Rich Henderson's Diary
The First 180 Days

Rich's Diary: Writing Prompts

Week 25

Can you think of two words than can create anxiety, dread, and utter apprehension within the inner most being of many fifth graders? If you guessed "more homework," "book report," or "report cards," you guessed incorrectly. Although reciting any of those phrases does indeed elicit some degree of concern among my students, none of them creates the level of fear that a certain pair of words can. What are those words? "Writing prompt."

This week, I attended a workshop on the scoring of writing prompts. The workshop provided me with a wealth of information -- some of which, I hope, helps alleviate some of my students' writing prompt worries.

Although we have been working on expository writing and writing prompts for months, many of my students still hate them with a passion. Unlike other subjects, which they may dislike, they hate writing prompts. When we began discussing expository writing back in the fall, I was surprised by their reaction to this activity. However, I vowed that with more discussion and practice, I would alleviate some of their anxiety. That didn't happened. The more we worked on writing prompts, the more anxious some of my students became. In this case, more wasn't better.

Some of my students could not overcome an internal barrier of distress that overwhelmed them. They knew the elements of expository writing and the ways to organize them. They knew the concepts, but had difficulty putting them into practice. Why? Was I not teaching the subject well enough? Was I not saying the right words? Possible answers to those questions came to me during the writing prompt workshop.

The instructor of the workshop kept using certain phrases when discussing a critical element of expository writing -- details. She referred to the addition of details as "slowing down" and "telling more about it." These were straightforward phrases, yet ones that seemed to be very powerful because of their simplicity and clarity. For me, listening to those phrases made the addition of details an easy concept to understand and implement. I wondered: Was I using phrases with my students that just didn't make sense to them? Perhaps I was.

The next day, I began using those very simple phrases from the workshop in my classroom when discussing writing prompts. For two students, the phrases worked. They understood the concept of details better because of those simple words. The lightbulb went on for them, and a portion of that barrier of fear seemed to melt away. We have more work to do, but at least they have a better understanding -- and, I hope, less anxiety -- about writing prompts.

Sometimes it is not what we say, but how we say it. This week was a reminder of how powerful words can be in our everyday conversations as well as in teaching. Another lesson learned.

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Rich Henderson
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