Next Steps
My goals for Phase One were to improve my students' attitudes and academic achievement in writing by providing them with an authentic audience to write for. Then, I planned to also observe how writing for different audiences effect students' writing so that I could begin to learn:
How does writing for an audience affect students’ achievement in and attitude toward writing?
1. How does writing for an audience affect students’ image of themselves as writers?
2. How does writing for an audience affect students’ quality of work?
3. How does an awareness of different audiences shift the structure of students’ writing?
Through various data collection methods, data analysis and reflection during Phase One, I learned that my students' attitudes and academic achievement in their writing changed, not solely due to having an audience to write for, but due to a number of components that are a part of the Writing Workshop model. Writing everyday, mini-lessons, conferencing, sharing work, spending time on each stage of the writing process, giving students choice, writing for a purpose AND writing for an audience all played a positive and integral role in my students’ development as writers during this period. For this reason, I will continue to use the Writing Workshop as the primary way of providing writing instruction and writing opportunities for my students. Not only did my students come to expect and count on these writing opportunities, many of them began to look forward to them. I also learned that there were specific elements of Phase One’s writing project that my students experienced challenges with. These realizations helped me plan the next steps in my inquiry.
In response to students’ positive feelings and comments regarding the benefits of teacher/student conferences, I will teach students to do peer conferencing with each other during writing activities. The participation in verbal communication during teacher/student conferences seemed to help students generate and clarify their ideas, making it easier for them to write their thoughts on paper. By teaching my students how to peer conference, I will be increasing their opportunities to talk about their work and receive feedback during the writing process. It will also give my students more ownership over their writing as it removes me further from their creative process. To help facilitate peer conferencing, I will model for students how these conferences should look like (knee to knee, six inch voices, looking at your partner while listening, etc.) and will provide appropriate questions for students to ask themselves and each other about their writing.
Students who expressed a negative attitude about themselves as writers or the writing process attributed part of their negative feelings to their difficulty with conventional spelling. Many students still had an aversion to using inventive spelling and/or writing the 'wrong' thing when working on first drafts. I will continue to encourage students to not be so fearful of the writing process and making ‘mistakes’ and reinforce that in writing, it is their opinion that matters, not finding the 'right' answers.
In an article written by Elaine Lutz in 1986, she states:
"In teaching students to write, teachers should avoid overemphasis on absolute correctness, mechanics, and memorization. Early emphasis on mechanical aspects of spelling inhibits developmental growth. When frequent purposeful writing takes precedence, adherence to the rules is secondary. The teacher in no sense abandons expectations for correctness. Rather, correctness is nurtured more effectively through knowledge of the pupils' level of development."
How does writing for an audience affect students’ achievement in and attitude toward writing?
1. How does writing for an audience affect students’ image of themselves as writers?
2. How does writing for an audience affect students’ quality of work?
3. How does an awareness of different audiences shift the structure of students’ writing?
Through various data collection methods, data analysis and reflection during Phase One, I learned that my students' attitudes and academic achievement in their writing changed, not solely due to having an audience to write for, but due to a number of components that are a part of the Writing Workshop model. Writing everyday, mini-lessons, conferencing, sharing work, spending time on each stage of the writing process, giving students choice, writing for a purpose AND writing for an audience all played a positive and integral role in my students’ development as writers during this period. For this reason, I will continue to use the Writing Workshop as the primary way of providing writing instruction and writing opportunities for my students. Not only did my students come to expect and count on these writing opportunities, many of them began to look forward to them. I also learned that there were specific elements of Phase One’s writing project that my students experienced challenges with. These realizations helped me plan the next steps in my inquiry.
In response to students’ positive feelings and comments regarding the benefits of teacher/student conferences, I will teach students to do peer conferencing with each other during writing activities. The participation in verbal communication during teacher/student conferences seemed to help students generate and clarify their ideas, making it easier for them to write their thoughts on paper. By teaching my students how to peer conference, I will be increasing their opportunities to talk about their work and receive feedback during the writing process. It will also give my students more ownership over their writing as it removes me further from their creative process. To help facilitate peer conferencing, I will model for students how these conferences should look like (knee to knee, six inch voices, looking at your partner while listening, etc.) and will provide appropriate questions for students to ask themselves and each other about their writing.
