Ch 12 Make Every Minute Count

p. 282 Secrets of Good Writers
Good Writers
Think about their writing all the time
Get their behinds in the chair every day and write
Read a lot...noticing what authors do


P. 283 Look into Their Eyes
When I work in schools, I look into children's and teachers' eyes seeking to find learners who love what they do and who find energy in joyful work.

Since this book, I have changed my "old way" practices when teaching writing but it takes revisiting the important ideas in this book before it becomes an every day routine. I honestly feel more confident in working with my kids and their writing. Thank you, all!

p. 287 My Best Advice
1. Keep it short.
2. Keep it simple.
3. Slow it down.
4. Start with the whole.
5. Move on.
6. Teach it first. Label it later.
7. Trust yourself as a writer and as a teacher of writing.
8. Stop when energy is high.
9. Use common sense.
10. Enjoy writing!

Ch 11 Build on Best Practice and Research

p. 260 Take the Lead

Advocate for Saner Teaching and Assessment Practices
Teachers can't be expected to be accountable if they are told specifically what to do. Accountability requires professional autonomy to do what's right. The best teachers are "not followers" and have an "independent spirit." ....they override directives when something else will work more effectively.

p. 280 Change happens one person at a time, one school at a time, but when it's lasting change (not the fake kind that comes from a teaching-to-the-test obsession), change brought about by hearts and minds working together as knowledgeable, caring colleagues, it has a very large ripple effect.

Ch 10 Make Assessment Count

p. 245 "So much time spent teaching to the tests exhausts teachers and students and makes everyone anxious. Kari Oosterveen says by the time her students took the test, they were completely worn out. The following year she concentrated on excellent teaching of writing, and the scores soared. Afterward, we went right back to what we had been working on, and we continued to move forward."

That's exactly the reason we took state assessments before spring break. Everyone was anxious even though I felt I've concentrated more this year on excellent teaching of math and reading. We're heading right back to what we had been working on, and we'll continue to move forward.

p. 247 "Help your students visualize the reader/scorer. Picture the reader of your writing. Her name is....and she's exhausted. She has been reading writing samples now for six hours......"

Hey, 5th grade teachers, here's a picture for your kids. Talk about making their writing interesting!!!!

Ch 9 Conference with Students

I love the quotation:

"When I confer with you about your writing, you are more important than the writing."

I really think we need to think this way on everything. There's been so much stress with state assessments that I would hate being a kid. They need to know they are more important than the tests.

p. 206 "Always begin with something you notice that the child has done well."
p. 224 "Always start with a compliment....we have the power to encourage the writer for the whole year or destroy his desire and energy to write with one negative comment."
p. 225 "Note everything the writer has done well..."

I'm putting all of these as a reminder in my teacher folder.

This entire chapter validated that conferences are not 24 kids/24 conferences which I've always thought that it was. I am guilty of having a list on the board to see kids on a one on one for 5 minutes or so. I work and work on getting through the list but it never goes away when kids want to know how they're doing in their writing. I love going around the room and helping but I never saw that as the same as conferencing.

I also want to work on moving the writer forward. I will keep in mind that our goal is to have student monitor their own writing and problem solve independently so they can eventually draft, rewrite, revise publish and edit mostly on their own.

Ch 8 Organize for Daily Writing

P. 176 " We make time for what we value.
Writing is one of the best ways I know for developing deep thinking, so
I make time for it."

I think she has given us this message on every page of this book.

P 178 "Fiction is difficult to write well ... so tell students to write your fiction stories at home."

I disagree, my kids have done a great job of two different fiction stories this year. We rewrote their own version of The Three Bears. They are so precious and you can hear so much voice in their stories. We also wrote a problem/solution story based on animal characters. Even my low writers got into this writing.

P. 189 "Eliminate Distractions
Have all pencil sharpening done before school and have a ready supply of sharpened pencils at hand to avoid the added ... time wasted."

