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 enjoy the idea of celebrating writing. This is something that I have held as an ideal and that I will continue to hold. I agree that students need to feel valued as a writer for their writing to show quality work and to find enjoyment of it. I didn't find much enjoyment in my own school writing until I was in college. In my first year at 19 years old, I finally took a creative writing class where my writing was celebrated. That class was definitive for me and it enabled me to feel confident as a writer throughout my entire college career.
ReplyDeleteI wonder about the idea of writing with my colleagues. I would hope that they would find the time for it, but we all feel maxed out most of the time. I also think that it would need a strong leader, someone outside of our school to come into our space and give us the direction and focus needed for writing as a staff. I think that our writing, though, if we published a booklet, would be the most sought after book in the library for a few weeks because students are very eager to see their teachers as writers and share writing with them.
In my teaching practice, I do ask the children to write nearly daily, and it is always free writing. I call it Working on Writing. It is free writing time where I explained to the students that I want them to write for stamina. I want them to work up to writing the whole time, 15 minutes usually. Many of my students are bursting with ideas and can get started right away. My prolific writers are continuing stories that they have been writing for weeks. My reluctant writers are finding stories and asking for more writing time. It took from the time school started, until just this week for my most impacted student to start a story. He has delayed fine motor control, low coordination, and has dysgraphia. He is a very reluctant writer because the process is so laborious for him. He is writing a story and has 3 sentences so far in the four days he has had this week.
The process of writing that I have most enjoyed watching was capturing a story. At a private school, I substituted at, the kindergarten teachers, and occasionally the first-grade teachers would use a writing process that incorporated play. The student could gather materials and move to a part of the room to create a story. The materials were often natural items, small figurines, and typical kindergarten classroom items like blocks. The student would have a period of time where they could play with the materials creating the story in their head. More advanced students would then get their writing journal and capture the story, writing it down and referring to the pieces and materials when they got stuck. More unsure or lower writers could dictate their story to the teacher or the assistant who would type it up as they told it.
The students kept these capturing skills as they grew and matured and needed less reliance on manipulative to write their stories. I want to reignite the flame of enjoyment my students once held for writing. I profess to anyone who would listen that I "hate" writing. But as it turns out I just don't like boring writing. I don't like writing out of the requirement. Furthermore, I don't like writing with my hand. I prefer to type. I am faster and make far fewer mistakes. I can quickly edit as I go and I find it doesn't give me a "hand ache", which I completely understand when kids tell me that writing makes their hand hurt.
When they tell me that it makes their hand hurt, I affirm that it often makes my hand hurt too. We talk about stretches, hand breaks, and things that help. I feel their pain, I can commiserate. Yet, I understand the need for them to persevere and continue writing.
I don't write stories, write to a prompt, or demonstrate paragraphs in front of the class yet. That is not to say that I won't or that I am unwilling, I just don't know how. I had the knowledge that writing is important. I wanted to move away from teaching directed lessons toward a part of speech or grammar because I don't feel confident in it. So this year I have dabbled in mini-lessons and I have primarily spent these past 40 days allowing for free writing.
ReplyDeleteThe Optimal Learning Model fits into my classroom teaching in other areas of the day, particularly math, much more than it does in writing. I just don't know where to begin. In math, I am far more confident and therefore, I know where to begin where to start giving them the control and where to let them do it on their own. It is far more intuitive for me. I know I need to write for the kids, I wish I had better technology for writing in front of them. I have tried writing on chart paper. Forming large letters is hard for me, writing on a paper stuck to an easel is awkward, and I just don't feel comfortable when I am in the moment. I have used Docucams and projectors though to model writing and its is much more comfortable for me. I think I would be inspired to write more in front of my students if I had technology that matched my needs. I do have a smartboard, but I find my self running into the same obstacles. Maybe writing on chart paper is a skill I need to practice on my free time.
I am not sure I have ever heard of the 12 writing essentials and I am curious to ask my colleagues if they are familiar with the concept. After reviewing the essentials, I notice that I am not teaching, nor am I approaching several of the writing essentials. In my practice, I am talking with the students about conventions and form. We are using capitals and punctuation. I don't emphasize using correct spelling in their draft. When they are free flowing ideas I want them to use a spelling strategy and then keep their ideas flowing. Many of the students I work with get stuck and can't keep writing when they get to a word they can't spell. I have tried to give them strategies to support their spelling as they write.
This month we talked about engaging leads. I called them "hooks". I started with examples from authors like Dan Gutman and Rick Riordan who each exemplifies engaging leads in a slightly exaggerated and obvious way. I see many of my students employing this skill in their writing as well. As for the other writing essentials I guess I am going on the same adage as the teacher who said she was just hoping they would get it, and that the lucky ones were probably getting it.
ReplyDeleteI think I have always known that celebration is important. I have looked at other teachers as models for celebrating student authors and I have known that it should be a bigger part of my teaching practice, yet I find myself pushing it aside, not making time, and overlooking the step most of the time. I really feel directionless in teaching writing. Since starting the reading for this class, I have reminded myself of the need to celebrate writing. I reflected on my ideas and made a plan to spend a week of writing time dedicated to sharing stories. I know that I need to incorporate more celebration. I want to, but I feel overwhelmed by the large idea of the task and can't find the small changes to get the process started.
Some ideas I have for getting the celebration started are to choose times for the students to share their free writing stories. I think as second and third graders they are interested in composing longer pieces so there should be bigger spaces between sharing, giving them time to think and write. Another way that I was thinking we could celebrate writing was to make a class book. I have seen kids of all ages really enjoying the experience, yet I am reluctant to get the book started. I need a plan and a purpose. I think I will look for ideas from other teachers and try to get the plan and the purpose from someone else. I have been rolling the idea around in my own thoughts and have just been unable to find my own ideas for a class book "good enough to try".
I think giving students choice has been really great advice. In reflecting on my own childhood writing, I was really inspired when I had a choice in my writing and was quite rebellious when it came to required writing on topics I didn't like or couldn't choose. I also want to find a true purpose for my students when they write. I want them to write for a reason other than a requirement. I plan to bring purpose into my talk about writing. Talking about why authors write, talking about why I write, and talking about why they write. I have quite a few reluctant writers, including myself, and I know that I need to make all of us feel comfortable and confident as writers so we can begin the process of developing our writing together.
Remember, celebrations can be quick and small. :D Kids love to share. You don't have to invite families in or provide food, though this is nice once in a while.
ReplyDeleteI'm wondering for your students who have delays or disabilities are you working with any assistive technology or a PT or OT? One of my 2nd graders had fine motor skill delays so we started him keyboarding, there is also speech to text programs, I think Dragon Speak is one of them. There should be ways to make the "writing" process easier for students so they can concentrate on their ideas and thoughts rather than struggling to put the pen to the paper.
I'm a HUGE fan of document cameras. Do you not have one now? What about a grant? Or you could even bust out an old overhead projector…schools are giving these away for free all the time.
I love teaching about engaging leads and carefully crafted endings. Using picture book anchor texts is a great way to demonstrate a variety of examples to the students.
Yes, choice within structure. This is very important for student buy-in and engagement. We will talk more about purpose and audience later in the course.