Chapter 12 Reflections

Are we making the best use of our students’ time when we teach?  Certainly this is the most important question we need to ask when we plan our daily lessons.  We must deliver deliberate instruction that is meaningful to our students.  There are only so many hours in a school day and, as teachers, we should be certain that we are managing the limited time we have.

Regie Routman suggests that we make our lessons more meaningful by connecting our home and school lives, looking into our students’ eyes, reducing our paper load, being choosy about what we read, and remembering to live our lives outside of the school setting.

 I have done a much better job of connecting my home and school life in my classroom this semester.  Now my students know that I am a busy mother of four children, that I love to attend my sons’ ball games, that I live on a farm with “lots” of cattle just north of Holton.  

They also know that I just lost a very dear friend (Jena Rieschick) last Friday to a heart attack.  In the past I probably would not have shared this last detail with my students, but I did today because many of my children wondered why I wasn’t at school yesterday.  I was honest and told them I was at a funeral and was still feeling very sad.  Many of my students talked about losing a grandparent or some other special person in their life.  My heart almost melted when one little boy told me, “Mrs. Burdiek, it’s okay because she is watching over you and smiling at you.”  Our conversation continued as we connected our hearts, minds, and lives.   I feel that my class is evolving into a close-knit community of learners who really care for each other.

Routman’s last bit of advice in her chapter really hit home with me – “Take time to see the light.”  As I read this I thought about what the pastor said at Jena’s funeral yesterday – “Jena took the time to find the joy in every day.”  Important words for us all to remember . . .

Chapter 11 Reflections

This chapter describes what needs to be happening in our schools in order to provide our students excellent writing instruction.  One qualified, motivated teacher can make a difference in her classroom’s writing program, but what kind of writing are our students doing when they move on to another grade level?  This got me thinking about the writing instruction in my district.  I know my colleagues are excellent teachers, but I feel that as a whole we do not necessarily understand how to best teach writing.  Unfortunately, we tend to be more focused on the traits (voice, sentence fluency, organization, word choice, ideas and content, and conventions) of writing, instead of helping move our writers forward.  Also, it seems that writing is frequently squeezed out of the day in order to prepare our students for state assessments or to complete meaningless activities.

As a staff, I feel that we are not providing our students with effective writing instruction.  Regie Routman notes the key research findings that improve students’ writing.  Some of those findings include the following:  write every day, develop professional knowledge, create predictable writing routines, emphasize writing as a process, provide time for extensive reading and writing, value reading and writing as mutually supportive processes, recognize the value of authentic writing, and understand spelling development.

Routman stresses that this change in philosophy and approach to writing is going to take time (several years), collaboration amongst the teachers, and commitment to improving the writing program. 

 

After much thought, I decided to share this chapter with my principal.  I wanted her to read what makes a successful writing program.  She was eager to peruse it because she wants her teachers to improve their writing instruction.  I am not sure what changes or professional development may take place (especially due to budget cuts), but it is essential that we come together as a team in order to help our students become effective writers.  A good beginning for us would be to complete a book study on the text Writing Essentials.  In the meantime, I intend to continue to reread the book and work toward improving my own writing program.  Believe me, I am already seeing positive changes in my first graders’ writing since I’ve taken this class.

(Image from Amazon.com)

"Progress is impossible without change, and those who cannot change their minds cannot change anything."  (quote by George Bernard Shaw)

Chapter 10 Refections

How do I best assess my first grade students’ writing?  Should I judge their writing based on the six traits – ideas and content, organization, sentence fluency, voice, word choice, and conventions?  After all, this is what the majority of teachers have been taught to be “best practice” for evaluating writing.  I now understand that improving just one of these traits doesn’t necessarily mean that the child will become a better writer.

The use of rubrics was also discussed in this chapter.  Regie Routman contends that teachers use checklists (or rubrics) only when needed because they can cause the teacher to focus on the checklist as opposed to what the writer is trying to do. 

I did like the suggestion of creating a child-friendly rubric with my students.  The following is the rubric my students and I recently completed together:

First Grade Writing Rubric for Mrs. Burdiek’s Class I write about one idea. My introduction makes the reader want to read more. I use interesting words and details. I write like I talk. I do my best with capitalization and punctuation.

Our 1st grade writing rubric

I intend to review this rubric frequently with my students before they go off to their desks to write their stories.  As we are approaching the end of the year my students understand this criteria and the importance of using it to improve their writing.

