Reading Inquiry Groups

As you can probably tell, I am starving for teacher conversation! I'm sorry if I seem to keep sharing and questioning and commenting and rambling...

Anyway, Nikki and I are interested in creating a RIG (reading inquiry group) with other TCs in our area. Does anyone have any advice, suggestions, helpful hints? What's worked? What hasn't worked?

We were thinking of using the Probst, Beers and Rief anthology, Adolescent Literacy to begin with. Thoughts?

Inkshed

I have so many books to look into and ideas to expand upon that it could take many, many summers to read, develop, and plan! I'm so amazed by the knowledge and ideas brought forth everyday we meet. Honestly, I feel that I'm getting 4 weeks of NWP all over again! WOW!

Books for your consideration

Letters--Personal Piece

My family recently rediscovered letters that my dad wrote to my mom before they were married; he was stationed in Texas during World War II. They are full of humor, show his voice, and highlight the power of communication. I want to do something with them, but what?
I could mix them with my memories of dad; write an essay; write a narrative; write an essay about the disappearing art of letter writing. Any ideas?
Kate

Rambling about Multimodality

I love the idea of control beyond the page, but I think it might allow the writing to be less precise because other means of communication beyond words are available. Not necessarily bad or good, just different. All of this requires an evolving set of rules though. Think back to the people who accidentally flamed others. Does flaming even exist now? It all changes and happens so fast that it's hard to keep up with all the changes. I also wonder about regulation of this version of text. How do the norms develop? I'm still not comfortable with starting emails with "Hi" in a business situation. If I actually use hi, shouldn't there be a comma after the hi and before the person's name and then after the person's name? It looks goofy, but it's technically correct. Where are the list of rules?

Several teachers at my school recently had a conversation about whose responsibility it is to teach kids about media literacy. We often assign kids projects that require technology, but we don't actively teach them how to use the technology. The catalyst for our discussion was HORRIBLE PowerPoint presentations. The article advocates for English teachers taking responsibility for teaching kids the requirements of composing with technology. I don't understand why it's not a shared responsibility with the technology teacher. Another option is to just have the kids teach us.

Writing Prompts

I was surprised to read in Newkirk's text that "open-ended journal invitations often do not work as well as prompts or frames" (frames?? What is that??) (82). I believe that I heard or read somewhere (perhaps Buckner?) that students should not always be given writing prompts. Therefore, this past school year I gave students time to write about whatever topic they wished during our five minute writing time. When I asked students for feedback after the first quarter, many students said that they would really like writer's notebook prompts. I then began to incorporate at least one prompt per week. After the second quarter feedback, students were still requesting more prompts. Reflecting back upon the writing I remember reading in their writer's notebooks, many of the best writing pieces were based upon prompts.... I guess I need to listen to my students more and listen to "experts" with another grain of salt.

Simplifying the Writer's Workshop

My focus area for this week that I hope to get helpful feedback about is a way to simplify the Writer's Workshop for childen in the early primary grades, specifically emergent writers. I work with students who struggle greatly with writing and would like organize an effective format for them. I have experimented with many different approaches to teaching writing, but none of them seem to satisfy me. I would love to teach a minilesson to my kids and then workshop with a particular skill immediately after. However, because the kids need so much assistance, I have difficulty with finishing pieces of writing and continunity from one day to the next. I would love to have a very structured, predictable procedure that my kids could get used to. If anyone has any suggestions, please share! Thanks so much for your help!

Meandering

Hi,
Well this is officially my first blog posting(ever). At first I thought that I wanted to carefully outline my thoughts and have a cohesive blog. After all, it is my first blog, and so it should stick to the topic and make sense. I am sure you don't want to to read my meanderings.
Then, I thought no--I want to try expressive writing -write as if I am talking to you. I need to explore and go in different directions. What about my own journaling? I often wander and wonder, drop an idea, add a new one, or write extensions.
This leads me to my own students. I want to give them more time to talk--tell stories. I want them to explore ideas and possibilities in their notebooks instead of thinking that writing is only finding a topic and writing about it. I think I"ll change my scale for my Daybook(term I use for Writer's Notebook)Instead of saying select a topic--explore an idea--explore possibilities.
Will I ever find the perfect want to use daybooks or will I continue to wonder, wander and refine?
Kate

Verbal fluency vs writing fluency

Don't you wonder about the student who speaks so engagingly but is not proficient as a writer? I know I do. As soon as I read Newkirk's description, I had a picture of one of my students, Billy, who was so fluent as a speaker but so stilted as a writer. I frequently wonder what causes a kid to be like that. I would hope it's not "the error-oriented approach to teaching writing", but that certainly seems like a possibility. I had never thought about the possibility of a control issue generating the reluctance to write. I mulled the idea of self-censorship and found it intriguing because it seems exactly like something that kids would do. With all the potential pitfalls to writing, it's a wonder that any person possesses the courage to write at all.

Expressive Writing

I really enjoyed reading Newkirk's thoughts on expressive writing. While I use writer's notebooks and reader-response journals as places where students can explore their thinkings, question the material and experiment with new understandings, that doesn't always transfer into my formal writing prompts.

Especially in my Advanced Placement class. I am much more concerned with their purpose and thesis and I am not allowing them to continue to explore the issues. Newkirk says that this "view of topicality...restricts them from writing about multiple aspects of a book or a topic" (73). He goes on to write that the "concept of 'focus' or 'topic' is not a natural and uncontested feature of 'good writing'" (73).


But didn't they already explore the issues in their journals and freewritings? Hmmm...so what am I supposed to expect from their formal papers? Isn't this a time for them to make sense of their new insights and questions and to formulate their own understanding?

Hello, all!

This is where your posts for the SAI will go. Keep in mind, one new post, one response post per day.

PT