Routman offers plenty of advice regarding teaching writing to students. Her suggestions seem that they would benefit students immensely. To begin, she believes in teaching students information that is meaningful and worthwhile to the students. I think that it is important to not solely focus on teaching for a test, but to rather the students current and future writing abilities. I believe that this is very important, however it could become an issue because there are rules that schools have to follow so sometimes teachers do need to teach areas that students may not fully benefit from in the long run.
I also agree that students should write for real audiences and meaningful text. When students find something repeatable or something interesting they want to be better writers and the quality of their work is also better. I believe that a good way for students to write a lot without realizing it is for literacy is through writing in all subjects for a writers workshop. Incorporating different subjects into writing can be beneficial for both subjects and getting work done at the same time. Another idea that Routman suggests is telling the students why they are learning something or why something is important. I think this is an expertise that is important to develop.This makes them able to make connections to the real world, which will help them throughout their lives. Therefore, it is vital that as a teacher we know why we are teaching what we are and how it benefits the students. They are more likely to remember what they are being taught and use the information in the future if they are told the purpose.
Routman suggests ways to "finese" literacy instruction. Having a routine can be very beneficial to the students. It helps the kids to know exactly what they are going to do and how they are going to do it. It improves the quality of their work to have that solid routine. Students need to be writing on a regular basis. It is essential that they keep up with writing all year and do it all of the time to improve. Lastly, it is important to talk to the kids about their writing. This will only help them become stronger writers. They need to know the things they can do to improve the quality of their work and exactly what to change. Throughout the book so far, I believe Routman offers a lot of advice that I think is very useful for teaching writing.
Justine, I agree that is is important to teach text and literacy in a meaningful environment that allows them to take their writing to another level. One thing that I noticed was that Routman designates an audience for her students to write to, so they know that their writing is important. A skill I could personally develop is to gear students writing (even at Kindergarten level) to a particular group, whether it is their peers, family, etc. Another aspect that Routman brings up is the how celebrating writing can impact a student, when they see that their writing is meaningful to them and to others it encourages them to write better.
ReplyDeleteI also learned that it is important to implement whole-class share and to find the time for students to do this and other writing activities. It is up to the teacher to find the time. I think I could finesse my literacy instruction by including a small number of students to share their writing daily for the class. This could eliminate problems as well, such as blurting out during whole group time. Since the students understand that they will have their sharing time for the group.
What did you think was Routman's best advice? What would change about writing in you class to fit that advice?
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteI agree with both Justine and Dominique that it is essential that teachers should focus on meaningful teaching of writing. However, I think it is equally important that we teach the necessary skills to support that writing. By just teaching an isolated skill, the kids don't understand what we're talking about it. I would like to finesse my literacy instruction by teaching the concept first and labeling it later so that learning becomes easier and more meaningful.
ReplyDeleteI really like how Routman focuses on how to be a more effective teacher of writing and how teachers can engage their student's hearts and minds so they want to write and do their best writing. This is a skill I'd like to develop by incorporating meaningful instruction, writing for real audiences, focusing on the voice, and provide quality modeling for my students. Of course, perfecting and fine-tuning these skills will take a lot of practice and experience. However I already have the opportunity to begin these practices in my internship. For Kindergarten, I think it's important to focus on voice and modeling. I plan on incorporating these components into my future literacy lessons.