Additionally, Routman discusses the importance of schools making the commitment to improve the teaching of writing.  I would love for my district’s teachers to receive professional training in writing.  We have put so much emphasis on passing the standardized tests that I feel we often overlook the importance of teaching writing effectively.  Routman states that there is no shortcut to helping students become effective writers, and there is no program you can buy that will do it for you. (pg. 240)  As teachers, it’s time for us to stop looking for that “magical” program; instead, we must invest in the time and energy to develop an effective writing program to help all of our students more forward as writers.

Questions & Thoughts:


I love the idea of conducting the quickwrites (using the same prompt) at the beginning and ending of every school year at all grade levels to document improvement, note strengths and weaknesses, and provide information to teachers and children to improve instruction and learning.  Our students have writing portfolios that contain a beginning and end of the year sample (different prompts) that is passed from one grade level to the next at the beginning of the school year.  Unfortunately, there is no discussion amongst the teachers about the students’ writing and this data is not used to help improve writing instruction.  We definitely need to do more with these writing samples than to just pass them on to next year’s teachers!

Teachers, have any of your districts participated in professional training to improve your writing program?  If so, what has or hasn't worked?  I would love for all the teachers in my building to read Writing Essentials by Regie Routman.  I think a book study on this book would be a great beginning as we work together in becoming a staff of effective writing teachers . . . 

Chapter 9 Reflections

Where does one begin to find the time to conference with 19 first graders about their writing?  Fortunately, I can answer that question a little more easily now that I have read the chapter on conferences.  The text helped me better understand the different kinds of conferences there are, and it helped me develop a clearer idea of the many purposes of a writing conference.  In my mind I had always thought that a writing conference must be a one-on-one formal conference with each student.  You can only imagine how difficult that is to do with a 19 to 1 student-teacher ratio.  I pretty much abandoned that impossible feat and decided, instead, that it would work best for me to walk around the room and try to assist as many kids as possible while my students were writing.  Realistically, I believe that this is what I need to be doing with my young (sometimes reluctant) writers. 

With this being said, I know that I must conference with my students in order to help them move forward in their writing.  I love the idea of having whole-class shares and conferences.  This set-up seems to be very doable and effective.  Regie Routman notes that one of the greatest advantages of whole-class share is the amount of teaching that occurs in a short period. 

I am listing the steps of whole-class share/conferences because this is one of the main structures that I want to begin using with my class.

1.     A student reads her story aloud while the class listens for the overall sense of the piece, the whole of what the writer is trying to say.   

2.     The student reads the piece aloud again as the class listens for specific language, things the writer has done well, and things that are confusing.

3.     Teacher and the other students celebrate what the writer has done well.

4.     Teacher makes one or two teaching points that will help move the writer forward.

5.     Teacher keeps track of students who share.

(pgs. 211, 212 from Writing Essentials)

Routman maintains that this type of conference is especially effective because they make the classroom easier to manage, more ideas are generated, and the status of students is raised because all the children are involved in the celebration and affirmation of the writer.

Example of Jack’s Journal Entry and Whole-Class Share and Conference:

Jack's writing before he shared and we conferenced. Jack:  “Saturday is my real birthday.  My birthday is going to have EMAW.”  (Jack read this from his journal just a few days ago.) Mrs. Burdiek:  I like how you started your story.  I bet you are really excited that you will celebrate your birthday next Saturday.  I think I know what EMAW stands for, but could you let your friends know what it means? Jack: “EMAW stands for Every Man a Wildcat.” Mrs. Burdiek:  I’m a K-State fan, too, and I just love that saying.  I went to K-State many years ago, but no one said EMAW way back then.  Tell me more about your birthday cake.  Who is going to make it? Jack:  I think that Donna Wege  is going to make it.  She is Kendon’s mom.  (Kendon is a student in my class.) Mrs. Burdiek:  Donna makes great cakes.  I’m sure it will be delicious.  Why do you like K-State so much? (I probably should had done a better job of having Jack narrow his topic by focusing on his cake instead of what he likes best about K-State.) Jack:  I like K-State because Jacob Pullen plays for them.  He is my favorite player. Mrs. Burdiek:  He has been a fantastic player for K-State this year. Mrs. Burdiek:  I can’t wait to hear your story after you have added more to it.  Jack heads off to his desk to work on his story.  I have written his ideas on post-it notes to help him remember his thoughts.  (I explained to the class what I was doing with the post-it notes before I wrote his ideas down.) Jack's writing after he share and we had our whole-class conference.  Notice how he used the caret to insert the word Pullen.