I have two different students who hate to get started. One will stand at the pencil sharpener sharpening until there isn't anything left of his pencil. This would definitely stop him. : ) I read in this chapter that the reason kids can't get started is because they're not personally engaged in the topic. This is not the case with my other non writer. He's just afraid to start, I've had conferences with him many times but it doesn't change his apprehension to start the story. Somewhere he's got a block that keeps him from coming back and changing the beginning after he's written some or all of the piece if he doesn't like the starter. I will achieve a personal goal if I get him writing before he has time to consider he's already started!

Ch 7 Be Efficient and Integrate Basic Skills

p. 141 "We've been overfocused on standards, rubrics, a correct teaching sequence, procedures isolated skills and looking for the "right" program. Instead of asking What skills should I be teaching? we need to ask How can I be a more effective teacher of writing? and How can I engage my students' hearts and minds so they want to write and do their best writing?"

This says it all!

p. 144 "Having students share their writing regularly as a basis for celebration and great teaching moments."

They beg to share, and when we run out of time without giving everyone a chance, they'll let me know.

p. 145 "One of the problems with skills teaching is it leaves out the audience."

Teaching isolated skills makes teaching writing awful.

p. 147 "Voiceless writing is like soup with no seasoning. Remember, though you can identify voice, but you can't measure or quantify it."

What does this say about 6 trait scoring?

p. 149 Here's how I respect such mandates but still teaching in a way that makes sense...I will teach your students how to do all that is required... engage students in writing about topics they care about for a reader who matters to them."

Time Out

I was sick with all of this respiratory stuff going around the second week of February and in my hurry one morning, I pulled this book from my bag. Teacher conferences came the next week and then I started reviewing for state assessments for my kids. My book sat until I uncovered the dust on the cover this afternoon. ( Not that I need to dust, we live on a dirt road and I've had the windows open these last couple of days. )

Even though we've been writing in class still, I found myself going back to webbing just last week to get the kids ready for a story for Young Author's Night coming up in April. Yuck.

I have to take a time out and go back and reread. I've forgotten parts of what I've learned. : (
I'll be back!

Ch 6 Captialize on the Reading-Writing Connection

I love how often I now stop and point out an author's way of saying something. We'll think how she/he could have been said without all the details. I'm hoping this starts to make a connection for my kids.

p. 123 "The most important part of writing is to read. I tell young people, "Read like a wolf eats, read when they tell you not to,... If you read enough, ...when you sit down to write, that information is in your head and you can write..."

Eat like a wolf eats, I've got kids doing that this year! And I have writers! But sometimes through all the mess of mechanics on my low reading kids something will come out that is so neat! It's really worth celebrating.

p. 124 "Look for evidence of rereading."

Oops, I thought this was a skill that they knew how to do but then I realized how would they know to do it? If we don't model rereading our writing just for understanding, then how would they know to do it? I have always told my students, "don't forget and go back and read it again, look for little words you've left out, look for periods, capital letters..." That's not what I should have been having them do. They should reread for clarification, not conventions. Kids think if they reread once, yep, it's done, found that capital letter, teacher.

Chapter 5 Do More Shared Writing

p. 83 "When teachers add shared writing to their daily reading/writing program, students' enjoyment, confidence, and competence in reading and writing increase and their language skills grow."

I've seen this happening in my own room with my kids as we work through this book. I'm enjoying teaching writing more!

p. 90 "Write on a large, lined chart paper. "

I have always used the white board in the classroom with my own writing. Of course, later, it's gone and we therefore we don't have opportunity to revisit my writing and show the kids how to make it better. On next years supply order, I ordered two large, lined chart paper.

Chapter 4 Raise Your Expectations

p. 58 What Makes Our Writing Interesting
What Does It Mean to Write More/Tell More

I love these two idea posters. I used each of these as a mini lesson for my kids and gave them a copy of the checklist for their writing. They've already had them out using them in the last week.

P 59 "...explain your writing..."

