Chapter eleven focused on writing. Writing is important for students. When they are out of school and they fill in job applications, send cards, write letters or e-mails, or write resumes for a job they will need to have well-developed writing skills. I really liked that the textbook provided activities for students at all stages in the writing process. It is important to remember that even our preschool and kindergarten students need to be exposed to writing and the relationship between reading and writing. When we can show children this relationship at a young age we are able to develop readers and writers. The textbook also gives characteristics of skilled and unskilled writers. In all honesty, I have never really thought about the thought processes that occur for individuals who are unskilled writers or who simply do not enjoy writing. I have always had a love for reading and writing. When I am able to read some of the characteristics of unskilled writers I feel that I have a better understanding for the areas that I should focus in on when developing strategies and when discussing writing with the students. When I was in high school I took an English course and we wrote many essays. It was a difficult class for many students because our teacher did not give us a rubric for any of our essays. Looking back, I did not think about the need for a rubric at that time. Now, I know that rubrics are essential when completing the writing task. The writing process needs to be graded individually for each component. Essays can also be subjected to bias or favoritism. It is important o have a rubric set in place so that teachers can show exactly how they came up with the grade that was given. There were many activities that I thought would be helpful in this chapter. One that I felt I could use with my internship was using wordless picture books to help guide student writing. I think that using a wordless picture book that has a topic that interests the student could be a great way to scaffold students into writing stories and papers on their own.
In response to Jaclyn: I think that it is very important for rubrics to be included in all writing assignments as well. There are so many different parts of writing that you should grade all areas, and not just one. This is not only important for the student, but for the teacher as well. This gives the student on outline of exactly what they should be writing about and what they must include.
Writing is the topic of chapter 11. Writing is a very important area for children to learn. It is something that we use every day. Knowing how to write well can earn you awards and scholarships in the future. When teaching students to write, you should make sure to emphasis the writing process. After children have learned this process, writing can become easier and more enjoyable. The scenario that is presented at the beginning of the chapter describes the dilemma that most children have. "I hate writing!" Well, there has to be a reason. I like that the teacher found the reason and then gave the student a tool to help them write and to understand how to write. Graphic organizers a great tools for students, not only during the reading process, but also for writing. You are able to see your ideas lined out in front of you. Writing was something that wasn't easy for me at first. Our teacher was not fond of graphic organizers, but my tutor was. Now, I love to write. I love to write, not just for fun, but for school too. I like finding the evidence for a topic and explaining it using different factors. I can make boring information into something that people will want to read. After reading this chapter, I know the characteristics of a skilled writer and an unskilled writer. There are many differences, but if you can get your student to change one of those characteristics to a skilled writer, they are more likely to change the others on their own.
Brandy, I am so glad that you had a tutor who helped you develop a joy for writing! Graphic are a great way for students to sort their thoughts which will lead to a much less stressful environment when they begin to write. I enjoy writing. I was very blessed to have teachers in the early elementary grades who encouraged writing in non-threatening situations. I remember writing poetry, fiction stories, and nonfiction stories throughout elementary school and it really developed my love for writing.
I love wordless picture books. The stories that the kids can come up with are amazing. I agree that it would be a great activity in our tutoring. I had a writing lesson in one of my sessions and they only wrote down facts in their writing, they were to use the graphic organizer to write a story. I think I will introduce a wordless book as one of the lessons and see how that works. My daughter loves to write. She is in 9th grade and she and a few friends get together on Saturdays and have a writing club. They share ideas about what they have going on and then read whatever they have written during their time together.
Being able to write is a much need skill. Even more so in this generation than my own generation with all the technology that this generation of children has access to. I have seen in just this semester in my 6th grade internship that the students struggle with writing because they are so tech savvy that they are not using their skills that they have learned for writing. I appreciate the activities that is listed has both of non tech and using technology. The Response Journals is something that I really like and I actually saw in a 6th grade reading classroom. Being able to writing in journals or even blogging is a great skill and I think that all students should be introduced to and continue to build upon those skills within their writing.
Christine D, I think that is really neat that your daughter and her friends have a writing club. When I was her age, I was a member of our Bookworms; it was a reading and writing club. We met once a week at our museum and our sponsor would have a subject somewhere within the museum that we would take 30 minutes and write a response on the given subject. Then for the rest of the time of our meeting is when we would talk and the books that we were reading, it was kind of like Oprah's book club. Our sponsor had books that we choose from to read. Before our next meeting we were to take our response from our subject and build upon that and have a one to two page journal entry on that subject that was given.
I loved the examples on page 284. I’m always amazed when I see how the stages reflect my own children. I remember looking at their drawings and thinking, “wow, I hope they start making their heads smaller someday.” As they get older, they do learn about proportions and such. Just like writing, they start with scribbling, sound spelling and soon, they have great sentences. I hope to be as astute as Mr. West in discovering how to effectively reach my students. I watch my mentor teachers and they are under so much pressure to fit everything in during their time slot, that often times they don’t “see” the students. I liked that we gave our tutoring students an Interest Attitude Survey in the beginning, because I learned a lot about my students from what they wrote. As I gather books and materials for my future classroom (yes, I really do have a large tub of items) I have a folder of things that I would like to incorporate in my classroom and one of those items is having the students take an Interest Attitude Survey at the beginning of the school year. I think this is a great way to “see” our students and hopefully get a glimpse of how they learn. The activities at the back of the chapter are great. I like the different types of poems to use in writing. They are fun and short, so I believe the students will have fun with them. The activity using Email is a great idea. Students are so in touch with technology that they probably won’t even realize they are doing something educational.
Chapter 11 describes the importance and the connection of writing and reading. Within this chapter, I really enjoyed the discussion of how to do the interactive writing. I liked the idea of building the student's confidence and gradually letting the students tackle the writing steps slowly. The teacher assists the students and then as the students are capable of doing the task then the assistance is gradually removed. I worked within a writing lab for a year and came across several students who really struggled with writing. I truly believe that if students are led to find something that they are interested in then that will encourage them to write. The classroom I worked in used six trait writing which taught the students to look at their ideas, voice, conventions, word choice, sentence fluency and organization. I liked the expository frames located within the activity section. I feel that these would be extremely helpful in teaching the students different structures.
In response to Christine D.. I also enjoyed the poem section. I have seen Haiku s but have never seen the Cinquain poems. I think students would enjoy writing these and they are simple enough for the students to play with and really come up with something creative.
Chapter 11 talks about writing and I like the very beginning that talks about writing being much easier for children than reading. I guess I never really thought about that. I thought the activites for appropriate stages of writing were helpful and could really come in handy for early elementary students. The second part of this chapter that I found helpful was the section talking about writing for Spanish-English writers. Since I have an ELL student in my tutoring sessions, I really liked the ideas to connect reading and writing. I have actually done one of the ideas, but I'll be sure to incorporate the others into some lessons. The next section of the chapter that caught my eye was the assessment section. I know we have been introduced to some writing assessments, but this gave me an opportunity to actually look into them, especially rubrics which i still get confused on at times. I really like attitude surveys that the book talked about because I think it's a great way to assess students on something other than content of the writing.
In Response to Janet, I completely agree with you that if students find something that interests them, they will more inclined to want to write and actually enjoy writing. I also agree that we as teachers need to build our students' confidence so they will become more comfortable writing and even grow to love writing.
When I am in a classroom this is where I see that students struggle the most. It is also an area that I don’t see much instruction happening. I am not sure if this is due to the fact that this is not a tested subject area. I have been very interested to see how writing instruction is implemented into the classroom such as the writing workshop or guided writing. I have been implementing writing to my tutoring sessions because I think it will aid in their reading and phonics skills. Many times I see students writing in journals but I have rarely see teachers guiding their students one on one or in small groups. I am glad that this chapter has given me some concrete ideas to use in the classroom to promote and use for writing instruction. I love the usage of graphic organizers to organize thoughts and to cut down on plagiarism. “Effective teacher understand that good writing does not just happen because students read and reflect.” Students need to be taught how to thing and organize their thoughts. Reading and discussion books and the usage of wordless books is a great way to talk about the writing process of the authors and how to address an audience with words. These strategies are something that I will be using in my plans and in my own classroom! In Response to Holly D. I thought that the assessments were very interesting as well. One of my favorite parts of this book is the assessments in the appendix. What a great resource for new teachers. Did you see the list of books that is also in the back of the book? Check it out!
Chapter 11 talks about Writing. Writing is an area of learning that we will use our whole lives. No matter what type of job you hold in the future, you will have to write at some point. Teaching writing to students is a must in order to help them in the future. When I think about being an educator, I not only want to better my students in their learning career, but I also want to better my students as people as well. I was really interested in the points they made about the similarities and differences between reading and writing. I was more familiar with the similarities rather than the differences. The two big differences between reading and writing are: 1. Readers must be able to comprehend what others have written and the writers are challenged to know their audience. 2. Readers need to decode words, while writers are challenged to encode words. Are students able to identify the similarities between reading and writing? I think it would be easier for them to identify the differences. It is amazing to see how writing has changed throughout the years. There are four components of writing: 1. Graphic-knowledge of how to form the alphabet 2. Semantic-words, made up of letters come to represent objects, actions, and abstract ideas. 3. Graphophonic-letter-sound relationships and 4. Syntactic-being concise and organize ideas. It was neat to read about and visually see the different stages that students go through. I also liked all the suggestions and stages for Bilingual Spanish-English Writers. Since classrooms are becoming more diverse, it is important to know how to teach ALL students. I was never a comfortable writer during my years of schooling. I would get so nervous about the conventions, and I just liked to write and express my feelings about the topics. I think daily journals are a great way for students to practice writing.
It is sad to when teachers do not guide and instruct students during writing. I wish some of my teachers would have paid more attention to me as I was writing. When we would write in our journals the teacher would sit up at the front and work on something at her desk, and now when I look back on it, I think it was just busy work for us. Writing is just as important as reading. Once students know how to read thoroughly, I feel like they should be able to write thoroughly.
