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.
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I absolutely agree that we should have a "vision" for writing in our building. We should start building writers as soon as they enter Prosperity. When students complete 6th grade and leave our doors, students should be competent, independent writers who write not only to meet classroom and/or testing requirements, but who also write for the pure joy of writing.
Maybe creating such a vision would be a logical "next step" following our book study.
I am also intrigued with setting school wide expectations. I think it is something that each of our buildings should do. I think it would improve our 5th grade writing assessments especially if we could just get the students to reread their work after writing it. I also think it is something that we should do as a 5th grade team.
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