Remember each of you needs to post here three times this week. Your post may be a part of a conversation with other classmates or a general response to this article.
Monday, February 20, 2012
Week Two: Let's blog about the readings!
Remember each of you needs to post here three times this week. Your post may be a part of a conversation with other classmates or a general response to this article.
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Peggy's Response to: Excerpts from Natalie Goldberg
ReplyDeleteRather than write a response to this article (which I absolutely loved and will share with my students tomorrow), I would like to share an excerpt from the journal of one of my 6th graders. To preface this, we practice 10 minutes of writing every day and follow the same rules outlined in this article. If students tell me they have "nothing to write about," I tell them to write about having "nothing to write about" until their pencil takes over and does the work for them. This was taken from a routine journal check, the first line of which was, "I'm bored because I don't have anything to write about." I convinced the author to type it up like a poem and submit it Creative Communications. It was recently selected to be published in an anthology. The first step in creating great writers truly is about learning to pick up the pencil and let the mind go free.
Nothing to Write About...
Tick, tick, tick, tick!
Pencils chattering on tables
As if they were speaking their own language
Pages rustling, chairs squeaking
Each of them making music of some sort
Everybody's mind white as paper,
Especially mine...
It's pure white
No details in sight,
No ideas
My feet are resting on my chair,
Slowly going to sleep
Numb, dead
My feet now drifting off to space - just like me
Jolting my mind straight out of the galaxies
Amazing,
Epic,
Fascinating
Then suddenly my mind turns black
Black as nothing...
By Caleb
Very cool! My goal is to eventually get my kids to write about more than just what they do with their friends. That's always the bulk of what they put into their journals. Being bored can lead to creativity! You never know where the pen will take you.
DeleteWe do a warm-up every day in my Science class. We only have 45minute classes. So we don't spend a lot of time on the warm-up. This has inspired me to try and take out some time at least once a week to get them to write me more. I am excited to see what I get. Here comes Free Write Friday!
DeleteThis is fantastic! Writing about not having anything to write about. This child has just unleashed a hidden talent!
DeleteWow! That is great! It is a great way to demonstrate that even when you have nothing to write you have something to write about! I teach first grade and reading this and articles like the one about building fluency makes me want to teach older students. This is very powerful stuff!
DeleteI always tell my kids basically the same...to just write "I don't know" over and over again, because eventually something will come to them. Number of students who have actually tried this tactic to date: 0. I think that they think it is an insane request, and that I am insane for requesting it. I'm glad to see it inspired someone, though! Proof! It really can work! I may cite this example next time a student complains that they're stuck :)
DeleteResponse to Natalie Goldberg excerpts—Becky Norsworthy
ReplyDeleteReading the excerpts from Natalie Goldberg made me remember the many things I like about her approach to writing and a few of the things I don’t. Her point, made again and again in every way imaginable, is to loosen up and write—good advice, for most people. My years of teaching Advanced Composition, a semester class where one quarter was devoted to writing analytical essays, taught me that for some students, the first paragraph is hard to get past. If a student is focused on getting that first paragraph to a state of perfection before moving on, the essay may never be completed. Simply writing, no matter where that writing falls in a paper, is a way to avoid that trap.
That said, I don’t usually write that way. I edit as I go and constantly revise. That’s just the way I work. I think it comes from my background as a newspaper reporter writing on deadline. That newspaper background is responsible for something else counter to Goldberg’s technique: I compose best on a keyboard. Unless I’m writing poetry, I don’t do well with pen in hand.
Goldberg does have great suggestions for getting started, and she’s absolutely right about writing daily. That’s my challenge. I’m writing, but I’m writing emails to parents, counselors, administrators, etc. It’s easy to let the demands of the job eat up all of my time and energy.
The Write Way: Building Fluency
ReplyDeleteWriting fluency,
a golden skill to pursue.
How precious you are!
(I'm reading this book called "The Elegance of a Hedgehog" and this 12 year old girl is keeping a journal of all her profound thoughts and starts each one with an haiku or such similar poem. I might give it a try.)
I think it was at the Alaska reading conference a few years back, during a Four Block seminar, that the speaker said something that really stuck with me: if you want students to write long, quality pieces, give them long, quality time to write. If they keep taking things out and putting them away for just a few minutes each time, the writing will be more disjunct. They have to get their train of thought rolling again before they can add to what they have.