Chapter 11 is about writing. It discusses the relationship between reading and writing; pointing out that while they do have many similarities, to be able to read, one must be able to comprehend what others write and to write, one must be able to understand who their audience is and write in a way the audience will understand. I think putting the goals of reading and writing on a poster or visual to display in the classroom would help students write. They could use it as a checklist to go over their writing, or as a guide when stuck during reading. I can see the components of writing evident in our tutoring sessions. With kindergarten and first grade students we are working on graphic, semantic, and graphophonic knowledge when we do the Phonics Dance and the various activities we plan daily. The upper grades work on semantic and graphophonic when the do the phoneme flash cards and add syntactic knowledge to the two when they do their daily lesson activities. The stages of writing help show how important it is for students to start off with a solid foundation so that they can progress with their writing skills as they go through elementary school, and not struggle with writing because they did not receive good instruction in basic writing skills. I do not agree with the stages of writers the book shows. I believe that the scribbling stage comes before the drawing stage. If I remember correctly, we learned in art methods that the scribble stage is first. Is anyone in art methods now or does anyone else remember? Before we talked about this in class the other day, I knew it was important to let children draw to express themselves but I did not see this as a form of writing. After Mrs. Stoppel showed us examples of each stage of writing and how teachers come along and write what the picture is of after the students explain it, I realized that my teachers did this when I was growing up, and I still have some of my first writing/drawing projects from school. I remember doing rough drafts and final drafts of stories and writing assignments in first and second grade but it wasn’t until the end of second and beginning of third grades that we started the writing process of prewriting, drafting, revising, editing, and publishing. While we would dislike having to do all the steps to writing and editing each other’s papers over and over again, publishing a writing or finishing that final draft to hand in always gave a sense of accomplishment and pride that we had finished something. As I grew older I appreciated the rubrics my teachers would hand out when we were given a writing assignment. It made me a more confident writer to know specifically what the teacher wanted in the writing. I do like to free write on my own, but when it is for a class I would rather have very specific instructions about what is to be written.
In response to Janet H. It is very important to take your time when introducing students to the writing process and finding topics that they are interested in to begin learning to write. One of the rubrics we received at the beginning of the year in middle school was a six trait writing sheet for us to use as a guide as we wrote through out the year. Eventually we had the sheet pretty much memorized.
Writing is important for all students, even students in kindergarten need to be exposed to writing. Not only do students need to be able to express themselve verbally, but they need to be able to put their thoughts and creativness down on paper. There are tons and tons of writing activities for students to do for all ages. I loved writing in school and I still like it today. Graphic organizers and webs are awsome tools and students can greatly benefit from them.
In response to Holly D.... I too never really would have thought that writing is much easier for students than reading. There are lots of great activities in the book, and there are endless amount of activities in books and online. I am nervous about writing for ELL students, but the activities suggested by the book give me a good starting point on how I could begin. There are several assessment tools teachers can use to assess student writing. These are very beneficial for teachers to use and rubrics are great for students to know what is expected of them in their writing assignment.
Teaching writing is an important skill that should be taught in conjunction with reading. In order to teach writing effectively it is important that students be given choices on the topic and genre of writing. In addition, ELL students have special needs that should be considered when planning instruction. Chapter 11 provides great details on the similarities and differences in the reading and writing processes. I found the section on the stages of emergent writing to be very informative and helpful. I can see these stages in my internship students writing skills. Figure 11.5 on page 286 gives some good examples of ideas to use in the classroom to connect reading and writing, and hopefully I can integrate some of these ideas in my tutoring sessions. I have used several writing exercises thus far in my tutoring but have a better idea of how to integrate reading and writing after reading this chapter. My internship class has reading workshops and the students are currently writing detective stories. They have the option to write about anything they want after they develop a set of characters, a list of clues, and a problem and solution. This is a fun way for them to work on structuring their materials and thoughts before attempting to compile them in a cohesive story. Response to Tara: I have also been incorporating writing in my tutoring sessions and I think the students enjoy being able to write about ideas that interest them. It also allows me to assess their writing and comprehension skills depending on the activity. I also agree that the use of graphic organizers can really help students organize their thoughts and get them ready for the writing process.
As I was reading through chapter 11 I kept thinking of Mrs. Stoppel talking about guided writing. This chapter had a lot of information on the writing process and I think that guided writing would fit into this chapter.
I really liked the part that talked about having ELLs write in both English and their native language. This is a good idea because they can still write what they need to even if they don’t know the right word in the English language. Plus, it makes these students feel proud and happy that they can write too.
I also liked reading about the stages of emergent writing. You’d be amazed at the story that a child can tell you just through their drawings and/or scribbles. When my brother was younger he liked to draw army men and pirates. He might just draw a pirate ship and if you asked him about his picture, he would tell you a very complicated story about the pirate ship that you wouldn’t have guessed from just looking at the picture.
Writing is also a good activity for students to get their feelings out that they are afraid to tell someone about. Sometimes students feel braver in writing than they do speaking. I also liked Figure11.7 because it gives you criteria on what skilled and unskilled writers are. That way you can identify the skilled and unskilled writers in your class and have individual goals for their writing.
I agree with you that writing should be taught in conjuncture with reading. These two areas are so important because I've noticed that good readers are also good writers. Same goes for reading.
As teachers we need to be aware of our students writing skills. Including those of ELLs because they are going to have different problems with writing than native English speakers are going to have.
Chapter 11 discussed writing. This is something I believe that should go along with reading. Doing it this way can help the students show their comprehension and express their thoughts and feelings on a piece of literature. Exposing the students to the components, stages, and process of writing at a young age can get them jump-started on being successful writers. The students will get to see the finished project as a published piece and understand how fun writing can be. As a child, I wrote two pieces, one on my grandpa and one on animals near my home, and they were both published in the local newspaper. This was pretty much the highlight of my childhood because I couldn't believe everyone that reads the newspaper would see my articles. A good topic for students to choose would be something they discussed in their interest inventory. I would really enjoy having my students do biopoems because this would really help them show me who they are or get to know all of my students better. Another way of teaching writing that I believe is very beneficial is wordless books. Last semester during my reading/language arts class, my mentor teacher did this with the book "Tuesday". Students had to tell their opinion of what was going on. Having the students do this independently can be enjoyable for them.
In response to Janna C.: When you mentioned students getting out their feelings by writing, I thought this was great. The school counselor is newer and is getting to know the students by their feelings. They draw a lot of pictures of their feelings. Last week a little boy drew something that look somewhat like a person grabbing a dogs tail. In reality he was showing that a moment that he has gone through that has been embarrassing has been when he was receiving a spanking. I think after he had to share the picture, he felt that getting in trouble to get a spanking was not worth the embarrassment. This activity could be successful by having the students write in journals about their feelings.
Chapter 11 began by talking about the 5-stages of the writing process: prewriting, drafting, Revising, Editing, and publishing. With two children in school three years apart, it is amazing to see how they each handle the writing process. I was amazed at the examples on pg. 284 of the student’s drawings and realized during my substituting how I have seen all of these stages.
I liked how Mr. West worked to figure out why his student didn’t want to write. I hope to be this effective of a teacher some day. Finding out the reason children don’t like to write or read and solving it so children find fun in what they are doing is what teaching is all about.
Once again, assessments are brought into the picture. I don’t necessarily look at this issue differently, but I do like how rubrics are involved. Growing up I do not remember ever having seen a rubric let alone being graded from one, not even my earlier days in college. I truly believe these are great teaching tools and should be used if given the chance or need.
I noticed that many of the graphic organizers shown in the book are ones that I already use, either in my tutoring class or have planned on using in my Formal lesson plans. In the back of the chapter are many activities from expository frames to writing acrostic poems and cinquain poems to Biopoems. Last semester I was introduced to all of these in my English mentoring class. The students had a great time creating these and I had fun helping them. These are definitely something I am going to use in my classroom.
In response to Loriamaro….. I really agree with your statement about students getting their work published. Both of my nieces have had some type of book published. One niece had a story in a book with a bunch of other that she wrote about my son and my other niece just had a story published. The problem I saw with this though was both schools where this happened were big schools. What happens to the ‘little’ school where they have just as fluent and bright students? My kids felt VERY left out for not having anything ‘published’. There are good and bad sides too all of this.
Writing is an important skill for many aspects of life. Children first use writing skills in school and then later in life when they fill out job applications, write letters, or write resumes. Chapter eleven was all about writing. I really enjoyed reading about characteristics of skills and unskilled writers. This is one area my tutoring students struggle in and I could use some new strategies! My students seem enthusiastic about writing but then they only write 1-2 sentences and claim they have written a story. This chapter provided many activities to help with the writing process. I have used the wordless picture books in my internship and my students really seemed to enjoy them. I’ve also used graphic organizers to help students scaffold into writing their own stories. Brooke, I think you are write about children losing their writing skills or struggling with writing because of all the technology that surrounds our children today. I’ve noticed that children use the “texting language” when they are writing. There were some great activities listed in the chapter that can help us to encourage more writing!
Chapter 11 talks about the writing process and the reading-writing connection. I think this chapter is extremely important for future teachers to read because reading is focused on in schools, but sometimes writing isn’t stressed as much as it should be. I love the examples of the writing stages on page 283 of our textbook. I have seen stages similar to this in my art for elementary teachers course. Here the example drawings showed how children progress from drawing a human body with only one large circle as the head (with arms and legs coming out of the head) to a drawing of a person with a separate head and torso (with the arms and legs in the correct location). I also found the “Evaluating Writing Instruction” section on page 292 to be helpful. Teachers need to continually evaluate their strategies and how they teach to see if it is helping the students to meet objectives and standards. When a teacher evaluates their writing instruction, they should look at the classroom environment, their instruction, the class schedule, the teacher as a professional role model, and professional growth. Along with the teacher evaluation, there were many great ideas for teachers to use in their classroom to teach writing and the writing process. I personally think that graphic organizers are great tools to use with students when writing. They are fabulous for teaching students how to organize and plan their writing. In my tutoring group, my students have enjoyed using graphic organizers because it helps with their comprehension and they have taken note of this.
In response to Kacey F… My tutoring students have also used “texting language” when writing. I explained to them why this is not an appropriate form of formal writing, but they do not seem to understand why they cannot just shorthand their writing by using the “texting language.” One student wrote “bcuse” (because) on the Smartboard during an activity after we had the conversation on not using “texting language” during class. I asked the student to re-write it using the correct spelling. This student (who is a fifth grader) honestly said, “I learned it this way on Facebook and I don’t remember how to spell it the other way.” Writing definitely needs to continue to be a focus during school.
