On page 20, Regie Routman quoted Don Graves from his book, Writing: Teachers and Children At Work. In this quote, Mr. Graves talks about how important it is for teachers to help children not lose their "positive I-am-a-writer spirit". I guess I want to make sure that I am NOT the teacher that unknowingly removes the desire of my students to write. This chapter has inspired me to make writing even more fun than ever!
Today, when we wrote in class, I told the students that they could visit for 10 minutes with each other about their writing and to get ideas to make their writing even better. They were excited about it! The interesting thing was they visited about 5 minutes and were ready to start writing. I just smiled. :)
On page 24, Ms. Routman talks about being a scribe for a student that just couldn't seem to write. I was happy to hear that as recently I wrote a story for a student as he dictated to me. Once, he began to do that, he was excited and wrote a pretty good story. I have not had to do that again for him...
I also enjoyed "Take a Leap of Faith" on page 30. I loved the fact that the first grade teacher complimented the student on just writing, Happy Thanksgiving. What a smart teacher! It certainly paid off in the end. I am already seeing a difference on how I approach writing with my students. :)
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4 comments:
I can tell just by your comments that you are really thinking about ways to improve your writing instruction. Great teachers are always striving to be better, and that is just what you are doing. I am interested to see what else stands out to you in the future. Good Job!
Isn't it funny how we've been trying to improve our writing for over a year now and this book gives us everything we've been hoping to get everywhere else? This makes teaching writing more purposeful.
I think your smart too. Giving them time to talk, and they only used half the time. I'd smile too. Way to go!
I know first hand that you are an inspiring teacher of writing. I also used the strategy of letting my students talk before they wrote. It's amazing how effective it is. All of my students were ready to start writing right away.
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