Stories of Tomorrow: How the Joy of Writing Spreads...

Tomorrow’s stories start in all sorts of places: on the drive to work, or at the movie theater. One constant source of inspiration? The classrooms that tackle NaNoWriMo through our Young Writers Program. YWP educator Connie Greenlee tells us about watching the joy of writing become infectious:

My husband first participated in NaNoWriMo nine or ten years ago and noticed the Young Writers Program on the website. He encouraged me to use NaNoWriMo with my 4th grade students. The first year was really an experiment, and so successful that I’ve been doing it every year since.

At first, some said that NaNoWriMo doesn’t fit the curriculum and were hesitant about the value of it. But these doubts and hesitations went away when they saw how engaged and excited the kids are about writing and how that engagement continues on year after year. Allowing the students to choose what they write about is very empowering for them. There are often results that I don’t expect.

One of the really surprising results is how often the students want to write. They work on their novels at home in the evening and on the weekend, they write at recess, they ask to write any time they have a free moment. They talk about their writing when they are walking down the hall, at lunch, and on the playground. They discuss with each other characters and setting and what will happen next. When another student is stuck, they willingly make suggestions to help them get un-stuck.

A couple of times during November, I invite students to join me on Friday nights at a local restaurant. We write and talk about writing for a couple of hours.  Even past students will ask to join us. One restaurant patron called us an “elite writing group.” (That was fun to overhear!) I love that nine and ten year olds will get their parents to take them to write on a Friday night.

Also, kids no longer say they can’t write, don’t want to write, or struggle to complete a writing assignment. They have confidence in themselves and know they can accomplish anything. Their confidence and stamina for writing carries on to future years.

One of my favorite memories was when one of my boys came to me at the end of our NaNo time and said, “Mrs. Greenlee, I’m 5 words away from 5,000!”  He was so excited. I told him to go write those 5 words. A couple of years ago, I had a blended class that included students from different grades. At least two of those students during their second year of NaNoWriMo wrote over 20,000 words—pretty amazing for fourth graders.

Younger students in our school know about NaNoWriMo. When they come into my classroom on the first day of school, they will ask if we are going to do NaNoWriMo that year. They can’t wait! It changes every student’s attitude about writing, from something they might resist or dread, to something they look forward to and enjoy.

NaNoWriMo has spread from just one classroom in our school to all the intermediate classrooms. As the program continues, I would like to see parents dropping in to write with their children, the entire school—teachers, students, and every person working in our school—writing together in the gym.

Connie Greenlee teaches at West Union Elementary School in Hillsboro, Oregon. She has taught NaNoWriMo for 8 or 9 years and personally participated in NaNo each year with her students, finishing 50,000 words twice.