Writing Through the Tween Years Written by Bruce Morgan
With Deb Odom
Written by teachers in response to their frustration with over-emphasis on test prep in their school. They look at writing essentials for students in grades 3-6, best practices for mentoring tweens as writers, and the incorporation of spelling and grammar conventions into authentic writing.
Besides the discussion on who tweens are and where they are developmentally, section one includes a sample writing block schedule with writing warm up called Living Books, mini-lesson, independent work time, small group sessions, and group reflection (p. 20). Along with scheduling suggestions, Morgan and Odom provides a breakdown of crafting categories (p. 23) and uses ideas from Mosaic of thought by Ellin Keene to align reading and writing skills/ strategies (p. 43).
In section two, Morgan and Odom begin by providing insight into the use of Living Books to mentor tweens in the wrriting process. They continue by arguing the importance of teacher's using their own writing with which to model, despite our common fear that we aren't "good enough" as writers to write anything worthwhile. Next, they model how to use mentor texts and provide countless examples and lists of outstanding mentor texts for tweens. The authors have pointed out what stragegy they suggest teaching with each mentor text.
Finally, in section three, the authors tackle the integration of authentic writing and test prep. This section covers conventions, grammar, and spelling. It also pushes on the need to create a safe environment to discuss growth and assessments.
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Morgan, Bruce & Odom, Deb. (2004). Writing through the tween years. Portland: Stenhouse Pub.
So, I've only read the first 35 pages of this book so far, but here are some of my early on thoughts...
ReplyDeleteChapter One
*We need to discuss genre and author's purpose from the beginning of the year
*We need mentor pieces
*We want students to write deeply about small situations
*Students need real audiences and real purposes (they need to be able to select some of their own topics)
*Give students feedback and talk to them about it - along with directions for next steps
*Use results to determine next teaching points
*"The security and predictability of the classroom and the sameness of the structure encourage risk taking." (p. 7)
Chapter Two
*Writers' Workshop basically should consist of Living Book (Do Now/Journaling), Whole class crafting lesson (mini-lesson), Composing & Groups (writing, small groups, and conferring), and Reflection.
*During the Composing/Group time, teacher should carry a class list and circulate, noting observations to guide future teaching points
The part on necessities for effective writing classrooms, I am not finding too helpful (we're already good at most of it, I think) - but I do need to dig deeper into the gradual release part - not too sure how that works.
I'll try to finish by this weekend, Celeste! : ) I'm a slow reader...