Do More Shared Writing

Shared writing was always a little intimidating for me. I never viewed myself as a good writer. I worried (still do) about conventional errors and unfortunately, that sometimes gets in the way of my message. So...as a third and fourth grade teacher, I'm not sure that I did enough shared writing. I believe in the Optimal Learning Model and tried to follow it as I taught, however, I would always write out everything I was going to "model" in front of the students. I did my struggling students such a disservice considering I didn't model mistakes or how I handled not knowing what to write.

I love Regie's teaching tips on page 89 of Writing Essentials to refer to as you implement Shared Writing in your classroom.

Raise Your Expectations

"Kids become writers by writing every day, not by completing excercises about writing. Students who are excellent writers write a lot." I appreciate Regie mentioning that if we are grading everything students write, they aren't writing enough. Having them involved in free writes, daily writing with self-selected topics, writing for real purposes and audiences, and writing to learn and think across the curriculum will only encourage life-long writers. I do like the idea of having school-wide expectations. I believe grades 2-6 at Buhler started this process by creating the one-page guides. So..."WHAT WOULD YOU ATTEMPT TO DO IF YOU KNEW YOU COULD NOT FAIL?"

Share Your Writing Life

I love the "snapshot writing" idea. I am a believer that in order to become a great writing teacher, one must write! Since this is the second time reading this book, I was excited to see that my writing practices have improved. I now write in a prayer journal, write a letter or email to a friend at least weekly, and have been working on a book that I would like to get published. Before I read this book, I only wrote when I had to...for work or a shopping list. I am looking forward to continuing to add to my "writing practices."