Routman and writing conferences

One of the things I have struggled with the most in my main placement is how to help students write. I must admit that I focus mainly on editing content. I write on the student’s writing. I do not have them read their stories to me. I collect them, read them, offer suggestion on their writing, return them, and then ask them to begin revising. Often times I get the same story, but the errors I marked were corrected.

In this chapter I was focused on the idea of front-loading.
This is one of the things that has been lacking in my instruction of the students at my main placement. I need to do more, as Routman suggests, before the students begin to write. Just picking the topic to write on is not enough. I have not modeled for the students what my expectations are. I have focused on correct spelling, punctuation, and whether or not the students are writing coherent thoughts. I have not focused on the writer, the process, nor have I had them take responsibility for their own writing. I realized I am missing a lot of pieces to my writing instruction.

I am hoping to go back to my main placement and use the ideas in this chapter. I want to start with demonstrating with the students and giving them time in their table groups to discuss their ideas. I want to give the students a chance to talk openly about what they are thinking about before they put pencil to paper. I want the quality of their writing to improve. I also want the students to be able to freely share their writing with me and with the entire class. We have yet to try the whole class approach, but I do believe it could work in our classroom.