consistency

Teaching writing is a lot like blogging...the more consistent a teacher is the better the learning is.  I haven't been very consistent on adding to this blog and hope to continue to get better at blogging particularly when it comes to the subject of writing.  I feel that I get stuck where things stand and stay in a rut where writing comes to play... its easy to teach a lesson and the let the students write.  It's hard to follow through on conferences and publishing.  What should publishing look like all the time?  How often do students need to publish in order to be successful at learning writing?  Is publishing a key to being sucessful writer?  Is that why Blog have taken off in interest?  It's an instant way to publish what is going on in your classroom, what's going on in your head, what you want to share with others. 

It's a way of sharing your work, perfect or not.  It's a way to let others know what's going on and getting responses from others.

workshop model again...

Back to the writer’s workshop model.  We went to another training session and this one was awful!  Our teacher got stuck on everyone reporting back off of a sngle confrernce and we learned nothing new.  If I am to learn a new way of teaching, explain it to me and teach me how to teach writing.  Not just observe another teacher.  Frustrating day but it brought up more questions than answers for me yet again…

How can we have a writing series that has the same lessons for all K-2 students?  How they are appropriate for K’s and 2’s?  So in other words we as second grade teachers have to supplement what we are doing so we can teach our students.  What happens in two years when we get the K’s that have been taught this in K, In 1 and then they want me to repeat the same lessons again in 2?  I don’t think so…so how do other second grade teachers teach writing with writer’s workshop or units of study?  I was excited to be trained in units of study but am now struggling….any suggestions or ideas to help me get back on track?

art and writing?

What do you think about a writing project….for example, my students made fall tress (tear art) and then had to write sentences about their tree.  I gave students a certain number of sentences to write about their tree and we edited their sentences before they rewrote them in their best handwriting and we hung them in the hallway.  Now, that activity teaches part of the writing process but it isn’t really a narrative writing but is there still a benefit to doing these projects?  It allows students to be creative, learn about editing, and continue to feel like writers.  It allowed publishing in a controlled way that is easy to present and hang in the hallway for everyone to see…so what’s important about writing?  Publishing?  The process?  Being creative? Here’s a picture or two what we’ve been working on.

hmmm

Writing continues to be a joyful time in my classroom for the students, not so much for the teacher though.  I am impressed by how much my students want to write, how much they enjoy the writing time and how much their writing has improved.  But I'm struggle with writing time, with what to teach when, and how to manage the teaching, conferencing, and publishing.

How important is it to follow through on all the stages all the time?  how can I streamline the stress level for me and yet continue to teach my students to the best of my ability and to encourage my students' learning all the time?

What management strategies work for teachers with the workshop model?  Obviously everything I've tried hasn't worked so well for me.

workshop model?

Writer’s workshop…I continue to try and use writer’s workshop in my classroom.  I have the format down, my students love the time for writing BUT (and yes that’s a big BUT) it doesn’t seem to flow smoothly for me.  I have a hard time planning where to go with mini-lessons, how to stay connected to all students with conferences and then there’s the publishing piece…YUCK!  I quickly get overwhelmed with all the expectations and respsonsiblitlies that come with writer’s workshop and flounder while my students continue to love to write. 

SO….HELP!  how do I manage where to go next as teaching points?

            HELP how do I keep up on publishing and conferring?  So far….i’ve fallen apart in these areas and get frustrated easily which then seems to spoil the rest of the writing time for me.

welcome!

I’m a second grade teacher who is trying to understand the way my students learn to write and learn from writing.  Why is writing important for students as learners, what benefits will the see from learning to write?  I don’t mean the physicl of writing, handwriting but the concept of writing.  What is the best way to teach writing?  There are so many styles and expectations, what is the BEST?  Why has writing become a lost art?  So many grade levels aren’t tested in writing…does that mean writing isn’t important anymore?  Writing gets pushed to the back burner.  What about content area writing?  Is it important?  Does it teach anything about writing?  Or does it show what students know?  What if students understand a concept but are unable to write about it?  Does this really show what a student knows or doesn’t know?  Second grade seems to be the forgotten grade.  In writing, we need to find our own materials, mini-lessons, ideas, etc.  No well written series dedicated to second grade students.