Hayley Johnson

1. For me, it is essential for students to take ownership in what they are writing. I believe that the more opportunity you give students to write about topics that interest them or that they can relate to, they become excited and eager to write. When students enjoy what they are writing about they tend to feel a sense of ownership, rather than simply doing something they have to for the teacher. I also think it is important for students to know that they have an audience when they write. Students should be given the opportunity to praise and share their own writing. Letting students think about who will want to read what they are writing will also help with authorship.

2. Surprisingly have yet to see much writing happen throughout the class day. A majority of our literacy time has been dedicated to MEAP preparation and some of the required programs such as “Making Meaning” which has yet to have them write anything. The students were asked the first week to participate in a writing assessment that asked them to write about a challenge. The students were given a scripted set of instruction and were asked to fill out a graphic organizer before beginning to write their rough draft. They were also given another writing assignment that asked them to use the same organizer. Based on my observations, the students really didn’t seem to know really know what to write about when it came to the topic of a challenge, or really understand how the organizer worked. I definitely do not think that there has been nearly enough of an opportunity for these students to write, nor have they really had much freedom when it comes to what they are writing about; though the students really did seem eager to write about their favorite “special place” (their most recent assignment).

I really did like what they were talking about in Chapter 7 in the Essential Writing book about allowing the students to write first and then go back to talk about the different elements that they could change to organize and edit their paper; rather than breaking the writing up into isolated skills. One example that the book gave discussed how to teach the development of a paragraph, and how you should have them write first, then explain how to organize the sentences that are already written into a paragraph. This immediately took me back to the specific lessons used to prep for the MEAP, along with the graphic organizer that the students were required to fill out first, which broke up their writing into five paragraphs with a topic sentence and three supporting thoughts. Many of the students struggled to fill this out, and even after they did, were unable to transfer the information into five different paragraphs. After seeing how eager they were to write their “special place” stories, I feel like simply letting them get right to letting their ideas flow down on their paper may have been more beneficial, than stopping their thoughts to think about how they can make it fit into this structure (graphic organizer).  

3. Since I haven’t seen a whole lot of their writing it is hard to pick out specifics for one student. James is one student who seems to struggle in this area, though it is hard to tell at this point how much of his struggle is due to his ADHD (he is supposed to be on medication for this). Regardless, one of the things that James struggles with is his handwriting; it is very large, and difficult to read since all of the letters seem to be spaced out the same. He also does not seem very motivated to write. We are constantly holding him back from specials and recess to finish the DOL that he is expected to finish every morning, along with anytime we are working on writing assignments. He seems to do ok on his DOL (when he does finish it) but really struggles with developing ideas and getting them down on paper when it comes time to write his own material. I know that this student has ADHD and is currently not taking any medication, so I would guess that this might contribute to some of his struggles, however, I am not sure how much. Since he does struggle with his handwriting and seems to really have to focus to write anything down, I am wondering if this is why his writing isn’t developed as it should be. I feel like if you have to focus that hard on the physical act of writing, along with developing complete sentences and ideas, on top of the ADHD, it’s no wonder.

I think that it would really help to eliminate as many distractions as possible. Once the students leave for specials, he does seem to work a little faster, so it might be beneficial to him to pull him aside to someplace with less going on right from the beginning. One of the teaching tips that I really liked on page 189 in the Writing Essentials book was to conference in a private space with the student in order to at least get him started in an area with less distractions to get his ideas organized. I think that this would definitely help him out, though I am wondering how well he would do once he was placed back into the classroom to finish writing. Mrs. Davis also likes to play music for the kids while they write, and I am wondering if this adds to his distraction, maybe he would prefer for it to be completely silent, this is definitely something I will follow up on.