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.)