The easiest tool for my kids has been the Literacy Expanding Tool. Have you heard about it? It's seven beads on a rope each one representing a part of descriptive writing. Green: what group is it a part of, blue: what does it do, white with an eyeball: what does it look like, pink: what parts make it up, brown: what is it made of, white: where would it be found, and orange: what else do you know about it. My parent aide made mini versions for the kids out of those ironing beads on a rope. Now not only do I have the large one in the front of the room but they have one of their own in their writing kit.

P 82 "What would you attempt to do if you knew you could not fail."

What a profound thought.

Ch 3 Share Your Writing Life

"Make more time for conversation around writing." p. 38

I made a note of this in Ch 2. After I give a writing assignment that I want the kids to do independently I haven't let them talk. Holy cow! That sounds really bad.
I want them to write their own ideas and we might brainstorm together and then I tell them to get busy. I let them write for 10 minutes before we talk again. Usually the quick writers get busy and moan at the 10 minute mark because they want more time. It's the other ones that look up at me with "I don't like what I've started" or "Whew! Time's up!" We'll talk as a class, again, not independently, and hear some of the starts. I think if I'd change this method, I might have all of them enjoy writing more.

"Writing enhances thinking and helps develop it." p. 42

I like having the kids write at the end of a unit, it sure tells me what they understand and any parts that aren't clear. However, I'm never sure how to grade it. Maybe I need to notice more how the kids are writing. Tell them what's really strong as a writer. Give them confidence to be a writer.

"...we found out that not one of us made a graphic organizer as a way to plan our writing." p. 47

What's that say about teaching kids to use graphic organizers to write?

Ch 2 Start with Celebration

" Most of all, stories are fun, and fun is sadly missing from our classrooms these days." p 24

Isn't this the truth how fun is so easily stifled with all the pressure to perform.

"I put my heart on the page when I tell the story." p 25

The other day I wrote with my students about their favorite person using our list of character traits. Since I have my own kids, I couldn't pick my usual favorite person because they might want to write about Nana, too. Instead I wrote about a childhood friend that passed away with cancer. It was tough and inside I wanted to abandon the experience but my kids wrote with more expression than I have seen the entire year.

"Talking through stories and possibilities before writing often helps to 'find' the story you really want to tell." p 27

Oops! I've felt if they sit and talk I lose them for writing. But when I assign to work in groups, some end up whining because they want to write their own story. I'll try letting them talk through their stories and possibilities this week.

"As teachers, we need to view children's writing through a nurturing, positive lens and notice all the small and big things kids do well." p 29

Okay, Julie G, now I understand better how you feel about grading for the report cards.

Ch 1 The Essential Writing Life

"Pressured by a demand for higher scores...we understandably succumb to the latest program or newest method." p. 4

Typed right from the book, this statement speaks for itself.

"Although teaching writing well is a complex art, we have made it far more difficult than it needs to be." p. 5

I've always wanted writing to be simple, but with all the direction of the latest program we get bogged down trying to teach all the traits in isolation.


As a shared belief on writing, "Quality is more important than quantity." p. 9

I remember a few years ago while rating writing, the question arose as to why our papers were so short. For one, we typed in size 12 font double spaced with one inch margins and one to two sentences could easily fit on a line. I have always told the kids that writing is like a mini skirt; long enough to cover the subject but short enough to create interest. I have never told my students how long their writing must be in length. We might build a certain number of paragraphs in an informative report but never the exact length. I really felt like my kids didn't get a fair shake because their length was questioned before the grading even began.

12 Writing Essentials for All Grades: The audience may be the writer themselves.

I've always worried about finding an authentic audience and was glad to see that they can write for themselves. Yes!!! That sounds kind of silly, doesn't it?

"Teaching writing by focusing on the parts- spending weeks teaching sentence fluency or transitions or voice, ...is not how writers work." p 15

In the beginning of our 6 trait model, I tried to teach the traits in isolation but it just didn't seem natural. After fighting with the correct way for a number of years I now teach the traits by looking at what real authors in real books do to make their writing better. It's easier in mini lessons after the kids have a lot of writing to look at and compare with what they've done in the past.

Wring Essentials

Before I begin reading the book, I wanted to practice one post.