I like the fifteen minutes a day writing, keeping track of it in a separate journal. This would be a good way to start writing class. They can do their "venting of feelings," getting some thoughts down, whatever it is they need to share, so that they can then participate in a mini-lesson and then perhaps work on something a little more assigned.
This comment has been removed by the author.
DeleteI totally agree with what that speaker said to you about giving quality time to get quality writing. Time is always the problem, I find, when you're trying to teach a subject better. I teach 1st grade and often don't have enough time to let my kids write because of all the things being added to our day (SEL, intervention reading block, handwriting, etc.). It sounds crazy, but I'd love an extra hour added to our school day so things don't have to be so rushed :)
DeleteI need to echo Jaime's reply to you, Erin. It makes COMPLETE sense to give kids enough time to write. Unbroken, uninterrupted time to just write. I've done it once before, successfully, resulting in a struggling writer telling me she couldn't wait until writing because she was thinking about her story last night. What a great success! How motivating! Apparently, not motivating enough for me to stick to that same time now...2 years later.
DeleteAs much as I know it's good for kids to have that time, it's hard to make that time, and more challenging for me, it's really hard for me to endure the first few weeks while students get used to using that time, complaining that they don't know what to write.
Peggy wrote about how much she has gotten from Aimee Buckner's, Notebook Know How: Strategies for the Writer's Notebook. I agree that it is an incredible resource. It's a little book with powerful ideas to get students writing, what she calls springboard pieces that students can choose to further craft in workshop.
DeleteI also believe that long writing periods are necessary to learn how to write, especially when composing a multi-draft paper. On demand writing is good only after students have mastered certain composition skills. Much attention must be paid to insuring that each student talk to the teacher about his or her writing.
DeleteLydia Wood on "The Write Way"
ReplyDeleteThere's nothing like writing to teach writing. With my third graders, the lessons on writing make more sense and are better received in context with their own writing. They will pay attention and the lesson has more meaning for them when it is relevant to the task at hand. Today one of the boys was working on a poem about his family being loud. In the poem he used the work loud over and over. Another boy was working on an acrostic poem on his name, but he was at a loss for words beginning with the letters of his name. Both of them latched right on to the dictionary or thesaurus when I suggested them for finding "the best" words for their poems.
Usually students would not like to hear, "Look it up in the dictionary," but this time it was just the tool they were looking for. It didn't hurt that we found words like "rambunctious" and "nincompoop." Their poems were instantly more interesting.
In the article it was amazing how the fluency exercises and sharing of writing opened up the students' hearts. The willingness to share from deep places about their real feelings and events that were heavy on their hearts was powerful. There is a real sense of freedom and release expressed by the young writers. They touched eachother's hearts and they were unburdened by the ability to "let it out" on paper. There is a common bond that develops when students feel safe to share their writing in the classroom community. Some students will have a status that they don't have any other place if they can make us laugh, or cry, or if we connect on a topic of shared interest.
One of my students made up a silly list early this year. She called it her dictionary. In it she would give a word and definition that did not match at all. It was hilarious. Of course everyone started doing it. Another girl was dealing with a grandfather going through cancer treatments and was able to work on a piece of writing that gave her a way to process her feelings of sadness and loss.
The fluency practice and sharing help us connect and give us a body of work to use when we need to try out the new skills from mini lessons. They point to the skills needed and make learning them an "Aha!" discovery rather than the lesson "you may need later in life."
here is Peggy's Response to: Do You Write With Your Students (Edutopia)
ReplyDeleteJournal time...the quietest time of the day. It's so tempting to use that time to grade papers, clean my desk, and catch up on lesson plans. But the author is right: Teachers have a lot more credibility when they model what they are asking of their students. Enthusiasm is contagious, and when I am excited, so are they.
The author mentions that she lets students see (and critique), her "real world" writing. I can see this as beneficial in two ways. First, it is a great way to show students that writing is skill relevant to everyday life. In addition, I find that students are much more apt to share their thoughts about a particular piece of writing if it does not involve having to critique their peers.
Students need to see the process, not just the product, of writing.
Do You Write with Your Students?
