Some things I don't want to forget

1. Wordless books activity
2. Keep writing myself
3. Status of the class
4.Chalk Talk
5.Make writing more meaningful through choices
6.Poetry as therapy
7.Make conferencing better through questioning

One Liners

Kiwi

Soft, succulent flesh, smells like spring rain.

Banana Handle

A festive hat for a mouse.

I Am From (with thanks to George Ella Lyon) - Digital Story

http://www.screencast.com/t/a1YBZn892vz


I did it! (With Shiao-wei's help :) - Thank you!)

Where I'm From

I am from…

I am from two dogs in the window

Awaiting my return and the big comfy chair

Where we all find refuge, from the towering ponderosas

And the lounge chair facing the sun.

I am from the scent of garlic in the air,

From dinner simmering in the crock pot.

I am from bright orange poppies and deep red lilies,

From the pines in the forest and the hooting of owls.

I am from the young maple tree not quite as tall as the house

whose limbs will someday support the weight of grandchildren.

I’m from a broken home rebuilt as two, from Christmas Eve at one

And Christmas Day at the other.  I’m from booming family dinners

And quiet conversations, from cherishing just being together.

I’m from “sweet pea,” “precious” and “little Maxi,”

From sticky fingers and stomping red boots.

I’m from family dinners on Sunday of pot roast, gravy and mashed potatoes.

I’m from the Great Falls of the Missouri,

From the windmills of Holland, from a little town in Germany,

And the castles of England, Scotland and Ireland. 

I am from memories, stored in photos

 Buried like treasure

 In boxes, in albums, under the bed, under the dresser,

Decorating the walls and fridge,

Tattooed forever on my heart.

With thanks to George Ella Lyon

My Top 10 Thoughts on Revision

10.          You have to actually write something to revise.

9.            The first draft is shitty – revise it. 

8.            The second draft is only a little better – revise it.  Unless you are a “one-drafter” (Blasted      Harris article!).    

7.            You can actually revise in your head, but at some point you have to commit it to writing.

6.            You may need to commit yourself, too.

5.            Don’t fall in love with anything in your first draft.  Again, unless you are a “one-drafter.”

4.            It’s never too soon to revise.

3.            Remember your audience – it’s not all about you.

2.            Maybe it is all about you – then you don’t have to revise because only you will read it.

1.            You can revise forever, so sometimes you just have to say “the end.”

What They Could Do

(Dedicated to Maggie and Max)

Gather friends like bouquets of flowers, nurture them,

Carry the chair as heavy as you, straight up the stairs,
Scale my body and land in my unsuspecting arms,
Offer fashion advice,
Accomplish anything,
Share hopes, dreams, your life with me.

Stomp around in your little red boots,

Refuse to eat your vegetables,

Build intricate, mind-blowing lego structures,

Replace an alternator,

Hug me just when I need it,
Invite me into your life.

Push the boundaries to their limit,

Expand my thinking,  Spend my money,
Fight over music and the front seat,
Warm my heart with your smiles.

With thanks to Elizabeth Holmes for “What She Could Do”

What’s Right About Writing – Response to Linda Rief Article

I agree that in order to be good teachers of writing, teachers need to think about their own beliefs about writing and how those beliefs transfer into classroom practice.  That’s why I love taking literacy classes because it gives me the opportunity to look at research and make educated decisions about how I teach.  It’s my responsibility then to take my classroom experiences and learn from them, adjusting my teaching as needed. 

Teachers also need to be writers themselves because it helps them “understand what we are asking our students to do” (p.38).  By writing themselves, teachers understand that the writing process is not a linear process to be taught step by step, but rather is it a recursive process where writers can think critically throughout their writing. 

  In order to succeed as writers, students need to read a variety of texts and genres.  They should be provided with opportunities to read examples of any type of writing they are expected to create.   According to Linda Rief, “writing is reading.”  Many schools have put writing on a back burner to focus more on reading, but to be strong readers, students also need to be strong writers. 

“Writers need constructive response” (p.33).  Students benefit greatly from effective conferencing.  Asking questions encourages students to think about their own writing and decide whether or not they’ve succeeded in getting their meaning down on paper.  Pointing out what’s right and meeting with the student throughout his/her writing rather than only at the end provides immediate feedback which helps students grow as writers.

Writing is a critical component not only for language arts, but it should also be integrated into all areas of the curriculum.  It requires students to use higher order thinking skills to clarify and organize their thoughts.  When students write about a subject, they must think about what they know and what they don’t know about it before they can write about it.  This process helps them to solidify what they know. 

Writer’s workshop offers opportunities for kids to write daily.  It provides a structure where kids can explore and practice their writing abilities.  Mini-lessons provide a focus, and students are given time each day to practice their writing about topics that are meaningful to them.  Writing allows students to create, imagine, voice their opinions, work through their wonderings and feelings, and think about themselves and the world around them.  I agree with Rief that “if we want children to become adults who are articulate, literate, and thoughtful citizens of the world, they must learn to think deeply and widely” (p.35). Writing allows them to do that.

Response to Jigsaw Article

The article, ‘Language Acquisition and the Teaching and Learning of Writing’ by Julia S. Falk, compares learning to write to the acquisition of language in children.  She says that children are exposed to language for a long time before they try to use it themselves.   She says that this must be true of writers as well.  They must be exposed to many different writings because “the best practical preparation for learning to write is to read.”  If you want  students to write an essay, they should have read many essays and discovered the structure of the essay.  These ideas make sense to me because typically my strongest readers are also my strongest writers, but it sounds very much like whole language to me.  I still feel there is a place for some direct instruction to take place. 

