9/27 Blog Post: Jacklyn Zelmanski

1) For me, it is essential that children strive to be the best writers that they can be. It is important for children to explore topics of writing that will not only interest them, but motivate them when it comes to writing. From personal experience, it is hard to write a good piece on a topic that I have no interest in. It is also important for students to see the meaning of why they are writing. If children cannot see a purpose in their writing, how can we expect them to be excited about writing? In order for students to become better writers, practice is required. I believe that the more chances children get to write about a topic of choice, the better writers they will become.

2) In my kindergarten classroom the students write daily. They have writing journals that are passed out to them everyday (following a shared writing lesson) and they are asked to write on a topic. They always have a choice of topic. My mentor teacher has taught the class how to choose meaningful topics to write about. Much like in chapter 8 of Writing Essentials, my teacher encourages students to choose a topic of interest, one that they can touch deeply upon. We brainstorm their ideas together and then the students put their thoughts down on paper. However, they are kindergarteners (beginner writers) so we allow them to draw pictures, write letters, and try to form words in their journals. The students typically have about fifteen minutes a day to write. When reading chapter 8 in Writing Essentials, I came to find that my teacher incorporates a lot of what I read about in her daily writing routines. She does a great amount of writing demonstration, she has established a daily routine that requires reading, and she includes a lot of peer talk when students think about writing. There is also a strong focus on quality in the students' work. It is important that students enjoy writing and get excited about it. However, my mentor teacher and I know what our students are capable of and we will not accept "scribbling" as a form of writing for some students. We really encourage them to do their best work. Besides the daily writing in my classroom, I do not see many more opportunities for writing throughout the day. Students are expected to write their names on all of their work but other than that writing stops about there. My mentor teacher has mentioned that she has not started on much writing instruction yet so I am anxious to see when that will begin.

3) My focus student, KS, is an advanced student. She can write all the letters in the alphabet, she knows some words, and I have seen her write her full name. However, when it comes time for daily writing all I see are scribbles on her paper. She is always the first one to yell out after two minutes of writing, "I'm done!" When I walk over to her all I see are scribble marks. No pictures, no letters, no attempt at words. I feel that this type of writing is not challenging enough for her. The first few days of school she was drawing some detailed pictures. Now we are into the fourth week of school and she seems to be getting bored with this type of writing. I have noticed that if I walk up to her during writing and give her a challenge she becomes motivated. For example, the other day I saw her scribbling and I asked her what she was drawing. She told me if was a pumpkin and I asked her to spell it. She took on the challenge and attempted to write the word; she did well. She then continued writing on the bottom of her paper. I believe that she needs some guiding or some type of instructional challenge in order to motivate her to become a better writer.