Chapter 12

I think this chapter is what it all comes down to-making every minute count. It is so hard to expose the students to everything that we would like in just a few, short hours a day. We need to combine skills when possible and make our activities meaningful to  our students. Busy work should be a thing of the past. We don't have time or energy for time fillers and meaningless projects. In order for our students to get the most out of their educaiton, it is up to us as teachers to fill their days with fun, engaging, and important skill building activities. When students read and write across the curriculum, they are being exposed to these areas more often and in more meaningful ways than if they only do writing during "writing time". By doing this we are also freeing up time for ourselves. It is important that we don't become so bogged down with school work-grading, planning, etc. that we forget to take care of ourselves. Teachers need to enjoy coming to work and retain their love of teaching in order to be able to pass that love of learning on to their students. This can only be done by taking care of ourselves and enjoying down time to do the things that we love.

Chapter 11

It is no secret how I feel about AR, at least how it is used at my school. Imagine my joy when I read what
Routman had to say about AR in this chapter. This was the best part of the whole chapter for me. It stresses the point that a "program" isn't always the best way to teach a subject. Teachers need to be advocates for what they believe in and make their feelings known. Practices must be research based. Just because every other district is using it doesn't make it a good fit for every district. Effort must be made to take a look at the students, resources, and parental involvement to choose what would be best for each individual  district. I also liked the section that talked about keeping students in the room. It seems like special ed students are always pulled out at the most inconvenient time. The teachers in my building don't have much say in when their students are pulled out. Schedules are so tight that it is pretty much a take what you can even if it means pulling the students at times that aren't the best. With education budgets being what they are, many things that teachers advocate for just aren't possible, but it is important that we continue to let our opinions and thoughts be known.

image from:   lcsd.k12.ms.us

Chapter 10

How I wish that every administrator and public official that sees assessments as these wonderful things that benefit the student would read this chapter. It says exactly what most of us already know. You can't spend your entire day teaching to the test or drilling students on standards that they will be tested on. Students learn best when these essential skills are woven into daily lessons and activities. Projects and assignments must have meaning for the students or they will become just another chore. Assessments do have there place in the classrooms, but should be used as a monitoring tool to see which areas students still need practice and help with. Students also need to be responsible for self-evaluation. It is not necessary for the teacher to check and recheck each piece of work until it meets her satisfaction. The student should be responsible for editing their own work until it meets their satisfaction. Finally, we should remember that writing should be fun and enjoyable. Students should be given many opportunities to free write and to share their writings with others.

image from: graphjam.memebase.com            

Chap. 9

Conferencing with students comes in many forms from individual conferences to whole class conferences. I conduct more individual conferences and roving conferences. This chapter expresses how influential to the whole class that group conferences can be. I always worry about pointing out student mistakes in front of everyone, but I guess if it is handled correctly it can be done. I understand how whole group conferencing would encourage other students to do well and try new things. It would also be important to discuss with the students before hand how to conduct themselves. They would need to know the proper technique for listening and the appropriate responses to other's writing.
I found the section on student editing interesting. I have my students edit their own writing, but am never quite sure how much to expect them to do and when it is time for me to help edit. I think that I need to make them do more of their own corrections than I have been. One student comes to mind that continually spells they "thay". He is in 2nd grade and after correcting it for him and telling him continually the right way to spell it, he still spells it wrong. It is posted around the room in several places for him to look at. I think it is time for me to start handing his paper back and making him do the correction himself. I would also be interested in knowing how the discipline part of writing workshop is handled. The author states that the student are "expected" to have appropriate behavior and work habits. That is easy to say, but we all have those students that don't care what is expected, they still interupt, disrupt, or don't work. Even when they are writing about something that they have chosen, they might write a couple of sentences then are done and being disruptive. In order for this type of writer's workshop to work effectively, the students have to be on tasks and able to work independently.

