Chapter 12 Make Every Minute Count

WOW! I'm done reading these chapters. I hope this book makes me a better teacher of writing and I do think that it has helped me see some things I need to do as a teacher. Being a sixth grade teacher I have to look at the whole picture that I have to be equally worried and equally giving to all subject matter that I teach. In her last chapter she almost sounds like she doesn't teach anything but writing so you shouldn't take any work home at all. That's not possible because we don't have the time at school to assess all subject matter everyday. I do care about my kids and hopefully make their lives a little bit more fulfilling by being in my class.

Chapter 11 Build on Best Practice and Research

So, in this chapter it sounds like no writing program is good enough to strictly teach to learn how to write. I guess she assumes that all teachers are great writers and are able to become awesome teachers because they can write. This means that ALL students will become great writers because the teacher is a great writer. So, does that also mean that a teacher that is a great artist will make ALL students great artists and that a teacher that is a great musician will make ALL students great musicians, and so on and on. Not all teachers are great writers and need programs to help them teach writing, otherwise why do we need textbooks to teach other subjects. I'm not saying she's wrong but not all of us are "born" writers or have the ability to become writers. It has to do with some natural ability also as all talents go in every area of life. We are all good at something but very few are good at everything. She sounds like she is an excellent writer and excellent teacher of writing and maybe reading also, but is she as good at every subject? She is putting alot of emphasis on the fact we are all good writers and can make everybody a good writer and I disagree with that. We need other means just in case. I know that good teachers can tweak things to make them better in our classrooms and to help students become better learners but she sounds like we are suppose to make every student a professional writer. I wish that was possible.

Chapter 10 Make Assessment Count

Interesting chapter! So assessments are negative because they demonstrate what they do "wrong" with language rather than what they do well. She definitely has an opinion about standardized tests and what they do as far as writing goes. She sounds like she's not to crazy about six trait writing also. I am glad to see that when we developed our rubric, it fit in with being child-friendly. I understand that she sees writing in a different light than everybody else but it still comes down to scores on assessments. Until something is done about NCLB and "accountability" we still have to do what we have to do to get good scores. It would be great to just teach and see progress with writers , readers, creativity, but we have to be held "accountable" for their learning.

Chapter 9 Conference with Students

Whew! When I saw the heading for this conference my first reaction was what she stated in her first paragraph. There was no way I was going to be able to conference with all my kids every week. After reading this chapter I realized that I have done quite a few of the things that are considered conferencing. I definitely need to do alot more and more consistently with my class. This chapter was very good and gives a great deal of information to help the students become better writers. I was pleased that I was doing some of theses things and pleased that I felt this chapter was very helpful to me.

Chapter 8 Organize for Daily Writing

This chapter seems to put writing at the top of the list for all curriculum. This is nice but as we know there are other subjects just as important as writing. The State makes that quite obvious. I'm sure the author is an unbelievable awesome teacher at teaching writing and or reading and that this is her specialty. Looking at the schedule for the 4th grade class, it would be great to have a schedule like that. It is so much harder to get the time in when you have band and pullouts and all the other time consuming things that go on in the school day. I do see what she is trying to accomplish with writing and making better writers by reading. I do think that being organized and knowing your subject matter is very important and that you should write everyday but to me that would be the perfect school with the perfect students to be able to do that. I feel like I'm a terrible teacher because I can't do all these things she suggests. I hope to be able to be half the teacher she is but evidently I have a long way to go.

Chapter 7 Be Efficient and Integrate Basic Skills

Writing with meaning and to an audience is something we have all been trying to do. I suppose some of us still get caught up in teaching skills first and making sure that the writers know how to write correctly so that their papers are perfect instead of letting them write and then learn as they go. Not having taught writing for very long, I'm still learning all the in and outs of teaching writing. I'm not an expert and I've got along way to go to be a decent writing teacher. As I read these chapters, all kinds of thoughts go through my head as to whether the author is full of herself to she must be the guru of teaching writing. I don't know whether she knows what she is doing or if this is the perfect way to teach writing. I think she has some great ideas but I'm still leery to some of her ideas. I think mini lessons are a great idea and I should incorporate them more in my classroom. I hope I can become a better teacher by reading this book and hope that she shows me how.

