Week 3- Jenna Banish

1. For me, it is essential that children view writing to be fun. Using your imagination and translating your thoughts on to paper is a very important skill to acquire for all aspects of literacy. It is important for students to explore different topics and genres that interest them so that they can personally connect to and enjoy what they are writing. I believe that each child should take pride in their writing as well as their classmates. I believe that children should be presented with daily opportunities to write so that they can become better.

2. My mentor teacher owns and follows and lot of the teaching practices of Writing Essentials. As chapter 8 outlines, it is important to find daily time for writing. In my first grade classroom, students are given daily opportunities to write in writing workshop. At this point in time, we always start off with a mini-lesson, outlining procedures, expectations and talking about writing. We have talked about how writers need to build stamina; we have a chart that we fill out every day on how many minutes they wrote for (we are already at 24 minutes)! There is a strong focus on worthwhile topics, quality writing and illustrations. We have constructed several charts on what quality writers write about and what quality illustrations look like so that the students can look at them if they ever need reminding. We talk about pre-writing techniques how to tell your story on your fingers first (first finger is the title, second is the first page etc.) After they have had time to work on their story books we come together as a whole group and students have the opportunity to share what they tried as a writer or an illustrator that day with their peers; the students really get excited and show a lot of pride in what they’ve done! Each student has a daily writing folder where they keep their storybooks. The folder also contains an alphabet sound chart and pictures of things that they like which might help them to come up with ideas on what to write if they ever become stuck.

3. I am going to consider my student B.S. This particular student is struggling with choosing worthwhile topics and engaging herself in that topic. She will have a good idea on something that she wants to write about but she has a hard time getting it on paper and will essentially write the same thing on each page. For example, she was writing a story about the beach and the only information that the reader got out of the entire story was that she went with her mom, sister, and friend. A good strategy that I could use with her is to pre-write or think out loud. Brainstorming this way may give her more ideas on what she wants the reader to know. What did you do at the beach? What was your favorite part of the day? What is her intention for writing about this story? (Writing Essentials 178).

Week 3: Amanda Perelli

1. For me it is essential that children are given as many opportunities as possible to just write and let their thoughts and ideas out. “Through writing, students engage in critical thinking and analysis...as well as learn to manipulate written language and symbols”(pg.47, Book Club Plus!). It is essential that children are deeply involved in writing, given opportunities to share their texts, and realize that they are authors (Lucy Calkins). It is essential that children know that all writers write differently and writing is a time to let your thoughts be known. It is a time to reflect upon what is being learned.

2. Since day one my mentor teacher and I have been having our students write. At first they didn’t want to, but now, 15 days into school, they want to and a lot don’t want to stop! It is hard for first graders to write because they don’t know how to spell very well and a lot seem to have a hard time thinking of things to write about, but that is something we are currently working on. The students in my first grade classroom are given opportunities daily to write and encouraged to write whenever possible. Writing is always an option especially during “choice time” which is their free time. The main thing we have in our classroom for writing is Writers Workshop which we do everyday. Students are given the opportunity to draw a picture and write about their picture. I am sure it is going to get more depth but we just finished launching it. We also have a writers table in our room which contains envelopes, an assortment of paper, stickers, and writing utensils. Students get to use this station during choice time and two kids get to sit there during Writers Workshop. They seem to really like it. They get to sit on pillows! I believe that students are beginning to engage more deeply in their writing and realizing that they can write about anything. We are also working on adding details to our writing!

3. M.M. is quite the writer! She has an extraordinary imagination, and really excels in reading. She told my mentor teacher and I that she likes to read because reading takes her on adventures. I believe that her reading level correlates with her writing level. Her writing is quite detailed and her spelling is pretty good for a first grader. During writers workshop I noticed M.M. spends a lot of time on her picture rather than her writing which causes her not to finish. This really frustrates her and she will sometime cry and get upset about it. The kids are always given opportunities throughout the day to finish though. M.M. doesn’t realize that. This is the main thing she struggles with. During writers workshop I always circulate the room and help students or just ask students questions about their picture and what they have written. M.M. needs to be encouraged to write and spend less time on her picture because she can always go back and add more detail to her picture. She is also quite the artist. M.M. has the potential to really excel in her writing just like her reading. I think it is important that she is constantly encouraged to add more detail to her writing rather than her picture. Her imagination is really reflected in her writing.