                                                           
Image from http://seanbanville.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/04/writing.jpg

Chap. 8

This chapter really left me having more questions than answers. I can't believe all of the time that the teachers in the book are allowing for writing. Don't get me wrong. I think it is great, but just don't see how they are doing it. I understand that the author keeps saying that you will find time for what is important to you. I think part of that has to be what your district finds important also. In these time of high stakes testing, if a teacher chooses to use the time differently than what the district suggests, she better be sure that the students will do well on the tests. If not, the teacher may face undesirable consequences. It is sad that the education of our children often comes down to "the tests". It is hard to try new techniques and strategies when administration is basically telling you what and how to conduct your day. It is important that we work in writing whenever we can. I think many teachers do write several times a day, but I am not sure how many are able to allow 45 minutes to writing. Not only is it difficult to find that much time, but to find that kind of time in one or two blocks. I would think that for writing time to be optimal, the students would need to have a fairly large amount of time to work. I don't think it would work as well if the students had 15 minutes and then left for music and then tried to come back to their writing. These are things to think about when making the classroom schedule at the beginning of the year. I am going to try to work in more time for writing next year that isn't worked into another subject's time. I will try to use my guided reading time this year for more writing. I do use it for journal writing, but not usually for writing that is more structured with editing and conferencing.

Chap. 7

I found this chapter to be very interesting. It discussed how important it is to start with the whole and move to the part and back to the whole again. In short, this means having the students do their writing first. Then work with the students on the conventions and context of their writings helping them to make corrections. The students then return to the "whole" writing again for the final copy. This is pretty much the way that the writing that I do in my room works. I am in no way on the same level as the author, but my students do write first and then we discuss the changes that could be made. The author makes it sound all so easy, but I am sure there is a lot of work involved in making the writing process work as smoothly as she does. I think it is important for the students to be able to focus on getting their ideas down first without getting hung up on spelling, punctuation, etc. especially at the lower grades where their spelling is limited. The students can get so hung up on how to spell the words correctly that they take forever to write even a couple of sentences. After reading this chapter I know that I need to stress audience more to my students. I need to specify who they are writing for and make sure that I give them opportunities to write for audiences other than just the students in the class.

Image from http://this.org/magazine/2009/07/27/creative-writing-degrees-cash-cow/

Chapter 6

This chapter stresses the importance of incorporating writing into reading and all other subject areas. I think this is an area that I am weak in. I am not really sure why I don't incorporate writing more into my class. Time as always is a factor. Most things with writing seem to take a long time to complete. I did like the way that the book described working writing into guided reading centers. I do guided reading centers, but usually don't have the students do much writing. I do not have an hour to allow for centers, so I have to adjust accordingly. I do think that I will try to work writing into my center time more often. My students do a lot of writing, but it is usually as a "writing" activity, not necessarily incorporated into another subject. I think part of the reason that I don't do it more is that I get hung up on thinking that everything has to be written correctly and checked. The text assures us that students' work doesn't always need to be corrected or even looked at. Many times they need to freedom to just write without worrying about proper punctuation, grammar, spelling, etc. I am going to strive to incoporate more writing into my daily lessons. I don't like to write myself (probably where some of this is coming from) and I don't want my students to feel the same way about writing as I do. I need to give them many opportunities to write. Not only will it help to broaden their writing skills, but reading as well.

Chapter 5

This chapter stressed the importance of shared writing. I am somewhat unclear as to what shared writing really is. Is it simply writing together as a class or small group with everyone contributing and the teacher writing down the text? It almost seems too easy. I don't do as much of this in my classroom as I should. When we do shared writing it is mostly to summarize stories or create story maps. Our school uses Write 4 Today. One week focuses more on conventions and the next week is a writing activitiy. On the writing weeks the first day their is a given topic, situation, etc. The students brainstorm their ideas using story webs, Venn diagrams, fill ins, etc. The second day the students write their rough draft. On Wednesday, they look over it correcting anything that they can. I stress using words other than "good" and not starting all sentences the same. On Thursday, the students show their writing to an adult in the room and the adult makes corrections as far as spelling, capitals, etc. We do this because as second graders they don't know everything that they want to write and I don't want them to be hung up on not using words because they can't spell them. We talk them through the corrections that we made and tell them why we are correcting things. On Friday, they take their corrected papers and copy it onto their final draft. They use their best handwriting and really try to make it "perfect". This is the second year that we have used this and I can see a big difference in the students writing. My students do journal writing during center time. This is often lists, free write, etc and I usually don't read these and if I do I don't correct in their journals. I thinks writing is an area that I could use more instruction in myself. I am never sure what is acceptable and what isn't. I don't want to push the students to the point of making them hate writing, but I don't want them to not do all that they can either.


