Week 3 Katie Krinsky

1) For me it is essential that children feel as though they themselves are writers. Many students in my classroom become discouraged when they cannot spell a word, or think about a topic to write about. Students must know that their best is good enough and that writers encounter many of the same issues as they do during writing. I feel that writing instruction should be engaging and fun, and that student’s should feel motivated to write their ideas down on paper. One of the readings from this week addressed an issue I feel is especially important, that is that students write for an audience. Writing for a target audience can motivate students to produce their finest work, and engage them in a given writing activity.

2) Students have the opportunity to write for about 30 minutes each day during writer’s workshop. During this time, students gather for a brief mini-lesson and then go off and write independently for a given length of time. Our principal put an emphasis on writing instruction this summer at our staff meeting, therefore my CT is stressing writing in our classroom. My CT is always sure to include the purpose of the lesson so that students know why they are learning the skill being addressed. This was also something Reggie Routman addressed by emphasizing the fact that teachers should make sure your demonstrations include why (Routman, 148). During independent writing time my CT and I walk around the classroom and conference with students. We try and probe student thinking and get them to re-read their stories to correct errors, go back and add details, or decide that they are finished with their story. We never correct misspelled words or assist students with spelling, instead we have students stretch the words out in their mouths and iterate the sounds they hear on paper. We have an anchor chart for students to reference which is titled “I know I’m finished when…” which we encourage students who believe they are finished to use. After writers workshop students come down to the carpet to share what they tried during writers workshop. “Having students share their writing regularly as a basis for celebration and great teaching moments” was an issue which was highlighted in Writing Essentials (Routman, 144). Most other subjects include writing as well. For instance in math, students not only practice writing their numbers, but also practiced spelling the numbers as well.

3) One student in my class is someone I am particularly concerned about. She has a difficult time identifying letter names, and her writing reflects a string of letters which do not correlate to the word she is attempting to spell. After working with her one-on-one, she discussed her desire to become better with letter-sound identification as well as a desire for her mom to help her at home. Because it appears that she does not receive the needed support at home, I intend to work one-on-one with her on a daily basis if possible and potentially offer tutoring to her after school in the future. This student does well with visuals such as an alphabet line, therefore I intend on using many visuals during my differentiated instruction time with her. As her confidence and writing abilities progress, I might also like to pair her with another capable writer, and have them collaborate on a piece together (Routman, 171).