Cold plums and the old men in the water: Let children read and write “great” poetry

I found this article to have some great ideas on how to begin teaching poetry in the classroom.  I agree that it is important to read poetry from the great poets and the contemporary poets.  Children do need to be exposed to a variety of poetry in order to find their own voice.  I like how the article said students must search for their own meaning.  When I was a student in school there were times I felt the teacher expected us to find the same meaning.  I believe that discouraged me in reading and writing poetry.  I felt like I would not get the correct meaning and it would be wrong.  This article and also comments from Dr. Frye have encouraged me to look at poetry in a new and different way.  I want to be able to “provide the link” for my students.  I agree with Collom and Noethe that we do need to guide children so they will be able to become writers and write their own poetry.  I also liked how Fletcher said to write about “everyday observations and favorite stories.”  This is something that students can relate to and I believe it would definitely motivate them to write more.  This is much better than giving them a specific topic or prompt to write about.  I liked the idea of writing a poem about a conversation, too.  This is another approach children would enjoy.  Basically, you can write about anything and that is what students will enjoy.  It will motivate them to be great writers.

Children Can Write Authentically If We Help Them

I found Graves’ perspective on writing interesting.  He basically says that “choice is meaningless unless we show our students how to connect choice with honest struggles and issues” (p.2).  One way he said that we as teachers could promote authentic voices amongst our students is to have an authentic voice ourselves.  Graves says the key word is “wants” (p.3).  He says that children want to understand and if they write this will help them to understand.  I enjoyed what the student, Jeff, wrote about “Four Ways of Curing Writer’s Block.”  If writing to understand actually works, then we should have our students writing everyday.  Students need to understand the issues going on around them.  I believe this is where journals would come into play.  Students can write about these issues that they want to understand and make some meaning of them.  Graves says, “I find that writing ten minutes a day, showing the details of the world I live in, makes a big difference in the quality of both my writing and living” (p.5).

Best Practices – Ch. 10

I believe the phrase “motivating students to write” means encouraging them to write to the point that they will see a need for writing and the importance of it.  As teachers, we need to have writing activities that promote a positive experience with writing so students will develop a positive attitude toward writing.

According to the authors of Chapter 10, if you are interested in something and care deeply about it does not necessarily mean that you are interested in writing about it.  They say students need to find the topic worthwhile to write about it.  I guess the authors raise a point.  I haven’t thought about it this way before.  I’ve always thought if a student was interested in a topic then he/she would definitely want to write about it.  It does make sense that we want to do things that are worthwhile and meaningful.

I believe it is important for students to experience writing as a social activity.  When I was in high school years ago, I don’t believe writing was approached as a social acitivity.  It was more of an individual activity and the writing was evaluated by the teacher.  We did not interact much with our classmates during writing.  I believe the approach of writing as a social activity is more positive and produces better and more motivated writers.  What better way way to learn to write than to share ideas, discuss them and provide feedback!  I believe this is an excellent way.  I will use this approach in my classroom as I have students interact with the teacher and classmates.

In my kindergarten classroom, we began implementing Writers’ Workshop and the students interacted with each other during their writing time.  If they had a question, for example, while I was conferencing, they could feel free to talk it over with another classmate.  I had student-teacher conferences during Writers’ Workshop to conference with a child.  I provided feedback during the conference.  Writers shared their stories with their classmates.  We had an author for the day who shared his story.  We encouraged writers as we found something positive that he/she was doing in his/her writing.  For example, they may have remembered to space or use periods.  They may have used descriptive words. 

I strive to make student writing tasks worthwhile, useful, collaborative, authentic and interesting.  I believe all of these factors are important aspects of a writing lesson.  As mentioned earlier, students want their writing tasks to be worthwhile and useful.  They want something that is meaningful.  In my classroom, we try to work on writing activities that have meaning for the kindergartner.  We work collaboratively.  Sometimes this is done in small groups or with a partner or the teacher.

Chapter 10 emphasizes student choice in writing.  The authors use the words “authentic” and “interesting.”  “Authentic” writing “should enable students to discover their voice” (p. 206).  A second meaning of “authentic” is “to involve students in authentic writing tasks” (p. 206).  This is where they use these tasks for enjoyment and communication.  As mentioned earlier, students may not necessarily want to write about something that is interesting to them unless the topic is worthwhile.  In Graves’ article, he states that “choice is meaningless unless we show our students how to connect choice with honest struggles and issues” (p. 2).  He believes students want to understand the world they live in and writing will help them do that.  I believe Chapter 10 leans more toward student choice with “authentic” writing and topics that are worthwhile; whereas, Graves’ article leans toward “authentic” writing to understand.

Favorite Poems

The Thank-you Poem

By Brod Bagert

Thank you for another day,

To love

To work

To worship

And to play.

Thank you for these heartbeats,

This breath,

These precious hours.

Help me give light like your sun . . .

And receive it like your flowers.

Best Practices in Writing Instruction- Ch. 1

What does writing instruction look like in effective and engaging classrooms?

In effective and engaging classrooms students are engaged by doing something academic and there is a lot of teaching happening.  Teachers explain and model how to read and write.  Students are given skills and strategies to use as they learn to read and write.  They are encouraged and motivated as they apply strategies.  In an effective classroom, teachers want students to become independent writers where they can write on their own without constant attention from the teacher.  An effective teacher gives just enough support to make this happen.

In what kinds of writing do these students engage?  The teachers?  The school?

Students engage in many kinds of writing from journal writing to writing as a part of a social studies lesson.  Students may even write to explain a math problem.  Students should be able to write about things that are interesting to them.  Teachers write by modeling for the students.  They may model by writing a sentence or an essay or by teaching mechanics, spelling or handwriting.  Effective schools have writing instruction such as drafting and revising.  The school should engage in meaningful writing where writing is integrated into all subjects.

What do these classrooms look like?  What elements are present in your classroom?

The environment of effective and engaging classrooms have many writing materials and books in them.  Bulletin boards are covered with student work.  Areas in the room are used for student learning as well as the furniture placed in the room.  There are also tools and strategies for literacy.  The classes have classroom libraries that have a variety of high quality children’s literature.  Published books by students are in the classroom library.  Some classes may have a post office where students can mail letters that have been written.

When I had a kindergarten classroom, I had a writing center that had many writing materials.  In other centers, I had paper and pencils available that could be used if a student wanted to draw a picture or write about a story they had read.  I had notepads in the homeliving center to make lists.  Students could pretend they were waiters or waitresses and take orders on their pads.  Telephone books were also placed in this center.  I had a classroom library.  Books were organized by subjects and placed in baskets.  Bulletin boards were covered by student work.  Strategies were posted for students to use in their reading and writing.  For example, some of the strategies used were “I Remember” and “Alphabox.”  Students had journals and during Writing Workshop students had writing folders with pieces of work they were working on.  A mailbox was in the classroom where students could mail letters to each other.  As far as furniture goes, our county encouraged us not to have teacher desks.  The reasoning behind it was that it took up space that could be used for student learning.  If a desk remained in the classroom, it was to be off to the side and not the main focus of the room.

This year I am teaching kindergartners in a Title I Reading Program.  I have a small area where I will have 3-5 students at a time.  My environment will have similar things but will be limited due to space and lessons being taught.  I will not have centers, of course, since I am not in a classroom.  I will display student writing.  I will have a word wall, alphabet and strategies displayed.  I will have books to read but not as large of a library as I had in the classroom.  We will have writing folders and/or journals to use.

Hello world!

Hello!  Welcome to my first blog.