This week I read some different pieces about writing and ways to incorporate different kinds of writing into your class. The most important take away from my reading this week is that it is important to have your students writing everyday and as much as possible. Also, it is important for students to be able to write freely and experiment with their writing because that can also be important in helping them grow as young writers.
The first piece that I read was Ralph Fletcher’s article called “The Writer’s Notebook.” This article really resonated with me because right now I am having my own students that I am working with writing in a writer notebook and it gave me a lot of ideas to how to improve it along with a lot of validation that I am on the right track. I am teaching kindergartners right now and so far, most of them seem to love their writer’s notebook and seem to be very excited to write in it. However, I do have some students who are really having a hard time with it. I teach writing in two different groups because we team teach, and one group gets so excited and needs minimal help with the writing process after I model an example for them. They got so excited when they finish a sentence and come running over to me to show me what they wrote, some of these students transform when they are writing into what seems to be different people because of their enthusiasm. The other group has struggled a little with the writer’s notebook and seem to not know what to write about when given a broad topic. This article gave me some good ideas but also left me with a lot of questions such as:
How to help all the students in a given time when six or seven of them will not write or want you to sound out all the words for them?
How can I help them to take the leap and take a chance with their writing? (I have encouraged them to write what they think they hear in words and whatever they can do will be good for me, and they still will not put any letters on the page)
What to do when you have a large group of students and have some flying through amazingly with their writing and including appropriate sounds in their words and making complete sentences and in that same group having those students who are not willing to put anything on their papers, telling me that they cannot write?
In the article, Fletcher writes, “The writer’s notebook gives kids a place where they can enjoy language for its own sake.” I think that this is what I am seeing with some of my students, but those few who have it stuck in their head that they cannot write on their own, how do I help them get to a place where they can enjoy language and believe in themselves the way I do?
Another thing that Fletcher writes that is an important take away for teachers is that “A writer’s notebook can be many things: a place to make mistakes, to experiment, to record overhear conversations or family stories…” I think when students are writing it is important to not critic them for every mistake they make, just let them write and give them good models and mentor texts and over time work and do mini-lessons in areas that they many need specific help. This then leads into the chapter that I read in the textbook called Mentor Texts: Teaching Writing Through Children’s Literature, K-6.
“Mentor texts are pieces of literature that we can return to again and again as we help our young writers learn how to do what they may not yet be able to do on their own” (pg. 6)
So far, this book seems to be a great one that every teacher should read who teaches writing to students. I learned a lot in this about how to use mentor texts and why they are so important. This is especially important who may be hesitant to let students’ “copy” another person’s ideas. This book is showing that allowing students to do that could play a major role helping students to learn and grow as writers.
As a teacher, I found their advice on how to choose a mentor text very beneficial and good to keep in mind when it does come time to choose a text:
1. You must connect with the book and love it
2. Look through the book to find examples of the author’s craft
3. Think about how it would serve your students’ needs and connect to curriculum
4. Make sure to have a good balance of genres
One think that the authors mentioned in that book is using the book Crysanthemum by Kevin Henkes as a mentor text and I think that may be something that I try out with my students soon. My students really loved writing their about the author page in their writing notebooks the other day so I think using Crysanthemum as a mentor text and then have students write about their own names could be something they really engage with. The book is about the joy and sadness about having a unique name and the students seem to really like to write about themselves so they could do an opinion type of piece where they write about if they like their name and why or why not. I think that could be something that they get really into and have fun with.
Serendipity
This week I also read about Serendipity in the book Textbook Amy Krouse Rosenthal by Amy Krouse Rosenthal. She describes what serendipity is to her and after reading that section, I have come to understand that serendipity is kind of when things fit perfectly into place without planning them that way. It is also something that you could be looking for or just happens by coincidence and finds you at the perfect time. At this point in time I cannot think of a moment where I experienced serendipity, but I will now be on the look out for them and will start jotting them down when they happen in my own writer’s notebook.
This reminds me, I also started my very own writer’s notebook this week and so far, it is going well. I have never been much of a writer, but after making a couple entries in my notebook this week I am super excited to continue and write more as I come up with more ideas. One of the things that I wrote about this week can be seen to the right I decided to make a like and write all the different things that make me laugh. After reading a couple pages in Textbook Amy Krouse Rosenthal I decided that was the perfect thing to write about first and just writing about all those things put a smile on my face. Now, I have some more writing ideas that I could come back to in the future to write about.
Another entry that I made in my writer’s notebook was about how our words were made, I know that they were developed from different languages and changed over time, but I thought it was fun to think that there was a word master somewhere creating all the words and getting exhausted over time as he had to make them and that is why some words are spelled funny. This idea came to me while working on writing with my students, they were having a hard time understanding why of was spelled o-f and not u-v. This entry can be seen below:
Resources:
Fletcher, R. (2001). The writer's notebook. National Council of Teachers of English, 6(4), 1-6.
Rosenthal, A. K. (2016). Textbook Amy Krouse Rosenthal. New York, NY: Dutton.
Dorfman, L. R. & Cappelli, R. (2017). Mentor texts: Teaching writing through children's literature, K-6. Portland, MA: Stenhouse Publishers.