Other kinds of writing conferences that are described in this chapter include the following:

1.   Quickshares

2.   Roving, on-the-run conferences (I like the term “on the run” because that's what I feel like I am doing - zipping from one end of the classroom to the other – constant motion!  Who needs Mrs. Burdiek the most???)

3.  One-on-one formal conferences

4.  Peer conferences

Two additional points that I gained from this chapter are as follows:

1.     I really need to do a better job of not looking at my child’s paper when they read their story to me the first time because immediately I want to help “fix-up” their writing before we talk about the content.  I know now that I am showing my students that the mechanics/conventions of their writing are more important than the ideas they write.  (I am thinking I need to sit on my hands and have the students hold up their papers while they read.  This would definitely help me focus on their message.)

2.     It is important for kindergarten and first grade students to share their writing everyday.  I need to allow time for this. 

Questions:

1.     Is it okay to have students share their writing in small groups at their tables?  I still plan to do whole-class shares, as well.

2.     What does a teacher do when they have an especially reluctant writer(s) that seems to demand most of your time?  Any suggestions from anyone?  Thanks!

Chapter 8 Reflections

What is the most important component of an effective writing workshop program?  The correct answer is “the teacher who knows how to teach writing well.”  It is not a prescribed program, manual, or series of specific steps.

Regie Routman contends that writing workshop must include the following elements:

• Sustained, daily writing across the curriculum of mostly self-chosen topics.
• Writing for genuine purposes and audiences.
• Playing around with language.
• Conferring with students to respond to their writing, celebrate what they have done well, and teach necessary skills for moving writing forward.
• Teaching students what they need to know to write fluently and accurately.
• Doing what writers do to make a piece engaging for the reader.
• Publishing for real audience.

In order to include the essential elements of writing workshop, teachers must make a commitment to have their students write every day across the curriculum for a sustained period of time.  How many times have you heard a teacher say she has no time to schedule writing workshop in the day?  I bet if you asked that same teacher how many worksheets are completed each day, the number would be quite high.  Reading this section helped me realize that if you truly value writing you will make time for it.  I took a closer look at my own schedule because I knew my students were not writing enough every day.

Over the past few years I felt the amount of time my students were engaged in authentic writing tasks was being squeezed into smaller and smaller increments of time each year.  It was time for a change, and taking this class and reading the text has helped me realize I am the one that needs to alter what I am doing in order to help my kids become better writers.  As my first post indicated, I have built in 45 minutes for writer’s workshop each day.  Along with this change, my students are engaged in more writing activities across the curriculum – math, science, social studies, and reading.

Another aspect that I need to improve on is to recognize the value of having my students talk about their writing before they write, while they are writing, and even when they are finished.  I intend to have more in-depth conversations with one or two of my students before they begin writing.  The whole class will be listening as I draw students’ thoughts out through a one-to-one conversation.  (In fact, I just modeled this today with my student helper.  She chose to write a story about her wonderful mom, and I was really pleased with all the details she added to her story.)  It was also neat to see how many children chose to write about their own moms when they went back to their desks.

Chapter 7 Reflections

What do I need to do to engage my students’ minds so they enjoy writing and want to do their best writing?  Regie Routman suggests that our students will learn to “do” all the required skills and much more if we first change our focus to meaningful teaching of writing and then teach the required skills to support that writing.   The main concept I gathered from this chapter is that when teachers teach from whole to part and back to whole, learning becomes easier and much more meaningful for our students.

It was interesting to read about the changes that the fifth-grade teacher, Debbie Fowler, and her grade-level colleagues implemented in order to help their students improve the quality of their writing.  The four major changes of the program involved shifting from teaching isolated skills to the following:

1. Identifying writing genres that would interest students
2. Deciding whom the audience would be for each piece of writing. (real audience)
3. Modeling their own writing process and struggles in front of students.
4. Having students share their writing regularly.

The section that focused on voice through meaningful writing helped me realize that you can’t teach voice as a separate component of writing, nor are two voices alike.  Finally after all these years of trying to plan great lessons on using voice, I understand that the best way to get my students to write with voice is for them to be interested in their writing.  Students will not take time to produce quality writing if they are not invested in their writing.

