Unlocking the Secret

I love Peter Elbow's advice about unlocking the secret of the mystery of liking your student's writing.  He says we need "to be able to see potential goodness underneath the badness" (pg. 198).  I think this is GREAT advice for liking people in general - seeing their goodness underneath their badness.  I have heard teachers say that they dislike some of their students.  Sometimes personalities clash - but I think we owe our students the decency of finding things we do like about them.  After all, I hope people do this for me, don't you?

Elbow says to improve the liking we should get to know the student as a person. His preferred way of getting to know his students is through reading the free write papers he assigns and through one on one conferences (pg. 203).  I saw my MT do similar things with her students during the month of September and witnessed her relationships with her students grow as a result.

Giving our students the opportunity to write without evaluation, grading, or ranking is one of my favorite concepts from this week's readings.  Writing is very personal, so grading someone's writing is like grading the person. Allowing students to free write first will give them the confidence they need to continue, to like their own writing, and finally - to share it with others. I think that free writing gives students the ability to find their own voice. (Lamott talks about the importance of finding your own voice (pg. 195-201), and Routman discusses it on page 44).

Routman says that eighty percent of students' reading and writing needn't be graded, and that lots of their grading should be self assessment (pg. 252).  I totally agree.  I have always been a timid writer because I worry about the end result, my grade.  I try to stay within the perimeters of the rubric and do not branch out for fear that my grade will suffer as a result.  So, my voice stays hidden behind my grade.

High stakes testing is something I think we would all like to avoid.  However, it is not going to go away.  I want to prepare my students to be able to nail any test - high stakes or not.  Routman says the best way to prepare our students is through excellent teaching, not teaching to the test.  If kids who write a lot develop higher order thinking skills and understanding that helps them achieve higher test scores, then that's what we should all be doing.  I think some of the best ways to keep kids interested in writing are, 1) by keeping the topics relevant to their lives,  2) by demonstrating our expectations,  3) by frontloading using mini lessons, and 4) by having them write every day.  Teaching them about writing to fill a one inch picture frame and not worrying about their first draft should keep their anxieties down and their spirits up.  Not grading everything they write will also put them at ease.

Supporting Confident Writers

I just finished reading chapter 9 in Writing Essentials. So much of what Routman says about supporting young writers resonated with me. I respond much more readily to constructive criticism when positive remarks about my work have been made - along with any suggestions for improving my writing. For instance, I spent two years in a row attending college classes. I had to write several papers for each class every quarter. I received good grades on all of my papers and hardly ever received any constructive feedback. Naturally, I thought my writing was just fine. However, during my last quarter I had to write a 15-page paper for my senior seminar. I worked very hard on it, making sure I had covered all the items mentioned on the rubric. I was completely deflated after receiving the first draft back from my instructor. He did not have a single positive thing to say. All 15 pages were covered with things he thought I should do differently. I was so overwhelmed I didn't even know where to start. For the first time in my college career I emailed my paper (along with the rubric) to the writing center for help.

While waiting for a response from the writing center I began to tackle the points my instructor wanted me to focus on. I got bogged down in "fixing" my paper, and by the time I addressed half of his points it no longer felt like my paper. I resented the entire process. For the first time ever, I felt like giving up.

The first comment the writing center employee responded with was how strong she thought my paper was. She then proceeded to give me a few suggestions, which were very minor and easy to work on (none of which matched any my instructor had given me). I ended up cutting so much of the paper out, and using so many of my instructor's "suggestions," that I felt like I was writing his paper. I didn’t feel good about turning in my final copy. Even though I ended up with a decent grade, I did not feel good about the paper at all.

I NEVER want my students to feel like their work is not "good enough." I never want them to feel like I don't like what they have written. I completely agree with Routman when she instructs us to “focus on the writer above everything else…put the reader first…[and] remember that the writer is exposed” (pg. 223). Routman says that if a student leaves a writer’s conference deflated and discouraged then the teacher has failed (pg. 223). This is one area I plan on succeeding in.

It is important to keep the balance between scaffolding our student’s learning in a way that is sensitive to their feelings, while at the same time handing over the reins to them so that they can grow in their learning and manage their own editing, etc. In regards to maintaining the balance, Routman remarks, "content is personal; editing is not” (pg. 234). It is nice to know that I will have Writing Essentials to refer to before beginning writer’s conferences with my future students.

