Learning, Growing and Waiting Beside Them

The Opportunity of a Writer's Workshop

On page 62, Kittle introduces Writer's Workshop! I can identify with a cluttered desk but sometimes you have to free yourself to write! I can totally resonate with her feelings of inadequacy and the temptation to think you are less than the great writers of literature. Sometimes I feel as though I am underneath the teachers. You know, those teachers that parade the fact that all their methods to reaching students work and their students eventually turn out to be writers of literature. However, Kittle says to embrace those feelings of inadequacy! Where do you find your hope in those moments?

Look and Live!

Look at the students and live, O teacher, one that dies from the feelings of inadequacy! Look at how they fiddle, look at how they get distracted, look at how much they procrastinate. During these writing workshops, it will remind you that it is all a process.

Another thing I took solace in while reading about the writers workshop is that the workshop will not always be easy or successful. Be realistic.

I appreciate the seven independent principles. There are two that I want to highlight.

1. I expect everyone to write well - I think it is important to remember some kids might be able to read at an appropriate grade level while doing this though.

5. I learn from watching and listening to students - The other day my students taught me something new. It really caught me off guard. I had to ask myself, "Why did I feel uncomfortable about them teaching me?" It takes a lot of humility to sit under the school of your students.


I like the low-stakes personal writing. "You will decide what you want to write about because "I respect you", I believe you will choose wisely" I really love those words and I believe they're so empowering for our students. I will definitely practice this more during our Friday Writer's Workshop Days.

There was so much in this chapter that I mostly found validating. I think it also gave me more confidence in terms of not giving my students the liberty of doing anything and writing anything but also having expectations for them in saying "I will not tolerate anything less than their best and most sincere effort..."

Kittle admits that we must leave room for Variation, interruption, and teachable moments. Rehearsal, rereading, and revision! I VALUE how she allows time for them to have reading in her class. Every month, for one period, I do this thing called "Sustained Silent Reading" where students are graded for the day on bringing their books to class and reading it. I think it's a fantastic, sacred moment in which habits are born, worldviews are shaped, and lives are changed.

In Chapter Nine, I appreciate the part of the reason she suggests that we need to let them write about what they want ti us that they are more likely to put more voluntary care and personal investment into the revision process when they are writing about topics on which they care. My big question is: How can we effectively balance students' writing about literature alongside their writing about life? I think she Lismore concerned with her audience asking themselves this question than she is with providing the answer to it.

These are my looming thoughts to these chapters. What do you think Professor?

THE  POWER OF PROCESS



Kittle's words brought much solace to my anxious, young mind: "It's not about being a writer, it's about being a person who's trying to write. Our kids need to see the process and see us going through the process with them. One page two, Kittle says, "If you want better writers, all of the POWER lies in you!"

"Teachers are more powerful than parent pressure, textbook, curriculum of central office director...Teachers are more powerful than "No Child Left Behind!"

"Teachers make the difference, the POWER is in us!"

I absolutely love this. I love how she emphatically makes it known that everything I need, is in ME!

But here's the part that humbled me and put my youthful angst on a leash, it's a process... As a freshly new teacher, I look at seasoned teachers and desire to have what they have. Their extensive vocabulary, beautiful writing style that can't be challenged, respect and legendary boss-mode status, gray hairs and wisdom that drops from their lips like honey. However, Kittle fleshes out for us in chapter one that greatness doesn't just come from your genes, greatness comes through "owning up to your own insecurities" and embracing this! WHY? Because this is what is used to empower our kids. For me as a new teacher, I have a lot of insecurities, I am always there trying to defend my authenticity. O, how I love how Kittle knocks down my wall of pride.

One way I see this incorporated in my teaching is to have once a week, writing lounges. I buy snacks, play music, light candles and have my students free write in groups. Once a week, one student will facilitate the free write session. This is a time where we all will expose our weaknesses and flaws. When I say we, I mean me as well. I think this will open up a tremendous amount of doors for transparency and growth.

Free writing in a notebook helps students find "their voice". "Because when they aren't bound up by what the writing is supposed to be, voice appears effortlessly" . She eventually segues from the importance of finding your controlling voice which she acknowledges is "the beginning of learning to write well."

Kittle says, "We can't teach writing without getting writing from our students." I love the writing lounge idea because it gets them in a place of comfortability and even writing on their own.

I love the idea about the Quick Write and Writers' Notebook. It is fascinating. I can understand the struggle of trying to get students to pick a pencil and even look at paper. But thank God for Kittle. On page 43, she has "Tell&Show" where students can first tell something, and then go back and edit their work by showing what happened...almost like their own personal movies.