Week 3

1. For me, it is essential that students have various daily opportunities to be involved in writing, that writing is meaningful to students, and that they … I believe that it is important for students to see the value of their work and that they write for a meaningful audience that will be reached by the writing. I feel that teachers of writing should give students guidance but also opportunities with freedom to choose how and what they write. I also believe that teachers should integrate writing across the curriculum so that students have the opportunities to write for different purposes.

2. I have really liked all of the writing I see in my classroom. To begin, each student was asked to bring in a 1-inch binder for their writing binder. We keep all of these on a shelf in the back of the room, but they are used daily. We have developed a couple different lists that the students keep in their writing binders, the first of which was a heart. They wrote inside a heart all the things they could think of that are in their hearts, things that mean a lot to them. So, sometimes we will ask them to pull out their binders and write something from their heart. Since they have this list, they don’t need to spend a lot of time picking topic. They also just made a list of favorite places that they can write about. We are focusing on topics that they know a lot about so that it is something they can write about; with a beginning, middle, and end. I feel like students are engaging more deeply with this writing than just a writing prompt. My mentor also uses a lot of explicit demonstrations and explanations, which Chapter 8 of Writing Essentials mentions as part of a set up for a successful writing environment (pg 176). She models her own writing on the Elmo using strategies mentioned on pages 169-172, especially writing aloud. The book also says to “teach sensible planning strategies” (pg 179). Our students have been practicing writing with a beginning, middle, and end, so before they write they draw on the top of their paper a BME chart in which they draw pictures of their beginning, middle, and end.
I have also noticed that since my second graders are still developing their writing, many are very concerned with spelling every word correctly – they want to ask how to spell every word. My mentor has reassured them by reading the book “Ish” that their writing doesn’t need to be perfect, just “perfectish.” This means that they need to be trying their best and that they should at least know what their writing says, so they could read it to someone else. Chapter 7 in Writing Essentials says to “limit dictionary and thesaurus use” because overconcern slows writers down. Also, the end of chapter 8 says to “do more publishing” (pg 204), and this is something I was really excited to see in my class. We are in the process of making our own “Important Book” after reading “The Important Book.” They followed the structure of the book and we typed what they wrote and they also made an illustration which will all be bound in a class book!
The majority of writing is done during the writing time (about one hour) during the day. However, writing is done throughout the whole day. In the morning, many times their morning work is some sort of quick-write. Also, I was very happy to see that my mentor stresses the importance of writing in math. (My CT last year didn’t have her students do any writing in math). I think it is really important for students to be able to explain the “why” and “how” in the math that they do, even if it’s all spelled phonetically and it takes them a while. Also, in social studies, this year is all about the local community. So, we have incorporated writing with that as well. Another idea that I really like is the conversations journals that the students each have that they write back and forth with my mentor.
Finally, they also have poetry journals that they write in. We have an “extra writing” time at the end of the day. On one page there is an example of a poem style or theme, and then the next page has lines for students to practice writing similar to that poem. They don’t follow the poem’s structure, but it is a really great way to introduce them to poetry!

3. One particular focus student that I think of with writing is P. He is the type of student that is really smart, but we have a hard time motivating him. He likes to write one sentence and then say he’s done. I thought that writing about things that he really liked would motivate him more. We don’t want to give a minimum number of sentences that they need to have, but that’s one of the only things that has gotten him to write more. Chapter 8 mentions writing for an audience and I think I’d like to try this next with him. Maybe if he knew someone important to him would be hearing or reading it, it would mean more to him. Even in other subjects during the day it seems that he doesn’t put much effort into his work just so he can get it done and turn it in. I would say maybe he is bored, but to be bored I feel like he would at least have to be getting through what’s assigned. He does like to talk a lot, so we could also try discussing ideas with peers as a type of prewriting more often (Writing Essentials, 179).

Week 3 Katie Flanagan

1. For me, it is essential that students value writing as a way of explaining and sharing your ideas with the world. I believe students need to see themselves as authors and write for an authentic audience. It is vital for students to use mentor texts especially ones that are written by children. Mentor texts help students understand the purpose of writing and that even at a young age they can create a published piece. Lastly I want my students to understand writing is a process and as Lucy says, “When you think your done, you’ve only just begun!”