This chapter focuses on writing. I found some things familiar, but within the classrooms, I do not see much writing.Most students do not enjoy writing because they do not know what to write about. If the teacher gives the topic that doesn't really help if the student has no knowledge about that topic. My reasoning for students not enjoying writing was because they did not have good imaginations or were unable to get a visual picture about what to write about. I really enjoyed the interventions and examples that were in the book. At our school they use a four square to use in writing and from that make a final copy. I think that the example of the storyboard would be far more useful than that of a four square.
In response to Kacey F. At the school where I work they use a four square and only put down 1 sentence per square for a 5 sentence story. It would be fine for kindergarten or 1st grade, but this is second grade. The teachers do not demand or expect anymore than that because the students struggle with writing so much. It seems as though they try to muddle through it.
Chapter eleven focused on writing. A lot of daily tasks require the use of at least some writing skills. I really enjoyed the scenario with Mr. West. He gave Trevor a great opportunity not only to succeed at his writing but also to be proud of it and teach something to the other students in the class. We talked the other day in class about how some students can be excellent readers but not be so good at writing. I had never thought about this until we talked about but the book talks about it as well. I just assumed that every student who was a good reader would be a good writer but it may be that the student struggles with one or the other. Another interesting thing I hadn’t really thought about was the writing stages. When I was in high school I was an aide in the Kindergarten class. There was one little boy who couldn’t write his name but instead used letter strings. He’d write the letter string almost exactly the same each time but it was not at all like his name. Eventually he learned how to spell his name and was also using invented spelling by the end of the year. I loved the activities towards the end of the chapter. They had so many wonderful writing activities that I can see my tutor group loving! They seem fairly simple and wouldn’t take an awful lot of time.
In response to Royce: I agree with your statement about children not knowing what to write about. Even in my tutor group if I ask them to write a story or something they are always saying there's nothing to write about. It's really sad to see so many children with little to no imagination.
The ability to write and write well is one of the things I think is the most important for students to be able to do. I have been extremely surprised at how little focus I have seen placed on writing in the classrooms I have been in the past few years. I remember when I was in school we had daily writing time. We practiced writing using capital letters, cursive, correct positioning of letters, and correct punctuation. I personally can't help but think that if we would put little more emphasis back on writing, students' reading would improve also. They do go hand-in-hand.
I liked reading about the stages of emergent writing. It is always interesting to see how students' abilities to create letters progresses with age and developing writing skills. When I was looking at the figure 11.7 I was amazed at how many students I have worked with exhibit many more of the unskilled characteristics. I just think we need to spend more time teaching our students to write well. Most of them simply do not want to do writing activities because then they actually have to sit still and focus and complete something. That in itself seems to have become a difficulty for most students these days. Every subject is important, but I fully intend to incorporate as much reading and definitely writing into all my lessons as possible.
Shaina, It is amazing how many times students have to use writing skills during the course of a day. And I also like you, would have initially thought that if a child was a good reader then they would surely also write well. But, not necessarily true. It is great that we can find activities to use with our students in the text!
I'm not sure if anyone noticed the single phrase on page 278, but that phrase completely wraps up the entire chapter, "Only the educated are free"-Epictetus. This may give teachers chills because a student's writing depends on how well he or she is trained. It is our duty to help students feel free when they write and I believe the only way students can feel free is to have the NECESSARY, basic tools of writing. My high school English Composition teacher gave us the tool "The Introduction that never fails" that has helped me write numerous papers and find ideas if I am stumped. She taught us how to proofread and tried to give us any and all tools that would help our writing styles. This chapter was one of my favorites and instilled an appreciation for writing that I hope to give to my students.
I agree that handwriting needs to have more focus in schools. You rarely see students who can write comfortably in cursive, in fact it catches your attention if a student happens to write in cursive. My fifth grade teacher wrote EVERYTHING in cursive! We became so accustomed to it that it seemed natural and because she modeled it, we were able to write it easily! I hope there are some classrooms that still embrace cursive like this, but I have yet to see it.
In response to Shylah, I have also seen a decrease in writing at the elementary level over the last few years, and it is a shame for these students. With my own three children, they have so many fewer writing assignments than I did at their age, and things like basic structure and phrasing don't come as easily for them. As far as cursive, forget it! My 8th grader leaned it, my 6th and 4th graders never learned a day of it. Thanks for sharing! Julie
Our power point on Guided Writing we saw this week complements this chapter perfectly. It inspired me to keep writing in the forefront in my future classroom, and to add a few more creative writing activities to try with my tutoring group. The prewriting web is a fabulous suggestion. I think I will work that into my guided reading next week. I enjoyed seeing the graphic examples of the writing stages on ages 283-284. They reminded me of the drawing stages we learned about in our Elementary Art class. The chart comparing English and Spanish speaking writing development is so timely for us as our ELL population continues to grow across Kansas. Interactive writing is another technique introduced here that I would like to try.
This chapter was about the connection between reading and writing. The author points out that there is a cognitive developmental process that takes place before, during, and after both reading and writing. That is why we include Bloom’s questions in our lesson plans and why I include a “share time” for when I have my students write in their journals, which I do frequently. There are five components of writing. These are graphic, semantic, graphophonic, syntactic, and pragmatic. There are seven stages of emergent writing according to Zecker; drawing, scribbling, letter-like forms, letter strings, copying, invented spelling, and conventional spelling. This chapter offers activities for each of these stages. On page 288 there is a table to show the characteristics of skilled and unskilled writers. I was excited to see the activities that included poems because I am introducing poems to my tutoring group this week and these activities would be help me to tie writing into the poetry and give examples. I have used response journals with my students a few times this semester and they really enjoy writing their ideas and sharing them with the group. I enjoy writing and reading so anytime I can incorporate the two together I get excited. I think my passion for it rubs off on the kids, or at least they make me feel like it does! I enjoyed this chapter.
Julie L. I also found the examples of writing stages interesting as well. They are similar to the stages of drawing I was shown in my art methods class. I think it is so interesting how these things all tie into each other.
Larissa, I was never introduced to proofreading while I was in school but I am seeing it introduced as early as first grade now. I think that is great because if you know how what mistakes to look for in writing and how to fix them then it will make you a better writer. I would love to know that "Inrtoduction that never fails" tool your teacher gave you!
Writing, I enjoy reading and looking at the different stages of writing with my nephew and nieces. It is so interesting how they improve with their writing skills and spelling. The breakdown of this chapter is about stages of writing for English, bilingual and Spanish which I found very interesting to read. Also it discussed the writing process which I worked on a little bit with my tutoring students which they enjoyed doing. I also remember this activity in junior high for the school newspaper. In the podcast this week Mrs. Stoppel talked about red being a bad color, when it came to editing that is what our teacher used and it was red all over for the editing. It was interesting in the reading material about the different ways to assess the students with the rubrics and surveys. This past week I substituted for 3rd grade and they were working on daily oral language and the table on page 297 11.13 broke back what the students were using for the different rules they were using such as 1 and 2 rules. But they did mention they will be writing stories soon. The technology tools that were being used, today students are using those more such as e-mail and connecting to the internet with different authors. It is so interesting to see them use technology.
In response to Kim D. that is a great idea of having your students "share time". I remember in 4th grade we had our own journals we would write in. It was a great tool for us.
I really enjoyed reading this chapter. I felt that it added to what Mrs. Stoppel had been speaking about all week. It was great to be able to relate what I was reading to the student sample work that Mrs. Stoppel had shown us in class. The components of writing are graphic, semantic, graphophonic, and syntactic. All of them play a major role in the writing experience. Pages 283 and 284 gave some great examples of the writing stages. I enjoyed reading the writing stages of bilingual spanish-english especially since two of the students in my tutoring group are ESL students. The very first suggestion on page 286 was to provide extended periods of time to write and allow a personal choice of topic and genre. I have really started implementing this into my lessons because the ESL students seem to be uninterested in writing and enjoy choosing their own writing topics. This chapter gave great examples of activities to include for writing too which was good for me to see how writing can really add to the reading experience. Does anyone have any writing activities that have worked well with their students?
In response to Larissa- The quote that you pointed out from this chapter is amazing! Such a great quote especially for this class as we are all so close to becoming professional educators and are currently working with our tutoring students. I liked that you were able to relate this chapter to your high school composition experience as well. That is wonderful that you were introduced to such an effective writing tool that has still helped you in your college years and for years to come. It is tools and techniques like that that we as educators need to instill into our future students. This chapter gave a vast amount of ideas and activities that can really help a child love the writing experience.
Chapter 11 dealt with writing. Writing in my opinion is crucial part of the big 5. There are several benefits from writing, one can help assess comprehension and phonics. I tutor Kindergartners and after their read aloud or the guided reading, I have the students draw a picture about the story and then write a sentence to coincide with the picture drawn. I can then assess their comprehension and phonics. I have the students use their imaginative spelling in order to assess if they are hearing all of the key sounds.
Writing in our school district is crucial especially for the ESOL students. The teachers learned a few years ago that in order for the ESOL students to get released they had to look at a picture and write a paper to go along with it. Many of the students were still considered ESOL based solely on the lack of writing skills. Therefore our school district has made this an importance factor in their teaching.
I loved all of the graphic organizers and I can see where they will be a beneficial tool for the future.
In response to Alisha G, I agree that it is important not to use red when grading. It can cause some self confidence issues. I also liked the idea of using rubrics. I have seen several teachers assess their students based on the rubrics. I enjoy looking at my own kids development with their pictures.
This chapter focused on writing. The text provided many activities for each of the stages in the process of writing. Students of all ages and levels need to be exposed to writing. They also need to know that there is a huge connection between reading and writing. There are skilled and unskilled writers and the book talked about each of them. Writing can be enjoyable if the student knows what is expected of them in their writing pieces. Rubrics are a great tool to help the student understand what they are to include in their writing. Essays or other writings need to be graded on each individual component and needs to be clear of favoritism or bias. The activities presented in this chapter will be very helpful for my internship classes as well as my tutoring class. Writing is something we use in our everday life. It is important to have great writing skills as you become older in life as well. We have to write on applications for jobs, resumes, scholarship applications and many other things. Writing happens on a daily basis. Graphic organizers and outlines are great tools to help with the writing process. Many students think that they hate writing, but if they are instructed correctly and in depth, they will feel better about their topic and how they will write their paper. The topic chosen is another attribute of a great paper. If the student knows a lot about the topic, they will have a better written paper than one on a topic they know nothing about.
In response to Jen Hittle – I do the same with my tutoring students in first grade. They really enjoy drawing a picture and then writing a sentence about the story we just read. They really like when they get to take turns and share their drawing and read their sentences out loud to their peers. I agree that graphic organizers are going to continue to be great tools to help with the writing process.
