1. First off, I really like this quote by Lucy Calkins. My favorite part is where she says “It is essential that children…. perceive themselves as authors.” I like this part because I think it is one of the hardest things to show students that they are in fact authors, but yet one of the most important ones. Students need to realize that they all have something to say and through writing they all can do it.
“For me, it is essential that all students are given chances everyday to write about what ever they want in addition to writing about school topics such as a book they are reading, Math, Science, and/or Social Studies. This is important not only because it helps children expand their writing abilities, but it also gives them a channel in which they can write what they are thinking or feeling. Children then need to be given the opportunity to publish their work for others to read and critique. This makes writing meaningful for students and gives them a sense of accomplishment. This allows them to be proud of what they wrote and shows them that they can be an author of their own words. Writing should not be something that is seen as work to children, but rather should be seen as fun and a way to express themselves in many different forms, such as poetry, narratives, essays, etc. It is also necessary that children realize there is a definite process that goes along with writing that can not be done all at once.”
2. My CT and school for that matter feel very strongly that Literacy is an essential part of every day. Therefore, each classroom does a Writer’s Workshop daily. My class has it for one hour no matter what. This aligns with Regie Routman’s ideas of how teachers need to set aside time every day only for writing in his book, “Writing Essentials” (Routman, 175). Within Writer’s Workshop, my students have done a variety of writing exercises. They have written letters, like those discussed by Routman, to the author of the Wayside School books they we read for read aloud and lists of objects and a list of the students' best and worst experiences to give them ideas for future writing (Routman, 200). They have also written two narratives completely by going through the draft, edit, revise, and publish process. The first one was a narrative about a day that they spent with a special friend. The students were able to write about anything they wanted as long as it was about a special friend. The second was a “snap-shot” writing piece. Here, the students had to bring in a picture of them doing something that they liked to do. They then had to write a narrative about what they were doing in the picture and how they were feeling. They added detail by changing boring words into descriptive Tier II words by using the Tier II word poster in the classroom. This is much like Routman’s idea of how teachers should use word walls and other word lists made by both the students and the teacher to help students reference words that are meaningful to them (Routman, 165). My teacher always models for the students by writing her own narratives and letters along with the students and shows them using her work the process that they are going through. She does this under the document camera by showing the students what a beginning, middle, and end of a story look like and/or how to pick and change boring sentences into descriptive, detailed sentences. She also always tells the students why she is doing what she is doing to make sure that the students understood the techniques she was using so that they could use them in their own writing, which Routman also discussed in his book (Routman, 148 and 180). Not only are there opportunities for writing during Writer’s Workshop every day, but there are also opportunities to write in just about every other subject. During Reader’s Workshop every day, the students read silently for about twenty minutes and then fill in their reading logs with a comment and then they do a Reader’s Response that consists of writing a few sentences about their favorite part, the characters, the setting, a conflict, new sentences using Tier II words found in their books, etc. This allows them to make meaningful text-to-text, text-to-self connections. They also fill out scientific process worksheets for every experiment they do in Science. In addition to this, they fill out their assignment notebooks, add words to their Tier II word journal, and write in their Math journals every day. I feel that the writing that my students do in the Writer’s and Reader’s Workshops is definitely quality. They are engaging with writing at a very deep level interaction by brainstorming ideas, drafting, editing, revising, publishing, and soon-to-be critiquing. They are involved and responsible for every part of the writing. However, I feel that the writing that they do in Science, Math, and in their assignment books is more of a surface level interaction because they are not coming up with the ideas; they are just copying down what my CT writes down. They have no involvement in the actual writing process besides the actual physical act of writing. I feel that my CT and I could create better writing experiences for my students by having the students talk to one another about what they want to write about instead of just brainstorming on paper and in their heads (Routman, 183). I also think my CT and I should start having conferences with our students about their writing. Sometimes some of my students writing is never seen by anyone but themselves. Routman says it is important for teachers to conference with the students to get an idea of how they are doing and whether or not they are grasping the correct ideas, so that the teacher can help guide the student in the right direction (Routman, 206). The students share their writing with the entire class due to time sake, but I do not feel that we are getting an accurate account of the students’ writing (Routman, 210).
3. My focus student, CP, tells me all the time that he LOVES writing and cannot wait to finish with one thing, like reading, so that he can write. However, when we write, he does not do anything. It is like pulling teeth to get him to write. He does not pay attention and wants my CT and me to form all of the sentences for him and spell everything out letter by letter for him. The only writing we get out of him is either copied or spoon fed to him from one of us. He does not even formulate his own ideas for his writing without prompting from one of us. He is definitely struggling. I think he is struggling partially because he has ADHD and has a very low IQ, but also because he hates reading. I think he associates writing in our class to reading only because we always do reading responses and does not realize that Writer’s Workshop is supposed to be his time to write more freely. I feel that if we tried to explain this to him then he might improve. I also feel that another strategy we could use is if my CT allowed him or even every student to freewrite in a journal about whatever they wanted for about three to five minutes every day like Regie Routman discussed in his book, “Writing Essentials” (Routman, 179). If he started to get excited to do that every day, then maybe he would get excited to write during Writer’s Workshop. I also feel if in general my CT and I just talked to the students more about writing and the importance behind it, then all of the students, including CP, would have more intrinsic motivation to write (Routman, 181).
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