Writing Instruction Reflection

     I was very worried about this whole project to begin with especially since my C.T only teaches writing in the afternoon when I'm already gone but it turns out that it was not so bad. My class has begun to read Esperanza Rising (an amazing book that you should definitely check out) and has to answer 4 questions with each reading assignment. The questions are high order thinking questions and we require the students to fill up the space. My C.T wants to prepare them for middle school and beyond when simple two sentences answers will just not do. I decided to use their writing for this assignment and found some pretty interesting things.

     I love Esperanza with a strong passion for many reason. It was the first book that I felt a connection to due to my Mexican heritage plus I thought it was a great story about rising above obstacles. I was pumped for my students to dive in and fall in love with both Esperanza and the Mexican culture, which is not happening as planned (poor Esperanza is not getting much love). The students are getting caught up on the Spanish words that are woven into the book and well to put it lightly they hate writing the response sheets. Yet we have to trudge on and they have to get used to doing assignments they don't necessarily like to do. When I first graded them with my C.T we did one together so I'd understand exactly what he was looking for and it was during this time I learned how smart students can be to get out of work. Some students used LARGE writing to fill the lines while others didn't even go to the end of one line before starting a new one. My C.T marked them down while sighing "They need to know this is not acceptable and the only way to do this is to take points off." After that first assignment I've seen some students flourish and others flounder,
which is why I waited until assignment 6 to use them for my reflection. At this point my students should know what is correct and what is not but it is interesting to see which ones are rising up to the challenge and those who are not.

     Carl Anderson preaches that in order to create meaningful lessons it is important to assess the students’ writing then create lessons that cater to those needs. An important thing that I want my students to learn is how to better utilize resources they have, specifically those for spelling. This lesson would be taught to the whole class because this is something that many students are struggling with. Even though using a dictionary is a simple task it needs to be taught so student can learn and appreciate this skill. Once students see that spelling does count for something for these assignments then hopefully they will make more of an effort.

     I’d like to work on students making their answer/writing relate to their own lives (finding a voice), this is one of the writing traits that Anderson says a lifelong writer possess. Some of my students do understand this idea and understand how to make sure this skill in their reading answers. I’d like to teach this in a small group setting so that my students can learn from each other. These lessons would be an example of guided practice beyond the lesson (Miller), which is where students will share their thinking process and work with each other. I like this way because it also helps build a sense of community among the writers with the students helping each other improve their writing.  

     Another lesson I want to do is specially for Student A. He would benefit greatly from a writing conference and perhaps something to be encouraged throughout this conference is that he is a writer who has ideas that are worth writing down and sharing. Some ideas I’d like to teach him on a one on one setting would be writing in complete sentences, reading back your writing to make sure it makes sense (revision), and crafting an answer that fully answers the question. I want to try an idea Debbie Miller had for reluctant writers where I would do the writing for him while he tells me the answer. This will show him how many ideas he actually have and hopefully encourage him to write more on his own. This will also take the pressure off when it comes to spelling and grammar errors. There would be other lessons to focus on the mechanics of writing but I first want to Student A to see his writing is worthwhile.