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.