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.
You sound like a really good writing teacher. I try to remember that when I read the childrens' writing I try to understand their age and know that this is the best writing they can give me. I like how our author said that when we set high expectations, children will rise to those expectations.
ReplyDeleteI have the same problem I am not really sure what is reasonable to expect from 4th graders. I think I am often too picky and leave the student feeling like a bad writer. This is not my intention but I want them to improve so I do breakdown their writing. However, I think this makes it worse instead of better and stifles the student.
ReplyDeleteI have a hard time with knowing when to correct conventions. I don't want my students to be so focused on conventions that it hinders their ideas and content. I especially don't want my students to begin to see writing as stressful and eventually hate it. On the other hand, I don’t want my students’ conventions to hurt their writing either. So, I also wonder how much I should be concerned with and correct conventions. What is the right balance?
ReplyDeleteBeing able to share their work with each other is so important to keep that excitement and pride in their writing- good for you for allowing that time and making it a production:) It's easy to read about how we should teach writing, but many questions arise when you are actually teaching it - Like your question with what should be expected with the age of the student. How much should we ignore conventions and punctuation? I took reading methods from Dr. Dobler and one simple thing I remember is to write on sticky notes instead of their actual work. I think that even one positive comment can benefit them much more than pointing out what they did wrong.
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