Start with Celebration

Teaching skills in isolation does not make students writers; neither does teaching to the test. And breaking writing into bits and pieces robs children of the joy of writing." This quote on page 21 stuck with me as I read the second chapter of Writing Essentials. We need to allow ourselves to celebrate writing. It does rob the children of the joy if all we do is focus on conventions. Yes, we need to help the authors in our classrooms become proficient writers, but make sure we don't focus too much on the mechanics. Enjoy writing! Be a writer yourself! I truly believe that if we have students write for authentic audiences and purposes, they will become lifelong writers. As a teacher, that is my main goal!

Simplify the Teaching of Writing

"The older I get, the greater effort I make to get rid of the clutter, literally and figuratively." I love this quote on page 16 of Writing Essentials by Regie Routman. We do need to reduce clutter in our teaching lives, but the hard question is...how do we do it? It is easier said than done! As a teacher, it is extremely hard to prioritize because we feel so much pressure to "cover" the curriculum and do well on those assessments. The sad thing is, in many schools we are creating GREAT test takers, but not necessarily, great readers, writers, and thinkers! Can we have both? I believe we CAN! We just have to start working smarter, not harder and creating literacy environments where students WANT TO and are ABLE TO read, write, and think! Embedding test preparation into daily instruction is one way to work smarter. The reality is that we are held accountable for scoring well on the tests. Students will do better on those assessments IF we trust ourselves and embed test-taking prep into our everyday instruction. Another way to work smarter is to collaborate. I recently worked with a group of second and third grade teachers from Buhler, KS and they created mini lessons for each of their "BIG IDEAS" for writing. After about 4 hours of total time spent on creating them, they had over 50 mini lessons they could utilize in their classroom. Instead of going and buying an expensive book where they might use 1/3 or 1/2 of it, they worked together to create short lessons to do with their students. I love how she encourages us to bring joy back into our work, but I do believe we have to work together to figure out ways to work smarter!

Writing Study Group 2008

In order to receive college credit for this course the requirements include:

1. Read each chapter and post one blog entry per chapter. This entry can be any of the following:
• reflections
  
• implementation efforts
  
• personal connections
• synthesis of learning
  
• key points
• interesting ideas
• ideas to share with one another
  

2. Read and respond to at least three other participants' blogs each chapter.
3. Attend all of the face-to-face meetings, participate, and share your expertise!

Meeting Dates (3:45-5:00 @ESSDACK)
January 16
February 25 (Discuss Chapters 1-5)
March 10 (Discuss Chapters 6-9)
April 16 (Discuss Chapters 10-12)

Becoming Writers

Regie Routman states in her book, "Writing Essentials," that we need to become writers ourselves if we have the desire to teach writing well. Writing hasn't always been my favorite "subject". In fact, that is probably why it wasn't my favorite. It was always viewed as a "subject" and not a life skill. I don't remember writing for enjoyment. Writing for a real audience. Writing and collaborating with others. Writing about something I truly cared about.

Before I knew about the "best practices," I knew that I wanted to create an environment in my 4th grade classroom where students had the desire to write. Where students collaborated with one another as authors. Where students were confident in their own writing ability and took risks because they felt safe. I believe I created that atmosphere. We wrote everyday. Even with best intentions, looking back, I wish I would have allowed my students to write for an authentic audience more often. I tried to plan purposeful writing opportunities, but I remember doing a lot of writing that just "fit" with my units and I'm not sure it always moved my writers forward....but it was fun! We did, however, write monthly parent newsletters which included interviews, stories, poetry, charts and digital pictures. At the end of the year, we also collaborated on a class yearbook which included lists, stories, interviews, and digital pictures depicting highlights of the year. We published stories by posting them on the wall or typing them into a book, but I don't remember ever truly publishing them into a REAL book or having them share those stories with a REAL audience.

One thing that has become clear to me since my time in the classroom is how important it is to share your own writing life with your students. I completely agree with Regie...they need to see us as writers. They need to see what we write, who we write to, why we write, when we write, where we write, and how we write!