Do More Shared Writing

This chapter so encouraged me to get out there and do more shared writing in the classroom! The idea of shared writing was well supported with research and Routman really made the correlation to reading. I loved the idea for book reviews, and other responses to reading, which will help students meet reading standards. This chapter was especially full of teaching suggestions to make shared writing a success.
I appreciated the suggestions for reading groups which will help me be more efficient for writing and reading.

Raise Your Expectations

This is the very subject that seems to haunt myself as a teacher, because I feel torn between letting them create and having it readable. I agree with what Routman said about the finished product, "Work published for a reader has to be as perfect as we can get it." That is the way it is in the real world. Getting there is always the difficult part.
During this chapter I started asking myself, have I lowered my expectations in writing, conventions, etc. for my students? Sad to say, I think I have on some of their daily papers and such. How high to have those expectations has been a struggle. Demonstrating to them, how to do it well, has been effective recently, but I must agree with Routman, teaching breaks down when my demonstrations are not effective. This is most evident in the struggling students, who need more attention or more demonstrations.

Share Your Writing Life

Talk about being vulnerable!! Writing in front of your colleagues, as Routman suggests, seems like a hard sale to a staff unless a number of them are also reading this book. Maybe not, but even as a learning experience, it seems it might be hard for buy in. I do like the thought of compiling such writings by the teachers. What a great example for students to read and be inspired by.
My students have been journaling to tell me about their breaks, weekends, readings, or other events they want to share this year. It has become a favorite time of sharing. Reading Routman's suggestion to list your writing practices was an interesting activity. It is surprising just how much we do write daily. And I agree with "what our students need to see demonstrated is exactly what we are asking them to do-write on demand, within a set time."

Today I saw why I am taking this class. As the class worked on the 2nd activity of the KS Writing Pilot, writing the rough draft, I noticed one student, after 15-20 minutes, still not writing. I leaned down to ask if he was having a problem, and to remind him to use his planning from the previous day's activity. He turned his page to the planning page, which contained a circles with "I don't know what to write" and "I don't know" written several times. By now tears were rolling down his face. What have we created with tests? Hopefully taking this class will inspire instead of defeat! (Not all students were having this experience. One students said as I roamed the room, "I'm really on a roll!") :)

Start with Celebration

This was an amazing chapter which inspired me to encourage my students in their writing, no matter how small the success. And it was amazing. We celebrated great leads, just as Mrs. Routman suggested. Not only am I changing, but I can see my students responding in such a positive way. This week we started "special moments" valentines as Routman describes on pg.21 and pg. 201. I introduced the idea with the suggestion on pg. 25, modeling the whole lesson. The question I heard over and over was, "Do we really get to send them to the people?". They really responded to writing with meaning, including soaking in my 'moment', helping rewrite mine to sound just right, and talking about theirs out loud. And the moments were so well written!! They had great leads, tender stories, and were so full of heart!!