Monday, March 3, 2008
Being Specific
What is there in our reading of Katie Wood Ray that speaks to you? Look through your current readings and find that one passage that is powerful to you. What do you think about it? Take the time to quote it, with the page number and then write to it. I will be collecting these quotes and posting them on our blog.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
17 comments:
March 11, 2008
Today I attended a writing workshop featuring Fred Wolff. Chapter 12 in Katie Wood Ray's book, Focus Lessons, became more meaningful for me as it connected closely to Fred's presentation. One of the key things Fred mentioned was the importance of assessing where your students are at the beginning of the year as writers. Although this seems totally logical, many of us simply follow a routine of writing lessons that have worked well with students in years past, or that follow our curriculum. I find myself enthusiastically jumping right in to the inquiry of writing styles and authors, regardless of what the children have experienced in the past. Assessment for the purpose of knowing what "students are doing as writers, what they know about what they are doing, and what they need to know to do it even better" (p. 250) becomes a great way to begin teaching "Focus lessons". This chapter also made me realize my need to "bulk up" my repertoire texts that teach specific writer's crafts. ..."I thought immediately of a good writing technique I could teach him because I had that technique in my repertoire." (p. 248) My memory is not as efficient as Fred's for recalling the names of specific titles or authors that I want to utilize when speaking about a particular technique. Perhaps that is why you hear the same texts used over and over again in Katie's book..... Am I spreading myself too thin and trying to include too great a variety of books?
Pg. 235 “Formula writing has gotten a new head of steam because of testing, as many students are forced to write again and again in an artificial formula designed to help them do well on the “The Test.”
As I read this quote, I immediately felt a pang of guilt because I do think I have taught writing in a formulaic way. It was really the only way I knew how to teach writing. My students always have a fairly good-looking finished product, but the products have no flair, no originality, no “wow” factor. Through this course, and the workshops on Six-Traits, I am discovering new ways for student to really show their “Voice” in their writing.
Page 229, "Teach your students to learn to write from writers." A simple quote that I have learned to live and love this year. It is amazing to me how using the focus lessons, as Cory mentioned, and giving up the well rehearsed "formula" writing (Christine,I am also guilty of falling back on those...)has not only made me feel better as a writing teacher, but has made writing fun! Who would of thought??? We began the year as a class community being "inspired" by published authors and considering ourselves writers. My mentor text library is slowly accumulating. And believe it or not, as my students become more adept at reading like writers, they provide ME with examples of writers' craft from their independent reading that I can add for next year's library!
p.243 "You'll want your students to have drafts and dreams of drafts floating around in their consciousness all the time, and their ability to envision craft in texts is what will make writing these drafts more and more automatic for them as they write throughout their lives."
I agree with Katie Ray that envisioning is very important, but how to do it? I wish a teacher that had shown me just a couple of these crafts when I was young, maybe I would be a better writer. Also the craft of reading like a writer has open a new world for me. When I read a passage now,I wonder.. can I write like that? I am envisioning skills I may have, or may not, but I have courage to give it a try.
Page 248 “Writing conferences are the backbone of the writing workshop. Good conferences move the teaching of writing from the whole-class carpet gathering to the individual writer’s desk. And what a big move it is. Conferencing is probably the hardest part of the workshop teaching. We have all spent years learning to do it better and in more and more theoretical ways, and adding this new knowledge base about the craft of writing into teaching; has only made it more challenging.”
...but also most rewarding. Sitting or kneeling with my students, listening to them whisper to me as they share their writing…really listening, helping each child to develop their stories, poems, letters, asking global questions like “tell me more about X” or “I don’t understand X” has created a Writer’s Workshop atmosphere that my students yearn for each day. What I have gained from Wondrous Words is to allow my students’ words to drive the piece they are working on while offering advice about the craft of “office work” and how they make their writing “come out” in a significant, meaningful piece they are proud to share with the world! Reading like a writer has changed the fabric of my curriculum.
Pg. 208 " 'He's messing with what I thought I knew.' Really good learning does that for us-it messes with what we think we know, creating a tension in our lives that can be uncomfortable. When we begin to feel this discomfort our only choice seems to be to quit learning and wait for the "pain" to go away, or to rethink what we know and muck around a bit in stuff that's really hard for us. I'm partial to mucking around a bit myself, and I have in fact made peace with the idea that there will always be some new hard thing for me to think about in my teaching. There will always be some part of my teaching that, when I think about it, causes me discomfort because I don't feel as sure about it."
