Book Club Discussion #2

Our book club this week read pages 59-287 from Lucy Calkins

Krista Milen, Tina Hatcher, Crystal Lawrence

The Art of Teaching Writing by Lucy Calkins

         Our book club this week read pages 59-287 from Lucy Calkins. The first part dealt with the foundations of literacy (writing in the home, nursery school and kindergarten). She emphasized that oral language “takes place on a non-sequence, whole-task basis.” We wouldn’t dissect oral language into component parts and we shouldn’t drill young children on all the sounds of the alphabet before inviting them to write. We should treat early writing with respect just like we would a baby’s first words. She says when launching a writing workshop in the primary-level, classroom teachers need to accept whatever they may put down. Children don’t need to be afraid they will “fail”, but need to be accepted and praised for what they can do. Tina, Krista, and I liked how she addressed the students as “writers” Calkins also stresses that children’s drawing is rehearsal for them. It plays an important role in that it provides a supportive scaffolding within which can help children write. They can return to their drawing and the picture carries most of the child’s meaning. Calkins later discourages drawing, as a way of rehearsing for writing because she says that no solution works for every child and no solution should work forever. She says we should watch for signs indicating that a child no longer needs to weave drawing and writing together. She states that drawing is a predominant form of rehearsal for many 1^st graders, but talking is the most effective form of rehearsal for 2^nd grade. We all three liked the idea of notebooks in primary grades. They have it with them throughout the day and go home with them at night. It is a place for gathering bits and pieces of their lives. She also states that peer conferences may not get better writing, but longer texts.

          Calkins went on to discuss Writer’s Workshop in the upper elementary grades. We discussed how a lot of students are no longer comfortable to really get in to their writing due to peer pressure and bullying. We all agreed that students at this age need us to care about them and what is going on in their lives outside of the classroom. Building a community is especially important at this level of Writer’s Workshop. When building the community we must demonstrate our love for reading and writing. This is the age to make the reading/ writing connection. Students at this age still apply some of our values to their lives. We agreed with Calkins when she said that launching Writer’s Workshop with students in secondary grades is difficult. The teacher in Secondary Writing Workshops must build one on one relationships, seize the moment, teach on your toes, encourage students to voice themselves through writing, and see the energy in the classroom and go with it.

          Tina, Krista and I agreed that in order for Writer’s Workshop to work it must be predictable. Teachers must be organized, and set-aside particular times every day. “It is almost impossible to have a successful writing workshop if students write only one or two times per week. We like the components of Writer’s Workshop. We discussed the mini lesson, work time, conferencing, share sessions and publication. The mini lesson is just what it says. This is the time that is set aside to “teach” all the students something. We shouldn’t expect for every student, however, to use what was taught in his or her papers. There is not a set curriculum on what to teach in the mini lessons. Teachers must decide what to teach based on the needs of the students that she is teaching. A problem that teachers face with mini lessons is that teachers often struggle with reverting to the “old” way of teaching at this time. We all agreed that we must remember who ever is doing the most talking is doing the most learning.

         Tina, Krista, and I had a lot of favorite things about the book to discuss when we met.  One of the sections we all agreed upon was the section on mini-lessons of revisions.  I told the girls that I especially enjoyed the phrase by William Faulkner, “Writing a first draft is like trying to build a house in a strong wind” (Calkins, page 209).  The sense of urgency he discusses is what it is like when students are writing their first draft.  They need to get the ideas all down on paper quickly before they forget what their ideas were in the first place.  I will list a few of the recommended strategies for topics of mini-lessons here:

·      Write about a subject in a different genre

·      Rework a confused section- the ending, the title, etc

·      Take a long draft and make it shorter

·      Take a short entry of a draft and expand it

·      Imagine a purpose and an audience for it

·      Reread the draft evaluating what works and what does not

·      Read the entries/draft and think, ”Where’s the mystery here?”

·      Put the draft aside and return to it another day

·      Take a jumbled piece and rewrite it in sections or chapters

These are just a few of the strategies that we found would be most helpful to our age group of students.  (Calkins, pages 209-210)

         In the chapters on ‘conferring’, one phrase stood out to me that I shared with my group.  “Creation and criticism- these are central to our work with clay and blocks, and they are also central to our work with words.” (Calkins, page 222)  In these chapters of the book, Calkins was discussing how important it is to question themselves about their writing.  As readers, we should ask a question or two about our drafts. No matter the age, questions like these can be used over and over.

·      What have I said so far?

·      How do I like it? What is not so good that I can fix?

·      How does it sound? How does it look?

·      How else could I have done this?

·      What am I going to do next?

These are some questions that can be discussed during teacher-student or peer conferences to get a student to learn to interact with their own writing.  The goal for the teacher, over time, is to be unnecessary or unneeded. We want students to be successful at self-questioning.

         I enjoyed the different stories and anecdotes in this book.  There was a particular story about a little boy named Noah on pages 262-263 that was meaningful to me so I shared it with my book club group.  The story was in the chapter on publications.  Calkins was sharing how the 5 year old had written a 10-page book, with words and a picture on each page.  After reading his book to the class, his teacher asked him what he had written on the back of the book.  He told her that it was “nuthin”, just “sumfin” for the library.  He had put symbols for the section of the library that it would go into for the librarian.  This is humorous, yet significant, because he already sees himself as an author.  As Calkins says, “His teacher has not only helped him develop skills, she has also helped him develop a self-concept as an author.” (Calkins, page 263)  We want our students to not only act as writers, but to become one.  To see him/herself as an author causes the children to make connections with the books they read.  When they make connections, they are learning.