Weaver Chs 1-3

Overall, I really enjoyed these chapters. I kind of skimmed the last one since I was out of town this weekend, but the content of this book is very easy to follow. The author really lays things out in a way that is easy to follow and the way he breaks the content into sections helps keep my interest.

To start off with, understanding that there isn’t any certain way to do a writing assignment makes a lot of sense. By paying attention to how we teach the writing process, we allow for more attention to be paid to our students and how they learn to write more developed pieces.

I hadn’t ever actually thought about writing to be “surprised.” The concept of writing to figure out more about yourself and imagination was new to me, but one that I like. I liked that the author must continually search within himself to get the information to write about.

By searching for information, both from the author’s own mind and other resources around him, the author is able to build upon the basics he thinks he knows and create a more elaborate piece of writing.

Breaking down the different steps in the writing process was also interesting. I had always thought of the process as brainstorm, draft, revise, finish. But seeing how to deal with writer’s block and the different steps you can take to get past lumps in the writing road will come in handy when I give assignments to my students. I like that the author lays everything out in ways to help our students learn how to write better.

Slowly but surely...

I've got most of these chapter reflections already on my computer, but seeing as it likes to crash every 20 minutes, it's getting irritating to get them all posted. I'll probably have to finished getting them up here after work, but they'll be up nonetheless.

Weaver Ch 6

Quite frankly, I’m getting kind of tired of everything grammar related. I just want to throw it all out windows and down stairs. HOWEVER… I need to finish up this quarter. After saying that, it took me a while to actually get around to reading this chapter. All I kept thinking after reading the title was of prepositions and clauses and verb phrases.

Right off the bat, though, I was interested in the difference between transmission and transactionalism. Just going down the list and comparing the concepts of these two trends intrigued me. Then I got to the part of mini-lessons! I love it.

Taking just a few minutes to touch on something your students are struggling with is an amazing idea and I feel like more teachers should utilize it. Looking back on my days as a student in high school, my teachers didn’t use this concept all that much. They just met with students one-on-one every now and then if there was a really tough portion, but it would have saved them a lot of time and effort to teach the class as a whole.

One small component I really enjoyed randomly in the text was that the authors states that “constructivist teachers know that it is important for the options the offer to be genuine learning experiences that at least resemble the kinds of experiences from which students learn outside of school.” This small component should be remembered by teachers because there are so many times I see or hear of something modeled after something that isn’t relatable to the students. I think that everything we show the students in class should have the opportunity to be related to their lives.

Having the entire constructivist model laid out in this chapter helped me understand the theory and concepts better. Tying it in with the importance of mini-lessons and how to properly and effectively follow the constructivist methods helped even more.Weaver

Weaver Ch 5

First off, I dreaded this chapter the moment I read the title. After spending this summer working my ass off and not having many breaks from a busy schedule, the last thing I wanted to do was read about grammar for anything other than my grammar class. Then I started getting into the text a bit more and realized I actually kind of liked it… sort of. I like that it speaks the truth about grammar. It’s often found to be boring, the way it’s taught is often too complex, and there are instances where it is taught improperly.

I liked the concept of simplifying the terminology to better suite the students. Right from the get-go the author talks about some of the mistakes teachers make. Whether marking every incorrect aspect of a paper or being afraid to do so, teachers need to be able to adjust to help the students learn properly and not do one extreme or the other. We need to, as the subtitle in the chapter states, “narrow our focus and limit the terminology.” But sticking to what needs attention and not going overboard with explaining it in terms the students won’t understand, we need to help them improve their skills without overwhelming them.

One part of this text that I really liked was the list of sentences from Hariston’s study on page 109. Giving this to students at the beginning of the unit and then revisiting them once the unit has been completed may help students understand their development. Not only this, but having basic sentences to work through will help students understand more clearly.

The portion of the text on what we should emphasis in our teaching also helped. Although I feel like this is just one opinion and that every teacher has a right to decide what to teach, just as much as the author. One aspect within this section that I found to be helpful was when the author broke down Hunt's research and showed specifics from different grades. She uses portions of students' writings and explains the significance of each excerpt.

Weaver Ch 4

I was torn about this chapter when I first started getting into it. I didn’t really like the fact that it was using young children’s work as examples until about halfway through. I knew that it was all just to show the development of writing and how we gradually learn to correct ourselves, but it was irritating to have to think of my students as grade-school children.

Once I got past this annoyance I began really understanding the purpose of the chapter. I enjoyed how the author talked about how the “errors” people make are really just them still learning. After having only worked in the classroom once so far, I noticed a lot of “common errors” in my students’ work. After reading this chapter, however, I see these errors as a way to help my students improve their skills. I tend to forget that there needs to be certain steps taken before any aspect is commonplace to a student and maybe my students haven’t been taught those steps yet.

Seeing the development of the children used as examples in this chapter also made me think about how much I can help my students develop in the time that they are in my class. Even though they’ll start out at a higher level than the young students in the book, the 14-18 year old students I have will have a lot of opportunity for development in my class.

I really like the idea that the author gives of “reconceptualizing” the writing process. By showing students that writing is an ongoing process we will allow a more open ally to them as far as how they respond to the feedback we provide. Along with this, the type of feedback we give is also addressed in Weaver’s previous paragraphs. If we supply critique or feedback with a negative tone, our students will not respond positively. We must frame the process and feedback in a way that allows for improvement, not impediment.