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.