Falk says that children acquire language skills by being exposed to language and without being taught.  It seems that when a child points to something and grunts and the parents tell the child what that something is, they are teaching him/her.  I tried to teach my children words and names of things that were new to them, and I think most parents do that. In this age of technology, parents are talking to their children less and less, and it’s having an impact on their language development.  They don’t come to school with much of a  language background.   I found myself going back to look at the date on this article and found that it is from 1971, not that I would discount it for being old, but it was definitely written before texting, x-box, wii and all the digital distractions that have stopped some parents from conversing with their children. 

There are some good points about writing in this article.  Like Britton, she talks about moving students from expressive writing to transactional writing.  This can be done by having students’ writing viewed by a variety of readers, and by focusing on the writer’s ability to “convey meaning” rather than the mechanics of writing. 

She also expressed what Emig said in “Non-Magical Thinking…” that there is no one technique or strategy for good writing.  Writers need to find the strategy that is most effective for them. After our conversation in class about outlines, I laughed while reading this paragraph because she specifically mentioned the outline and how it isn’t effective for all students.  Some students can go directly to first draft.   

The thing I agreed with most is that students master writing at different rates and should not be expected to progress at the same rate as their peers.   They should not be punished for progressing more slowly because “to do so will only result in a hostility toward writing which in turn may lead to less writing by the student, and that, in the end, means that the student probably never will become a more effective writer.”

Response to Emig’s ‘Non-Magical Thinking:...’

In ‘Non-Magical Thinking: Presenting Writing Developmentally in Schools,’ Janet Emig pushes my thinking about how I teach writing.  I tend to teach it in a linear fashion where we brainstorm ideas, make a web, make some notes about what happens first, in the middle and at the end, write a rough draft, revise, etc.  It doesn’t always happen that way in real life, though.  According to Emig, “We not only plan, then write, then revise, but we also revise, then plan, then write.” 

I also tend to give a lot of structure when having kids write which is not entirely bad.  Kids need structure and guidance, but I want to balance it out with more freedom and time to write what they want and how they want.  I don't have to give a prompt every time.

Emig says that “although writing is natural, it is activated by enabling environments.”  I’m wondering what kind of environments are enabling.  Is it giving kids some guidance or structure and then just letting them write?  Letting kids have more time to collaborate with other students/writers?  Letting them work at their own pace even if it is a snail’s pace?  Some kids never seem to finish anything I assign them.  Should I still give direct instruction on things like 6 traits?  I can see a need for some direct instruction, guided practice, and then independent practice.  How do I find the balance I’m looking for?

Response to Britton's 'Now That You Go to School'

1.       Question:  On page 5, Britton gives an example of a 10 yr. old girl’s writing where the entire piece is dialogue.  I had a student who wrote exactly like that, and didn’t feel very successful with him.  I’m wondering how I move a student beyond writing entirely in dialogue.  What steps can I take?  What feedback/advice can I give him/her? 

2.       Visual:

Types of Writing
Transactional	Expressive	Poetic
Letters, post cards, instructions, research papers, grants, chats	Grateful list, shopping list, facebook, letters	Poems, songs, love notes, short stories, lyric essay

3.       Predict:  I think I can use this information to help students think about who their audience is for each piece of writing.  This will help them move from expressive writing to more transactional and poetic writing. 

4.       Connect:  I connected this to where my 3^rd graders are as writers.  They are very expressive, writing as if everyone knows their inner thoughts and meanings without all the details.  They have trouble detaching themselves and writing for an audience who doesn’t know them or the details of an event or story they are writing. 

5.       Response:  Being aware of what makes a piece of writing expressive, transactional or poetic helps me recognize it in students’ writing and will help me take writers who are primarily expressive and gently guide them to do more transactional and poetic writing. 

  

Response to 'I, You, and It' by James Moffett

Moffett’s article, “I, You, and It,” really hit home for me.  In third grade, students are centered on the ‘ I,’ and I found myself wondering, 1) how do I move them past that, and 2) are they developmentally ready?  I will definitely use a process like he showed with the cafeteria by having students think about something that happened to them, vocalize it, write about it informally, and finally try to write it in a formal piece of writing.  The formal writing will no doubt be the hardest for them as my experience has shown me that third graders have a hard time writing enough details and information so that an audience who has never met them can read it and understand it.  They tend to assume everyone knows what they are talking about.  According to Moffett, “Proper writing assignments can lead the students to good generalizations,” but what are those assignments?  I’d like to learn more about that.

  One of the things I agreed with in this article is that “teachers do not feel they can take the time to let a student abstract from the ground up.”  This is not only true of writing.  I know that kids need to use hands-on activities with manipulatives before they move on to abstract thinking in math, but I feel so crunched for time that I often skip that stage hoping they’ve had some of those experiences in 1^st and 2^nd grade. 

  In the end, I feel this article has helped me develop a better understanding of how students learn to write which is going to be useful for me to improve my teaching of it.

Book Response

  What I will take away from reading The Courage to Teach by Parker J. Palmer is remembering to keep the subject in the center and allowing my students to make discoveries of their own.  Letting go of the idea that I have to know everything there is to know about the subject and spoon feed it to my students.  I can allow myself to make discoveries along with my students, creating a greater connection between myself and my students and between us and the subject. 

  Another thing I will take away is the realization that often times when kids “act out,” they are coming from a place of fear.  My job is to create an environment where students can let go of their fears and feel safe to take risks.  I’ve always tried to do that but didn’t realize that much of what kids say and do is based on fear and my reaction to it is based on my own fears.  Just becoming aware of that is going to help me relate and connect better with my students.