ReplyDeleteI focused on the word with in the title of this article before I started to read it because I thought, “Don’t they mean in front of my students?”
In a way, I had never thought about writing, myself, while students are writing. When they are writing, that’s my time to help kids, watch kids and conference with kids. But I really would like to start writing with my students. I actually did this today inadvertently. It was a free write choice in their journals, so I talked to myself aloud so they could hear how I chose my topic, some thoughts I had before writing and then my thoughts while writing. When I had written a few sentences they told me I could keep writing and were asking me some more questions they wanted answers to. So I decided I would finish up my writing while they started their writing. It was great!
Building Fluency with Students
Of course I know about and focus on reading fluency but I never thought about writing fluency! It makes total sense, but I just never connected fluency to writing. I find that my 1st graders struggle big time with fluency because they get hung up on writing words perfectly. I present and provide many resources for them to use, because I really don’t want them asking me how to spell words. But it comes down to building their self-confidence in good old “sound it out” and spelling doesn’t have to be perfect. I would rather they be able to write fluently than spell perfectly.
Common Sense Media
In another class I learned the technology terms (to describe one’s relationship with technology): digital dinosaur, digital immigrant and digital native. I’m a digital immigrant, but my daughter (3½) is a digital native. I know that one day I’ll have to start teaching and guiding her about the internet and it scares me what can be done (negatively) with technology…and it’s only going to get worse. But ignorance, when it comes to using technology, is not bliss.
After reading the Common Sense Media article, I realized I had their app on my phone. It's really good!
DeleteI've discovered that I really enjoy writing with my students, especially when I go and sit at an empty desk near them and really write WITH them. The unfortunate part, is that I only do that when it's a prompt or topic that I'm really excited about. Which means, it's all too seldom that my kids must be excited to write, if I only write with them on very, very rare ocassions.
Delete@ Julia
ReplyDeleteI am just wondering what kind of writer this kid normally is? That was a very neat why to take up time when you just don't know what to write. Very cool.
Writing Next: Eleven
ReplyDeleteSo as I was reading I came up with a few questions
1. What age range was this research done with? (I know they talk about 4-12th graders in some of the stats but they also say adolescents).
2. Do the Eleven stay the same for all ages of students or do you think they change?
3. When it says Writing Stratagies is number one what strategy? All strategies can not be equal in quality. I want to know which strategies are the most effective to use. If I knew which strategies were most effective I would teach them, have them memorize them,...
Re: #3
DeleteI was hung up on this for while too until I went back and looked at the Writing Next (from Week 1). In there, the authors elaborate on each of the eleven findings. The number one strategy - "Writing Strategies" is explained as:
"Teaching adolescents strategies for planning, revising, and editing their compositions has shown a dramatic effect on the quality of students’ writing. Strategy instruction involves explicitly and systematically teaching steps necessary for planning, revising, and/or editing text (Graham, 2006).
The ultimate goal is to teach students to use these strategies independently" (page 15).
That gave me a bit more information, but I want a more explicit explanation. I have a dozen students who are writing significantly below where I want them. Looking for a way to increase their ability to write (and to write well independently) would be wonderful.
The article, “The Write Way”, prompted me to look deeper into the writing program based on the book, Rain, Steam, and Speed: Building Fluency in Adolescent Writers. I have always had journal writing time in my class, but it was not as productive as it could be. Also, it was always a challenge for me to find ways to provide constructive responses to journal entries. This program seems to inspire writers and provides suggestions for journal writing feedback.
ReplyDelete“Do you Write with Your Students” and “Writing Down the Bones”, both addressed journal writing. During silent reading time, I always read with my students. Yet, during journal writing time, I never wrote with my students. I would circulate, catch up on email, etc. So, I was not modeling writing in that manner. Journal writing side by side with my students, would be as beneficial to me as it would to them. After reading the articles, I now feel strongly about sharing journal writing with the class. Not only students sharing, but me sharing my writing with them. That way we can be vulnerable, grow and take risks together.
I have the same struggle during journal time. It is so quiet and easy to work on all of the other things that need to get done. I am realizing more and more that I need to be writing with my students, both to model the process and to show them that writing is important.
