Chapter 4: Raise Your Expectations

I feel I am always trying to challenge my students to raise their expectations. I agree that many times they are set way too low. When I student taught in a kindergarten class, by the end of the year they were adding simple numbers using manipulatives. I was absolutely amazed. Now with my first graders, I am always pushing them and trying to get them to achieve at their highest level. During a team meeting, our lead teacher was going over some of the indicators for Math. In first grade they are to know how to count to 100. But by second grade it’s something like 1,000 (I need to double check that number). However high, it was a big jump. So now we focus more on trying to get the students to count and write as high as they can. The more you expect and push your students, the better they will be later on. It is very important to have high expectations when it comes to writing. Many kids are so lackadaisical when it comes to writing. With everything around them becoming more and more technology related, they don’t take the time to truly perfect writing. Text messages and emails are all abbreviated to save time and punctuations are not included in texts. When it comes time to get a job, they will be hurt if they did not take the time to learn how to write and communicate correctly. That is what employers are looking for. A resume needs to be articulated correctly, flow, and make sense or they will be less likely to get the job.

Chapter 1: Share Your Writing Life
When having my students’ do a writing project, I noticed I incorporate a lot of the same ideas mentioned in this chapter. I believe it is very important to have students do a writing project that they are interested in. If you make students’ only do projects that you pick for them, they will become bored with the whole process. It does not allow them to think creatively on their own and challenge them to come up with a topic. As a first grade teacher, I incorporate modeling into each writing topic. This is key at such a young age. In the chapter, it mentioned that a person can become easily frustrated when something seems overwhelming. Since first graders have not had much practice with writing, it is key to model for them how to start and continue the project. By just giving them a topic and telling them to write about it, they could give up before they have even started. I make sure I model how I would start my paper. I even give them a beginning sentence. We brainstorm ideas of what to write about and then I take those ideas and show them how to put them into a sentence. I like the idea of having them keep a journal or have a weekly writing topic to do. This helps them practice writing. I think this would be more useful towards the end of the year for first grade.

Chapter 2: Start with Celebration
I think it is a great idea to have students share their work. On one hand, they take the time to make sure they do a good job knowing that it is going to be read in front of the class. They take more pride in it. On second hand, it teaches them public speaking skills. I still have trouble getting in front of a big group (other than my students) and talking. I get really nervous. If we start at a young age having students get up and speak, they will be more comfortable later on because they have done it for so long. As I mentioned above for chapter one, having the students do some creative writing is very important to keep them interested. When I student taught for a fourth grade class, she used some very creative writing prompts. The students loved them and it was so much fun to read. One was they had to write to a farmer (they were a turkey) and convince the farmer why he should not pick them for the Thanksgiving meal. It was so cute. They then shared their work and it was hung in the hallway for everyone to see.

Chapter 3: Simplify the Teaching of Writing
It is hard for me to view myself as a writer. I feel I am not very good and always get nervous about making it sound how I want. I do think it is important to make the transition to feeling better as a writer. By feeling better, you give off a more positive feeling when teaching it to the students. When it mentioned in the chapter, that they write at staff meetings I remember always dreading when they mentioned we would have to do a writing activity. I always got nervous that I would not be able to come up with something correct or people would secretly make fun of what I have wrote. This is why it is important to start the students out young with learning how to write and learning how to share their work in front of the group. Once again it is very important to model. It gives the students a base from where to start and helps them to make a comfortable transition into the writing process. Another interesting comment I found was about using red pens to mark papers. I can absolutely relate to this. Every time I look in my drawer to find a pen to grade a paper with; I always look at the red and bypass it. I never use a red pen because I too remember all my mistakes being marked in red. That’s the classic example of when something is wrong marking it in red. So I try to not use it to help my students not have that memory.