Saturday, May 9, 2015

Saturday Sayings: What It's Not



My district is wisely putting writing at the top of the list of practices to focus on next year. This has been needed for a long time now, and I'm excited and eagerly anticipating its arrival. Yesterday my staff spent about an hour thinking about this new initiative and the district's beliefs about writing.  We were asked to consider the implications for our own classroom practices. From what I could tell, teachers seemed ready to look critically at their writing instruction next year.  This is a great place to start.

As I walked away from our meeting, I wondered if at some point it would be beneficial to have a conversation about what writing instruction is not. Knowing what it isn't can sometimes help teachers filter out any old practices that really aren't beneficial to their writers. I immediately began making my own mental list.

Writing instruction is not:

filling in the blank (ie. Over the summer I ____ )
answering questions on a worksheet
prompt heavy
grammar exercises
focusing solely on conventions
publishing every piece
journaling
based on teacher topics
negotiable
limited to one genre
solely content area writing

I trust Calkins' statement about what our writers need.  I believe their skills will develop more rapidly when those things are in place. Without the right belief system, it can sound like a daunting task, but I believe it's doable when we know what writing instruction is and let the other stuff go.

(Feel free to add to my list.)

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10 comments:

  1. Congratulations to you and your school for deciding to put the focus on writing the next few years! We need to make this shift at our school. I think it is a bit scary for some. A lot of teachers tell me this is their weakest area of teaching, where they feel this least comfortable. Good luck to your school as you move forward in this process!
    Lori
    Conversations in Literacy

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    1. Lori, it's been a long time coming. I'm hoping that everyone is able to embrace the change. It will be a good one!

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  2. That is a great list! I do think many rely heavily on prompts. We had stduents from colleague's class that was split up this week and I asked them all to write a story. The students from this other class kept asking "I don't know how to start-there's nothing on the board". They need to learn those strategies as well.

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    1. Miss Trayers, yes they do. Relying on someone else's ideas all the time is not the best strategy for building strong writing muscles.

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  3. Why is writing so scary to teach? I know my instruction is lacking, so I'm hoping you'll have lots of great encouragement for us next year! Only 19 days left in this one! Yikes!!
    Jenny

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    1. Jenny, I'm not sure that many teachers have had the right training or even the best personal experiences with writing to make them feel comfortable teaching it. The CCSS is pushing teachers to learn though.

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  4. I LOVE your "is not" list. :) I can't wait to hear all your writing thoughts this summer and next year. :)

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    1. Maria, thanks! I hope that all teachers in my district, from novice to masterful, can grow into better writing instructors next year.

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  5. This is a great list, Tammy! I probably rely too much on journals (in fact I know I do) but we write every single day, so I feel good about that.

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    1. Barb, I don't worry about your writing instruction. :)

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