1. Developing Writing Fluency With Quickwrites
Dr. Carolyn Mathews, Radford University
Milena Glumsic and Allyson Umstead, Interns, Radford University English Education Program

2. Fluency--Getting It Down with Ease
Fluency must be the FIRST CONSIDERATION when teaching writing.

3. Lack of fluency makes writing too much work!
Students who lack writing fluency devote huge amounts of cognitive energy to these tasks:
(1)forming individual words
(2) forming basic sentence structures
They have little left for conveying their thoughts and feelings effectively.

4. How Can Teachers Help Students Develop Fluency?
practice….practice….practice….

5. Because fluency is so basic to successful writing, your first priority must be to get students writing and keep them writing….Without daily practice in a humane and accepting atmosphere, writing is a drudgery for most students and grows very little.
Inside Out: Strategies for Teaching Writing, by Dawn Latta Kirby and Darren Crovitz
Fluency Control Precision

6. Quickwrites—a path to fluency
A quickwrite is a first-draft response to a short piece of writing that acts as a mentor text
Students and the teacher write for 3 to 5 minutes off a found idea or a line borrowed from the mentor text
The main purpose—to get words on paper

7. “One line of a poem, the poet said…
“One line of a poem, the poet said…. and you tap in the others around it with a jeweler’s hammer.”
Annie Dillard, The Writing Life

8. “The simple rhythm of copying some else's words gets you into the rhythm [of writing], then you begin to feel your own words.”
--James Ellison, Finding Forrester

9. “… becoming a better writer is going to help you become a better reader, and that is the real payoff.”
Anne Lamott, Bird by Bird

10. I can’t work in a void, and neither can my students
I can’t work in a void, and neither can my students. Quickwrites help them find words for their ideas in a concrete way.
--Linda Rief, Middle School Teacher and author of 100 Quickwrites
“Once students have words on paper, I can help them develop those thoughts into effective, compelling pieces of writing. Quickwrites help all of us get out of the void.”

11. Here’s how…
Place a mentor text on the document camera or provide a copy for each student.
Read the piece aloud.
Ask students to write or draw quickly, responding in any of these ways:
“Write as quickly as you can for 3 to 5 minutes, capturing all that comes to mind.”
“Borrow a line or phrase, and write nonstop for 3 to 5 minutes.”
“Use the mentor text as a model, constructing your own piece and using your own ideas.”
“Respond in any other way!”

12. The Benefits of Quickwrites

13. Building Student Confidence
Quickwrites often surprise students. They know more than they think!
Students see how much they can write, and the quality of the writing.
Accessible to all students, even ones who normally struggle with writing.
Short and non-threatening.

14. Bringing out the Writer
Quickwrites act as bridges and allow students to tap into their writing voices.
Students become focused on topics they can engage with and relate to.
The seeds are planted... The students can only go uphill from here!
Giving the students the power to write what they want...
OPENS THE DOOR TO FLUENCY

15. Teachers grow as writers too!
Quickwrites allow teachers time to write!
They may help us find ideas for future writings.
They help us find our voice.
Writing them helps us understand what we are asking our students to do.
They see us writing; they know they are not alone!

16. Don’t You See “It’s just a drink,” he says.
But it’s really bottled-up rage,
Waiting to explode
And drown my world
In delirium and hatred.
When unleashed,
This simple drink
Destroys families
Shatters lives
And etches nightmares
That beg to be forgotten.

17. Autumn
I want to mention summer ending without meaning the death of somebody loved or even the death of the trees. Today in the market I heard a mother say Look at the pumpkins, it’s finally autumn! And the child didn’t think of the death of her mother
which is due before her own but tasted the sound of the words on her clumsy tongue: pumpkin; autumn. Let the eye enlarge with all it beholds. I want to celebrate color, how one red leaf flickers like a match held to a dry branch, and the whole world goes up in orange and gold.

18. Where I'm From—
by George Ella Lyon
I am from clothespins,  from Clorox and carbon-tetrachloride.  I am from the dirt under the back porch (Black, glistening,  it tasted like beets.)  I am from the forsythia bush the Dutch elm whose long-gone limbs I remember as if they were my own.
I'm from fudge and eyeglasses,            from Imogene and Alafair.  I'm from the know-it-alls           and the pass-it-ons,  from Perk up! and Pipe down!  I'm from He restoreth my soul           with a cottonball lamb           and ten verses I can say myself.
I'm from Artemus and Billie's Branch,  fried corn and strong coffee.  From the finger my grandfather lost            to the auger,  the eye my father shut to keep his sight.
Under my bed was a dress box spilling old pictures,  a sift of lost faces to drift beneath my dreams.  I am from those moments-- snapped before I budded -- leaf-fall from the family tree.

19. Ways to Use Quickwrites

20. As a warm-up for a particular lesson or unit
Examples: Ally’s quickwriter for her cooperating teacher’s lesson on talent Milena’s quickwrite to prepare students for their Benchmark test Milena’s quickwrite as a way to discover themes in the novel 1984

21. Use Quickwrites to Teach Grammar
I AM
I am a cook, chopping brussels sprouts, sautéing them in an iron skillet, drizzling them with fig butter. I am a shopping bag, waiting for the next good deal, browsing the aisles TJ Maxx, anticipating the ka-ching of check-out.
I am a sleeping cat, purring as I dream, imagining myself a tiger, waking to pace in the dark. I am a lover of language, listening for your turn of phrase, writing daily, loving grammar always.

22. Watering the Seeds
Quickwrites are the seeds and the beginnings of real pieces of writing.
“Quickwrites get students thinking...”
The key to developing the quickwrites = responding & feedback
“Nudging” the ideas out of the students.
Encourage expansion of the writing... Connect the quickwrites with the lessons!

23. Questions and Discussion