Chapter 8 - Written Expression

The only writing that we do in 4K is learning to correctly form letters, and write some popcorn words near the end of the school year.  Occasionally, students will dictate sentences for me to write.  But writing as discussed in this chapter is a little over our heads.  When I assisted in a 5K classroom, the students had writing journals.  Usually twice a week, the students would write in their journals.  Sometimes we would give them the topic, other times they were allowed to choose what to write about.  Prior to writing, they drew a picture.  During conferencing, they would explain what was happening in the picture.  Then, we directed them to make their writing match their pictures.  This was an excruciating process, especially at the beginning of the year.  As the year progressed, the students could do more and more on their own.  Once their writing was complete, they were allowed to share in the "author's chair."  Sharing was our favorite part of the writing process.

While student teaching in second grade, I realized that I knew very little about teaching writing.  That was the hardest part of my student teaching.  I did not have any classes on how to teach writing while working toward my undergraduate degree.  Since I am not a strong writer myself, this is one area that I found difficult to teach.  Fortunately, the classroom teacher was there to guide me through it.  At that time, she was focusing on teaching mini-lessons on writing strategies.

In the future (if I teach an older grade), I will research ways to teach writing effectively.  I will look for a class to take that teaches writing strategies.   I will also use materials such as the story elements graphic organizer in Figure 8.1, as well as some of the strategies, i.e TREE, SCOPE and COPS, listed in the text.  I will also utilize modeling and peer editing when teaching writing.