The Writing Workshop: Response to Ch. 9 & 13

The first thing that caught my attention is that all of the classes we're taking are syncing up. I LOVE it when that happens. It just makes it easier to think deeply about a topic when you've had the opportunity to look at it from plenty of different angles. When you get to take time in multiple classes to look at one important topic, such as curriculum in the classroom, you get the amount of time that you need to really explore it. We've been discussing curriculum's place in the classroom for the past few weeks, and we always seem to come to the same answer: While curriculum undoubtably belongs in the classroom, it makes up only part of what teachers should teach and what learners should learn. Chapter 9 begins to explore the other ways that teachers teach during writing workshops.

The first part of a teacher's job in a writing workshop classroom that lies outside the curriculum is creating a space where good writing work can occur. Students need the time to allow their writing to develop as well as the materials to allow them to explore their writing. I definitely see this component in place in my practicum classroom. While the students are in their "work stations," which are essentially unsupervised centers, they spend one station working on writing of their choice. These students do this without any instruction or guidance from their teacher. She simply provides them with the time and materials that they need to do their work. Also falling under maintaining a good classroom environment, in my opinion, teachers need to make sure that their classroom is a safe space where students can learn from one another.

While the entire writing workshop time is filled with direct instruction of some kind, the only traditional type of direct instruction is during the focus lesson, which takes up a minimal amount of the workshop time. Focus lessons are short to maximize the amount of time that students can spend writing, but they need to use every second of the short amount of time that they are given to draw students in and give them a point to work on in their writing. From what I have read and seen, it is important that the focus lesson is designed to inspire students, and a teacher will need to know his or her students well to achieve this. That being said, even though there will not be much room for student input in the focus lesson, the lessons need to be created with the students in mind. Although the teacher is expected to do most of the talking, focus lessons are still very student-centered.

The Writing Workshop: Response to Chapters 5-8

As preservice teachers with limited classroom experience so far, we are sometimes delusional when we think about our future classroom. We envision our ideal classroom that works quietly and diligently from the beginning of the day until the dismissal bell. Above all else, we imagine that we will always be fully in control of everything that is going on in our classroom at all times. For this reason, reading a book like The Writing Workshop can sometimes be intimidating because it causes us to question our own definition of a functioning classroom.

The main idea that I took away from the reading in The Writing Workshop for this week is that the writing workshop should be structured while simultaneously being free-flowing. Students in the writing workshop should feel comfortable taking the time set aside for writing in whatever direction they want to go, and it is the teachers job to make this possible. The teacher is responsible for giving his or her students all of the materials,space, and time they may need during the writing process, from brainstorming to publication. It is the teachers job to give several suggestions for what students could spend their writing time doing. The teacher should also provide various types of spaces in which students can work, whether they may like to work sitting with friends, sitting by themselves, sitting at a desk, or stretched out on the floor. It is not, however, the teacher's job to tell the students what to write about or what steps they should follow on a given day.

The main obstacle that I will have to overcome as a teacher in a classroom with a writing workshop is letting go of some of that control. As a teacher, it will be my job to help students that are stuck in the writing process, but not to take over their project. It will be my job to create a safe space where my students feel comfortable exploring new topics and genres and taking risks to improve as a writer. As was explained in Chapter 8, it would be impossible to directly oversee the writing projects of every student in the class. Instead, I will have to act as a guide for my students when they need me.

The Writing Workshop: Response to Chapters 1-4

Since the first time that I wrote a short story of my very own, I have thought of myself as a writer. I continuously write for various purposes at school, but I also consistently write for my own purposes and on my own time. As I have grown up, writing has become a very important part of my life. I know that as a teacher, I hope to encourage my students to include writing as an important part in their daily lives as well. Something that I have struggled with, however, is how I can achieve this. Writing comes fairly easily to me, and I rarely struggle to get my thoughts down on paper. I have written for fun since I was very young, and no one had to encourage me to do so. I just did it because I wanted to. Obviously, only a small percentage of students are going to feel this way about writing, and it will be a challenge to keep an entire class engaged in daily writing activities, especially if those activities follow a traditional format.

Simply giving students a prompt to write about week after week and expecting them to go through the writing process for each piece is monotonous, and the teacher will surely lose students in the process. If students come to view writing as boring, they will have no desire to attempt to become better writers on their own. If they are constantly writing about prompts that they do not care about, they are not being given the opportunity to see the value of writing. Students need to be given the opportunity to write about something that is important to them so that they can begin to view writing as a way to send a message to the world. Writing of this kind also gives students the opportunity to share things about themselves in the classroom that they may not have a chance to share otherwise. This gives the teacher and students the chance to get to know each other better during writing workshop activities.

After reading through these chapters in the book, I took some time to think back to my experiences as a writer in elementary school. Specifically, I thought back to a very broad and open-ended writing assignment that I was given in 3rd grade. The only instruction that we were given was that our piece was to be non-fiction and informative and that the subject should have something to do with water. This assignment stands out in my memory, because I do not remember another time that I was given such freedom in choosing my topic to write about. I settled on writing about tiger sharks, and other students wrote about everything from the Titanic to the Loch Ness Monster. This assignment was so valuable, because it gave me the opportunity to research something that I wanted to explore and then present the information that I learned to the class. This allowed me as a student to see value both in the assignment and in writing in general.

I hope to include open-ended writing assignments in my classroom so that I can learn things about my students that can only be revealed through writing. A writer's hopes, dreams, fears, pain, happiness, and imagination come to the surface in their work. I hope to write alongside my students in the classroom so that they can learn these things about me as well. It is important for students to see that their teacher is making a journey as a writer just as they are. This idea was heavily emphasized in the reading for this week. Not only is it important for a teacher to think of each of his or her students as a writer with valuable things to say, but it is important for students to see their teacher as a writer as well. The best way to do this, in my opinion, would be to include myself in the writing workshop in the classroom by creating my own piece that fits each assignment and sharing it with the class. I believe that this will motivate my students to become better writers and also to view others' writing critically, no matter what position that person holds. I want my students to know that I understand that I have room to grow and that I am open to criticism, so that they can understand that constructive criticism can help them grow as a writer as well.

As a teacher, I hope to model constructive writing workshop behavior in the classroom to help it become a seamless part of my daily routine. I hope to encourage my students to work together as a writing community to help each other produce the best writing possible. By creating a safe environment where students have room to grow, I hope to help them develop a love for writing like the one that I have myself.