Chapter 11: Poetry Writing

This chapter introduces various poetic forms and poetic devices to help children enjoy poetry. Tompkins notes that "children need to have a concept of poetry before beginning to write poems" (p. 259). In order to develop a concept of poetry, students need reading, instruction and structured writing experiences. Exposure to poetry in a playful way could be the starting point. To help students feel easier to write poems is to start with formula poems like "____is..." poems or "If I were..." poems. For instructions, teachers focus on one at a minilesson for children to learn, experience and assimilate it. An old paper asked questions which are asked today as well, like "what is poetry" (Toussaint, 1972) and quoted Blishen as saying "poetry...can laugh, chuckle, make jokes. The subject of poetry...may be anything, whatever can be expressed by human beings with a sense of words and of rhythm, a sharp eye, a keen ear, an inquiring mind, and an open heart" (Blishen, 1963, p. 8).

As Sunmi noted in her blog, "children should be provided with freedom to seeking their own voices in their writing". Poetic forms including rhymes should be offered as a tool to use rather than restrictions on their creativity. I like her quote, "children are natural poets" (Tompkins, 2008, p. 243). Then teachers' obligation is to nurture their innate ability.

Reference
Toussaint, I.H. (1972). Poetry in the elementary school. Retrieved from http://www.eric.ed.gov/PDFS/ED064696.pdf

Chapter 10: Descriptive Writing

Decriptive writing requires vocabulary to offer specific information, sensory images, metaphors and similes. For English learners, Tompkins suggests words-brainstorming to use during the writing process at least twice-during prewriting and again during revising (p. 222). Creating five-senses clusters, listing attribues, crafting comparisons can enhance the descriptive features in writing. When we do the words-brainstorming, a site gives you an idea how to expand students' works bank (http://www2.actden.com/writ_den/tips/paragrap/describe.html#L1). It categorized descriptive words in several groups. In accordance with the writing, a teacher with children can make a word wall chart to use.

As Kyoungchun pointed out, descriptive writing is like painting pictures with words. Accordingly students should be able to manage a bank of words to withdraw whenever they need to write more vividly and livelily. With this regard, teachers should offer more activities to expand their vacabulary.

Chapter 9: Narrative Writing

"Children's understanding of story structure and conventions plays an important role in their ability to write as well as comprehend the stories they read" (p. 200). They can create stories with the help of minilessons, guided practices and independent writing. To assess the stories that children write, three components should be considered: children's knowledge about and application of the element in writing; children's use of the writing process; the quality of the story. Tompkins suggested three steps teachers follow to help a child who can't write a story: check his/her understanding of the elements of story structure, check his/her ablity to retell a story, and check to see if he has an idea for his story. A case study showed an inspiring result that when teachers helped students build "self-regulated strategy" with "verbalizing and visualising", students with writing difficulties used more words and images in their writing (Patel & Laud, 2009).

As Jaeun mentioned, children used to listen to a story and retll the story to somebody else and learned naturally about how the story is organized and what elements the story has. Especially narrative writing is related to children's story book reading. As Tompkins stated that checking children's ability to retell a story can be a yardstick to decide how well children understand the elements of the story and how good at producing in narrative writing they will be. In that sense, reading books to children and talking about the books they read from their early age is very crucial to develop their natural capability to write good quality narrative writing.

Reference
Patel, P. & Laud, L. (2009). Helping students to add detail and flair to their stories. Preventing School Failure, 54(1). 2-10. Retrieved from http://web.ebscohost.com.libproxy.lib.csusb.edu/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?vid=15&hid=12&sid=051bb061-8fe6-46d0-ae1d-b9d685c7b462%40sessionmgr11

Chapter 8: Expository Writing

Expository writing is factual; its purpose is to convey infromation about the world (Duke & Bennett-Armistead, 2003, cited by Tompkins, p. 171). This chapter introduced the types of expository writing: "All About..." books, collaborative report, individual reports, ABC books, riddles, multigenre projects, and cubes. Teaching expository writing to young students seems impossible but Tompkins insists that first or second graders could use expository writing with various reading, organizing, and sharing activities. A study showed that intensive expository reading and writing lesson improved students' ability to locate main ideas (Montelongo et.al. (2010), which could be a critical ability in academic settings .

As Wooje pointed out citing Tompkins, "expository writing is often done for a wide, unknown audience". To convey the contents more clearly could be the purpose of writing. Wooje recommended graphic organizers as a tool to deliver ideas "in an organized way". Visual images or illustrations can be helpful as well.

Reference
Montelongo, J., Herter, R.J., & Ansaldo, R. (2010). A lesson cycle for teaching expository reading and writing. Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy, 53(8). 656-666. Retrieved from http://web.ebscohost.com.libproxy.lib.csusb.edu/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?vid=10&hid=12&sid=c34ab07b-9867-4aa6-8956-39021e2792ea%40sessionmgr12

Chapter7: Biographical Writing

There are three types of biographical writing: personal narratives, autobiographies, and biographies. For personal narratives, "teachers do not assign topics; instead, children draw fron their own lives and experineces and write about things that interest them" (p, 148). There are many ways of presenting biographical information without writing an autobiography or biography like "All About Me" books and Life Boxes. Developing checklists or rubrics with children helps students understand what is expected of them and "assume a greater responsibility for their own learning" (p. 165). I was impressed there are many ways to write about people instead of fixed writing forms. Johnson (1986) implemented a project that students carried out an interview and write a biography of the classmate. It gave them a chance to interview, organize, and write a biography. I think it is a good way to try in class except some confidentiality concern as Johnson dealt with.

