NaNoWriMo :: NaNoWriMo Blog

This is my twelfth year as an English teacher and first year with a section of creative writing. When I found out a couple of weeks before school started that I would be teaching this class, I had NO CLUE how to go about it. I spoke to a few other English teachers and did some oneline research, which is when I discovered NaNoWriMo. Teaching inner-city high school has its special joys and frustrations - one of the frustrations is the number of students who read and write significantly below grade level; one of the joys, the willingness of my students to work.

When I first introduced the idea and had all of the students sign on the website one day, I think they thought I'd lost my mind. The class has students from all grade levels, so I set minimum word counts per grade level: 9th = 10,000; 10th= 15,000; 11th=20,000; 12th= 25,000. At first, the students were a little intimidated by the word counts, but most soon got into the swing of things. Of the 34 students in the class, 17 of them met their words wounts and 5 of then exceeded their word counts. I posted the chart, created certificates of achievement and of participation and had a little party the first week in December - all of the school administrators signed the certificates, and the principal attended the ceromony.

I could not be prouder of my students who really did an excellent job. Even students who did not meet their word count wrote more in the month of November than they ever have before - especially the 9th graders.

I'm really looking forward to next year.

Angela Cobb
Compton High School