And the winners are…

We’re having our celebratory party tomorrow in class. Everyone hit their goal! I was worried about one particular individual, Ana. She only had 250 words to go when we left for Thanksgiving break, and she forgot to write them. Luckily, she had the evening to finish!

Peter also forgot about writing over the holiday (which I had anticipated), but he had a high enough word count to take him over his goal.

Daniel’s story is in Spanish, but we’ll translate as we edit.

I did buy them all t-shirts from NaNo’s website – I plan on getting pictures of us all wearing them at the party. I was telling my lead teacher about our plans, and she offered to bring the pizzas to us, as well as cokes! Yea for wonderful lead teachers!

I definitely will do this again next year, only we’ll start a lot sooner. In contemplating the success of this attempt this year, I’d say I was happy with the results, but not ecstatic. The objective of getting the kids to write a lot was reached, but since I haven’t read, only counted, what they wrote, it’s hard to say yet what they’ve learned about novel writing.

Writing time rules need to be established before the writing starts. My kids talked a lot, which if it was about their writing, I accepted. But much of it wasn’t. My kids have always talked about their other classes, good or bad, their teachers, their everyday problems, which I’m actually grateful for — that they feel that comfortable in my classroom to discuss such things. But when that talk interferes with the day’s learning, then I get a bit  perturbed. And it did.

I think the reason the talking made me a bit on edge is because I see it as their not taking the writing time as a serious endeavor. Much like the reading time allowed them by a few of their teachers, they see it as a time to do what they need or want to do, and put off the writing until later, which usually never comes.

So, lesson learned. Start early in talking up the month of writing, establish strict guidelines for what is and isn’t acceptable when they have time to write in class, oh, and set more challenging but realistic goals. My kids hit their goals, but I know at least two more of them could have hit a much higher goal as well. With a higher word count goal, maybe they wouldn’t have felt so free to talk as much!

But I am still proud of them!

Me? I made mine, too. All 54,998 words!

Interesting Week

Sorry I haven’t written, been a busy week.

The week before a holiday can always be a bit fun. I’m not sure exactly how the contest will come out. Juan and Lucia are done. Lucia said that she needs to write more because she doesn’t think her story is finished. She’s already half again beyond her goal! Writing more is always fine with me!

Since Juan hit his 10,000 goal, he wanted to start editing, but had no idea where to start, so he decided to wait until we talked everything out as a class. Probably a good idea. I know they are going to get tired of their story before it’s all said and done, and I’d hate for him to become frustrated with it before we really even started revising.

Ana has caught up quite nicely. She wants to write a book of poetry instead of a narrative. I asked her to see if she could work them together to create a story.  It’ll be interesting to see what she comes up with. I think I’ll find books like Out of the Dust by Karen Hesse for her to read. She’s close to her goal (adjusted since she missed so many days), but not quite there.

Peter started over yet again. How do you stop them when they’re writing at home? I told him to combine his efforts and we’d sort out what’s good next month. He may reach his goal that way. He says he plans on writing while his family drives to wherever it is they are going for Thanksgiving. He has a really interesting writing style – I hope he does do some writing. It’ll be fun to read.

Finally, there’s Daniel. He passed his math test and felt better about spending time writing. He was 99 words short when the bell rang today. Even if he doesn’t remember to write over the holiday, which I pray he won’t – not remember, that is – he’ll still be able to knock that out on Monday.

So, it boils down to this. Two have finished in the time I had hoped they would, and three have a little bit of work to do over the break. I’m keeping my fingers crossed. They’re good kids, but one usually doesn’t think about school work when one is on vacation, now does one!

Oh, me? I’m half way there. Guess what I’m doing on my vacation!

Thursday’s Child Has Far to Go…

Ok, can I say these kids are driving me crazy! Juan, who has reached his first goal, has convinced himself that he has nothing left to write about. My fifth student, the one who transferred out last Thursday, has transferred back in. I’m not sure how that works administratively, but we’ll work with it. But she has distracted Peter all period, who up to now has written well in class. Lucia wants to work on her French, and Daniel has a Math test coming up he’s worried about.

