Writing is a special ability that provides joy and relief when the skies are dark and the world seems empty. Writing is a way to pour out one's soul, to capture a moment in time that is extremely emotional and hard to deal with alone. In a sense, writing provides comfort and is a friend that just listens and absorbs the words being written down, but never responds back.
Just like music, everyone writes to the rythum of their own beat. This metrical rythum is unique to every individual and is created naturally as soon as the tip of the pencil hits blank paper. The words that are crafted on a page are chosen based on a person's mood and emotional state, (and are like music notes; either having a hard tone or a soft sweet sound). As words are transformed into lines, sentences, or even stanzas, the tone and voice that unfold develop musical sounds that roll off the reader's tongue and help them to understand how the writer is feeling in that moment in time.
When people listen to music they pick styles of songs that immitate the mood they are in: they may pick a slow soothing song if they are sad, or a fast upbeat song that unearths feelings of happiness and joy if they are in need of inspiration, if they are celebrating, or if they want to be uplifted. Music for some people is a gateway of faith or a way to escape pain, problems, or situations in order to be relieved from the constrants of reality. Just like the picture above, writing helps to carry a person away and allows ideas, thoughts, and feelings to float effortessly through the sky, just like soap bubbles. Writing is truely musical and the melody of a piece of writing is determined through the pace of words written down. Short lines can create more drama and a faster tone, where longer lines drawn out can denote a slowing down of thoughts. The pace of words can be done purposely, however most of the time it is done without the writer even knowing.
Writing for me is a portal of light, and is like the sun that rises over the mountains and paints the sky pink, orange, purple, and yellow. Writing for me is a musical song that allows me to express myself, not through instruments, but through the scratching of my own pencil on paper, and through the melody that only I can hear in my head.
Therefore, writing, just like music, is a form of expression that rises to the surface from deep down within, and when emotions cannot be held in any longer they spill over the edge and splash onto paper, relieving the writer and offering hope that someday the skies will be clear and the sun will shine once more.
Writing is a form of expression; a way to release your inner feelings; an escape from reality. Writing is one of my passions. It is a huge part of my life, and it is a hobby that I will never give up or get tired of. Throughout my life, ever since I was a little girl, I have always written stories, and I continue to write today. Creating my own stories allows me to use my imagination to come up with my own fantasies and my own world where I have the power to create the setting, the characters, the problem, and the solution. I can put my own twist on a situation that happened in my own life and disguise it through words. I can control the characters, their traits, their interests, and their passions. As a writer, you have complete control over your own thoughts and what you want to express to your audience.
You can also capture an audience and express yourself by writing in a variety of ways. You can write poems, diary entries, reactions etc...Each form of writing offers its own benefits and has its own way of creatively expressing your feelings and ideas to others.
In the classroom, it is imperative for students to have the opportunities to free write about any topic of their choice. Students also need to be able to write about stories they have read or are reading in class. They need to be provided with the chance to write about their feelings toward a story, their reactions to a book, relating an event to their own life, empathizing with a character in a story etc... Through their own writing, children will be able to explore a book in greater detail and they will learn about a book (more) through their own perspective. This will help students to understand what they are reading, and will also make reading more fun for students.
Offering students a choice with their writing is the key to making writing more fun for students; by having a choice students feel in control of their learning and their own writing.
Pairing writing with drawing is a way for students to visually see a story and what a character or event looks like,. Students can describe what they drew in their own words.
Most importantly, teachers should educate their students on different styles of writing and they should create units on different forms of writing. Each type of writing offers fun ways for students to express themselves and to use their creativity and imaginations, especially poetry. Poetry is an enjoyable twist on writing that offers the students chances to write about their own life or aspects of their life.
When I become a teacher I want to teach my students to love writing and to look at writing as a fun process where they can use their imaginations to paint a picture through words. I also want them to learn that writing is a way for them to explore a story by connecting and relating a text to themselves and to their own lives.
Collaborative Learning is when children interact with one another; they work together in groups or pairs (to solve a problem, to complete a task, or to reach a goal together).
Collaboration is extremely important in terms of literacy because when children talk with each other about books they are reading, they can help each other to understand the book better. They can discuss the characters in the story and how they feel about the characters. They can also come up with a list of character traits and adjectives that describe the characters in the story. The students can talk about the events in the story and share personal experiences that they had which relate to what the character is going through. The students can also work together to figure out the plot of a story, the problems in the story, they can work together on summarizing a story etc... When children work together they are able to brainstorm/ share ideas and hear another person's opinion of the book. They are also able to help each other to better comprehend the story because one partner may have grasped the story better than another partner...Sometimes a partner can have an insight into a story that another parter never thought about, this also helps a child to better understand a story through diverse perspectives of the story content.
Through collaborative learning, children are also able to learn how to work with students from all different nationalities and backgrounds and they are also gaining skills on how to socialize with their peers, how to work as a team, how to work in pairs or groups, how to take turns reading, how to look at a story from another person's point of view etc... When children read to each other they are also assisting each other in sounding out words etc...
Collaborative learning also helps children with their writing. The teacher could put two or three students in the writing center and their job could be to help each other to brainstorm ideas for a prompt the teacher has assigned. (Sometimes it is hard for a child to come up with an answer to a prompt on his or her own, therefore when children work together, this benefits the children that are struggling). When children work together during writing time, they can also gain a better understanding of their writing mistakes by having their partners read their story or prompt and look for spelling and punctuation errors. When children are able to pinpoint and find mistakes in their partner's paper, this helps them to avoid making those same mistakes in their own writing.
