Module 10 Blog Entry

Hello everyone!

What another information filled module! Ashleigh and I had a lot to discuss regarding how to teach writing in relationship to reading! As always, there was so much but I managed to get through all of it! We learned about many ways we could set up writing workshops in our future classrooms! This module revealed that writing is a big process—with revision being one of the most important steps.

Similarities between Reader’s Workshop Writer’s Workshop
I recall reading chapters 1 and 2 from The Reading Workshop and read through Chapter 7 of The Daily 5. As I examined each selection, I found a lot of similarities between the reader’s workshop and the writer’s workshop. Below, I have listed and described each similarity.

1) Student Choices
When looking back at the chapters from The Reading Workshop, the first thing I noticed about the workshop is that it provides students with a lot of choices. Chapter 2 mentioned that one of the guiding principles (#2) for the process explains the need for students to make choices about what they read, who they work with in groups, and what how they feel about what they read. I agreed with the authors in saying that teachers must share such control, allowing students to feel important in their decisions (pg. 12).

Looking at this concept in The Daily 5, the authors also placed a lot of emphasis on giving students control over what they read, write, and what they do with their schedules each day. I thought it was interesting how they noted that having control over our scheduling as adults motivates, engages, and causes us to become more productive. The same goes for children (pg. 92). Chapter 7 touched on the idea that teachers should “check in” with students to see what they plan to work on or do during the day. Students have plenty of opportunities to do things such as Word Work, Read to Self, Read to Someone, etc.(pg. 92-94). From reading about this process, I noted the authors reporting that their student’s seemed to benefit from having choices (pg. 95).

As I read through Lucy Calkin’s article about starting a writing workshop, I noticed that she also focuses on letting students have some sort of control of what they do in the classroom. When doing independent work, students were able to choose what they wanted to write/draw about and work to create a story.

2) Opportunities

Another thing I noticed with The Reading Workshop was that along with choices is that students have a lot of different opportunities to become successful readers (pg. 12). The teacher provides the children with a variety of resources and materials to help them in their reading. In addition, they receive opportunities to work with others and discuss what they read.

The Daily 5 also focuses on the need to provide students with many different opportunities. As I mentioned earlier, students have a lot of options to choose from but each option provides them with opportunities to grow and build on specific abilities. I liked what they authors said on page 95: “We have achieved what we set out to accomplish when we began this journey: providing children with meaningful literacy activities that will help them become proficient, lifelong learners while allowing us to work with small groups or individuals” (pg. 95).

Appendix B of the Common Core State Standards also focused on the importance of providing students with a wide range of quality literature/text to learn from. The exemplar texts as well as the sample performance tasks gives teachers ideas to help students become exposed to many different types of genre and activities.

3) Classroom Setup—(Space)

In chapter 2, Serafini lists “space” as a guiding principle for The Reading Workshop. Having a supportive environment is essential for children to learn and grow. The place in which they learn; in this case, the classroom, needs to be comfortable and inviting so that students are encouraged to read to themselves and with others.

The authors of The Daily 5 also stress the importance of classroom arrangement. They suggested creating areas where students can work privately and in small/large groups. Students are able to find what place is more comfortable for them to work in so they can focus more on where they can work to be the best learner (pg. 98-99).

4) Assessment/Reflection

I did notice that under the guiding principle of Uncertainty (#7), it was mentioned that The Reading Workshop allows teachers to assess student performances and reflect on their own practices in the classroom. Serafini described that assessments don’t always tell us a lot about what students truly know so it’s important for teachers to be mindful of how they are teaching. He said that “we need to be able to act on our beliefs without allowing those beliefs to close our minds to new possibilities. In essence, we have to be able to act, while at the same time critiquing our actions” (pg. 13).

Chapter 7 of The Daily 5 also discussed the importance of reflecting and assessing in the classroom. The authors expressed their desire to assess their students while letting students hold responsibility over their learning. They explained that they used a variety of assessments to monitor student’s growth. In addition to anecdotal records and individual reading inventories, the authors said that they met with guided reading groups and individual reading groups to record notes about a child in a notebook. This allowed them to go back and read about a student’s academic progress over time (pg. 97-98).

