In Chapter 2 of Thompson, the Writing Process was heavily focused upon and I was pleasantly surprised to realize how much my kindergarten students engage in the writing process at such a young age. Most prevalently, as I have discussed in relation to other topics throughout TE 402, the students in my placement engage in the writing process through their daily “Reflections” activity. During Reflections, the students first engage in the Prewriting stage by taking a moment to individually think of potential ideas to write about. Some students take this very seriously and actually “rub their brains” to “help stir thoughts.” They proceed to gather and organize ideas; which is also mentioned in the reading, as they ultimately decide upon one topic to write several sentences on. Drafting takes part as the most detailed aspect of the process, as students take turns suggesting various sentences that could be used on the topic at hand, with collaboration in rewording and finding the right “fit” for the actual sentence to be used. Once the sentences are written, the students read the entire Reflection piece aloud, which typically leads to step 3 of the writing process, revision. It is important to note that in the beginning of the year, the process stopped at drafting. However, I have noticed the students beginning to ask the teacher to add more details or suggest changes to the sentences. My MT is not only encouraging of this process, but proceeds to show students how it’s ok to “have a messy paper” with drawing various “arrows” to designate the new detail being added to the sentence etc. The only step missing during the “Reflections” activity is “editing” as the students typically do not focus on misspellings, grammar, or mechanics at this point; especially because my MT writes the sentences for the students at the front of the class. Instead, they move straight to the fifth step outlined by Thompson, publishing. My MT types up their “Reflection” and one student each day gets to draw a picture of the day’s events, to be added to their “Reflection binder.”
While the students are engaging with many steps of the writing process as a whole group, it is important to mention that in the students’ independent writing, less of the writing process has been established. Students spend time writing in their journals frequently, at which time they do engage in both the prewriting (brainstorming) and drafting stages of the writing process. Sometimes they are encouraged to “go back and add details” which would fall into the revision stage, but this is rare as it takes most of the students’ full engagement to reach the drafting point as they are still learning to formulate words and sentences.
My own involvement in working with students and the writing process is significant. Nearly every time I am present in the classroom the students engage in literacy centers, during which time I have worked with students at various points of the writing process, mostly focusing on developing literacy based skills that will help students grow in their writing.
I am fortunate enough to see a lot of writing time while I'm in my MT's classroom. I had never really thought about the various stages of writing prior to reading the Tompkins chapter, but after seeing it broken down into steps, I have realized that the first graders in my class actually do go through most of these processes. There are typically two different types of writing that take place in the room. The first is independent journaling during free choice literacy time, which is really more of a reflection time. Students can write about whatever they want and don't have to share it with anyone but my MT, who periodically reads through their journals.
ReplyDeleteThe second type of writing activity that my students often engage in is during writing workshop. These pieces are more specific- the teacher asks that they write about an important/exciting moment or experience that the students have had and include many details. During this activity, the students engage in prewriting by selecting a topic and putting together a few different ideas about what they are going to write. They then move on to drafting, where they individually start to write about the idea they have come up with. After they have been drafting for a few minutes, my MT and myself walk around the room and read over the stories that have started to be developed. Along with the student, we work on looking over the ideas and spelling and start the revision process. We try to clarify any meanings that are hard to understand and assist the kids in spelling out more challenging words. The final editing process is done by my MT, who takes the stories home and types them out onto a new piece of paper. After the papers are typed up and handed back out to students, they have time to draw an illustration that goes along with what they wrote.
These published stories are then added to a file of finished work that are going to be saved for a special event later in the year. My MT has decided to have a "publishing party" for the students and their families. One morning, parents and other relatives will be invited into the room to check out the 3-4 stories that have been published by each students, which will be on display in the classroom. This is an idea I really like- it makes their work authentic. As we've talked about in the past, having a purpose for the writing is likely to give it a lot more meaning and inspire students to work much harder on their assignments.
Similar to you two I also see a lot of writing in my classroom. During the time I am there the students are involved in writing and literacy centers. Like Jessie, my MT has them involved with the writing process at a very early age but they seem to be catching on quickly. Their classroom motto is "when you're done you've just begun" meaning that once that feel they have finished their writing they are to go back and add more words or pictures and then start a new piece. Over time they have learned this and it has really helped them engage more with their own writing. They have started writing longer sentences and adding a lot of detail to their pictures. They also add their writing to a folder so they can always go back to a page and work on it some more. I think this is a great strategy because it allows the students to improve their own work when they feel like it.
ReplyDeleteI have really noticed the improvement of their writing over the year and I really think a lot of it has to do with how often they are able to just free write on their own. During the school day they are doing various structured activities that involve some writing but they really enjoy free writing and getting to put their own ideas and feelings on paper so they spend more time on it and it ends up being better quality than some of their own work.