In response to Ashley R. I agree that writing in is very important for students even as young as Kindergarten. Children begin writing as early as preschool when they are learning the alphabet and to write their names. Writing has never been a strong subject for me, but as I got older in school the easier it became for me. With all of the graphic organizers that are available, I wish that my teachers had used them or introduced me to them when I was in school.
Chapter 11 is about writing. I found this chapter to be very informative and the ideas that the chapter gives for teaching writing and the activities for the classroom, I cannot wait to use some of them. This year, I have been editing a lot of papers that my 8th grade daughter has been writing in school. She has been writing in her English class all year and using different methods to do so. I think that she has written each type of paper. I have watched her grow as a young writer and have noticed that her attitude towards writing is changing.
Chapter 11 focuses on writing. I cannot remember learning to write in school. I really enjoyed this week’s class where we focused on teaching writing. I think it is so important for students to want to write. I also really liked how Ms. Stoppel told us to always give positive comments to the students first. Also not to hurt the confidence of the writer. I also agree that the students should not have to use perfect grammar and punctuation. Those are the factors that can tear down a student’s confidence. Students need to be motivated to use his/her creativity. The book describes the seven stages of writing: drawing, scribbling, letter-like forms, letter strings, copying, invented spelling, and conventional spelling. I really liked how the book gave an example of each of the writing stages. This provides a great visual to know what to look for in the future. Another part of the chapter I really liked was the description of the writing process: prewriting, drafting, revising, editing, and publishing. I think back to our Guided Writing lesson in class. I really like the tabled groups and each group knows what step they are a part of. They can start right away every time and not have to wait for instruction. The students can do it on their own. There were a lot of great ideas for activities once again in this chapter. I really liked the idea of sequels. I think the students would love to put their own spin on some of their favorite stories. For the older grades I thought it could be great if they have to change the point of view in a story they know. So instead of Goldilocks’ view they would write it from Baby Bear’s view. This could be incorporated with teaching the 3 points of view in stories.
I also really love Graphic Organizers for writing. I think the students are able to lay out their information in a clear and structured format. The students are also able to then take the information on their organizer and place them in their story or essay. Once they have used a piece from the graphic organizer the student can cross out that piece of information knowing they have used it.
I have rarely seen guided reading in classrooms as well! I actually did not know much about guided writing until I saw Professor Stoppel's AdobeConnect and read Chapter 11. I love the appendix and all of the ideas the book gives us!
I really appreciated all the information that this chapter included, mostly because I could relate to the student at the beginning of the chapter. I used to be terrified of having to write papers, they were definitely my enemy, however, I now have a much better outlook on the writing process. I cannot remember when I was introduced to graphic organizers, but I have never met a better friend to the writing process. I really enjoyed the scenario at the beginning of this chapter, mostly because I could definitely relate to that child from past experiences. I can only hope that I am as prepared as that teacher was to help guide my students in the right direction to create a love for writing as well. I know I won’t be afraid to share the usefulness of the graphic organizers though!
Another important, short paragraph that really caught my attention during reading this chapter was titled Differences Between Reading and Writing. After I thought about it some, I never have really connected the reading and writing other than when trying to find information to support my paper’s information. I have recognized them both as different skill sets for awhile, and this paragraph helped me see clearly why. Reading requires students to have the skill to understand others while writing are challenged to use their words to create a text that their audience will understand. Also, instead of decoding the words to help them understand a text’s information, the students must learn to encode words so that their readers can understand what they are trying to say. It was really important to me that I was able to read the specific differences between these two skill sets.
The assessments were also an important section of this chapter. I love, love, love having a rubric presented to me for any paper I write anymore. When I don’t have a rubric, I mostly feel lost about where to go with my paper, so I was thrilled to see this type of assessment talked about in this chapter. I think it is important to let students know what you expect of them, and a rubric would be a great way to do so!
In response to Jen Hittle, the activity you shared from your tutoring sessions sounds really great. You can get so much understanding of the students’ skills just by that one activity, definite plus. I also think it is great that you are able to recognize the full potential of each activity you have the students do. Instead of using your activity to simple gauge the students’ comprehension, you are taking the opportunity to assess their phonemic awareness skills.
That is great that your school district has taken such interest and placed writing so high for ESOL students. I found it interesting to see that the text states that we should encourage ESOL students to use both languages while writing to help the instructors understand their student’s development, but it makes perfect since.
Writing is such an important skill when it comes to reading fluency. The more a student understands about writing conventions, such as combining letters and phonograms to create words to convey information, the better that student will read, and vice versa.
In the text I found many important concepts, especially I hadn’t thought of before. The book suggests conducting interest surveys before the writing process in order to determine what the child is most comfortable researching and writing about. Some students may prefer expository writing to narrative writing. By finding out this basic information, students are better able to become skilled writers.
The section describing the different stages of emergent writers reminded me of the stages of drawing and illustration. The writing stages appear to correspond closely with the illustrative stages. For example, from 2 to 4 years of age, children “scribble” (make marks of different kinds). According to our text, this scribbling is also part of the drawing stage, where children learn that marks on a page can represent stories and real elements. From ages 4 to 8, the drawings become more specific and recognizable. This would also be the ages when letters and invented spelling occur, as well as copying from environmental print. Realism, the artistic stage from ages 8 to 12, is correlated with the conventional spelling stage.
The intervention strategy I thought was most useful for expository writing was the Expository Frames. This type of organization of thoughts and facts is a very rudimentary form of the reference notecards used in much later research papers. Students at a young age are already encouraged to organize factual information.
In response to Shylah C. I have also noticed how many students are reluctant writers. It seems the only writing many are exposed to consists of worksheets. No wonder they hate to write! When students are given a chance to write about something they are interested in, with sufficient time to write, I think their writing will improve.
Chapter 11 Writing This Chapter really reiterated what Professor spoke about on Thursday and in the PowerPoint presentation. I was amazed how similar reading and writing goals are but the main purpose is to communicate meaning. Even though reading and writing share similar goals, the book also pointed out that there were differences too. The first difference was that the readers must be able to comprehend what others have written. Writers have to know their audience and choose words that the audience will understand. Secondly, the readers need to decode words while writers are challenged to encode words automatically. I have loved seeing my children’s reading develop over the years! I have saved so many cute, adorable and funny stories! I love, love, love graphic organizers so I like the idea of using them to help students collect ideas and thoughts for their writing. Lastly, I loved the idea of having a proofreading check list like the one on page 292. It would be a great way for students to look for specific corrections in their writing. If you just tell the students to check their work, they may not know or remember to check everything. If you give your students a checklist then the process will be much more efficient.
I agree with you that it's important to find out why children hate to write. Once we find the source we can hopefully make writing enjoyable for our students. Graphic organizers are very important. I think before writing any big paper, it's important to fill out a graphic organizer because it organizers our thoughts (obviously).
Chapter 11 was all about writing. It is so important for children to learn to write and to learn to enjoy writing because writing is a skill they will use the rest of their lives. A lot of students get to college and barely get by because of all the papers that they are required to write, and they never came to enjoy writing. I had a roomate that absolutely hated to write papers. She would put it off until the very last minute and then end up staying up all night just writing a one page paper because it was that hard for her. Once she wrote her papers they were really great papers, but the actual thought of writing the paper was difficult for her. I've always enjoyed writing and I seem to be able to easily write my papers. Writing needs to start at a very early age and it needs to be made fun for students, not as a discipline. I took a class once that made me realize that so many teachers make children write for their discipline, and then they wonder why children hate to write? We need to make them love writing, and make writing enjoyable to them. Once our children are out of college they will still need to know how to write papers for job applications, or anything that may have to do with their jobs. Writing is something we use everyday.
Chapter 11 puts a special emphasis on writing. Learning to write is very important because children must learn to express themselves verbally and but also in print. Writing should be made fun and not used as some disciplinary tactic. I believe it writing is taught as an essential skill, then children will love it – just think about it…children pass notes in class all the time. There is no difference except the prompt has changed and possibly the syntax. I remember when I was in the fourth grade; writing was an assessed area for the state. I no longer see writing being stressed but from the looks of some of the papers I grade – it needs more time in the spot light. Language Arts as a whole is the foundation for any other subject. In completing assignments in any subject from Math to Chemistry; students will have to write. So we (Educators) mine as well teach the skill. I have no questions regarding this chapter – pretty good chapter.
Chapter eleven is about writing. The book points out the differences and similarities between writing and reading. Writing is a very important skill to learn because students need to know how to put their thoughts into words and write them down in an organized and effective way. I really liked the scenario at the beginning of the chapter because it reminds me that there is a reason a student does not like something (usually a negative experience or lack of knowledge in that area) and that if a teacher puts in the time and effort, they should be able to find the key and help students learn to at least like and better themselves in writing (or whatever area they are working on). I liked how the book showed the different stages of writing. I definitely see the difference in my son’s drawings when he is trying to “write” out a story using pictures. There were also tons of ideas for writing activities at the end of the chapter. I used one similar to the wordless books activity but instead I used comic strips. The students thought it was neat to be able to write a few sentences to make the comic strip into their own story. They were very interesting stories to listen to as well. Students were able to use their imaginations and put their thoughts down onto paper so it was a great practice for their writing skills.
In response to Irv...I agree that educators need to spend time on writing. This skill is going to be used throughout their entire lives (not just in school) from work to play. Without the knowledge of how to put their thoughts into words in an organized way, students will fail to get others to understand them!
Chapter eleven focused on writing. Writing is important for students. When they are out of school and they fill in job applications, send cards, write letters or e-mails, or write resumes for a job they will need to have well-developed writing skills.
ReplyDeleteI really liked that the textbook provided activities for students at all stages in the writing process. It is important to remember that even our preschool and kindergarten students need to be exposed to writing and the relationship between reading and writing. When we can show children this relationship at a young age we are able to develop readers and writers.
The textbook also gives characteristics of skilled and unskilled writers. In all honesty, I have never really thought about the thought processes that occur for individuals who are unskilled writers or who simply do not enjoy writing. I have always had a love for reading and writing. When I am able to read some of the characteristics of unskilled writers I feel that I have a better understanding for the areas that I should focus in on when developing strategies and when discussing writing with the students.
