Chapter 12

Chapter 12 discusses ways to make every minute count in the classroom when it comes to writing instruction. I loved the idea of taking daily oral language exercises and re-writing them to incorporate students’ names, lives, and interests, making it more meaningful. I do daily oral language in my classroom at the very beginning to review grammar rules. I feel that my students are stronger when it comes to the conventions of their writing. We only spend 2 minutes on it at the very beginning of class. Then we jump straight into our writing focus of the day.

            I need to remember to spend less time on skill teaching and more time just letting the students write for extended periods of time. However, once I see students needing work on a certain skill, I can pull them and do a little mini-lesson on that skill with them. Another way to make writing meaningful is to have students write to real audiences, in other words, make their writing experiences authentic. When students are writing for a real purpose and audience they are much more apt to try new things and go out of their comfort zones.

The picture below illustrates a reminder to have students do authentic writing by writing for a real audience.

Chapter 11

            Chapter 11 focuses on the best practice and research findings when it comes to teaching writing. The research states that students must have writing time daily. I connected this to what I read in chapter 10. Students also need to connect their reading to their writing. I think a great way to do this would be to have students journal about what they read. I have tried doing this as part of DEAR time, but it has never lifted off the ground the way I would like it to. I think that by allowing students time to share their writing with peers, they will be more willing to journal about what they are reading.

            The research also says that students need to have some choice when it comes to their writing. I am a true believer in choice. Students are so much more motivated to work hard and try their best when they have a sense of ownership over their work. I start students off with an general area that their writing must focus on, but then after that, they get to choose their specific topic. We are getting ready to start our persuasive writing unit and students will be writing advertisements for ridiculously expensive products out of the Nieman Marcus Christmas catalog. The students are so excited to select their products next week!

I have included a picture of one of the items students may be selling! It's a Customized Cupcake Car for the bargain price of $25,000!

Chapter 10

Chapter 10 focuses on the use of assessments and how to make them meaningful. The chapter suggests talking in your building about your writing assessment scores and deciding as a building and grade level how students should be progressing as writers. I cannot remember the last time I have talked to my grade level team about student development in writing and I don’t remember having done this as a staff either. So much of our time, as I’m sure many other building’s too, is spent discussing students’ progress in reading and math. Even though we are assessed in writing, there is never as big a push in preparation as there is before the reading and math assessments.

            Also, as I was reading, I found myself making several connections between reading and writing instruction when it came to writing fluently. Writing fluently, is very similar to reading fluently. The chapter suggests giving students 20-30 minutes each day to have silent-sustained writing time. I immediately connected this to silent-sustained reading time or DEAR time as we call it in my classroom. I never give the students’ that much time to write silently because we have so much to get through in our day. Yet the students do have 30 minutes of DEAR time each day. We have been talking a lot about building stamina when it comes to reading at my school, and now I think it’s time to transfer that focus to building stamina when it comes to writing. I believe that students would benefit from this in both reading and writing.

Below is a picture of writing journal to remind me to give students silent-sustained writing time each day.

Chapter 9

Chapter 9 discusses how to conference effectively with students and the various formats of doing so. One of the best ideas I got from this chapter was the idea of roving conferences. So often during writer’s workshop, I feel like I’m cornered at my desk helping students that come up to me with concerns in their writing. This greatly limits the number of students I am able to interact with during workshop time. I love the idea of roving conferences because this would allow me to interact with all 24 students during the writing time. I especially liked the anecdotal notes chart that was included in the text. This is a great resource to organize and determine which students are on what step, what they are needing more guidance with, and what their strengths are. I can use this information to form small group mini-lessons, individual mini-lessons, and even a whole group mini-lesson if needed. Roving conferences also allow me to take a peek at everyone’s writing and provide them with specific feedback.

I also liked the idea of at the end of a one-on-one conference getting input from the writer as to what their goals are for the piece and what they would like to see happen with it. So often, I feel like I’m on autopilot when I’m conferencing, since I am trying to get through so many in a timely fashion. I need to slow down and listen to the students and gain more input from them.

Chapter 8

Chapter 8 discusses how to organize and set up daily writing through writer’s workshop. In the chapter, it says, “Do what you can to have a peaceful writing time.” In order to establish a peaceful and productive writing zone in my classroom, we dim the lights and I turn on classical music that plays through the speakers in my room. I have a conferencing area in my room so that way students can go to this area to discuss in pairs, this way other students who are writing are not distracted by conversations. I spend a long time at the beginning of the year modeling what writer’s workshop looks and sounds like. I even have the students act out the incorrect and correct ways it should look. They love doing this!

As I was reading this chapter, I was also reminded of a writing workshop field trip we did at Kaleidoscope this fall with our fifth graders. During this, they had an author speak to the kids about his process in writing. He gave the kids a great motto to use when writing, “always keep your pencils moving!” He said that when you get stumped, don’t set down your pencil, instead, draw swirls on the side of your paper to help keep your brain active. I thought this was a great message to give the kids. This is now one of our guidelines during writer’s workshop!

Chapter 7

Chapter 7 discusses the best approach to teaching writing through a whole- to part- to whole concept. As I was reading this, I couldn’t help but thinking how much of my writing instruction at the beginning of the year is isolated skills work. After reading, this chapter, I now see that I need to set a purpose for writing, let the students have the freedom to write freely. Then as students are writing, I can look for what they are needing work on and do a small mini-lesson on that. Mini-lessons can be one-on-one or in small groups, they don’t have to involve the entire class.

I made a text to text connection when reading the part about teacher’s modeling aloud their “voice” in writing to students. This reminded me of the chapter we read on shared writing. I think that shared writing would be a perfect way to practice and show the power of voice in our writing. I also liked the idea of modeling the continual revising pattern aloud with students. I spend so much time modeling peer conferencing, yet I need to focus more on the writer continually revising their writing as they are working on it.

Chapter 6

Chapter 6 focuses on the reading and writing connection. The better students are a reading, the better they will be in writing. Students need to have meaningful interactions with texts and need to be given purposeful ways to respond to it. A quality writing response is one in which students have to re-examine what they have read. This reminded me of a writing project I just had the 5^th grade do shortly after winter break. We have been focusing a lot on identifying cause and effect while reading, so I read “If You Give a Moose a Muffin” to the class. Then I had them go back through the text and identify the causes and effects and think about how they were related. Students quickly realized that it loops. The effect leads right in to the next cause, and so on. I took this activity to the next level by incorporating writing with it. Students then wrote their own versions of an “If You” story. They had to identify and map out all of the causes and effects, along with the narrative elements that would be present. I was so excited to see the enjoyment and enthusiasm across the room as we worked on writing and publishing these stories. I felt like students got so much out of this writing experience and that this project really capitalized on the reading and writing connection.

Below is a photo of one of my students “If You” books, titled "If You Give a Monkey Some Pancakes."