The writing process should be messy not in a step by step process such as prewriting, drafting, revising, editing, and then publishing. Students should be able to revisit any of the previous steps changing and altering their story as they wish until finally publishing.
My Narrative:
I first began by choosing an idea from a memory chain in my WN.
Next, I created a timeline to see all the details I could cover within my story.
After that, I wrote a flash draft in class. This allowed my ideas to flow and me to jot down anything from the memory that I thought about in the short amount of time.
I read my draft and then asked myself what could I do to my story to STRENGTHEN it.
I decided I could maybe craft a lead: Where was I in college at? I could add emotion. I could also add more description
I could add dialogue or thoughts to make the story more personal. With my dialogue, I could use various forms of punctuation.
I could include sense: feelings/emotions!
I reflected on who my intended audience was and what the point of my story was!
I took all of my notes and thoughts and used them to write a new draft. In my new draft included dialogue, thoughts, and emotions.
Finally, I cleaned up my draft by proofreading it and then publishing it!
References:
Carroll, Lindsay. “If I Could Do It Again: A Message to My Colleagues and My Former Self….” Words Matter, 29 Jan. 2019, yearningforlearning.home.blog/2019/01/29/if-i-could-do-it-again-a-message-to-my-colleagues-and-my-former-self/.
Dorfman, L. R., & Cappelli, R. (2017). Mentor texts: Teaching writing through children’s literature, K – 6 (2nd ed.). Portland, Maine: Stenhouse
I loved seeing your writing progress and develop and the different strategies you used to write your story. I also like the different media types you used to imbed your writing in your post. I think it made it much more interactive and I engaged with it in a much different way!
"Students should be able to revisit any of the previous steps changing and altering their story as they wish until finally publishing."- this is a big lesson I am learning this semester. The writing process is fluid, thank you for reminding me!
Your whole story was a welcomed reminder of my also playful and foolish youth, but the line: "Standing high on the mountain, we felt invincible," really nailed the emotion of it. Way to show and not tell!
PS- I am embarrassed to admit that I have also cracked my tailbone jumping from a place unreasonably high (railroad trellis) into a river. Even worse, I had to board a plane to El Salvador the next day, ugh! I woul…
I loved seeing the process you went through to eventually publish this one piece of writing! You're right, our processes were so similar (lol). I think this is a cool way for us (and students) to understand that everyone has all these different ideas and ways of making them come to life. Some follow the same paths, some get rewritten, some get scratched, but they all represent that individual so well!