Students who expressed a negative attitude about themselves as writers or the writing process attributed part of their negative feelings to their difficulty with conventional spelling. Many students still had an aversion to using inventive spelling and/or writing the 'wrong' thing when working on first drafts. I will continue to encourage students to not be so fearful of the writing process and making ‘mistakes’ and reinforce that in writing, it is their opinion that matters, not finding the 'right' answers.
In an article written by Elaine Lutz in 1986, she states:
"In teaching students to write, teachers should avoid overemphasis on absolute correctness, mechanics, and memorization. Early emphasis on mechanical aspects of spelling inhibits developmental growth. When frequent purposeful writing takes precedence, adherence to the rules is secondary. The teacher in no sense abandons expectations for correctness. Rather, correctness is nurtured more effectively through knowledge of the pupils' level of development."
This article and these initial findings helped me realize that I should continue to avoid 'absolute correctness' in my students writing and communicate with my students that during writing, their thoughts and ideas are more important than correct spelling and punctuation.
Several students had negative feelings about Phase One’s writing project because of the time it took from beginning their stories to sharing them at the Author’s celebration, the amount of writing expected for one writing piece and the extensive preparation leading up to the celebration. In order for my students to be able to present their writing piece to its intended audience in a shorter amount of time, I plan to have a Pen Pal activity for their next writing experience. I anticipate that the shorter turnover time and more frequent responses from the intended audience will keep my students motivated and enthusiastic about writing. This writing activity will also allow me to observe how writing for different audiences affects the structure of my students’ writing – something I was not able to observe during Phase One. Letters will be written and received at least once a week with a second grade class in Point Loma. Students who are able to complete their Pen Pal letters before the delivery date will also get opportunities to write fan letters to famous people that they admire.
My methods of data collection and analysis will remain the same as those used in Phase One because the variety of sources allowed me to validate my findings and triangulate my data. However, in order to gain a deeper understanding of students with negative attitudes about themselves as writers and about writing in general, I plan to focus my data analysis to the observations and work of the 7 students mentioned in the Findings Section. I also plan to ask the same question in a variety of ways and at different times during conferences and feedback forms. This will help ensure that my students have several opportunities to voice their thoughts, feelings and opinions about this inquiry.
All of my students are curious to learn what our next writing project will be and I view this as a positive sign – regardless of their image of themselves as writers or their attitudes towards writing, they are showing interest towards our writing time. I am eager to learn how my students will respond to this next phase of my inquiry and I look forward to watching them continue to develop as writers.
Several students had negative feelings about Phase One’s writing project because of the time it took from beginning their stories to sharing them at the Author’s celebration, the amount of writing expected for one writing piece and the extensive preparation leading up to the celebration. In order for my students to be able to present their writing piece to its intended audience in a shorter amount of time, I plan to have a Pen Pal activity for their next writing experience. I anticipate that the shorter turnover time and more frequent responses from the intended audience will keep my students motivated and enthusiastic about writing. This writing activity will also allow me to observe how writing for different audiences affects the structure of my students’ writing – something I was not able to observe during Phase One. Letters will be written and received at least once a week with a second grade class in Point Loma. Students who are able to complete their Pen Pal letters before the delivery date will also get opportunities to write fan letters to famous people that they admire.
My methods of data collection and analysis will remain the same as those used in Phase One because the variety of sources allowed me to validate my findings and triangulate my data. However, in order to gain a deeper understanding of students with negative attitudes about themselves as writers and about writing in general, I plan to focus my data analysis to the observations and work of the 7 students mentioned in the Findings Section. I also plan to ask the same question in a variety of ways and at different times during conferences and feedback forms. This will help ensure that my students have several opportunities to voice their thoughts, feelings and opinions about this inquiry.
All of my students are curious to learn what our next writing project will be and I view this as a positive sign – regardless of their image of themselves as writers or their attitudes towards writing, they are showing interest towards our writing time. I am eager to learn how my students will respond to this next phase of my inquiry and I look forward to watching them continue to develop as writers.