C R E AT I V E W R I T I N G A N D T H E C O M M O N C O R E How to “How-to” A Versatile Form Inspires Writing across the Curriculum OLIVIA BIRDSALL Vintage telephone etiquette primer, 1951. I t is a truth universally acknowledged that we all know how to do stuff. Whether it’s tying our shoelaces, keeping a houseplant alive, spelling our names, making new friends, speaking French, or cooking spaghetti, we all know how to do something. Lots of things, in fact. Which is why, when I asked a group of fourthgraders in the Bronx to come up with topics for the how-to articles we were going to write—things that they were experts in, or that they just knew how to do—I was shocked by the responses I received. “I don’t have anything to write about,” several students insisted. “I don’t know how to do anything,” a few others moaned. “Did your brother dress you and brush your teeth and chew your breakfast this morning?” I asked Angelica. “No,” she said, smiling. “Does your teacher do your homework for you? Or throw the baseball for you when you are the pitcher at a baseball game?” I teased Fernando. “No way!” Olivia Birdsall is the author of the award-winning young adult novel Notes on a Near-Life Experience. A senior language lecturer in the Expository Writing Program at New York University, Birdsall also teaches creative writing for t&w in New York City public schools and at the Sarah Lawrence College summer writing program. She dreams of being able to write how-to’s for making a perfect pie crust and jet-lag-free travel. 15 “Well, then, it looks like you might actually know how to do more than you think,” I told them. “Yeah, but we don’t know how to write it down and make it an article,” Angelica said. I told them we could work on that part, but that the first step was just to write down at least three things that they knew how to do, or that they liked doing, or that they were good at. T he Common Core State Standards require students to take what they’ve learned in one subject and combine it with skills or knowledge from other subjects in order to reinforce learning in all subjects. However, its re-contextualization, re-phrasing, and re-arrangement of skills and knowledge has left many of us feeling the way my students did: as if we don’t know anything, or as if what we know doesn’t translate into what the Common Core requires. But we teachers know a lot, and meeting the Common Core standards may not be as daunting as it seems. I teach how-to lessons a lot because they are so versatile. These how-tos can be written in the form of instructional articles, essays, recipes, poems, comic strips, or storyboards. With a little imagination, howtos can be effectively adapted for science, social studies, history, and language arts classes. They are an excellent means of helping students to develop ordering and sequencing skills, discover and show cause-effect Winter 2013–2014 Olivia Birdsall [These lessons] allow students and teachers to practice the kind of cross-curricular crosspollination that the Common Core standards encourage. How-to lessons have Common Core written all over them! relationships, use transitional and sequential phrasing, and ensure that students can transfer information into their own words. And they allow students and teachers to practice the kind of cross-curricular cross-pollination that the Common Core standards encourage. How-to lessons have Common Core written all over them! To see other lessons on using creative writing to support the Common Core, go to www.twc.org/magazine. Anatomy of a How-to Here are the f ive basic steps of writing a how-to. You can write this list on the board, or print it out to distribute to students in class. 1. Introduction: Every how-to exercise should begin with a few sentences about what is being taught and why. The introduction should pique readers’ interest in the how-to, and entice them to keep reading. 2. Ingredients/Materials Needed: Have the students make a list of all of the materials needed to complete the how-to. It is often helpful to leave extra space in this list, so that overlooked materials can be added as students write the directions for their how-tos. 3. Directions: The descriptions of the steps for completing the how-to should be clear, concise, written in a logical order, and use effective sequencing and transitional language. Depending on the grade and subject level, teachers may want to require that a certain number of vocabulary words, mathematical and scientific concepts, historical facts, plot points, etc., be included and explained. 4.Tips/Suggestions: Throughout a how-to, tips for modifying the activity to suit different needs, tastes, and preferences can be given. 5. Conclusion: Once the directions have been given, how-tos should end with a few sentences of encouragement, and ideas about the possible outcomes, uses, or implications of the how-to. 16 Teachers & Writers Magazine In The Classroom How-to Lesson Plan OLIVIA BIRDSALL H ere are the basics steps I follow when I present my how-to lesson plan, along with examples of how I used this lesson with my fourth-grade students. I include some suggestions for modifying this lesson for different subjects and different writing forms at the end of this article, but the possibilities for variation are endless. Materials needed can be successful in the new tasks I ask them to undertake. Part of my strategy is to make sure that they are aware of what they already know, or know how to do, that will help them in the new task we are undertaking. I like to ask students to help me review the skills we already have. In the case of my fourthgraders, I asked them to remind me what we learned in previous classes about details, why they were important, and how to choose which details to include in a piece of writing. Review anatomy/basic steps of how-tos • A model how-to (Try to find one that works with the subject you’re working in. See the list of ideas for models at the end of this article.) • Any materials associated with your model howto (should you choose to do an activity as part of reviewing your model) •Blackboard/SmartBoard •Chalk/Markers • Writer’s notebook/paper •Pencil Directions Connect how-to lesson to prior lessons/ knowledge It’s important to me that students believe that they 17 After we review the importance of details, I ask my students what they know about how-tos, and we discuss the basic steps (shown on the previous page), writing them in the correct order on the board. Demonstrate or review a model how-to With my fourth-grade students, I chose to model a how-to by demonstrating making a peanut butter sandwich, writing out the steps with the students as I proceeded. Before I began making the sandwich, I asked students to help me brainstorm a list of materials. Initially, they said I’d only need peanut butter, bread, and jelly. But, when we moved on to the directions, we realized