PUBLISHING!! :)

Chapter 7 talks about the three main things needed when planning workshop management. The first being presence. The teacher needs to make sure that they are up and walking around the classroom while the students write. I think that is a good idea because students would easily get off task if the teacher is somewhere else trying to catch up on her own work. Also this would be a great time to conference with students and see where their writing is going. The second part was room. Allowing students to work somewhere beyond their desk. Many students will have lots of materials so it may be easier for them to spread out on the floor or on a big table. This could also help with people talking because they won’t be crowded in a small place. The third management idea was about supplies. Teachers need to make sure their supplies are in a place that the students can get to them without the aid of a teacher. In my field experience classroom I see a lot of these ideas. The students know where all their supplies are and get them as they need them. Also my teacher walks around the room while the students work and read over what they have written so far. Another good point the book made was making sure not to have a “no talking” environment. I have seen that in past field experience classrooms and it didn’t work as well as the other classrooms I observed where they were allowed to talk.

Chapter 8 talks about writing workshop kits and how they are really a “cop out”.  They try to make it look like writing workshops are easy and all the same by having handouts for both the teacher and the student.  It also talks about how the teacher has to let the students control it because it is their writing. My field experience teacher right now does some of this. They may read a book or talk about a certain subject, but then the students are allowed to take what they want from it and write however they want.  The main thing I got out of this chapter is that writing workshop can be hard, but it is also really rewarding.

Chapter 19 starts out by saying that publishing is not an option. I agree with this and I have seen publishing while observing many classrooms of different age groups . one thing that I found interesting was the idea of giving deadlines far in advance. I think that could work sometimes, but I think its also important to be flexible in certain situations. Nevertheless it made it a point when it said that “the one thing that can get a writer going and move her forward like nothing else is a deadline”. The chapter also talks about how some students don’t get to publish a lot because teachers make the writings very elaborate books and pictures. I couldn’t agree more. My students in my current field experience class publish almost once a week. They seem to enjoy that and they get to write about many things that they really care about. I also liked that this chapter talked about letting students have a lot of independent writing time. I think that it’s important to let them work on their own so that when the teacher is not around they can  still follow the process.

conferencing in my field experience classrooms

Chapter 14 talked a lot about conferencing.  I have not seen much of this in my field experience this semester, but last semester I conference with many different students. I think it is a great thing to do in the classroom. I believe that it helps the relationship between the student and the teacher. When I worked with my students I felt like I got to know them better as a not only a student but a person in general. They would write about things that are important to them and it gave me an inside look into their lives.  I also like that the chapter said to keep conferencing short. If teachers take a lot of time with one student it will take longer to get to other students which just stalls the writing process. Also after conferencing I like the idea of the teacher writing down what they talked about so that in the future the teacher can remember where they left off and have written record of what was said. We did not do this in my field experience classroom.

Chapter 15 talked about share time and how important it really is. I agree with the book that share time is very important. Last semester my students had NO share time. Because of this I feel like the students didn’t enjoy class as much, and the teacher and students didn’t really relate. This semester is totally different. My students have time to share many times throughout the day. They have free writing time in the middle of the day and if students want they are allowed to share their story. Because of time only a few students can share but it usually isn’t an issue.  Also my teacher allows fellow classmates to ask questions to the student speaking to make sure that other students are listening to their classmates as well as get to know each other better.

Chapter 17 talked about ways to evaluate your students by asking them questions. I have not seen this implemented in my field experience classrooms, but I think it would be a great thing to do. Most of the teachers I have observed ask questions about writing in an exam format but I think it would be just as good if not better to work one on one with a student and ask the student questions.  I also liked that the chapter used a scale for evaluating students. Not only do the teachers evaluate the students but they also get to evaluate themselves.