activity that I came to the realisation that I have to let go of my own problem about the boys writing what they want, even if it is silly and not my 'cup of tea'.  At least they are writing and the rest of the class think it's hilarious.They can practise their surface features on this writing and they still have to have the correct structure and language features.

Example:

Bret McKenzie, comedian, actor, musician: Big vs Bigger

"Sean was the biggest kid on the street. I'm talking huge, as big as a bus. He actually lifted a bus once with his bare hands. Sean ruled the neighbourhood. He was kind of a big deal. That was until Big Steve, an even bigger kid, moved in next door..."

View Bret McKenzie's Story Starter >>

Here is a typical sample of one of the first story starters we did:

Steve and Sean ate self-inflating chicken nuggets and they were floating in the sky.  So one of the kids told his dad, a hunter.  So the hunter grabbed his rifle and found them with his scope and shot them down.  So Sean and Steve are really skinny now.  They vowed never to eat chicken nuggets again.  But a chicken never forgets, so an evil chicken killed and ate Steve and Sean.

(This was read to the class and received much laughter)

Things I've tried so far:

First I have taken into account the interests of the boys.  They enjoy sport and using technology, so when we were looking at explanation during our brain work I chose an explanation video of a basketball lay-up for the class to compare to other types of explanation.  As the boys liked to think of themselves as 'experts' in this area they were more than happy to give the good and bad points of the video and how it compared to the written explanations.  The boys were much more engaged with this.  They went on to explain something of their choice which was mostly sport oriented.

I have found that reluctant writers find it hard to face a blank page so we used graphic organisers to plan their explanations first.  This definitely helps to 'chunk' the writing and organise their ideas.

This target student used the plan well and then wrote a clear explanation about boxing.  He usually takes ages to get started and then work through to completion but he was engaged with this task.

Ideas, Research and Readings:

Firstly, read what the research says:

Boys + writing can be success.

Once they are reading, use the following strategies for helping boys be successful writers:

1. Get to know their interests.
2. Provide regular, frequent opportunities for writing.
3. Allow as much choice for boys as possible.
4. Use technology and fun software. According to one student, “The computer makes it easier to get your work done.” One school suggests Comic Life. See “For Boys” in our white paperfor others and follow our weekly Resource Roundup for more suggestions. 
5. Tailor writing to boys’ learning styles.  For example, boys like to write short, specific essays.  Allow them to do this, and then work with them on expanding and elaborating.
6. Use role models.  See “For Boys” below for suggestions.
7. Use think-alouds and oral rehearsals.
8. Model, model, model.
9. Write WITH boys.
10. Assign writing topics that are relevant and related to real life. Boys tend to enjoy nonfiction more than fiction, and find it harder to connect “school” reading to their lives.
11. Provide stimulus material to give background knowledge about the subject on which they are writing.
12. Use the Six Plus One Writing Traits
13. Model how to use rubrics to support writing.

This is an amazing site with loads of great ideas:

TKI Success for Boys

An international study by Richard Hawley and Michael Reichert examined the narratives submitted by teachers and boys from 18 schools representing the United States, Canada, Great Britain, New Zealand, Australia, and South Africa of specific lessons and practices that they deemed especially effective. “The successful lessons fell into the following eight general categories, each of which expresses a dominant feature of the lesson’s reported success: 

• Lessons that produced products 

• Lessons structured as games 

• Lessons requiring vigorous motor activity 

• Lessons requiring boys to assume a role or responsibility for promoting the learning of others 

• Lessons that required boys to address “open,” unsolved problems 

• Lessons that required a combination of teamwork and competition 

• Lessons that focused on boys’ personal realization (their masculinity, their values, their present and future social roles) 

• Lessons that introduced dramatic novelties and surprises 

Nearly every reported lesson included multiple elements, as when a teacher devises a game in which boys form teams to create a product that will be judged competitively. It appeared increasingly clear to us as we reviewed the teacher responses that these lessons had a distinct for-boys cast, a finding roundly confirmed by the boys themselves.” Story Starters is a resource that is specifically designed to be used in ways that tick the majority of these features. In summary, these resources are designed to engage and motivate boys because: 

• Content has been designed by boys for boys 

• The content is fun – in a boyish sort of way 

• They involve videos that require the boys to address open, unsolved problems 

• They involve team work 

• They enable teachers to engage with humour with the boys sense of fun and drama 

• They enable boys to connect with the teacher as relational learners 

Education Gazette - Boys will learn like boys. 

These quotes resonate with what I am seeing in class:

"soon became obvious that challenges among most schools fell broadly into two categories: engagement and literacy, particularly writing."

"We looked at it from the point of view that these boys are disengaged, but that they can learn: how are we going to re-engage them?”

“These were the boys who sort of switched off consistently, over a long period of time. Writing was a chore to these boys. It was something they had to do, not something they wanted to do: they’d made the decision that they weren’t any good at writing, and that it wasn’t for them, and that was it. They didn’t really value what writing was really about.”

Time Magazine. Helping Boys to succeed at Writing

More Ideas

1. Inspirations for writing: You can use these images to provide ideas and inspiration for writing in your classroom. http://www.teachingideas.co.uk/english/contents_writinginspiration.htm
2. Ideas for writing: There are some more writing ideas here from http://www.ideastoinspire.co.uk/ and https://docs.google.com/a/core-ed.ac.nz/present/view?id=ddf8kn4m_59zqzbv9gs
3. Direct links between literacy progressions and e-learning tools has been compiled here by BOP e-learning teachers: http://elearningbop.wikispaces.com/Senior
4. Blended e-Learning Literacy Group in the VLN has video tutorials of workshops and lessons sequences from Jill Hammonds and other VLN community members.

Mmmmm...so what can I do?

I have been thinking about how to ensure 'Success for Boys' for a while and this year I have noticed that I have a group of boys who, although they have good success with reading, are below the standard for writing.  After watching these boys I have noticed that they are not really engaged during writing time and for some of them it is like 'pulling teeth'.  I see this as my challenge this year to increase the success for these boys by providing them with a programme that motivates and engages them!  How to go about this?

This is going to be a record of my continuing journey through teaching and learning.