Writing Essentials: Ch7,8,9
Building on your book club discussion from week 2, consider Routman’s advice on teaching writing (e.g., integrating basic skills, organizing for daily writing and talking with students about their writing). What types of expertise do you need to develop in order to follow her advice? What professional dilemmas might you encounter if you attempted to follow her advice in your teaching context? How might you attempt to ‘finesse’ or ‘hybridize’ your literacy instruction?
In looking at these chapters I felt inspired to adapt many writing activities into my daily classroom routine. I think in order to incorporate many of her ideas into my classroom, I would need to develop better time management skills. With Reading and Math taking up most of my current school day, writing is often left out. After reading these chapters, the author gave different "time saver" hints such as when modeling your own writing to not "take suggestions from students...this is your time to demonstrate your thinking and writing." (pg. 148) Another important thought she gave was to have students write on consecutive days if writing can't be incorporated everyday. This helps to keep the flow of their writing as well as keep their minds in a "writing" mindset a little longer.(p.175)
She also discussed working on only working on revisions based on style, making sense of their writing and building vocabulary instead of focusing on conventions. This is something I would need to work on because when I work with students now, I tend to focus more on correct punctuation and spelling. By focusing on things other than conventions, it builds their voice in writing.
Another dilemma I would have to overcome is utilizing our class's word wall to it's fullest potential. She talked about making sure students know how to reference and use the word wall and that it can be more than simply a place to store sight words students have learned.(p. 162-165) I liked her thoughts on really building upon the word wall, because it teaches students to be independent as well as teaching them to use their own resources.
I really enjoyed reading these chapters on developing writing in the classroom because writing is so often over looked, but is so important for students to express themselves and their thinking. Although incorporating writing in everyday learning is a challenge to teachers, after reading these chapters I feel inspired to make a conscious effort to include these imperative skills in my classroom.
ReplyDeleteAmanda,
I feel we are in the same situation with reading and math instruction taking up the bulk of our school days. My students have a short writing block right before lunch and sometimes we don’t always have time for it if we spend too much time on reading. I really like the idea of modeling by the teacher because the teacher can quickly create a writing piece and therefore show his/her students what she is looking for in a shortened time frame without simply lecturing to the students. I saw this method in my TE301 experienced and the students really seemed to be engaged with the modeling and even though they aren’t completely enveloped in the process their attention was still captured.
I really the idea that Routman presents in Writing Essentials of mini lesson because they are quick and also effective and are able to fit into a busy school day filled with reading and writing. I also really like the ideas of these mini lessons being quick and condensed because they are great to match the attention of a young learner. They stick to one topic so the students can focus on improving in one part of writing and not feel overwhelmed. In my classroom right now we are telling our students to make sure they are making spaces, using periods, capitalizing proper letters, and stretch out their words to improve their spelling. I can tell my students are a little overwhelmed by all these demands. So I would like to work on moving to mini lessons to help my students focus on one part of their writing at time so its less overwhelming and see if it in turn overtime lead to better overall writing improvement.
I also need to work on teaching my students to use the word wall. All they know currently is that there is one and that all the important words from our Reading Street units will go on there. However they have no idea that they can reference it for their writing. My mentor and I need to spend time on developing a lesson to let them know that they can use it to improve their spelling, spice up their writing, and allow them to express themselves.
I agree with Emily, I love the idea of mini lessons. They give the students just enough info to help them progress without actually giving to much info and demands. In my class right now we are doing a oral language unit. This is to lead up to starting our writing. I love it. Its getting the students to understand that the stories they tell orally are just the same but you write them. This is also good because the students are still getting "writer's Workshop" even though many of them don't know how to write their letters.
ReplyDeleteAmanda I also like that you talked about focusing on more than just conventions. I know that I had trouble in writing because the convention aspect was hard for me. With that being so hard, I do not like to write. If I had learned more or it other aspects might have been focused more, I might like to write better.
Since my students are not really doing much "writing" right now, I am excited to see how it progresses over the school year. I am excited to take what I have read in the chapters and hopefully apply some of these thoughts to my students throughout the year.
In my classroom, we're doing writer's workshop every day and each session begins with a mini lesson. These mini lessons have covered topics like expectations, the writing conference and using resources in the room to help you during your writing. Through modeling during these mini lessons the students have learned and seen what kind of environment we want to see during writer's workshop, one that is focused and encourages respect, the sharing of ideas, and constant improvement. The students get 20 minutes to grab their workshop notebooks (that will hold all of their writing pieces for the year), go over their writing from the day before, decide if it's finished, chat with a friend about what they want to write about that day and then get to work on their writing. Throughout the writer's workshop, we go around to a few students and have a writer's conference. We give them suggestions on what they can do to improve their writing (spacing, including the details they talk about, working on their letters...) and then we share the students' improvement with the whole class at the end of the time slot.
ReplyDeleteI already felt like my teacher knew what she was doing and had a great system going for writing practice but after reading these chapters, there's no doubt about it. As Routman suggests, the writer's workshop in my class does not focus on a linear idea of prewrite->draft->revise->edit->publish but a continuation of sharing your ideas, writing them on paper and learning what you can do to make yourself a stronger writer. Time is not dedicated for the whole class to practice punctuation one day but each student's writing is individually looked at suggestions are made on a one-on-one basis. Also going along with Routman's ideas, my teacher demonstrates writing very often (either by modeling it herself or sharing student work with the class) and uses each of the four styles of conversations to encourage during writing time.
It's only been three weeks and I'm really excited to see where writing practice goes from here!
Sorry to hear that some of you are having trouble viewing writing. My students have time to write everyday. After reading them a story we have them write based on a similar experience in their own life. This helps to improve the students reading and writing. The students are able to use the book as a resource to help them think about their own life experiences. Often the students have to recall what occurred in the story in order for them to write. They are told to retell the story. Going over the story again builds their comprehension and aids them in being able to retell stories about their on life. Also, before the students write about these experiences they have to brainstorm possible topics which is considered their pre-write. After this they are to write and then they share as a class. So we do a version prewrite, write, and publish as well. My teacher has a wonderful system for making students engaged in writing. Once students hear a great story, they want to write their own. Then they are eager to share them for the class. And as teachers we also do the writing and share our writings because this makes students more comfortable in the class setting. Our writing sessions turn out well everyday.
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