When I was in high school I took an English course and we wrote many essays. It was a difficult class for many students because our teacher did not give us a rubric for any of our essays. Looking back, I did not think about the need for a rubric at that time. Now, I know that rubrics are essential when completing the writing task. The writing process needs to be graded individually for each component. Essays can also be subjected to bias or favoritism. It is important o have a rubric set in place so that teachers can show exactly how they came up with the grade that was given.
There were many activities that I thought would be helpful in this chapter. One that I felt I could use with my internship was using wordless picture books to help guide student writing. I think that using a wordless picture book that has a topic that interests the student could be a great way to scaffold students into writing stories and papers on their own.
In response to Jaclyn:
ReplyDeleteI think that it is very important for rubrics to be included in all writing assignments as well. There are so many different parts of writing that you should grade all areas, and not just one. This is not only important for the student, but for the teacher as well. This gives the student on outline of exactly what they should be writing about and what they must include.
Writing is the topic of chapter 11. Writing is a very important area for children to learn. It is something that we use every day. Knowing how to write well can earn you awards and scholarships in the future. When teaching students to write, you should make sure to emphasis the writing process. After children have learned this process, writing can become easier and more enjoyable.
ReplyDeleteThe scenario that is presented at the beginning of the chapter describes the dilemma that most children have. "I hate writing!" Well, there has to be a reason. I like that the teacher found the reason and then gave the student a tool to help them write and to understand how to write. Graphic organizers a great tools for students, not only during the reading process, but also for writing. You are able to see your ideas lined out in front of you.
Writing was something that wasn't easy for me at first. Our teacher was not fond of graphic organizers, but my tutor was. Now, I love to write. I love to write, not just for fun, but for school too. I like finding the evidence for a topic and explaining it using different factors. I can make boring information into something that people will want to read.
After reading this chapter, I know the characteristics of a skilled writer and an unskilled writer. There are many differences, but if you can get your student to change one of those characteristics to a skilled writer, they are more likely to change the others on their own.
Brandy, I am so glad that you had a tutor who helped you develop a joy for writing! Graphic are a great way for students to sort their thoughts which will lead to a much less stressful environment when they begin to write. I enjoy writing. I was very blessed to have teachers in the early elementary grades who encouraged writing in non-threatening situations. I remember writing poetry, fiction stories, and nonfiction stories throughout elementary school and it really developed my love for writing.
ReplyDeleteIn response to Jaclyn,
ReplyDeleteI love wordless picture books. The stories that the kids can come up with are amazing. I agree that it would be a great activity in our tutoring. I had a writing lesson in one of my sessions and they only wrote down facts in their writing, they were to use the graphic organizer to write a story. I think I will introduce a wordless book as one of the lessons and see how that works.
My daughter loves to write. She is in 9th grade and she and a few friends get together on Saturdays and have a writing club. They share ideas about what they have going on and then read whatever they have written during their time together.
Being able to write is a much need skill. Even more so in this generation than my own generation with all the technology that this generation of children has access to. I have seen in just this semester in my 6th grade internship that the students struggle with writing because they are so tech savvy that they are not using their skills that they have learned for writing. I appreciate the activities that is listed has both of non tech and using technology. The Response Journals is something that I really like and I actually saw in a 6th grade reading classroom. Being able to writing in journals or even blogging is a great skill and I think that all students should be introduced to and continue to build upon those skills within their writing.
ReplyDeleteChristine D, I think that is really neat that your daughter and her friends have a writing club. When I was her age, I was a member of our Bookworms; it was a reading and writing club. We met once a week at our museum and our sponsor would have a subject somewhere within the museum that we would take 30 minutes and write a response on the given subject. Then for the rest of the time of our meeting is when we would talk and the books that we were reading, it was kind of like Oprah's book club. Our sponsor had books that we choose from to read. Before our next meeting we were to take our response from our subject and build upon that and have a one to two page journal entry on that subject that was given.
I loved the examples on page 284. I’m always amazed when I see how the stages reflect my own children. I remember looking at their drawings and thinking, “wow, I hope they start making their heads smaller someday.” As they get older, they do learn about proportions and such. Just like writing, they start with scribbling, sound spelling and soon, they have great sentences.
ReplyDeleteI hope to be as astute as Mr. West in discovering how to effectively reach my students. I watch my mentor teachers and they are under so much pressure to fit everything in during their time slot, that often times they don’t “see” the students. I liked that we gave our tutoring students an Interest Attitude Survey in the beginning, because I learned a lot about my students from what they wrote. As I gather books and materials for my future classroom (yes, I really do have a large tub of items) I have a folder of things that I would like to incorporate in my classroom and one of those items is having the students take an Interest Attitude Survey at the beginning of the school year. I think this is a great way to “see” our students and hopefully get a glimpse of how they learn.
The activities at the back of the chapter are great. I like the different types of poems to use in writing. They are fun and short, so I believe the students will have fun with them. The activity using Email is a great idea. Students are so in touch with technology that they probably won’t even realize they are doing something educational.
Chapter 11 describes the importance and the connection of writing and reading. Within this chapter, I really enjoyed the discussion of how to do the interactive writing. I liked the idea of building the student's confidence and gradually letting the students tackle the writing steps slowly. The teacher assists the students and then as the students are capable of doing the task then the assistance is gradually removed. I worked within a writing lab for a year and came across several students who really struggled with writing. I truly believe that if students are led to find something that they are interested in then that will encourage them to write. The classroom I worked in used six trait writing which taught the students to look at their ideas, voice, conventions, word choice, sentence fluency and organization. I liked the expository frames located within the activity section. I feel that these would be extremely helpful in teaching the students different structures.
ReplyDeleteIn response to Christine D.. I also enjoyed the poem section. I have seen Haiku s but have never seen the Cinquain poems. I think students would enjoy writing these and they are simple enough for the students to play with and really come up with something creative.
ReplyDeleteChapter 11 talks about writing and I like the very beginning that talks about writing being much easier for children than reading. I guess I never really thought about that. I thought the activites for appropriate stages of writing were helpful and could really come in handy for early elementary students. The second part of this chapter that I found helpful was the section talking about writing for Spanish-English writers. Since I have an ELL student in my tutoring sessions, I really liked the ideas to connect reading and writing. I have actually done one of the ideas, but I'll be sure to incorporate the others into some lessons. The next section of the chapter that caught my eye was the assessment section. I know we have been introduced to some writing assessments, but this gave me an opportunity to actually look into them, especially rubrics which i still get confused on at times. I really like attitude surveys that the book talked about because I think it's a great way to assess students on something other than content of the writing.
ReplyDeleteIn Response to Janet,
ReplyDeleteI completely agree with you that if students find something that interests them, they will more inclined to want to write and actually enjoy writing. I also agree that we as teachers need to build our students' confidence so they will become more comfortable writing and even grow to love writing.
When I am in a classroom this is where I see that students struggle the most. It is also an area that I don’t see much instruction happening. I am not sure if this is due to the fact that this is not a tested subject area. I have been very interested to see how writing instruction is implemented into the classroom such as the writing workshop or guided writing. I have been implementing writing to my tutoring sessions because I think it will aid in their reading and phonics skills. Many times I see students writing in journals but I have rarely see teachers guiding their students one on one or in small groups. I am glad that this chapter has given me some concrete ideas to use in the classroom to promote and use for writing instruction. I love the usage of graphic organizers to organize thoughts and to cut down on plagiarism. “Effective teacher understand that good writing does not just happen because students read and reflect.” Students need to be taught how to thing and organize their thoughts. Reading and discussion books and the usage of wordless books is a great way to talk about the writing process of the authors and how to address an audience with words. These strategies are something that I will be using in my plans and in my own classroom!
ReplyDeleteIn Response to Holly D.
I thought that the assessments were very interesting as well. One of my favorite parts of this book is the assessments in the appendix. What a great resource for new teachers. Did you see the list of books that is also in the back of the book? Check it out!
Chapter 11 talks about Writing. Writing is an area of learning that we will use our whole lives. No matter what type of job you hold in the future, you will have to write at some point. Teaching writing to students is a must in order to help them in the future. When I think about being an educator, I not only want to better my students in their learning career, but I also want to better my students as people as well. I was really interested in the points they made about the similarities and differences between reading and writing. I was more familiar with the similarities rather than the differences. The two big differences between reading and writing are: 1. Readers must be able to comprehend what others have written and the writers are challenged to know their audience. 2. Readers need to decode words, while writers are challenged to encode words. Are students able to identify the similarities between reading and writing? I think it would be easier for them to identify the differences. It is amazing to see how writing has changed throughout the years. There are four components of writing: 1. Graphic-knowledge of how to form the alphabet 2. Semantic-words, made up of letters come to represent objects, actions, and abstract ideas. 3. Graphophonic-letter-sound relationships and 4. Syntactic-being concise and organize ideas. It was neat to read about and visually see the different stages that students go through. I also liked all the suggestions and stages for Bilingual Spanish-English Writers. Since classrooms are becoming more diverse, it is important to know how to teach ALL students. I was never a comfortable writer during my years of schooling. I would get so nervous about the conventions, and I just liked to write and express my feelings about the topics. I think daily journals are a great way for students to practice writing.
ReplyDeleteIn response to Tara:
ReplyDeleteIt is sad to when teachers do not guide and instruct students during writing. I wish some of my teachers would have paid more attention to me as I was writing. When we would write in our journals the teacher would sit up at the front and work on something at her desk, and now when I look back on it, I think it was just busy work for us. Writing is just as important as reading. Once students know how to read thoroughly, I feel like they should be able to write thoroughly.
Chapter 11 is about writing. It discusses the relationship between reading and writing; pointing out that while they do have many similarities, to be able to read, one must be able to comprehend what others write and to write, one must be able to understand who their audience is and write in a way the audience will understand.
ReplyDeleteI think putting the goals of reading and writing on a poster or visual to display in the classroom would help students write. They could use it as a checklist to go over their writing, or as a guide when stuck during reading.
I can see the components of writing evident in our tutoring sessions. With kindergarten and first grade students we are working on graphic, semantic, and graphophonic knowledge when we do the Phonics Dance and the various activities we plan daily. The upper grades work on semantic and graphophonic when the do the phoneme flash cards and add syntactic knowledge to the two when they do their daily lesson activities. The stages of writing help show how important it is for students to start off with a solid foundation so that they can progress with their writing skills as they go through elementary school, and not struggle with writing because they did not receive good instruction in basic writing skills.