So, what to do?

Close your eyes and take a deep breath, cleansing breath first. That in itself usually gets their attention. Then, gently remind them that this, too, is a real class, that they are expected to do what’s on the agenda for this class, and do it without grumbling overly much. Sometimes they forget that just because this class is so small, it is a class – complete with grades and requirements and consequences for not finishing assigned work.

We all have our days. I guess this one was mine.

Thank a Vet

As today was Veteran’s Day, and my class meets at the end of the day, we didn’t have time for writing in class. We went to the ceremony for the staff and faculty who have served in our armed forces. Bless them!

 

 

Tuesday’s Child is Full is Grace

Today we spent the whole class period writing. Or at least two of them did – Juan said he was finished, and I offered to count his words for him. After the first few hundred, I told him to write three or four more pages to make sure. I’d count his words later. I need to figure out a better way to count handwritten pages!

Peter asked me to read what he had so far. I think he needed validation that his story was going well. He seems to like it, so of course I said the storyline looked great, and suggested to him to add details when he’s finished with the main idea of the story.

Daniel has become my challenge. Even with our agreement that he can write in Spanish, he hasn’t produced much of anything. Now his excuse is that he cannot write around the other kids. He wants to do it at home. That’s fine with me, but I know his habits for doing things at home- they so far have been nonexistent! I need a way to encourage him to write at all – home, here, anywhere. I don’t like the threatening route – that’s not my style, and this is supposed to be fun as well as beneficial to their education. Any suggestions?

 Lucia has forgotten her writing twice – yesterday she forgot her composition book, so she wrote on notebook paper to add to her composition book later. Today she had her book but forgot what she had written out on notebook paper. So, organization isn’t a strong suite! She gave a brief attempt at saying she couldn’t remember where she was, so she was going to wait until she had everything together. Not happening. “Just start writing where you think you left off, or think back and create the details for things you do remember. We’ll combine it all it December.”

Peter was the only one who settled in and wrote, once I read his story.

The novelty has worn off! Into the website for ideas to keep the interest going!

Monday, Monday

Juan is almost finished! We set his goal higher on Friday, and he wrote over the weekend, reaching over 70% of his new goal. I’m thrilled! He asked me what he would do when he was finished with his goal.

“Well, there are really three options: set your goal higher yet, keep writing and see how far over your present goal you can go, or start a new story with a new goal.”

“But I don’t think I have anything else to add to my story after I get to 5,000.”

“Sure you do – add details to what you’ve written.”

After a bit of discussion, Juan decided to play Let’s Make a Deal: if he continues with this story and reaches 10,000 words, what would he get? “Other than a really cool novel?” I asked.

“Of course,” he replied, waiting to find out how far I could go with rewards.

“What would you like to receive for 10,000 words?”

“A medal,” he said, eyeing the medal hanging behind my desk that the JROTC gave me last year for Veteran’s Day.

“A medal that says you’re a novelist?”

“Yes!”

“Deal!”

Peter heard that conversation. “We can get a medal for 10,000 words! Cool!”

Now I have to see where I can get a medal for writing! Of course, I’ll get one for each of the students, but I found that motivation an interesting one! I’ve been considering if the NaNo T-shirts would be a good idea – now I know. I’m ordering them tomorrow!

As a class, we discussed setting and how it can affect the plot and enhance their characterizations. Juan said maybe he could go back and make the setting more clear. I like the way the boy thinks!

Peter started writing as soon as he walked into the classroom. But before he got too far, I caught him erasing again. I told him he really needed to turn off that inner editor and allow himself to change things as he went, not keep erasing and starting over. “I just need to,” was his response.

I’m learning that I need to let loose of what they are doing. As much as we all want them to reach their word count goal, they need to reach it their way. If that means occasionally letting the inner editor have a say, I guess I’ll have to accept that. Peter did have over 300 words again by the end of class. He understands now that he needs to stick with this plot he has going, and work with that. But he felt better about his new attempt, so I think we’re good.

