Myself as a Writer

Like many of the students Routman mentions, I hate writing. It's not that I have always hated writing. In elementary I kept diaries and in high school I filled journals with teen angst poetry and stories. But somehow along the way I lost interest. Writing became a chore that I had to do- people stare at me in astonishment when I tell them I would rather do hours of statistics than have to write a paper. That being said my writing process is certainly not one I would EVER model for my students. Here's how I approach writing:

1. Procrastinate until last possible minute
2. Panic that I will not get done in time
3. Sit down to write and stare at the computer until I get up and find something to either, eat, clean up or search for on the Internet.
4. Write a sentence
5. Erase it
6. Write an opening paragraph
7. Erase it
8. Skip ahead and write the meat of my paper
9. Wake up at dawn the day the paper is due then write intro/conclusion
10. Revise quickly and turn in
11. NEVER look at it again!

I know it's terrible, but true. I hope for the sake of my student's that I can learn to enjoy writing again or at least learn to teach it well enough that they don't catch on :)

Charming....

Invented Spelling

I found Fox's chapters very helpful for understanding how to identify the strategies the students are using and also how to help them improve upon their existing knowledge. As far as invented spelling goes I definitely think it helps more than it hinders. I have seen older kids clam up completely when asked to spell correctly. I think spelling mistakes often keep children from writing. I think in younger grades learning how to spell certain words will develop as their phonemic awareness develops, and as they learn to use resources in the classroom to help. As students get older it is important for them to understand why we sometimes need to do our very best spelling in order to communicate most effectively but in general I don't feel that there needs to be a focus on spelling.

My k-buddy seems to understand letters and sounds pretty well. She makes white space between words and uses both upper and lowercase letters. When unsure of how to spell a word she can easily identify the sound the word starts with. From there she seemed to fill in letters as she felt appropriate according to what sounds were in the word. She would also look around the room for examples she could use to spell words she was unsure of. Overall, I was truly impressed with my k-buddy's skill level! I am equally amazed by how well primary grade teachers can decipher what students are trying to communicate- I am always at a loss :)

Emergent Literacy

Since I have yet to work with young children in my field experience I don't have many examples of emergent literacy. I sat in for an afternoon with a kindergarten class and observed kids during a math lesson in which they were learning about numbers and instead of writing the number 3, they would draw three things to represent the number. Some of the kids drawings were fairly easy to identify, trees or squares but then other kids drawings would be completely indecipherable for me- looking mostly like scribbles. I found it interesting the contrast between students. I wonder now, after reading the Sulzby and Teale article, if the children who have more experience with literacy in their homes were the ones who were drawing better or if it was simply a matter of varying degrees of motor skills.

While I was observing this classroom I also saw the teacher use different strategies to promote literacy among her students. She used flashcards during transitions while some children were making their way to the rug. The flashcards had the letter and a picture to represent it. The teacher would call on kids to read the letter, say the sound, and describe the picture. I remember finding it so entertaining to watch them during this activity. One child was given the letter N. He would say "N, nnnn, Egg" but the picture was of a nest. She would prompt him again on the picture but every time he would say "egg" instead. I remember thinking that he's right the picture does have an egg in the nest. Being in this classroom for the afternoon reminded me of how much we actually have to learn. All the literacy skills that we take for granted and seem so obvious, actually had to be learned at one point in time- amazing.