A Journey With a Purpose

I have found myself feeling overwhelmed, at times, during my school career.  However, I keep trying to remind myself to look at the big picture, and not get bogged down with all the little things.  "Bird by Bird" (just that one example from the book - not the book itself) is a good example of how I tackle things.  When I feel overwhelmed with school I think about what is making me feel so overwhelmed and go from there.  The fact that I am a mother of two with lots to juggle tends to make sorting out what's making me feel overwhelmed difficult.  The amount of reading, especially in the beginning of the quarter, was hard to absorb.  I have heard many cohort members say how frustrated they are in regards to the amount of reading, and the fact that we do not talk about the readings in class is disappointing - and I have to agree.  The most frustrating thing for me about not going over the readings is that I put all the time and effort into reading, and when we don't cover the material in class I lose a lot of what I read.  Talking about the readings helps me remember what I read and synthesize the readings with classwork, lectures, and with other readings.

This may all sound like complaining, but I am using my own school experience to to guide how I think about my future students.  I want the work they do to be meaningful and the time they spend on homework to be valued and reinforced in class.  We adults think our lives are so important, and we tend to minimize the way kids feel about their lives.  My own kids have taught me to put things in perspective in this area.  I have seen their feelings get hurt when people have minimized something they have done, making them feel unappreciated, ignored.  I do not want my students to feel under appreciated or under valued.

I know that kids these days have very busy lives.  Between sports and other extracurricular activities, split families, parents who work more than one job, and kids who spend time in day care - kids have crazy busy schedules too.  We will never know exactly what is going on inside their homes - whether or not they are being supported or have to do things on their own.  I want to keep all that in mind when I create lesson plans and when interact with my students.

The purpose of my journey is to learn all I can about the ins and outs of teaching, but I never want to lose sight of my students as individuals during my teaching career.

Blog # 5 (Fox, Chapters 4 & 5)

I don’t know if it was the lack of parental involvement or the fact that my school career was disjointed (going from public school - to being home schooled – to private school – and back to public school), but somewhere along the way I missed out on phonological awareness and still (sometimes) struggle with spelling.  I am very pleased to have read chapters 4 & 5 in Word Identification Strategies. Now I have some new tools for my personal, and my teaching, toolbox.

I do not have any problems decoding words while I am reading, but when it comes to spelling I seem to second guess myself a lot.  I am in love with spell check (though I rely on it too much and don’t seem to memorize proper spellings because of it).  I do remember learning the silent e “rule,” and the VV “rule” where the first vowel says it’s name – but that’s about it.  One the thing that trips me up is the el, le endings, if I don’t have the word memorized, I guess.  I know there are other things I have trouble with, but I can’t think of them off the top of my head.  I will pay closer attention now, while spelling words I am unsure of, to see if I can apply the letter sound (etc.) patterns I just learned about.  For instance, I never thought about R- controlled vowels before.  Nobody ever pointed that out to me.  I get all giddy, like a little preschooler when I learn something new (even something this simple).  I can’t wait to share things like this with my future students.  I am so happy that I will be able to point out things that will help them decode the world around them, and enable them to write (and create!) their own stories!

I think it’s great how Fox has included so many activities in Word Identification Strategies that we will be able to use with our students.  I plan on teaching fifth grade, but with the current market the way it is, I know I will be happy teaching any grade.  The activities will prove to be very beneficial, I am sure of it.  To be honest, if the market was different I may not have been paying such close attention to building phonics into a classroom reading program.  I know I would have been interested in it, but I would have thought I didn’t need to focus on it if I want to teach fifth grade.  So, in a way, the current market is helping me pay closer attention to everything I am learning.  Funny how that works…

I keep thinking about addressing our students as readers, writers, and mathematicians.  I think it is important for students to think of themselves as flexible, adaptable individuals, who are in charge of their future.  I remember one of my preschool students who got very upset when I asked her what she wanted to be when she grows up.  She started to cry and told me that she still wanted to be herself.  She thought that when you grow up you become the “job.”  She thought she was going to turn into someone else.  I tried to reassure her that she would still be herself, but would have the ability to “do” any job she wanted to do, not become someone else.  I saw the humor in her misunderstanding, but I also understood why she was so upset.   I think children are never too young to start thinking of themselves as having the ability to choose their future occupations.  And, seeing themselves as readers, writers, and mathematicians will help keep their options open.  I am excited about helping children see the potential they hold.