Thursday, November 12, 2015

Reflections from Reading Caulkins.


If any of us coauthor a student’s piece of writing, making it vastly better than anything the student could possibly do on his own, and if we do this by working so far outside the student’s zone of proximal development that the student doesn’t learn to do what we teach on is own, then even if this produces better writing, it is essentially for naught.”

18 comments:

  1. I think too many of us feel the time crunch of education. It's quicker to "help" students by giving them too much "assistance", especially with those who we feel are not going to be honest with their work. It also gets frustrating to conference with students, discuss with them ways that their writing can be improved, send them off with notes from the discussion, and then have them return with a piece that shows little to no improvement. Then it gets messy if they're not improving the work themselves, but you feel you need to move along to assist others. Of course, this all can work, it is a matter of organization of time and resources.

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    1. I certainly agree about the time crunch. I think it is interesting that Caulkins referenced the zpd...what the child can do independently and what he can take on...not so high it is lost on the student.

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    2. I think you hit the nail on the head here Robb: teaching students to be better writers requires lots of individualized, hands-on work and these kinds of demands can be exhausting. I like that you pointed out the common pitfall of student writing where they turn in "drafts," but almost no change can be seen in the newer version. I often use the "Track Changes" feature on word to compare students documents. If draft two shows almost no changes from draft one, then it's not a true draft (just a more recently printed copy).

      I did have one question: what did you mean by students who "are not going to be honest with their work?"

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    3. During the writing workshop, students have checklists that they use. Oftentimes, students will check off every category even though they really haven't dug deeply into their work.

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  2. I actually underlined this in the reading, because it seems to me to be such a key point in what we're doing. The goal isn't just to get a piece of good writing; the goal is to teach kids to be writers. I think it's important to keep that in mind, because it's much easier just to tell a kid what change to make to fix their writing (I know I'm often tempted to just tell my actors, "say it like this," rather than taking the time to guide them through figuring out the best delivery!), but as we all know, doing that doesn't really help them learn to get better.

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    1. Good point. Once it comes from the writer, there is a better chance that it will be added to their menu of writing strategies and skills.

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    2. I agree, but, not trying to sound like one of "those teachers", it's taking the time to get it out of them that can be so frustrating.

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    3. Hear, hear! I wrote about this as well. I think teaching students to be *writers* rather than people who turn in writing is really, really important.

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    4. So true, Hilary. We have learned the same strategy for teaching reading...if you always give them the words, they won't learn to read...and they will be dependent on you to tell them. It only makes sense that this applies to writing, and theatre, and other subjects as well.

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  3. The quote that Darlene posted really jumped out at me as well. Too often teachers work to get students' writing to be polished and perfect, but too much of the work was the teachers. The students are unable to transfer the changes to future writing. Therefore, it is much more effective to focus an teaching transferable skills and strategies to the students..."Teach the writer, not the writing." The on-demand writing prompts is the perfect way to see exactly what students are capable of doing on their own, and, if administered at the beginning and end of year (after instruction) is the best way to show growth.

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    1. That quote, "Teach the writer, not the writing," resonates with me. I have students that still struggle writing a cohesive sentence and others that, given the time, write pages. The needs of each students is vastly different. I agree that, the on-demand writing prompt is a great way to see where they are at independently!

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    2. I agree. Calkins' method of assessment is based on the same theory as the DRA...Great minds...LOL!

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  4. The idea of writing, revising and rewriting seems daunting to students, especially our reluctant writers. "In writing, as in reading, a good teacher needs to ascertain a students' just right level and teach just one level above that point, then progress expeditiously from there." All of us have a huge range of abilities in the classroom so differentiating the instruction to meet all of their needs is difficult.

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    1. I think I would benefit from a workshop, or a class, centered on the Writing Workshop with Reluctant Writers. Is there such a thing? I believe that I teach the writing workshop effectively with the majority of the students. However, it's when working with reluctant writers that I feel most ineffective.

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    2. Bravo. I agree completely and so does Calkins! I have seen you put this theory into practice in your classroom.

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  5. I particularly enjoyed Calkin, Hohne, and Robb’s argument that one of the most important pathways to help students become stronger writers is focusing on transferrable skills, not corrections (14-15). Unlike line-by-line corrections made by a teacher wielding a red pen, transferrable skills give students agency in the writing process and turn every writing opportunity into an active learning experience.

    As I think about previous assignments I have graded, I ask myself, "Do my comments suggest possible pathways the student could take to improve their writing? Are these pathways independent? And, perhaps more importantly, is the student a creator, not a copy editor?" These questions remind me of conversations I have sometimes encountered with student writers who don't *quite* understand the significance of peer-review workshops or writing workshops with their teachers. While looking over a draft with a student, I have sometimes heard students ask, "Will you edit this for me?" or, "Will you correct this?" Words such as “correct” and “edit” always make me cringe because they suggest the student’s passive role in the revision process. A better question might be, “Will you help me to understand why my descriptions are weak here and how I can make them better?”

    Of course, this kind of reflective thinking requires significant growth in student writers, but it does prove an important point for educators: in order for students to become active agents as writers and readers, it is important that we regularly remind them of their active roles and that writing requires their full participation.

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    1. I particularly liked your your questions in paragraph 2. You summed up the entire section succinctly. It is interesting you find a parallel to the teacher's process and the student's. I agree.

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    2. I think this also speaks to the importance of getting students to see why writing well matters; that they shouldn't just be writing because they've been assigned to, but rather because writing is a way of communicating with other people, and revising and being a reflective writer enable you to communicate more effectively. Of course, the question then becomes how do we do that, especially since for most students it requires a pretty significant shift in their thought process.

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