Literacy, Week 10, Routman, Chapter 7

Write: Routman chapters 7 and 8 are about teaching and organizing writing. Consider one or several ideas from these chapters in terms of writing process, traits, or genre, as well as in relation to your field placement.

Routman begins chapter 7 with the following quote from Mem Fox, "writers don't improve their craft unless they have a real purpose, a real audience, and a real investment in their writing" (pg. 141). Routman has been expressing these exact beliefs throughout her book. I've been thinking about this and wondering about ways to offer real audiences to my students. Routman says that "contrived writing stifles voice" (pg. 146), but how can teachers help make writing authentic? Through an authentic audience, of course, but who would be their audience for a narrative, a biography, expository writing? When a writing assignment needs to be introduced, where and how can a teacher locate an audience?

On page 148, Routman admonishes us not to assume that our students "got" the demonstration. Teachers need to think out loud and ask questions regarding the points that the students should transfer to their own writing. For example, "why is this lead better?' (pg. 149) identifies the quality the teacher is looking for.

One of the suggested guidelines for proven strategies mentioned on page 170 is to keep writing assignments short. The benefit to the student is that short assignments are easier to complete - less writing, revising, editing - and are, therefore, less overwhelming. There is one student in my Dyad who, during Writer's Workshop, is writing a novel. At first I was very impressed as this is a child who considers himself to be a poor reader. I was very pleased to see him delve so into writing a story. But now I see that this assignment is going to be a nightmare for him to revise and edit. I'm so afraid that he will give up before it is complete.

Literacy, Week 9, Can You Be a Teacher Without Grading?

As kids when we played School, everyone wanted to be the teacher, no one the student. Being the teacher meant you got to boss everyone and grade their work. Now I read that "eighty percent of students' writing needn't be graded" (Routman, pg. 252). And Peter Elbow tells us in Ranking, Evaluating, and Liking: Sorting Out Three Forms of Judgment that he as a teacher has a much better time reading his students' work when he is not evaluating it (pg. 199). I'm not sure that the kids on my block would have agreed so many years ago. However, both authors make strong valid points against grading every piece of student writing.

Elbow talks about having "evaluation-free zones." These are ten minute, nonstop freewrites. The essential components of freewriting are 1) that they be private and 2) that they be nonstop writing. The student is thus free to explore and take risks without the concern that this writing could affect their grade. This compares with Routman that "kids need lots of time to practice, experiment, and just plain mess around without worrying about a grade" (p. 252).

Elbow also talks about "uncoupling" students from the need to be graded, the need to know "how am I doing, did I do okay?" (pg. 197). I was the type of student who thrived on getting good grades. In fact recently, I couldn't wait to receive my grade for the ELP assignment. I had worked hard and wanted confirmation that the professor also thought that I had worked hard. Elbow speaks about getting students to focus on his comments, which leads to better writing, away from grades, which do not (pg. 196). In reflection, I now see that the professor's comments accurately expressed my success on the assignment, without the need for the grade.

Elbow also mentioned giving course grades based on overall performance in the class such as "ability to meet deadlines," "effort," "improvement," and "skill in giving feedback to others" (pg.195). I found that interesting as we have just completed a process in which we gave and received feedback on our Literacy Vignette. In reality, I do not believe that I was able to give constructive feedback to the members in my group. I think that in order to do so, one must be a confident writer. Furthermore, it is very difficult for me to offer what might be construed as critical or negative. So, I understand now, this is a skill I need to develop.

Literacy, Week 8, Conferencing with Students

As you read Writing Essentials chapter 9, think about the main ideas in the chapter and how they relate both to Six Traits and to your field placement experiences. Identify a specific point or quote from the chapter to consider.

Writing lessons for me were as Vicki Spandel explains in Creating Writers; they consisted of the assigning of writing with due dates, minimum lengths and conventions, followed by the collection and correction of this writing. The writing process was never modeled for me and therefore I do not feel confident with the process.

