Blog #2 Author's Craft 

From reading chapter two in Hick’s text “Crafting Digital Writing", I have gained insight of knowing the different elements in author’s craft. As a reader, I usually recognize elements when I read traditional texts. For instance, I begin focusing on the story elements including figuring out the characters, setting, problem, solution, and any other figurative language. I found that looking for the elements makes it easier for a reader to make meaning of a text. When students do not have the ability to find the elements that the author includes, they begin to struggle with reading the text. 

I believe that students should be introduced to both traditional and digital texts in the classroom during reading instruction. Also, students should learn all the elements included in author’s craft to help make meaning of multiple texts. For myself, I think it is harder to teach and talk about utilizing digital texts in the classroom because most students in the class do not always have access to technology at school. It all depends within the financial income of the school district. Therefore, I believe that all classrooms should incorporate digital texts while students are learning about different genres. However, it is easier to find the audience and figure out what voices are made.  

Also, learning about the crafting visuals is fascinating because it includes features such as movement, contrast, color, tone, and background that attracts the reader. Therefore, I will encourage my students to use color, background and movement when creating digital texts independently or with their peers. Furthermore, I think it is difficult to teach all the elements including words, images, sounds, and videos, in order for the students to become creative. Some students may have more experienced than others with using technology.  However if I taught students on how to create digital texts, I believe students would enjoy reading more and they would have responsibility and ownership of their learning.

Another component that I would struggle as a teacher would be to teach students to combine several sources and explore different texts on the computer. With doing this, the students would need to make sure that the sources are accurate and up to date. If I taught them on how to combine several sources to present an argument, I believe my students would attempt it. 

I have many strengths and weaknesses when it comes to writing. As a student, I found that the most challenging element for myself in college was making a claim and finding the correct evidence in a passage to prove an argument. I struggled with finding correct reasoning to back up my evidence. I tend to make a claim, and then it goes downhill from there. As a graduate student, I am currently working on making claims from reading different passages that I can argue to my audience without hesitation. The aspects that are the most challenging when I write would be explaining quotations and trying to figure out what the author is conveying. Sometimes, I struggle with understanding what a quote means while trying to put it in my own words. Therefore, I usually re-read the passage or sentence to gain more clarity. For every text I read, in order to understand the passage, I usually write important ideas in the margins that the author includes.  My weakness is that I tend to move off track and speak about something that has nothing to do with the quote I am trying to analyze.

 Another element that is difficult would be word choice in essays. Speaking of my personal writing experiences, I struggle with choosing the correct word I want to use in a sentence. At times, I feel like I am using the correct word. Then other times, I feel overwhelmed because I know what I am trying to say verbally, but then I am unable to transition it to the paper. As a writer, I am currently working on making sure my sentences make sense and that my sentences flow nicely.

Speaking of my student teaching experiences, I have used many of the elements of writer’s craft that Tompkin used. For example, I do focus on almost all of the six traits when I write an essay. For instance, I focus most of my time on organization, voice, ideas and presentation to make my writing more enjoyable for my audience to read. When I start my introduction, I try to grab the reader’s attention and hold interest in them. Usually when I write about something I care and is passionate about, I tend to make my writing better because I always have more ideas to write about and feel free to express all my feelings. In addition, my strength is poetry. I love writing poems because I have the opportunity to become creative as well as having the control to play with the words.

While reading chapters in both Hicks and Tompkins, I realize that the elements in author’s craft are key to reading and writing. When I become a teacher, I now realize that I should teach my students how to play with the words they write. If I model in front of my students, then they might want to write more, and the activity will become more engaging. Also, when they have the chance to play with words, they can interact with their peers to notice if their classmates wrote different words than them. 

Another element I would focus on in my classroom will be finding the main idea and details in a passage. For reading, I will encourage my students to find the main idea and three details that supports their argument. When students understand on how to find the main idea and details, reading becomes much easier for them, especially if they are able to comprehend. In my student teaching placement, many of the students I worked with had difficulty finding the main idea and details while reading a passage. Therefore, I provided them with some instructional strategies that would benefit and support their reading. I found that when students use strategies, they are able to improve their reading comprehension skills. 

To meet this end, I will push myself to follow the six traits while I am introduced to a new writing prompt or text. Also, I will work on word choice in my essays and double check to make sure my sentences make sense. In addition, I will work on using correct evidence and claims while writing an argumentative essay. Lastly, I plan to teach my students the “heart of writing”. This includes getting their ideas down on paper in order to make their writing delightful for the audience to read.

I am excited to teach the six traits that I learned from Tompkins and Hicks in my classroom someday. 

                                               

                                     References

  Tompkins, G. E.  (2019). Teaching writing:  Balancing process and product (7^th ed.).     
        
        Upper Saddle River, NJ:  Merrill. 