Sunmi mentioned that "being reflective and having differentiated ideas and perspecives is a key to creative writing" Stepping into others' lives through reading and writing biographies of others provides "room for personal reflections" (Griffiths & Macleod, 2008. cited by Sunmi). Understanding people who have differentiated ideas and perspectives is the qualification of a responsible citizen, isn't it? Children literally grow up in your class.

Reference
Johnson, S. (1986). The biography: Teach it from the inside out. English Journal, 75(6). 27-29. Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org.libproxy.lib.csusb.edu/stable/819001?seq=3

Chapter 6: Letter Writing

I encountered these statements: in letter writing, "form also is important" (p. 131) and letter writing helps students "increase their awareness of audience" (p. 130). As these statements imply, letter writing is very personal and related to the manners like meeting people in person. "Encouraging children to write letters from an early age will improve their commnunication, social...skills..." (My Child magazine, 2007). In that sense, teaching letter writing is important for students' daily life.

As Julien mentioned, "writing a letter is about conveying a message". It means students acknowledge writing as a communication tool rather than feeling it as a boring task to get evaluated. In this aspect, students are more conscious of the receiver that is the audience of the writing. As I cited above, letter writing is a good tool to "increse the awareness of audience".

Reference
My Child magazine. (2007). An introduction to letter writing. Retrieved from http://www.reading.rockets.org/article/22319.

Chapter 5: Journal Writing

Journal writing would be looking at one's own experiences, feelings and thoughts. Especially personal journals record their own lives and offer a ground to learn it better and grow from it. I think reading log is a very useful tool for students to empathize with the characters by "responding to the book or relating it to events in their own lives" (p. 106). Dyment & O'Connell (2010) note that students potential to write high quality reflective journal can be improved through teachers' endeavor: making time to train students, writing thorough responses, developing trusting relationships, and modelling expected journaling behaviors.

Reference
Dyment, J.E. & O'Connell, T.S. (2010). The quality of reflection in student journals: A review of limiting and enabling factors. Innovative Higher Education, 35(4). 233-244. Retrieved from http://www.springerlink.com.libproxy.lib.csusb.edu/content/q043644w06p43087/fulltext.pdf

Chapter 4: Assesssing Children's Writing

Assessment should focus on the writers themselves (Anderson, 2005. cited in Tompkins, p. 76). Its purpose is to document children's growth, inform their achievement, to guide writing, to substantiate that children meet grade-level standards and to evaluate the program (Tompkins, p. 76). Assessment can be formal like mandated writing assessment and informal like observing, conferencing, collecting samples, and keeping records. Hessler et.al. (2009) offers 20 manageable ways to assess student writing more objectively, saying that "teachers should use a variety of assessments: formal and informal, snapshot and whole-piece, process and product, and timed and untimed.

Ja-eun emphasized advantages of self-asessment in her blog saying that children assume responsibility for their writing and products through self-assessment. She cited Curtz to state the difficulties that students new to self-assessment method may face in class. In this sense, to enhance the benefit of self-assessment, teachers should be well prepared and sensitive to students' needs.

Reference
Hessler, T., Konrad, M. & Alber-Morgan, S. (2009). Assess student writing. Intervention in School and Clinic, 45(1). 68-71. Retrieved from http://isc.sagepub.com.libproxy.lib.csusb.edu/content/45/1/68.full.pdf+html

Chapter 3: Writing Strategies and Skills

Tompkins (2008) states that "teachers have the responsibility to teach children how to write, and part of that responsibility is teaching children the strategies and skills that capable writers use" (p. 71). The minilessons must show how to apply strategies and skills to authentic reading and writing processes not empty lectures. From generating ideas to evaluating, teachers should help students to recognize each steps and use them selectively and flexibly. "The present study provides support for the educational practice of directly teaching writing strategies, along with the skills and knowledge needed to apply them...[T]eachers [should model] how to use writing strategies, providing extensive instruction, practice, and assistance until student could apply them independently" (De La Paz & Graham, 2002).

As Anica-Sohee mentioned, English learners who speaks different languages have different or accustomed conventional writing style they get from their culture. The way of writing in western style is regarded to be more sophisticated and educated one. For me it is kind of sad to lose various flavors which will enrich literature.

Reference
De La Paz, S. & Graham, S. (2002). Explicitly teaching strategies, skills, and knowledge: Writing instruction in middle school classrooms. Journal of Educational Psychology, 94(4). 687-698. Retrieved from http://web.ebscohost.com.libproxy.lib.csusb.edu/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?vid=3&hid=9&sid=4dee8a42-cd81-4557-96e8-18dfe1deba22%40sessionmgr11