I did like some of the points Koch brought up on page 136. I found the section Subject of Your Memoir Cannont Be "You." I like this section because memoirs have to be about something, and as Koch explains, "'you' are not a subject" (Koch 136). A memoir is a story about you, but it the subject you will not shape the story. I think this is a great message for students to understand. I would like to come up with an activity in my classroom to show students that you is not a subject, but can help form a subject. Does anyone have any ideas?
After reading this book, I would like to continue sticking with the writing workshop that I currently use in my classroom at Green High School. The writing workshop I use is from Kelly Gallagher. Students are paired in groups, selected by the teacher based on writing abilities with a higher performing writer in each group. Students will then help correct the six highlighted sentences from the teacher. If that group cannot figure out the mistake in someone's highlighted s
entence, then the whole group has to come to the teacher because no one knew what was wrong. This method seems to work really well because students are learning from each other. I will also provided two comments on the paper for students to work on. Students need to perfect these two techniques for their final drafts. Also, while grading rough drafts, I take notes on common mistakes from students. If a group of students has a similar issue with writing, I will meet with this group while other students are work shopping. I am able to help these students that struggle with a certain topic in writing, while others still are writing. I do not have to interrupt class time to teach a select few of students who do not understand material. IF anyone has any other ideas or references for writing workshops I'd love the help. My cooperating teacher also uses this practice.
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Amanda,
ReplyDeleteI think that you could modify the puppet activity that we did in class to help students understand that "you" is not a subject, but it can help to form one. You could show them that a puppet, or a character alone doesn't make for a good story; it is the thoughts and feelings of the character, actions, or the relationships that character has that makes a story or memoir good.
I've done writing workshops in the past, and I think it is good for students to review each other's work. However, this might become an issue if students are writing personal memoirs and might not want other students to read them. I do think it helps to have a little bit of peer coaching when your doing writing workshops. I think it is effective because it gives students an opportunity to receive input about their writing not only from the teacher, but from their peers. They can also learn from reading other students writing and perhaps mimic the stronger writers in their group.
Amanda C., I agree with you about the book. It does not do much for me as a teacher. I did take some tips from chapter one, because it talked about how to begin writing by finding something that you care about, or know. However, other than "Beginnings," not much else influenced the way I think about writing instruction.
ReplyDeleteAmanda G.,
I agree with you about writing workshops. I am very sensitive to my students, because I know they prefer certain people that they trust to look at the work. My seventh graders always want to chose their partners, because they know who they are comfortable with. Memoirs in particular probably shouldn't be workshopped unless a student is certain that they are comfortable sharing.