Uncovering Objectives

Today, as the first step in the Writing for Change unit, I gave my sixth grade students the opportunity to gripe. Oh my goodness, such a positive reaction to any assignment I have not seen in a long time. "Really?" one student asked, "You want us to write a list of complaints?"

"Oh, yes," I told them, "I do."

"Can we use names?" someone wondered.

"Better not," I said. "Describe the behavior that irks you, not the person."

"Can it be anything?" another asked.

"Yes. Anything that bothers you, large or small."

They worked diligently for 15 minutes or so, and then it was time to share their concerns, but first we talked about how to respond. "Don't offer solutions," I advised. "Don't minimize the problem by saying it doesn't bother you, and don't make the conversation about you by saying it does. If you have to say anything, just say you can see how that would be frustrating, or embarrassing, or whatever."

That was hard for them, and it was hard for me, too. Hard to let it go when someone complained about boys who skip, girls who are ugly but try to dress cool, people who wear the wrong color shoes. Those were probably the most shallow, but most of the concerns they chose to share were minor irritations at best: People who give away the ending to the book you're reading, people who snap gum, too much homework on the weekends, cold pizza at lunch, teachers who say, "I'm waiting," getting in trouble the one time you haven't done anything, having your grandmother tell her life story to the cashier at the grocery store, dancing in PE, and so forth.

I liked how concrete they were, though, and I told them so. "But if you look at your list for more serious problems, what do you have?"

Of course they had plenty of big issues, too: Natural disasters, animal cruelty, hunger, homelessness, poverty, government spending, lack of respect for religion, random violence, smoking, diseases, etc. They were still listing as the bell rang.

I over heard two girls talking as they left the room. "That was great!" said one. "We actually got to complain in school!"

"I know," her friend answered, "but why do you think we did that? Wait! Do you think we are going to use writing to actually do something?"

(Click here for today's sample of my 6th grade students' response to the SOLSC challenge.)