The other thing I’ve noticed, and I really like, is how the students are willing to help each other. When Juan said he was running out of things to write about for this particular story, Lucia started rattling off suggestions for him to try. When Daniel said he still didn’t have a plot to work with, Juan spoke to him in Spanish, offering to help him come up with something since he’s so far ahead of his own goal.

Maybe it’s because it’s such a small class, but they seem to offer ideas without any sense of one-upmanship and accept ideas without feeling belittled. Gotta love it!

Friday – Be Still My Heart

Friday started out wonderfully. I opened up my NaNoMail (Nano’s internal email), and saw a message from Juan. “I’m so happy I’m about to finish I have 1,699 words!:)” Almost 1700 words! Overnight! When he got to class, he was so excited: “What do I do now?” “You set a higher goal of course!” His reaching his goal so quickly put the others in a good frame of mind. All they needed was to see someone, besides me, actually able to write that much.

Then Lucia came in. “Ms. Nickie, I was writing in my first period class and I started crying. It’s such a sad story!” I’m almost afraid to ask, because I’m pretty sure she’s basing it off her own experiences. “You started crying?” “Yes, but I think it’s ok. It’s a sad story.” She didn’t offer and I didn’t pry; we’ll share when they are ready to share. “So, if you start crying again, I shouldn’t worry?” I ask, because she knows I will worry. She smiles, and it’s a shy but confident smile: “No, I’m fine! It’s just sad when you lose somebody. But can you count my words for me?”

As I count her words, I try not to read too much of what she wrote yet, although I’d love to. But from what I see, it is a sad story of a father leaving a family behind. Now I’m sure it’s Lucia’s story.

We briefly discuss conflict and how it’s important to the plot in their narratives, once again using books we have read to help grasp or reinforce the concept. During the conversation, someone says something that’s misinterpreted as their character wants to eat somebody, which leads to a discussion of what’s that word (“cannibalism”), to do they really exist, to Hannibal Lechter, to Peter starting to write all of the sudden. I’m not sure I want to know what his story is about at this point! But he writes over three hundred words before we depart for the weekend!

Daniel and I finally come to an agreement. He cannot admit he can write in English. I cannot sit by and let him fail at a task the others seem to be enjoying, at least so far. “What if you write your story in Spanish, and we’ll work on translating it into English in December?” He likes that idea. I’m not sure how that’ll work – I don’t speak a lick of Spanish, but if it gets him writing, I’m all for it! I hope he writes about his adventures coming to the States. He has told that to me before in his broken English, and getting it down in Spanish or English would be wonderful.

Juan asks about adding to his story. “I already have the middle, but I want to add to the beginning. How do I do that now?” December is editing month for us now. We all agreed that we would just write for now. If they want to add something to a part of the story already written, they can make themselves a note about where it goes, and just keep writing. We’ve reserved December for fixing everything – putting the story in the right order, grammar, spelling, sentence structure, everything. Now they understand about not worrying about anything but their story.

I actually have to tell them the bell is about to ring. Peter leaves his composition book behind, three hundred plus words into his goal, but not yet willing to commit to writing outside of class. That’s ok, he’s writing.

Introducing my Class

Now that you have an idea of our task at hand, let me introduce you to my students. Wednesday, when we signed up, I had 5 students. I’m already down to 4. The fifth came in Thursday and announced it was her last day at our school – she was transferring that day. Of the remaining four, two are freshmen and two are sophomores.

Juan has been in the country for three years now, Lucia a year longer, and Daniel just started his second full year. The fourth, Peter, is an unusual case. His English is great, but his reading and writing are not, as he was adopted from outside the US, and spent the first two years of his life in an overcrowded orphanage. Since he was not really speaking yet in his own language, his language development seems to have been delayed in those two domains. (As a closet linguist, this idea fascinates me!) He has joined my ESOL class in an effort to give him some assistance comprehending and writing English.

You’ll learn more about them as we progress these next few weeks.

Thursday, we began in earnest. We set our goals based on 12 days of in-class writing. They sound small to outsiders, but these students are worried about reaching them. I’m hoping that they see how far above the goals they are able to reach – talk about a confidence builder! Juan set his goal at 1,500 words, Lucia 2,000, and Peter decided to go for 3,000. Daniel was very hesitant to commit to anything higher than 1,000, as I want him to write in English and he’s not thrilled with the idea.

