March is for daily slicing, and all are welcome! Join us at Two Writing Teachers!
Pulling out her phone, the parent shared pictures she had taken of first-grade writing in her own school.
"I look at this, and then I look at my son's writing, and I have a lot of concerns," she said.
I could see what she meant. The writing she shared looked good. The print was neat, the letters were well-formed, the writing stayed on the lines. Even the spelling was mostly conventional. Her child's writing was a combination of large and small letters. I'm pretty good at understanding young writers' meaning, but I had to pause to figure out the facts he was teaching about bearded dragons. Not too many first-graders write about endangerment and habitats.
I looked at the pictures of writing again and realized it was a repetitive piece. Every sentence started with the same phrase, and although I can't be sure, my money's on it was copied from a chart or a board. Copying makes for good spelling, but not too much originality.
We talked about the balance between voice and courage and neatness and conventions. I never tell parents the latter two don't matter, but I always emphasize the importance of bravery when it comes to writing and the risk of shutting down writers if we over-expect and over-correct spelling and punctuation.
As we head into unchartered educational territory, I am hoping these parents consider this balance. I'm sure they will be studying their child's writing process along with millions of other parents across the country. What should they know? What should they say, support, and teach? How can I help some of the efforts? I'm thinking!
Your slice had me thinking (cringing, too): I have thought a lot about providing my students with dynamic reading material, trying to figure out a way to supply them with everything they could want or need when it's not right in front of them, but I haven't given nearly enough thought to writing. How can I help them to hear my voice, reminding them to focus first on the ideas and emotions, leaving conventions and form for the final steps of the writing process? Thank you for the reminder!
ReplyDeleteParents are the first teachers, Melanie, but most of them need direction on how to proceed. I am hoping that great teachers like you will offer guidance during the new phase of remote learning.
ReplyDeleteThese are such important questions, Melanie: "What should they [parents] know? What should they say, support, and teach? How can I help some of the efforts?" I'm definitely going to be letting those questions frame the support I try to offer as the interventionist at my school in the coming weeks. Thanks for that!
ReplyDeleteSo much to consider here. Your questions here are necessary ones. How do we encourage parents and also not over expect from them? Our support will have to be sensitive and thoughtful as we all try to navigate this unchartered territory.
ReplyDeleteThis is an age old problem. I remember my mom being very concerned about my spelling and felt the teacher did not care enough about it. My teacher at the time, told her not to worry. My mom was never convinced. Today, looking back, it was the right decision for me. I would have shut down completely had my teacher focused on conventions. I have to believe that this is true for so many of our students.
ReplyDeleteSo incredibly true. I worry about what the weeks ahead will hold for our kids. I have heard of parents getting together and making worksheet packets to ensure the kids have work to do. Ouch.
ReplyDeleteOne of the biggest challenges we face as teachers is educating parents that they way we learned things in school doesn't mean it is the best way to learn things in school. They come from a good place, I hope, in wanting their child to succeed, but I always ask parents if they would have wanted to write about their own topics or if they enjoyed the worksheets and dittos they did as kids. Their fondest memories are usually of a project and that can sometimes be my inroad to offering more creativity and choice.
ReplyDeleteI'm right there with you-- looking forward to thinking this through with you tomorrow! Thank you for being you - so smart, so generous, so "get it done!" And is Larkin ok ... haven't seen her post and you know I worry ...
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