Good Morning Writers!

Before I start discussing the chapters for this week I want to first express how thrilled I am at how phenomenal my school placement is.  I'm in a first grade class at J.J. Harris Elementary and I couldn't be happier about what I'm learning and will learn in this classroom.  Writing is a huge part of everyday.  The students arrive at school and immediately get out their personal journals and start writing.  One child in particular ALWAYS writes about mohawks.  "Mohawks are big.  Mohawks are little.  Mohawks are sweet.  Mohawks are cool" etc. "Mohawks" even made the word wall! 

The teacher announces, "Good morning writers!" She calls them to the carpet and writer's workshop begins...focus lesson, 30 minutes of writing, and finally sharing, following our textbook procedures to a tee.  They write in their journals whenever there's down time throughout the day and also have home journals where they write to their parents about what they're learning once a week and parents respond.  I'm sure I'll have more stories from the classroom, and I'm going to start taking pictures to share as well.

Now, The Writing Workshop...I loved how Ray suggested teachers evaluate their workshop environment: "If I locked my students in my classroom and stood outside the door, what could they learn about writing without me even being in there?" What resources do you have available to students and how do they interact with their environment while writing?  The students in my class aren't necessarily researching yet, although a few refer to children's books in the class. However, one thing I love is that they have "good fit spots" in the classroom where they go to write.

  

Here are some other environment enhancing tips that I really enjoyed:

*student-designed bulletin board for sharing writing

*copies of writing with writing advice attached from past students or for future students

*quotations from writers throughout the room

The difference between the right word and the almost right word is the difference between lightning and a lightning bug.  ~Mark Twain

I also liked the idea that writers are engaged in "prewriting" all the time - watching listening, studying, and gathering information from the world.  This is a writer's homework, or as Ray coined it, worldwork.  If one aims to be a great writer, he has to live a "writerly life," constantly searching for material to use in writing.  Students keep this worldwork in their writer's notebook, which should be consistently evaluated by the teacher.

My biggest concern as a future teacher of writing workshop is proving to students that I, as the teacher, am a writer. At this point, I don't see myself as one...it's not a habit of mine to write on any consistent basis.  However, it seems like a very important facet of creating a successful writing workshop.

For a teacher to love teaching writing, she must love the learning journey.