ASSIGNMENT TWO: WRITTEN REFLECTION–Section One- The Essential Writing Life Chapters 1-3
BRIEFLY reflect on the following comments written below from Chapters 1-3 and any additional thoughts that you have after reading these chapters.
Chapter 1: Simplify the Teaching of Writing• Simplify our teaching
• Becoming more knowledgeable about teaching writing
• Examine your beliefs
Regie gets to the heart of her book Writing Essentials with this quote on the final page of Chapter One: “By reducing the clutter in our teaching lives-the over-planning, the unnecessary activities, the paper load, all the ‘stuff’ that takes our time and energy and does little to improve teaching and learning-we bring joy back into our work and the world of our students.” Many of us work very hard and spend many hours complicating our teaching lives. In this book Regie will help you simplify your teaching life for your benefit and that of your students.
One of the frustrations that teachers encounter regularly is the ever changing “latest and best” writing programs that districts or states force on them and their students. With this revolving cycle of programs, teachers are spending too much time learning how to use the program rather than becoming better writing teachers. Regie explains that in the districts where students are the best writers, they are writing for real purposes and audiences and publishing their writing; teachers are not using prescribed writing programs.
Look at Appendix A (page A-2.) Examine your beliefs about writing by reading the statements about the writing process and marking true or false in your book. (Go ahead and write in your book, it’s OK! You can even use a pencil and mark very lightly if you want to.) We found this activity very enlightening. Let us know what you think after you complete the activity.
In your reflection for Section One, please include your thoughts about the following questions or statements:
• Regie demonstrates how to use the Optimal Learning Model (shown on the front cover and page 11) throughout the book. Consider how the Optimal Learning Model fits into your own instruction.
• As you think about how to teach writing so that all students can become successful, effective and joyful writers, reflect on how you presently teach the “12 Writing Essentials” (as described on pages 13-14 in the text) during your daily writing instruction. As we continue to read through Regie’s book, hopefully you will begin to see how you might make changes in your instruction to better incorporate these “12 Writing Essentials.”
Chapter 2: Start With Celebration
• Make sure writing is meaningful not just correct
• Use stories as springboards and ensure that ALL students hear stories
• Write in front of your students and connect home and school
The title of Chapter Two simply states, “Start with Celebration,” and that’s exactly what we need to do for our students. The celebration of all students’ writing needs to be put into the forefront and be made our first teaching goal. Celebrations should happen school-wide, within our classrooms and with students individually. As children begin to see themselves as successful writers, they will take more risks in their writing and in turn will become better writers who enjoy the writing process.
Another key point that Regie highlights in this chapter is to “make sure writing is meaningful, not just correct!” Students need to understand that writing is “enjoyable and for a real purpose and audience.” She also reminds us “that teaching skills in isolation does not make student writers; neither does teaching to the test. And breaking writing into bits and pieces robs children of the joy of writing.”
Regie suggests using stories as a springboard for teaching and learning. Hearing and telling stories builds our students’ oral language skills and these stories are “an entryway into reading and writing.” Only when students are reading and writing real stories can they connect the “skills” based learning to their reading and writing!
Please include your thoughts about the following questions or statements in your written reflection of Section One:
• Regie explains how important celebrating student writing is. How do you celebrate student writing in your classroom? How might you add more celebration of student writing to your day/year?
• Consider what changes you could make in your writing instruction to make writing more meaningful and purposeful for your students.
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I have tried to follow an “I do it, we do it, students do it” approach to the teaching of many skills in my classroom, but have admittedly not done it much with writing. The Optimal Learning Model breaks down the “we do it’ step I have used into two steps (shared demonstration and guided practice) which is ideal for my classroom as my students require extra support in all skill areas. I also thought about how the Optimal Learning Model can be used to teach my staff as well as my students, especially when I am teaching them new methods to work with our students.
ReplyDeleteWhile reading the first section of the text, I caught myself thinking about things we do but shouldn’t. For example, we have talked specifically about focusing on writing the parts, specifically writing a topic sentence and adding supporting details (this was discussed as something not to do on page 15!). In my classroom we have touched on several of the essentials but have focused mostly on presenting ideas clearly, and applying correct conventions. When talking about the essentials, however, I have presented them individually and I am seeing the benefits of teaching the writing process as a whole rather than teaching the essentials in a disjointed manner.
In my classroom, we do a “quick write” every day. During this time, I provide the students a topic and they brainstorm for a few minutes before writing for five minutes. The goal of this activity is simply to get the students writing. At the completion of the five minutes, the students have an opportunity to share their writing. This is one way we celebrate writing. Another way is by completing a final draft, illustrating a picture to go along with the final draft and mounting it on construction paper. We then hang the writing either in the classroom or in the hallway. I like the idea of publishing a classroom book and I think that is something we will implement in the future. I also realized that we end up focusing on editing and perfection more than the ideas. I think that is something we will adjust as we move forward, in the hopes that it will help take away some of the stress of writing and help move towards making writing more enjoyable again.
After looking over the beliefs about writing, I realized that I found myself thinking about certain students and having different responses depending on the students needs. This is typical of my classroom, as I have such a range of ability levels, however it greatly adds to the challenge of teaching writing. An example of this would be the belief “prewriting needs to be separate from other writing activities” I have some students who do better when they can start on a draft right away and develop their ideas as they go, but other students who need prewriting activities to get their ideas flowing. One belief I wholeheartedly agree with is that invented spelling is always encouraged. With many of my students, I see them get so stuck on making sure words are spelled correctly that they forget the idea they were trying to get onto paper.