Similarities Between Reading Process and Writing Process
I know that the module guide for this week called for us to reflect on four similarities between the reading process and the writing process but I wasn’t sure what resources to use so I wanted to reflect on my own ideas based on what I felt were similarities.

1) We All Read and Write For a Purpose

As I thought about the process of reading and writing, I thought it was important to consider why we read and write. Whether we read/write to entertain, inform, or persuade ourselves/others, we are doing it for a reason. There is often a purpose for reading and writing—even if some people don’t recognize it. We even read and write to communicate information and share ideas/knowledge. The reading and writing processes are very much similar because we begin each process with a purpose.

2) Pre-Reading and Pre-Writing
When deciding to read a book or write a piece of work, there are some things that readers/writers must consider before beginning. Oftentimes, readers look into different types of books/genres to choose the one that best fits their interests or focus area. They may ask others about the book or even examine reviews about the book. The same goes for writing. Writers think and plan before starting a story or letter and may ask other’s their opinion about what they plan to write about. I think this is a significant similarity between the two processes.

3) Readers and Writers Check for Understanding
While reading a book/text, readers may come across some words, phrases, or information they don’t know. It is often helpful to go back and expand on these ideas to better understand what it being read. Similarly, writers may struggle putting what they want to say in their own words so they might have to revise meanings and reflect on their own ideas. I think this step exists in the both processes because if the reader/writer doesn’t understand what is being presented, then others will probably not understand either.

4) Review
I think that one of the most important similarities between the reading and writing processes is the need to review what has been read or written. We all know that revision is a crucial step in the writing process. This is where the writer reads over his/her work, fixing mistakes and changing words to make things better. Essentially, I feel that this is also an important step for readers to carry out. I sometimes like to read a book a second time, especially if it caused me to come up with a lot of questions. This is where I can learn new things and come up with new ideas about something I read.

Lucy Calkins on Writing 1
Ashleigh and I thought this was an interesting read because it answered a lot of questions regarding how to set up a writing workshop. I like how it detailed each item and explained what to say to children and what to do with them when introducing them to the idea of having writing workshop. The text mentions for teachers to demonstrate how to think about choosing a topic. I liked the idea of using drawings and writing labels to help students recall certain events they may want to write about (pg. 3). The dialogue provided in this document revealed the teacher giving students a lot of different ideas but I could tell that she really wanted them to come up with unique and interesting stories on their own. Next, the article explains the importance of conferring with students as they write, checking in on them to see how they are doing (pg. 6). The author mentions that the use of a writing folder for each student is a great way to keep track of work that children have completed or pieces of writing they may want to fix or add more to. After holding a writing workshop, the article says to allow students to share their writings. When instructing students to share, teachers should express their desire for the children to give details about their story by describing their pictures. I noticed how the teacher in this case pointed out several student’s great detailed pictures and writings as a way to model how she wanted other students to do with their writings/drawings. I agreed with the text in saying that such a writing workshop should end with excitement so students will be anxious to continue writing (pg. 8)! It was also mentioned that if some students need more time (and they will), then it is important to continue helping them with the process of writing. I liked the idea of using a mini lesson to teach students that writers start by thinking, not drawing. This is a great idea! Lastly, this article revealed that having student’s writing samples can reveal so much about their understanding of the written language. Teachers can use these writings to assess students in many different areas (pg. 10).

Lucy Calkins on Writing 2
This section discussed the process of choosing “Small Moments” after reading a familiar book and turning into a “Big Moment.” It explained to begin with a mini lesson where students take small stories of something that happened to them and then stretching them out to make them longer. Next, the teacher in this case presented students with a book the children knew, focused on an excerpt from the book, and then pointing out the amazing details the author gave. Active engagement involves the teacher getting students to think about the details the author gives and getting them to share what details they remembered from the text (pg. 4-6). I like how the article gave the idea of having students use writing booklets to write down their small moments they will stretch out. Again, the author points out that during this time, teachers need to confer with the students, checking for students who may not be expanding their stories. Afterwards, a sharing session is held students read aloud their stories and teachers reinforce what they want their students to notice in a piece of writing (pg. 8). Children are of course going to need more time to work and expand on the lesson. The article mentions that a great way to do this it to let the class come up with a “Small Moment” together and turn it into a “Big Moment” (pg. 9).

