Wednesday, April 9, 2008
Chapter 12: Make Every Minute Count
I truly loved these statements from p. 282: "First, I have to reach each child's heart, and so I have to open mine." "If I am to be an effective teacher, our hearts have to connect as well as our minds." These statements echo the foundation of my teaching beliefs.
Chapter 11: Build on Best Practice and Research
Wow! This chapter was packed with good information.
It's hard to pick one single important thing from this chapter. However, one point that sticks out was under the category of Develop a Schoolwide Vision: lasting change takes a minimum of 3 years and a full 5 years of ongoing commitment to impact achievement permanently. As teachers, we rarely give ourselves this much time for the process of change.
This is another point that I will walk away with from this chapter: "While there is no one best program or model of how to teach writing, knowledgeable teachers make decisions based on research, teaching and learning experiences, their observation of their students and ongoing professional conversations."
It takes courage and commitment to be willing to reflect on and question your beliefs about teaching and learning and for this I applaud my 6th grade team!
It's hard to pick one single important thing from this chapter. However, one point that sticks out was under the category of Develop a Schoolwide Vision: lasting change takes a minimum of 3 years and a full 5 years of ongoing commitment to impact achievement permanently. As teachers, we rarely give ourselves this much time for the process of change.
This is another point that I will walk away with from this chapter: "While there is no one best program or model of how to teach writing, knowledgeable teachers make decisions based on research, teaching and learning experiences, their observation of their students and ongoing professional conversations."
It takes courage and commitment to be willing to reflect on and question your beliefs about teaching and learning and for this I applaud my 6th grade team!
Chapter 10: Make Assessment Count
I enjoyed this chapter and agreed with much of what Routman had to say. My favorite was, "Reader's have to read avidly to become readers, and the same holds true for writers."
We should have students write everyday for 20-30 minutes, just as we have them read every day. If this is what we believe, we will make time for it.
There was one area that I disagreed with Routman on and that was the use of the six traits of writing. I don't know any teacher that uses the traits in isolation as Routman suggests. We use it as an evaluation tool, criteria for good writing and a common language. Routman herself uses these phrases when talking about writing: it's in the language, the way the piece flows, organized, the impact the words have on the reader, grammar, spelling, punctuation, and voice. Sounds like the six traits to me. I don't believe that the use of the six traits or a rubric sends the message that content doesn't matter or fails to take into account the writer's development of ideas and evidence presented in the writing piece.
I do agree that not every rubric is a good tool to use and if a teacher doesn't teach and demonstrate a rubric that it makes it worthless! However; our 6th grade team has worked hard to create a rubric that we value.
However, I'm sure every teacher must have been relieved and cheered to read that Routman suggests we needn't grade but 20% of our students' writing. I personally have never graded all my students' writing, because I feel it creates an atmosphere for reluctant writers instead of promoting writing.
We should have students write everyday for 20-30 minutes, just as we have them read every day. If this is what we believe, we will make time for it.
There was one area that I disagreed with Routman on and that was the use of the six traits of writing. I don't know any teacher that uses the traits in isolation as Routman suggests. We use it as an evaluation tool, criteria for good writing and a common language. Routman herself uses these phrases when talking about writing: it's in the language, the way the piece flows, organized, the impact the words have on the reader, grammar, spelling, punctuation, and voice. Sounds like the six traits to me. I don't believe that the use of the six traits or a rubric sends the message that content doesn't matter or fails to take into account the writer's development of ideas and evidence presented in the writing piece.
I do agree that not every rubric is a good tool to use and if a teacher doesn't teach and demonstrate a rubric that it makes it worthless! However; our 6th grade team has worked hard to create a rubric that we value.
However, I'm sure every teacher must have been relieved and cheered to read that Routman suggests we needn't grade but 20% of our students' writing. I personally have never graded all my students' writing, because I feel it creates an atmosphere for reluctant writers instead of promoting writing.
Chapter 9: Conference with Students
The main idea that I took away from this chapter is that even though one on one conferencing with your students may sound ideal, it is not the only effective strategy. It was reassuring to here Routman suggest that there are a variety of ways you can conference with your students. A conference can be formal, informal, long, short, small group, large group, public or private. This realization gave me some hope that I was on the right track. My thoughts were further reinforced when Routman explained that conferences can be conducted for different purposes : to celebrate, validate, encourage, teach, assess or set goals. Some of these I never really categorized as a conference before now.
Wednesday, April 2, 2008
Chapter 8 Organize for Daily Writing
Provide More Choice Within Meaningful Structure
I was glad when Routman addressed this idea in the chapter. It was something that I had been curious about. I have found the greatest amount of success with my students when I apply the idea of giving students the freedom of choice within a predetermined topic. Routman also suggests that a teacher should demonstrate choosing a topic for writing, so students learn how to effectively choose their own topic. I have not demonstrated specific topics that I am writing myself but I have used different scenarios to demonstrate choosing a topic. For example: I might say, "If my daughter were going to write on this topic she might choose to write about her trip to Washington D.C.. This topic is really large! How could she write about her experience in D.C., but narrow the topic?"
Recently, when my students were to choose from four drafts they had previously written to publish, way too many of them chose their weakest piece of writing to publish. This really surprised me. Which lead me back to Routman's comment: "the topic is the single most important factor contributing to writer variability." I didn't want to discourage my students by contradicting their choice; which to some would mean they really didn't have a choice to begin with, but I also didn't want my students stuck writing on a topic that they clearly could not develop well. When I came across the following questions Routman listed I thought this would be an excellent way to handle the situation. Do you care about the subject? Can you tell a lot about it? Can you include appropriate and interesting details? I will use these questions or similar ones with my students in the future.
I was glad when Routman addressed this idea in the chapter. It was something that I had been curious about. I have found the greatest amount of success with my students when I apply the idea of giving students the freedom of choice within a predetermined topic. Routman also suggests that a teacher should demonstrate choosing a topic for writing, so students learn how to effectively choose their own topic. I have not demonstrated specific topics that I am writing myself but I have used different scenarios to demonstrate choosing a topic. For example: I might say, "If my daughter were going to write on this topic she might choose to write about her trip to Washington D.C.. This topic is really large! How could she write about her experience in D.C., but narrow the topic?"
Recently, when my students were to choose from four drafts they had previously written to publish, way too many of them chose their weakest piece of writing to publish. This really surprised me. Which lead me back to Routman's comment: "the topic is the single most important factor contributing to writer variability." I didn't want to discourage my students by contradicting their choice; which to some would mean they really didn't have a choice to begin with, but I also didn't want my students stuck writing on a topic that they clearly could not develop well. When I came across the following questions Routman listed I thought this would be an excellent way to handle the situation. Do you care about the subject? Can you tell a lot about it? Can you include appropriate and interesting details? I will use these questions or similar ones with my students in the future.
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