Final Reflection-Summer 2010

I became a student of writing this summer. I entered my classroom on the fourth floor of the Ed Building, set up my laptop, and started writing to a prompt. Often the prompts would cause me to remember a memory that I thought I had forgotten. I would struggle to find the just right word, the ending, a good lead, and then I shared my piece with a peer writer. I would share this piece several times with a peer asking them questions about meaning to editorial comments. Then I went home to revise some more. Our writings continued to change as we learned more about writing possibilities. It was a worth while investment of time for this teacher-writer. I'm certainly going to understand the struggle that my student writers will have. I'm ready to be their supporter and encourager.

My Responses to the Workshops

Beginning Writers need some extra help. I have a list of ideas that I can use. Spelling ideas for young writers is also helpful. Writing with music is possible. Responses written while listening to music would be a wonderful way to do a prompt. Handwriting in young children can be difficult to correct. Using strategies from Handwriting Without Tears, provides unique ways to help children. These were new to me. Picture books are wonderful ways to teach and provide writing examples for children. Writer's notebooks were introduced as ways to grow writing in students. I would like to use notebooks with my students. I think it would be really fun to personalize these notebooks in some way. I also appreciated the possible ways of grading a journal. My workshop was writing in the social studies area and I think I'll use the writing ideas and story ideas to expand the reading of Molly's Pilgrim.

Response to Emily's Talk

Literacy assessment is now focused on whether students succeed or fail on state tests. Emily felt that preparing students for these high-stakes test should be placed in a genre all its own. Teaching students how to conquer tests starts by defining what writing for the test or reading for the test looks like. Test taking is an opportunity kids to show what they know. Teachers can prepare their students to produce the product that will be scored for the state test.

"Good writers will do well on standardized writing tests." The article supported writing workshop, the writing process, 6 + 1 traits, and modes of writing to produce good writers. These best practices should be part of our classrooms.

Well, I can see the value of including both approaches. I agree that writing for a test looks different from the authentic writing that we want our students to write. There will need to be additional thinking and planning for this to happen in my classroom.

Teaching with Rubrics - Heidi Goodrich Andrade

An instructional rubric is cocreated with students. It is used with peers, with self, and with teacher feedback. Getting feedback improves learning. An instructional rubric gives multiple opportunities for feedback and it can give specific feedback. Self assessment and peer assessment is used to improve the assignment. An instructional rubric also helps a teacher remain fair with his/her grading. An instructional rubric created with student help becomes a teaching, learning, and assessment tool.

I'm a little concerned about designing my own rubric but feel that the benefits outweigh my concerns. I feel that communicating well with students is the heart of good teaching. A rubric made with students would certainly communicate those areas that are critical to their project. Revising their work is a powerful way to continue learning at a deeper level. As a teacher, I always enjoy encouraging students to turn in their best work.

Top Ten Ideas on Revision

Top 10 Ideas on Revision to help students:
l. Ask questions of the writer that will help them write their leads or add more information.
2. Encourage students to describe so their writing is believeable.
3. Insert dialogue into your writing.
4. Help students to see what they can add to their writing or leave out of their writing.
5. Help students to see the creative possibilities for revision.
6. Don't overwhelm students, take these revision posibilities a little bit at a time and practice in their own writing.
7. Conferencing with students will help move their writing forward. Ask students about their ideas.
8. Revision can happen anywhere in the process.
9. Encourage your students to have many beginnings.
10. It shouldn't be perfect the first time you write.

2/3 of Stephen King - A Memoir of the Craft

"It's best to have your tools with you. If you don't, you're apt to find something you didn't expect and get discouraged." (quote from Uncle Oren) Stephen King has some suggestions for putting together a personal writer's toolbox. Good writing consists of mastering the fundamentals (vocabulary, grammar, the elements of style, and then filling the third level of your toolbox with the right instruments. With lots of hard work, dedication, timely help, a good writer may become a competent writer. The genius writers are Shakespeare, Faulkner, Yeats, Shaw, and Eudora Welty. These people were just born gifted.
Stephen King is a slow reader. He reads 70-80 books a year, mostly fiction. He likes to write 10 pages a day. That's about 2000 words. The work is always one word at a time. Always tell the truth in your writing, writing is pliable, use life experiences to give life to your writing, be brave. A new story for King begins with the situation, flat characters, and narration. Good description is a learned skill. My desire is to help my students think and live like a writer. Reading about Stephen King's life supports this desire.

Non-Magical Thinking - Janet Emig

This year I made a paradigm shift in the way I teach writing. A parent purchased the Lucy Caulkins curriculum for me. This curriculum has a more developmental view of writing. I looked through it and liked what I saw. This article supports what happened in my classroom. I became a writer too and shared my writing and revisions with my class. Our writing time was every Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday and was structured in the way we began, moved into a mini-lesson, conferenced, shared, and published. I'm so pleased that my students had this experience. My desire is to have a safe and encouraging writing workshop that is also playful. What kind of writing could be playful for my second graders? They love humor. I tend to be rather serious and intense. This article provides research and support for my continued efforts in this direction.