When looking at this week’s readings in Routman’s book, the
author gave a lot of helpful advice in relation to her experience and research
in the teaching of writing. In order to incorporate a lot of her advice into my
own teaching of writing, it seems like I would need to be very organized with
my planning in writing instruction in order not to stray towards the type of
teaching I am more used to and have been taught myself as a student. For
instance, I am used to learning things in pieces and have learned to construct
my writing of essays and other written works through step-by-step processes.
However, as Routman’s book points out, “Imagine having all the pieces of a
large jigsaw puzzle on the floor in front of you but never seeing the picture
on the lid of the box. That’s what learning is like for kids when we start with
the parts”(p. 142). Using that as an example, I can see how students may look
at the pieces of the writing process as isolated and disconnected and may miss
the big picture. They may not be able to figure out what it all means and how
the pieces fit together.
Also, I think it would be difficult to break away from my current
mind-frame regarding editing. It is hard for me to concentrate on the meaning
of a piece of written work, unless it has the correct grammar and mechanics.
Otherwise, I am distracted by the mistakes and lose the meaning of the text. Therefore,
I attempt to correct the grammar and mechanics immediately. However, this is somewhat
counterintuitive with Routman, as her advice is to save the editing to after
quality work has been produced. She supports this with a few good points. For
instance, she mentions, “Overattention to grammar and mechanics while composing
adversely impacts writing. That is, when teachers overemphasize correctness when
students write, writing quality declines” (p.160). She goes on to say, “Truly,
editing is the easy part, but it only matters if students have a piece of
writing worth reading” (p.160). I can see how this is true, but it will
certainly take reminding to save the editing for last.
I also find a challenge in trying to make sure that every
student is motivated to make their writing of the best quality it can be. I am
aware that Routman offers ways to do this, such as identifying an audience (other
than the teacher) and stressing the importance of student knowledge of why
conventions matter in writing. However, I’m not sure these approaches will
reach every child, and I think it is ambitious to assume that the child is
going to care about the audience for every piece of writing they compose. My
question then lies in how to address this. Perhaps giving them a piece of
written work that is hard to decipher or something similar might help them to appreciate
what good writing looks like for the sake of the reader.
I found it very interesting that you felt Routman’s way of teaching was much different from how you as a student were taught. I too was taught the mechanics of writing where much of the emphasis was placed on the process of writing a paper rather than the content. I really liked how Routman consistently discussed modeling to students how to create writing pieces where you were focused on the content rather than the process. I can remember in grade school how we would always have to brainstorm using graphic organizers and much like in Routman’s opinion they’re meaningless, and I never use them to write; yet they’re taught because they are part of “the process.” Placing more emphasis on the process really takes the joy out of writing and makes it more of a chore where they have to check things off of a list, rather than enjoying what they write and placing emphasis on creating a piece that they would really be proud of.
ReplyDeleteI agree with you that not focusing on the mechanics will be very hard in the editing process through leaving it until the end, because I already find myself in class wanting to whip out my teacher pen and correct the spelling and grammar in my students’ writing. I do however agree that the content can get lost if the kids are more focused on spelling and grammar. After reading these chapters I have decided that I want to model my writing instruction around Routman’s ideas, where I do a tremendous amount of modeling for content and save the mechanics editing for the very last. I also liked Routman’s ideas on conferencing with whole group conferencing where I use a common error and help the class as a whole. I also want to use the on the spot conferencing where I briefly walk around and talk to each student about one to two sentences and then one on one conferencing. I feel that combining all of these aspects will really strengthen my students’ writing abilities and they will ultimately do better on the tests.
While reading Routman's book I found it interesting that she placed so much emphasis on writing with the audience in mind. I think that far too often this aspect of writing gets lost in the mechanics of writing and can really aide to the quality of the paper. I find your question of how to teach this interesting. I feel that through multiple exposures to modeling through thinking a loud while writing under the elmo, and sharing your own pieces with the students can be a really successful way of teaching this to your students. For example, writing a small moment narrative about your own life can be used to teach students the importance in writing in details that allows the audience to see a movie in their mind of what is occurring and then constantly working on that aspect with your students in their own work, through individual and small group conferences. I think that this is a very important aspect to teach during writing instruction.
I think what I found most interesting about both of your replies is that it sounds like you are already taking the two things I picked up on and applying them to your classroom. I feel like I am doing this too. On Monday, after I read the chapter on modeling I talked to my MT about what I had read and what I had seen in the classroom so far. On Friday we had taught a lesson where the students thought of one person who was special to them and a moment involving that person. The MT did a great job of modeling the whole process of choosing that special person and the moment involved with them and set the kids free to do the same. When we talked on Monday, I suggested that Routman might have suggested taking that next step and modeling the process of writing those first few sentences. I don't know if it was already planned, but for the rest of this week that modeling has been a part of our writing mini lessons. Here's the thing I haven't quite put my finger on yet. The writing hasn't improved that much. I think two things may be the underlying cause. First, we explained that this writing has an audience of their future selves. Some day they will want to look back and see what was important to them as a third grader. My MT even showed some of his third grade work to illustrate this point. I wonder if this is an audience that is too far in the future for their frame of reference. The other thing I think we might be able to differently is add an author's chair as Routman suggests. Right now the students aren't held responsible for getting something done and don't see other people achieving greatness on their stories. An author's chair might add that extra motavation to get more work done.
ReplyDeleteI also agree on both of your stances on conferences. Editing was always important to me to, but I've caught myself saying a few times this week to students "Don't let spelling get in the way of good story." I see this paying off a little just in the fact that I'm not constantly being asked to spell words any more. My main focus now is on helping kids that seem to be stuck in the process and to get past that problem of "I don't know what to write."
One last note. I saw Niki mention writing on the ELMO to demonstrate. That's a great idea I hadn't thought of, but here's one for you. We use the SMART board and just get out a wireless keyboard. This allows us to sit in front of the class and type at the same speed as we are thinking out loud.
I really feel that I am on the same page with all of you. Though I saw a lot of modeling in my classrooms as a child, I feel we are all headed in the direction as future teachers, or we are already there! Modeling reading and writing is extremely important. I like that Routman talks about the importance of modeling. I see this in my classroom every day, and it is something we consistently think about in our classroom at Averill. There are times that we left out the modeling part of our lesson, and the children do not seem to comprehend our expectations. My mentor does a great job of showing the kids what she expects from them during writing workshop. We are currently writing about 'small moments' and my teacher will talk about a small moment, and models her writing process on the board in front of the kids. With this point, I loved what Niki mentioned about the joy being taking out of writing when we are too focused on the process. Modeling to kids makes is more fun because they want to engage in thinking about their lives and are able to put it pen to paper. We have not focused on the process, and we have seen improvements in their writing already, just by modeling!
ReplyDeleteI feel that editing should not be a big part of my students writing. I love seeing them write and sticking to the expectations of the prompt. My mentor and I usually walk around and help edit their final product by showing them what they need to focus on next time. We want them to continue to produce meaningful writing, and if we took time away to focus on the mechanics, they would lose their interest in our writing workshop. I love Routman's ideas on conferencing. Especially group conferencing because then they understand as a class that the mistake they are making is a mistake made by the entire class. Together, as a team, we can work on the little things weekly to improve our writing altogether.
I also liked Niki's idea of the small moment narrative. I will be doing this next week in my class and I like the support her comment has given me in planning this lesson. Details are very important in this type of writing, so modeling this will be very important in my lesson. The details can help them visualize my small moment and I can not wait to see what comes into their writing after I model my small moment!