Power Writing In a Nutshell

So I did a little tweaking.  We all do it, right?  You see, hear, read, a good idea and you change things a bit to suit your objectives and viola! Something great!  My something great is called Power Writing.

The gist of it is this - in a typical classroom you have writers and you have draw-ers.  You have talkers and you have shouter-outers.  Your job is to het all of them to write.  For more than 5 five minutes and more than 3 sentences.  Now, with your writers, its not a problem.  The problem is that you can't get those ones to STOP writing.  But with the others?  Pulling teeth from a snake.  Ain't gonna happen.  So I had to do something.

I went to a training.  The training was boring.  It was all day.  It was in a little room with long tables and a trainer who was obviously a talker.  And face it, I am not , I repeat, NOT a listener.  (At least not a good one.)  Most of the training I was doodling away in my journal or I was jotting down random thoughts (not a new past-time, I assure you) but I wasn't really paying attention.  After lunch, it was more of the same. Until the trainer started mentioning Power Writing.  My ears perked up and I sat a little straighter in my chair, and I started paying attention.  I am glad I did.  This is what I learned.

Writing is hard.  (I've never felt that partly because I am a writer.) Kids have an ever harder time at writing because they don't know yet WHAT they want to write about or What kind of writing they are good at yet.  So power writing is a great tool to teach what kind of writing that kids (and adults) like to do.  Here is how it goes:

• Give your class two topics.  For example: Best Birthday Ever and Sharks of the Deep.  As you will notice, one topic is more of a narrative while the other is a informative/report type writing topic.  What they choose is a beacon to what type of writing they like best. 
• Give the class one minute to think about their topic.  No talking - just thinking.
• Give the class ONE MINUTE to write.  Here's the catch:  You have 5 rules that you MUST FOLLOW:
• No talking - just writing
• Sentences must be complete (Capital letters, correct punctuation, and spelling must be correct as you can make it)
• 60 seconds to write only.
• You must write the ENTIRE time.  
• When the timer is up, circle your last word. 

When the time is up, have students circle their last word and count their words.  Then you fill out a chart.  Looks like this:

If you have 5 kids that wrote 9 words then write 5 in the box 0-10.  If you have 3 kids who wrote 15 words, then write 3 in the box 11-20. 

Have them put their writing in a folder and put it away.  Tomorrow do the same thing over again, this time with two new topics.  The students will try to race each other and themselves to write more than the day before.  Fantastic huh?  

But...I had to tweak it.  I liked the minute thing but I knew after a while my students would get bored.  And they did not disappoint me.  This project lasted a week.  SO I knew I had to do something.  

I upped the ante.  Now you had two minutes.  Then 5 minutes,  then we tried 7 minutes.  We got up to 10 and I had 90% of the students working that whole time.  The other 10%?  Well, they decided they could draw.  I decided to call home and have a chat with mom and dad.  Amazingly, the next day that 10% were with the rest of the class.  Coincidence?  I'll let you decide.  

The kids loved it, but I still felt that I needed more.  So my project was born.  Building Writing Stamina through Power Writing.  

I added prompts.  Not just the basic narrative vs informative working ones mentioned above, but GOOD prompts.  Prompts that made them think. Prompts that made them laugh.  Prompts that gave some the shivers and quivers.  And you know what?  IT WORKED! I had students begging for Power Write time.  They would ask if they could do it for a center.  They would ask if they could do it after they were finished with their math.  They wanted to do it before, during, and after every subject.  

Now, I can't give away all my secrets.  What would I have left to blog about.  Nut-in.  So if you want to know all about how to build up your students' writing stamina using competition, then click on the link below and you'll be taken right to my store-step and you can acquire your very own copy of this magnificent resource!  What are you waiting for?

Click on the link here.  

Now, lets all take a collective moment to shout out to me for posting two days in a row!  Yahoo! 

Now tomorrow is Wednesday and I will try to blog about who was fantastic on America's Got Talent the night before.  (I love that show but I wish they would show more of the not-so-talent that they have on there. Howie, are you listening??)  

'Till then, 

Shauna