Teaching Writing

The description provided by Ray on the opening page provided me with mixed feelings.  As a teacher, I struggle to find a happy medium for noise.  I struggle to define what is working noise, and what is distracting/off-task noise.  By the end of the year, my kids have a pretty good handle on it, but I wish they would achieve this earlier in the year.  I need to find better ways to teach them how to work constructively with each other.  I always feel that when my students are working and making noise through conversation related to the topic at hand, visitors to my classroom will interpret it as chatty-off-task noise especially if I’m working one on one with a student.  Parent perceptions of my classroom, I fear, will be disorganized chaos.  I wish there was a way to teach parents that noise is ok, noise is necessary for learning and can even be beneficial.

When it comes to structured writing workshop time in my classroom, I sometimes feel like I don’t have time.  But after reading about the necessity of a writing workshop, others have that feeling, too, but just find the time, something I am going to do more of next year.  I am excited to incorporate many of the suggestions Katie Wood Ray has provided so far, and can’t wait for further suggestions as I continue reading her book.  I also agree with Wood Ray that it is important to set goals as a teacher in what I want my students to achieve and what I want them to develop through writing workshop.  Students need to understand the many purposes of a writer as well as their jobs as a writer.  Along with developing an identity, students need time to write, all of which are responsibilities of myself to provide them.

As I sat down to read the first assignment, I was excited – excited for ideas to use in my classroom.  Before starting this class, a few of my peers at school mentioned how great the class was, how much they learned, and how much information they received that they could apply in their own classrooms.  To top it off, the first chapter was on persuasive writing, one of the writing types we are supposed to cover, but a topic that I’m not comfortable in introducing and teaching.  However, I was pleasantly surprised with the examples presented in chapter one by Lane, ones my second graders could even connect with.  I know all of them have convinced their mothers or grandmothers into buying them something and now all I have to do is pull the information out of them!  Writing can be easy especially when the writer has experiences and can make connections.  When I thought about persuasive writing, I tended to think more about big topics as presented in chapter two, but the first section of reading helped simplify things into language and concepts my second grade students could practice.  I am excited to try out the activities presented by Lane and Bernabei.  Although I will end the year working with the simpler persuasive concepts, next year could bring more complex issues from chapters two and three if the style is taught earlier in the year.  Lane and Bernabei have wonderful lesson ideas that will spark interest and excitement in young kids and hopefully help them to develop into a writer beginning at a young age.

As I sat down to read the first assignment, I was excited – excited for ideas to use in my classroom.  Before starting this class, a few of my peers at school mentioned how great the class was, how much they learned, and how much information they received that they could apply in their own classrooms.  To top it off, the first chapter was on persuasive writing, one of the writing types we are supposed to cover, but a topic that I’m not comfortable in introducing and teaching.  However, I was pleasantly surprised with the examples presented in chapter one by Lane, ones my second graders could even connect with.  I know all of them have convinced their mothers or grandmothers into buying them something and now all I have to do is pull the information out of them!  Writing can be easy especially when the writer has experiences and can make connections.  When I thought about persuasive writing, I tended to think more about big topics as presented in chapter two, but the first section of reading helped simplify things into language and concepts my second grade students could practice.  I am excited to try out the activities presented by Lane and Bernabei.  Although I will end the year working with the simpler persuasive concepts, next year could bring more complex issues from chapters two and three if the style is taught earlier in the year.  Lane and Bernabei have wonderful lesson ideas that will spark interest and excitement in young kids and hopefully help them to develop into a writer beginning at a young age.