Are your students "in shape" when it comes to writing? As time draws nearer to standardized state and national testing, teachers need to ask themselves if they have prepared students for the writing process necessary for academic success. In the book, The Power of Extreme Writing, author Diana Cruchley stresses the importance of producing fluent writers. She believes students must possess three skills to be successful writers: code, comprehensibility, and fluency. She compares the skill of becoming a fluent writer to that of a runner preparing to run a marathon. The runner will not be able to complete the marathon if he has not built endurance.
Extreme writing focuses on a ten day program in which the teacher provides students to choose from three different writing prompts each day to write for 10-15 minutes depending on grade level. A goal of number of words expected is calculated by the teacher using the "rapid write" process. Students write on a given topic for one minute. The students repeat the process for another minute with new prompt. The teacher collects papers from the second writing and arranges the samples from lowest to highest word count to find the median. The teacher multiplies the median count to the number of minutes the students will write. Cruchley recommends teachers implement the ten day program at least eight times throughout the year.
The author refers to "Inspirations" as prompts to capture attention and get students thinking. Prompts are topics that call up a memory and within the student's experience. She provides twelve inspirations with ideas for writing topics. Cruchley's number one Inspiration is to "Start With a Picture". She describes how images can illicit great writing. She shares photos and writing prompt ideas on her Pinterest page for teachers at: www.pinterest.com/diana32/photos-extreme-writing-journal/
Example of photo and prompts from website:
If you are looking for a writing resource and ideas for creating fluent writers, this book is for you. The entire book is only 43 pages long and is available from the ASCD website.
WOW! I forwarded this to all my teachers! What a great idea to have in their toolbox! Thank you!
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed your post! I like the idea of building the students stamina. I think in between the 8 times a year you could also use the 7 steps for writing in their regular curriculum to engage them further. See http://recixtechnology.blogspot.com/2015_11_01_archive.html for the steps.
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