Blog for 10/4: Review Response

I chose to review Sarah’s response for Inquiry two, Part A. First off, I really like that you mentioned the importance of relating content to the children’s lives. No matter what age, students need this type of support because they need to make sense of why we have them learn the things we do. With this being said, I think you should focus on modeling a lot of your thinking and interpretation of writing. Kids love to here how we feel about writing or what experiences we have had. The more you involve them in your life, the more they seem to want to do things because it helps them formulate meaning and ideas. I did a writing lesson last week, and my students worked really hard on thinking of ideas to write about. I shared with them my ideas and how awesome I thought it was that they get to write every day! I focused on pre-writing strategies, and modeling that part of the writing process really seemed to get them excited.

Revision and editing is also very important. However, be careful. As I read through Routman’s chapter 10, something really stuck out to me and I found I could connect it to your piece. She says, “Of course we depend on correct conventions and form. That’s a given. But the inspiration isn’t in that; its in the language, they way the piece flows and is organized, the impact the words have on the reader” (pp.239). This is great to keep in mind as you prepare to work with your students on revising and editing. These strategies are very important, but do not let it take away from the student’s thoughts and ideas. Try to support students and give them positive feedback, and mention the key components of editing and revising they could work on as you read through their writing. Maybe not fixing every mistake and see how they react to the major aspects you point out. Another thing that really stuck out to me in this chapter was her idea of keeping focused on effective writing. I hate using a checklist for young writers because I don’t want to lose focus on what the child is trying to say.

Try to make the classroom talk fun and exciting! I love observing my teacher talk with the students for pre writing activities and literacy lessons in general. If you think your students can handle it, let a student play the “teacher” role about a topic you would like them to write about or something you want them to make a connection to. My class seems to love that and it really helps get the students to feel more comfortable with sharing ideas. Editing and revising may be a little more tricky, but maybe make silly mistakes and see if they catch you? They feel really smart when they catch a teacher making mistakes, and they get a kick out of it. At the same time, they are learning from fixing your mistake without even realizing it! A lot of my ideas involve making it fun for students because then they will look forward to this discussion and writing time.

I loved how you mentioned the norms you would like to build within the classroom! I think the core practice you want to focus on is perfect as well. I do not know your classroom environment, but my students get bored of writing sometimes or complain that they write too much. So focusing on creating authentic, meaningful writing tasks for a real audience will help you promote creative writing activities. I think you are going to do a great job. Our readings really support your writing idea and you do a great job of relating these ideas to your own thoughts. I hope some of my comments are clear and helpful or interesting to you. I am excited to hear what you come up with :).