Focusing on the process...

First of all, I want to say that I cannot believe this is my last blog of the quarter. It went by so fast! Dr. Smith, is there any way the program could move your class to an earlier quarter in the two year program? I learned so much in this class and I wish I had been able to get this information before I was in the classroom. Just a thought on a blog!

Now onto the real response to the blog prompt! There were so many rich ideas in both of these chapters. One of the ideas that I was thankful to see in chapter seven was how to actually teach spelling. I recently received an email where almost every word in the text was misspelled but I was still able to read it and make sense of it. Of course that was the point of the email, but in class and in writing, and especially on assessments, spelling matters. However, Routman discusses this in a positive light. We need to let the students focus on what they want to say and then we can help them with spelling. In my own class we really ignore this aspect of the writing process, but then again we ignore a lot when it comes to writing instruction. However, one of the things that I can do is encourage my students to look at the word wall, choose words that say what they are feeling, and even better than all of that I can model this for them. I also thought, while reading this, that our word wall needs some revision. There are words on the wall that all of the students do know, but there are others that I am sure we can add. Not only that but I think they could benefit from having their own word walls.

Routman discusses revising our own writing in front of your students and verbally going through the process with them. I have finally figured out the Smart Board and this is one of the things I want to try with the class. I want to write with them and model the revision process with them. I struggle with writing as well. I do not always make the best word choices and my writing needs to be revised. I think if the students can go through this process with me they can do it in groups or on their own as well. I am SO excited to try this in the classroom!!