Mini-lessons should always be taught at the beginning of writing workshop was an assumption that I’ve had for many years.  I now realize that mini-lessons can and should take place any time students are writing.  Additionally, it’s time for me to get rid of my sequenced list of mini-lessons and start paying more attention to what my students’ needs are by examining their writing. 

Routman’s discussion on revision helped me understand that when our students care about their writing, revising is not a big issue.  She goes on to describe revision as the time to revisit, revalue, reconsider, and look again at our writing (pg. 156).  I know that I need to do a better job of helping my students make revisions.  I believe that I’ve always shied away from revisions because I teach such young students:  I used that as an excuse to not emphasize revisions.  (I was pretty satisfied that they were writing several sentences!)  Now, I know that I must revise my writing in front of my students so they will see what the thinking behind revision entails.  This modeling will help them understand what revision looks like and sounds like.

Finally, Routman describes in depth the importance of teaching spelling well.  Fortunately our reading curriculum (Open Court Imagine It!) includes a strong spelling program that encourages students to develop a spelling consciousness with an emphasis on word study.  My students are expected to use the various spelling references (wall charts, personal dictionaries, word wall, list of students’ names, and any print that is displayed in the classroom.) 


Below are two of the spelling sounds cards that are a component of our reading program.  We refer the first card as the "coil" card with the two main spellings for /oi/ noted belowed the card.  The second card is out "long a" card.  The four main spellings for the long a sounds are shown in the bottom section.  I feel that this program has helped my students become more conscious about spelling.  They don't guess near as often; instead I hear them asking questions such as, "Mrs Burdiek, I want to spell the word train but I am not sure if it is spelled train or trane?"  They are becoming better thinkers and are more aware that a sound can have more than one spelling.

Examples of two spelling/sounds cards from our reading series.

 At each grade level in our building, we have established a list of “no excuse” sight words.  Each day we review one of these words by writing it in our learning journals and talking about the “tricky” part of the spelling.  My first graders are also asked to write or share a sentence using the word of the day.  This word list is sent home for children to practice with their families.  I always tell my students that if they use any of these words in their writing that they must be spelled correctly.  Of course, they are added to the word wall as I introduce them.

This chapter, as the other chapters I’ve already read in this book, are filled with useful and clear ideas to help any teacher improve their writing instruction.  I can’t wait to read more.


Some of the ideas/techniques that I want to incorporate in my classroom include the following:
1.  Create specialized word walls
2.  Highlight words and features of words
3.  Establish a list of writing goals for my first graders
4.  Help improve my students' revision consciousness
5.  Do a better job of telling my students why I'm doing what I'm doing

This shows the framework for the specialized word wall poster that my students and I will be creating as they learn more about these American symbols next week.  We will add words below each of the symbols as the students learn about them.

Questions:

1.  Are other teachers using the Open Court Imagine It! Reading Series?  What are your thoughts about the program's spelling component?


2.  I need to do a better job of having my first graders make revisions . . . any suggestions?  I am struggling because I still have several students that have difficulty writing just four or five sentences - then I ask them to make revisions??? 

Chapter 6 Reflections

The most important idea that I learned from this chapter is that reading and writing are highly connected.  Regie Routman notes that effective teachers are more likely to have their students engaged in reading and writing of whole texts, as opposed to having them spend the majority of their time on reading and writing activities.  Furthermore, growth in reading positively impacts writing, and growth in writing positively impacts reading.

As I continued to read the chapter, Routman discussed the importance of shared writing:  this writing becomes the texts the teachers and students read in shared reading.  I have had my students participate in shared writing lessons every day since reading about the importance of shared writing.  My students and I have written texts together that including the following:

• what good readers do
• our morning routine
• how we feel about having a student teacher
• ways that we can become “bucket fillers”
• how we become “bucket dippers
• our class rules
• why self-discipline is important
• what we learned to do that took lots of practice
• steps in building a snowman
• what we did at home on all of our snow days

How do we improve our children’s reading and writing achievement?  The answer is really quite simple – we have our students spend more time reading and writing.  As the year progresses, my first graders have more stamina to read for longer periods of time than they did at the beginning of the year.  (They can also write for longer periods of time.)  I aim to have them read independently for 15-20 minutes per day.  Fortunately, most of my students also receive additional independent reading time during library enrichment.  As teachers, we must make sure to read aloud stories, poems, short books, long books, fiction, and non-fiction.