DeleteWe just had a guest speaker from Write Young AK come in this week and do several lessons with my class. They were working on Flash Fiction. She shared some of her own writing and talked about the process she is going through to get her work published. The students really got into it and produced some really good work. I was very impressed. Just another reminder for me about how essential it is to be a writer with your students.
Huh - I never thought about that (journaling with my students). I pick prompts that I find interesting, and I often think of what I would write...for some reason I've never made the connection that me modeling might actually be a good idea. Plus I know how much I enjoy reading their journals. Maybe they would enjoy reading mine...
DeleteWriting Down the Bones.
ReplyDeleteWOW!! I really enjoy all of the ideas presented. To me it reads like a great big list of how to overcome writer's block or how to learn to love writing. I look forward to employing some of the strategies and prompts listed. The first I will attempt is writing 10 days in a row.
I really like the ideas that ban you from re-reading previous journal entries until a couple of weeks later. That strategy is so great for kids, too, when it comes to teaching mini-lessons. It's great to be able to tell them to go back to a piece of their choice and look for (capitals, dialogue, word choice, etc.) or places they can add these details. My students LOVE to go back and re-read their old pieces from months ago.
Again, I look forward to employing some of the ideas Goldberg presented in her article.
I really enjoyed the ideas presented as well. I haven't taken much time to write after I finished college. I like the idea of taking 10 days and writing. I too look forward to employing some of the strategies listed!
DeleteI really liked the key guidelines presented in the Goldberg article. I think that most of them would be great reminders for my sixth graders. Sometimes they do alright with journal time but other times I am walking around my room and see blank stares and when I tell them to get writing, they reply, "I can't think of anything." I may even make it into a poster for my classroom as a reminder for my students. I have always emphasized that spelling and punctuation don't matter in their writing journal, but some of the other ideas would be great for them as well.
ReplyDeleteI found the idea that you should write but not look at your work for a couple weeks intriguing. It makes sense. You are always more critical of yourself when you are close to the piece of writing. If you take a couple weeks to distance yourself, the result may give you enough space to see the writing for what it is.
In the article about Common Sense Media, I find it very interesting that writing and technology are becoming more and more intertwined. I see this even in my own classroom where most of the technology we use is tied to writing. I use My Access, Google Docs and Pages with my students writing. It is definitely something to keep in mind when looking at the teaching of writing. I also think that teaching digital citizenship is very important. We just finished a research paper on different structures around the world. Many students used the internet to compile their research. We had to talk about reliable websites and how to give credit to where the information came from, a skill that will defiantly be needed later in life.
I really enjoyed the readings this week. They made me think about my practices as a teacher and how I teach writing. I know I do not write enough with my students. I do not write along with my students when they are writing in their journals and I should. I think I’ll start that next week. I also liked the idea of playing music by different musicians during our journal-writing block.
ReplyDeleteI really enjoyed the article about building fluency. The success that the teacher had in her classroom was very inspiring. She had boys saying that even if they were sick, they would come to school on journal writing days. What a great feeling as a teacher to have your students eager to come into your classroom and write.
These articles all seemed to be geared toward intermediate students. Now I am thinking about how I can take this information and use it in my first grade classroom.
How lovely! You poem leaves me feeling calm and grateful to live in Alaska. It was well crafted and I was able to enjoy it immensely the first time I read it through. The line: “And stately tread ply nature’s saraband,” caused me pause, because I just didn’t know the word saraband. (I did look up its definition though, understand the phrase so much better, and am richer for it!)
ReplyDeleteThe imagery was strong and I especially enjoyed your “window on the wilderness” ending, which tied back to your beginning of catching “a glimmer . . . reflected in the mirror of my car.”
Thank you for taking a risk as a writer and sharing your sonnet and a bit of your struggles in process.
Sentence combining. Sounds like a simple task, but for young ELL writers, it is a spectacular challenge. Not to say that it shouldn't or couldn't be taught. A lot of modeling, examples need to be shared. Students can practice making more complex sentences out of their own writing.
ReplyDeleteOh my gosh, I feel you on this one. It is very difficult for young ELL writers to work on sentence combining. I find it also hard to get them to write in the correct tense.
