Chapter 10, 11, & 12 Response

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Chapter 9 Response

Based on my past few years of teaching, I believe that I can teach students to write high quality pieces of writing regarding content.  However, I feel that I struggle with teaching editing.  I have a hard time getting my students to really take their time to do a good job of editing.  I recently read Chapter 9 in “Writing Essentials” by Regie Routman.  I really liked her approach to editing.  First, she makes an editing expectation list with her class.  I believe this would give my students a voice and hold them more accountable.  Then, Regie Routman said that you should firmly tell students not to waste your conference time if they have not completed every editing expectation on the list, reread their writing, and fixed up most of their misspellings.  I really liked this idea and approach and plan on trying it in my classroom in the future.  I also liked the idea of doing a student directed writing conference or using a self-evaluation before a conference towards the end of the year after I have directed many writing conferences to model for the students.

Chapter 8 Response

I recently read Chapter 8 in “Writing Essentials” by Regie Routman, and it made me think about my view on Prewriting.  I would often have my students complete a graphic organizer for their prewriting.  I realized that I needed to broaden my ideas about prewriting.  I rarely use a graphic organizer as prewriting before I write.  I usually make an outline in my head or on paper before I begin writing a key point I want to address.  Also, I believe that I have underestimated the power of having conversations about writing.  As teachers we know that students can learn a lot and grow from discussing reading strategies and math concepts.  Students can also learn a lot and grow from discussing writing.




Also, Regie Routman discussed finding time for writing.  I strongly believe that students need to have time to write.  I plan 30 minutes daily to write.  But, my students get more than just 30 minutes of writing a day.  They also have time to write in their journals in the morning for 10-15 minutes, along with times to write during reading and math.  I will have them write their thoughts and think about reading and math during that time.  I really like having students explain their thoughts and think about reading and math because it gives them more time to write and allows me to see what each of my students truly understands or what confuses them. 

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Chapter 7 Response

In my classroom I have always focused on producing high quality writing in content first.  Then, once my students were producing high quality writing in content I would shift my focus to spelling and conventions.  After I shifted my focus I usually found that my students were so focused on spelling and conventions that they were no longer focused on their quality of content in their writing.  I wondered what the best way was to teach my students so that they would produce both high quality writing in content and use proper spelling and conventions.  While reading Chapter 7 in Regie Routman’s “Writing Essentials” I found an approach I would like to try because I think that it would be successful.  I believe that I need to model my thinking about revision more and be sure that my students know why conventions matter.  Also, I really liked the section about teaching spelling well.  I teach and have the students use and practice different spelling patterns and etc.  I really liked the idea of highlighting these spelling patterns on my word wall for students to see and help them spell or sound out other words.



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