Regie Routman, in Writing Essentials has given concrete ideas and suggestions for modeling the process. In chapter 9 this entails holding conferences, from informal roving conferences to formal one-on-one meetings. Routman explains what these conferences look like as well as sound like. On page 225, she explains the necessity of giving an overall response first. Starting with "the whole sends the message that writing is about communicating to a reader," (p. 225). She uses a wonderful example about a man writing a valentine card for his wife. The first thing the wife says would not be "I really like how you used the word beautiful instead of good." She would first comment on how touched she is, how the card made her feel. Teachers, too, should first let our student writers know how their writing made us feel.

I also appreciated Routman's expectations for editing. Before the editing conference, students are expected to edit or peer edit their work, to the best of their ability. If the student brings their writing to the conference with several mistakes intact - mistakes that Routman knows the student is capable of correcting - she sends them back to complete the editing on their own saying, "don't take my time until you have done absolutely everything you can do," (p. 231). My cooperative teacher (3rd grade) has an editing sheet that each student must complete. It begins with self-editing, then peer editing. This form must be completed before the student is allowed to present the piece to the teacher for final editing.

Finally, Routman says that "independence is the goal of all excellent teaching," (p. 236). This is the underlying principle that I hope will be the cornerstone of my teaching.

Literacy, Week 7, Bird by Bird

Share a quote from Lamott (include page number) and your response.

A recurring theme in Anne Lamott's book, Bird by Bird, that resonates with me, is how what a writer starts with is more than likely not what s/he will end up with. In the chapter on Plot Treatment, she writes about the envisioned climax as a sort of "temporary destination." "So, you write toward this scene, but when you get there, you see that . . . it no longer works" (pg. 85). Lamott says something similar in her chapter titled Plot. She states that "the climax of your story will probably reveal itself to you slowly and over time" (pg. 61). Perhaps my favorite quote so far comes from the chapter called Polaroids. Lamott says that "Writing a first draft is very much like watching a Polaroid develop. You can't . . . know exactly what the picture is going to look like until it has finished developing " (pg. 39).

Lamott appears to be saying that a story, like a life, develops and changes over time. Don't presume to know someone's story, or your own, until it has had time to present itself to you. What I have taken from this is that as I get to know someone, even myself, I need to always be aware that the story - the life itself - is always developing, hopefully into the person, it was meant to be.

Literacy, Week 5, Shared Writing

Writing Essentials Chapter 5:
What is shared writing, how is it used, and for what purposes? How does shared writing fit into the optimal learning model? Deconstruct one of Routman's shared writing lesson examples (starting pp. 99 or 105). What does she do that makes it "shared" writing? What is the potential impact on students? How does this lesson compare to writing instruction in your field experiences or past schooling?

The chapter on Shared Writing, chapter 5 in Writing Essentials, was not only very interesting to me but also very helpful. I am interested in ways to teach our English Language Learners (ELL) and appreciate each time the author, Regie Routman, points out the possible uses in this area for her teaching approaches. As I read this chapter, I realized, also, that my cooperative teachers have been incorporating shared writing in their teaching.

My Main placement is in a Kindergarten class. The teacher has incorporated elements from Guided Language Acquisition Design (GLAD) strategies to literacy learning in her classroom. An approach used for ELL students, this teacher explained to me that GLAD has many helpful elements for the general classroom. One element that I witnessed her teaching appears to be a form of shared writing.

On Monday, this particular week our theme was apples and our letter was a, the teacher put a sheet of chart paper on the whiteboard in front of the class. The sheet had been folded into quarters so that when unfolded, there were four distinct sections of the paper. We had been having a group discussion about apples and had decided that apples were hard and round. Starting in the upper left square, she drew an apple, wrote the word apple underneath and then the words hard and round. The a was then traced over in a different color.

The next day, after reading a factual book about apples, we added to the chart. After some discussion, Flowers bloom on trees became the text for the upper left quarter. Throughout the week, Blossoms turn into apples and Apples fall to the ground were added to the text. Each day the students reread their text before moving on to the next square. The teacher continued to trace over the first letter in each sentence; as I think on it now, I'm not sure why. It will be interesting for me to return to her classroom and observe again her teaching this literacy approach. This time I will have more questions.

Literacy, Week 4, Writing and Literacy Skills

Writing Essentials Chapter 2: All students, especially those who begin school with limited literacy skills, need to think of themselves as readers and writers, see the processes as meaningful, and have positive attitudes about literacy before they can successfully engage in literacy practices? (p. 34). How do you respond to this quote? What connections can you make between this quote, your field placement, and/or your own experiences?