Another key point that Routman makes is that teachers need to be certain that the writing children do in response to reading is worth their time.  This type of writing requires students to think deeply about the text.  They might be asked to explain, summarize, compare, evaluate, and draw conclusions.  Below is an example of a writing assignment I asked my students to complete after they read The Grandma Mix-Up.  The students were encouraged to write about what Grandma (Nan or Sal) they would prefer to stay with and why.  I wanted them to back up their answer with their reasons for making the choice they did.

Student example of writing assignment for guided reading lesson.

Additionally, Routman discusses the importance of integrating content-area teaching with writing instruction.  I have a group of first graders that love listening to and responding to non-fiction text.  After completing our unit on penguins, my students wrote five facts they learned about penguins.  It was neat to see the facts they came up with.  They also loved creating the penguin art projects to go along with their facts.

Example of a student's list of important facts about penguins

Graphic organizers were noted as being an effective method that can be used to help students remember content.  I use a variety of graphic organizers with my students.  For the most part, we complete them as a whole-class or small-group shared experience.

Chapter 5 Reflections

Shared writing is defined as the following:  “Students and teacher collaboratively compose a coherent text with the teacher doing the writing while scaffolding children’s language and ideas; often those texts become shared reading texts as well as published texts for guided and personal reading.” (Writing Essentials, pg. A-20)  Regie Routman states that shared writing is her favorite type of writing because it is quick, fun, easy, and a great way to teach and engage all students. 

Our 100 Year old Portraits!  My students had a ball completing the project. We wrote what it would be like to be 100 years old the following day.  

I have occasionally used shared writing with my students, but I do not use it consistently enough to impact their learning.  The main benefit of shared writing is that during this time many students begin to figure out how written language works.  Routman maintains that shared writing needs to be a major part of every writing program.  In order to make shared writing and reading a part of my daily schedule, I must answer the following questions:

1.    Where can I schedule 10-15 minutes daily for shared writing/reading?

2.    What can I take away from my schedule that does not benefit my students?

3.    How should I structure my shared reading/writing time?

To answer the first question I already have 10 minutes scheduled for shared reading/writing in the morning.  I am mainly using this time to introduce new poems (2 each week) to my students and we edit a sentence together.  Although I don’t want to give up our poetry time, I feel that I can utilize this time more effectively. Also, the editing of sentences will be a natural part of what we’re already doing in shared writing.  Additionally, I want to schedule at least 15 minutes daily for shared reading and writing.  (If we do not finish our text, it is okay to complete the writing the next day.)  I also need to allow flexibility for when we do our shared writing.  As an example, it may fit into our day best in the afternoon after we’ve conducted an experiment, completed an art project, or enjoyed a cooking experience together.

The framework Routman describes on pages 88-90 (Writing Essentials) will help me put shared writing into practice.  The steps for shared writing are as follows:

1.    Alone or collaboratively with your students, choose a meaningful topic.

2.    Discuss why you are doing the shared writing and who the audience is.

3.    Brainstorm possibilities for what content will be.

4.    Get started immediately.  Ask for or suggest a good beginning sentence.

5.    Say the words as you write them.

6.    Shape students’ language.  Accept everything you can.  (Revise later.)

7.    Move along quickly so students stay engaged.  Stop after ten or fifteen minutes.

8.    Focus on meaningful language and logical organization.

9.    Look for opportunities for all students to participate.

10.  Stop and reread as you go in order to decide what to write next, to hear what you’ve already written, to make changes that clarify and strengthen the text.  Point to the words as you read so students can follow along easily.

I also enjoyed reading the section on cutting up and reassembling sentences.  I have used this many times with my guided reading groups.  First, I type a sentence from the text we are studying, and then my students cut it up and manipulate the words to form a sentence that makes sense.  Finally, we read the sentence together as they point to each word.

Routman also discusses using letter tiles to make words.  I have a set of magnetic boards and letter tiles that we use frequently in small groups.  Again, my students love this activity so much that many of them want to do it during their indoor recess time.

The students loved making words out of "Valentine".

As I was reading and finishing up the chapter, I was so excited to see the example lessons on creating a fiction story through shared writing, teaching informational writing through shared writing, and all the other extra ideas for shared writing that Routman described.  This will be a wonderful resource as I plan to incorporate more shared writing and reading in my classroom.

Below is an example of a shared writing and reading project that we did.  First, we brainstormed strategies and actions that good readers use.  I wrote these on chart paper before transposing them to the poster below.  This is displayed in our classroom library area.

