Teaching and Conferencing

This week’s reading continued to encourage us to let the student lead the learning process – reminding us to teach them from where they’re at and build upon it gradually.  Lucky for us, Ms. Hale gives some thorough and realistic examples of how to teach craft lessons and use conferencing effectively.

            I enjoyed the challenge of the guided practice for researching craft in the appendix, but wish we could have been given a little more background on each student.  While I could find positives to point out in each piece, it’s hard to know what the next steps should be when you don’t know what the previous steps were!  The idea of teaching students how to reflect on their own writing so that they can make the most out of conferencing seems like an ingenuous way to give them more ownership in their education.  I can see where a student will be less resistant to new ideas when he/she has been given the ability to be a part of the decision-making.

Ms. Hale’s advice on introducing one thing at a time seems to be common sense, but I can see where it could be tempting in some situations to try to teach too much at once.  I like the thought of allowing the students the opportunity to try out each newly-learned craft to see how it fits with their own personal writing style.  Also, having each student create a sample of each craft in their writing journal is a great way to not only reinforce the lesson but also to give the student a reference to turn to when they need a little more inspiration. 

While I’ve not had my own personal writing journal for years, I’m definitely ready to start one now!  I would hate to not have my own samples to share when I ask the students to do so.  As an added bonus, I will have written documentation to show improvements in my own writing style as I continue to do more research on crafting.   Since I don’t really have much of a creative writing background, I feel like I need to catch up and start collecting as many crafts as possible!  It might be interesting to have students review my writing as I progress and see if they can pick out strengths and learning opportunities. 

 How nice of the author to give us some additional sources to refer to, such as “Wonderous Words” by Katie Wood Ray and “How’s It Going? A Practical Guide to Conferring with Student Writers” by Carl Anderson, but the book I’m most looking forward to reading is “Do You Know Enough About Me to Teach Me?” by Stephen Peters.  His concept of “capture, inspire, teach” seems to be repeated in all of our textbooks, and I really do believe that many students just need someone to show a little faith in their abilities to motivate them to try harder.  I know that there will be times when a particular learning situation will look daunting, so it will be comforting to have this resource to fall back on to remind me of positive ways to continue to connect with students. 

One of the things I like best about “Crafting Writers K-6” is the personal tone in which it is written.  Doesn’t it seem like we’re sitting in the room with Ms. Hale while she’s explaining these crafts and techniques to us?  It’s as if we’re getting the opportunity to tour yet another classroom!  The fact that she uses the words “I would probably” several times on page 156 is so reassuring to me, showing that, although she has taught creative writing for years and even written a book about it, she’s still continuing to learn and to adapt to whatever the needs are at that very moment.  There aren’t any absolutes in this profession we’re embarking on, so we need to do what we can to try to be prepared for whatever needs arise.