My immdiate response to this quote springs out of my own experience as a preschool teacher and a teacher of foreign languages. The I-can-do-it attitude is perhaps the most important aspect of success in learning. The first year I taught in a classroom setting, I had the same student in a senior creative writing class and a French I class, only he was not the same student in each. In Creative Writing, he had the idea that he could do the work. Therefore, he applied himself with the outcome of A's for the class. However, he did not see himself as a student of the French language, did not apply himself and barely got by with D level work. It was an amazing process for me, as a first year teacher, to witness. It seemed that no matter what I did to interest this student in French, including arranging pen pals with students from France, he believed that he couldn't do it and therefore, he didn't do it.

In six years of teaching at a preschool I also saw this at the entry level of a student's formal education. The first skill a student masters in preschool is how to use scissors for independent work. How many times have I heard "Miss Ann, I can't do this!" Students quickly learned not to say the "I can't" phrase because it hurt Miss Ann's ears. But what I saw often, especially for those who struggled, were students determined that they couldn't do something therefore they wouldn't. The challenge for teachers is to help students to see that they can, even when some are struggling and especially when the strugglers witness others in the class for whom the task at hand seems to come naturally.

Therefore, I can understand why it is important for teachers to help students, whether they are emergent literacy, ELL, or well into their years at school, to see themselves as readers and writers. Because not seeing themselves as such is a huge obstacle to overcome.

Literacy, Week 3, Invented Spelling

Fox Chapter 3: Based on your experience and your reading of this chapter, do you think "invented spelling" (in which children spell words the way they think they sound) helps or hinders young readers?

Before the start of my student teaching experience, I was opposed to "invented spelling." It seemed to establish poor spelling habits. As a parent I loved the invented spelling of my own children but I thought that surely my children would learn how to spell words properly once they started school. I frowned upon teachers who allowed misspellings to go uncorrected.

Teachers began explaining to parents that they ignored misspelled words when they wanted their students to focus on writing, to get their thoughts on paper. Students who are preoccupied with spelling are not concerned with the thoughts that they want to express. However, this procedure of ignoring spelling for the sake of writing is different from actually encouraging the writing of words spelled incorrectly.

In my main placement Kindergarten class, the students write in their journal everyday. The teacher demonstrates what journal writing looks like. She has an idea that she would like to write down. She draws a picture of the idea. Then she attempts to put the idea in writing. She says, "I like apple pie." Then asking for help from the students she begins to write I l a i. The long sound of the letter i is what the students hear. If students say that they hear the /l/ in apple, she adds it.

I now see that invented spelling encourages students to listen for the sounds that they hear in words, not just memorize the way that words are spelled as if there is no association between sound and spelling. I am now a supporter of invented spelling.

Literacy, Week 2, Emergent Literacy

Think about classrooms you have visited. What aspects of emergent literacy have you observed in young children? How have you seen teachers support the growth of young children's literacy?

My main placement is in Kindergarten. Some students can make the sounds of certain letters. Others do not even know the names of the letters. Starting on the first day of school, the class meets on the floor for the daily message. The only changes in the message are the dates and the specialist that the students will go to on that day. They focus on how to spell one "sight word" per week; so far, the, to, is. These become no excuse words. Once the class has officially learned the word, the students are expected to spell these words correctly in their journal writing.

Journal writing also began on the first day. The first writing consisted of making particular lines on the page; wavy lines, zig zag, loop de loop, magic lines, and finally A,B,C. On the second day of class the teacher talked about having an idea that she wished to write. She drew a picture of her idea and then wrote "kindergarten writing" using the sounds that the students heard in her statement and magic lines when we had no idea what to write for a particular word. For example, I l t o t ___ p. I like to go to the park. Some students hear a sound in the middle of the word and that is what the teacher encourages them to write on their page. Students then drew their own idea in their journal and wrote their sentence. Some students had only magic lines in their first entry. Three weeks into journal writing, all students were writing at least some letters. Several would write about mom everyday. Dada may be the first words that children say but they learn to spell mom first.