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.
I like your idea of making the poster. It was neat to know that those 12 Essentials are part of any age for learning how to write.
ReplyDeleteI also liked your idea of a poster. The 12 essentials grabbed my attention as well. I like that they put the conventions on there--I do think it is important for them to have a clean finished product, but not the most important--I like that it is the last thing on the list. The first was to have a meaningful purpose and know who your reader is--students need to be aware of why they are writing.
ReplyDeleteI too found the 12 essentials interesting. It made me rethink what is important when it comes to writing and not just the conventions or how much they accomplish. You truely have to find the joy in their indvidual writing.
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