Chapter 6 Capitalize on the Reading-Writing Connection

This is one chapter that I agree alot with the author. I do think that reading has a very big part in the writing process and makes for better writers. Writing in all curriculum areas is a great idea that I have touched upon a little bit but not enough. We were doing some writing in math but then got caught up in getting ready for assessments and the writing became less important at the time.
I like the statement about reading as much as possible and can put their hands on a variety of interesting and varied reading material. We try to give them lots of time to read and also read to them. In a normal school day it's not going to be possible to give them as much as the author thinks we should though. Time is as always a prime commodity during the school day to get everything done that has to be done.
I do like some of her teaching tips that she gives us throughout the book.

Chapter 5 Do More Shared Writing

I have been anxiously waiting to read this chapter because of co-workers having already read and did a shared writing activity in their classroom. The teachers had fun and I think the students had fun doing this activity. I read what my class had done with their reading teacher and it was very humorous. I look forward to trying activity with my class and hopefully doing many times before the end of the year. I can see where this can help a struggling writer "see" how to write a story by having the class as a whole come up with the story.

Chapter 4 Raise Your Expectations

As a teacher, I expect all my students to do well on every thing they do. Teaching sixth grade has many more challenges because of what is expected of them at this grade level. We expect them to do well on reading assessments, math assessments, social studies assessments, writing assessments, science tests, spelling tests, language tests, perfect social behavior, perfect manners, creative artists, musicians and athletes just to name a few. I would love to have perfect students every year that can do everything. I know that students do better with high expectations and praise but there are still those out there that can't or need more help than can be given. What do we do with those students who don't meet our expectations? Maybe I'm looking at this all wrong. It says "Do not accept failure as an option" but what if there is failure. Not every child is an artist, not every child is a musician, not every child is a math genius, so how high do we set the bar and what do we do if they don't succeed as a writer?

Chapter 3 Share Your Writing Life

This chapter troubles me a little. Every time we have had to write something in meetings to share, I have a very difficult time writing something down. I'm also having problems writing these blogs. In front of my students I have no problem with sharing books that I have read or stories that I have or even showing a different side of me. With my peers I have a problem. Writing in a group setting and sharing isn't something I could do comfortably. I suppose I could try but it wouldn't be myself. With all that I do, I have difficulty finding "time" to do all the things I want to do. One of the things I try very hard to do is read books that my students would read. I'm able to share and give students ideas as to what to read. We can also talk about the books. I try to read aloud to my class as often as I can but I need to be more rigid with it. I need to write more to be able to share more.

Chapter 2 Start With Celebration

"I did it for the pure joy of the thing. And if you can do it for joy, you can do it forever." - Stephen King This statement by King goes along way with me because I find it very true in all things not just writing. If we truly enjoy what we do, we definitely can do it for a very long time. I hope that my students enjoy coming to school and learning and I would like to see them enjoy writing and want to do more. One of the things I need to do more often to see this happen is celebrating their work. I know that when someone recognizes that I have done something, it makes me want to work harder. Picking what they want to write about would definitely work for most students, but there are still a few students out there that have difficulty figuring out what they want to write about even after having been shown ideas by modeling. I hope to find out in this book if there is more about this situation. We should , as teachers, celebrate more with the students in all areas and not just writing.

Chapter 1 Simplify the Teaching of Writing

Well, I finally got started reading. With everything going on right now finding the time was hard. Anyway I have found the first chapter interesting and something that I do want to get better at is teaching writing. I still find myself questioning am I doing the right thing or the right way in teaching writing. I can see teaching the whole to part to whole process but can I do it. I do want my students to enjoy writing and want to do more so, I hope this book and class gives me the knowledge to do that. I also find the author of this book interesting and that makes me want to read more. Modeling writing will be one of my weak points of the writing process and I hope I can improve upon that also.