I do not agree with the stages of writers the book shows. I believe that the scribbling stage comes before the drawing stage. If I remember correctly, we learned in art methods that the scribble stage is first. Is anyone in art methods now or does anyone else remember? Before we talked about this in class the other day, I knew it was important to let children draw to express themselves but I did not see this as a form of writing. After Mrs. Stoppel showed us examples of each stage of writing and how teachers come along and write what the picture is of after the students explain it, I realized that my teachers did this when I was growing up, and I still have some of my first writing/drawing projects from school.
I remember doing rough drafts and final drafts of stories and writing assignments in first and second grade but it wasn’t until the end of second and beginning of third grades that we started the writing process of prewriting, drafting, revising, editing, and publishing. While we would dislike having to do all the steps to writing and editing each other’s papers over and over again, publishing a writing or finishing that final draft to hand in always gave a sense of accomplishment and pride that we had finished something. As I grew older I appreciated the rubrics my teachers would hand out when we were given a writing assignment. It made me a more confident writer to know specifically what the teacher wanted in the writing. I do like to free write on my own, but when it is for a class I would rather have very specific instructions about what is to be written.
In response to Janet H.
ReplyDeleteIt is very important to take your time when introducing students to the writing process and finding topics that they are interested in to begin learning to write. One of the rubrics we received at the beginning of the year in middle school was a six trait writing sheet for us to use as a guide as we wrote through out the year. Eventually we had the sheet pretty much memorized.
Writing is important for all students, even students in kindergarten need to be exposed to writing. Not only do students need to be able to express themselve verbally, but they need to be able to put their thoughts and creativness down on paper. There are tons and tons of writing activities for students to do for all ages. I loved writing in school and I still like it today. Graphic organizers and webs are awsome tools and students can greatly benefit from them.
ReplyDeleteIn response to Holly D....
ReplyDeleteI too never really would have thought that writing is much easier for students than reading. There are lots of great activities in the book, and there are endless amount of activities in books and online. I am nervous about writing for ELL students, but the activities suggested by the book give me a good starting point on how I could begin. There are several assessment tools teachers can use to assess student writing. These are very beneficial for teachers to use and rubrics are great for students to know what is expected of them in their writing assignment.
Teaching writing is an important skill that should be taught in conjunction with reading. In order to teach writing effectively it is important that students be given choices on the topic and genre of writing. In addition, ELL students have special needs that should be considered when planning instruction.
ReplyDeleteChapter 11 provides great details on the similarities and differences in the reading and writing processes. I found the section on the stages of emergent writing to be very informative and helpful. I can see these stages in my internship students writing skills. Figure 11.5 on page 286 gives some good examples of ideas to use in the classroom to connect reading and writing, and hopefully I can integrate some of these ideas in my tutoring sessions. I have used several writing exercises thus far in my tutoring but have a better idea of how to integrate reading and writing after reading this chapter. My internship class has reading workshops and the students are currently writing detective stories. They have the option to write about anything they want after they develop a set of characters, a list of clues, and a problem and solution. This is a fun way for them to work on structuring their materials and thoughts before attempting to compile them in a cohesive story.
Response to Tara:
I have also been incorporating writing in my tutoring sessions and I think the students enjoy being able to write about ideas that interest them. It also allows me to assess their writing and comprehension skills depending on the activity. I also agree that the use of graphic organizers can really help students organize their thoughts and get them ready for the writing process.
As I was reading through chapter 11 I kept thinking of Mrs. Stoppel talking about guided writing. This chapter had a lot of information on the writing process and I think that guided writing would fit into this chapter.
ReplyDeleteI really liked the part that talked about having ELLs write in both English and their native language. This is a good idea because they can still write what they need to even if they don’t know the right word in the English language. Plus, it makes these students feel proud and happy that they can write too.
I also liked reading about the stages of emergent writing. You’d be amazed at the story that a child can tell you just through their drawings and/or scribbles. When my brother was younger he liked to draw army men and pirates. He might just draw a pirate ship and if you asked him about his picture, he would tell you a very complicated story about the pirate ship that you wouldn’t have guessed from just looking at the picture.
Writing is also a good activity for students to get their feelings out that they are afraid to tell someone about. Sometimes students feel braver in writing than they do speaking.
I also liked Figure11.7 because it gives you criteria on what skilled and unskilled writers are. That way you can identify the skilled and unskilled writers in your class and have individual goals for their writing.
In response to Tyler G:
ReplyDeleteI agree with you that writing should be taught in conjuncture with reading. These two areas are so important because I've noticed that good readers are also good writers. Same goes for reading.
As teachers we need to be aware of our students writing skills. Including those of ELLs because they are going to have different problems with writing than native English speakers are going to have.
Chapter 11 discussed writing. This is something I believe that should go along with reading. Doing it this way can help the students show their comprehension and express their thoughts and feelings on a piece of literature. Exposing the students to the components, stages, and process of writing at a young age can get them jump-started on being successful writers. The students will get to see the finished project as a published piece and understand how fun writing can be. As a child, I wrote two pieces, one on my grandpa and one on animals near my home, and they were both published in the local newspaper. This was pretty much the highlight of my childhood because I couldn't believe everyone that reads the newspaper would see my articles. A good topic for students to choose would be something they discussed in their interest inventory. I would really enjoy having my students do biopoems because this would really help them show me who they are or get to know all of my students better. Another way of teaching writing that I believe is very beneficial is wordless books. Last semester during my reading/language arts class, my mentor teacher did this with the book "Tuesday". Students had to tell their opinion of what was going on. Having the students do this independently can be enjoyable for them.
ReplyDeleteIn response to Janna C.:
ReplyDeleteWhen you mentioned students getting out their feelings by writing, I thought this was great. The school counselor is newer and is getting to know the students by their feelings. They draw a lot of pictures of their feelings. Last week a little boy drew something that look somewhat like a person grabbing a dogs tail. In reality he was showing that a moment that he has gone through that has been embarrassing has been when he was receiving a spanking. I think after he had to share the picture, he felt that getting in trouble to get a spanking was not worth the embarrassment. This activity could be successful by having the students write in journals about their feelings.
Chapter 11 began by talking about the 5-stages of the writing process: prewriting, drafting, Revising, Editing, and publishing. With two children in school three years apart, it is amazing to see how they each handle the writing process. I was amazed at the examples on pg. 284 of the student’s drawings and realized during my substituting how I have seen all of these stages.
ReplyDeleteI liked how Mr. West worked to figure out why his student didn’t want to write. I hope to be this effective of a teacher some day. Finding out the reason children don’t like to write or read and solving it so children find fun in what they are doing is what teaching is all about.
Once again, assessments are brought into the picture. I don’t necessarily look at this issue differently, but I do like how rubrics are involved. Growing up I do not remember ever having seen a rubric let alone being graded from one, not even my earlier days in college. I truly believe these are great teaching tools and should be used if given the chance or need.
I noticed that many of the graphic organizers shown in the book are ones that I already use, either in my tutoring class or have planned on using in my Formal lesson plans. In the back of the chapter are many activities from expository frames to writing acrostic poems and cinquain poems to Biopoems. Last semester I was introduced to all of these in my English mentoring class. The students had a great time creating these and I had fun helping them. These are definitely something I am going to use in my classroom.
In response to Loriamaro…..
ReplyDeleteI really agree with your statement about students getting their work published. Both of my nieces have had some type of book published. One niece had a story in a book with a bunch of other that she wrote about my son and my other niece just had a story published. The problem I saw with this though was both schools where this happened were big schools. What happens to the ‘little’ school where they have just as fluent and bright students? My kids felt VERY left out for not having anything ‘published’. There are good and bad sides too all of this.
Writing is an important skill for many aspects of life. Children first use writing skills in school and then later in life when they fill out job applications, write letters, or write resumes. Chapter eleven was all about writing. I really enjoyed reading about characteristics of skills and unskilled writers. This is one area my tutoring students struggle in and I could use some new strategies! My students seem enthusiastic about writing but then they only write 1-2 sentences and claim they have written a story. This chapter provided many activities to help with the writing process. I have used the wordless picture books in my internship and my students really seemed to enjoy them. I’ve also used graphic organizers to help students scaffold into writing their own stories.
ReplyDeleteBrooke, I think you are write about children losing their writing skills or struggling with writing because of all the technology that surrounds our children today. I’ve noticed that children use the “texting language” when they are writing. There were some great activities listed in the chapter that can help us to encourage more writing!
Chapter 11 talks about the writing process and the reading-writing connection. I think this chapter is extremely important for future teachers to read because reading is focused on in schools, but sometimes writing isn’t stressed as much as it should be. I love the examples of the writing stages on page 283 of our textbook. I have seen stages similar to this in my art for elementary teachers course. Here the example drawings showed how children progress from drawing a human body with only one large circle as the head (with arms and legs coming out of the head) to a drawing of a person with a separate head and torso (with the arms and legs in the correct location). I also found the “Evaluating Writing Instruction” section on page 292 to be helpful. Teachers need to continually evaluate their strategies and how they teach to see if it is helping the students to meet objectives and standards. When a teacher evaluates their writing instruction, they should look at the classroom environment, their instruction, the class schedule, the teacher as a professional role model, and professional growth. Along with the teacher evaluation, there were many great ideas for teachers to use in their classroom to teach writing and the writing process. I personally think that graphic organizers are great tools to use with students when writing. They are fabulous for teaching students how to organize and plan their writing. In my tutoring group, my students have enjoyed using graphic organizers because it helps with their comprehension and they have taken note of this.
ReplyDeleteIn response to Kacey F…
ReplyDeleteMy tutoring students have also used “texting language” when writing. I explained to them why this is not an appropriate form of formal writing, but they do not seem to understand why they cannot just shorthand their writing by using the “texting language.” One student wrote “bcuse” (because) on the Smartboard during an activity after we had the conversation on not using “texting language” during class. I asked the student to re-write it using the correct spelling. This student (who is a fifth grader) honestly said, “I learned it this way on Facebook and I don’t remember how to spell it the other way.” Writing definitely needs to continue to be a focus during school.
This chapter focuses on writing. I found some things familiar, but within the classrooms, I do not see much writing.Most students do not enjoy writing because they do not know what to write about. If the teacher gives the topic that doesn't really help if the student has no knowledge about that topic. My reasoning for students not enjoying writing was because they did not have good imaginations or were unable to get a visual picture about what to write about. I really enjoyed the interventions and examples that were in the book. At our school they use a four square to use in writing and from that make a final copy. I think that the example of the storyboard would be far more useful than that of a four square.
