Saturday, January 24, 2009
Writer's Notebook ch.3&4 group c 650pm
View the first sample chapters (available on line) Using the Writer's Notebook in Grades 3-8: A Teacher's Guide at (http://www1.ncte.org/library/files/Store/Books/Sample/35006chap1-2_x.pdf) and begin your writers notebook then post entries on Class Blog. Engage in an online discussion group on our class blog. Please read designated chapters and 1)propose “meaty” fat questions to discuss, 2) make connections to your teaching and work with students, and 3) make connections to your work as a writer (ie Keep your own notebook and share your response to it), 4)Please respond to two of your classmates’s entries in your study group, 4) Consider how what you have learned from this book might support the work of your integrated language arts unit.
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MEATY QUESTIONS TO DISCUSS
In Chapter 2, Elliot points out that writers need to start out with seeds, tiny ideas that get their writing going. She also says that writers need to be honest in their writing. For me, sharing my thoughts, feelings and childhood memories is is actually super intimidating. It scares me to think about writing these ideas down in my notebook, a notebook that may be shared with or read by others. I know that if it is scary for me it has to be scary for the students I teach- especially as they approach adolescence. How can we help our children feel safe as they explore these ideas as writers?
There were so many great ideas here to help students get started with their writing. I love the idea of collecting artifacts to inspire writing. In one of my undergraduate classes, we decorated old shoeboxes and created memory boxes, filled with artifacts from our lives to inspire writing. I love this idea for the beginning of the year. Students can bring in their artifacts and share memories with each other. Do you have any ideas for getting students started with writing?
CONNECTIONS TO MY TEACHING/WORK AS A WRITER
Elliot shares the idea of having students use their senses to observe and notice the world around them as writers. In 5th grade we study the senses and I think an activity like this would be a perfect way to integrate the science curriculum with language arts. It would really help students to distinguish how each sense works on its own and how they work together.
I love the idea of using quotes to inspire writing. I love all of the quotes Elliot included in the book, especially this quote from ee cummings:
“To be nobody but yourself in a world which is doing its best to make you like everybody else means to fight the hardest battle which any human being can fight and never stop fighting.”
(www.quotationspage.com)
I used the quote to get myself started as I wrote in my own writer’s notebook. I found myself at first writing about how I want my students to know how important it is to be themselves and be proud of their unique qualities. Then, I found myself writing about how Rifka from the book Letters from Rifka is almost detained and sent back to Russia because she is different looking—she is bald and they say she won’t be able to find a husband. Rifka doesn’t seem to be concerned about looking like everyone else or about being able to find a husband. She realizes the beauty in her unique qualities and tells the doctors that she’ll get married if she wants to, with or without hair. This is the positive attitude I want my students to have about their looks and personalities but it is so hard to get this message across when children are constantly bombarded with perfect looking celebrities and advertisements about weight loss and plastic surgery!
MY INTEGRATED LANGUAGE ARTS/SOCIAL STUDIES UNIT
I love the idea of a life map that Eliot shares on page 25. I think this would be a great idea to have the students create for the historical figure that they are studying as a way to present some of the information they have collected.
Elliot also suggests having students listen to snippets of other people’s conversations to inspire writing. Since my unit is focusing on the Revolutionary War, it might be interesting to have students write about what they overheard King George saying to his wife about America or George Washington saying to his troops about the Red Coats. I think an activity like this would really bring history to life for my students.
Brianne,
In response to your question, How can we help our children feel safe as they explore and record personal thoughts and experiences? I think that right from the beginning it is important to set rules and boundries. When I worked with a social worker and group of students from my middle school class, we set clear rules about keeping shared information confidential. Also at the beginning of the year I think you should keep the topics light until everyone gets to know each other and gradually feels more comfortable sharing more personal information with their peers. After a while the whole process will seem less scary to everyone.
CONNECTIONS TO MY TEACHING AND WORK AS A WRITER:
The writers note book not only serves as a literacy tool for our students-it can help them to discover and appreciate their life experiences. I have a fourth grade student who is having problems at home-her mother is a single parent, and she is also having trouble getting along with her peers-socialization issues. I think this writers notebook could serve two purposes;as a writing tool (she does like to write). She could also use the notebook when she goes to the guidance counselor once a week. They could discuss things she recorded in her notebook (at her discretion).
I also love the idea of using quotes to inspire writing. I love how the author begins ch.3 by sharing the quote by Frank McCourt, "Nothing is significant until we make it significant." Teachers really do have the power to "honor their student's thoughts, feelings, and daily experiences." I think it says a lot to a child/young person when an adult can give them their un-divided attention. It validates their importance.
INTEGRATED L/A UNIT SCIENCE:
I think it's a good idea to use a personal notebook for a variety of subjects. All can be individualized by the student with their own sketches, photos and comments. It will help them to retain the information they've learned and value the project they personally created. Even though a teacher has to set guidelines and requirements-students should have choices when creating the notebook. In my integrated unit I have the students recording weather along with sketches (and labels using the science vocabulary)because these students really love to draw.
