In the Middle Chapter 1

✓ This textbook kept my interest. The way Atwell begins this first chapter, allowed me to get into her mindset. I am a huge fan of Erin Gruwell, and the way Atwell begins In The Middle reminds me of The Freedom Writer's Diary. Both Erin and Atwell have beliefs of how to teach a certain topic to students and they both didn't fully have support from their colleagues.

✓ I agree with Atwell that students should have an opportunity to write about what they want, and I believe I will adopt this technique; however, in some circumstances, teachers need to have a theme or topic to guide students when learning specific writing processes. I think in my own classroom I will have a mixture of both allowing students to chose their own topics and coming up with a theme for students to follow when we are discussing a more complex writing style.

✓ After reading chapter one, I realized that I resonate with Kelly Gallagher's style of teaching writing the most. I like picking five things for students to focus on rather than completely marking up their papers. Atwell discusses in chapter one how she would go home and continuously mark up a student's paper and they would not correct the error. Focusing on five specific elements allows students to learn better that way.

✓ One aspect of Atwell's teaching style I liked was the fact she would write with students. Although she was not writing well in the classroom, students saw she was a writer. I want to adopt this practice and actually write with my students. They can see that a teacher can write just like students. I like how she has minilessons for writing. I think for my classroom I would like to have a grammar lesson mixed with a writing lesson. I agree with Atwell when she says, "conferences with individuals are more important than minilessons to the group" (Atwell 17). I agree with this because if only a select few need help with a certain topic, teachers waste time lecturing the whole class. That whole list Atwell provides on page 17 is helpful.