Chapters 9, 10 & 13 Reflections and Thoughts

The first thing that stood out to me was a quote on the first page of chapter 9, "The teaching we do surrounds that active learning and is meant to push it and support it in important ways". I thought it was interesting that they were saying they should learn from the materials provided, from themselves, trial and error, their classmates etc. As teachers it is not our job to shove more material down their throats, we are simple to guide and facilitate this self-growth. Of course there are focus lessons and conferences that will be directly engaging the students and teaching them ways to go about their writing, but then you have to set them free to explore these concepts on their own and feel them out, learn them by doing them.

The next thing that I noticed that I kind of said "yeah right" to is the time component. Although we spend more time on reading, writing and math than science or social studies in any given elementary classroom, that does not mean we can set out students free to write for hours on end each day. Now that may be an exaggeration but I look at the classrooms I have been in and try to envision a large allotment of time for just writing and it is nearly impossible. I guess, though, in the books defense, it did not lay out a specific amount of time and even 15 minutes of free writing a day for the students would be better than nothing. That seems do-able.

The section in chapter 10 about demonstration really spoke to me. Coming from Cobb county and spending a lot of time in Clarke county I sometimes find it difficult to relate to my students. Of course I find similarities when I can and feel I am very supportive and accepting of them regardless of whether or not their culture and home life is similar to mine. But I have always envied teachers that and truly relate to their students. I like what this chapter was saying about how by simply writing... writing in everyday life, writing in the classroom, setting aside time to write just for you like we ask our students to do automatically opens a window for us to be able to relate to them. YAY! haha I finally have a common ground on which I can relate to many of my students I never thought of before. Of course I will better understand them as writers if I know myself as one. Some of their strengths and weaknesses, triumphs and struggles might very well be the same as mine. It almost seems ridiculous to ask them to write when we don’t ask ourselves to experience it too. How cool would it be to share something of our own with the students? Show them that while I might know the right tools to become a decent writer, I am by no means perfect and can feel vulnerable about things I write too.

I would like to note I LOVE the portion about not giving "writing homework". As instructors we need to be diving right in with the students mid process to give them the best guidance.

I like the part in chapter 10 about how you can learn strategies to help you write. It does not mean every students needs to produce 3 examples of each strategy or technique, but when the door is opened to new things, a student might discover they love writing a certain type of poem, or if they draw a diagram first their narratives flow so much easier or that when they share their writing with their father it is a bonding time between the two of them... and the list goes on. In any case, I think strategies for becoming better writers are not a list of things all writers can do, but more of a list of things good writers can turn to and utilize to become better writers.

Well I am only halfway through the readings and have rambled on forever! I will continue reading and stop there with the writing for now :)

Websites

I want to keep a blog post of great websites. I will continue to edit and add as I learn about great new teaching resources!

www.tagxedo.com - A lot like wordle but you can put it into different shapes and whatnot. I made one on a list of memories I constantly add to between me and my fiance Michael <3

www.wordle.com

www.writingfix.com

www.piclits.com  An interesting site in which you can put text on top of provided pictures to illustrate an idea. We did one in class about a focus lesson.

http://www.piclits.com/viewpoem.aspx?PoemId=82581


See the full PicLit at PicLits.com

http://www.twitter.com/ search: comments4kids  --> teachers invite the public to comment on their students' work! So cool

Narratives

What does a narrative entail?

• Characters
• Dialogue
• Plot/storyline
• Descriptive language
• Conflict (problem) and resolution
•  Can be conversational or formal
• Chronology/order
• Attention to emotion
• Setting

Awesome Book: "Abe Lincoln Crosses a Creek" by Deborah Hopkinson & John Hendrix

Concrete Poem- Writing Workshop

BOOKS:
"A Poke in the Eye" by Paul Janeczko


"Alphabeasties" by Sharon Werner



We were asked to create a concret poem in class today about writing workshop. This is what we came up with... (the pencil is what it is NOT, the writing is what it IS.

Chapter 1-5 Reflection

First post in the new blog! I'm not sure if it is a good or bad thing it is for school, but considering that is why I created this blog I suppose it is fitting. I do intend to continue this blog after this class is over. Maybe it can even become my electronic teacher resource to accompany my 12 million binders full of methods and example lesson plans I have accumulated over the semesters.

Anyhow, enough about that. The following are my thoughts and feedback over chapters 1-5:

Right off the bat on the third page I am mesmerized by the writing workshop scenario described. It does not seem that farfetched, almost something attainable in my future classroom with the right preparation. The thing I like the most about this concept is that “At times during the year they have studied different genres together and written pieces in these genres, but regardless of the focus of study in the room, the students have maintained their ongoing project-like work”. I agree with this concept because I think so much of teaching, especially when it comes to reading and writing is not getting students to act like robots and produce pre-conceived work, but to introduce them to new things and let them add those skills and new knowledge to their interests and passions. Kelvin may have always loved to write, but now that he has studied fiction and learned how to become a better, more educated writer he is attempting to write a fiction story. Not everyone in the class has to write one and it is not a requirement, but it is pretty impressive that he is going about that anyways- all because a teacher showed him an outlet for his interests and gave him “a reason to write.”

On page 5 I LOVE the quote: “In writing workshops, teachers invite children to do all the things a writer really does: research, explore, collect, interview, talk, read, stare off into space, co-author, and yes, prewrite, draft, revise, edit and publish”. I have never approached writing in this way, either in my elementary experiences or in my short experience being an intern teacher. It makes so much more sense to ask students to really dig deep and explore writing as real writers do, as well as teach them how to correctly work through the process of writing.

In chapter 2 I really like Ray’s reasoning behind why to have writing workshop in a class every day. One point that makes particular sense to me is that even if students are writing throughout the day in other subject areas, the “curriculum of writing itself gets lost”. I would beg to say that you could even explore other curriculum's within writing workshop, all the while specifically studying writing. In my first grade class right now they are working on science letters. Each person is becoming an expert on a plant or animal that is dependent on another plant or animal and they are writing a letter to that plant or animal thanking them.  For example one girl is researching the clown fish. They have to scientifically research clown fish and find out about them, especially how they live in sea anemone. Her letter is to the sea anemone thanking it for giving it a safe place to live and not stinging it. In this portion of writer’s workshop they are exploring the genre of letters, while simultaneously exploring science and nature and looking into something that may be of their interest. The distinction is, however, that the emphasis is on the writing and process of putting together the letter, not the science being learned. The fact that they are also learning about another subject simply enriches the writing process.

The last thing I also wanted to note was in chapter 2 as well and that is that Ray calms the fears of the nervous teacher. Like anything else it will take time to develop a fantastic, functional writer’s workshop, but in the meantime we can use the basics we do know to encourage our students to write and give them the time to do it. Students spending time just writing is much more valuable than it may seem.

As a side note- I cracked up at the story about Margaret and her failed attempt at teaching poetry. I could definitely see something like that happening in my classroom one day. I guess it’s not a bad idea to preface a writing workshop with “While I am still your teacher and will be guiding you along the way, this is a place for you all to really explore writing, both independently and together”, and go from there.