MEATY QUESTION TO DISCUSS:
I, too, really liked some of the methods Elliot pointed out in Chapter 3 about how to help students generate ideas with which to write. As I was reading through some of these ideas, however, I became a little confused. I was under the impression that a writer's notebook was a place for students to "free write" about any topic they wanted without restrictions. Then as I read all of the idea generating methods, I was thinking that in some way, they were restrictions in that they narrow down the topic the students write about. My question is: Do you think it's helpful to use those idea generators just in the beginning of the year as the students get used to their writer's notebook and then slowly wean them off of those generators? Also, since those idea generators are helpful for those struggling writers, do you think it would be appropriate to allow some of your more advanced writers to free write while your other writers stick to the idea presented, or should all your students use the idea generator if you present it to them? I guess I'm just trying to get a handle on how best to use the idea generators.
CONNECTIONS TO MY TEACHING:
My students presently have writing journals, but they are not quite set up the way a writer's notebook is. Instead, this is a place where they are given a topic on which they can write whatever they think of, or I allow them to free write. I do, however, collect their journals and comment on their writing. As I was reading these idea generators, I was flooded with so many great ideas and topics to present my students for their writing journals. I especially loved the idea of having them bring in memorabilia or pictures and write about their experiences with those tangible items.
I also like how Elliot explained she had her students generate a list of topics they would like to write about in their notebooks. I think that is a great way for students to gain more ownership in their writing journals. Therefore, I plan on having my students generate a list like that, and that is where I will pull ideas for future writing journal topics.
CONNECTIONS TO MY WORK AS A WRITER:
Similar to what I just wrote, the ideas that impacted me the most in these two chapters as a writer myself were the ideas of responding to tangible memories. I have a couple of boxes of memorabilia such as ticket stubs, dried flowers, cards, and other such items. I plan to go through those boxes in the near future and dig out a few items from my past. I think it will be very interesting to write about my memories of those items and what I experienced with those items. That could turn into some great writing in the future. Also, I think it would be very interesting to go through my childhood bedroom at my parents' house and the boxes my mother has kept of my childhood things. I am sure that if I go through some of those items I am bound to dig up some interesting memories that would make great entries in my writer's notebook.
RESPONSE TO MY GROUP MEMBERS:
Brianne, considering I teach fifth grade also, I really liked your idea of integrating the sensory writing Elliot discussed in Chapter 4 with our science units. I am presently finishing our sight unit and I am about to start our smell unit. Your idea of having the students practice using those senses and describing their experiences in different places with those senses in their writer's notebook is terrific! I think that's a great idea to help students gain a deeper connection to the science unit, and who knows, it could possibly make a great story in the future.
Rene, I agree with what you said about keeping the topics for the writer's notebooks light in the beginning of the year until students become more comfortable with each other. I feel that if a teacher begins the year with topics that are too personal and thought-provoking that students may become overwhelmed with the idea of a writer's notebook. I agree that if the topics in the beginning of the year are light and more "fun" then students are going to find enjoyment in their writer's notebook and gain a positive connection to writing in it. Then, as students grow as writers using their writer's notebook and begin understanding it's a place to write free of restrictions, then the teacher can slowly introduce topics that are more personal and really make the students reflect.
HOW THIS WILL SUPPORT MY INTEGRATED UNIT:
Well, like Brianne, I am doing the American Revolution as the topic of my integrated unit, Brianne, you must have read my mind! As I was reading some of the idea generating methods in Chapter 3, I was especially fond of the life maps. At first I was thinking it would be such a great way for the students to reflect upon their lives. Then I, too, thought it would be a great way for students to gain a better understanding the life of someone we are studying...which led me to my integrated unit. I also was thinking that it would be very helpful to have the students create a life map for someone they study in the American Revolution unit. My thought was that as we near the conclusion of the unit, the students can all pick a person we studied during the unit (i.e. Paul Revere, Samuel Adams, Mercy Otis Warren, James Forten, etc.) and write a life map for that person. I feel this is a great way for them to not only review some of the key events in that person's life, but it's also a great way for the students to make a deeper connection to their learning.
I also thought another possibility is that the students can make a mini writer's notebook from that person's perspective. For instance, if the student chose to do a life map for Paul Revere, then he/she can also make a small writer's notebook from Revere's perspective. They can then create or find tangible items that Paul may have had in his journal (say a sketch of his horse from the midnight ride) and include those as well. I was thinking that not only will this allow them to better understand that person's life and feelings, but it will also help the student to understand the value in a writer's notebook.
Krysta,
In response to your question about the idea generators, I think it is a good idea to use the idea generating methods in the beginning of the year and then slowly give the studnets more independence. At first, I'd have the whole group use the idea generators with guidance from the teacher. Next, let the students help generate ideas as a class, and then let students individually decide what to write about on their own. Some of my students who struggle to write may still need some support such as a brainstorming session-but they still can choose what to write about,they may just need some prompting to get ideas. They may also need more time to write-some students need more processing time, just as others are getting finished-they are just getting started!
RESPONSES TO MY GROUP MEMBERS
Rene,I also think that it is a great idea to allow students to explore their thoughts and feelings about difficult situtations in their notebooks. I had a student last year who would often be upset in class and I would ask her to go sit down and just write. It really helped her to make sense of her feelings and deal with the issues she was going through.
Krysta, I also think that these ideas would work better in the beginning of the year when students are getting used to the idea of a writer's notebook. They help students get used to the idea of "just writing" and will hopefully lead them into deeper thinking about a topic that comes up. I too have found that some of my struggling writers need a push to get them started and plan to use some of these ideas with them in the future.
I love your idea of having the students create writer's notebooks for a historical figure--it is such a creative way for students to demonstrate their understanding!
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