I am placed in a second grade classroom this semester and have enjoyed getting to see the students reading and writing more compared to what I saw in Kindergarten last semester. My teacher typically reads them a book and then they have a writing assignment in relation to the text. For the past several weeks, persuasive writing has been the focus so my teacher has read many children's literature books that demonstrate good persuasive techniques and word choice. Thursday I actually implemented the writing workshop lesson because my teacher was absent and the substitute wanted me to teach it instead of her. The book my teacher left for a read aloud was Don't Let the Pigeon Stay Up Late. I then had the students go back to their desks and write reasons they could give their parents to persuade them to let the student stay up late. I told them to use the pigeon's reasons for ideas but to come up with reasons of their own. We ended up having plenty of time after writing their reasons, so I allowed students to stand up in front of the class and share their reasons for staying up late to the class. We found that many students had similar reasons and some had completely different reasons that were neat to hear about. I was pleased that the writing workshop went well and that I was able to teach the lesson sort of on the spot.
It is interesting to me that the chapters we were assigned to read this week involve distractions in the writing workshop because the next day (Friday) after my successful experience Thursday, the writing workshop was chaotic and stressful to both the teacher and myself. Writing workshop time is right after lunch each day from 12:20-1:10. The students are very wound up from lunchtime and have a difficult time settling down and getting back into the classroom mode. This particular day, my teacher did not read a text but instead had the students get out a paper they had already been working on. The paper was their list of reasons supporting their personal opinion about school uniforms. Each student had already chosen if they were for or against school uniforms. On the Smartboard the teacher pulled up the document with the reasons for and against uniforms that she had written down from the previous class discussion. She also had a list of persuasive words that the students should choose from to use in their persuasive pieces. My teacher informed the class that she and I would walk around the room and oversee their work, helping individuals as needed and also helping them edit for their final copy. This seemed like it was going to be a successful, easygoing writing workshop because the students had already chosen their side and had already begun their papers...........I was wrong. It was a disaster. Many students were talking, some were walking around the room, some were yelling mine and the teacher's name to help them, etc. I was trying to help so many children at once that it was just a mess! When I would be leaned over helping one student add some persuasive words, another student would be tapping me consistently on the shoulder from behind and yelling out questions about his/her paper. My mentor teacher was having the same problem. She kept trying to quiet the class down but it was not working. Needless to say, I had a headache by the time this writing workshop was over. It proved to be unsuccessful because many of the students who were misbehaving and not focused during the writing workshop, now only had about 1 sentence on their paper.....whereas some students were already making their final copy. So now that it was time to go to specials, my teacher scolded the class for their behavior during the workshop and threatened that if they behaved this way during writing workshop again, they would start losing recess. I felt as though this was not the ideal way to try to solve the problem of disorder and craziness. After reading Ray's chapters, I tried to come up with ways to fix the writing workshop for future lessons, but I'm still wondering what I would be able to do as the student intern to make changes without stepping on my mentor teacher's toes so to speak.
It's interesting to see how the writing workshop went just fine Thursday, but then was chaotic and not very productive the very next day on Friday. I guess this definitely proves that writing workshops are oftentimes unpredictable, just as Ray discusses in the textbook.
Monday, February 21, 2011
Monday, February 14, 2011
Conferring & Sharing (chapters 14,15, & 17)
First of all, I want to say.......HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY!!!!!! :)
So as I was reading, I was simultaneously trying to think of what I would say when conferring with my future students. I was thinking to myself, "How could someone like me who is not a very strong writer, tell students tips of how to make their writing better?" I began reading on and saw that on page 161, Ray says that "With any opening inquiry, our goal at the beginning of a conference is to get the student talking" (Ray, p. 161). This gave me some peace of mind because it showed that the teacher does not have to do all of the talking in the conference. Some things that you (Ms. Friese) helped us with in just a whole group setting due to time restraints, was to give us knowledge about the bullet points actually listed on page 164. You have shown us how living our lives as writers can be us just simply writing in our notebooks and saving these pieces to show our students one day. I remember you specifically telling me that it's okay if I don't currently have any pieces to share with my future students because with our writer's notebook for this class we will be planning and developing different types of pieces. The bullet points on page 164 also go on to list getting and giving responses to writing which you have already done since you have completed our first notebook check.