And we’re ready to go! We had our goals recorded and our student journals (from Nano’s website) started, we discussed how to draw interesting characters (that knowledge we could reinforce from the books we read), and we had new composition notebooks and sharpened pencils. (Well, actually mechanical pencils, but that’s not as romantic to write!)

Juan and Lucia, my two sophomores went right to work. We had 30 minutes of class time set aside to write, and they used most of it writing.  Peter is my daydreamer, and he seemed lost in thought at times. I noticed he wasn’t writing, so we had a brief discussion on how to start. Daniel, my lowest level English speaker is just plain scared, I think. He thinks he cannot write and is still looking for ideas.

I know they are editing as they go, as Juan asks me how to spell words, and Lucia wants to know if it’s ok to use people’s names she knows. Normally, I’d tell them not to worry about it (and I tell them that often!), but if it made them stop to ask, I’ll just satisfy their need and let them keep working. Once they’re further along in their story, I’ll quit being a dictionary, but for now, it’s all good.

By the end of the class, Peter still doesn’t have anything on paper. (“Yes, I do,” he says. “But I keep scratching it out because I don’t like it.” We need to work on losing that “inner editor”!) Daniel doesn’t have anything on paper, and is still throwing out ideas for stories, most of which are movies he’s seen. Juan and Lucia are right on task. They both ask if they can take their journal home with them – a good sign that they are out-of-class writers. I’m no longer worried about those two meeting their goals! I hope the novelty of the project lasts!

I got home Thursday and found the teacher’s kit from NaNoWriMo in the mailbox – excellent timing! There’s nothing like a big ol’ word count chart on the wall to keep them motivated! I can’t wait for Friday!

Getting a Start on NaNoWriMo

First, let me thank my writing buddy, Michy, for suggesting I start this blog. I’ve been teaching ESOL for a while now, and have done blogs before, albeit short-lived blogs!, but this may be a topic I actually enjoy sticking with. Why a blog now? Because as a NaNoWriMo fan, I’ve signed my students up for this year’s contest! And Michy wants to know how it goes!

Last year, I signed up for, and won, NaNoWriMo, a challenge to all writers and would-be writers to get off their derrieres and put something down on paper. The challenge is to write at least 50,000 words in 30 days – all of November.  You can check out the details at nanowrimo.org. It’s wonderful!

So, I mentioned my achievement to my students a few weeks ago, bragging about my suitable-for-framing winner’s certificate downloadable .PDF file I received as a winner. (Yes, I AM very proud of that!) “So,” I told them, “I’m signing you all up this year!” What I expected was alot of “yeah, right”s, but what I heard was the sound of negotiation: “We can’t do 50,000 words! What else can we do?” I’ve never been accused of letting a teaching moment pass unnoticed.

“That’s not a problem. If we sign up as a class, WE set your word count goal. WE decide how many words you need to write in November. Think about it.”

The next few days we spent finishing up our class novel, Bronx Masquerade, which is a great books for teens, by the way. I mentioned NaNoWriMo offhandedly a couple more times, not wanting to press them, but not wanting them to think I’d let it go, either. As we reviewed for the book assessment, one of my students asked, “Are we still doing the writing thing?”

“Yes, after we finish this test, we’ll talk about it more.” I think I smiled all the way through the rest of the day – they wanted me to sign them up.

My thoughts for using NaNoWriMo were simple – get these kids to write as much as I could without worrying about “getting it right.” These kids know their grammar is atrocious, their spelling is phonetic (keep in mind they speak with an accent) and their sentence structure is nonexistent. With this program, all of that goes out the window. They write. And write. And write some more, not caring about what is or isn’t capitalized, or whether they have the commas in the right place, or if they used the correct spelling for “their.” None of that matters, just the word count.

Tomorrow, I’ll introduce you to my class and catch you up on Thursday’s and Friday’s writing. For now, I have to add to my own word count!