Getting ready to teach writing workshop...

This weeks readings were very helpful.  I liked that she spoke in chapter nine about the five categories for teaching writing workshop: how the room is set up, how we use that room, what is taught in focus lesson  and conference as well what we chose to investigate and how we require writing homework.  Set up of the room and how we use it seems pretty obvious but I would have never thought about the focus lesson and conference as well as the writing homework.  I see after reading this chapter that I still have a lot left to learn.  I only hope that I can see a writing workshop in person with a great lead teacher. 

Something that I would like address and talk about that came up in chapter nine is the idea of setting up the room to teach.  In previous classes I have taken in college it has been suggested that by modeling works or giving rubrics it can lend itself to students doing less superior work.  I must say that I was relieved to read that the author believes that students should be exposed to such works of art to help promote creativity.  After all if a poem can be written about the sounds that overall buckles make in the dryer than anything is possible. :0)

So in chapter 10 we learn that one of the goals of the author is for students to read the world like a writer.  What makes this such an awesome goal is that she practices what she preaches.  In class she shows her students an entry of her notebook where she had written a story about a car that passed by with a canoe on top of it.  What she explains to them is that there is always inspiration around us to write about.  She writes a fictional story about the car with the canoe on top of it and I learned from this chapter how if students are struggling for a topic, they can look around and use ordinary things around the room to make a story.  I only hope in my future that I will be able confident in my own work to share it with my class or I could just bring in books to share I guess.

Last chapter to discuss... chapter 13...I would like to talk about focus lessons in general. I knew that the whole point for writing workshop was to be student centered... or at least I thought it was. However in this chapter I learned that the majority of the writing workshop is spent with students working on their pieces but a small portion is spent with the teacher teaching about a topic relevant to everyones writing.  For instance when trying to get students to work on poems its a good idea to show them an example and then suggest that they go back through their writing after you are finished with their lesson as many times poems can be found in an entry.  What the author taught me is that each workshop should have some instruction from the teacher to somewhat guide students after all they are supposed to be learning as they write. I found it also interesting that she said not to have students tell some of the works right now but instead suggest their piece maybe used for this topic and so on and so fourth.  So students are involved but not directly just yet. The main goal of the lesson is to stay focused so that students can learn.  I really enjoyed this chapter and I learned a lot!!!