How's It Going? (Part 2)

In reading the next two chapters of Carl Anderson's How's It Going, I have gained so many new insights on how to conduct Writer's Workshop in my classroom. Since I am the person who plans writing for the entire Kindergarten team, I think this book has become such a golden resource for me and not only provides the support needed in my classroom, but also allows me to share this resource with colleagues. In an effort to organize my thoughts, I have decided to split the two chapters of and reflect upon my biggest takeaways from each of them.

Ch. 4: Matchmaker, Matchmaker

"When we are successful in showing students how to learn from writing mentors, we teach students how to teach themselves." (Anderson, 2000, p. 110)

I was completely enthralled on this chapter about how to use mentor texts in an effort for students to learn writing strategies for their own pieces. As I was reading this chapter, I thought about myself and what strategies I use as a writer. Although I consider myself a fairly decent writer, I can think of countless incidences on where I felt as if I was completely stuck on a piece of work and I looked to other author's for inspiration and/or guidance. For example, I am not a great technical writer and for research pieces or writings that require you to be very technical, it is very imperative for me to see and example of what an exemplary writer using that strategy does so that I can then figure out how to do that for my own writing. When considering that, I thought about how much of an impact using that type of strategy could work on my students.

In continuing reading in the chapter where Anderson discusses his conferences with students who currently have mentor texts that they can refer to when they want to use a specific strategy for their writing, I began to think about my young writers and how they might be uncertain to what a mentor text even is, yet alone how to consider how to use it in their writing. Then Anderson lets us know that as the teacher, it is our job in these conferences to match students up to texts that our class has already read and studied in mini-lessons. I never even thought about how many stories that my class and I have read together and how they might use those texts in teaching them strategies. The only concerns that I have is whether or not my students will be able to pick up on what strategies that the author is using. I guess if they do not seem to, then using what Anderson says about directly naming what they do and then inviting the student to try it out will be beneficial.

The next idea from this chapter that I found to be challenging was where in the world was I going to get a collection of mentor texts from? How was I going to be able to find a set that would be appropriate for my students? And how on earth was I going to be able to pay for the texts? Luckily, I am going to have to put together my own collection of mentor texts that meets my needs as a teacher and the needs of the students that I teach. In thinking about this, I considered the idea of using wordless picture books in my collection for those writers who are still using mostly pictures for their writng and also incorporating student writing as mentor texts for my students who are using words and pictures.

Ch. 5
In this chapter of the book, I really enjoyed reading about the format of the mini lessons that Anderson uses for Writer's Workshop. In reading about the format, it reminded me very closely of the way that I planned for writing using the guidance of Lucy Calkins. I think the biggest component of the writing workshop that I have been taking for granted is the importance of the mini-lessons and the purpose of them.

"Mini-lessons are effective, then, only when we inspire and enable students to try out what we've taught." (Anderson, 2000, p. 139)

In the past, I found that my mini-lessons were too long and overemphasized the lesson and students hardly had any time to put anything on the paper or to try out the strategy. Or, I found that I rarely spent any time on the teaching point and when I sent students back to work, they were unsure of what they were supposed to be doing or was still very dependent on me to help them. In considering this, I really can appreciate how Anderson lays out the foundation and framework for mini-lessons.

"Within the predictable architecture, we noticed that teachers have parts of their mini-lessons in which they teach students, encourage students to try what they've taught in their writing, and equip them to do so." (Anderson, 2000, p. 140)

I think the most important part where the book discusses the architecture of the mini-lesson is where the steps are clearly laid out for you.

Steps:
1. Connect: Make a connection to what students are doing and why they're doing it
2. Teach: Explicitly teach the strategy that is being learned to students
3. Have-a-go: Let the students briefly discuss/try the strategy
4. Link: Link the strategy to students' independent work

These steps were very helpful in outlining a plan for creating mini-lessons. The only step that I am still wondering about is the teach part mainly because I'm trying to find a way to demonstrate how to use a strategy to students without them feeling the need to copy my ideas for their pieces and writing exactly what I write (I've noticed that they have done this in the past). This is something that I am still trying to navigate in my practice.

The last part of the chapter that I found to be really interesting was the importance of students being able to share at the end of the workshop and how impactful it can be for students.

"When students see that their classmates have tried what we talked about in mini-lessons, they are often inspired to try the same work." (Anderson, 2000, p. 153)

The biggest takeaway that I got from that section was the fact that it allows students to see which of their friends tried the strategy and how they used it. It gives them a clearer picture of what it may look like for them and also gives the student sharing an opportunity to discuss their process.

All in all, I think that there was so much to learn from these chapters and I'm so excited to try to use some of these suggestions and resources in my classroom. I look forward to exploring the final chapters of this helpful book!