Tracking Writing = Empowerment and Intrinsic Motivation

This year I changed schools from a suburban, upper-middle class, majority white, charter school, to an economically and racially diverse urban school in the middle of Denver. It has challenged me and made me grow in a lot of ways.

That said, I struggled this year to give students the scaffolding, support and motivation they need.

One thing I was going to give up was my writing portfolio system. I just didn’t think it would work. But I decided to try it 2nd semester and the results have been notable.

Here is the system:

• Students keep their notebooks in class, thanks to my sweet Craigslist find! (I would require only composition books next time.) I recommend this to everyone, junior high, high school, anyone.
  
• Students taped TWO items in the back of their notebooks: a blank graph and a writing rubric.
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• Every time they write, they track their words per minute in the graph.
• I walk around the room and ask students if they increased or decreased word count. I celebrate their successes. If their word count decreased, I ask them to analyze that data. What made today different than last time? Perhaps, they are just showing growth in a different way. Maybe they are writing in past test or using new vocabulary.

 

WHY is this great?

1. Students are seeing their personal growth. They are becoming intrinsically motivated to improve.
2. Due to #1, students are more engaged and less resistant to the writing process.
3. It gives me something to recognize and celebrate. I try to find the student who needs some praise. I help them discover HOW they are growing in their writing.
   • Whenever I see a student feeling proud of their writing, I recognize them for their achievements.
   • When I see a student feeling down, I try to show them that growth is not always linear or can’t be counted.

How did we get there?

I added some steps to the Free-Write process for my beginner students. Instead of “write for 5 minutes, retelling the story, GO!” the process looks like this:

• First 1-2 times: I write under the doc cam. Students copy what I write.
• Next: I write under the doc cam, I underline the details (Mad Libs-Style). Students change the details, if they want to.
• When ready, I write under the doc cam, students write on their own. If they are stuck, they can copy what I am writing.
• Al final, they write on their own, no training wheels.

I am so lucky to have such brilliant coaches and teachers, like Diana Noonan, Connie Navarro, Sarah Rasay, Mary Overton and so many more in DPS who have helped me become a more effective teacher. It’s a lifelong learning process!