Ch. 4: Day One: Help Children to Write and Keep Writing
Ch. 7: Conditions for Effective Writing
Chapter 4 will be a great resource for me once I have my own classroom. It contains many different examples of how to get students' attention and turn writing into something fun that they can understand. It discussed the need for children to understand why writing is important. If we ask them to write before they understand writing, they will not be motivated to perform. I really liked the idea of passing students small notes to convey important messages or discussing signs and how they convey meaning. Once you can relate writing to the students' lives, they will begin to understand why teachers think it is so important.
The other topic that Chapter 4 addressed was alternatives to narratives. Not all children feel comfortable with personal narratives, and they might be much more responsive to writing something like a list instead. Making lists is a great way to excite children about writing, because they are happy to talk about how much they know about a topic. Kids like to be experts, so listing will help them feel like they know a lot and give them writing practice, while also possibly sparking their curiosity for further research on the topic.
Chapter 7 focused more on how to create a perfect classroom environment for writing. There are many aspects of a normal classroom that are not conducive to writing or learning to write. Students need to be able to write every day. This will help them to enjoy it, instead of dreading the time of writing block. Students also need the freedom to choose their topic. When given options, students become more comfortable with the task of writing and they begin to enjoy it more.
Reading these chapters was a funny experience, because right now I am attempting National Novel Writing Month (also known as NaNoWriMo), which is the task of writing 50,000 words of a story over the course of 30 days in November. Therefore, all of this writing advice is something that I took very much to heart. All of what these articles have been saying is the point of this exercise: to write every day, to choose your own topic, to not review/edit everything that you write right away. So I know from first hand experience that these tips do indeed work! NaNoWriMo has a young writers program that has been used effectively in classrooms many times, and I would love the opportunity to use it in my own classroom some day.
Rachel,
ReplyDeleteThat is very interesting that you are participating in NaNoWriMo right now! What direction is your writing taking so far? I had never heard of this but it seems like a very cool opportunity. It's great that you've made a connection while reading texts for class because this is exactly what we will encourage our students to do. It's a perfect example of you making meaning with text and connecting with the author.
Hi Rachel!
ReplyDeleteThanks for such a thoughtful post- I am interested in your experience with NaNoWriMo too- this seems like something perfect for a classroom! One question that keeps coming up for me with student writing (and grown-up writing, for that matter!) is how we can make writing purposeful through publishing. Do you plan to publish or share your work when you are done? If students did something similar, how would they publish or share their work?
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteRachel, I very much agree with what you said about the neat idea of incorporating messages between the student and teacher into daily writing. I liked the idea of doing this and then having students respond in the morning instead of like that morning message many teachers use. What do you think about that implemenation? How cool that you're taking part in that NaNoWriMo! I liked your connections with the reading to your real life. It's nice to see you using these strategies and advice in your own life. How do you think that will benefit you as a future teacher? I certainly think it will benefit you!
ReplyDelete