11 ways of looking at writing workshop

Goldberg took me
to the edge of the
clouds of happiness

The job never ends:
reading a great pleasure

Look to my soul;
found a hidden treasure.

Inmersed in words
inmersed in story

Couraged to teach,
encouraged to live

The classroom is silent
memories are minded

Friends come, friends go
they fly like birds

Pens are busy
memories come alive

profesores looked at us,
as we were predators,
hungry to learn.

Summer is ending,
the workshop is ending
tears are at the edge of our eyes

The workshop is over
knowledge is passed around.

Old Friend from far away

I highly recommend this book. The moment I started reading goldberg's book, I started writing my own memoir. Goldberg guided me to follow a new path to a deeper understanding of my own mind. She made me write.

Thank you! Christy, for introducing me Goldberg.

six ways of looking at Living

In a house lined
with books, reading
precedes living.
You have to trace the the words
to the door.

A song, a tango, carries its life
through the streets, past the rude
dways and halflit allegs, bringing joy.

Surrounded by family laughing, fighting
eyes full with gratitude to be surrounded
by life and family.

For 80 years he travel the railway of life.
Always, his final destination was the great
door of which there is only an entrance through
the scenary was ideal at times, meals were filling
and the company rich-his journey was still about
where the train stooped-not where it traveled.

The water shoots up to the sky
then falls back down hard on my dancing shoes.
Our feet splash a rythm in the puddles.
we breath in the night air and feel alive.

life,life wonderful life
live forever.

five things that I would like to implement into my classrrom.

1- Writing poems. Christy and Marti inspired me to write poems.I could not believe what powerful I felt after I wrote my I am from poem. This is something that I am looking forward.I think my students will enjoy it.

2- I like Tara's workshop about publishing. Create a mock newspaper that has articles, advertisements and colummns that can be publish in the bulletin boards.

3- I am going to take Jill's T note in order to let my students to navigate and think about the typical and unusual.

4- Identify "deadwood" and cut it from a sentence.This is fro Jill's workshop. excellent.

5- It is my opinion that all of us brought something new in this class, so I realy appreciated for all your contribution. This list is a few things that I am mentioning here, but I am willing to take at least 3 or 4 things from each of you. Thank all.

Writer's Notebook

What is a Writer's Notebooks? It is a place to keeep all our students special thoughts.

Writer's Notebooks Can also be used:

- To hold thinking
- To organize
- To hold handout
- To asses growth in students writing fluency
- For drafting.

Why we use the Writer's Notebooks:

To generate texts, find ideas, and review grammar.
Students personalize their notebooks in order to make them their own.

Using portfolios

I use portfolios to keep all my students work. In my opinion portfolios are very importan. It help me in organizing my curriculum for the next year. It is my best tool to show parents what their children are learning. Years ago I used to collect all my students work. I did not choose just the best. But I always end it up with a lot of junk. Now I found out that taking pictures of what my students have done in classes are the best, because I can take them everywhere and is not heavy.In writng, I choose some of the best writing for each student and collect them in their portfolios.I learned today that students piece of writing can be improve by letting our students go back and revised them by themselves.

10 more importants things about conferencing

1- Students can conduct surveys to learn how their peers go about writing.
2- Peer response group.
3- Teachers can show their strategies to their students.
4- Record.
5- Earlier conferences are helpful.
6- From a simple conversation to a more developed conversation.
7- repair the problem of the writer.
8- Exposed to a different level of writing.
9- teachers are coaches.
10-Students gain this sort of awarenes of the process of writing, so they can see what they do when they write.

I am from

This poem is dedicated to my family.

Thank you, Rodney, Christy, April and Marti for making one of my dreams come true.

Reflecting on grades and rubrics

"Our students should grow. Our job is to nurture that growth." That is what Ruth Ann Blynt wrote in her article,"The sticking Place." I like that quote. I believe that our students learn what we teach them. As a teacher we need to fulfill parents' expectations by showing them what their children have learned.