Example of a shared writing lesson.  (Final Product)

Questions:

Have other teachers used shared writing in your classroom?  What are some ways that you have implemented it?

What’s the best way to handle all the shared writing charts at the end of the year?  Do you send them home with your students?  (My first graders love the big chart paper, and I am sure they would enjoy coloring on the back and rereading their shared writings.)

Chapter 4 Reflections

“I have never worked in a school or classroom where the expectations for students are too high,” states Regie Routman at the beginning of chapter 4, “Raise Your Expectations.”  Come to think of it, I, too, have never worked at that kind of school.  I bet you could ask any teacher that same question and their response would be the same.  These powerful words set the tone for the entire chapter.  “Why are our expectations for what our students can achieve so low?”  “Why is a “proficient” score on a standardized test considered to be okay?”  As Routman noted, our students will surprise and amaze us with their capacity to learn if we give them the opportunity.

I was pleasantly surprised to see that Routman maintains that we must raise our expectations when considering conventions, handwriting, and editing.  (So many times, I think teachers use the excuse that we’re working with children, and that they will eventually learn to do these things correctly.)  The example she shared about first graders writing I as i and my as mi grabbed my attention, as well.  I have a list of “No Excuse” words displayed on our word wall.  (These words have been sent home for children to practice with their families.) We review one or two words every day and talk about the “tricky” part of the word and the correct spelling.  We also take turns using the words in sentences that we extend.  Also, I have taught my students a few quick, simple songs on how to spell words such as “they” and “because”.  In regards to raising our expectations for handwriting, our staff has worked together to make a push toward providing more handwriting instruction.  Even at mid-year, I realize that I still need to take the time to demonstrate slow careful letter formation, word spacing, and spelling strategies.  Additionally, I agree with Routman’s stance that work published should be as perfect as possible, even for first graders.  Fortunately, I have assistance in my classroom during our writing time so we can both help students proof-read their finished product before displaying or publishing it.

Routman discusses the optimal learning model that leads to excellent instruction.  I believe that I base my instruction on this model for the most part, but now I am much more aware of the importance of each component which leads to more explicit, effective instruction.  The 4 stages of the model include:

1.    Demonstration – The teacher or expert shows precisely “how to do it” by initiating, modeling, explaining, thinking aloud, and writing aloud.

2.    Shared Demonstration – The teacher is still in charge, but now the children collaborate on the writing as much as they are able to.

3.    Guided Practice – The student is now in charge and attempting to apply what has been previously demonstrated and practiced with the support of the teacher and/or group.

4.    Independent Practice – Finally, students have developed enough competence and confidence to be able to choose their own topics, problem-solve, and monitor and set goals for themselves with little assistance. (Writing Essentials, pgs. 71 & 72)

I experienced a bit of a “shock and awe” moment when I was reading the section describing how Kelly’s mid-year first grade writing was deemed “exemplary” at her school.  As I was looking through and commenting on my students’ December journals today, I would have considered one of my young learner’s writing to be “top-notch”, as well.  (It’s amazing as to how similar it is to Kelly’s story about her cat.)  I am finally beginning to see what “exemplary” or “top-notch” writing should look like.   

Example of "Exemplary" Writing?  (Although the piece is good, she was cautious in only using words she knew how to spell.   Love her Picture!!!)

In conclusion, I loved reading the section on “Building Early Success for All Students, Including Writers Who Struggle.”  The success story that Routman shared about the young boy named Cory was truly inspiring.  It makes me think about a struggling first grader I have in my room this year.  I will never again approach him at the beginning of our conference with what he needs to change.   (Wow! I can’t believe I had to read this chapter to understand what an impact that made on this little guy.  I guess I felt that I needed to help him with everything that was wrong with his writing very quickly because we had a limited time to work together and fix it all up.  Sad, but true.)  From now on, it will be nothing but a positive comment when I begin each conference with my students.  Ultimately, we must find ways to help our writers as opposed to concentrating on what might help the writing.  As educators, it is our job to convey to them that failure is not an option.

Chapter 3 Refections

Chapter 3 really helped me understand that if we are to teach writing well we need to see ourselves as writers.  If we haven’t experienced writing in a positive light, how do we expect our students to develop a passion for writing? I thought the ideas that Routman shared about writing together as a staff would indeed increase our writing confidence and make us more aware of how we teach writing in our classrooms. 