I am partial to "mucking about" myself. I have always felt that new learning is a huge part of teaching. Making myself stretch to do things that are out of my comfort zone is how I learn best. In reality isn't that what we ask our kids to do everyday? Learning and doing new things is what keeps us fresh. This book, and this class, have opened my eyes up to a myriad of new ideas and I'm excited to be able to carry some of them over to my students.
11
Page 242 "One thing that I often do in ways-with-words lessons which I don't usually do in structure lessons is that I use actual texts to show how a crafting technique would look if we tried it."
I believe it to be so important to show multiple samples of texts to students to model their own writing from. Through our course I am learning new strategies to implement this idea in my writing classes. I have seen my students expand and experiment with their own writing. Modeling multiple examples, both good and not so good, are huge helps to those who excel and struggle in the area of written expression.
Page 214- “…a child who write every day can’t help but develop some sense of himself as a writer. If he is allowed to talk to others about his writing or their writing, he will develop more of his sense of self and also develop as a member of a responsive, literate community. If that student gets to read aloud something he has written, he comes to understand something of audience.”
The reason I chose this quote was that I have always felt that modeling and showing children how to write was the most important thing I could do to help my students grow as writers. But as time goes by and as my eyes are opened to different strategies, I am fully aware that they need to do much more. In recent years I have had my students do much more sharing, listening and discussing of stories that we read and stories that we write.
What I love and celebrate is the excitement I see in their eyes and voices, as they share their written piece. They want to know what is good about their piece. They love to compliment others on the good ideas they may have shared in their writing. I feel that Katie validates this in her quote by noting that children will grow even if the direct instruction may not be present. Of course I still feel that modeling and working through a writing piedc with the children is important, but my writer’s workshop time is just as important to help my students grow as writers.
In my class, rather than having an Important Student of the week, I have Star Author of the Week. This person tells stories of their life, shares things that are important to them, read things that they have written and may even share illustrations that they have made. All the students love to be the star and this is just a great way to showcase their talents.
1
Page 222
"Genre studies and author studies are planned in predictable ways. These studies always begin with some time devoted to immersion in the genre or the author's work."
CLONK! Why is it that sometimes the most obvious and basic concepts are overlooked? Since taking this class, I've had a lot of "V-8" moments...you know, the old clonk on the head moment, a clonk which means "you should have known better" kind of awareness. It makes such perfect sense that the more you expose a student to a certain genre, the more likely they are to imitate and expand on this genre in one's own writing. After more than two decades of teaching writing, or should I say, ATTEMPTING to teach writing, I am finally getting it! I have been immersed in this writing class for three years and I can finally consider myself to be a more capable teacher of writing with a varied repertoire of valuable skills to share with my students.
I still have miles to go before I sleep, however, since we all know there are an inexhaustible number of great lessons, mentor texts,
and inspiring writers out there to further influence our teaching techniques. I'll just continue to sip on my V-8, even though it is not my favorite liquid nourishment!
I came away with 2 quotes that I really liked. One is the same one as Deb (page 214 "A child who writes every day can't help but develop some sense of himself as a writer. If he is allowed to talk to others about his writing or their writing, he will develop more of his sense of self and also develop as a member of a responsive, literate community"). We only get better at things we practice. Writing like everything else needs that daily practice. Writing everyday, even if only for a few minutes is critical. For so many kids writing is very hard. It has been amazing to watch kids go from being non-writers to writers. I love to see the enthusiasm when my students read their writing out loud. It has taken a while for them to feel comfortable sharing. I have also found that they love when I read their writing out loud to the group. If I read it out loud and don't say who the entry belongs to, they beam while I am reading it aloud.
The other quote that caught my attention is on page 253. "Maybe you aren't helping your students enough." "we have gotten this idea that helping someone with anything more than a few editing checks is 'cheating'". I have always struggled with how much I should help a student with their writing. I want them to feel good about their writing, at the same time I want it to feel like their writing. Being given permission to help more (within reason) is a good thing.
Growing Taller in our Teaching
“I can’t believe how much I’ve learned. I mean, in two weeks it’s like a whole new world has been opened to me. I’m really excited, but I’m going to have to rethink everything I’m doing in my writing workshop.”
Ok, it’s not like a whole new world, but it is a world that I have not lived in for many years. When I first came to Windham I fought hard against those who were forcing me to only work with children with reading difficulties. I stood my ground because I believed I had been hired to be a reading consultant who worked with all children and teachers.
