Crafting Writers, Chapters 7-9

I especially enjoyed this section of Crafting Writers because I found it to be easier to digest and applicable to all kinds of teaching.  There were a few parts in particular that stuck out to me:

First, the idea of lessons as described by Hale.  Since we are talking about mini-lessons and doing our own in class tomorrow, I found Hale's description of a lesson to be especially helpful as I think about teaching my craft lesson to our class.  Hale says, "But I do think that reserving the label of lesson for those times when we teach new material or skills will help teachers keep themselves accountable for teaching lessons that are aimed at growing students' independent skill sets in writing" (Hale 98).  I like that Hale used the phrase accountable.  I think that oftentimes teachers are worried about being accountable to the state standards, which are important as well, but teachers should also strive to be accountable to themselves and their students.  Hale's two main questions: What exactly am I teaching and Why am I teaching this? How will it help my students as writers? are critical questions for teachers to ask and a concrete way to hold themselves accountable to the lessons that they are teaching.  Hale says, "My true test of a craft lesson is how well my students can hold on to what I teach them and bring what they learned into their writing independently" (Hale 99).  Once students can directly apply the lesson to their own writing and continue to do so, the lesson has been fully taught.  Hale's way of assessing herself seems effective and a strategy I aim to follow in my teaching writing.

A second part of Hale's writing that I found particularly important was the emphasis she placed on finding strengths in each student's writing when learning specific craft.  Hale writes, "Specific craft, because it is so precise, can be done by students at many different levels.  I am looking for who exemplifies the lesson, not who wrote a 'beautiful piece of writing" (Hale 110).  I found this statement to be incredibly encouraging because I often worry about how I will find strengths in students who appear to be struggling in their writing.  Specific craft lessons seem to be a great way to encourage students who aren't necessarily the best writers because you, as the teacher, are simply searching to see if they understand the specific craft, not writing as an entirety.  Focusing on one small thing that a student does well seems much more manageable than trying to encourage every student on his or her piece of writing in general.  This section, along with the discussions we've been having in class about students attempting to spell big words, etc. have both proved very beneficial to me in my ability to encourage ALL students in their writing.

Crafting Writers, Chapters 1-6

I know I commented on titles in my last post, but I find titles to be crucial in reading and writing.  I particularly liked Elizabeth Hale's title, Crafting Writers (perhaps more than her actual writing), because of the play on words...yes, the craft of writing is critical, but we are also creating children to be good writers as we teach them; we literally play such a critical role in literally crafting the kind of writers and thinkers they become.  What a responsibility! I know that's a bit off topic, but I thought it was interesting.

Now on to the actual writing.  I found Hale's book to be a bit dense in parts.  I got frustrated at times when I felt that she repeated herself, however, I did pull out some useful information.  The first piece of Hale's writing that I liked was the excerpt about multiple ways to bring description into a child's writing.  Oftentimes, children are simply taught two ways to write descriptively, similes and metaphors.  I know I was only taught these two.  However, Hale states, "...when teaching, you want to give students many different and specific ways to bring description into their writing" (Hale 12).  You must not only give them a variety of ways to descriptive writing, but also be specific in modeling these ways.  Along the same lines, it is important that we do not just teach children to insert details when they feel necessary, but that these details and descriptions should be a welcomed part of their writing, embedded as they go, and not a quick afterthought.  Hale states, "...but squeezing in details is also a different skill from using details as you write" (Hale 11).

I also enjoyed Hale's section of writing on the five senses.  While she acknowledges that certain senses, such as sight, seem to play a larger role in writing and developing craft, that each sense can be used differently to assist the reader.  Hale writes, "I begin with just the basic ideas that adding sound can help make a memory or story come alive for the reader" (Hale 36).  I liked this idea because it is simple and can be explained to students at a young age.  It also gives the child a concrete way to see how writing using senses can really help their reader capture a memory, something to which the child can relate.

Are Those Really Mistakes?: A Response to "Every Mark on the Page" and Sound Systems

The title of Kate Cusumano's article "Every Mark on the Page: Educating Family and Community Members about Young Children's Writing" definitely intrigued me.  I love that she included community members in the subtitle because it assumes that teaching children to read and write, and learn in general, is a group effort, not the responsibility of one parent or teacher.   This title sat well with me because, in a sense, it takes the pressure of me, as a future teacher and potential parent as well.  While I of course want to aid and help the children in my classroom learn literacy in ways that are beneficial to each of them, I love that teaching can be viewed as a team effort.

