Phase 1
After initial lessons about re-reading and revising to make sure it makes sense for your reader, I started assessing individual writing and looking for a place of confusion. Something that would be unclear for the reader yet make perfect sense to the writer because he or she lived it. Then, I planned to do this:
This shows that what the reader understands from his or her perspective might be different than what the writer meant them to understand.
One day, while conferencing with WriterA, I found the perfect opportunity to try it out. In a story about her cousin’s birthday, she wrote “When we got there, we waited and waited until someone came.” I thought she meant that she waited at the door until her cousin opened it. She meant that she and her cousin had to wait and wait until another guest came.
At share, she and I sat next to each other with the ThinkBlocks in front of us labeled:
She read her story. I told what I thought. She told what she meant. The class laughed and I asked, “What happened?” I got answers like “You were confused” and “It didn’t make sense”. Next, I asked, “Why do you think I was confused?” We talked a bit about perspective and how from WriterA’s perspective she “knew” what it meant but from mine I could only use the words she wrote to figure it out. Some started nodding. Next, I asked “How could WriterA make sure I wasn’t confused next time?” This stumped them. I said that as the reader if WriterA had added “my cousin and I waited and waited until the first guest came.” Then, I wouldn’t have been confused.
The next day, I got down the same labeled blocks and reiterated the conversation about WriterA’s story and asked “How can WriterA make sure I or another reader doesn’t get confused today?” After some partner talk, WriterB said, “She could pretend she doesn’t know everything and write it in.” While moving the WriterA block over to my side, I said, “Oh, she could pretend to be the reader?” The students agreed. I said, “Oh, so she could try to have my perspective.” As they went to write, I challenged them to look at their writing from the reader’s perspective.
At share that day, three or four students explained how they had tried to “be the reader” or “pretend to be the reader” and fixed up their story. Some were just missing words, but some were more vital parts of the story that they explained.
Additionally, they said the Writer needs to pretend to be the Reader to see if it makes sense to someone who wasn’t there (shown by the dotted line). (Journal #1-4)
Phase 2-early Nov 2009
- assess student writing on use of imagery/”Show not Tell” (Journal #15)
- read picture books with lots of imagery and “Show not Tell”
- defined “Show not Tell”
- asked students to give a ‘thumbs up’ if they heard it during a read-aloud
- modeled taking words from a story about the zoo and changing it from “telling” the emotion/reaction to “showing” what happened (Journal #7)
- challenged students to give it a try (Journal #7)
- wrote down examples at Share (Journal #7)
- used Thinkblocks to demonstrate how perspective impacts understanding of a word. My idea of fun (reading, cooking, exercising) is very different from theirs (video games, playing, TV). If you don’t show your reader what “I had fun” is like, they will put their own spin on it. (Journal #8)
- gave students ‘tell’ situations like “I was happy” or “I was embarrassed”. They worked with a partner to ‘show’ what their body did (Journal #9)
- asked “Why do writers use “Show not Tell”–hoping to get tie in to reader’s perspective (Journal #10)
- talk about similes and how they can be used for “Show not Tell” (Journal #14)
- re-assess student writing on use of imagery/”Show not Tell” (Journal #15)
Phase 3- late November 2009
- assess student writing on use of punctuation and upper case letters (Journal #16)
- had students explore big books looking for anything that wasn’t letters (Journal #18)
- had students explore for mark that weren’t letters again and decide what the author was trying to tell them with the mark (Journal #18)
- had students explore own writing for punctuation and tell what they as the author were trying to tell the reader (Journal #19)
- used perspective to demonstrate how punctuation can change the meaning. Displayed 2 versions of same story. One with punctuation. One without. Had the author and a ‘reader’ (represented by life-size Madeline doll) read their 2 different versions. (Journal #21)
- displayed student work. Class helped writer decide where to put the period. Decided it went after telling 1 thing. (Journal #24).
- modeled thinking about my reader as I write and deciding where to put periods during the writing process not as an afterthought (Journal # 25). Used Thinkblocks to define my ‘parts’ before starting.
- used Thinkblocks and parts to demonstrate how a writer can’t leave part of a sentence ‘hanging’ by itself. (Journal #28)
- re-assess student writing on use of punctuation and upper case letters (Journal #30, #34)