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Tools for a Writing Classroom: Revision Post-It Notes
using an office supply to generate discussions about writing among students Scene: A school cafeteria after hours. A group sits in folding chairs. Corbett stands. He seems reluctant to speak, but he finally does. Corbett: Hello, my name is Corbett Harrison, and I've become a Post-It addict. Everyone else: Hi, Corbett! Corbett: It started innocently enough. In my office, a lot of birthday cards go across our desks. I got tired of thinking up different witty blurbs to write next to my signature before passing the card on to the next well-wisher. So early one morning, I took a goofy picture of myself, shrunk it down to the size of a Post-It, then determinedly figured out how to actually print it on a yellow sticky note. I always had plenty of Post-It notes on my desk. It seemed like the logical thing to do. The next time a birthday card came to me, I was just going to stick one of these personalized Post-Its inside the card in lieu of a signature and witty quip. It was exhilarating. Before that morning was over, I had made a template in Microsoft Word that allowed me to fit six square-shaped Post-Its on one 8.5 by 11" piece of paper. Six at a time. I tell you, I printed enough Post-Its that first day to cover me for a year of office birthday cards. Corbett takes a sip of coffee. He struggles to continue. Soon birthday cards weren't enough. I discovered I could print things on Post-It notes that would help my students learn better: daily objectives, directions for group tasks, riddles. If you could say it in 50 words or less, I could print it on a Post-It, and my students seemed more engaged when tasks and ideas came to them in Post-It form. The big ah-ha came when I created Post-It checklists for all six writing traits. Yeah, when trait Post-Its came to my writers workshop, that's when I knew I was addicted. My students started using those little stickies as their 'scripts' when I made them talk about the writing they were working on. That little note in their hands changed their conversations. They had gotten pretty good at remembering to use trait language when they responded to each other's writing and prepared to embark on revision, but now...oh my. Almost nothing came out of their mouths but trait language when they had a Post-It note to remind them. Other teachers started noticing what I was doing, and my Post-It problem infected the school. The Northern Nevada Writing Project suggested I put the Post-It notes in their marvelous workbook for teachers: The Going Deep with 6 Trait Language Guide, which I did. If you purchase a copy of that 194-page guide, not only will you support the growth of this website, but you will also have all the versions of Post-Its I had created up until the time the guide was published. The original six Post-Its are available below on this page, complete with instructions on how to print them on actual Post-Its, which is optional; they work just as well run-off on colored paper and then stapled to students' papers. Corbett sighs. Sips coffee again. Nods. Continues. But I can't stop. Since 2005, I continue to make new Post-It notes that improve student learning. In my trainings for teachers, I give them out. If you can't make it to my trainings, then I invite you to stop by my website (http://corbettharrison.com) and purchase them for pretty cheap. Once you see the power of these Post-Its in your students' hands, you might become addicted to them too. |
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