It has been both neat and helpful that you have been modeling a writing workshop conference for us so that we can see firsthand how it is done. Of course you had to technically do your "conferring" via Post-It notes in our notebooks because of the limited amount of time we have each week. Ideally you would have had inidvidual conferences with each of us, but I like how you improvised and still gave us feedback in regards to our writing. You taking the time to read my notebook made me want to produce better quality writing. This goes along with what I read on page 174 that states, "For many of our writers, talk is essential because when they are writing every single day, they just need to get some regular feedback to keep their momentum going" (Ray, p. 174). I felt like this section of the textbook was totally talking about me personally! Haha. :) I also could relate to the section titled "Simple Response Share" because it reminded me of when I shared my narrative draft with my classmates sitting at my table a couple weeks ago. I was willing to share by reading my narrative draft out of my notebook to this small group of girls, but I would not have wanted to raise my hand and read it in front of our whole class.
So as I was reading, I was simultaneously trying to think of what I would say when conferring with my future students. I was thinking to myself, "How could someone like me who is not a very strong writer, tell students tips of how to make their writing better?" I began reading on and saw that on page 161, Ray says that "With any opening inquiry, our goal at the beginning of a conference is to get the student talking" (Ray, p. 161). This gave me some peace of mind because it showed that the teacher does not have to do all of the talking in the conference. Some things that you (Ms. Friese) helped us with in just a whole group setting due to time restraints, was to give us knowledge about the bullet points actually listed on page 164. You have shown us how living our lives as writers can be us just simply writing in our notebooks and saving these pieces to show our students one day. I remember you specifically telling me that it's okay if I don't currently have any pieces to share with my future students because with our writer's notebook for this class we will be planning and developing different types of pieces. The bullet points on page 164 also go on to list getting and giving responses to writing which you have already done since you have completed our first notebook check.
It has been both neat and helpful that you have been modeling a writing workshop conference for us so that we can see firsthand how it is done. Of course you had to technically do your "conferring" via Post-It notes in our notebooks because of the limited amount of time we have each week. Ideally you would have had inidvidual conferences with each of us, but I like how you improvised and still gave us feedback in regards to our writing. You taking the time to read my notebook made me want to produce better quality writing. This goes along with what I read on page 174 that states, "For many of our writers, talk is essential because when they are writing every single day, they just need to get some regular feedback to keep their momentum going" (Ray, p. 174). I felt like this section of the textbook was totally talking about me personally! Haha. :) I also could relate to the section titled "Simple Response Share" because it reminded me of when I shared my narrative draft with my classmates sitting at my table a couple weeks ago. I was willing to share by reading my narrative draft out of my notebook to this small group of girls, but I would not have wanted to raise my hand and read it in front of our whole class.
Monday, January 31, 2011
Teaching Writing Workshop & Developing Focus Lessons.... (chapters 9, 10, & 13)
Hello again! I must say I found the reading this week to be much easier and it contained a lot of important information. I think I mentioned this in the previous blog, but I really do like how the author of our textbook, Katie Wood Ray, words things and has written the chapters as if she is really talking to us....it makes it less boring and easier to understand! With that being said, I want to touch on a few different points from the assigned chapters that resonated with me.
