Chapter 5: Do More Shared Writing

I really liked the way this chapter demonstrated step by step how to best maximize the time in the classroom while doing a shared writing piece. It made feel good when I recognized activities and conversation that take place in my classroom. However, I also picked up lots of great ideas to make our shared writing time together even more enjoyable and how to make a super story without taking hours to put it together. Shared writing, even though enjoyable, seems to always take such a long time to put together and I always felt guilty if I would speed it up and pull their ideas together quickly. Now, I feel as if I have been given permission to do just that. :) In the past, we have done much more shared writing than this year. I am not sure what happened, but I am excited about finishing one story we have been working on and moving on to another. The kids love it!

To demonstrate sequencing and organization, I cut and scramble sentences from text we have read and then the students put them in order. This is similar to what Regie Routman did with younger groups of students who put words together in sentences.

I really enjoyed this chapter especially because of the step by step instructions of the best practices of shared writing. I am anxious to get started with my kids!!