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Every video opened my eyes to writing instruction and the importance of the writing process.

For me, I feel like I know "the writing process," but I don't actually realize that writing IS a process. I love the idea of Writer's Workshops and using them everyday in the classroom. I loved the one video of the Kindergarten teacher who said her students beg for writers workshop daily. This is crucial. This means she is making if fun, engaging, and meaningful for the students.

In addition, I loved the "Crazy Professor." While, I don't think it should be done for every piece of writing. I think it would be a nice "reward" for students to participate in. It is fun, engaging, interactive, and leads to reading development. Students also learn to read with fluency which is crucial.

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I feel like I was really able to take something away from each video. They provide different and unique takes on writers workshop. The two that I can see myself doing the the classroom is the "Crazy Professor" and creating a story with my student with invented spelling. As I watched the kids interact within both of those lesson, they were completely engaged with what they were doing. No longer was reading and writing boring, it now had a purpose and meaning. There was clear instruction and outcomes that had the kids engaged from beginning to end. Some students can find either reading or writing something as a chore and not fun to do. These two active gave students the option to become active learners.
-April

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I really enjoyed the videos and seeing the different strategies used in writing workshop. I thought the "Crazy Professor" game was a great interactive tool to encourage reading and reading comprehension. I believe Writer's Workshop is important because it makes students become better writers. I really enjoyed the invented spelling video. I thought it was very interesting how she modeled the writing by sounding out the words just the same as her students would. I have never seen that done before. I believe focusing on sounding out the word, rather than worrying about the correct spelling will benefit the students in the long run. I was subbing a kindergarten class once and they had to do a piece of writing. I encouraged the students to sound out the words the best they could, however while writing many students were so caught up in making sure the word was spelled correctly.

-Makenzye

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Oddly enough these videos reminded me of of when I was in Jr. High or High school and we were required to write in a journal to our best friend or someone in our class and then we would pass the book back to one another with letters, stories or random gibberish in the book so we could practice our writing skills. They were never "read" by the teacher, just checked to see if we were writing and made sure that the hand writing changed every so often to tell who wrote more or if we corrected one another. I never really understood the point of the assignment until I learned about teaching to write and now I find the assignment helpful but could probably be better equipped to make stronger writers. The only real problem with the assignment was when friends got into fights and didn't want to write to each other but instead started micromanaging every mistake or not writing to each other at all.
Totally off topic, I know but that's a writers workshop in its own right for older students to keep them writing and is based on a specific set of expectations/rubric that requires almost no teacher intervention or hours of grading time, just a quick glance here and there.
But the assignment made for more articulate writers who felt safe to not have their writing edited to death by the "professional" who knows it all. Or the future us.

BTW: I never read during SSR. I always just stared at the book. I think not talking about the book or having it be mandatory always made me not want to do it.

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After watching the videos, I saw how creative the writing workshops can be. It is so important to find a way to connect to the students. I saw the kid playing crazy professor and how engaged each student was. I think acting out stories and working in groups will expand their creativity. Using the writing workshop steps to build on their skills is something I will definitely incorporate into my classroom. I felt that modeling and explicitly teaching writing is crucial at all ages. I likes when I hear if they can write it they can read it. Therefore, the skills the student learn writing can lead to their reading development.
-Kathleen

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It is important that as future teachers we learn the different strategies for teaching writing in the classroom. Students need the opportunity to practice their writing and explore their ideas. Using writing workshops provides the students with the right tools to improve writing skills. During workshops students have the chance to work with other classmates which promotes thinking out loud and helping each other with spelling or drawing. The workshops also allow the teacher to model the writing process. I think that students can greatly benefit from modeling because it gives them guidelines to follow when writing. Providing students with the right tools and continuous opportunities to practice writing will help develop good writers and give students life long skills that will help them be successful.

-Eunice

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I enjoyed these videos on WW.  I especially liked how the teachers gave their students a choice of where they could do their writing.  They seemed to enjoy the writing process and that is encouraging to see.  I also like the idea of an "Author's Chair" where students can sit and share their writing with others.  I plan to use these techniques in my class and hope to make writing more fun and engaging.
The Crazy Professor activity was certainly crazy!  His students seemed to be really enjoying this game.  But I don't know if I would use it.  It would depend on my students' reading interest level, I guess.
SSR- I haven't seen SSR in any of my classrooms yet.  Except when they have weekly library visits for about 30 minutes.  Most free reading is done at home, or at least it's encouraged.  Reading these days is tied to some sort of reward system or AR test.  There isn't much time for SSR in the classroom anymore.  After seeing this video, I hope to incorporate it into my classroom's schedule as much as possible.
Kim K.

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Thinking about the writing process and the material we have seen in the online night, I believe that I have learned that as teachers, we need to give importance to the steps that are in the writing process in general. In some classes that I have observed, I have seen that some students have a difficult time actually finishing out a writing project to the best of their abilities. Many students skip over the prewriting phase and as a result do not write with any sense of direction. This is most likely due to the fact that they do not fully understand each individual step in the writing process. As the teacher in a classroom like that, I believe that I would try to teach each part of the process and the relating skills as explicitly as possible. This would include modeling and going through the process together.
-Patty

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I liked a lot of the topics and strategies that were covered in these videos. I believe that Writer’s Workshop is a very important part of developing great writers as well as students that will enjoy writing. I loved the way that one teacher used invented spelling in her model for Writer’s Workshop. I have not seen that done before but I think it would be very beneficial to the students. Many teachers stress the importance of having the students sound out the words they are writing but then always model the correct spelling. I was surprised to hear what that teacher said against rubrics because I see it as an equalizer rather than pushing people out. I definitely will be using them in my class.
-Allie

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Teaching Writing I liked a lot of the topics and strategies that were covered in these videos. I believe that Writer’s Workshop is a very important part of developing great writers as well as students that will enjoy writing. I loved the way that one teacher used invented spelling in her model for Writer’s Workshop. I have not seen that done before but I think it would be very beneficial to the students. I was surprised to hear what that teacher said against rubrics because I see it as an equalizer rather than pushing people out. I definitely will be using them in my class. 