Usually my students are eager and motivated to learn Spanish. We start teaching them Spanish inmediately after they have enrolled in kindergarten. I always tried my best to encourage students to learn new Spanish words, songs, and games. By doing that, my students grades reflect with what they have learned. I believe that if they have a good grade is because they deserve it. By applying rubrics to my Spanish lessons, I can meassure how many of my students are learning Spanish and how many are not. So, when I check my rubrics I can see how many of my students are behind. I help them in order to be at the same level of my other students. I always tried not to leave them behind. Now I am proud that my students can write, speak and sing in Spanish.

Memoir

MEMORIAS OF MY CHILDHOOD IN THE CITY OF HUARAZ
“Put your coat on! Put your coat on,” my sister, Gloria, screamed. I didn’t understand. It was not time to leave. I was eating popcorn at the theater waiting for “One Rock in the Road” to begin. So I grabbed my coat and tried to put it on, my eyes could not believe what was happening. The screen of the theater suddenly moved and fell apart. The whole theater trembled. Gloria and I stood up like petrified wood. We could not moved. My white coat was now black because the dust had landed on me. I heard people crying, screaming, and yelling. Unlike us they were running in terror. Most of them ran to the main door (That’s where the roof collapsed first). Few minutes past, but I felt like that moment lasted forever. Gloria asked me “What should we do?,” I could not even give her an answer. We walked to the main door as fast as we could, we walked over the remains of the bricks. There were dead bodies and bodies that were half buried touching us and crying for help. As the police man who guarded the entrance of the theater was calling us “Ayudame! Ayudame!,” he pleaded. We could not do anything his legs were separated from his body. I trembled. I thought it was the end of the world. We stopped for a moment, I heard my sister Gloria saying “Wait! Wait! The angels will come and take us to heaven.” She remembered that from my grandpa, Jose, who said “The angels will come when it’s the end of the world.” We waited for a minute or two, but no angels came. We ran as fast as we could, our city was destroyed. The street signs were all gone, and we had no clue how to get home. We ran two blocks when we saw the jewelry store that was close to my house. We walked over those gold bracelets, gold earrings, and silver necklaces. The jewelry store at least gave us a clue of how to get to our house. It was late afternoon, by the time we found my brothers Juan and Edmundo. Mamacita was all covered by the collapsing building in the main street of Huaraz. My brother, Juan, was half covered with the remains of the building. He cried for help “Mamacita is buried under there!,” my brother Edmundo panicked. Luckily some of my cousins were around and helped my brothers to unbury mamacita. She was cradling my youngest brother, Lucho, He was five years old, but she held him like a baby. “Gracias a Dios,” mamacita gasped “ I could not breathe” Lucho was too young to realized what was happening, what he did know was that he had lost his new shoes. He cried. He wanted his new shoes back. My tia, Justa, tried to calm him down. Mamacita, (my brothers) Juan, Edmundo, Lucho and (my sister) Gloria went to the plaza. My older sister, Julia, joined us later. We waited for my other brother Ignacio. He did not come. Never came. He was dead. We did not know anything about my dad. He was away on business. Somehow my brother found a radio. The broadcaster said “Another bad news the city of Yungay has been destroyed.” It was the city that my dad went for business. Mamacita’s face was pale as a white paper, she did not tell us that she thought that papacito was dead, but we could read her mind. Night came, our neighbor had arranged a place for us in his car. I could not sleep because I could still feel the city shivering. People wept and cried all night long. I heard a young woman screaming and pointing up, so I look through the car window. I looked and saw something I can never forget. Her parents were hanging from the building by their legs, trapped by the second floor roof. My heart sunk. At the moment, I thought that I was lucky because Mamacita was alive, but still worried about my dearest Papacito. There was a hope inside of me. I prayedFor Papacito, I wanted to see him again. The next day, there he was, his face wrinkled by the hours he walked from the vanish city, Yungay, to my city Huaraz. I ran. I screamed with such happiness “Papacito esta aqui! Papacito esta aqua!” Mamacita who was still in an improvised bed, was so happy to see him again. Such a mixed bag of emotions happy that papacito was home safe with us, sad that my brother ,Ignacio, had died, overwhelmed by the destruction around us. Even though I am no longer a 7 years old child, as I was on the 31st of May in 1970, I still carry the sights, sounds, the smell of that day within me. It still makes me quake when I hear the news reporting about earthquakes.
Mercedes Natividad de Frausto

Teaching Conventions in a state-Mandated Testing Context.

