First Entry

I value respect, kindness, and an interest for learning. I believe that students should focus on big ideas and less on what it means to be right or wrong. I do try to enact this in my teaching....in that we do a lot of higher order thinking questions and discussion. I like to get to know my students and have them share in the journey of learning as if it should be:  a natural and fun experience  led by their curiosity.

Though I have tried I do not think I have given my students enough time for real authentic reading and writing experiences. Last year I wanted a drop everything and read day on Fridays. I had students select books from the library (classroom and school). We started off with only ten minutes and I tried to build up their endurance. This worked really well with my 7th grade girls who loved to read and always came with books already. My 8th graders, it was a struggle. I think most importantly, they were low level and I did not put the right books in their hands. Towle (2003) writes about how important it is to pair students with books that are at their independent reading level. I failed to do that.  Many had books way too high above their reading levels, but it seemed to be a pride thing. They would'nt budge even though they could not read the book! I wnated it to be an authentic experience that gave them free time to read and learn and discuss their books with others...but it never became that because my 8th graders fought me so hard on it I eventually ditched it. They used it as nap time, or yawn real loud time, or a variety of other almost distracting and irritating things.


As for writing....A lot of bellwork activities I would do with my students required them to think and then write about specific questions. Many of my "lower" students never would write a lot. Again, many of my 7th grade girls wrote more. Last year I did a few major essays with my students and 3 that stand out to me are the Freedom Writers essay, the Holocaust Essay, and the short story they had to write. For the first two, the essays, I did not start with free-writing....or even pre-writing.... for the first, they had to write their own thesis statement based on a mini-lessson we did and the themes of the movie we had discussed. Once they had their thesis statement we moved in to completing an outline with topic sentences and supporting details (CEI). Though they did (many)  have fun with this essay, and some went beyond the simple formula and made it their own, I felt it was too rigid and did not allow for their own creativity because I was too interested in having them come up with an already organized and developed piece of writing. I could make and excuse and say I didn't have time for the 5 stage writing process....but truthfully, I just didn't really know to teach it. For the Holocaust essay, that was about the same, except they had to pull from a variety of non-fiction sources and compare them to Elie Wiesel's experience. We used a graphic organizer to start with and as we read the articles we took quotes to compare. Again, too formulaic. I think if the kids did have any genuine original ideas they got pushed aside for what we "wanted them" to conclude and write. Now! The short story, that's a different story.

We spent the last few weeks of school doing a short story unit, and after only having read two or three short stories I proposed the short story project to the kids. I had a character chart they could use to make their main character, and we also studied the parts of a story and plot, so they knew what they story had to contain. This was a small class, only 10 kids, two were very low level. Of the two, only one struggled. The other, i learned was an avid fiction writer and was so happy to be doing this project. One student, one of my best :) did research for his story and wrote and amazing one...the rest were in between, I think all had fun with it (thoroughly enjoyed it!) They found it challenging, and learned more about stories from it. BUT! I only had them do one draft (except for one kid who wrote super fast so I had time to conference). I met with each student where we would tweek certain sections as he/she wrote, but I do wish I had peer conferences and taught them about the revision stage. What I believe to be one of the most important stages. Many of my students believe once its written, it's good enough. Many feel the effort they put in was so great that they have done enough. And how can I blame them when I have never taught them otherwise? Besides some minor changing up, asking for clarification,,,,the most I do with my students writing is proof read for errors! :(


I think the main thing I read that can help me in teaching the writing process (which though I have not taught in all its stages, I do value and use in my own writing!) is the writing wheel, to focus on one aspect at a time and move fluidly through each stage and back....