DeleteMost of the time, I write WEIRD journal entries with the kids. (Writing Everyday Reflecting Imagining Describing). Sometimes, I share them with the class as well. The eighth graders used to share their journal entries with the class much more when they were in 7th grade. My current 7th graders practically beg to read their writing to the class. I think perhaps the 8th graders are maturing into young adults that may write about more personal, private thoughts. I do know that they write more content that the 7th graders, so I know they are still thinking and getting words on paper. Perhaps that is a good sign rather than a disappointment. The more they think about themselves and how they connect with the world around them, the better critical thinkers, readers, and writers they are becoming.
ReplyDeletein response to “The Write Way: Building Fluency with Students”—Becky Norsworthy
ReplyDeleteFirst, I was intrigued by the reference to Rain, Steam, and Speed: Building Fluency in Adolescent Writers, by Gerald Fleming and Meredith Pike-Baky. I’m not familiar with this text or with this particular approach to journaling. I’d like to know how it differs from any other method.
When I read accounts of the impact of journaling, they make me sad. How could I possibly include this with the number of students I teach (148)? Even if I include journaling with only my ninth-graders (112), how could I read the entries in a timely way? There is no worse feeling, in my experience, than being in the classroom long after the school day ends and reading something that requires an emergency call to a parent or school administrator. I do not doubt the value of students writing about issues that matter to them, but how would I deal with my district’s expectation that I read everything assigned in my class?
Journaling by Lydia Feb. 25, 2012
ReplyDeleteIn just a few days my husband and I will celebrate our 40th wedding anniversary. I have to say that it has been a long hard way. Forty years is a long time and a lot of "life" has happened in those years. We started out so young, I was eighteen and he was twenty. His dad called me a "passing fancy." I took that as a challenge and just had to prove him wrong. I guess I showed him!
Today it seems like it has taken a lot of work and sacrifice to get this far. We've lived through bankruptcy, business failures, and the deaths of three of our parents. Although, my dad is still with us and quite active at 85 years. (He's planning his annual trip to Florida this summer to visit with his lady friend.) Our youngest son spent a year deployed to Iraq. That year felt like death to me. The breakup of his marriage, and the devastation that caused his two daughters is like a death that lives on. His brother, our older son is recovering-for-life as an alcoholic. He is doing very well at making the AA program work by helping others. Being a mom can be very hard on one's heart. The hard times have done a lot to improve my prayer life.
On other days I can see the joys and laughter most clearly. Six grandchildren help with the joy part. They rounded out the cycle of life when my mom was dying of cancer at home. Their unfolding potential and developing characters give us good reason to go on and to do well at life no matter what the circumstances. The three oldest (11, 13, and 14) are writing a new play they plan to perform for us. It features the endearing quirks of the three younger ones (2, 3, and 5). They came over to our house today for Saturday pancakes. They bring us so much more than we give them in a breakfast meal.
Erik, who is 5, told me confidentially that his mother is getting old-hair, "right here," he said. He indicated her old-hair was over her ears. I pretended to be shocked by the news and said, "Well, it is a good thing that I don't have any old hair." He looked me over pretty closely then. "Grandma," he said, "you have old-hair all over!" Oh, my. They do keep us laughing, and praying.
The assignment for students was to write a sonnet about a window. They interpreted "window" in an incredible variety of ways, from an actual window, to a television screen, to a glass-bottom boat.
ReplyDeletePeggy Brannon
ReplyDeleteResponse to Writing Next:
Of the eleven elements mentioned in this study, the three that I utilize the most are Writing strategies, sentence combining, and specific product goals. While I wasn't surprised at seeing these eleven methods as being effective, I was surprised at the order in which they were listed (by order of effectiveness) and the percentages of high school graduates deemed as non-proficient or low achieving It really made me stop and evaluate the methods and strategies I emphasize. For instance, I introduced and used summarization skills frequently when I taught reading, but much less so when I started teaching writing as a separate block. I also find collaborative writing to be difficult due to time constraints and behavioral issues, even though I know that the ability to collaborate is a skill that many employers look for in potential employees.
The study also mentions that many teachers promote narrative writing, but they don't often focus on explanatory writing, the type of writing most used in the work force. I have to say I felt a bit guilty when reading this, because I spend a lot of time in the first quarter on narrative writing. I feel that my first job is make students want to write. Writing about what they know is sometimes the first step.
