Friday Reflections

Here’s   some insight about what I gleaned from our writing activities from last Friday’s   National Day on Writing.    We did   two   activities to honor the day – 1) one with teachers and    2) one with all students. Fist, the activity   centering around the teachers -   Thank you   teachers for your thought provoking responses to the   prompt:  One of my strong beliefs about writing is…  As the poster hung in   the lounge, I’m hoping that Pershing staff had a chance to notice and reflect   on so many of our   beliefs around writing – so similar and yet diverse as   well.    It is powerful and enlightening to   compare - and sometimes -   contrast our beliefs. Several teachers shared that they are “regular” writers and some touted how beneficial the practice of journaling is in their lives.   Let me encourage those teachers to share appropriate writing entries with their students and think aloud as you share so that students can see why you wrote what you did.  It’s this aspect

The following is Regie Routman’s guidelines to consider when teaching kids to write. When any writer- regardless of age – takes pen in hand to write s/he thinks: ·      What do I want to say? ·      How can I say it clearly? ·      How can I explain important ideas so readers will be convinced to consider my ideas? ·      How can I write to attract the reader’s attention and interest Certainly the older writer brings more awareness of these guidelines to the writing process.  But all good writers need to learn to be clear and concise – “tighten it up” “reader is going to tire” “what’s really important here anyway” .  So as we compose, we create sentences that are too long – some too short, words that are boring, not enough transitions that will help the reader follow.  Right now I am considering all of these things because of you the reader. So Calkins, Murray, Routman and others tell us the above process is what we teachers of writers need to continually consider – teaching t

I grew up playing baseball. From T-ball through high school, one of the first things we did when arriving at the field was to throw the ball to each other – lots of throws.  The coach would hit hit us pop-ups, line drives, and ground balls– I can still hear “Stachura –it’s coming to you”.  I lived close to an elementary school playground and we neighborhood kids spent many an afternoon playing baseball.  I spent hours throwing the ball against the cement walls in my basement. And, as I moved up through the age categories, I played with different players and learned under different coaches.  But the one constant through the years of playing baseball – play the game.   And, the more I practiced and played in real games, the better I got. Consider a talent you have more or less mastered –a cook, maybe you are a bridge or poker player, a tennis player, an artist – whatever – you got good, by doing it. So how do kids become proficient writers – they need to write and write routinely.

Good evening  I am curious about your own writing.  Do any of you have a writing practice, such as, journaling?  Just wondering.  If I were a betting man, I’d put money on it that many of you do have a writing habit of sorts – if not now, perhaps earlier in life.  Please consider sharing a posting with us – or even on the bigger stage of Two Writing Teachers Blog. Last week I talked about the blog – Two Writing Teachers. This blog offers us the opportunity to share a piece of our own writing on pretty much any subject. You will find the means to do that under “Slice of Life” .  Just wanted to throw this out to anyone so inclined.  I’m going to push myself to post something.  Courage, right?    At any rate, my thoughts on writing focused on Heart Maps or Close to the Bone maps.  It seems to me that such a map would be beneficial for different writing responses, and most especially when we require students to write to an on-demand assessment.  We want to get a baseline