YouTube Videos
Graves:
In this video, Donald Graves gives great ideas on how to create a class of writers! The biggest thing I got from this was that it is important for teachers to demonstrate writing. He said that you just WRITE! Write the first thing you think of. After showing students how writing works, Graves said to pair them off and have them and share their writings. It was a great video! It was short but I learned just as much from it as I would have from a 30 minute video! I could tell he was very passionate about teaching the writing process.

Calkins:
This video made me think about myself as a writer. It was great to be reminded that the things we see every day inspire us to write. The most important thing I learned from this was that we should all honor writing. Everyone should honor their own writings and teachers should honor their student’s writings. How insightful! I thought it was interesting how she demonstrated how writers should read their own writings. The way she explained the importance of writing was very powerful! I learned that as writers, we do need to read our own writings as if they were pieces of gold! This was a very inspirational video!

6+1 Writing Traits PowerPoint
I remember reading about the 6+1 writing traits in a previous module so it was great to be reminded of them here. I’ve always known that writing is a process so the first slide was a great reminder of what goes into the cycle. I touched on this earlier but it fits so well with this sections. Prewriting, drafting, revising, editing, and publishing are elements of the cycle. I can see a similar cycle when considering the reading cycle. Before we read, we often search for the right book by skimming through the text and reading a review or synopsis of the book. Next, we read the book, look back over it to look up something we may not know. After clearing up possible confusion, many people like to reread a book—often discovering something new each time! This certainly mirrors the writing process.

Although some characteristics of good writers include writing pieces with a beginning, middle, and end, have good handwriting, use great descriptions, and use a wide range of vocabulary (slide 3-4), the PowerPoint revealed that young children in Preschool and Kindergarten don’t know much about these things (slide 5). I learned that it is important for teachers to focus more on teaching authentic writing and less on prompt writing. Authentic writing helps students in many ways by giving them options, strategies, and an authentic purpose for writing while prompt writing does the opposite (slide 7). The mini-lesson routine on slide 8 was very helpful in that it gave me an idea of how to demonstrate how writing should be approached. The slides about the organization and design of a piece of writing (slide 10-14) was interesting to read and listen to because I recall reading about the different elements mentioned here in the last module. It was also great to be provided with detailed structures of nonfiction genre writings. I learned about the purpose, structure, and signal words used in reports, recounts, procedures, explanations, descriptions, persuasions, and narrative writings (slides 14-28). I wasn’t too familiar with the word: transactional, so slide 29 informed me that many people use this type of writing to send greetings and share news—so I would consider this something like a professional letter. Within this PowerPoint, Dr. Powell also touched on the different qualities within pieces of writings such as voice, word choice/description, sentence fluency and clarity, conventions, and presentations (slides 31-40). There was so much within this presentation but I learned so much about what to look for in a child’s writing.

Instructional Calendar for Writing Mini Lessons
I think this is a great thing to have! Ashleigh and I can see it being useful for teachers when planning what writing areas they want to focus on in the classroom. It is a very detailed schedule that I believe can help teachers stay on track with what they want to cover. I like how the calendar starts off slow but then has something gradually added to each week. I can see how students can grow as writers over the course of 24 weeks!

Linda Rief: Why Revisions Shouldn't be the Most Difficult Part of Writing Skip Video
This video was very helpful because it identified ways to motivate students to be open to revising their work and gave ideas for how teachers can become involved in the revision process. Linda Rief explained that teachers should allow students to write a lot before going back over their work so that they have a wide variety and can choose what piece they want to work on—that’s where revision begins. I like her idea of sharing her own work and allowing students to comment and ask questions about it. She explained that students will know that the format used in such a session will also be used when she goes to read individual student’s writings. It was interesting to note that her students mentioned that conferencing—constant interaction with the students—was extremely helpful when revising their writing.

Annenberg Video #6
This video focused on making connections with reading and writing. Ashleigh and I thought it was interesting to see Mrs. Sanchez giving a lesson about using different writing traits when writing. Her mini lesson using the book was a great way to introduce students to using word choice/descriptions when writing (around 3:30 in video). I will say that the excerpt he read was full of descriptions! I like how Mrs. Tijerina explained that using authentic literature when introducing children to the process of writing is very effective (around 7:00). It was great that she mentioned that teaching writing is not as hard as it seems. As a future teacher, this was very reassuring. I thought it was interesting how one teacher invited an older student to read a personal narrative they wrote to the class (around 11:00). Presenting models of student of writing is important! It was great to watch Mr. Hansen’s class discussing the book he read aloud. They were able to use the descriptions in the book and think about how the characters in the book felt (18:00). They all seemed to be interested and engaged in the conversation!

