Chapter 6
Independent Writing
“Independent writing gives children personal opportunities to apply
recently demonstrated techniques and strategies. The teacher has a
chance to observe how the children use their skills, strategies, and
conceptual knowledge on their own. By comparing the writing samples
of a child across time, the teacher sees just how a child is regulating his
or her own writing development.” (p. 73)
This chapter is all about students writing independently from emergent writers to early writers and ending with fluent writers. The sample dialogues between student and teacher depict the teacher supporting the students and validating their knowledge. This validation helps students to a new level of perceptual attention. When students are ready she models how words are similar, how students can help themselves and is constantly facilitating them to reread their writing and to focus on their message to their audience. Along with this the chapter shows stages in writing and spelling development.
One statement that surprised me and at the same time did not surprise me: Teachers who work with struggling readers sometimes express concern because children know something one day but are unable to recognize the same information in a different situation or at another time. The authors call this movement along a developmental continuum. The teacher needs to be aware of where the child is in terms of graph phonemic awareness, spacing, directional movement and letter formations and use this knowledge to lift the child to a higher level. (p. 77)
One interesting different strategy for producing writers that used to be valued but is hardly used any more is storytelling in front of peers before writing independently which serves two purposes: (a) it places value on the child as a storyteller with a message to write about and (b) it enables the child to practice the story’s meaning which he can then use to monitor the written version. (p. 80) I think students would love doing this plus it opens doors to other genres of literacy.
Writing aloud is another strategy that helps students learn how to compose longer stretches of text for different purposes and audiences and to demonstrate some strategies for solving selected words within the text (p. 81). This is teacher directed as she demonstrates and models the writing process.
Another statement that caught my attention was “children are behaving like writers who have a message to share with an audience.” This statement validates our own learning as teachers about Secondary Discourse and academic socialization or academic literacies. The students are learning within a Secondary Discourse to be, say, value, believe as writers for particular audiences. Students here are writing to communicate.
I enjoyed reading the sample dialogues between students and teachers it validated my teaching of writing but also allowed me to see where I could improve as a writing teacher. I also like the reflective questions that teachers can ask themselves when they are observing students as writers.
Here are some links for writing stages that could be helpful:
Developmental Stages of Writing
http://www.education.com/reference/article/developmental-stages-writing/?page=2
The Traditional Stages of Writing Development
http://www.ehow.com/info_8179355_traditional-stges-writing-development.html
Stages of Writing
http://www.learningtowrite.ecsd.net/stages%20of%20writing.html
Images of Development Stages of Writing
bing.com/images
Stages of Spelling Development
http://www.education.com/reference/article/stages-spelling-development/
Invented Spelling and Spelling Development
http://www.readingrockets.org/article/267/
Something I found interesting my book is that the human brain was never meant to read. It's a skill we've developed over thousands of years, and depending on the age, they may not have made those connections from one point of the brain to the other, hence the changes in memory from one day to the next. I've seen it a lot in first grade and yes, it is surprising and at times, frustrating. I guess what my mom always said was true, patience IS a virtue.
ReplyDeletePatience is a virtue. I guess teachers should have lots of this. During those changes in memory, there is still learning taking place so observation is an important skill to have as a teacher too. My book places alot of teacher role in observing so that they know what and when to scaffold to increase the acquisition in the Discourse the student are in.
ReplyDeleteHow do you incorporate storytelling into your classroom?
ReplyDeleteI would like to know more about the idea of writing aloud. You said it is a teacher-directed activity in which teacher models and demonstrates the writing process. It sounds similar to reading and thinking aloud, in which the teacher intentionally vocalizes his/her thinking while reading a text.
ReplyDeleteYes that is exactly what it is. thinking aloud while writing a story together with the students. The teacher vocalizes her thoughts as she composes text, inviting the children to contribute at selected points. Her invitations are based on knowledge of children's processing behavior and works to promote effective problem-solving that can transfer to other situations. her goal is to demonstrate the importantce of composing a meaningful choherent message for a particular audience and a specific purpose. The teacher gives clear demosntrations and good models that use stndards to use when they write on their own. The children acquire important tools for learning how to write more sophisticated messages. The teacher follows the writing process. That is writing aloud in a nutshell. hope it helps.
ReplyDeleteI really like when you shared “children are behaving like writers who have a message to share with an audience.” This statement validates our own learning as teachers about Secondary Discourse and academic socialization or academic literacies. The students are learning within a Secondary Discourse to be, say, value, believe as writers for particular audiences. Students here are writing to communicate.
ReplyDeleteI am in total agreement!