Chapter 4

I am a wee bit late- sorry... I am excited that we are getting so much closer to summer. :) I found this chapter like all the others very appropriate especially for what I am doing right now. My students do writing workshop and I keep struggling with allowing them to move quicker or slower and yet still complete something in order to keep the grade book. I really appreciated how she said that publishing is not the point. Writing is the point- sometimes I forget that. I still have questions on how exactly to work all of that but I am encouraged that this is possible. I love the list of advice from 4th graders followed by the high school students. The advice was so different which showed the maturity but I think at the same time showed how cluttered our minds get as we get older. When we are young we want to do things right and get the good grade but we don't have as much of a mess in our heads to filter through. We just haven't had enough time to accumulate "stuff." I love the line that said they need to write extensively, expansively and frequently. Sometimes I am afraid that my kids are going to say- again?! It hasn't happened yet and so I guess I need to chill about that. :) The reminder that writing is not a team process (the actual process) that we need time and to be inspired, a quiet and comfortable place to be inspired and that essentially criteria is good but should be bendable. My students get rubrics all the time but I like the idea of a specific handbook. Seems like no kidding but still its a good reminder.

Writing workshop is a continual search for one's own best personal process. What a fantastic reminder! I am trudging through National Boards right now- wish I was done, had planned to be done. But in my haste and madness to be done I sometimes forget that my kids really and truly need time, to write, process, read and think. A very timely reminder!! :)