In Warne article "Teaching Conventions in a State-Mandated Testing Context" Warne states that "On days when the students struggle to put the parts together into a sentence, I treated it like a word play, a puzzle, or a game. Their experimentation carried over into their writing." I think this is the best way to approach students instead or forcing them to write. After having Warne in our classroom for a session this afternoon, I realized how she was really connected with her High School students. I think Bonnie is one of the teachers who stand for a change in the educational system. She have proved that using a book review in order to teach grammar is a good technique especially if some of the students do not like to write. It is a very good way to approach them in order to have successful students in writing.

After The End

In chapter twelve of Lane's book, He states that "Teachers who simple tell their students to write about anything will find a status quo quickly develop in the classroom." (Pag. 174) I agree with him, I like the way in how he approached Rick the student that did not want to write. I like the way he told him to write about a bad moment in his life, then he started to write. I think a writer not only have to write about wonderful times, but about bad times as well. In my opinion, students should have the freedom to choose their own topics.

Conferring by Calkins

1. In the article "Conferring" Calkins states that "Good teachers give up on the notion of conferring individually with their students, and this is understandable-but not acceptable" She adds "Conferring is at the heart of the writing workshop." I agree, After we watched Calkin's video having a conference with her students. I realized that conferring with the students is very important. By Conferring with our students, it may take us a lot of time, but is very important in order to motivate students to write. I think having a conference with our students will lead them to find more specific details in their writing. They will have the opportunity to be heard by their teachers and teachers will have the oppotunity of listening and encourage them to improve in their writing.

Writing Steps: A Recursive and Individual Experience

After I read Writing Steps article, Warne, states that "All students needed the freedom to use the entire process as a unit while still understanding the total writing process as a series of generally consecutive steps that lead to good writing -and good answers on the ISAT.(Pag. 25) I agree with Warne I believe the students have different styles of learning,they can find the best way to use the writing process as Mary did with her writing. She started her writing by revising. As an example, during my workshop while we were discussing about what can I do in order to make my workshop better, Timothy suggested that it will be helpful if I make a change between brainstorming and free-writing by using free-writing first instead of brainstorming, at the same time Tara said that for her were more helpful to do brainstorming first, she said that doing brainstorming first it allowed her to find new themes and details for her writing. Now I understand that no matter how students use the steps of a writing process, the most important is that their writing should be accurate.

I'll do it my way: Three writers and their revision practices by Stephanie Dix

In "I'll do it my way: Three writers and their revision practices," Stephanie Dix states that "students work differently when writing texts. Not only did they compose and revise texts in their own ways, but they also approached the construction of poetic and transactional texts differently." I agree with Dix. In my point of view, I revise my texts the same way as Anna (One of the student writer that was selected to describe how she construct and revise her different texts in her own way) I use the same technique. I revise my texts in different two ways. In my poetic writing, I start with a rough draft, first draft and second draft. Then, I proofread them and make the final corrections. While I revising it, I add new ideas in order to support my thinking or take away some ideas that I thing does not fit in my writing. Having Spanish as my primary language. It was difficult for me to express what I wanted to say in English. I remember using pages and pages to write my ideas down until I new that my essays were well developed. In my transactional writing I approach differently, I revise and revise constantly. I like to make a lot of changes in my papers until I know that my writing is accurate and interesting. I revise my texts throughout my writing.