Writing down to the bones
ReplyDeleteI don't do a lot of journal writing. After reading the different articles about journal writing I think I will try to make more time for it. However with all that different things that I need to do in the day I don't think I could give up time to do writing myself. Generally when students are given the writing prompt or project they have about 20-30 min to work on it each day. While students are writing I use the time to do conferences with individual students about previous writing assignments. This time is to valuable for me to be writing I need to work with kids. I know modeling is important but I do that during the mini lessons.
I do journal writing daily in my classroom, but it is often difficult to come up with topics. I find my students struggle with what to write or always write about the same topics. Does anyone know any good places to find topics?
Delete"Building Fluency With Students"
ReplyDeleteIt is interesting the impact that music has on students. And it's also interesting the music they have/haven't been exposed to. We listened to "Home on the Range" in history class two weeks ago. They'd never heard it. I would've been surprised, but it was the same with my history class last year. As a result it was a great intro activity to the chapter on Westward Expansion. We then revisited the song at the end and they all wrote additional verses. The excitement that they exhibited was a pleasant surprise, as was their request that I played the song again each day. I can't handle hearing the same song again every day, so I decided to try out some more music - in this case Sons of the Pioneers. They were thrilled (okay, all but one of them were thrilled). Music has a great way of adding to lessons and getting the pen moving.
Any suggestions for additional music out there that is used in your classes or activities that use music?
I really like your idea of using music to tie into social studies. This would be great to use in my classroom. I teach 20th Century History. There are some great war songs and war protest songs that would work well in these types of lessons.
DeleteI think it is a great extension activity to have the students write a new verse to the song. What a wonderful idea (and nice tie to writing)!
I use music during social studies and when the students are coming up with an idea to write about.
DeleteSometimes we will look at the words of songs during reading and find examples of different parts of speech, adjectives, nouns, etc.
I also use it during PE for warm up and stretches.
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteResponse to “The Write Way: Building Fluency with Students”
ReplyDeleteand a Loaded Memory.
This was my favorite article next to The Center’s research brief about the writing practices. I love music. I love writing. I love to combine the two. Lately, I have been bringing in music that matches the story we are currently reading. That meant Bessie Smith for the 7th graders and Billie Holiday for the 8th graders. I usually play it in the morning while they are getting ready and writing in their WEIRD journals.
Playing instrumental, global tunes while they write (anything) seems to me the best idea in the entire world. This is my next step in the classroom, including compiling all of their old writing work from the year into a portfolio.
When I was in 7th grade, I was working on a fiction piece I called The Silver Dagger. It was set in medieval times and told the story of two brothers who fought in the high lord’s army. Some craziness and deception ensues, and one of the brothers is murdered. I am not going to divulge any more, just in case I get the chance to write it again. The idea is still clear and dear to me, always lurking the depths of my subconscious.
Something I thought to be quite tragic occurred during seventh grade. I took that story everywhere, writing on it when I could in between schoolwork, bus rides and writers club. My grandma Tillie bought me a brown paper accordion style folder with several sections. It used a drawstring and round button fastener to secure the contents. My story was over one–hundred handwritten pages when I put it inside one of the unlocked gym lockers at P.E. one day. When I left class and went to retrieve the folder, it was gone.
Of course I looked in every locker in that locker room. I searched the garbage cans around the school, the gym, the cafeteria. My locker. My backpack. My classrooms. My room at home. Everywhere… nowhere. I remembered that earlier in the year, Sara Wickstrom had stolen my jeans right out of my gym locker during the class period. I had to wear my gym shorts home. The next day, I caught her wearing them and told the teacher. Recalling this incident, I decided to confront her about the story. Nothing. If she or anyone else in my class stole it, they weren’t confessing anytime soon.
I was never popular. Didn’t have very many friends in middle school. Anyone could have stolen the story. The classmates who snickered with cupped hands and piercing glares, the boys who flicked my ears and kicked in the backs of my knees in the lunch line, harassed me on the bus rides home, the girls who asked me if I thought I was “cool” or asked me what do you think you are looking at, girl? …out of the blue, for no reason. Or, Sara Wickstrom. Any of these people could’ve stolen the story. Or they all could have.
Response to "Do You Write with Your Students?"
