Entry 5

Dear Dr. Jones,

Overall, the class is going well.  I already find myself thinking differently about writing.  Through our writing workshop sessions, I am becoming more comfortable with writing assignments.  Previously, whenever I began to think about an assigned writing piece, I would not be very motivated and would consider the whole writing process to be a daunting task.  Typically, I would come up with an idea, create a brief outline, write a draft, and then edit the draft once for grammatical errors.  Once my work has been written, I have always had a hard time wanting to go back and read through what I have written, as I am extremely critical of my own writing.  Our writing workshops have helped me to take the necessary time to plan, pre-write, and draft my work.  As a result, I now feel more confident when I sit down to write.  I also enjoy our class discussions; even though there are only three of us, I think we are able to have richer, more authentic conversations than some groups that are twice as large.  This course has also broadened my knowledge of technology and how to utilize this technology in classroom learning.  Prior to this class, I was vaguely familiar with blogs and wikis, but I had never actually created and used one of my own.  After reading Hicks (2009), I have been introduced to numerous websites and other technological resources to use with my future students.  Our class blogs and wiki have aided me in better understanding how these two technological resources work and how I could utilize them in my future classroom.

Prior to this course, I had learned about Kucer’s (2009) ideas regarding the connections between reading and writing and how the two are similar processes.  While this was very enlightening to me, the implications of this way of thinking about reading and writing did not resonate with me.  Now that I am actually utilizing the writing process in our class and keeping this connection in mind, this relationship is clearer to me.  Lately, I have been engaging in a fully transactional writing process at least twice a week.  I think deeply when I write m blog entries for this course and when I write during writing workshop.  As a result, I find myself transferring this state-of-mind to other writing situations, either for other courses or for my own personal writing.  I chose to engage in this kind of thinking because I find that I am better able to understand and retain the information that I am writing about.  Also, thinking deeply about what I am writing allows me to examine the issue in-depth and form multiple perspectives.  I feel better able to discuss a topic after writing about it thoroughly.  For example, as a result of the work I have done thus far for my genre pieces project, I feel as though I am gaining a better understanding of chinchillas and am moving from being a “competent” learner to a “proficient” learner of this subject-matter (Alexander & Jetton, 2000, p. 300).  One of the habits I may have to change in order to fully engage while writing is to stop feeling so self-conscious about my writing and about the fact that others will read it. 

The main instructional strategy that will benefit me as a teacher of literacy is the writing workshop.  While I had read about this strategy in articles, I had not utilized it in a classroom setting.  After having experience with the writing workshop format in our class, I feel more comfortable with the strategy and see the benefits of using it in my future classroom.  The biggest concern that I have at this point is my “Teaching the Genre” expert presentation.  I always have anxiety before a presentation; I feel as though I’ll forget something or freeze up in front of everyone.  I will just need to think positively, make sure I’m well prepared, and remember that there are only three people in this class, so I shouldn’t feel too nervous.  Aside from this concern, I do not have many other concerns.  So far, I understand the content of this course and am enjoying our class.

Sincerely,

Melissa N.

Alexander, P. A. & Jetton, T. L. (2000). Learning from text: A multidimensional perspective. In

M. L. Kamil, P. B. Mosenthal, P. D. Pearson, & R. Barr (Eds.), Handbook of reading

research: Volume III (pp. 285-310). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates

Hicks, T. (2009). The digital writing workshop. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.

Kucer, S. B. (2009). Dimensions of literacy: A conceptual base for teaching reading and writing

in school settings. New York, NY: Routledge.