Annenberg Video #9
This video highlighted the importance of teachers having conferences with their students about their writing. One teacher described holding these meetings at any point during the writing process—before, during, and after (around 1:30). I noticed how the teacher from North Carolina often has his students work on open-ended writings (4:30). I think this is great because students have so much freedom with what they write about—they are not restricted from writing any genre. For some students, I can see how having so many choices can make it hard to pick what they want to write about. This is a great opportunity for conferencing! I enjoyed watching how Mark interacted with one of his students (7:30). It was a teacher/student conference but I like how it seemed more like a casual conversation! Conferencing can also take on the form of quick “check-ins,” just like Mrs. Block did with her students in her classroom (14:00). I like how Mrs. Dilbert gave struggling writers ideas but let her students do more of the talking when conferencing. She asked more questions rather than giving different suggestions (24:00).

Hitching Post Video and Publishing Documents
This was an interesting video about how a publishing center can look. I can see how the mini lesson about revision can help students think about their writings and work to get their work published. I did read over the documents about how to possibly start a publishing center in a school. I have never heard of this before so it was interesting to read about how to set up a publishing house, how to make books, helpful forms to have, and the suggestions for pages to include in books. Ashleigh and I talked about how we thought something like this would help motivate students to work hard with their writings and take pride in what they have created.

Instant Books/Book Making YouTube Videos
The first YouTube video was a great instructional video on how to make instant books. This would be a great thing to do with student’s work from Kindergarten and on to the upper grades. I like it because it’s quick and doesn’t require a lot of tools. I will keep this in mind for future reference! The other video was also interesting because although it required a bit more time and materials, it still made it look like an easy task to complete! There are so many options and ways to present student work—even if you go the professional route (bookemon.com).

Handwriting
The document provided about handwriting was very interesting! Ashleigh and I discussed our thoughts about exploring the three different handwriting models: The Palmer Method/Zaner-Bloser, The D’Nealian, and Handwriting Without Tears. I didn’t know that practicing handwriting could help students develop skills in other subjects such as math and reading. I learned that D’Nealian handwriting has major benefits like cutting down on the occurrence of writing reversals!

Handwriting Without Tears has also been found to help students with printing letters and numbers. The sizes in which the letters are written are right for a child’s natural movement and are easy for left handed writers to use! I never thought too much about handwriting but I have noticed that it is not as big of a deal as is used to be. I understand that handwriting changes over time. I can say that I have changed the way I write letters and numbers many times since middle school. I will often look back at my old schoolwork and read my handwriting. Some of it is just awful so I am glad I have made major improvements. I still don’t have the best handwriting but now I think if these handwriting skills were introduced to me in the early years, then I might have had plenty of practice by now!

NC DPI Statement on Handwriting
This document reminded me of how much emphasis schools used to place on teaching children how to write in cursive. I can see that according to the standards, students need to be able to write documents in print and cursive. In addition, they are expected to practice keyboarding skills. I fully see the need for students to know how to use a keyboard—we are in a technology age. Although I don’t want to admit it, I think we are reaching the point where handwriting in print, let along cursive is becoming obsolete. I still like to write things down myself rather than typing all of the time but children today are being encouraged to use more and more forms of technology. I can remember being taught cursive in 3rd Grade. My teacher warned us that we needed to be proficient in this type of handwriting because we would have to use it in middle school, high school, and beyond. To my surprise, I have not used cursive since then! I think it’s a great tool to teach students. As I read about the different types of handwriting in this module, I learned about how students can benefit from such practice! It would be great to see more time and effort put into such instruction but I know that teachers are limited with the time that they have.

As always, Ashleigh and I learned so much from the information presented in this module. We know more than ever that teaching reading in relation to writing is a vital aspect when teaching children to develop important skills.

Thank you for reading my post! See you next week!

Kelsey