blog 2

I'm really digging the Spandel book; it seemed to be the most helpful of the three for new teachers. It gives you concrete examples of things that we can do to foster a love of writing for all our students. One of the ideas that I really liked was the "author's chair," I think some students will really enjoy that and some will just hate it. When I was a kid, I would not have liked being on display, but I think if the teacher would explain it as the author does, "sharing is an act of courage as well as a gift to be honored," shy students would be more receptive to the idea.

It makes sense that it helps the student to see the teacher writing as well. I just don't know how feasible that is sometimes. Teachers have to be diligent that they are making sure they are students are on task and see if the students need any help with their own writings. I know this is going to be very difficult for me in a classroom. I cannot use my dominant hand for writing anymore, so writing is a very labor intensive activity for me. To combat that, I use voice recognition software. It works very well at home, but it might be very distracting for students in the classroom because I have to talk what I want to write.

I also like that the author gives us procedural advice like the students should know you were preferences for headings, fonts, etc. as well as student should know what days, time, and how long they will be writing. That helps establish a routine.

For a quote that I enjoyed in this chapter, it has to be from Henry Miller, "Most writing is done away from the typewriter, away from the desk." I would have to agree with that, as most of my ideas of writing began when I'm in bed, I can't sleep, and my brain won't shut up.

I didn't really enjoy the Smith writings; they seem to be very dry. I like his idea of groundwork and review as opposed to a rewriting and rewriting, but everything else in Chapter 8 was horrible to read it.