ReplyDeleteI know modeling behavior and good habits it important to do but knowing something and doing it are two different things. Reading is easy to model for me. I love to read. Writing is a different matter. I am usually multitasking all those little teacher jobs that need to get done while the students are writing. Kids do what the adults around them do. I need to become a better model for my young writers.
The quote at the beginning is great. I wonder what made Edison think that books would be obsolete? I could understand if someone made that same statement today with computers, Kindles, iPads etc.
Response to Resource Readings
ReplyDeletePamella Carter Simpson
Excerpts from Natalie Goldberg,
“Writing Down the Bones and Wild Mind: Living the Writer's Life”
2/27/12 10:00 A.M.
I loved this article. I loved that it gave me permission to write “junk.” I loved that Goldberg knew how I felt about my writing, “fools for even picking up a pen.” Maybe I’m not the only one who’s very insecure about their writing.
I’ve got a lot to say. I just feel like no one wants to hear it. So, Goldberg gave me permission to write for myself. Then, in this course, as I publish it on our site, maybe someone might be interested in what I have to say.
I also loved the idea of writing with a partner whose writing may be like mine so that I am not intimidated. And, I would like to make a New Year’s resolution, even though we’re in February, to write everyday. I find it’s hard to go back and remember some things from the past I wish I had written down.
Pamella Carter Simpson
2/27/12 10:30 A.M.
Spotlight On Common Sense Media
By: Tiffany Chiao
This is a very important article for school districts. This information is imperative to the responsible use of media by students in schools and at home. I will be sharing this with my curriculum and instruction director to see whether we can put in place the “Digital Literacy Curriculum.” I will also be reading through this curriculum and related materials in its entirety.
Pamella Carter Simpson
“Do You Write with Your Students?”
2/27/12 11:30 A.M.
My Response:
I was extremely surprised to see how much foresight Thomas Edison had way back in 1913. I know he was smart, but not that smart.
I see that the author, Rebecca Alber, is essentially telling us to see our students as peers in the writing process by her example “Mistakenly, I received an automated ticket in the mail for driving in the carpool lane without a passenger. The ticket was an error (since I'd been teaching at the time of the incident). I wrote a letter to the traffic court. The students advised me that my tone was too harsh (I was angry!) I revised.” This is powerful and empowers the students! She was letting the students know she respected their opinion and that they were capable of helping her. Awesome! I have never thought of that before. I can’t wait to try this.
Also, I liked how Lisa M. took this idea and “ran with it” by using the SMARTboard to show her writing to the students and to show the entire writing process. Great idea!
Pamella Carter Simpson
ReplyDelete“WritingNext-Research Brief”
2/27/12 11:00 A.M.
My Response:
I did not like the research brief on “Writing Next.” I enjoyed and receive much more valuable information from the complete article as show below from my response to last week’s article.
I would strongly suggest that everyone read the entire article on “Writing Next” in order to get a feel for which of the 11 elements works most effectively with our students. Also, it can give you an idea as to whether what you have been doing is effective according to research.
As a teacher of writing, I would choose strategies #1 – (.82% effectiveness) Writing Strategies, #5 – (.55% effectiveness) Word Processing, #6 – (.50% effectiveness) Sentence-combining, and #11 – (.23% effectiveness) Writing for Content Learning to teach writing. As a creature of habit, I would say the reason being is that I have used these strategies in my past 30 years of teaching. I was pleased to see their effectiveness showed in the research as well as in my experience with my students. I especially agreed with the use of Word Processing for struggling writers.
With the writing strategies, my favorite is the 6 Trait Writing process along with a rubric. I love this approach due to the gradual process it uses in making great writers of our students. The Six Trait Writing Assessment model gives teachers and students a non-bias, accurate, and objective evaluation tool, which in turn will help students and teachers alike to internalize good traits of writing. (Culham, 2003, pg. 6)
I was also agreed whole-heartedly with this article’s note on traditional teaching of grammar versus “…teaching students to focus on the function and practical application of grammar within the context of writing (versus teaching grammar as an independent activity) produced strong and positive effects on students’ writing.” (WritingNext) I definitely agree with this through experience with my students. Actual on-the-job training with functional writing seems to be more helpful in teaching grammar.
