Writer's Workshop: Chapters 14, 15, 17

In the writing workshop it is important to conference with your students. I actually get to experience a Writer's Workshop everyday in my field experience classroom. Last week I got to experience conferencing with students on my very own. I was very skeptical when my teacher told me that I was going to conference with the students on my own. I just now learned about a writers workshop and I felt like I was not yet comfortable to do this. After the fact however, it was not as hard as I thought it was. I just listened to the students jumbled thoughts and helped them organize it into paragraph form. They had such great ideas and information they just needed that extra help to shape it all together. One thing I found interesting in the readings however was that the teacher could make a record after conferencing with the students. This record keeps track of who she has met with and can help us view what we are teaching as teachers to help us recognize patterns of what have been taught.

A part of writers workshop that I have not seen yet is the "sharing" time. I am only in the classroom two days a week so I'm sure there are days when they do share but I am just not there to observe it though. The reading gave many great ideas on how students can share their writings with each other. It is a great thing for students to share with one another because they get the opportunity to get ideas from their classmates and think of things that they might not have thought of on their own. Students can do a survey share and just read a single line or main idea from their writings with the class. This sharing method is good because many students will have the opportunity to share. Students can also share their whole writing piece or what they have completed. When students have the ability to listen to one another's ideas this may help them in their own writing pieces. Not all students have to share. Some students may be too shy or may just not feel comfortable sharing about what they wrote about. I can see why some students may not want to share and I do not see anything wrong with that.

In chapter 17 one of my favorite lines in the chapter was, "Most of us don't waste time asking other people questions that we already know the answers to, just to see if they know.." I really liked this line because it is so true. Writing workshop gives us the opportunity to ask personal questions that may not always have an answer. The answer is unknown to the teacher but to the student it may be very evident. The child is then responsible for the answer and it is found within them, and is not right nor is it wrong. Over the course of the writing workshop children have the ability to develop into great writers and a sense of finding them self as a writing can help this process. After the writing process is done the teacher can assess the child on how they feel about them self as a writer. Seeing how a student views them self and comparing their writing to that can help make sense of their progress.