The Power of the Written Word when Problem Solving

For the past few days we have picked up our students from their specials and gotten the same report. Students (not all but many) had trouble following directions, focusing, listening, and getting work done. As a teacher you are often disheartened when you hear this because you know the potential of your students. Our specialists have precious time with our students, and that time should be maximized with learning versus redirection of class behaviors.

In the past I have had students write notes to the teachers about the problems they saw with potential solutions. This time I decided to have discussion with the students about what happened. Sharing their observations with each other was an engaging! Students had clear ideas of what was working and what was not. So, I turned this into a narrative writing experience. Students were tasked with the assignment to create a narrative story about a specials class. They could choose the setting (art, music, physical education, or health), characters, problem, and solution. We discussed prewriting strategies such as making a table to identify their narrative story elements.

We shared potential problems that could occur in their other class, some of which were based on actual life experience. One student discussed that she wanted “equal rights” in her classes. When I asked her what she meant she told us she needs a break. We discussed strategies for taking a break with other classroom teachers.

Students then got to work writing their narratives. To help students build their writing skills they had a conference with one of their teachers. We were able to support them with revision and editing ideas, building on their work. Students discovered looking at crayons helps get more descriptive with using colors. Saying his face was red versus his face was violet red or red like a fire truck can enhance their pieces. Meeting with each student was a vital part of his or her success. It also shows them their teachers believe in them, believe in their work, and truly care about what they are doing.

We were able to take a problem and turn it into an engaging writing experience where several students asked to write a second narrative while others were still working on the third page of his or her first story. We could have just had a conversation and been done with it, but it was more important to dive into problem solving through the written word.