2. I am impressed with the majority of my students writing as well as my mentor teachers writing instruction. Throughout the day there are multiple occasions for students to write and in each subject they have a writing journal, which is used often. My mentor teacher shows students that writing is a part of everything that we do.

Every morning the students have a short writing lesson such as writing small moment stories. When my mentor teacher instructs writing she is not extremely concerned with spelling as she realizes writing is a process and that when focus is put on spelling the quality declines. The idea that extreme attention to grammar when drafting adversely impacts writing is also discussed on page 160 of Essential Writing. My mentor teacher often uses Writing Essentials in her classroom practices and was very excited to hear I will read it for MSU. My mentor teacher will demonstrate her writing, using the mentor text idea that was previously read during read aloud time, such as a small moment. Again as Writing Essentials mentions on page 157 my teacher when modeling does not focus on conventions but on getting the overall message across to the reader. After the short lesson and model about the writing strategy students have a few minutes to turn and talk to their partner to either come up with idea to talk about or share their idea. Peer talk in Writing Essentials on page 183 is exactly what my students usually do when they turn and talk to their partner. My mentor teacher is always talking to me about the gradual release of responsibility that Writing Essentials notes on page 183. After the short lesson students have time to write on their own for around a half hour, with a short mid-teaching point to remind students what they should be focusing on that day. For the most part all students are writing, for some students we help them figure at topic to write about. Many students know that when they get all their ideas out they need to go back and re-read and add more details to the pictures or words. Many students understand that what we are working on now is a draft and that you can add words and change things around. I believe for the most part the students are engaging in their writing and truly thinking about their work. After our independent work the class comes together and we have a few friends share what they wrote. The share is extremely important as every child wants to share showing they value their work and the share demonstrates the purpose of writing. I hope to see more authentic audiences, aside from the teacher and the class. I know one student wanted to read to her sister’s class and I believe it would be wonderful if she wrote her own book to read to them.

3. One student who is silently struggling is P.M. This student is an extremely bright little boy but I feel he does not produce the quality of work he is capable of. I feel he simply goes through the motions to get I what is required completed and does nothing extra. I believe he feels if what he is doing is not valued then there is no point in doing it. I have heard remarks from him when work is assigned questioning the final purpose of the work. I noticed if it is going in the hall his work is extremely well done however, if it is going to be turned into the basket he could care less. One time I remarked okay boys and girls do your best as these may be hanging up in the hall way and his eyes lit up and he got right to work. Then about ten minutes later my mentor teacher decided they would not go in the hall and the little boy just completely stopped working. For this little boy I believe writing for an authentic audience really helps him value his work and he knows if it is turned into the basket it will never be looked at.

I believe if this boy had an authentic audience to write for his writing would drastically improve and provide him with a reason to do his best work. Writing Essentials notes the importance of writing for an authentic audience in chapter 7 and I believe this would help this student. If I were teaching I may have him write a few pieces and then choose his best one to take beyond the drafting stage and eventually publish it and read it to another class. Or even create an authors chair and have him share it to our class from the special authors chair.

Writing Essentials notes on page 147 mentioning the purpose of the assignment. I believe this student may benefit from seeing the purpose of the many assignments we do so he can find value. Lately I have been standing by the turn in basket and quickly reading some students work as the hand it in. When this particular student turns work in I make sure to make at least one comment about his work. I am trying to get him to value writing and see the purpose of it however I am still struggling with this student. I want to find a way to make him excited about writing so that he will write only for his own pleasure and not be affected by the purpose of the writing.

