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Episode 78 But What if They Write it Wrong?
Episode 78 • 1st October 2024 • Getting Students to Write! Helping Elementary and Middle School teachers transform writing time • Melissa C Morrison, Elementary, Middle School Writing Consultant, Literacy Coach
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You may not have had said this out loud, but I know it has been in the back of your mind.

It is there each time you make a decision to:

-provide a structure graphic organizer for planning

Or

-have students "check in" before moving ahead in the work

In this episode, I encourage teachers to consider the purpose of their fear and provide less structured guidance, allowing students to make errors as part of their natural learning process.

I highlight the importance of observing each student's individual writing abilities and using those observations to guide our instruction. By focusing on each student's unique path of development, we can better facilitate a love for writing and help them grow authentically.

This episode will encourage you to let your students BE WRITERS!

00:49 Common Teaching Practices in Writing

02:08 Understanding the Fear of Mistakes

03:34 Embracing Individual Writing Paths

04:53 Learning from Mistakes

05:30 Sports Analogy for Writing Development

08:09 Encouragement for elementary and middle school Teachers

About Melissa:

Melissa is an enthusiastic educator and continuous learner with over 19 years' experience in education.  Her passion and expertise is transforming writing programs so that teachers are confident in writing instruction and student writers thrive! She strongly believes teachers are the key to effective instruction and their writers are their best resources.

Melissa knows that too often, explicit writing instruction is pushed aside in elementary education, and she feels it is her calling to help schools make it front and center, providing teachers with the knowledge and support necessary to implement effective and engaging writing instruction. 

Teaching to Transform, LLC was started by Melissa in 2018 and partners with school districts to provide professional development in writing instruction.

If you would like to refer Melissa to your district, check out her website below!

Website and Blog Read the latest blog posts and find out more about services provided by Melissa

Instagram Follow Melissa for tips and support with writing instruction!

YouTube Find out more about teaching writing as you watch webinars and model lessons taught by Melissa

LinkedIn Connect with Melissa!

Transcripts

Speaker:

Hey there, teacher.

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If you want to feel more confident as a

teacher of writing and you want writing

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time to be an effective and engaging and

enjoyable time for your students and for

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you, then you are in the right place.

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I am Melissa Morrison and I have a

passion for helping teachers to feel

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stronger about their writing instruction

and to really enjoy writing time.

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I don't promise a quick fix, but I do

promise to provide you with the ideas and

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practical strategies that will transform

writing for you and your students.

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Microphone (Yeti Stereo Microphone):

Hello, my dear teacher and welcome.

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I am so glad to have you here.

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Oh, yeah.

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I'm excited about this episode because

I think it's going to be really helpful.

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So I'm going to start with a

question or just something for you

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to think about I'm going to do.

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Thank you.

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If you've ever done any of these things

with the writers in your classroom.

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One, have you ever provided a

graphic organizer where it's not

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just like a web where they get to

put the topic in the middle and

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then have their own things going on?

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It is completely structured the

way you want the piece to go.

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It might even have like sentence

starters or something like that.

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Okay.

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To have you ever had your students check

in with you prior to being able to move

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on to the next step in their writing?

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Three, have you ever kept your students?

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Everyone at the same pace while

they're writing something.

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So everyone's at the lead or everyone.

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Is it the first body

paragraph or everyone's at

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the beginning of their story?

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Have you ever kept them all together?

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The next one, have you ever

changed a student's topic?

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Like they come to you and they

have a topic and then you think.

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Mm.

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I don't know if that's

going to go very well.

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I'm not sure they're going to get much

or I'm not sure what's going to happen.

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So how about we think

about something else?

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And then last, have you ever stopped

a student from writing a sentence or

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a part of their piece, or just really

done some heavy changing or fixing.

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In their writing.

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I have a feeling, something that I

just mentioned is something you've

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done before, because I know for sure.

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All of them are things

that I've done before.

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So why am I asking you this?

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Well, I think that.

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What is behind all those decisions.

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That I just talked about all those

actions, things that we're doing as

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teachers of our writers is out of fear.

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And that fear is, but what

if they write it wrong?

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What if I let them go

ahead and they mess up.

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What if I don't give them a

planner that has this structure

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and then they don't have the right

structure in their writing piece.

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What if I let them move on and they

write out an order or they start

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going off topic or out of genre.

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What if they use this topic

and it doesn't go very well.

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Or what if they go and write

this part that they're about to

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write that I know isn't great.

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Or write this sentence

that doesn't make sense.

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And I, you know, we don't change it.

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What if they do that?

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That fear is what if they get it?

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Wrong.

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What if they, what if, what

they put down isn't good.

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And so that's what I

want to talk about today.

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And I I'm sure I will go back to

talking about the writer, not the

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writing, cause this is very apparent

if you're making any of these choices,

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but we're going to talk a little bit

about what this fear is really about.

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And then why we need to ignore it so that

we can really let our writers be writers.

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Microphone (Yeti Stereo Microphone)-1:

So to begin with, if we believe that

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there is something wrong about what a

student is going to do or this worry about

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that they are going to write it wrong.

