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.