Week Three (Sarah Rybicki)

For me it is essential for students to feel passionate, to develop opinions, and to participate actively in the world around them. Not only is writing a way to reach out to others in this world they live in, it is also a way develop, consider, and record one’s own thoughts. From here the possibility of building mentally and emotionally from what can be seen on paper, what is already known, acknowledged and explored, to what they want to know more about. It is a way to track their thoughts, to be mindful of concepts introduced around them through text, and to reflect on how it personally relates not only to them but also the people that help make up their community in the world around them. For me it is essential to guide students through effective literacy strategies, to not only broaden their vocabulary, fluency, and composition that will be displayed in their writing, but to help them use these skills and this knowledge to grasp their big ideas, with a strong confident hand, and successfully convey these thoughts onto paper as best as they can. I want to inspire them to feel passionate and excited about expanding this foundation by putting these thoughtful emotions onto paper. I want to be able to motivate my students to participate in shaping the world by influencing readers around them, just like authors have influenced them. For me it is essential to plan accordingly with the end in mind, with many teaching strategies, and with modeling why developing this particular literacy skill goes hand in hand with reading, and is essential and important for their future.

I truthfully believe there has not been a lot of writing instruction in my classroom so far. We have been dealing with a lot of behavior issues and classroom difficulties, so we have only indulged in our writers note book twice, both times I felt students were not engaging deeply with their writing. A prompt was given and they were to write about the topic assigned. It was just to introduce them to the notebook. We also just finished the DWA tests; therefore they did just construct a storyboard to use as an outline for their story about an animal. This will help us see where they are in their writing, further allowing us to gage which writers need what type of guidance in their writing. Since they are second graders I understand why a topic was given, but I think to effectively see where they are this far, the topic should have been able to be selected by them. Like described in chapter 8 of Writing Essentials giving them the choice of their writing topic. I personally think this would allow them to write more easily about something they can deeply touch on, as best as they can for a beginning piece. Not all students have experiences with animals; therefore I noticed somewhere struggling to successfully and accurately show us where they are with their writing process. Lastly, I have not seen a lot of writing in all of their subjects; a lot of the work is strictly worksheets or read alouds.

We have a focus student that is struggling with writing instruction, or the little instruction experienced so far with writing. This is a problem in all subjects, as we have been trying to make more arrangements so this focus student, Rob, will be able to join the class consistently without disrupting his work or the class’s work. He gets very distracted, defiant, and dislikes sitting still and following directions. I have a feeling Rob will be a student we are constantly fighting to connect his interests with any subject matter to get him as engaged as possible. I think we will definitely have to mix up writing methods, but initially my first goal is to find a way to reach him. His interest, his respect, and understanding of why he is at school, what he should and shouldn’t be doing, and why. I plan to do this by modeling my writing, reading, behavior, and interest in school.

Week 3 Sept 27th Blog Post

1. For me, it is essential that students have a safe writing environment and feel that they can write honestly and openly. I believe that when students have a safe place, they will be able to write more and be more detailed in their ideas. It is also essential that students have meaningful writing experiences and believe that the topics they are writing about not only relate to their lives but also provides connections for them for better understanding and learning. It is essential that students have multiple opportunities to write and practice their writing skills throughout the day. This not only shows students how writing and other subjects are intertwined but also how much writing is used in their lives. Lastly, in relation to Writing Essentials, it is essential for students to have an audience for who they are writing for. This is important for student growth, purpose of writing and writing development. Here students will be able to write for and address specific groups of people and be able to share the hard work that they had been working on and hopefully get positive reinforcement.

2. My students write a lot everyday but I would consider their writing to be at a surface level, seeing they are only first graders. Here, students are beginning to develop skills like how to form letters and where to place capitals and periods. During their writing, they often need lots of help with spelling. To help their spelling, we can only help them stretch out words or help them sound them out which often frustrates them even more. Similar to the chapters in Writing Essentials, we also believe that it is important for students to have words and thoughts written down, rather than focusing on correct spelling. Though this is something that will be important as the year goes on, students are still learning how to format their writing, find writing strategies that best helps them write and the basics for writing. Students have used a writing “think” chart which is divided into four parts: people, places, events and things. Here students were to draw four different things within each topic. These four things had to be important to them and be something that students would be able to write a good detailed story about. Not only does this build story thinking but students can also refer to these charts if they become stuck. In my classroom, students are provided three different writing journals: a poetry, information and daily journal. Students are asked to first draw a picture of their topic. After the timer goes off, students are asked to turn their drawings into written work. This provides them quality writing because they can first gather and organize their thoughts and then use their pictures to help them extend even further. Not only do students write during literacy or writing time, students also write a lot during math. Our math lessons require students to write complete sentences about a problem or a solution allowing students to develop more critical mathematical thinking and developing better writing skills.

