How's it Going Again?

If someone were to ask me how’s it going with writing in my classroom prior to reading “how’s it going?” I would more than likely have avoided the question and tried to change the subject or either simply would've responded with, “It’s going.” However, now I feel better about conferring with my students about their writing. I also know that if I do not get the response that I am seeking each time that it is okay, it simply means that I may need to do some more modeling and explicit teaching of my students’ role in conferring.

Being that I do not consider writing to be a strong area of mine, reading “how’s it going?” pointed me in new directions as far as my practice more so than it squared with my thinking. I also found that there were things that I still wondered about after the reading.

Mentor Text

Our program has been very big on educating us on educating our students to be advocate for themselves. We have learned a lot about how to teach our students how to be leaders in their own learning. Anderson shows us how to allow for our students to be facilitators of their own learning when it comes to the writing with the help of mentor text, mini lessons, and conferences. Anderson (2000) states, “When we are successful in showing students how to learn from writing mentors, we teach students how to teach themselves (p. 110). Not every teacher will utilize the writing workshop structure in their classroom. So it is important that our students have resources and know where to go if they need help. With mentor text, regardless of how writing is taught in the classroom, students know that they always have a point of reference to refer to when “writer’s block” occurs. Something that I do still wander about, is Anderson’s (2000) notion, “Instead of giving students critical feedback, I ask the mentor to give it. That is, I have students compare what they’ve written to their mentors writing” (p.118). I am very confident in my student’s ability to do this; however, being that I do teach Kindergarten where social and emotional development is still a critical part of their learning, I wonder how my students may do this without feeling that they’re writing isn’t good enough. I wonder would they be able to use the mentor text as feedback or would they simply copy the exact style of the writing instead of using it to gather ideas and compose their own writing. I also had a big question of how do I find books to create a mentor text set collection for my students. Anderson made the most important assertion (which I already knew of course), which is that mentor text need to be reflective of my students. “First, our collections of mentor texts should reflect the voices and experiences of the children in our classrooms...A collection of mentor texts should also include a variety of genres… Finally, [they] should be crafted in different ways” (Anderson, 2000, p.133). I also appreciate the example of mentor text that can be found in the appendices of “how’s it going?”

Mini-lessons

Another important part of Writer’s Workshop are mini-lessons. “Mini-lessons give us opportunities not only to give students information about different kinds of writing work, but to persuade students to adopt our agendas for them as writers as their own, and equip them to try out what we teach in their independent writing” (Anderson, 2000, p.139). The mini lessons is something that I have had difficulty with in the past.  Not because I do not know what they should entail but because I would be so focused on getting the timing right for my anxious five and six year olds. Sometimes, our mini lessons wouldn't be mini at all and I would lose track of time and find myself competing with time and find us not having time to practice what I had just taught.  Anderson (2000) asserts, "Mini-lessons are effective, then, only when we inspire and enable students to try out what we've taught" (p. 139). I also find myself sometimes worrying about making sure that my students have enough practice time that our mini lessons are indeed mini and in these cases the content is not comprehensible.  Anderson (2000) writes “While the content of their mini-lessons changes from day to day, the way that they structure the lessons remains constant (p.140). Reflecting on Writer’s Workshop this is indeed true, so once the structure is solidified everything else will fall into place.

Share Session

In my classroom the share session, if we even get to that part of Writer’s Workshop that day, usually includes student sharing their writing and drawing. I don’t recall ever asking my students what strategies from the mini lesson helped them in writing for the day which is interesting because during math talks when it’s time to share, those types of questions come naturally. Anderson (2000) asserts, “During the share, students talk about and show the work they did during the period that was inspired by the mini lesson (p. 152). Anderson (2000) then goes on to say, “The point of the share session is for students to discuss work they did as writers that period, not to read their pieces aloud from beginning to end” (p.152).  Earlier I mentioned that sometimes we do not always get to the share part of Writer’s Workshop but when I read how the share part of the workshop inspires students, it makes me see the share sessions importance in a new light. "When students see that their classmates have tried what we talked about in mini-lessons, they are often inspired to try the same work" (Anderson, 2000, p. 153). Knowing this, I am going to strive to make sure that we are actively engaging in the share session part of Writer’s Workshop everyday whether it be turn and talks or at least one person sharing aloud with the class.

I am excited to read the last section of “how’s it going?” I’m sure after it’s all said and done, I’ll be able to respond with more than just and okay!