I loved this chapter because it was so useful, full of actual examples of Shared Writing in action. I skimmed the K and first grade parts, but felt the 5th grade class example will readily adapt to 7th grade this fall. The author specifically mentions on p. 85 that shared writing is just as important in the intermediate and middle school grades as it is in the beginning grades.
I loved the author's language throughout this chapter - the warm, positive, encouraging words to students, and the sensible, reasoned explanations and rationales for teachers. Collaboration is definitely the word of the day! I liked her description of the teacher and class as expert and apprentices. Apprentices don't just assist, they learn through experience, which is exactly our goal. In shared writing, the teacher is demonstrating and the students are participating, not just observing.
Shared writing seems a natural way to incorporate phonics and other reading skills in a natural way, demonstrating their effective use. Phonics in a vaccuum is dull; phonics in action is useful and makes sense to students as they use those phonics skills "on the fly" and keep going with the writing, keeping the eventual reader mind all the while.
Patty,
ReplyDeleteI couldn't agree with you more. Shared writing is very powerful, and I used it all the time when I taught kindergarten. Now that I teach fourth grade, I thought that shared writing would be a waste of time, but now I can see how powerful it can be to have the students work together with one another and myself to create meaningful pieces of writing. I plan to incorporate more shared writing into the writing block of time.
I love how you plan to incorporate phonics into your shared writing. It's funny but we don't often think of upper elementary and middle school students needing phonics instruction, but they do.