that we’d left out a knife and plate, so we added them to our list. Winter 2013–2014 Olivia Birdsall I called on various students to give me directions, Give students time to write their own and through a comical series of trials and errors, the how-tos importance of details was reinforced. For example, Depending on the grade level and subject, graphic when the first student I called on told me to, “put organizers can be used for this. With my fourththe peanut butter on the bread,” I smeared a line of graders, we reviewed the basic anatomy of the peanut butter across the top of an entire loaf of bread. how-to (Introduction, Materials, Directions, Tips, This led to students giving much more detailed inConclusion), discussed how to organize the page, and structions throughout the rest of the demonstration. wrote the how-to without a graphic organizer. I like “Take one piece of bread and spread a layer of peanut to circulate throughout the room to answer questions, butter over one side of it.” We wrote these instrucmake suggestions, and offer encouragement while tions on the board, discussing the chronology of the students write. instructions, sequencing and transitional language, clarity and specificity as we went along. Invite students to share their how-tos with I asked my students to write out this how-to in the class their writer’s notebooks as I This aspect of how-to-ing is made the sandwich, encouragThe how-to is a fun, novel my favorite. Students get to ing them to put the instructions into their own words, and means of helping students share their unique voices, their expertise, and their hard work add their own details and tips to process the stuff that with their classmates. as well. You can also distribute copies of a model, go over it they are learning, organize e know how to do a lot with students, and have them it, and put it into a new of stuff, and we have take notes on it (marking the parts of the how-to, underlin- form, using their own words the capacity to learn and do even more. The how-to is a ing good use of details, vocabuand imaginations. fun, novel means of helping lary, transitional words, etc.) as students process the stuff that you read and discuss it. I enjoy they are learning, organize it, and put it into a new doing this demonstration because I get to share the form, using their own words and imaginations. My sandwiches I’ve made with students as they write (I fourth-grade students wrote basic how-tos about evmake enough for the class in advance). erything from throwing a perfect spiral in football, to making scrambled eggs, to making new friends. They Assign or give students time to choose a topic wrote about topics with which they felt comfortable for a model how-to while enhancing the informational writing skills emDepending on the subject and desired learning outphasized in the Common Core. But the how-to also comes for this activity, you may choose to assign topoffers infinite possibilities for imaginative variations, ics to students rather than letting them select their as well as further cross-curricular work and core curown. riculum enhancement. Because my demonstration took the majority of the class period, I ended the first class session by askVariations ing students to brainstorm and list at least three ideas for their own “how-tos.” With a brief demonstration, Variations on the How-to Form it might be possible to move on to the next step in a Although the how-to seems straightforward, its wellsingle class period. W 18 Teachers & Writers Magazine In the Classroom known formula actually opens up a wonderful space for play and imagination. In addition to the standard form, how-tos can take the form of: •poems: www.poetryfoundation.org/poetrymagazine/ poem/30299 •recipes: www.simplyrecipes.com/recipes/how_to_ boil_and_eat_lobster • comics or storyboards: wikihow.com/make-a-comic • short stories: www.nytimes.com/books/98/09/20/ specials/moore-writer.html • and even plays, songs, or films. Using the How-to in Various Subjects Science: Writing how-tos can help students master the concepts they are learning in science class and see their applications in the world beyond the classroom. Students can write step-by-step descriptions of metamorphosis, photosynthesis, chemical reactions, the classification of living organisms, and other scientific processes. More advanced grades and students can identify the practical applications of what they learn in the classroom and write how-tos that demonstrate scientific concepts at work (e.g., the changing states of matter seen when boiling water to make rice or spaghetti). Writing about scientific experiments and discoveries via the scientific method can also be seen as a how-to of sorts. Social Studies: When it comes to social studies, writing a how-to can help students better understand the people, places, and events they are learning about, by asking them to process the knowledge differently. Students can write how-tos based on political events, movements, and trends (how to start a revolution, how to build a pyramid, how to get the right to vote, how to write a constitution). These types of how-tos can help students find patterns across history, see relationships between the past and present more clearly, and understand the implications and relevance of what they are studying. Language Arts: Because they are such great tools for re-thinking and re-framing information, how-tos 19 can be used to re-frame and reinforce what is being taught in the English classroom as well. They can be assigned as book reports or as a means of accounting for the plot of a story (how to solve the mystery of the old clock, how to survive the Hunger Games); character development studies (how to stop being a wimpy kid, how to grow up); a way of accounting for patterns in literature (how to be an epic hero, how to construct a tragedy); or a means of defining important terms, philosophies, or ideas (how to write a simile, how to be an existentialist). Online How-to Models and Demonstrations How to Make Stuffed Celery Sticks www.howtodothings.com/food-drink/how-to-make-stuffed-celerysticks A simple recipe, helps students to focus strictly on specificity and sequencing. How to Make a Sun Print www.timeforkids.com/files/homework_helper/aplus_papers/ HowtoArticleSampler.pdf Science model, can be modified to include explanations of the scientific phenomena at work. How to Create a Credible Villain in Fiction www.wikihow.com/Create-a-Credible-Villain-in-Fiction Literary model, can be modified for specific characters or character types, or to discuss a book through its literary genre. How to Do Long Division www.coolmath4kids.com/long-division/long-division-lesson-1.html How to Start a Revolution www.wikihow.com/Start-a-Revolution Great for a history or social studies unit on the French, American, Russian, Egyptian, etc. revolutions/uprisings. Winter 2013–2014