The Optimal Learning Model noted below is the structure that I intend to use in my first grade classroom:

1.    Demonstration (mini-lesson/teacher’s thinking aloud and writing)

2.    Guided Practice of the specific strategy or activity (students’ writing/thinking aloud/conversations with peers/conferencing)

3.    Independent Practice

4.    Celebration and Sharing

I am also going to create a “My Writing Practices” list to share with my students.  (I love this idea!)  On Friday, I added my first type of writing to that list.  I showed my class the sympathy card that I would be sending to our former neighbor’s husband who had recently lost his wife to cancer.  I told my class what I planned to write in the card, and why it was important for me to send a sympathy card.  On Monday, I will share the card again and read what I wrote inside.  I will also show them the stamped, addressed envelope that it will be sent in.

Sympathy Card 

Questions:

1.    What do you think about having the staff write together?  Would your teachers be open to this idea?

2.    Do other teachers feel that having students complete a graphic organizer before writing is effective? I have my first graders occasionally fill out an organizer before writing a story.  Many times they add more details to their stories because they have thought more deeply about the topic before they began writing.

Chapter 2 Reflections

 When and how do I celebrate my students’ first grade writing?  Honestly, I can say that I have not taken the time to celebrate the achievements that my young authors deserve.  Regie Routman contends that the celebration of children’s writing needs to be an essential teaching goal.  Due to time constraints, I usually read aloud the students’ writing before displaying them on a hall bulletin board.  As mentioned in my previous post, I intend to utilize the author’s chair (as I had when I began Writer’s Workhop many years ago) so my students can sit while reading their writing aloud to the other children. 

Our New Author's Chair!

Another important point that she discusses in chapter 2 is the idea of celebrating and pointing out the risk taking of students.  We need to ask questions such as “Who tried something new?” or “Who has a great lead for their story?”  This communication amongst the students is very beneficial to their learning.

I read through the section on choosing your topics carefully with great interest.  Routman recommends that you pick a story topic that is easy for students to relate to, appropriate to share with students, important to you, and lets students know more about you.  As I was modeling my writing on Friday, I shared the story about how our oldest son, Matt, told me that he needed $3620 for his spring college tuition.  I told my kids that I was flabbergasted when I heard the amount - $3620 – that’s a huge amount of money!  The students right away asked what tuition was and how would I come up with that much money and would I still have enough money to pay for food for our family?  Their comments were very funny and thoughtful.  I proceeded to tell them the whole story before I wrote it down on chart paper.

My writing that I did on Friday in front of my students.

As I was thinking about this writing experience and what I learned in chapter 2, it made me realize the importance of sharing our life experiences in a meaningful, personal way.  In the past I had been cautious as to what I wrote as my students watched.  Maybe this is why many of the stories my children wrote were pretty dry and boring, as well . . .

Chapter 1 Reflections

One of the main ideas that I gathered from Chapter 1 is that as teachers we need to make teaching writing easier, more manageable, and more fun for both our students and ourselves.  One of the greatest gifts we can give to our students is to help them become motivated and confident writers.  How do we accomplish these goals? The first thing we need to do is focus on the writers we are teaching as opposed to the pressure of preparing our students for state assessments.  I know that many of my colleagues agree that our students struggle when it comes to higher-level thinking skills, communicating, inquiring, exploring language, and problem-solving.  Do we want our students to act as robots where they simply memorize the information that we teach them to pass a test?  Does a “proficient score” on a test show a child’s true achievement and ability? 

New schedule allows for 45 minutes of Writer's Workshop.

Many years ago when I received training on Writer’s Workshop and the writing process, I felt that I was a teacher that made writing fun for my second graders.  It truly was my student’s favorite part of the day.  My children were engaged while writing about topics of their choice, revising and editing their stories, and publishing their favorite stories.  The best part of the day was “sharing time” where four or five students took turns sitting on the coveted author’s chair to read their personal stories.  The author’s peers were encouraged  to ask the young authors questions or share comments about their writing.  Although Writer’s Workshop is still scheduled in my day, it feels like I have squeezed out the joy in writing.  Instead of a 45-minute writing time, 20-25 minutes is allotted daily for writing.  What do I need to do to create the positive, engaging atmosphere that I had in Writer’s Workshop years ago?  It is time to examine my beliefs and make the necessary changes to ensure that my students become passionate about writing; this is what leads to excellent writers.