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Chapter 4

I fully agee with this chapter that we need to expect more from our students. I love the quote "Children are likely to live up to what you believe of them" by Lady Bird Johnson. It is sometimes hard to push the students especially when they are struggling and it takes them several tries to get it right. It also makes it difficult when not everyone is on board with your expectations of the students. For example, other teachers in my building wanted to make up some schedule for walking students to the title room. I don't agree with that. I expect my 2nd graders to be able to walk down the hall and go the the correct room quietly. They have to be given the chance to prove what they can do. The same principle applies in academics also. Unless they try new and harder things, we will never know how far they can go. I feel that one area of difficulty is with the special ed students. Often times the special ed teacher doesn't want her students pushed too hard. I believe that we should raise the expectations of all students whether they are low achievers or gifted. When we raise the expectations the students might sometimes feel some frustration. I think this is okay. It is a part of life. When we continually make things easy for our students we aren't doing them any favors. Students need to know that it is okay to find something difficult. From this they can learn how to push themselves and expect more from themselves. This is a life skill that will serve them well in life. 

photo from:  jimallder.blogspot.com

Chapter 3

Share your writing life. I fully understand where the author is coming from, but this isn't something that excites me. Like I said earlier I don't really like to write and I don't feel comfortable doing it. Luckily I teach 2nd grade so my writings are geared more towards younger students. Many times I know what I want to say, but then when I try to express that in writing it just doesn't come out right.
I feel like a big part of my dislike of writing is that I don't remember ever really being taught how to teach writing. I remember having reading classes, math classes, science classes, etc. but I don't remember a college class that instructed us on how to teach writing. This year I have been using Write 4 Today and it has given me some structure. I am sure it isn't the best way, but for now it is better than what I had been doing. I am very curious to see what ideas and strategies this book has to offer.

Chapter 2

I was able to identify a little more with this chapter. My students love to share their writing with each other. I try to at least once a week set aside time for all of the students to read what they have written in their journal aloud to the class. We make a big production out of it. The students have to come up to the front of the room and are allowed to answer a few questions after they are done reading. Most of the time this takes about 30-45 minutes to get through everyone. The students are really interested in what the others have written and it is something they really enjoy.
This chapter mentioned that as teachers we shouldn't make many corrections or pick apart a student's writing. I am not sure what is a realistic expectation for 2nd grade writing. I know what others have done in the past and I know what the standards say, but do I sometimes let this go and not point out the mistakes or do I need to point them out so that the students will learn the correct way? I don't want to squelsh their creativity or ideas, but at the same time I want them to think about capital letters and end marks.
As I read this chapter I realized that I don't write as many positve comments on the students' writing as I probably should. When I do it is very generic. I need to be more specific about things that I liked. I am going to make a conscious effort to include more positive comments from now on.

Chapter 1

The author states that her purpose of writing this book is to make teaching writing more fun, easier, and manageable. This made me sit up and take notice. I really need some ideas to make these things happen. I don't really care for writing myself, but I try very hard not to let that show with my students. The majority of them at the 2nd grade level are still excited and enjoy writing. I find it hard to balance trying to teach them the correct way to write-capital letters, end marks, etc- and letting them just write and get their thoughts down.
The 12 Writing Essentials also caught my eye. I think I am going to make at least some of them into a poster to place in my room. My students and I have the discussion quite frequently about how "good" is not an answer to every question. One of the essentials is to embrace language and to fool with words. Maybe if my students see this coming from somewhere else they won't think it is just their teacher trying to make things hard for them. : )  It would be great if all students found writing to be fun and exciting and we as teachers could simplify how we teach it. It is my hope that this book will be the tool that helps me to make all of these wonderful things happen in my classroom.