Lastly, collaborative learning allows children to socialize with one another, with a specific purpose or goal in mind. This hopefully keeps all the group members engaged, and also breaks up the structured day.
Collaborative learning in terms of literacy helps children to fit the pieces of a story together in both their understanding of the story and in their writing about the story (because more than one brain is working together to accomplish a goal).
I envision Reader's Workshop as being a fun, interactive, encouraging, creative, focused, and exploratory period of the day. Reader's Workshop is a chance for students to learn new skills that they can apply to their reading, and also offers time for the student's to practice these skills in fun and creative ways. Student's are introduced to different kinds of literature, and they are able to explore their passions in reading, while at the same time learning skills that will make them better readers.
Reader's Workshop also provides a time for the teacher to work in small groups to assist children in furthering their understanding of the concept or skill being taught. The teacher can assess the students she works with, while keeping the rest of the class engaged in individual or group activities in a variety of formats that is focused on a specific skill.
My Reader's Workshop would begin with a Sharing Time where I would gather the children on the carpet. I would then share a book or an aspect of a book or piece of literature with the class that would link to my mini-lesson and the skill I would be teaching for that day.
Next, I would transition into the mini-lesson. The role of the mini-lesson is to provide a time where I can model and teach to the student's directly, the reading skill I am going to have them learn that day. I would use a short book (the same book I used during sharing time) to help point out the skill I am going to teach them. Then I would use the easel to model the skill and I would even interact with the students by asking them questions, and having them give an example of the skill in the book, or in previous books we have read, to further their understanding of what I am trying to teach them. The mini-lesson skill is based on a skill I have observed that the children need practice with. The skills I choose to focus on are also based on the skills my district are requiring me to teach to the students. Mini-lessons allow the teacher not to revert to worksheets as a way for the students to practice the skill. The mini-lesson also allows the teacher to teach the students directly as a whole class and to avoid putting the students into groups based on "ability" (where the students' may feel uncomfortable or unintelligent). The mini-lesson offers a chance for the students to think back to past reading experiences or previous books read in class, in order to help them to understand a new book, concept, or skill I am teaching them, through the use of story frames, schema stories, or literature webbing.
Next I would use the state-of-the-class chart and I would go over the student's responsibilities during the workshop. I would remind myself and the class of which students I am going to be meeting with during the workshop and which students I have already met. I would also go through the chart and see which students are progressing in their tasks and which students are not.
Next I would have the students go into SSR time. This is when students choose their own book they want to read and they read this book for about ten minutes or so.
After 10 minutes I would start my Literature Response Group. I would take a group of children to the back of the room while the other students continue to read in SSR time. The Literature Response Group would meet with me and the students would read, respond, and discuss to a piece of literature or a book that I have chosen for them. Within this group I would encourage the students to react to the book and to share their opinions, likes, dislikes etc...I would also come up with projects and goals for the group to work on when they are in SSR time.
The students who are continuing to read in SSR time will have 4 choices of activities they can be engaged in. 1) They must complete their Literature Response Group goal page. 2) They can try to finish their Literature Response Group project or activity (if one is assigned). This could be in the form of a reading log where they keep track of their reading by writing etc... 3) The students may make changes to their reading records. They can write down how long they have read, the title of their reading log entries, they can make changes on the state-of-the-class chart, and they can sign up for a reading conference with the teacher. 4) If the students finish the first three activities, they can then pick another book to read for fun.
Lastly, to end Reader's Workshop, I will transition the class into sharing time. This is when I would have all the children gather on the carpet, and I would have the children share with the class the books they read or are reading, the activities and projects they completed (or are working on), their reading log entries, their discussions in the Literature Response Group etc...The sharing time will allow me to assess the students' on their work (and progress) during the Reader's Workshop.
Throughout my fieldwork last Spring. I have learned how important it is to provide children with choices in school. Children are in the same classroom for 6 or 7 hours a day with only a few breaks for lunch or a special. Children need to be provided with choices for two reasons: 1) So the students feel they have control over their own learning and 2) so that the children enjoy the activities they are taking part in throughout the school day. Having choices makes learning more fun for the students.
In my fieldwork, which was in a second grade classroom, during writing time, my cooperating teacher used to have all the children grab a clipboard out of a bin and a piece a paper. Then she had them find a special spot in the room where they would sit and write. When I viewed this activity, the children were at the stage where they were composing their own spring or winter poems. The children were so excited that they could go and sit anywhere in the room that they wanted. Some children sat on the floor by the area where they hung up their coats and backpacks, other children sat in corners, one child sat in the library area, and some children stayed at their desks. By allowing the children to choose where they wanted to write, the children were able to find a space in the room where they felt comfortable; this helped them to relax, to focus more on the assignment, and to enjoy writing. This activity also allowed the children to get up out of their seats, to move around the room, and provided a break in the structured school day.
When I was in school, being able to pick the topic I wanted to write about, or choosing which books I wanted to read for my reading log or for a project made assignments more fun and interesting. Even now in college, when I have a choice on an assignment, I am more fascinated and engaged in the assignment, and therefore I remember more information about the topic I chose.
When I become an elementary school teacher, I will provide my students with many choices because I want them to enjoy going to school everyday and to have fun with the assignments I create.
*** Providing choices for the students:
= increases a child's willingness to learn
= increases a child's motivation
= helps children to remember more information
= allows children to enjoy, to relax, and to have
fun with assignments
= provides a break in the structured school day
= allows children to feel comfortable
= makes children feel like they have control
over their learning
