Public Writing Projects

So in my book, the authors broke writing up into writing to learn and public writing.  This chapter focused on projects that can replace the worn out research paper, but still require students to research and write high quality work.  One point that really hit home when they talked about changing up the writing we ask kids to do was "traditional research papers plunge students into the hardest kind of research too soon."  I think that's true.  Even though I teach middle school and the kids have some experience with writing, they still have a hard time researching, disseminating what information to include, and organizing a strong piece of writing.  Here are three of the alternates the suggest:

1. People Research: Surveys and Interviews - the project is exactly what the title suggests.  Students either interview people and incorporate information from the interview into their writing.  Or, you can help students create surveys to administer, then they can write about the results.  There still has to be a tie in to your curriculum, in the example in the book, a teacher had kids interview doctors, with one of the questions focused on a specific disease or condition the doctor had dealt with, the students then researched that disease or condition.  I think this idea is cool, but the challenge would be to find a group of people that would be accessible for the students to interview, I know not all of my students would have access to a doctor.  But, there's the idea.
2. Faction - this idea is a blend of fact and fiction.  Basically, the students use facts (info from a time period or about a historical figure, science theory) and write a fictional piece.  Some examples include: a diary or journal entry or entries, an interview, speech (one idea was a dissected earthworm convincing other earthworms to give up their bodies for science, funny!), letter, dinner table conversation, or thank you note (the example was a nucleus thanking an organelle in the cell for their contribution to the cell).  The important thing is the product based on facts of an article or notes.  During one of the revisions, you could have the students underline the factual information to make sure students are including facts.
3. RAFT - I've heard of this technique as a reading tool, but not as a writing tool, but it makes complete sense.  This is used with the faction technique above, to help students understand the purpose for their writing.  The acronym stands for: role, audience, format, and topic.  These guidelines will help students think through their product.

Again, as in my previous post, the writing process was emphasized. Letting students have choice (within reason), modeling or providing examples, and giving time to revise, edit, and receive feedback is extremely important if you want students to turn in high quality work. 

I look forward to trying some fresh writing ideas in my class, I hope some of you find these ideas worthwhile as well.