Reaffirming the
Writing Workshop
For Young Adolescents
By: Sheryl Lain
One of the things that struck me the most was the time she took to write to each of her students.
Instead of grading papers or reviewing emails, Sheryl Lain wrote poems for her students. As I read articles about teachers who write during workshop time I am plagued by the thoughts of I would not be sure what to write and that I hate writing in a constrained time. Coming up with creative work, knowing that interruptions will be happening would be very stressful for me. But I can take that time to work on continued letters, poems and the like for my kiddos.
I realize this was only a short piece of the article but after reviewing the text as a class, this is the piece that I want to chew on and explore personally.
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I always struggled with this advice that seems to be in every book about teaching writing: write when your students do so you are setting a good example. However, I view that time as essential for using to conference with students, so this is one piece of advice that I ignored. (I think this is essential when considering how you will organize your writing classroom: Carefully consider all the valuable techniques and advice of others and then decide for yourself what is the most worthwhile use of your time for your students' learning.) For me, having more individual conferencing time with my students was more important than for my students to see me writing, since they were well aware that I wrote in other venues.
ReplyDeleteI bet some of her students will save those poems for the rest of their lives. For some, it might be the only positive feedback that they receive in writing their whole life. Something to cling to. To pull out and touch when they are low. How powerful. Sappy, I am not, but this idea plucked my heart strings.
ReplyDeleteI like that too. I think reading poems to our students will a powerful thing to do. I think it will keep them motivated.
ReplyDeleteLain has a good way to engage her students by writing poems for them. Some teachers can do that and some can't. I am like you; I can't concentrate when there are a lot of things going on in my classroom. My idea is that if I can write in my journal just a phrase or sentence that I am thinking, so I can go back later and write a poem for my students. Do you think this is a good idea?
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