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There must be something

that we think is right.

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There must be this expectation

of what they should be doing.

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But when it comes down to it, there truly

is no right way for our students to write.

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There's only their way.

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They are each on their own

path of writing development.

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They are each using the skills and

the creativity that they have in

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the best way that they know how.

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And in order for us to

facilitate a love of writing.

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And help develop their skills.

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We really must honor

each student's abilities.

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And accept them as the writers

that they are right now.

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And then we take what we see

our writers doing independently,

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not what we've helped them do.

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Not because they have this

perfect graphic organizer.

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Not because we've checked every step and

we've heard what they're going to do next.

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But we take what they've

actually can do on their own.

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And then we decide how we're going to move

them along in their growth as writers.

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Microphone (Yeti Stereo Microphone)-2:

What's also important to

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remember is that the mistakes

are where learning comes from.

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The mistakes are how they see what

could work better than mistakes are

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what you can then see as their teacher

about what they're doing, what they

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understand about how they're writing.

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And to be able to help them.

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We have to see what they're doing and

we have to let them try it on their own.

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You have to be able to practice.

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In your zone of proximal

development, right?

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That's how learning goes.

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I often use sports analogies, even

though I'm not a sports person.

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So I don't know what the deal is,

but they really go hand in hand.

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Oftentimes I'm the sports.

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And learning with with just players

thinking about players in sports and

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then especially how to coach them.

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And we know that when you come

across a player, so let's say soccer.

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And, you know, you might have

the idea of wanting to win every

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game with this soccer team.

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But you have to start by knowing

what the team can do and how where

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every player is in their abilities.

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And then you have to do

what you can to move them.

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And grow them as a team

and as individual players.

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And if you ignore where they are

now, and just start to work on the

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things you think they need to win,

you're going to have this gap, right.

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You're you're going to.

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Not make the progress that you

want because you're not really

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meeting them where they are.

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And then if you're, you know, it's

not really possible in sports too.

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Prevent all of their mistakes.

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But think about it.

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You know, when there is someone, a

player who is working on a skill,

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they're going to practice that skill

and they're going to get it wrong

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a lot of the time, but that doesn't

mean they don't ever get better.

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Microphone (Yeti Stereo Microphone)-3:

When we make decisions or choose

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to do things for our writers.

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That.

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Are trying to prevent them from

making mistakes or just trying to

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do everything we can to get them to.

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Right.

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At this level that we are expecting.

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Microphone (Yeti Stereo Microphone)-4:

We aren't helping them

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learn to be better writers.

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We're just getting

writing down on the peach.

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We're getting this piece

of writing to be adequate.

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And it's just like in any other subject.

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And we think about math.

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When you go to give your students

a test or even practice problems in

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and you want them to get it right.

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And you or not get it right.

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I apologize.

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They see, I don't want to say that.

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I want to say you want them to learn it.

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You want them to show that they can do it?

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If you're providing the scaffolds that

are ensuring they get everything right.

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If you are writing out the steps they

have to make next to the problem, or

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if you are reminding them to double

check, double check their arithmetic.

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And you're ensuring

that they get it right.

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That's not helping them learn.

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What's going to happen when they go next

year to do this same kind of problem.

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They're not gonna know what to do.

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Right.

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And that's what we're doing when we are

providing all these things to our writers.

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We're not truly allowing them

to learn how to be writers.

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We're just trying to make sure

that they get it right to whatever

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that right is in our mind.

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Microphone (Yeti Stereo Microphone)-5:

So I encourage you.

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That instead of being worried about

them, getting it wrong, I want you

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to be excited about what they can do.

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I want you to be excited and curious

to see what they are doing, what

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they're able to do on their own.

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And then you're going to be able

to really be able to teach them.

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Because it's not about getting

this piece of writing, correct.

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Or, you know, whatever term you want

to use, it's about knowing what they

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can do and moving them along and

getting to see who they are as writers.

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You never know what these students

are going to come up with.

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You are going to see that they have

pulled things they've heard on,

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on TV or, you know like the way

characters talk or you're going to

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see that they've looked in a book and

seen all caps and they've decided.

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To put that in their writing, you,

aren't going to notice the things

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that things that they are aware of

and things that they know that you

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probably wouldn't have known before.

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If you allow them to just

show you what they can do.

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So don't worry about the

mistakes, worry about the writer.

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Worry about seeing what they can do

and then helping them to move on.

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Microphone (Yeti Stereo Microphone)-6:

So before I go, I feel like

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this episode might bring up some

questions, so I would love to hear

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them and then I can answer them.

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On another episode.

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So email me.

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melissa@teachingtotransform.com.

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There's a dash on either side of the word

to the word T O two, or you can find me

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on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, send me.

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a message.

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I'd love to know after listening

to this, what are you thinking?

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And I will be back next time.

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Hello again, and thank you for

joining me on this episode.

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I have a question and a favor to ask you.

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If you are enjoying the podcast, could

you please share it with a colleague?

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I would love to be able to get this

out to as many teachers as possible.

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So send them a text, let them know when

you see them that it is worth the listen.

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Thanks so much.

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