I will continue to post to the blog, in case someone else decides to join the class. I will let you know if I have any questions. Thank you!
Hello Meg!
ReplyDeleteAbsolutely, you can def. use the OLM with your staff as well as your students. I also found Regie's break down of the "we do" to shared demonstration and guided practice helpful. Many of us have been rushing through the "we do" and sending students on their way to work independently too soon. Realizing that "we do" is actually a two-step process is an important step in allowing students the time and support that they need to move ahead in their writing skills.
Many teachers have shared with us over the years that the text has helped them to think about writing instruction in a different way and to focus less on perfection and product but rather writing as a process.
YES, we absolutely want more joy during writing for both the students and ourselves.
When you have the students quick write or start a new piece do you have them rehearse orally? I'm a huge fan of oral rehearsal. I think most teachers don't devote the energy or time to this simple strategy to help writers begin to write their ideas in an organized fashion. Asking them what they want to write about, repeating it back to the student and then having them repeat it back to your out loud is a big help for our struggling writers. You can put blank lines for the number of words the student needs to write or add the beginning letters to each underline to remind them of the word as they work independently on recording their ideas, or whatever orther supports your students may need.
Towards the end of the course we ask you to revisit the beliefs about writing list, hopefully you noted your answers, not because they are write or wrong, but many of our students have told us they wished they had so they could see what beliefs had changed at the end of the class. :)
No problem. I'll put up the next post for you.
:D
I am familiar with the Optimal Learning Model and try to use it as a framework for instruction in my classroom. I confess to being the teacher who gets overwhelmed with genres and graphic organizers and “steps to teaching opinion writing,”…things like that. I am comforted by Regie’s assertion that we need to simplify our teaching of writing and boiling it down to that gradual release of responsibility is helpful: writing/thinking in front of my students; writing/thinking with my students; guiding students to write/think; students write/think independently. I would like to be more deliberate about the two middle steps – shared demonstration, when we’re writing together; and guided practice, when students are receiving meaningful feedback.
ReplyDeleteRegie’s 12 Writing Essentials are a helpful guideline to staying true to what really matters in writing instruction. I think I am strong and consistent in just two of these essentials: Write for a specific reader and meaningful purpose. In demonstrations and conferences I refer to “your reader” and I hear my students using that language as well. As in, “I want my reader to know…” or I might ask a question by saying, “As your reader, I am wondering why…” We’ve built that language into our conversations about writing and this also helps us talk about the purposes of our writing. Read widely and deeply and with a writer’s perspective. I think I do a good job of sharing a wide variety of genres and talk about them both as readers and writers. We really enjoy the texts we share and we deconstruct them as writers. I ask questions like, “What did the author do to help us understand…” or “Why do you think the author…” A lot of times, these questions or conversations are not planned but are the result of student response, questions, etc. So the whole thing feels very organic – moving between the reader and writer perspective. 2nd graders are growing so much in both reading and writing that they are always informing each other. For example, a student is enjoying reading information books about snakes – soon, he or she is writing their own information book about snakes or some other animal. I am trying to be present and capture those moments of connection for my students and move them forward.
We do not share student writing nearly enough in my classroom. We have a strong culture of sharing and solving problems together, so it feels like a glaring hole that we don’t often get the chance to share writing in a more structured way. Several students have complete books that they have put in our classroom library and that way other students can enjoy their writing. Several weeks ago, students were completing some information writing about the planets in the Solar System (part of our space unit.) I asked students to sit in their table groups and each person read his or her piece. Then, students shared something they learned about a planet (other than their own.) That felt really nice and honored the work they had done on these pieces. Otherwise, the writing would go in their unit topic book, but they wouldn’t have had the moment of sharing with an audience.
One thing I know that I can do to make writing more meaningful and personal to my students is to write more often in front of them – sharing personal stories and my thinking and writing process. I don’t feel comfortable and so I avoid doing this and focus more on the “criteria.” This, I think, is sucking the joy out of our writing. I am so inspired by the way Regie conferences with students and uses every single moment. She is not just getting through the writing demonstration, she is responding to students and their needs, changing her demonstration in the moment to meet their needs. This is so simple and so powerful. I would also like to incorporate more poetry because this feels like such a wonderful entry point for so many young writers. It’s very empowering to realize that we can combine words into something beautiful.
Hi Christi,
ReplyDeleteI think focusing on those two steps of the OLM is a great plan. In fact, I think we could all be served well by focusing on them. That is awesome that you are strong in audience and purpose...later Jackie and I write about these two essentials as being incredibly important. Not all teachers help students focus on who they are writing for and why they are writing. So kudos to you!!!! Let's celebrate what we ARE doing well! Speaking of celebrating, remember that celebrations can be quick and easy...they don't always have to be big elaborate parties with food or invitations for families to attend. (Though who doesn't like food??) Sometimes they can be quick, spur of the moment celebrations. Remember, more joy, less stress! :)
One way that I've shared (this would be a more formal celebrations...but adjust as you like) is we'd use the library or classroom and have our writing on the desk. Sticky notes would be by each area and students (and other available staff who were free--or family members if invited) would write comments about the piece. For example, questions to make the piece more clear, specific parts that really spoke to them and details why, suggestions to revise, etc... We had many conversations and practice about writing constructive comments and meaningful feedback other than, "I liked it." or "It was good." Plus once the students received the comments it helped them to understand why specific and detailed comments were important.
We'll be having you write in front of the students later. You are not alone feeling a little uncomfortable doing this. Many teachers have shared they rarely, if ever, wrote in front of their students but after having the experience of the assignment most plan to continue to write in front of the class. :D