I would also like to explore Kittle's "Interest Journal". The youth today love social media. They are accustom to "liking" each others ideas on social media.  An Interest Journal is an academic way of doing that.

I believe our writing should evolve. The same way we wrote 3 years ago should not be the same today. That is why I appreciate the chart on page 13. This chart allows students to see "THEIR PROCESS", assume responsibility, take ownership, engage and comprehend their process.

Kittle Chapters 12&13

Hmm.....Assessment Vs. Grading? This is the fine line I was looking for when reading these two chapters. What is the difference between assessment and grading. Well, grading is apart of assessment not all of it. All grades are assessment but all assessments are not grades. Assessments are composed of discussions, conversations, etc. 

If one student is on Question 2 and the other is on question 10, you can ASSESS why there is a gap between two students but it is not necessary to grade on their speed. 

"Writers need feedback, not evaluation" 

I feel like this particular quote is the distilled message of this book.

The way English and Writing were taught to me was "Evaluation then Feedback". However, Kittle shows us a more beautiful way. Throughout the process, give feedback. Before the process, give feedback, After the process, give feedback--then give evaluation! 

You can't decide the taste of a cake with only milk and flour. However, after you have gone through the rest of the directions for the cake(feedback) and you have finished and tasted (Evaluation), you can then say, "Hmmmm...maybe this will taste better with chocolate or whip cream".  

Whenever a teacher speaks into the life of a students work the evaluation and feedback should be left with a freedom of choice. The student will feel like his/her opinion is valued and cherished and this will lead to more exploration and creativity. The teacher can say, "This would taste better with peanut butter but, if you like it the way it is that's fine!" 

Thank you, Penny Kittle, for showing me a better way. 

April 5th Exit Ticket

"Where did you connect with the reading the most?" 

"My goal is not catching students making mistakes and penalizing them; it is motivating them to listen and learn. Patience is important here because they are going to make the same errors many times before they begin to change." 

Every teacher should have this quote taped on their desk as a reminder. This is what the heart of a teacher looks like. We guide, lead and encourage! However, patience is important! You can guide, lead and encourage but what happens when patience runs out? Those things become duty rather than delight. Patience is the blood that pumps the heart of a driven teacher. 

Kittle Chapter 9& 10/ Composing A Curriculum

What is the goal for the English Teacher? Have you ever considered this question? Aspiring English teachers or seasoned teachers, what is the goal for the English Teacher? Is our goal to prepare them for college or to develop them to be better writers? What about the students that aren’t going to college? What if they desire to pick up a skill or trade? How can you effectively reach the students that are trying to score higher on the SAT’s, while pouring into the student that is going into mechanics? If I can distill all of these questions into one question it would be, “How can we show students the worth of the English Language in every sphere of life?”

I must say, I do appreciate the answered questions I’ve received from Kittle within chapters 9-10. One of the questions that boggled my mind was, “What is the balance of letting students write what they wish while at the same time staying faithful to the curriculum standards that are in place?” The Great Gatsby is such a rigid story but I love the model she gives. Give them topics that reach out to them! Give them topics that won’t let them go! That was addressed with creativity and imagination. I appreciate how she give this statement, tells us how it’s done then she gives us the model in the person of Mr. Woodman. As an English teacher, I want to be unconventional but I also want to stay connected with the reading.  

I appreciate Jason’s narrative-style approach on introductions. I take solace in that because I’m a story-teller and I love hearing people stories and journey’s in life. I was so disconnected from Introduction A than I was with Introduction B. I love the illumination that the narrative story displayed for the Scarlet Letter. The transition was smooth. The personal story made me want to read more about the Scarlet Letter.

            The Composing A Curriculum article was a great article. The one thing that grabbed my attention for the whole article was, "If you prepare to fail, you fail to prepare." Jim Burke emphasizes the need for preparation as a teacher. Students know when their instructor is not prepared. In addition to that, another thing that convicted me in the article is that when you are making plans and curriculum's around a book, you must know that book inside and out. You can teach effectively what you have went though and experienced. A great teacher has searched diligently and plunged deep into the depths of the book,to grab the pearls that lay at the bottom. 