Lastly, I agree with strategy #11 – Writing for Content Learning. Very Important! - “In fact, the roles of learning to write and of writing to learn are interdependent. It was for this reason that Biancarosa and Snow (2004) recommended that language arts teachers use content-area texts to teach reading and writing skills and that content-area teachers provide instruction and practice in discipline-specific reading and writing. Using writing tasks to learn content offers students opportunities to expand their knowledge of vocabulary; to strengthen the planning, evaluating, and revising process; and to practice grammar, spelling, punctuation, modes of argumentation, and technical writing (Yore, 2003).” (WritingNext) I believe, if taken seriously by all teachers, this could be an excellent way to teach cross-curricular writing. The problem I have encountered in the past with this model is non-language arts teachers who say this is not their responsibility. Then, when they are told they have to do it, they don’t read the students’ papers, don’t take it seriously, and this feeling is picked up on by the students. Then the students don’t take it seriously.
Alot of times editing and peer editing get left out of my teaching. The students struggle with this and I don't always have time to do it. I realize the importance of it and am working at creating mini lessons that focus on editing and revision.
DeleteAs far as getting everything in, I often try to integrate subject areas and I do writing during math, social studies, and reading.
As far as getting my own writing into my classroom. My students have a journal they keep daily. I respond to them each day if they turn their journal into me. I also use my own writings as examples in the classroom. I use it as one of the examples in my writing mini lessons.
Building Fluency
ReplyDeleteAfter reading the article on building fluency I am going to start playing music again. I use to play music quietly during independent work time but I stopped for some reason. I am not sure why I stopped but I suppose it is because of the few extra moments it takes to get the music going. However now that we have better technology I can down load my classical music CD onto my computer and play it with the promethean board. I really think it will help my students to focus if they have music going in the background. It might also help drowned out the sounds of me talking quietly during my writing conferences with students. Maybe I will try it tomorrow and see how it goes.
Earlier this year when I had my own self-contained 7th grade classroom, I played music constantly throughout the day. I loved it, and so did my kids. We listened to everything from MGMT to Elvis to Jack Johnson (believe it or not, Elvis was at the kids' request!). When my classroom was repurposed as the school's "In-School Suspension" room in late November, a lot of things went by the wayside when my kids and I moved into the 6th grade portable, including the music playing. I didn't realize how much I missed it until I read this article! I am anxious to have my own room again in the (hopefully not too distant) future, because I do think that music is a medium which can inspire and foster writing.
DeleteReading the list of ideas and suggestions in the excerpt from Writing Down the Bones got me feeling excited about writing in a way I haven't felt in quite a while. It also made me long for the TIME to just sit and write, and not have a bazillion other things on my "To Do" list knocking around my brain and distracting my focus.
ReplyDeleteA few years ago, I set the goal for myself to be a published author by the age of 30. I was irate at the time because Lauren Conrad of reality TV "fame" had just published a young adult novel, and I figured if she of all people could get published, why not me? Sure, she had the money and the fame and all the exposure she could possibly want, all of which certainly gave her novel a leg up, but still...why not me? After that, I went on a mad, inspired tangent, adding pages and pages and revising like a fiend on the draft I started in college. That went on for a month or two, before life happened. I got hired for a job up here in Alaska, and preparing for that became my sole focus. Then, after I arrived up here, not being eaten alive by my students became my sole focus. At the end of the day, I barely had enough energy to walk, let alone write.
Now that I am in my second year and not nearly as frazzled, I have been able to find small snippets of time to devote to writing. Still....its not enough. I'm 26, and 30 isn't as far away as it used to be. Stupid Lauren Conrad has had several successful YA novels published, while I am still sitting on 63 pages of hodgepodge. I know setting timelines based on age is a stupid practice. I also know that being a writer without a "side hustle" to pay the bills is only possible if you are, in fact, a vapid reality show celebrity who gets paid just for making an appearance.
But, I digress...as I originally set out to say, the ideas from Goldberg inspired me, as did the concept of using my students' writing time as my writing time too (Writing Side By Side). I feel like my teacher and writer personalities are somewhat at odds - my teacher personality is a control freak perfectionist, and while my writer personality is still a perfectionist, she is much less of a control freak. I'm not sure if those two can co-exist together in the classroom, but if it helps me to put pen to paper more often in my day-to-day, I'm going to try and work it out.