But now onto the actual article...I was shocked when I read about the mother who was convinced her child was having seizures during writing workshop time because he misspelled "there" and "their" a few times.  These few misspelled words had his mother in such a tizzy; she couldn't accept the fact that her son was still intelligent and capable, despite a few instances of word confusion (p. 9)  I liked this example because Cusumano used it to further explain childrens' capabilities in writing, and how their mistakes should not always be viewed as mistakes, but, in fact, are often strengths.  On page eleven, Cusumano uses a kindergartener's writing sample to explain a way to analyze a child's writing in a way that helps us see the strengths of the piece.  When discussing the use of pictures in order to help children's writing, Cusumano explains that children often confuse pictures and writing because both "convey meaning" (p. 12).  However, this particular child's writing is much more detailed than her picture, "demonstrating that she is moving on to a higher stage of development" (p. 12). In addition to the detailed writing, the child also demonstrates an understanding of periods, spaces, and writing from left to right.  I was amazed by all of the strengths that Cusumano was able to find from this child's writing piece, because when I first saw it, I noticed the spelling mistakes and had trouble deciphering the words.  Cusumano proved a critical point about teaching children to write: we must take into account children's understanding of words and their uses in society when reading their writing, and not just hunt for mistakes.

Anna Lyon and Paula Moore discuss children's understandings of phonetics when reading their writing, which seemed to connect largely to Cusumano's article.  They gave the example of a child who spelled "dragon" as "jagn."  Upon first glance, the reader may have no concept of what word the child was attempting to spell.  However, with an understanding of how the words are spoken orally, the reader can make the connection that "dr" and "j" make similar formations in the mouth when spoken (Lyon and Moore, 14).  This background understanding when reading children's writing helps us make connections to why children spell the way they do, and proves Cusumano's point that children do, in fact, know much more than we often give them credit for.  

After reading the assigned chapters in Sound Systems and Cusumano's article, I feel like I am starting to better understand children and their ways of writing.  At twenty-two, it's often hard to go back in time and try and understand why a child would have spelled a word a particular way.  However, it is crucial to do this because otherwise, we simply view the word as wrong, making it much more difficult to help children spell in the future.  I also love the way that Cusumano, Lyon, and Moore all emphasized the connections between reading, writing, and speaking.  It's almost impossible to separate the three, and, in a way, detrimental. If we understand how children speak, we can then aid them in becoming much better readers, and in turn, great writers too.

Food Court Fun (Literacy Dig Report)

Our fabulous team, including Lynne, David, Nicole, and myself chose to observe a local mall food court for our literacy dig project.  While it was, at times, harder to be stealth in our observations because we were indoors and didn't want to appear creepy, we did manage to come up with a wealth of information that helped us draw conclusions about literacy in this place.

I was in charge of observing the actual people, what they looked like, how they were acting, etc.  While I did observe a few people walking around and ordering food at various restaurants, I focused mainly on those people sitting at the food court for various reasons.  At 5:30 on a Tuesday evening, the food court wasn't packed, but did have plenty of people to tactfully observe...key word being tactfully ;)

The first people to capture my attention were a young couple...I'm guessing mid to late twenties.  They were nearing the end of their meal of pizza and coke, and looked exhausted.  They were married, at least I assumed because both were wearing rings.  They didn't exchange much in the way of conversation, but their facial expressions read extremely tired.  When they stood up to leave, I noticed the wife was pregnant.  Now that explains a lot!

The second crew of people I noticed was a group of three college-age girls.  They were all blonde, with shopping bags and were munching on Auntie Anne's pretzels.  They finished the meal, but stayed for awhile after to discuss issues of shoplifting and such...I'm guessing some of them had worked in a retail setting before.  They were boisterous and excited to chat and spend time with one another.  Verbal conversation seemed important to this group.

The next group of people I noticed were two Asian women.  Both looked to be about thirty.  One was holding a baby, and the other was speaking quickly and using lots of hand motions.  While I couldn't understand the language they were speaking, one woman appeared to be telling an animated story or discussing a serious issue, and the other woman took on the role as the intent listener.  This conversation told me a lot about what you can observe from simply body language and hand gestures, even when you do not understand the actual words being spoken.

The last group of people I chose to focus on were two middle-aged women, who appeared to be doing some sort of interview.  Upon closer examination, I realized the women were participating in an evaluation.  One of the women had her laptop out, was typing, and would occasionally turn the laptop and show the other woman information.  They were engaged in conversation about the woman's progress at her job, and it was evident that the boss was pleased with her employee's progress.

While not all of my observations involved literacy directly in the form of reading and writing, I did find literacy to play a large role in the goings-on at the food court.  The aforementioned people were simply the people I chose to focus on, but the entire time I was observing, people were coming and going to each restaurant, reading the menus, ordering food, signing receipts, etc.  Even non-English speakers could order food with the help of the large pictures on each restaurant's menu.  Literacy seemed to be crucial to the success of this particular place as people spoke to one another at counters and then also once they sat down.  Even through non-verbal communication, people were finding ways to talk to others.

During my observations, I made several assumptions about people because it was easier to make sense of the situations. For example, I observed the young husband and pregnant wife.  Although they did not say they were tired, it was evident from their body language and the way they spoke to each other.  I couldn't jump into their minds to see what they were thinking, but I made assumptions due to what I witnessed.  The customers and employees did the same thing.  While food court workers did not always know what the customers wanted, they understood that it was their job when a customer walked up, to ask them what they needed.  These kinds of spoken communication seem to be imperative to the success of our society; we rely on other people to pick up on social cues and body language to help us with what we need, and literacy is no exception.