Blog Five

I started my classroom observation yesterday and got my first experience at actually witnessing teaching in a classroom. My teacher is a reading specialist and she did a very good job asking her students questions about what they had read in order to help them develop thoughts. After taking a look at these readings, particularly Spandel and Sommers, I was thinking a lot about getting kids to like writing because it is infinitely easier to do something you like doing than something you don't. I'm not really good at basketball but I could play all day because it is a lot of fun to get out there and mess around. It's obvious that the reason I like playing so much, is that i like the concept of the sport to begin with. It took me a while to build up the confidence to play and not just sit and watch my friends play because i was afraid i would mess up. With their encouragement I have gotten much better because they help me do the things that I am good at (passing, driving, and defense) rather than expect me to do things that i can't (shooting consistently, and ball handling). By reinforcing my positive skills I've been able to better my weaker skills exponentially. If i apply this too writing, then i think i could reach a few kids who were simply lacking confidence.


In Sommers article on page 176 she states, "So much in teaching writing is about what we can't size or label and involves, at first, not always giving the customers what they want." I wanted to be a great basketball player but I didn't have the basic skills developed enough to just step out there and do it. So i started watching games more closely; finding out what worked and didn't work so that I could try different things out for myself. I think that as a writer this also holds true. If you find something that you really like to read it is going to have a huge impact on the way you write. I think that if i teach a writing specific class I would focus a lot of time on having my students read two or three things that they really like before they even start writing. Sommers also says "we need to climb in their heads and they into ours" (177). One on one meetings while they read would be a good idea because i would ask them to talk about what they liked and didn't like in someone else's work rather than their own because then they will know what to avoid when they do start writing. Having a solid foundation in reading is very important because you write things in order that they be read by someone. The students might not want to read more, but it will definitely help make writing easier for them.