Ray's Ch. 9, 10, and 13

Let me begin by saying how crazy this past week and weekend has been. I have had so much going on. My field placement is awesome in second grade. It ties really well with this writing class because we have been learning about the writing process. The students have been taking pieces from prewriting through publishing. These chapters were helpful to me because they gave practical advice about what to do when teaching writers workshop. I haven't totally decided if my mentor teacher does writers workshop or not because there is not a lot of student choice involved.

It was great to read about all the preparations to begin to teach. I liked Katie's point that in a writers workshop you actually teach the entire time. A short time is whole class instruction but the remaining time you are giving one on one instruction. Many students learn best when they have the teacher focusing on them and I have seen this happen in my classroom. Students stay on task and ask more detailed questions if the teacher is sitting beside him or her. One of my favorite points Katie makes is when she asks "If I locked my students in my classroom and stood outside the door, what could they learn about writing without me being in there?" This is a great self check as a teacher to evaluate how effective your environment is. Something else new I learned was about the homework strategy with writing. Having students make a "toolbox" with a writer's notebook can be very helpful in writing. Students essentially create their own curriculum with the information they gather from everyday life and record in their notebook. Incorporating research skills such as interviews and surveys into students' everyday lives will help their creativity in writing flow.

Building students' understanding of writers will help them know more about what they are doing. I liked Katie's connections to the notebook like a painter's palette and learning to read like a seamstress visiting a dress shop. Kids know more about the real world than teachers often think, so the more connections made to real life the better.

I agree with Katie that I want my students to be interested in their work. I like that focus lessons shouldn't have to grab students attention because their attention should already be grabbed by what they are working on in writers workshop. The teacher centered approach to the focus lesson sounds like it is a good strategy to keep it brief and let students know the expectation. I also like  ending the lesson with a "reader's digest" version. This helps students know exactly what they just heard in a nutshell.