3. One student in particular, D.O. seems to have difficulty writing. During writing instruction she seems to fool around and not pay much attention, but when it comes to the pre-drawing part she is quite active and attentive. When it comes to putting her pictures to words, she struggles greatly. I find that she is struggling because she still hasn’t developed a mastery for writing and forming letters. Not knowing how to write many letters of the alphabet with confidence, denies her the opportunity to write as she often gets caught up in formation and correct spelling. On top of this, she often has letter-sound recognition issues, which also stops her from thinking and writing fluently and smoothly. Next time working with this student or trying to help her, would be to use the strategies and visuals located around the classroom. For example there are several alphabet and sound charts located around the room, along with an alphabet located on her name tag on her desk. If she doesn’t know which letter she is trying to use, I would ask her to sound out the word and try to spell it the best she can. In agreement to the Writing Essentials chapter, I believe it is really important to encourage writing and provide positive behavior to anything good that a student can do. By praising something D.O. did good or tried, can encourage her to continue trying as she realizes that she is doing it correctly and that the teacher will acknowledge this type of work and behavior towards writing.

Week 3: Megan Kole

1. For me, it is essential that children are actively involved in the writing process. I believe that children should understand that writing is a process that not only includes writing itself, but sharing your beliefs and revising and perfecting your own writing. I also believe that writing should be fun for students. They should be able to write about topics that interest them and share what they have wrote with not only the class and the teacher, but the school and other publications as well. Students should be proud of the work that they have accomplished and what to show others what they are capable of. I l also believe that it is more important for my students to portray meaning in their writing before worrying about spelling and grammar. Writing is a process, but it should be a fun outlet for students to write about what they think and feel.

2. So far in my 3rd grade class we have been practicing writing everyday, multiple times a day. Each day we give our students "P.O.P" (pen on paper) where the students are given 5 minutes to write about a particular topic. Each day we pick a topic at random and allow the students to write whatever they would like about that topic. They then count how many words that they have written and we hope to see progress with the amount of writing each of our students do each day. According to Routman, it is important to include writing every day and your students will view writing as important if it is reoccurring. If the students see that we as teachers value writing, they too will value writing. Even though I think it is great how we have the students write like this for 5 minutes everyday, many of the students get extremely distracted during the time. I also feel like the topic is not always what the students are interested in, so it may not be as meaningful. To me, "P.O.P" seems to be more of a surface interaction. However, with the MEAP test so close we have also been conducting writer's workshops on how to write a constructive response. Everyday we do a practice constructive response where we go through how to write one and how to plan. This is a more engaging lesson where the students are more involved and work in groups to decide what to write. After doing the readings for this week, I want to start doing more students conferences. I think my mentor teacher and I should take advantage of two of us being in the room and individually take time to talk to each student to see how they are doing with constructive responses and what they need more help with.

3. There is one student in particular in my class who seems to be really struggling how to write. When we do "P.O.P" each day, Trent can barely get two words down on the paper. When I ask him what he would like to write about the topic for the day he does not know how to respond and just looks at me and says "I dunno." During writing Trent always seems to be looking around at his peers sitting next to him and not concentrating on what he is writing. He is always asking for extra help and even when I try to help him he struggles. I think that this student has a hard time with spelling words, so when he is writing he gets frustrated and does not know what to do when he can't spell a word. Even though my mentor teacher and I have let him know that spelling does not count during "P.O.P," he still stops trying as soon as he cannot figure out how to spell a word. I am not quite sure what strategies to use to help this student. I have tried making the topic more interesting to him, but he still only can write down two words. I guess my next strategy that I would use would be the conference strategy from the readings this past week. Maybe if I can conference with Trent and ask him why he is struggling we can move forward. I could also model for him what this writing should be like. If that still does not work I could scaffold writing with him. I would start off by him saying what he wants to write and I scribe it while he speaks so he does not get frustrated with spelling. Then maybe when his confidence builds and we can move to him doing more of the writing. Also, the readings described praising student work and making it public. I could also put some of Trent's completed work on a bulletin board to help him see that he can write and I am proud of him.