Student writers learn about words – and worms

It was a bright and mild afternoon. I was surrounded by people, short ones.

A box containing at least one worm sat on a table.

“Are you going to watch our worm play?” one of the kids asked me. I was intrigued.

Would the worm be performing tricks?

Turns out the student meant worm play as in worm-staged drama. Of course.

These kids were writers. No, I wasn’t able to see the worm play, but I did see two other performances at Jefferson Elementary School last Thursday, the day of the school’s second annual Literacy Fair.

The plays were revisited versions of “The Three Little Pigs” (in which the big bad wolf is actually Conjoined Twins Big Bad Wolf – “We can’t actually stick ourselves together,” one half of the wolf explained to me before the show, “so we just have to hold hands”) and “Charlotte’s Web.”

The latter was told by a group of students dangling tiny figures from strings, and in their version – spoiler alert – the pig dies. There was some grumbling from the rest of the class about the ending, which was kind of subtle.

“It sounds like we’ve had some inferences here,” said substitute teacher Erin Schmidt, operating the video camera and seizing a teaching moment all at the same time.

Writing is big at Jefferson, in the Comstock neighborhood, where in a Montessori class of first-, second- and third-graders they’re talking about inferences.

(Worms are also big. Did you know that worms have five hearts? Or that, although worms have both male and female reproductive parts, “it takes two worms to tango”? It’s all right there on a trifold presentation board.)

I spent time at the school last year as part of the Writers in the Community program through Eastern Washington University’s creative writing program, talking with older students about characterization and personal essays and how if you’re interviewing someone for a research-based piece, you have to take notes really fast.

Last week, I visited during Jefferson’s Literacy Fair to talk to a younger group about that crucial element of literature – setting. I know very little about teaching or children in general, and I made Ms. Schmidt promise to step in if anyone started throwing anything.

No need to worry. These students had business to attend to.

A year ago Jefferson started devoting more time to improving teachers’ skills in teaching writing, Principal Mary-Dean Wooley told me. The school used grant money awarded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation to Spokane Public Schools through a project called Spokane High Achieving and Performing Schools to pay for extra teacher training.

The help is paying off, she said. The students are writing, researching, expressing themselves.

During my visit last week, the first-, second- and third-graders and I talked about time and place and details and description, and they did some impromptu writing, describing where they lived.

“I hear my little sister screaming for chicken,” wrote Shilo Stuart. “I see my aunt cooking chicken. I smell peppermint. I taste pure water. I feel cold. I like everything just now.”

“My mom thinks that we live in a haunted house because there are so many cobwebs and spiders,” wrote Todd Bloom. “My house is running with mice. My brother catches a mouse every day.”

Here’s what a few other students wrote about the settings of their lives:

“”I have a pretty big house. I have a small room. The office is a mess. Basement is a little bit messy. Mom and Dad’s room is really messy. My sister’s room is messy. My room is pretty messy, not that much of a mess.” – Jeff Kuney

“”In my house I hear the sound of my dad making bread. I hear my sister talking to my mom from upstairs. I smell chocolate. I taste pure water.” – Hannah Moss

“”My room is a big room. It has a green carpet, and white shelves, a bunk bed, a foosball table a pool table a pingpong table all in one. My cat was starving when we found her. She has a long tail and a little strip of red fur and brown and black hair under her chin.” – Quinn Norton

“”I hear wind. I smell flowers. I see my house. I am laying in the grass. I am sitting in a tree. I am reading a book. I want to be a mail carrier when I grow up.” – Reyna Flores

I can see it all now.

After my classroom visit, I checked out the Literacy Fair in the gym, where each class’s work was displayed on colorful presentation boards and there was enough apple juice for everyone.

A class of first-graders offered writing tips as part of their presentations.

“When I write, I try and remember to use capitals and periods,” wrote Caitlyn LeClair, author of the laminated, bound and illustrated “My Dogs and Cats Went Away.”

“Write good words and use ellipses … write something that is real,” suggested Claire Mann, who wrote “Going to See Happy Feet.”

Superlative advice … for any writer.