Sommer's Article

In the article "Revison Strategies of Student Writers and Experienced Adult Writers," Sommers points out " Students need to seek dissonance of discovery, utilizing in their writing, as the experienced writers do, the very difference between writing and speech-the possibility of revision." (pag 386) I agree with Sommers. When I lived in California I took a composition class where we spent a lot time revising our essays. By revising we had the opportunity to change the content of our writing if it was not well focused. Because during the prewriting we were more concerned with finding ideas and writing them down. We have to spend time revising our essays. We always came up with questions as: Is my essay well focused and develop? By revising, we had the opportunity to decided whether our writing was sufficiently focused and developed. Moreover, we had a classmate who read aloud to us, so when we found weak parts in our writing, it was the time to rewrite. I believe that revising our writing is very important in order to have a more clear vision of what we wanted to say.

After the End by Barry lane

After I read Lane, I found something interesting when Lane explains, in chapter nine (pag138) about "Building a story" He applies freethinking which is similar as freewriting. In freethinking the students do no use pencil or pen, but they use their brain. I like the idea to have my first and my second grade students to think about what they would like to write. I will tell them to walk around the room. I think this a good technique, since I am always looking for a new technique that uses movement in order to keep my class alive. This will be a good opportunity to introduce this technique to my students . My first grade students will love that. They like to move around the classroom and they want to no tobe force when I tell them what they have to do . Even though, they are very young I aways respect them and treat them in a way that I want to be treated.

After having my students finished their freethinking I will move along and I will tell them that they have to start writing! Although, sometimes I have students that do not like to do freewriting I will encouraged them to do it. They may come up with brillant ideas!

After The End by Barry Lane

After I read Lane, I like the segment when he describes in chapter seven about "Praise is the glue"(pag 124) I agree with Lane. We should praise our students instead of criticized them. Many of my students write very well, when I praise them. They are always expecting some reward after their work. Even though my reward is somethingh like when I said to them " Good job" they feel more important than somebody else. What I am going to add in my style of teaching will be... writing a letter to the best writer and write a letter to a weakest writer and praise them for their work. Unintentionally I used to praise a student who did their best in class and I forgot to the one are always behind.

After reading Lane article, I realize how wrong I was by not praising the one were always behind. Now I think that I am going to write a letter to all my students and praise them for their effort in class. By doing that, I think they will be more excited to participate in class. Read these letters out loud will be another thing that I am going to do.

The Art of teaching Writing

After I read Calkin's article, I realized that time, minilessons, consistency and publishing are really big deal in order to develop a writing workshop. I think by giving my students more time to write can help them to come up with new ideas or topics. Calkins suggests to place the students where they feel more confortable. I think I am going to apply that in my class. Calkins explains that minilessons are very important in a writing workshop. Even though, a minilesson look like a miniature speeches, it will help the students to think about what already know. Calkins says "Sometimes the mini-lesson will be designed to create a warm glow around the workshop. The easiest way to do this is to read aloud from wonderful literature -a story, a poem-and to do so without turning the reading into a lesson" I agree with her. I would like to apply the minilesson in my classroom, since I am working with young children, I think they would love it.


Calkins explains that consistency and publishing are really important as well. Consistency in what we do. Let the students write at least 15 minutes every day. Encourage the students to publish their work. It can be in the on the bulletin board or sending their pieces to a contest. I think by publishing we are praising the students work. I actually planning to invite parents and grandparents when is time to publish my students work.

Reaffirming the Writing Workshop for young Adolescents

In this article, Lain taught me that minilessons count. She says,"As soon as studentshave their spirals,i read aloud to them. I might read "My name" by Sandra Cisneros, a vignnette from The House on mango Street (1984) in which the narrator, Esperanza, explains: "In English my name means hope. In Spanish it means too many letters" (pag.10). Then, in their spirals, students write the story of their own names. I will like to apply in my method of teaching. I will start my class by reading an interesting article as Lain did. Morover, I will use the same book in order to motivate my students to explore their own taughts and write it down in a piece of paper. I think this will turn out with questions such us: Why I have the name? Who named me? I think by doing that I can get my students inmerse into our activity of writing.

