I hope I am not the only who is willing to admit this, but I cringed as I read on page 174 what a writing workshop is NOT. Guilty of doing one or two of the items listed, but gaining wisdom chapter by chapter! Finding time for daily writing is a struggle, but as Regie reminds us throughout, " We make time for what we value". The teaching tip on page 175 to "keep the flow"- at least write on consecutive days was good advice, because we all have those hectic weeks when 3 days of writing is the best we can do.
Regie continues to emphasize what is required to have a classroom of excellent writers:
*always encourage your students in their writing
*students write for a purpose and an audience
*model model model
*focus on the Optimal Learning Model
*write across the curriculum
The two classroom schedules on pages 185-186 provided excellent food for thought in the continual quest for finding that optimal schedule for writing.
I loved the list of short writing projects on pages 198-199. Regie recommended that starting in second grade, students should publish at least one piece of writing a month. I appreciated finally having someone answer that question for me - how often should a student publish a writing.
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4 comments:
Mindy,
Like you, I really liked her ideas for writing schedules during the week and the fact that she is understanding of the fact that sometimes concentrated writing every day may not happen.
Also, when she talks about different ways students can write, it makes me realize that we really do write more than I realized. :)
I too loved the suggestions on P.198. I think I need to make a copy and keep them handy on my bulletin board as a reference and reminder. I have class books from when I taught third grade. I'm going to take them out and let my 6th graders read them. I would like to try more writing projects with my class. Reviewing those may be the spark we need.
I thought her schedule on pg 185 was a little unbalanced. When we have state testing on science and social studies, we should have a much longer span of time that 30 minutes to teach "science, social studies, health, science journals." That is very unrealistic especially in the upper grades where the testing on other subjects begins.
I also enjoyed the list of Short Writing Projects on p. 198-199. The short projects can sure make ALL students have success at writing! I need to keep this list handy.
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