Hicks, T. (2013).  Crafting digital writing.  Portsmouth, NH:  Heinemann.

Reading/Writing Blog Entry #1

We have been studying how students learn through the writing process. The key components of reading and writing workshop that I value when teaching students is that students should analyze and apply their learning to other content areas, therefore they can gain deeper knowledge on a topic. Also, it is crucial that students present arguments when conducting research on a variety of topics they are introduced to. Tompkins expresses that it is important that students learn different genres while reading multiple texts.

Another key component that I value when teaching my students are the different stages of writing. For example, it is important to know that pre-writing helps students to consider an audience, organize their ideas they want to include in their writing as well as thinking of a topic to write about. Students must know the difference between editing and revising. For instance, revising helps students notice their strengths and weaknesses while writing. Therefore, revising may become more effective when students work in small groups to review each other's writing than a teacher going over all the student's work in a small amount of time. Also, it is significant that students follow the stages of the writing process in order.

I remember in my elementary years, my teacher always let us work in small groups to revise our papers, which I found to be helpful and effective. Also, while looking over our drafts, we would read them out loud to each other to make sure it made sense. My classmates were able to ask me questions about my writing piece that they were curious about. If I was writing about the same topic as my classmates but had different views, I was able to notice the differences between mine and my classmates writing pieces. Furthermore, I learned that many students revise and draft when they are writing, but I realized that students do not necessarily draft when they read texts. However, it is essential that students do draft during reading and writing, since in both, students re-read over the information.

Tompkins states, "Sharing is a social activity, and through sharing students develop sensitivity to the audience and confidence in themselves as authors"Dyson (1993). This quote is important because when students and teachers give constructive feedback to their classmates, the students are more motivated to change their paper to make it better. Also, I think it is essential to make sure that teachers take initiative to teach students how to act and respond courteously to others. Revising with classmates also gives students a great opportunity to work cooperatively with others and share their own perspectives on the topic. Moreover, it allows students a chance to give their classmates compliments on what they did well and what they enjoyed.

While thinking more deeply about Tompkins key component "Getting Distance" I now realize that it is important to take small breaks while writing and then allow you to go back to writing after doing something else. Therefore, students will become less stressed when they cannot think of any more information to write down pertaining to the topic. While doing so, students can have a fresh perspective and enjoy it more. Speaking from a personal experience, I enjoy taking multiple breaks after I have completed an assignment, rather than doing it all in 3-4 hours. I feel less frustrated when I give myself some personal time.

Another key component that I would value in my classroom would be having writing process charts in my classroom. Tompkin states, "It is a good idea to hang charts in the classroom outlining the writing process and related activities" (Tompkins, 2005). Writing process charts give students ownership of the classroom and allow them to feel welcomed. Speaking of writing process charts that Tompkin expressed, in my student teaching placement at Victor, the cooperating teacher who I worked with had writing process charts all around the room, therefore students could realize which stage each classmate completed or was working on while writing different pieces. Relating to creating a community of writers, Tompkins made a great point here about how all students should respect one another and support each other's learning. I believe that students should have a choice of what they want to write about with developing a positive attitude towards writing instead of a negative one.

Tompkins expresses, "Many students prefer word processing to handwriting because of greater speed, ease of revising and editing, and professional appearance of published writing projects" (Tompkins 2005). While being an undergraduate student, I realized that revising and editing on a computer is less effective than editing by hand. I agree that incorporating technology allows writing to be easier, however I do believe that students should edit by hand instead of computer-online based. As a writer, I sometimes skip words or do not catch my mistakes until the second time when I edit online instead of by hand.  I rather edit my papers by hand to catch all my grammatical mistakes the first time in order to succeed. If students edit by hand they would most likely receive a higher grade and understand their weaknesses as well as trying to attempt to correct the mistakes the next time. 

When I was in elementary school, I was only taught to plan or brainstorm ideas by using a graphic organizer before starting to write my rough draft. In the 21st article, students developed stories using oral rehearsal and recorded oral rehearsal. In my school, our teacher never gave us a chance to audio recordings in order to to verbalize and elaborate on the stories I wrote. I wish we did audio recordings and not oral recordings every time we practiced reading our drafts to others during writing workshop. It is important to share your writing pieces with others to get a better sense of what you are trying to prove to your audience.

As a future teacher, I plan to always give my students time to think and write personal stories or journals that is only for them to reflect on. No matter what grade level they are in, all teachers should save time for students to write for at least 20 minutes everyday. Also, teachers should encourage students to write personal journals daily at home with their families. 

                                              References 

  Tompkins, G. E.  (2019). Teaching writing:  Balancing process and product (7^th ed.).     

        

        Upper Saddle River, NJ:  Merrill. 

Hicks, T. (2013).  Crafting digital writing.  Portsmouth, NH:  Heinemann.