Chapter 9

Voice, Voice Voice... what an awesome chapter (as always and sorry for being late, I thought I had already entered)
As I work through figuring out how exactly to do my demo I actually felt like a few of the things that she used in this chapter to explain voice could possibly be adapted and used by me...
Voice can be taught but most importantly it must be allowed to come out and be experimented with it must be encouraged. I thought that was essentially the essence of this chapter. I have often gotten extremely excited by my students voice but I don't always tell them what I enjoyed specifically- I must do that.
Knowing that voice comes from who we are was also really important to note because we all sound different... I need to encourage my students to read aloud and listen to the rythm in their writing even more than what we already do.
We are currently working on poetry and so the timing is perfect... poetry is SO rythmical.
I encourage my students to write about things that are important to them, things that matter and so hopefully their voice will continue to grow as we continue to experiment. Voice is power and all my students have that power which is cool.
I appreciated the writer's notebook entry from Barry Lane and it made me realize that its okay if a student needs to adopt a different persona, even if it lasts for awhile. When they do that they are able to be someonelse and that can be very freeing. I am excited to work even more on encouraging my students writing voice. What an excellent book this is!!

Chapter 8

Today at our pre-institute day my group was brainstorming for demos and I just found this chapter really timely. We want our students to write and sometimes structure is helpful but we want them to write and experiment and make something uniquely their own. I loved the comparison between writing and a really great recipe, like an amazing soup. Then the example ofr pre-packaged food and how its calorie fulfilling and the same and that is why we eat it. That really struck me because so often we want something easy and comfortable but the point is to write something to be read- love that!
Once again I loved getting her take on writing steps and the admission that thinking is hard. If writing is thinking on paper that means that every so often its going to be hard... but anything worthwhile may once in awhile be hard, I think...
The questions she identified on page 124 to springboard writing excited me because this is the kind of reflective writing that I want my students to do. The thing about these types of questions is that once again they are pulling on what they know, their strengths and themselves. If we are the experts on anything it is ourselves.
I love the quote from William Faulkner- "Writing is one-third imagination, one- third experience and one third observation."
Formula is helpful, it seems like it should be the way to go but life is not a formula. I am reminded of the last chapter that said at the end of all of this the point is to see what our kids can do with the resources they have been given- I am paraphrasing. In my fight to teach this way rather than worry about all the state assessments, thus far, my kids, when given these types of writing opportunities always rise to the occasion. I really liked the line on page 127 where Stephen Kramer asked the question, "I wonder, though,whether anyone has calculated the effects of writing test pressures on student's love of writing. " I think that is a great questions, wondering if anyone is checking?? :)
In my class I am asking my kids to be vulnerable, open and raw. That is a super scary position to put them into. But once I have set up that safety net the rewards for this type of writing are amazing.

Writing Project book- book an hour

I read this book about a year and a half ago for the class I was taking w/the UWP. I appreciate this book because as much as I wanted to do writing workshop trying to implement it into the middle school model is challenging. The book is extremely encouraging but also really useful. I was reminded of why we do things the way we do as well as remembering that sometimes we have to change things in order to fit our kids.
I need to be reminded that this is worth it. There is a reason behind the madness. That is such a useful thing to be reminded of... Conferencing ends up being the hardest with short amounts of time so I loved that I got the chapter that remined me why conferencing is important and that the main thing I need to do is LISTEN :)

Chapter 7

This book makes me smile in so many ways. In this stage of education assessment is a really big deal. We have state assessments, comparing assessments (for us the ITBS) and then we have to be assessing our students and in Greenville County we have a certain amount of assessment types that must be entered in each category. 

What really stood out for me in this chapter was the call for teachers to make sure they are reading and writing so that our assessment is accurate. I thought her three guidelines for assessment was extremely helpful. I need to remember to be perceptive, compassionate and make sure that the assessment feedback that I give my students is useful. I grade my students with rubrics and I work hard to give them feedback that they can take back to their current writing and make better. But I know that I fail often. In my effort to keep up with all my students I am not always assessing every single aspect of their writing. I know that is fine but still I worry that I miss something. When they do something well I work hard to highlight what they have done well. I want my students to write and write a lot and be brave with that writing. My fear is that in encouraging my students to write I am not always correcting the mechanics that they are lacking. I know that as they get braver I can do that but I want to make sure that I don't miss that instruction along with giving them confidence to write. I really appreciated the reminder that reading and writing is so hand in hand. I have always believe that but the line on page 100 reminded me of the importance- "People who read for the sheer joy of it also appreciate the many forms writing can take." I liked the example of people who understand what is happening appreciating the risk that someone is taking. As a rider I have so much respect for that person who gets right back up and takes that jump again because I know how scary that can be. As a reader and a writer I so appreciate someone who can make my heart skip a beat or scare or inspire me or even make me cry. That is a part of my reading and writing community that needs to be grown. 

I call my students a community of readers and writers right from the beginning of school. I want them to think of themselves as those type of people. Also, whenever, we look at other authors I pull them into conversation by still calling them authors even though we haven't officially published I want them to know that they could, maybe, at some point... :) 

I found it very good also to know that my students are allowed to collaborate but at the end of the day they make the choices. The line on page 99 - Collaboration does not, sad to say, guarantee success, It only provides the writer with with new jumping off points. The writer must still know how to make use of of the responses she receives. Not all advice is good or even helpful. Writers must learn to sift through the trivia and find the gems. " Further down, "In the end, despite everything, the writer is alone with her blank sheet of paper." These lines leaped out at me. My students must be equipped because at the end of the day (which I knew ) its still down to them to put their thoughts on paper. The line that comes after basically says what we need to know is how do they do using all their resources. Writing is the production of meaning- love that! It is thinking. So, until we are all like KY, I will continue to work on creating this environment in my classroom. For now, I will keep the words of Samantha Abeel in the back of my mind and remember to encourage my students always, more than criticize because if they feel they can do it, all the details will fall in line. 

Chapter 6

I feel like I just keep repeating myself but I feel like this book is such a good reminder. I constantly feel justified in certain actions but at the same time gain so many new ideas. I teach 4 classes that are 64 minutes long and I feel I am constantly working against the clock. This is my second year really doing writing workshop and I feel like it is so important and so I keep carving out time for my students to write. I am rather worried about next year as I lose even more time to read aloud to my students, allow them time to read and write but I guess we'll figure that out in hopes that I have a job. :) 

I appreciated her ideas for writing w/students as well as showing them how I go through the process of brainstorming and editing.  I liked her line that said if a picture is a worth a thousand words than modeling is worth a thousand pictures. Everything I ask my students to do I need to be doing as well. I do this but I need to do it a lot. I liked the idea of asking for topics and then working through how I grapple with the idea and decisions. I will be doing that next week. I sometimes worry that when I start to write on the board they all stop to watch, but that really is what they are supposed to do and so thats okay.

I appreciated the ideas of using the different writers, sharing with students how we may need to walk away from something- making notes, helping them to create spaces that really speak to them as writers. I think reminding them that writing is really hard work and that writing well is even harder is good. I want my students to see how important their work is and that is may take a while.

The way writers work and process was a good reminder for me too. Sometimes I want them to have an idea before they head to the computer because I want to see their notes. I need to let them get on a computer if thats what they want and then show them how to use the markup button to make notes so that I can see their process still. I will be modeling these lessons a lot in the next week as we prepare for the last part of the PASS and continue through poetry. We have been writing all year but these will be good reminders to leave them with as they head to high school.