Crafting 7,8, and 9

I have found "Crafting Writers" to be so inspirational. I am so excited to have this book as a resource to help me teach in a method that I am excited. Using the mini lesson by its very name implies that we will be teaching the students a new skill. And keep oursleves on task by questioning our intentions with the questions
"What exactly am I teaching and Why am I teaching this? How will it help my students" (p.99)
To me this is almost revoultionary, even though a completely natural teaching model, in my opinion. We the teachers are responsible for providing safe places and hope of new learning for all of our students.
Much of our job will be as inspirers and a resouce for how to for we all know"At heart we know that no one can educate another person, that all of us educate ourselves."(p. 122)We must inspire them to be curious and confident in their abilities.
All children learn! As teachers we must learn how to teach all learners. "merly complimenting students is a missed opportunity. The key to powerful conferring is teaching all students their strengths regardless of their ability, withthe same seriousness we give to their next step"(p.123). Which Hale goes onto describe as potentially being student owned and driven.
Buiding on strengths, no matter how small, and limiting ourselves to one building block at a time allows us to meet the students where they are and allows for them to be accountable and in charge of their own creation.

"Crafting Writers" 1-6

Hale has forever separated the skills of reading and writing for me. I agree I have always had a pretty strong intuition as to when something is well written and from now on will try to focus more concreteness upon why.
Hale's techniques of  connecting the children with their writing, giving them styles to choose from, providing crafted anchors to cling to and grab onto, not traditional labels that may confuse them, all resonates with and challenge me. She speaks to providing new motivation and ownership for the students to write from and with. She points out that writing workshops naturally lend themselves to stratification of learning and skill abilities. She provides helpful reflections upon developmental levels to construct meaningful instruction for children. Information is provided in a non threatening, open, individualized manner. Acknowledging that we will be able to help provide platforms, groundwork, and foundations for our learners but to keep in mind that it also a life long process with many contributors.
Above all she points out that reading is not writing!! "Writing entails placing words down with nothing but blank space ahead" (p.66). I can feel the anxiety of facing that paper (or blog screen) and knowing that I have to write something, but what??? when I read that.
I have very much enjoyed reading this book so far, I like the way that she crafts her writing. I feel as if I am reading something very fluent and organized but that I am interested in and learning a great deal of what seems to have been right in front of me all the while. I look forward to gaining more craft in the coming chapters.

Every Mark on the Page

I connect with this article! A friend of mine an di have been having this polite debate about the state of our daughters' spelling. I am going to show hier this article. Before this I was able to share with her my educated guesses about why we no longer focus on rote spelling and encourage creativity. It can kill off all desires to write (let alone creatively) for gear of doing it "wrong". That in order to build skills we must first experiment with them in a safe environment.
I actually snorted out loud (SOL) at "Too often I have seen the fun go out of writing when family mwmbers get involved, especially when they demand adult writing conventions from six- and seven year olds" (Cusumano, 2008, p.9).
My friend has gone so far as to say that her daughters spelling is an example of "lazzy teaching" (fighting words???). After Cusumano and Sound Systems, I think not!! I think that spelling is a seperate skill (as far as learning goes) from writing. That the two merge more fluidly after elementary school and that it is of utmost importance that we put the focus on expressing ourselves in written language seperate from spelling.
My daughter can spell a word correctly on a spelling test and then mispell the same word in a book that she is writing. Different focuses. Both need to be supported.

Sound Systems

You know I find myself reading and wondering why almost at the same time... I am very disappointed that this book spends so much time trying to explain the world outside of the realm of sound systems (i.e.- Why would they even attempt to reason how school days and programs are organized at different locales?) and not spend more on the forms of assessment and applications? Perhaps they could be more specific (it is not always convenient to flip back to chapter two to see what they are reffering to. I personalyy even would have been happier with a "less is more" approach).
On the positive, I liked the applications and I found the examples stimulating and applicable. I LOVE "Ignore errors that are on phonics concepts taught at higher developmental levels" (Lyon, 2003, p.41). This approach really rings true for me. I also connect with the idea of allowing children to push themselves and "test the waters" with skills that they have yet to master but are begining to develop without penalty.

Community Dig

On Saturday, September 7, 2010, I and 4 of my class mates attended a well known and loved community event in a far off town. The event boasts activities for both the young and the young at heart. Items were to be created and items were to be admired and even purchased. In our community dig I played the roll of the verbal recorder. I observed and recorded bits of talk.

We arrived at the event at about 1 o'clock in the afternoon. The first area that I observed was the one that had art attivities for children to do. Four different styles of conversation were witnessed:

1. Volunteers were giving directions and encouragement to children artists.
• "That's very nice, I like those colors together"
• "Isn't that awsome? Do you want to do another spot?"
• "You use Sharpies, any colors that you want. Make dots or any pattern that you want."
2. Parents were talking with other parents around the perimeters of the art activities.
• "There is big money in horses"
• "She's 2 and a half."
• "Hi, I saw the announcement."
3. Conversations of the crowds moving around outside the perimeter of the art activities. 
• "I'll wander around and circle back."
• "You really wan to, I'll do it."
4. Conversations between parents and children.
• "Are you gonna put some paint on it like this?"
• "Momma, can I go see what the other station is?"

After standing still for while I moved around within the crowd to experience what conversations could be witnessed while participating in this manner. Two modes were represented. The first mor formal and the second more informal.

1. Vendors and shoppers were discussing wares.
• "I have a store."
• "Look at that, is it broken glass? Mirror?"
2. People were relaxing in chairs talking and listening to music, being helpful with each other, and socializing with their friends.
• "The last one needs paper."
• "There is no paper in the last one."

After talking with my dig group I was very surprised at how event people reacted to the idea of snindividual being illerate I believe that one person said that people who could not read would be too emberassed to ask fo r help and another implied that there were no people who could not read. As an implications for teaching we could work towards makinf our students aware of this ever prevelant problem and how to assist individauls whild maintaining their dignity! I was also surprised that even as students we only "dug" for artifacts in one language (English). The only evidence of any other language that I witnessed were among the attendees I heard a woman talking on her phone in a foriegn language and I saw a Mom and her daughter speaking in Spanish.
I really felt that considering the diversity of the community that this event was held in that organizers should have done more (much more) to make this event accessible to all. Signs were monolingual, small print, and not easily seen. Signs for children were not at child eye level. The information booth was in the middle of the event.

• "I hate her, she's one of those girls. She is definately hot and cold."
1.  

Posting Expereinces and Article

Hi all! Sorry it has taken me a sec but I have been thinking of you all.

My blogging experiences are under 10 blogs. I took one class where we had to make 3 posts and then respond to two class mates and to responses that we received. So if anyone finds me making any blunders please just let me know.

I love the term mentioned in the "on-line writing" article "digital fluency". Every class that I have taken in this program has contributed to my digital literacy!

I also like the idea of having a less formal (traditional) environment to interact with each other in (and practice in for our future students).

This article touched on an issue that I can relate to in that we must remember that for some students their only access to some technologies will be in the school and that we are obligated to expose them and make sure that they are fluent in the uses to the best of the students abilities. For me, I know that I would probably never have learned how to blog or interact within virtual classrooms without the prompting of my educational experiences.