I enjoyed the section in Chapter 9 about Structures and Routines because I myself am a very organized person who likes to be on a specific schedule and routine. A daily routine in a school classroom and more specifically, a writing workshop, is very important because it "helps maintain a supportive classroom environment where students are willing to share" (Ray, p. 95) Something that Ray went on to discuss was how the long term goal of structures and routines is for students to be able to work on their own inside the classroom and learn from this routine without the teacher even having to be inside the classroom. This came as surprising to me because typically I never think of children learning inside a classroom without the teacher in there! There were a couple examples of structures and routines that Ray gave that I decided I want to use in my writing workshop one day: 1. a table in the room where students may sign up to teach small groups some strategy or technique they have been using as writers 2. a bulletin board that is changed every two weeks where various groups of students may display pieces of writing I like the first example because it allows the students to teach their peers, and it requires them to have to fully understand strategies/techniques in order to teach them to their classmates. The second example to me is a good way to give students the option of sharing their hard work with others. I know that I personally was proud of writing and projects I completed in school and it was nice to get to show people my finished "masterpiece." I think it allows students to have an audience to write to and maybe they will truly put forth a lot of effort in their writing if they know it will be shown.
Another big point in the reading that stuck out to me was how it is important for teachers of a writing workshop to share their own writing with their students. I liked how it said the teacher is to talk "across" to the students and act as a fellow writer, and not talk "down" to the students. The thing I worry about though is that I do not write much as all as far as a personal journal or notebook unless assigned. I also do not think I'm a very good writer myself. I guess my question is, what on earth will I share with my students in a writing workshop?! Ray says to carry around a notebook and encourage students to do so also, so I guess I should start doing that so I will have writings to share with my future class. She says to share past writings so that you will make students feel comfortable about you being a fellow writer, and you will also have physical examples to show the students. I wish I had had the experience of a writing workshop growing up because then I would have past writings to share, AND I think I would be a much better writer and enjoy it more.
I truly do look forward to implementing a writing workshop in my future classroom because I have already learned so many benefits of it. Although I did not have the experience of writing workshops when I was growing up as a student K-12, at least I will be able to open doors and opportunities for my students and teach them about writing, which will be something that they use for the rest of their lives. After reading about focus lessons this past week, now I am anxious to see if I will be able to write an effective one. I have looked at a few examples online but hope to understand better after class tomorrow! :)
I enjoyed the section in Chapter 9 about Structures and Routines because I myself am a very organized person who likes to be on a specific schedule and routine. A daily routine in a school classroom and more specifically, a writing workshop, is very important because it "helps maintain a supportive classroom environment where students are willing to share" (Ray, p. 95) Something that Ray went on to discuss was how the long term goal of structures and routines is for students to be able to work on their own inside the classroom and learn from this routine without the teacher even having to be inside the classroom. This came as surprising to me because typically I never think of children learning inside a classroom without the teacher in there! There were a couple examples of structures and routines that Ray gave that I decided I want to use in my writing workshop one day: 1. a table in the room where students may sign up to teach small groups some strategy or technique they have been using as writers 2. a bulletin board that is changed every two weeks where various groups of students may display pieces of writing I like the first example because it allows the students to teach their peers, and it requires them to have to fully understand strategies/techniques in order to teach them to their classmates. The second example to me is a good way to give students the option of sharing their hard work with others. I know that I personally was proud of writing and projects I completed in school and it was nice to get to show people my finished "masterpiece." I think it allows students to have an audience to write to and maybe they will truly put forth a lot of effort in their writing if they know it will be shown.
Another big point in the reading that stuck out to me was how it is important for teachers of a writing workshop to share their own writing with their students. I liked how it said the teacher is to talk "across" to the students and act as a fellow writer, and not talk "down" to the students. The thing I worry about though is that I do not write much as all as far as a personal journal or notebook unless assigned. I also do not think I'm a very good writer myself. I guess my question is, what on earth will I share with my students in a writing workshop?! Ray says to carry around a notebook and encourage students to do so also, so I guess I should start doing that so I will have writings to share with my future class. She says to share past writings so that you will make students feel comfortable about you being a fellow writer, and you will also have physical examples to show the students. I wish I had had the experience of a writing workshop growing up because then I would have past writings to share, AND I think I would be a much better writer and enjoy it more.
