This week, I have several small comments to make about specific elements in Katie Wood Rae’s chapters. Here we go!
- In chapter 7, Rae discusses the “no talking while writing” policy that many teachers implement. In fact, I can here my mentor teacher telling his students, “Uhh, we do not need to talk to write.” I even smirked when I read her observation and explanation, because I know I could easily fall into the same trap. I noticed an example of her comment during my writing lesson I taught last week. I asked my students to begin writing their recipes and how to poems, but the noise level of mouths running increased rather than the noise level of pencil marks. At first, I figured that the students were off task and joking with their friends. To my delight, I was wrong! The majority were discussing potential topics. After three or four minutes, pencils began flying across the page. Could soft talking and writing really go together? What an enlightening concept, Ms. Rae!
- “The best way to manage distractions in the writing workshop is to have plenty of attractions for students as writers,” Rae says. I really like this quote. A pencil and a plain piece of notebook paper do not engage the senses. While I have always enjoyed writing, it routinely took a while for me to get motivated, perhaps because of the ordinary materials. Revising always excited me, because I could use color pencils, highlights, sticky notes, markers, and wait for it…colored paper! Let’s halt the monotony and bring some color to writing! We are teaching elementary students, right? Color can match the alphabet poster on the wall!
- I think I can…I think I can…I think I can deal with the slightly-beyond-your-control, messy feeling. It will certainly be a challenge, but from experience, two things work for me. First, count to ten. It relaxes me and prevents me from saying the proverbial, “Be quiet!” Second, I ask myself, “Is it too loud? Or, is it just too loud for me?” By making myself aware of the noise, I can decide if it is too loud with not enough productivity or is it loud with academic thought. If I can accept the latter answer, I keep my mouth shut.
- I am still confused about the difference between writing and drafting. Is writing what you do before deciding to do more to a piece? For example, I wrote my narrative about myself as a pair of pointe shoes. Is it considered drafting when I decide to further develop it into a published writing sample?
- Note to self: Publishing does not have to be in the form of a letter or a class compiled picture book. It can include recipe books, how-to books, joke books, comic books, etc.
Your bullet points here have lots of interesting ideas. I probably haven't been clear about everything with terms. Drafting is the part of the process when you are working through your ideas on paper. It can be half-thoughts, dead-ends, full stories, and so on. It is the rough draft portion of writing. Once you decide to rework a piece you've drafted, you're revising. Then we edit, and publish.
ReplyDeleteWriting, as I think of it, is that whole process, from prewriting all the way to publishing. All those parts are writing.
I loved your insights about talking, and listening to the students before shushing them. Sometimes they really are being productive, and getting their ideas out.
Nicely done!