Strategies to improve student writing

Learning from the masters

“As you read a book word by word and page by page, you participate in its creation, just as a cellist playing a Bach suite participates, note by note, in the creation, the coming-to-be, the existence, of the music” Ursula K. Le Guin.

Students need to be exposed to high quality texts so they become the apprentices learning from the masters. When we share the artistry of writers with our students, they begin to see possibilities and learn to play and experiment with words, images and sentences.

Students need to identify themselves as writers if they are to master the craft of writing (Calkins & Ehrenworth, 2016). This is affirmed by Mehta and Fine (2019) whose research into deep learning concluded that students need to become so immersed in the art of a discipline that they become invested in thinking of themselves as someone in the field they are studying, such as a writer or an artist. They argue that a student’s sense of academic identity matters. If students see themselves as writers, they will be more likely to engage and adopt a growth mindset in that domain. They stress the importance of enabling students to achieve mastery that can be fostered through access to explicit guided teaching and great literary models.

We need to encourage our students to delight in the aesthetic and powerful use of language and to read like a writer. When we teach our students to read from the perspective of a writer, they focus less on what the writer is trying to say and more on how the writer is saying it. Specifically, they look at the form, structure, language and conventions the writer is using to convey their message and how the use of language affects them as they experience the text. Australian writers have a rich legacy of capturing the landscapes and the people who walk through them.

I had the privilege of interviewing Kate Grenville, Lachlan Brown, Mark and Danielle Wood (pictured above) who all spoke with passion about the writers who influenced them and how they were inspired by landscapes. 

Recommended Texts

You could use excerpts or whole texts. A range of literature has been recommended on each page of this site. 

Danielle Wood's The Alphabet of Light and Dark, Deep South: Stories from Tasmania and Island Story: Tasmania in Island and Text - visit https://daniellewood.com.au/ 

John Kinsella's poetry

Richard Flanagan's Death of a River Guide

Tim Winton's Cloudstreet, Dirt Music, Blueback, Eyrie and Island Home

Jeanine Leane's Purple Threads and her poetry

Robert Gray's poetry

Judith Wright's poetry

Gwen Harwood's poetry

Jackie French's novels

Kate Grenville's The Lieutenant and The Secret River

Lachlan Brown's poetry

Mark Tredinnick's poetry and essays

Favel Parrett's Past the Shallows

Ali Cobby Eckermann 's poetry

Anita Heiss' Bila Yarrudhanggalangdhuray: River of Dreams

Oodgeroo Noonuccal's poetry

Alexis Wright's The Swan Book

Gail Jones' Five Bells 

Ruth Park's Playing Beattie Bow and Harp in the South

Carl Merrison & Hakea Hustler's Black Cockatoo

https://www.familyfriendpoems.com/poem/memory-by-thomas-bailey-aldrich

Seeing the world

"I’m constantly reminded of the difference there can be between experiencing something with one’s senses open or closed" (Alain de Botton).

We are often too preoccupied to see the world around us. Yet, it is the small details that bring a landscape to life. Writers look beyond the superficial and capture the minutiae of life that offer more subtle nuances and provide interesting observations. Students need to be encouraged to open their eyes and see the potential in what is around them. Too many students write through a pedestrian medium lens and never zoom in or step back to see from a bird’s eye view.

Try these micro-lessons with your students to encourage them to see the world:

Micro-lesson 1: A special object or talisman

Ask the students to describe an object that is special to them or a member of their family in approximately 200 words. Encourage them to take a photograph of it to accompany the writing. They begin by describing the object: its shape, colour and distinguishing details.  Then they flashback to when they first received the object and recall when, where and how they got the object. They could add visceral and auditory imagery to show how the moment they received the object is etched indelibly in their memories. Finally, they return to the present and reveal why it is important. This short piece could then become the start of a longer narrative. 

Micro-lesson 2: The world around us

Take the students outside for a walk through the playground. Ask them to find an object that they are drawn to, such as a weed struggling to grow in the crack of a pavement, a piece of paper playing in the wind gusts, an ant valiantly navigating the treacherous expanse of the playground, or the bees gathering nectar from a flower… The possibilities are endless. Tell them that they have three minutes to observe the object and then two minutes to record a list of adjectives, verbs and phrases to describe the object. They have five minutes to compose one or two paragraphs that describe the object. When the time is up they find a critical friend and share their writing.

Micro-lesson 3: What makes us unique?

The next challenge for the students is describing a person they know well, such as a parent, a relative or a friend. They have to describe in 200 words what makes this person unique. It could the way that the lines crinkle around their eyes when they smile or how they always wear their hair scraped back in a tight bun or how they have a silver cross that is normally hidden beneath their shirt but when they bend over it slips out to catch the light. They are only allowed to mention hair and eye colour if these are standout features.

Micro-lesson 4: Seeing through the camera lens

Film-makers see the world through the lens of a camera using a range of angles and shots. Their cinematic way of seeing means that will always notice the details and capture those elements in a frame that visually convey meaning. This approach will improve the quality of your students’ writing as they have a tendency to use a medium lens to describe, which is bland and omits the important details. The best way to learn to use this approach is by actually seeing the world through the lens of a camera. Take the students outside of the classroom and tell them that they will be writing the opening of a crime story. They have to decide what crime occurred and where in the playground. If they have a phone, they can take some shots to stimulate how they will construct visually the opening or make sketches. Remind them that they could begin with an establishing sequence or an extreme close-up. You could make the activity even more exciting by creating footprints in a garden before your students go outside, and leaving clues such as, a crumpled note with the words “Help me” or a plastic cup with a red lipstick stain on its rim.  Ask them to take or sketch the following shots:

• A long shot or bird's eye view shot of where the crime occurred.

• A medium shot of the crime scene.

• An extreme close-up of something that could be connected to the crime, such as the cup or the footprints.