Do More Shared Writing

Shared writing has been very scary to me in the past. After reading the last 5 pages of this 40 page chapter, I feel a little better about shared writing at the 5th grade level. Most of what she talks about seems very early elementary, and I was unsure of how I could implement it in my classroom. Her outline of a fifth grade shared writing experience was very helpful. I took what I had learned about shared writing and did free verse poetry with my class today. They didn't really let me just demonstrate it. They wanted to be a part of it, so we did two poems together; one that I initiated and one that they collaboratively created. It was great! Most of them (with the exception of 2) were very eager to write, and the majority of them did a great job. It was interesting that some began to write narratives within their poetry, but I focused only on the good aspects of their writing and refused to dishearten them. Even a kid who is usually in the resource room for writing did a great job. I probably didn't teach free verse poetry the way it should be taught, but here is my morning class's poem:

Peanut Butter

Thick and creamy,
Stuck to the roof of my mouth,
It's astonishing, salty, nougaty sweetness,
Jiffy is the only kind I crave.

My afternoon class's:

Kansas

The Golden Wheat State are we.
Wheat, wheat, wheat,
And the bright orange-yellow sunflowers
Swaying in the cool gentle breeze of Autumn.
A prairie is our home sweet home.

Raise Your Expectations (Part 2)

What would you attempt to do if you knew you could not fail?(p82)

I love this! Focusing on what is right with a student's writing is so important. When I taught kindergarten, I would daily point out to each kid what they were doing right. Now that I am teaching fifth grade, I don't point it out as often. I guess I assumed they were old enough to take criticism. After reading this chapter, I know that I need to focus on the positive and empower my students as writers by building up their confidence.

It's still a little fuzzy as to how to insist your students write legibly and not accept papers that are not ultra-neat. I understand her opinion that if you expect it, you will get it, but I feel I have been expecting better from my students, yet they are not 'magically' turning in higher quality work. What do we do when our students do not 'want' to turn in a higher quality of work?

Raise Your Expectations (Part 1)

This chapter is so long I am going to have to break it up into parts, or I will forget what I read about by the time I reach the end of the chapter...

Raising expectations in writing sounds ideal. The question is... "if I raise the expectations and my students are unable to achieve those expectations due to a lack of basic knowledge, how will they succeed?" Now that I ask it, it is a bad question, but I am still in search of an answer. If we want to look at a practice sheet as mediocre teaching, isn't it also mediocre teaching to ignore the skills the students need to be successful writers? I agree that we need to challenge our students, but raising the bar to an unreachable height is not helpful either.

She spoke of a first grade teacher and her tips for fostering excellent writers:
1. Reading aloud at least three texts a day
2. Writing poetry
3. Having good peer models
4. Focusing on audience
5. Modeling Frequently
6. Intentional teaching
7. Holding high expectations for all students
I agree with these concepts though I am still a little foggy on how to fit them all into the classroom with limited time before math, reading, social studies, science, and writing state tests.

I was intrigued with setting school wide expectations. I bet if you walked into any given classroom in our building, you would find different expectations on what is acceptable or good writing.

I also would like to know how she gets students to write longer pieces. She mentions getting a student to write more than 3 sentences, but she is not explicit on "HOW" to do that. Every year, I struggle with at least two students who will not write more than a few sentences. I do not believe that just telling them that it is not acceptable is going to change that, but I am willing to give it a try.

Share Your Writing Life

"You only have to write a little bit better than your students for them to take something away from your writing"
Nancie Atwell

It's weird, because up to this point I have not had a problem posting my thoughts, but after reading about sharing your writing with colleagues, I am stuck. Sharing your writing can be extremely daunting, and I don't want to have to write every time I sit down at a professional development meeting.

Writing in front of students is much less stressful to me. It was interesting to read lists of things to consider while you write in front of your class. Having a list in front of me would more than likely stifle my creativity, which of course is what we do to our students. We give them a rubric, talk about what good writing looks like, and leave them with an overwhelming list of criteria for them to follow, check off, and perfect. OUCH! Is that really the best way? Once again, how are we supposed to teach our students to write? Write for enjoyment or write for a test? Do we have time in the year to do both? Or should we focus on the enjoyment of writing?

Start with Celebration

The idea of celebrating student writing is not new to me. I completely agree that in writing, and every subject, you need to celebrate what a student is doing well. The idea of writing "choices" is wonderful. I haven't thought about poetry in a really long while, but I can tell you, we will be using poetry to write in social studies next week.

Simplifying the Teaching of Writing

The one point that this chapter brought home to me was the idea of teaching the whole first. My only concern with not teaching skills is when you sit down with the student to look at their work, there is so much that needs to be done to make it understandable that the authentic writing is lost. I also know from experience that when kids are excited about a topic, they will write about it in an entertaining way that is enjoyable to both them and the listener. Of course, we all know the "Optimal Learning Model" and believe it to be the most effective. But how much time needs to be spent on each before you are able to move on to the next tier? And are we saying that we need to have small groups to meet the needs of emergent writers? If so, how do you manage the classroom for such extended periods without active supervision?

The 12 Writing Essentials seem extremely overwhelming! I am hoping that as we read more, they will begin to seem less so. They are all wonderful in theory, it is just looking at them realistically can create some serious stress.

Well, I finally have everything set up and upgraded so I should be able to easily blog throughout this process... Let the blogging begin!

Well... maybe all the kinks aren't out yet... I still can't see my link to "customize"

Hopefully, I will find a pretty color to compliment my blog.