I found the pairing of the readings from Anderson and Noden for this week to be an interesting combination. Anderson's section dealt with using commas in sentences, while Noden talked about different ways to add specific details to writing. Or, put another way, Anderson's section was about how to structure sentences both artfully and correctly-- the framework of a building, while Noden was about the sensory experiences -- the furniture, the paint on the wall, the decor, etc.
Although the reading about commas was less "fun" in the activities that it had, getting the structure of a sentence right is arguably as important, if not more important, than the bits and pieces that make it up. Through these readings, I'm realizing that despite all the good intentions you might have for a piece of writing, it simply might not work if you don't successfully get your ideas across to your audience. Structure, especially varied structure, is a huge part of that. Like details, it makes your work more interesting.
These chapters brought back a lot of memories for me. A few summers ago, I ended up teaching a writing intensive camp for homeschoolers for three days. I had no curriculum, just a set of videos for the students to watch and some guidelines for possible activities. It was a challenging couple of days accommodating 24 students with writing abilities One of the activities that I did with them resembled the Zoom and Layer strategy on pages 46-48. Instead of Blind Pew the pirate, though, in my class we wrote about sea wasps. I liked how when I taught, and in Noden's activity there is scaffolding for the writing prompts. They are interesting (at least, I can't think of a student that wouldn't find writing about deadly jellyfish or ruthless pirates at least a nice change of pace), and it helps them compare and contrast their writing styles with that of their peers. This could easily become part of a writing workshop.
Another strategy that I liked about was the Focus on Word-Image Senses on pages 50-51. I can remember way back in fourth grade having to listen to a tape of nature sounds, and then draw and write about what I imagined. The activity was helpful because it engaged my sense of hearing, which made my writing have more images than usual. I think that if you paired sounds and images, perhaps through a slideshow, that would be a way to prompt even more writing.
Returning to my earlier comment about the writing prompts, I remember when I asked my students in the summer class whether they liked writing or not. Most said that they didn't and explained that they thought it was "boring" or that they "didn't get it" or even "I'm not good at it." I think that many of them struggled with writing because the topics they were given weren't interesting to them or they weren't sure what to write about. Giving them an out-of-the-ordinary subject to write about helped them feel more confident, and some of them came around in the end. My favorite response on the last day with that class was "I don't like writing, but you made it fun."
