Quick Write 3/14

2. Of the many strategies that Gallagher introduces in chapters 2 and 3, they all are centered around the ideas of (a) giving plenty of time for students to practice writing and (b) modeling writing practices as a teacher. When do you think each can be used most effectively in your classroom? Can you think of a time where you found success after plenty of practice time? What about a time when you learned the best by watching someone model the activity?

"Good things come from hard work!" --Dad 
The one thing I love about classes is having a writer's notebook. Just like in many math classes, having a "warm-up" each day helps students get ready for each class. A writer's notebook also allows students to use their own creativity and get the grade for the effort they put in rather than what they write. I enjoy our quick writes in class where it isn't graded so much on what we write or how much we write, but the effort and participation. In our class, our awesome professor, also writes with us and shares her entries. This is a great example of modeling. 

Modeling is important when teaching a student how to do something for the first time, when giving directions that could be difficult to understand for one or more students, and for encouraging participation in class. It is also important to model imperfections. Students should feel comfortable sharing their work with you, even if it isn't perfect. Which leads to revising and editing. These two need to be taught and modeled. I remember one class I was in in Jr. High School we were asked to peer review. We had no idea what to do.. so the only editing we did for each other was look at spelling errors and missed capitalizations. Students need to be show examples of good revising so they are able to make their work better and help their classmates when peer reviewing. 

I learn best through my own practice after watching someone else complete the task. When playing sports my dad would always say "Good things come from hard work". And he was right. Without practice, you will never reach your full potential. It is important to encourage students to not only practice their hobbies, but also what they are learning in school. I also used to watch videos for softball of other teams. I learn best by writing things down to remember so I used to watch and write step-by-step what they did in the video. I did this mostly for pitching and hitting in softball. Over time after watching many videos on how to though different pitches, and practicing all year round, I became a much better pitcher. 

I love the similar relation between practicing hobbies and work in school. It is important to make these relations when explaining to students or else you may never connect. The student may think of the practice work as extra work that is just a time filler. It is also important to model both the imperfect and the revised work so your students can see what to do and how to do it better.