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I am a believer in blogging for kids. My students have been blogging all year. I require three posts a week, “It’s Monday, What are you reading?”, Slice of Life, and Poetry Friday. Since Christmas break one of my 4th grade boys has been writing a story. This has been beyond the three required posts, so I was giving him bonus points. I’ve asked him about it a few times because I wasn’t understanding what was going on. He vaguely answered my questions. I did realize he was writing about a game, but I figured he was writing, and he was using creative language. I did not find the posts at all violent until this last one.
Another boy student was reading over the shoulder of a first grader new to my gifted group. He exclaimed, “This story is not appropriate! It is about a scary game!” So I Googled the game “Five Nights at Freddy’s.” Sure enough, the rating is over 14. My student is not yet 10. What should I do?
I talked to the student and asked him to take down the story. I told him that he was a very good writer, but I wanted to read a story that he had made up on his own. He actually started writing a fiction story in writing workshop, so I encouraged him to post it.
Here is a portion of one of the Freddy stories:
I heard the phone ring. “Hey, you’re doing great” the phone said. “Thanks! I’m working hard.” I said back. “I nearly had five heart attacks, survived one night, plus I’ve had 3 positive heart attacks and 6 seizures!” “Well, you must be having a rough time.” The phone said disappointingly. “You have 4 more nights, including this one.” “Let me work, I must finish this.” I said, angrily. The phone hung up. “Good.” I said to myself. Suddenly, I heard a laugh. It was deep, like a bullfrog’s voice. I closed all the doors. I didn’t care. I checked on the lights. A bear was there, and I think he’s called Freddy.
Looking at this piece from a teacher’s perspective, the writing is good. Dialogue is strong. Punctuation is all in the right place. But my other student had a point; It was a violent game that would end in the death of the player. And these story posts would encourage other young kids to want to play it.
What would Ralph Fletcher do? I gave my young boy writers his book Guy Write which encourages boys to write about things they are interested in. After reading Ralph’s book, I let up on the rule of no violence or no body functions (like farts.) But this one slammed me in the face. When other students feel that it shouldn’t be allowed, I had to react. And the boy writer was compliant. He did not seem at all upset, in fact. Could it be he felt he was getting away with something he shouldn’t have?
What would Ralph Fletcher do? What would you do?
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This is a tough one. I, too, encourage my kids to write about what they know. I ease up on some of the “death” things because they usually write about Minecraft and the characters sort of disappear instead of dying. If they get too graphic or write about guns, I have to remind them that our school has a zero tolerance policy about this. I think boys playing cops and robbers or cowboys with guns is an age old thing that they will do regardless of culture, but I also feel like when we help them see things at an early age, we help them in the social world. For example, I talk about using other people’s names and images in their blog posts because what you might think is funny to share at the lunch table is devastating up on the internet. The earlier they learn that the better. I think we always know right and wrong and should use our instincts to help us. This boy didn’t seem to be angry about your choice. Perhaps you should let him know he can share that in a journal but the blog is not so private and should be respected for it’s public availability. Thanks for sharing. Food for thought.
Plus–I want us to make bracelets that say WWRFD!
Love the bracelet idea! I agree we need to have conversations about digital citizenship. I did explain that the reason I wanted him to take them down was I have younger students who will read it. I wasn’t angry. Neither was he. We set the tone for a respectful conversation. Thanks for linking up.
Wow – this is so hard. I’ve heard several male authors talk about violence and stories and how we shouldn’t crack down on the use of it in boys’ writing – we female teachers tend to do that too often. Ralph Fletcher, like you said, and Jonathan Auxier come to mind. However, in today’s zero tolerance and school violence atmospheres, it’s scary to let it go by. I think your conversations with the student are valuable, and I also think it’s worth talking to the students who objected to it – as viewers, readers, and consumers, they have a responsibility, too. If they don’t like something, they don’t have to read, view, or buy it. There are all kinds of things out there online that they’re not going to like, and they need to be discerning. I like Kimberley’s point about the blog being a public forum, though, and to encourage him to take that kind of writing to a journal. I just had that conversation with my students about taking Kidblog public. They shouldn’t be writing anything on a blog that they don’t want public – that stuff goes in a journal or diary.
I think it’s about audience. I have a few students writing “fanfiction” which is what this boy is doing. I like the idea of that to help writers begin. I’d suggest that he write it in a place for a limited audience because of the age restrictions on that game. It sounds like he gets it. I think the conversations with the student is the key! Talking to them and asking questions often (not always) can make the decisions we have to make easier. 🙂
It’s never easy, is it? I wrestle with this boy writer/reader issue often as I think it puts boys in boxes. If we aren’t careful we begin to send the message of boy books and girl books / boy writing and girl writing. There are too many amazing characters to limit a child’s reading (or writing). Of course, the public nature of this writing makes it an even greater challenge.
It seems the two of you had a good conversation and together have found a solution. Michelle is right that many students participate in fan fiction. I know as I writer I’m always trying to be careful to work on writing in a variety of genres. Maybe this is another way to look at this. How can he expand into new genres and continue to grow as a writer?
Thanks for hosting again.
Cathy
Tara Smith and I have had digital conversations about this very topic. It has been a hard call for me because I have Ralph Fletcher’s voice resonating in my head. In the end, I decided to be as Tara put it “the adult in the room” and take video gaming out of the mix for narrative writing, leaving it to the opinion and informational types of writing.
While I didn’t want to cut their voices off, my students’ storytelling abilities were rather limited in this micro genre. For them it seemed it wasn’t a great way to develop their narrative skills. I think you need to consider the audience, the genre and your student abilities and tastes before making the decision; asking how am I honoring the writer’s development as well as the audiences’ sensitivities. The conversation you had with the writer show you valued his interests but also his classmates. You did what was right for your classroom community and I think that is what Ralph would do! Thank you for instigating the conversation.
I admire both you and Tara and value your opinion. Their writing is limited to the story line of the game which is not their own. I hope my student can move on to his own original work. We’ll see. Thanks for chiming in on the discussion. Seems like I’m not the only one with this dilemma.
I wonder if you could find some mentor texts that does use video gaming as a narrative structure, without the violence. I struggle with this, too, but come down on the side of “this is school and we don’t allow violence” even if it shuts off some authentic voices. That’s just the way it is …
Kevin
I would like to find mentor texts because this comes up often. Thanks for your advice. I value your opinion.