I truly do look forward to implementing a writing workshop in my future classroom because I have already learned so many benefits of it. Although I did not have the experience of writing workshops when I was growing up as a student K-12, at least I will be able to open doors and opportunities for my students and teach them about writing, which will be something that they use for the rest of their lives. After reading about focus lessons this past week, now I am anxious to see if I will be able to write an effective one. I have looked at a few examples online but hope to understand better after class tomorrow! :)
Monday, January 24, 2011
Sooooo....what exactly is a Writing Workshop? (chapters 1-5)
Wow, that took me a while to read! I enjoyed the content of the chapters and what the author had to say, but that was overwhelmingly a lot to read! I cannot say I'm looking forward to reading that much this whole semester, along with all the other stuff we have to read for other classes. Oh well, I guess I will just have to get used to it. ;)
Prior to reading these chapters, I had honestly not taken much thought to the concept of a writing workshop in elementary school. I guess this is because I cannot remember having time just to write in those younger grades when I was growing up. Most of the writing we did involved another subject areas that we were instructed to write about. It was interesting to read the author's statements about how this is NOT a good way for writing to be taught in the classroom because writing during other curriculum areas causes content to be the focus instead of the "doing" of writing. This made so much sense to me and I was angry that my elementary school teachers did not give us the opportunities to just write. The author tells us how important a writing workshop is because students are choosing what to write about and they are gaining significant experience as writers. I personally am terrible at coming up with things to write about, and I actually wrote in my notebook for this class that I have never enjoyed free writing. However, I do see the benefits of students deciding themselves what they will write about in the writing workshop. Maybe if I had the opportunity of a daily writing workshop in elementary school, then I would have had more experience with free writing and would enjoy developing my own topic.
"Writing is something you do, not something you know." This quote from the textbook resonated with me because I have never heard writing described that way before. As I mentioned earlier, it was hard to read so much before writing this blog, but I do like how the author wrote this textbook and talks about the writing workshop conversationally because it is easy to read. I must admit that in Chapter 3 when it talks about the misunderstood definition of a writer, I was one of the people who thought this way: "It is someone who writes really well for audiences made up of lots and lots of people." I hate that that is the view that I've had about writing, but I am glad I will be learning more from this course and textbook. Writing workshops seem like they have so many benefits for helping children develop as writers, and I look forward to learning more ways throughout the textbook of how to successfully have a daily writing workshop. :)
Prior to reading these chapters, I had honestly not taken much thought to the concept of a writing workshop in elementary school. I guess this is because I cannot remember having time just to write in those younger grades when I was growing up. Most of the writing we did involved another subject areas that we were instructed to write about. It was interesting to read the author's statements about how this is NOT a good way for writing to be taught in the classroom because writing during other curriculum areas causes content to be the focus instead of the "doing" of writing. This made so much sense to me and I was angry that my elementary school teachers did not give us the opportunities to just write. The author tells us how important a writing workshop is because students are choosing what to write about and they are gaining significant experience as writers. I personally am terrible at coming up with things to write about, and I actually wrote in my notebook for this class that I have never enjoyed free writing. However, I do see the benefits of students deciding themselves what they will write about in the writing workshop. Maybe if I had the opportunity of a daily writing workshop in elementary school, then I would have had more experience with free writing and would enjoy developing my own topic.
"Writing is something you do, not something you know." This quote from the textbook resonated with me because I have never heard writing described that way before. As I mentioned earlier, it was hard to read so much before writing this blog, but I do like how the author wrote this textbook and talks about the writing workshop conversationally because it is easy to read. I must admit that in Chapter 3 when it talks about the misunderstood definition of a writer, I was one of the people who thought this way: "It is someone who writes really well for audiences made up of lots and lots of people." I hate that that is the view that I've had about writing, but I am glad I will be learning more from this course and textbook. Writing workshops seem like they have so many benefits for helping children develop as writers, and I look forward to learning more ways throughout the textbook of how to successfully have a daily writing workshop. :)
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