Writer’s Workshop 7, 8, 19

I just love love LOVE how Katie Wood Ray said “ We don’t ever want to think of students independent work time as a tiem for us to work on other things that need doing” I feel like this idea gets lost in so many situations with the teachers that I have observed in my time. It seems like so many mediocre teachers use the student’s writing time as a time for them to play catch up on the day. It’s almost as if they are making writing time be a cheap babysitter. Writing time, out of all times should probably be a time where the teacher is MOST engaged in the student. One instance still sticks out in my brain as it pertains to teachers making time for the students during the STUDENTS writing time. When I was in 3rd grade, we were all working on our individual writing pieces in class. My teacher sat at her desk and worked on other things while we wrote. This didn’t bother me because that was all I had ever see her do. She told us to come up to her desk if we have a question or what not. Well I did, and when I finally got up the courage to ask her a question about my writing she said “ Go sit down.. I will get to you soon I am busy”. I did and never asked her another question during writing instruction time again. Granted this teacher had many more issues than just ignoring her students and using mindless work to babysit us, however I know that I do NOT want to be like her when I am a future teacher.

Also, Katie Wood Ray gave great suggestions on how to utilize your writing space in your classroom. It seems like the traditional way of writing and what I have experienced was sitting down at your desk with one pencil and a piece of paper writing. It seems very traditional. Katie Wood Ray makes a good point in saying that all children work in different sizes and shapes of the classroom, so why not cater to their needs? This got me thinking about my future classroom and how I would like to have many tools and spaces for children to work. I would love to have different color papers for students to choose to write their stories on. Also, I would like to have different writing areas, whether that be a big comfy chair with a couple clipboards, or an area rug with lap-buddies. My goal is to provide students with a creative outlet space in order to help them get their ideas and words flowing.

One question I have is that are we as writers every truley "finished?" Yeah we can publish a piece and millions of people can read it but are we really finished? We as writers can always go back and fix things or even re-write the story that has been written. I do not belive that we shut the door on our writing after it is published. It can ALWAYS be revisited!