ReplyDeleteIn response to Kacey F.
ReplyDeleteAt the school where I work they use a four square and only put down 1 sentence per square for a 5 sentence story. It would be fine for kindergarten or 1st grade, but this is second grade. The teachers do not demand or expect anymore than that because the students struggle with writing so much. It seems as though they try to muddle through it.
Chapter eleven focused on writing. A lot of daily tasks require the use of at least some writing skills. I really enjoyed the scenario with Mr. West. He gave Trevor a great opportunity not only to succeed at his writing but also to be proud of it and teach something to the other students in the class.
ReplyDeleteWe talked the other day in class about how some students can be excellent readers but not be so good at writing. I had never thought about this until we talked about but the book talks about it as well. I just assumed that every student who was a good reader would be a good writer but it may be that the student struggles with one or the other.
Another interesting thing I hadn’t really thought about was the writing stages. When I was in high school I was an aide in the Kindergarten class. There was one little boy who couldn’t write his name but instead used letter strings. He’d write the letter string almost exactly the same each time but it was not at all like his name. Eventually he learned how to spell his name and was also using invented spelling by the end of the year.
I loved the activities towards the end of the chapter. They had so many wonderful writing activities that I can see my tutor group loving! They seem fairly simple and wouldn’t take an awful lot of time.
In response to Royce:
ReplyDeleteI agree with your statement about children not knowing what to write about. Even in my tutor group if I ask them to write a story or something they are always saying there's nothing to write about. It's really sad to see so many children with little to no imagination.
The ability to write and write well is one of the things I think is the most important for students to be able to do. I have been extremely surprised at how little focus I have seen placed on writing in the classrooms I have been in the past few years. I remember when I was in school we had daily writing time. We practiced writing using capital letters, cursive, correct positioning of letters, and correct punctuation. I personally can't help but think that if we would put little more emphasis back on writing, students' reading would improve also. They do go hand-in-hand.
ReplyDeleteI liked reading about the stages of emergent writing. It is always interesting to see how students' abilities to create letters progresses with age and developing writing skills. When I was looking at the figure 11.7 I was amazed at how many students I have worked with exhibit many more of the unskilled characteristics. I just think we need to spend more time teaching our students to write well. Most of them simply do not want to do writing activities because then they actually have to sit still and focus and complete something. That in itself seems to have become a difficulty for most students these days. Every subject is important, but I fully intend to incorporate as much reading and definitely writing into all my lessons as possible.
Shaina,
ReplyDeleteIt is amazing how many times students have to use writing skills during the course of a day. And I also like you, would have initially thought that if a child was a good reader then they would surely also write well. But, not necessarily true. It is great that we can find activities to use with our students in the text!
I'm not sure if anyone noticed the single phrase on page 278, but that phrase completely wraps up the entire chapter, "Only the educated are free"-Epictetus. This may give teachers chills because a student's writing depends on how well he or she is trained. It is our duty to help students feel free when they write and I believe the only way students can feel free is to have the NECESSARY, basic tools of writing. My high school English Composition teacher gave us the tool "The Introduction that never fails" that has helped me write numerous papers and find ideas if I am stumped. She taught us how to proofread and tried to give us any and all tools that would help our writing styles. This chapter was one of my favorites and instilled an appreciation for writing that I hope to give to my students.
ReplyDeleteIn response to Shylah,
ReplyDeleteI agree that handwriting needs to have more focus in schools. You rarely see students who can write comfortably in cursive, in fact it catches your attention if a student happens to write in cursive. My fifth grade teacher wrote EVERYTHING in cursive! We became so accustomed to it that it seemed natural and because she modeled it, we were able to write it easily! I hope there are some classrooms that still embrace cursive like this, but I have yet to see it.
In response to Shylah, I have also seen a decrease in writing at the elementary level over the last few years, and it is a shame for these students. With my own three children, they have so many fewer writing assignments than I did at their age, and things like basic structure and phrasing don't come as easily for them. As far as cursive, forget it! My 8th grader leaned it, my 6th and 4th graders never learned a day of it.
ReplyDeleteThanks for sharing! Julie
Our power point on Guided Writing we saw this week complements this chapter perfectly. It inspired me to keep writing in the forefront in my future classroom, and to add a few more creative writing activities to try with my tutoring group. The prewriting web is a fabulous suggestion. I think I will work that into my guided reading next week. I enjoyed seeing the graphic examples of the writing stages on ages 283-284. They reminded me of the drawing stages we learned about in our Elementary Art class. The chart comparing English and Spanish speaking writing development is so timely for us as our ELL population continues to grow across Kansas. Interactive writing is another technique introduced here that I would like to try.
ReplyDeleteThis chapter was about the connection between reading and writing. The author points out that there is a cognitive developmental process that takes place before, during, and after both reading and writing. That is why we include Bloom’s questions in our lesson plans and why I include a “share time” for when I have my students write in their journals, which I do frequently. There are five components of writing. These are graphic, semantic, graphophonic, syntactic, and pragmatic. There are seven stages of emergent writing according to Zecker; drawing, scribbling, letter-like forms, letter strings, copying, invented spelling, and conventional spelling. This chapter offers activities for each of these stages. On page 288 there is a table to show the characteristics of skilled and unskilled writers. I was excited to see the activities that included poems because I am introducing poems to my tutoring group this week and these activities would be help me to tie writing into the poetry and give examples. I have used response journals with my students a few times this semester and they really enjoy writing their ideas and sharing them with the group. I enjoy writing and reading so anytime I can incorporate the two together I get excited. I think my passion for it rubs off on the kids, or at least they make me feel like it does! I enjoyed this chapter.
ReplyDeleteJulie L.
ReplyDeleteI also found the examples of writing stages interesting as well. They are similar to the stages of drawing I was shown in my art methods class. I think it is so interesting how these things all tie into each other.
Larissa, I was never introduced to proofreading while I was in school but I am seeing it introduced as early as first grade now. I think that is great because if you know how what mistakes to look for in writing and how to fix them then it will make you a better writer. I would love to know that "Inrtoduction that never fails" tool your teacher gave you!
ReplyDeleteWriting, I enjoy reading and looking at the different stages of writing with my nephew and nieces. It is so interesting how they improve with their writing skills and spelling. The breakdown of this chapter is about stages of writing for English, bilingual and Spanish which I found very interesting to read. Also it discussed the writing process which I worked on a little bit with my tutoring students which they enjoyed doing. I also remember this activity in junior high for the school newspaper. In the podcast this week Mrs. Stoppel talked about red being a bad color, when it came to editing that is what our teacher used and it was red all over for the editing. It was interesting in the reading material about the different ways to assess the students with the rubrics and surveys. This past week I substituted for 3rd grade and they were working on daily oral language and the table on page 297 11.13 broke back what the students were using for the different rules they were using such as 1 and 2 rules. But they did mention they will be writing stories soon. The technology tools that were being used, today students are using those more such as e-mail and connecting to the internet with different authors. It is so interesting to see them use technology.
ReplyDeleteIn response to Kim D. that is a great idea of having your students "share time". I remember in 4th grade we had our own journals we would write in. It was a great tool for us.
ReplyDeleteI really enjoyed reading this chapter. I felt that it added to what Mrs. Stoppel had been speaking about all week. It was great to be able to relate what I was reading to the student sample work that Mrs. Stoppel had shown us in class. The components of writing are graphic, semantic, graphophonic, and syntactic. All of them play a major role in the writing experience. Pages 283 and 284 gave some great examples of the writing stages. I enjoyed reading the writing stages of bilingual spanish-english especially since two of the students in my tutoring group are ESL students. The very first suggestion on page 286 was to provide extended periods of time to write and allow a personal choice of topic and genre. I have really started implementing this into my lessons because the ESL students seem to be uninterested in writing and enjoy choosing their own writing topics. This chapter gave great examples of activities to include for writing too which was good for me to see how writing can really add to the reading experience. Does anyone have any writing activities that have worked well with their students?
ReplyDeleteIn response to Larissa- The quote that you pointed out from this chapter is amazing! Such a great quote especially for this class as we are all so close to becoming professional educators and are currently working with our tutoring students. I liked that you were able to relate this chapter to your high school composition experience as well. That is wonderful that you were introduced to such an effective writing tool that has still helped you in your college years and for years to come. It is tools and techniques like that that we as educators need to instill into our future students. This chapter gave a vast amount of ideas and activities that can really help a child love the writing experience.
ReplyDeleteChapter 11 dealt with writing. Writing in my opinion is crucial part of the big 5. There are several benefits from writing, one can help assess comprehension and phonics. I tutor Kindergartners and after their read aloud or the guided reading, I have the students draw a picture about the story and then write a sentence to coincide with the picture drawn. I can then assess their comprehension and phonics. I have the students use their imaginative spelling in order to assess if they are hearing all of the key sounds.
ReplyDeleteWriting in our school district is crucial especially for the ESOL students. The teachers learned a few years ago that in order for the ESOL students to get released they had to look at a picture and write a paper to go along with it. Many of the students were still considered ESOL based solely on the lack of writing skills. Therefore our school district has made this an importance factor in their teaching.
I loved all of the graphic organizers and I can see where they will be a beneficial tool for the future.
In response to Alisha G,
ReplyDeleteI agree that it is important not to use red when grading. It can cause some self confidence issues. I also liked the idea of using rubrics. I have seen several teachers assess their students based on the rubrics. I enjoy looking at my own kids development with their pictures.
This chapter focused on writing. The text provided many activities for each of the stages in the process of writing. Students of all ages and levels need to be exposed to writing. They also need to know that there is a huge connection between reading and writing. There are skilled and unskilled writers and the book talked about each of them. Writing can be enjoyable if the student knows what is expected of them in their writing pieces. Rubrics are a great tool to help the student understand what they are to include in their writing. Essays or other writings need to be graded on each individual component and needs to be clear of favoritism or bias. The activities presented in this chapter will be very helpful for my internship classes as well as my tutoring class. Writing is something we use in our everday life. It is important to have great writing skills as you become older in life as well. We have to write on applications for jobs, resumes, scholarship applications and many other things. Writing happens on a daily basis. Graphic organizers and outlines are great tools to help with the writing process. Many students think that they hate writing, but if they are instructed correctly and in depth, they will feel better about their topic and how they will write their paper. The topic chosen is another attribute of a great paper. If the student knows a lot about the topic, they will have a better written paper than one on a topic they know nothing about.
