Important Things to me...

Ok, so Wow, lot’s of information in these three chapters that we read for this week. I’m kind of unsure of where to start, so I’ll just dive in and see what comes to me. Most of what I found are good teaching strategies (to me) or things that I noticed throughout the book that I feel are pretty important when it comes to writer’s workshop.

                One thing that I have noticed throughout the readings over the past two weeks (and from what we have discussed in class) is letting our students get to know us (teachers) as writers. I kind of really like this idea. I think it is a great way to allow students to see that we were once in their shoes—and still are. We still struggle with coming up with things to write, we still have “writer’s block”, and we are still writing. I think that is important for students to see. I remember thinking when I was little that part of the reason my teachers became teachers was because they were one of those people that was good at everything. They never had “writer’s block”, they always made good grades, and they always knew just what to write, and how to perfectly execute it. How wrong I was. Over and over again I see in the readings that by bringing our writer’s notebook(s) to our classrooms it will show students our struggles and successes with writing. I really love that. It lets students get to know us better—it kind of humanizes us a little bit to our students. If they see how we have struggled or succeeded I think it will allow students to feel more confident about their successes and their struggles with writing too! I think this is a great reference tool for our students and ourselves. I definitely plan on using this in my classroom. It’s just another resource we teachers can have!

                A second thing I liked about this week’s readings, (I’ve also read it elsewhere in the book) that we, as teachers, need to pay attention to the sound of our voices during our lessons. Mainly it is talking about focus lessons here but I think this could go along with most other subject areas as well. But, for the sake of space, I will limit my ramblings to just focus lessons. I really think that paying attention to our classroom community as writers is a great and beneficial things. Students do not like to be talked “down” too. Personally, I’d rather have a conversation with a student about their writing and what they are experiencing with their writing then have a conversation where I am just talking “at” the student and what they should be writing about. I think that contradicts the purpose of writer’s workshop. We want students to see themselves as writers. I want to go on a “writing journey” with my students. During writer’s workshop, I want to be able to sit down and discuss with my students what our “focus” lesson will be on for that day. By doing this, I think my students will feel respected; they would be more willing to pay attention and participate in the focus lesson and in their independent writing afterwards. I feel like they would care about what they write more than if I just stood up there and talked at my students. I think the book worded it well, “We need to listen to the sound of our voices in our lessons. We want to make sure that our tone sounds as if we are talking to other writers, not to children…” (The Writing Workshop: Working through the Hard Parts (And They’re All Hard Parts),p. 146).

                One last thing that I will discuss about the readings was the strategies (was to do things). I enjoyed reading about the “does this make sense?” part. It made sense. Why would you ask someone if what you wrote made sense to them? Most of the time, they will say yes, but they might not get the ‘sense’ that you want them to get. In other words, they might not understand what you were trying to portray through your writing. A better way would be to ask the person to read your writing, and then have them give an oral retelling of your writing. By doing this, you can check their comprehension of your writing to see if the audience will get what you want them to get out of it. I thought this strategy was awesome! Most of the time I just ask “does this make sense?” and most of the time the person says yes. Now that I read this, it seems like common sense to ask someone to retell your writing back to you as they read it, that way you can make sure you are covering all the ground in your writing that you want to cover. I think this is pretty cool, and is definitely a ‘strategy’ that I want to use in my classroom! J