Response Post to Joel's Inquiry Project

I really like how you mentioned you were planning on using technology in some way to complete this project. I think that technology has much to offer to instruction, with the different platforms that can be utilized. It will be a perfect resource to produce and publish the writing that your students do. I think you can get pretty creative with maybe using a website, such as Weebly or something similar to publish their work. I am thinking about possibly doing this as well. I can certainly see how you would make publishing of their work an essential component of your project; it gets students motivated to produce their best work when they are aware of their audience. As Routman points out, “We adjust our language according to who our audience is, but kids don’t know this. Too often, they are not aware that they need to think about providing information that the reader will need to have to understand the writing” (pp.145). The author goes on, “But once the teacher added a real audience and told kids it was important they use all the letters and sounds they knew so people could read their writing, they all used some letters and sounds” (pp.145). Therefore, I think it would be smart to remind the kids that the audience will be someone other than the teacher.

I like how you are very thoughtful and observant of the ways that your students are feeling about writing. The fact that you motivated to engage the students and spark their interest in the writing process speaks volumes about your attentiveness to the students’ needs. Because you chose to work on creating authentic, meaningful writing tasks as your core practice, I think this is a perfect match for targeting those students who struggle during writing time. By creating meaningful tasks, students will recognize their writing has a purpose and is important. The sample units used in the Writing Essentials book may be helpful for guiding you and sparking ideas in your creating of authentic, meaningful writing tasks.

It seems like you have a lot of good, supportive resources in your school and district. I like that your MT saves everything he has created and that you are given the opportunity to look over those types of things. Your MT sounds very organized J Your idea about writing something that might help the community or that they may like to read sounds like you are on the right track to the creation of something meaningful. Community engagement is a great idea! Providing students with the opportunity to write about something in the community that they feel strongly about is a great way to focus on voice through meaningful writing. As Routman points out, “Voice is the single most important element in attracting and holding a reader’s interest. Voice is the writer’s unique personality on paper, his own melody in words, her ‘mark’ as an individual. No two voices are alike. To write with voice, the writer has to be interested in the writing. Without that interest, students don’t invest in the piece” (pp.146).

I am interested to see what you come up with after a little more planning! Your blog has given me a number of ideas for my project as well. All your concerns and interests in relation to the students shows that you will create a thoughtful, meaningful, and creative project for your students to learn about and through!