ReplyDeleteIn response to Jen Hittle –
ReplyDeleteI do the same with my tutoring students in first grade. They really enjoy drawing a picture and then writing a sentence about the story we just read. They really like when they get to take turns and share their drawing and read their sentences out loud to their peers. I agree that graphic organizers are going to continue to be great tools to help with the writing process.
In response to Ashley R.
ReplyDeleteI agree that writing in is very important for students even as young as Kindergarten. Children begin writing as early as preschool when they are learning the alphabet and to write their names. Writing has never been a strong subject for me, but as I got older in school the easier it became for me. With all of the graphic organizers that are available, I wish that my teachers had used them or introduced me to them when I was in school.
Chapter 11 is about writing. I found this chapter to be very informative and the ideas that the chapter gives for teaching writing and the activities for the classroom, I cannot wait to use some of them. This year, I have been editing a lot of papers that my 8th grade daughter has been writing in school. She has been writing in her English class all year and using different methods to do so. I think that she has written each type of paper. I have watched her grow as a young writer and have noticed that her attitude towards writing is changing.
ReplyDeleteMelinda S.
ReplyDeleteChapter 11 focuses on writing. I cannot remember learning to write in school. I really enjoyed this week’s class where we focused on teaching writing. I think it is so important for students to want to write. I also really liked how Ms. Stoppel told us to always give positive comments to the students first. Also not to hurt the confidence of the writer. I also agree that the students should not have to use perfect grammar and punctuation. Those are the factors that can tear down a student’s confidence. Students need to be motivated to use his/her creativity. The book describes the seven stages of writing: drawing, scribbling, letter-like forms, letter strings, copying, invented spelling, and conventional spelling. I really liked how the book gave an example of each of the writing stages. This provides a great visual to know what to look for in the future. Another part of the chapter I really liked was the description of the writing process: prewriting, drafting, revising, editing, and publishing. I think back to our Guided Writing lesson in class. I really like the tabled groups and each group knows what step they are a part of. They can start right away every time and not have to wait for instruction. The students can do it on their own. There were a lot of great ideas for activities once again in this chapter. I really liked the idea of sequels. I think the students would love to put their own spin on some of their favorite stories. For the older grades I thought it could be great if they have to change the point of view in a story they know. So instead of Goldilocks’ view they would write it from Baby Bear’s view. This could be incorporated with teaching the 3 points of view in stories.
In response to April B.
ReplyDeleteI also really love Graphic Organizers for writing. I think the students are able to lay out their information in a clear and structured format. The students are also able to then take the information on their organizer and place them in their story or essay. Once they have used a piece from the graphic organizer the student can cross out that piece of information knowing they have used it.
In response to Tara:
ReplyDeleteI have rarely seen guided reading in classrooms as well! I actually did not know much about guided writing until I saw Professor Stoppel's AdobeConnect and read Chapter 11.
I love the appendix and all of the ideas the book gives us!
I really appreciated all the information that this chapter included, mostly because I could relate to the student at the beginning of the chapter. I used to be terrified of having to write papers, they were definitely my enemy, however, I now have a much better outlook on the writing process. I cannot remember when I was introduced to graphic organizers, but I have never met a better friend to the writing process. I really enjoyed the scenario at the beginning of this chapter, mostly because I could definitely relate to that child from past experiences. I can only hope that I am as prepared as that teacher was to help guide my students in the right direction to create a love for writing as well. I know I won’t be afraid to share the usefulness of the graphic organizers though!
ReplyDeleteAnother important, short paragraph that really caught my attention during reading this chapter was titled Differences Between Reading and Writing. After I thought about it some, I never have really connected the reading and writing other than when trying to find information to support my paper’s information. I have recognized them both as different skill sets for awhile, and this paragraph helped me see clearly why. Reading requires students to have the skill to understand others while writing are challenged to use their words to create a text that their audience will understand. Also, instead of decoding the words to help them understand a text’s information, the students must learn to encode words so that their readers can understand what they are trying to say. It was really important to me that I was able to read the specific differences between these two skill sets.
The assessments were also an important section of this chapter. I love, love, love having a rubric presented to me for any paper I write anymore. When I don’t have a rubric, I mostly feel lost about where to go with my paper, so I was thrilled to see this type of assessment talked about in this chapter. I think it is important to let students know what you expect of them, and a rubric would be a great way to do so!
In response to Jen Hittle, the activity you shared from your tutoring sessions sounds really great. You can get so much understanding of the students’ skills just by that one activity, definite plus. I also think it is great that you are able to recognize the full potential of each activity you have the students do. Instead of using your activity to simple gauge the students’ comprehension, you are taking the opportunity to assess their phonemic awareness skills.
ReplyDeleteThat is great that your school district has taken such interest and placed writing so high for ESOL students. I found it interesting to see that the text states that we should encourage ESOL students to use both languages while writing to help the instructors understand their student’s development, but it makes perfect since.
Writing is such an important skill when it comes to reading fluency. The more a student understands about writing conventions, such as combining letters and phonograms to create words to convey information, the better that student will read, and vice versa.
ReplyDeleteIn the text I found many important concepts, especially I hadn’t thought of before. The book suggests conducting interest surveys before the writing process in order to determine what the child is most comfortable researching and writing about. Some students may prefer expository writing to narrative writing. By finding out this basic information, students are better able to become skilled writers.
The section describing the different stages of emergent writers reminded me of the stages of drawing and illustration. The writing stages appear to correspond closely with the illustrative stages. For example, from 2 to 4 years of age, children “scribble” (make marks of different kinds). According to our text, this scribbling is also part of the drawing stage, where children learn that marks on a page can represent stories and real elements. From ages 4 to 8, the drawings become more specific and recognizable. This would also be the ages when letters and invented spelling occur, as well as copying from environmental print. Realism, the artistic stage from ages 8 to 12, is correlated with the conventional spelling stage.
The intervention strategy I thought was most useful for expository writing was the Expository Frames. This type of organization of thoughts and facts is a very rudimentary form of the reference notecards used in much later research papers. Students at a young age are already encouraged to organize factual information.
In response to Shylah C.
ReplyDeleteI have also noticed how many students are reluctant writers. It seems the only writing many are exposed to consists of worksheets. No wonder they hate to write! When students are given a chance to write about something they are interested in, with sufficient time to write, I think their writing will improve.
Chapter 11 Writing
ReplyDeleteThis Chapter really reiterated what Professor spoke about on Thursday and in the PowerPoint presentation. I was amazed how similar reading and writing goals are but the main purpose is to communicate meaning. Even though reading and writing share similar goals, the book also pointed out that there were differences too. The first difference was that the readers must be able to comprehend what others have written. Writers have to know their audience and choose words that the audience will understand. Secondly, the readers need to decode words while writers are challenged to encode words automatically. I have loved seeing my children’s reading develop over the years! I have saved so many cute, adorable and funny stories!
I love, love, love graphic organizers so I like the idea of using them to help students collect ideas and thoughts for their writing. Lastly, I loved the idea of having a proofreading check list like the one on page 292. It would be a great way for students to look for specific corrections in their writing. If you just tell the students to check their work, they may not know or remember to check everything. If you give your students a checklist then the process will be much more efficient.
Brandy:
ReplyDeleteI agree with you that it's important to find out why children hate to write. Once we find the source we can hopefully make writing enjoyable for our students.
Graphic organizers are very important. I think before writing any big paper, it's important to fill out a graphic organizer because it organizers our thoughts (obviously).
Chapter 11 was all about writing. It is so important for children to learn to write and to learn to enjoy writing because writing is a skill they will use the rest of their lives. A lot of students get to college and barely get by because of all the papers that they are required to write, and they never came to enjoy writing. I had a roomate that absolutely hated to write papers. She would put it off until the very last minute and then end up staying up all night just writing a one page paper because it was that hard for her. Once she wrote her papers they were really great papers, but the actual thought of writing the paper was difficult for her.
ReplyDeleteI've always enjoyed writing and I seem to be able to easily write my papers.
Writing needs to start at a very early age and it needs to be made fun for students, not as a discipline. I took a class once that made me realize that so many teachers make children write for their discipline, and then they wonder why children hate to write? We need to make them love writing, and make writing enjoyable to them. Once our children are out of college they will still need to know how to write papers for job applications, or anything that may have to do with their jobs. Writing is something we use everyday.
Chapter 11 puts a special emphasis on writing. Learning to write is very important because children must learn to express themselves verbally and but also in print. Writing should be made fun and not used as some disciplinary tactic. I believe it writing is taught as an essential skill, then children will love it – just think about it…children pass notes in class all the time. There is no difference except the prompt has changed and possibly the syntax. I remember when I was in the fourth grade; writing was an assessed area for the state. I no longer see writing being stressed but from the looks of some of the papers I grade – it needs more time in the spot light. Language Arts as a whole is the foundation for any other subject. In completing assignments in any subject from Math to Chemistry; students will have to write. So we (Educators) mine as well teach the skill. I have no questions regarding this chapter – pretty good chapter.
ReplyDeleteIn response to Kiley - I agree! Children should be taught @ an early age to write. Writing is foundational ... K-2 grades.
ReplyDeleteChapter eleven is about writing. The book points out the differences and similarities between writing and reading. Writing is a very important skill to learn because students need to know how to put their thoughts into words and write them down in an organized and effective way. I really liked the scenario at the beginning of the chapter because it reminds me that there is a reason a student does not like something (usually a negative experience or lack of knowledge in that area) and that if a teacher puts in the time and effort, they should be able to find the key and help students learn to at least like and better themselves in writing (or whatever area they are working on). I liked how the book showed the different stages of writing. I definitely see the difference in my son’s drawings when he is trying to “write” out a story using pictures. There were also tons of ideas for writing activities at the end of the chapter. I used one similar to the wordless books activity but instead I used comic strips. The students thought it was neat to be able to write a few sentences to make the comic strip into their own story. They were very interesting stories to listen to as well. Students were able to use their imaginations and put their thoughts down onto paper so it was a great practice for their writing skills.
ReplyDeleteIn response to Irv...I agree that educators need to spend time on writing. This skill is going to be used throughout their entire lives (not just in school) from work to play. Without the knowledge of how to put their thoughts into words in an organized way, students will fail to get others to understand them!
ReplyDelete