National Novel Writing Month - Release the Inner Writer
Your students can write a 50,000 word novel in a month.
By Erin Bailey
There are many significant days, weeks and months throughout the year that you can use in your classroom to create an awareness and understanding of various cultural groups, historical events, and important issues. For example, in November your students could learn about American Indian Heritage, Aviation History, or even write a novel. One of my favorite observances, however, is National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo). If you’re like me, this novel writing event went unnoticed until recently, but it is gaining in popularity. In 1999, only 21 people participated, by 2010, however, there were nearly 200,000 writers who took part in the event.
Here's What National Novel Writing Month Entails
Beginning on November 1st, participants sign up on the NaNoWriMo website. The goal is for each participant to write a 50,000 word novel before November 30th. The original intent of the organizers was to provide support for those ambitious enough to try to hammer out roughly 175 pages in a month (this is about four pages a day). The group that sponsors this event has a website, provides workshops on writing, and has links to local groups that meet to work on their novels. By participating in this event, teachers have an incentive to teach writing, and students are given the freedom to write, write, write - the focus is on quantity, not quality.
Everyone Can Participate
The elementary years are the time to help students shape their attitudes toward learning, and that is particularly important with writing. The younger a child is when they discover how fun writing can be, the more likely they are to enjoy writing later in life. As a teacher, your first response to this project may be, “Oh, my students could never accomplish something that big.” However, they may surprise you. Organizers insist that younger students have an easier time meeting this goal because they use their imaginations so often during playtime. Younger students also do not have a strong inner editor that hisses “this is no good.” The focus shifts from writing to storytelling, and kids are great storytellers!
Middle and high school students have nearly all the tools they need to write lengthier pieces—well rehearsed grammar rules, bigger vocabularies, and a broader exposure to various genres. The biggest challenges teachers face when working with older students are overcoming negative attitudes toward writing and silencing the inner editor I mentioned before. Writers in this group are less likely to believe that anything they write is worth reading. That’s one reason NaNoWriMo works so well for them. Rather than worrying about choosing exactly the right word, or perfecting a character description, students have permission to just tell their story. If you’re going to write 50,000 words in such a short period, you don’t have much time to edit, which means accepting that not everything you write will be perfect. Again, the focus is on quantity, not quality. It can be very liberating to know that perfection is not the goal.
Even Kindergarten Students Can Get Involved
Teachers of students who are not yet reading can participate as well. You might decide to have your students write a class novel or have volunteers write down stories students share orally. Students can also draw their stories and add words later. For this age group, the focus is on developing story elements—characters, setting, plot, etc. Each year they will be able to stretch their story farther.
The NaNoWriMo website is full of great lesson plans to get teachers started. They are sorted by grade level and feature tips on breaking the project into manageable pieces and keeping students motivated. What follows are more writing lessons and activities.
Writing Lesson Plans:
What a Pair! A Cross-Grade Writing Activity
Older students interview younger students and then write a story that features the younger child as the main character. This lesson provides students a motivating way to get started on a story, often the most difficult part of writing. It also gives them a built-in audience.
High school students examine photographs from the New York Times and write a story. This gives students a visual way to spur on their writing, and provides a way to supply story ideas.
Early elementary students use what they learned in lessons from Reader’s Theatre and Writing Workshop to write big books about famous Americans. This is a good way to combine writing and history. By choosing famous Americans as the topic, students also have a concrete way to start their writing.
Adding Strong Voice to Your Writing
This lesson will help upper elementary students find their own strong writing voice. After reading picture books that demonstrate a strong voice, students will revise pieces of their writing to strengthen it.
Using A Dog’s Life as the model, students write from the perspective of a character in their story. This lesson can help students learn how to write in the first-person and sequence events in a story.