What's Right with writing By Linda Rief

After I read Rief"s article there was something that called my attention when Linda was invited to teach at Haapsalu, Estonia to teach to a seventh grade class. (pag 35) She says, "They were not accustomed to facing each other, let alone talking each to other. They were used to a teacher delivering information, and understood that their role was to parrot back that information exactly as it was presented. No diversions, No question, No disagreements, No imagining, Absolutely No critical or evaluative thinking. At least that they dared to voice" I came from a country that uses the same criteria. However, I think students should have the freedom express their own ideas, beliefs and criteria in order to express themselves. As an example, when I teach to my class I tried to sit and listen to students instead of lectured them. Of course, I do introduce the classs the topic and explain what is going to be about. Then, I let them to parcipate in the class. I always try to encourage all of them to participate. Even though, we do not have enough time. I let them participate the next day. By doing that I think I am giving them the freedom to express their feelings, beliefs, dreams, tragedies and wishes. If I have the opportunity to go back and teach in Peru, I would like to change the whole educational system.

Non-magical thinking by Janet Emig

Emig makes a connection between the current tradicional rhetoric magical thinking and a new rhetoric non-magical thinking. According to Emig The magical classroom refers to the tradicional ways of teaching where the writing is passive and sometimes dramatic. On the other hand, the non-magical classroom is more active and it requires a gradual and constant revision.

I agree with Emig. I believe that a piece of writing should be constantly revised. Should be more active, more enjoyable than painful in order to get students attention and to help them to become good writers.

Britton Reflection

I Totally agree with Britton. He wrote "I am inclined to believe that young children rely upon speech for all that they want to communicate and that when they write before going to school their writing takes the form of a "construct" or a performance. I have seen many examples of stories written, illustrated and decorated, the pages stitched or clipped together to make little books" (Pag. 4). I have been working with young children who are in first and second grades. Although, my first grade students do not know how to write complete sentences, I encouraged them to draw pictures. After they finish drawing a picture, I tell them to color what they drew. Then in order to complete their writting projects, I ask them to explain to me what they see in their decorated papers. As an example, A girl told me that in her picture was her mom dad and herself going to the store to buy groceries, she said it was a rainy day. After listening to her, I said an then: What happened? She told me that her parents bought milk, cheese and many more things because they did not have food in their refrigerator. So, I wrote what she told me below her picture in order to make a little book of her own. She was so proud of herself about her picture an her writing. I believe that is very important to ask our student this question: Then what happened? By asking this question, we encouraged them to amplify their writting.

I am from

I am from books, magazines and newspapers
from family and customers
I am from the noise my brothers and sisters made
full of vivid moments of the smell the hot chocolate and fresh bread

I am from novenas and familia parties
I am from the avocado tree
full of fruit waiting to be harvest
whose long gone limbs I remember
as if they were my own.

I am mechona and a night reader
and stories when the three billy goats
comes to my mind and make me cry
I am from "Casa de la suerte" and paltay
potatoes and corn
I am from the bruises and pain of my grandfather
after he fell from the roof

I am from potatoes, rice and fresh meat
from Papacito singing tangos anytime
sinking my heart with full of emotions
and I want to think It is just a dream.

Moffet's reflection

I agree with Moffet when he says "There are several corollaries of the program I am proposing. Since it attempts to exercise the student in all possible relations that might obtain between him an the audience or at one range of the abstractive spectrum. It is essential that he address someone besides the English teacher and get some kind of feedback other than red marks" (pag 26) I think as a teacher we should give to students a feedback about of their writing instead of grading them. In my opinion, is very important to let students to express themselves and encourage them to write. Teachers should be or act as a moderator instead of an authority figure. For example, in my country (Peru). Students are pressure to get a good grades. Teachers do not allowed the students to express themselves. In comparision, The American educational system at least allow the students to express themselves. Some teachers give students a feedback about their writing and encourage them to write.