My previous position had been just that. The school had 2 reading consultants. We split the 26-27 teachers and then offered ourselves up to them. My schedule was set with the team of teachers. Who was working on what, when and for how long? For example, I worked with a 4th grade teacher in her class for a few hours every day, for about 4 weeks. The class was studying oceans and it was a fully integrated project. We read about oceans, wrote poems and reports on any ocean topic and performed plays about ocean life. We even made fish print t-shirts with big dead fish that we rolled with paint and pressed onto clean white shirts. We had a culminating presentation night with parents. We showcased and celebrated our learning—performed our skits, read our poems, wore our fish shirts, and displayed our reports, and other learning projects.
I went from classroom to classroom, setting the foundation for Literature Circles and Writers Workshop. I worked with small groups to whole class on reading strategies, forms of poetry and/or author studies. My schedule was set by the needs of the teachers.
It wasn’t about teaching to the standards, or district/state mandated curriculum and GLEs. It was real teaching. It was authentic reading and writing; child centered, interest driven. It was not test prep. Not according to the manual. Not driven by some canned program or series.
A few weeks ago I found myself in a whole new world (sound like a familiar Disney tune?). It was refreshing and invigorating for me and my students. As excited as I was, I was also disheartened. This was my old world, I have just been gone so long…
The quote I chose has kind of a "duh" factor about it in that it says what we all KNOW intellectually, but something which I have to admit I've been way too negligent about. Katie says: "And no matter where you start the writing workshop, don't forget to let read-aloud time wrap its arms around your students' reading and writing lives at some point during the day. Read aloud is the single most important thing you can plan for the entire year." I often spend so much time "leading" the children to a catchy finished product (I sound a little like you, Christine), that once we've finally all gotten there, I have this inner sense that I must rush on to something new, rather that sit and bask in the warmth of what we've done; and I KNOW BETTER!!!!! Recently I did a poetry unit to the best of my ability a la Linda Hohenberger. A huge part of her lessons always was sharing at the end, so as her clone, I was sure to include that daily. And what a joy it was! Seeing the pride on the faces of the students, many of whom have struggled with writing over the years, was more powerful than words can describe. Hopefully this experience has left a strong enough impression upon me that I, even at my advanced age, will always remember to include it in the future. No "new" piece should take precedence over the pride in accomplishment our students feel having "lived" with a piece of writing for a period of time, whether it be one day or weeks; nor shculd we overlook the value of sharing our thoughts and words communally.
In our recent readings the paragraph that stands out the most to me is as follows:
“Knowing why a new text that you’ve encountered can help you with your teaching of writing really means two main things. First, it means you really know how to read like a writer yourself, because to select a text you will have to see not just what it’s about but also how it is written. The better you are able to read like a writer, the better you will be able to lead your students in doing so themselves. And second, if you know why you need a particular text for your teaching of writing, it means you have some sense of your students as writers- it means you are able to see into the future of your students’ writing lives.” (P. 188)
Since taking this course, I am trying to read books as a writer, and I am tying to have my students do this also. Everyday I hear myself saying, “Read as a writer.” This is a quote we have analyzed over and over. Now I find myself collecting books for my own personal library that I can use as examples of writer’s craft. I love doing this! To me this is teaching writing in its truest sense. I find that I am reading books much differently now – reading as a writer for what my students might and will need as writers. I’m getter better and better at it, and often find myself at Barnes and Noble venturing into new books that show a particular craft, but I’m always in search for the book that “has it all” (other than The Whales by Cynthia Rylant). More than anything else, I want my students to like, and eventually love writing, rather than dread it and find it a chore. I really feel that by teaching them to appreciate good writing in books (and I’m getting better at it), that they will be (and are) excited about writing and all of the fun/unconventional things they can do in writing. What better models than in well written text!
Page 207 “I can’t believe how much I have learned. I mean, in two weeks it’s like a whole new world has opened up to me. I’m really excited, but I’m going to have to rethink everything I’m doing in my writing workshop.”
This is how I felt after taking the “6 Traits Workshop”. I learned so much in those three days, and I really had to rethink how I had been teaching writing. I do forget different ideas and activities that were discussed. But, as I talk to others who participated in this workshop I remember different lessons and the excitement returns.
I have also had a slightly similar experience with this course. There are so many good ideas shared that it can be overwhelming to remember all of them. However, because this course is spread out over a year it is easier to try new lessons as you learn about them.
So learning new methods of teaching can be overwhelming, but learning to make these changes can be very rewarding.
Post a Comment