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Teaching Writing I liked a lot of the topics and strategies that were covered in these videos. I believe that Writer’s Workshop is a very important part of developing great writers as well as students that will enjoy writing. I loved the way that one teacher used invented spelling in her model for Writer’s Workshop. I have not seen that done before but I think it would be very beneficial to the students. I was surprised to hear what that teacher said against rubrics because I see it as an equalizer rather than pushing people out. I definitely will be using them in my class. 

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TeachingI liked a lot of the topics and strategies that were covered in these videos. I believe that Writer’s Workshop is a very important part of developing great writers as well as students that will enjoy writing. I loved the way that one teacher used invented spelling in her model for Writer’s Workshop. I have not seen that done before but I think it would be very beneficial to the students. I was surprised to hear what that teacher said against rubrics because I see it as an equalizer rather than pushing people out. I definitely will be using them in my class. 

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TeachingI liked a lot of the topics and strategies that were covered in these videos. I believe that Writer’s Workshop is a very important part of developing great writers as well as students that will enjoy writing. I loved the way that one teacher used invented spelling in her model for Writer’s Workshop. I have not seen that done before but I think it would be very beneficial to the students. I was surprised to hear what that teacher said against rubrics because I see it as an equalizer rather than pushing people out. I definitely will be using them in my class. 

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Writing is a crucial element to implement in our classrooms--studies has shown that students who write more become better readers. Seeing the students excitement during the writers workshop gave me hope that as teachers, we can make writing fun!

I really liked the Crazy Professor game--the kids looked like they were having a blast and learning at the same time! I think it will take some time for the students to get there because I can see the chaos that could stem from it, but I think the different repeated learning styles are beneficial.

Sustained Silent Reading (SSR) is a great tool to get kids reading and increase their reading skills. It was sad to hear that students who don't read much at school don't read at all at home. As teachers we need to be excited about reading and encourage our students to do the same too! I hope to implement it daily into my classroom.

-Olivia

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I loved the Crazy Professor game. I have never seen anything like it before. The class seemed extremely engaged. My biggest concern is that some of the more easily distractable will be off-task more easily because of the freedom they have to be social.

I thought it was very interesting to hear Maja Wilson's take on rubrics. I don't remember being graded using rubrics much until college with the exception of benchmark writing tests. I thought Wilson had a lot of interesting critiques about rubrics and how they don't assess writing or respond to writers. I also thought it was interesting and alarming that critics of using rubrics cited that some teachers complained that it takes longer to grade students' writing when not using a rubric because the lack of rubric allows more freedom.

I haven't seen SSR since I was a student. I always thought it was interesting that it was stressed so much in GUSD, and I haven't seen it in any other schools since.

-Lauren

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It is very important to get children interested in the writing process.  I do believe that children who write more will become better readers.  Usually the words that children first write will be the words they first read.  What better way to develop literacy than for a child to read their own stories or books they have created?

I loved the video with the teacher that encouraged  her students to sit anywhere they wanted so they would be comfortable while writing.  The students were free to choose to sit with a friend or alone. They also had the option of where to sit.  Some children chose to sit at desks, while others sprawled out on the floor and some even worked where they could prop they work against the wall like an artist.  If my teachers had been more like this, I wonder if I would have enjoyed writing more, instead of dreading the process while stuck in my uncomfortable chair.

I specifically enjoyed the video on using text bubbles as a way to start a Kindergarten class on a writing project.  The teacher used the work of Mo Willems as an example of what they would be doing.  Children love his work and enjoy his wonderful way to tell a story.  I also liked how the teacher modeled the writing process the students would be doing and focused on the writing rather than the spelling.

-Ann Marie

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I really enjoyed seeing the students enjoy their writing during the writing process/workshops. It is encouraging seeing students enjoy their writing time either alone or being able to share with friends what they are writing. I liked that the teacher provided conferencing while students were writing so students can ask questions, check their writing and enhance their skills. I also like that they were able to select a writing they did to publish it so other may see their hard work on display or they can share it to their classmates.

Learning about sustained silent reading was important to me to make sure its implemented into my future classroom. Modeling reading is great for kids and can motivate them to be readers! I love getting lost in a good book and I am sure when students are confident in reading they would enjoy having free time to read a book of their choice.

I enjoyed watching the Crazy Professor game because I haven't seen a classroom like that before. It was pretty crazy but the students seemed to enjoy their reading more. Then discussing it with a partner dramatically and using crazy hand gestures seems like it could distract many students  focusing on what they are trying to say to one another because it was loud, but it was great seeing kids learning comprehension though a fun and crazy way that will stick with them.

-Dara Palare

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I love this idea.  Starting with a focused lesson using a picture book (my favorite) and then having students go off to write.  I love the class environment of having kids on the carpet, writing on a chair as a table, working in partners, the freedom and joy of writing was evident.  I also, thought it was great the teacher took that time to conference with individuals about their writing.  The partner or class sharing is my favorite.  I love to see how proud children our of their work.

The Crazy Professor Game was a little crazy for me.  However, I loved how excited the class was about reading and discussing.  I can see how this game would help make reading comprehension fun!

Sustained Silent Reading, this motivated me to make sure this is happening in my class.   The statement that the only time children read is in school, really got me.  I know it is my responsibility as a teacher to build capacity and desire for reading.
-Sabra