Wednesday, March 12, 2008
Be Efficient and Integrate Basic Skills
Routman's first sentence in this chapter struck a chord with me, "We've made writing way too complicated by breaking it up into bits and pieces." Yet I find it hard to believe the students will learn the necessary skills by meaningful teaching of writing and then teaching the skills to support the writing as she suggests. I know that research says isolated skills work does not carry over, but it is hard at 5th grade not to do some. This chapter did have some great thoughts on voice and having an audience. I loved the quote "Voiceless writing is like soup with no seasoning." This chapter was full of helpful minilessons and ways to revise in front of the students. I made many notes and tabs to refer to when I'm back in school.
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2 comments:
I, too, loved her quote comparing writing without voice to soup without seasoning. I know some folks don't have a problem getting student to write with voice, but it's still a struggle for my students, despite all the "tricks" . . . talking before writing, telling students to write like they're talking to me, etc. Voice is the most significant hurdle I face with my students!
I agree that teaching the small things through writing is going to be hard. Hopefully the mini-lessons will aid in the teaching of grammar components.
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