Tweaking the assignment to the student
Hi Julie,
In your FAQ section of The Writer’s Jungle you mention how kids can write about anything and do it well if they can find something about the topic that hooks their fascination. I’m wondering what this looks like in real life.
Can you tell me how the following 5th & 6th grade students would attack this assignment?
Write a Report on Christopher Columbus
Student A: This girl is a natural talker, loves to write in great detail, is very fashion conscious, and is able to find a number of ways to earn money.
Student B: A very analytical boy — math is his strong suit. He doesn’t enjoy flowery detail and wants to get to the facts and get the job done.
Student C: This child is very art oriented and enjoys science and animals.
Student D: This child does great at writing fictional stories — very into dramatic writing not factual.
Maybe these scenarios are not enough to go on and if not — what kinds of questions can I ask the kids to find out what their natural bent is? How can I help them when they are given a generic assignment to find their own groove and write from within?
Thanks!
Kellie
Let’s go one student at a time. Remember: these are ideas that may or may not work with individual kids. The idea is to shift your focus to the student’s natural bent and inclinations, away from strictures of an assignment. One thing to know: the most successful writers do this all the time instinctively. They hardly know they are doing it! So it’s not cheating. It’s smart writing.
Student A: This girl is a natural talker, loves to write in great detail, is very fashion conscious, and is able to find a number of ways to earn money.
Perhaps her interest in Columbus will be to choose an aspect of his character (personality? his attempts to get funding for his trip? his fashion sense?) to describe in detail. Let her hone in on one aspect (rather than generalizing) and see if she can get intimately acquainted with the most interesting part of who Columbus is. Start there. You can always add less interesting detail (biographical information or the timeline of his trip, etc.) once she’s given her full attention to the part that interests her most.
Student B: A very analytical boy — math is his strong suit. He doesn’t enjoy flowery detail and wants to get to the facts and get the job done.
This kind of kid does well with making a list to start. Let him itemize the factual details of the life of Columbus. Choose the most interesting, surprising fact to open the report. Let him organize the facts into categories and use sub-heads for each section. He can freewrite and then revise each group of facts one at a time. Then organize chronologically using sub-headings to provide natural structure and transitions.
Student C: This child is very art oriented and enjoys science and animals.
Columbus may be a hard sell for this kid. Perhaps write on something else! (smile) Also, could do pictorial narration with artwork and captions.
Student D: This child does great at writing fictional stories — very into dramatic writing not factual.
Put the report into a narrative style, telling it from Columbus’s perspective or alternatively this student could write from the perspective of a crew member on the ship. In The Writer’s Jungle, Gabrielle Linnell wrote a piece called “An Adventuring Maid.” She did research to have all her historical details accurately represented in her work, but she wrote her piece as a fictional narrative. This kind of work is a wonderful way to make writing spring to life. I like to use Jean Fritz’s books as an example of how history can be written in an engaging manner all while conveying the important historical information.
I hope that helps you get an idea of what you might be able to accomplish if you widen your expectations and apply some creativity.
As a side note. I graduated with my Master’s in theology in 2007. I had finals that included writing my own contemporary epistle, writing a translation, putting my theological thoughts into poetry, freewriting and personal experience as well as your standard academic formats. I thought I’d throw that out because there is a perception that all the writing anyone will ever do in the future is essays and research papers. Not necessarily!
Images by MapHobbit, Scott Markowitz, anthony kelly (cc cropped, tinted)
Thanks Julie! This was helpful. Student C is actually my own son. The other student descriptions are those of kids in my class at co op. I’m thinking my son could actually focus on the weather that Columbus faced and the natural difficulties he had to overcome in his journey. That kind of thing might be of interest to him.
Kellie
Okay so naturally I didn’t help you with your own kid! LOL You sound like you’ve got the idea though and that’s terrific. As I always say, YOU are your child’s best writing coach and ally.
Julie
My son is very artistic and for many assignments he did “lapbooks” where he presented factual information but was allowed tons of room for creativity/drawing. With an assignment like this, at a younger age, another option would be to have him present it in comic book format (which he loves!) or even as a newspaper-type format. He’d like this because he could break up the writing into smaller sections: an editorial, a weather description,… he could use different fonts and draw various pictures for his newspaper…all things which would GREATLY contribute to my son’s interest in the topic. My creative daughter would enjoy presenting her writing as a travel journal or series of letters.
Julie — you were a big help! Seriously…I teach the other students writing so I wanted input on them all. The thought about the weather came after reading what you had to say for the rest. I like Kika’s ideas as well. I’m going to really try and make his projects that he gets in history and science this coming year, more like him and less like me.
Thanks!
Hi! Just a quick thing….sometimes when we focus on studying a famous person, he or she really represents something bigger….an historical time…There were apparel choices, animals, beliefs, maritime and engineering choices that were all in play then, too! My daughter was fascinated that the Nina had a cow on board which was kept in a sling! Later, animals and plants brought from Europe changed forever the landscape of the Americas…
There are different significant strands that can radiate from one assignment—which can be the fun of it. Thanks for continually encouraging us to keep the learning real and meaningful, Julie!
oops! The above “anonymous” was me. 🙂
For the artistic child, why not write about what a painter would want to include to compose a portrait of Columbus that demonstrated the best of his accomplishments. Many Renaissance portraits are like that, with settings and objects giving the viewer clues.
That last kid sounds like mine. She has written some very powerful fictional accounts and poetry based on her research on WWI, for example. Working with her on some of this made me realize how much she was really connecting with the period through imagining one character in that time and place.
Given how much historical fiction is available for kids (especially the middle school age group), I think there is a certain value in helping them write fiction about historical material they are learning.