                       Thoughts, Ideas and a lot of Writing! (Write Beside Them, Ch: 1-6)
                     
 

"...teachers are more powerful than parent pressure, any textbook, workbook, curricula, or central office directive...Teachers make the difference, not tests. What power--what opportunity--lies in our hands." (Page 3, Chapter 1)

I believe the whole book resounds off this one quote from Kittle. This one quote from chapter one gave me courage, looked me in the eye and told me I am more that just a robot, teaching kids a discipline. I am more than just a body instructing kids to be test-takers. I am more than average. I love the boldness that Kittle emits from her writing. It's almost like, "Yea, I'm a teacher and I take my job very seriously and I could care less of what you think", of course in a more respectable way though!

Kittles bold remarks caught up to my own soul as I was convicted by some of her protest against educators and teachers who teach writing, "You can't teach writing unless you write yourself". I thought to myself, "When was the last time I wrote?" And not just an essay or reflection for class but seriously pouring my heart out on paper? I was totally condemned but my condemnation didn't lead me to despair. Instead, I used those feelings to fuel my desire to write. I MUST write. Writing won't be easy because it is a discipline. However, the lives changed and impacted are far worth the sweat.

Speaking of discipline, I love how Kittle allows us as readers and teachers to look at her own techniques and models. "I believe that the only way I'm going to be able to teach writing tomorrow is because I did it today." I connected with that. If you prepare to fail, you fail to prepare.
What I found pretty cool and comforting was that Bomer said, "We are the stories we tell". For students that claim they can't write, I love how Kittle dismisses that excuse with saying, "Anyone cam write because everyone has a heart." Beautifully poetic yet so true. I love how Kittle makes room for growth. Yes, everyone can write however, it all takes time. Habit makes writing easy as well as risk-taking and fluency. When you have a lot of playful writing it leads to a comfortable voice.

I thought all of that information was needful because everyone is bound to have students that are just not confident and don't believe in their own writing abilities.

Chapter five gave me insight into a lot of thoughts that wouldn't have even begun to cross my mind on its own. On page 39, she speaks of talking to a friend who has twenty-five students, and six lost a parent before the age of fifteen. That made me think. In writing, teachers will have to reach outside of their own experiences to understand students. That is not an easy thing. It could actually be quite painful. I remember my creative writing teacher from high school having us do a piece of work from our hearts, by the end of class everyone was crying because someone shared a "piece" of their childhood scars of molestation and abuse. "Emotion is the engine of the intellect: we write more powerfully when it is from the center of we are."

I think most of my questions come out of chapter six because I believe its the cloudy sticky arena of "Writer's Workshop".

First question of mine: "What are we to do with students in Writing Workshops that are drastically off their reading and writing level?

Second Question: Kittle states that students will perform better when they are interested in what they are reading and writing. What do we do about the times when the work assigned might be "uninteresting". Does this also mean we bend our plans to suit their fancy?

Blog Post # 2 Multi-Modalpiece+ Readings

What I loved most about my "Who Am I As a Writer"Who Am I? piece is when I talk about how "I am catching up with myself". I love the photo I used to represent that. The cat is headless and desperately trying to gain the part of his body he needs the most--his head! I totally resonated with this picture because it described my writing process so much sometimes. When I write I feel like I'm on an adventure, desperately pursuing all that is within my head. My imaginations, creative juices, passions, thoughts etc. They all reside in my head but sometimes I feel like I hit a ceiling. I can be transparent can't I?

Words are so powerful. So powerful that they can speak through images and inanimate objects. A picture really does speak a thousand words. "Bold" "Touching" "Beautiful", these are all the things pictures can say to us. The music, the images, the pictures will transport you to another "place". I chose the song "Celebration" because after finishing this assignment I began to celebrate all of who I really am.

What I loved most about the multimodal piece is that in the process of making the video, ironically all that I was declaring about myself was being manifested in the process of making the video. For example, In my found poem I spoke on how I am very creative. The more I started to craft the video, the more I was able to see truly the range of my creativity.

The reading exeprt I chose to speak on was from the article by Sondra Pearl. She wrote, "My disjointed style of composing is very striking to me. I almost never move from the writing of one sentence directly to the next. After each sentence I pause to read what I've written assess, sometimes edit and think about what will come next." I L O V E D this quote for so several reasons. One, me personally, I love transparency.  I love that Pearl is so absolutely honest and humble within her process. Secondly, I love that I can resonate and relate so much to this process. Words like "disjointed" "pause" "assess" those three words clearly portray the writing process for me. I think quotes like this help me to stay humble. As a teacher, I think we should always understand that we ourselves are STILL learning. With this humility, our students will be able to see us as approachable instead of seeing us as "grammar gods" or "Zeus" ready to strike them down with our lightning bolts of precision and incessant critique.