Wonderful ideas that I Learned Form Our Workshop

Thank you to all of you. You did an outstanding job with your workshop. I learned a lot form each of you. We built a community of learners which was very important to me.
It was hard to choose which ideas I need to apply in my kindergarten classroom, because there is so much to choose from. I decided to take at least one strategy from each workshop and apply during this year.
I will start with April's and Christy's ideas to have the workshop daily. "Being consistent with the workshop makes the student be accountable, stable and organized".
I hope we can continue practicing in our classroom all that we learned here and also sharing ideas during the years to came.

Thirteen ways of Looking at a Memoir

The color of her eyes, the shape of his smile, the smell of fresh known hay, the call of kildeer on the beach. These I remember.
Shoeboxes under the bed. in the closet.
They threaten to take over the entire house
Like snapping on a pan of water I can glide over the high point of my life by just closing my eyes.
The story she poured onto the paper should have been a reflection,
a remembrance, a revisiting- but it was not. Instead it was her revenge.
The taking back of what she had never intended to lose. She was willing
to burn herself down as well, if this story would also take down
those she felt were at fault.
Reflecting, reflecting in what manner
reflecting of sadness or hapiness.

A Day Like a Nightmare- Earthquake 1970 Huaraz, Peru

10 Important Things about Conferencing

1. Is the heart of the workshop
2. Make the student an independent and critical thinker for their own writing
3. Is productive when teacher and students are prepared and being accountable
4. Teachers are supporters
5. A place where praising is valuable
6. Conferencing makes the students be critical readers and writers
7. Use strategies for the right questions in order to have a good answer
8. Conferencing is a place where Teachers and students grow in their integrity and identity
9. Conferencing is productive when is one by one
10.Conferencing is a place where the teachers performance is to be a good listener

Portfolios Reflection

Reflection, collaboration and sharing authority are critical components of a portfolio.The purpose of a portfolio is to reflect the student's best work and what they have learned in the process. I like the idea to approach the students in the way that they can be critical with their writing, this gives the opportunity to evaluate their own work, but the teachers's job is to provide the structure of specific questions to facilitate a better reflection.
In the kindergarten, we use portfolios for each child and keep their work in process, for example the first day of school the children write their names and the alphabet (sometimes its just scribbles) after that every three months they do the same, at the end of the school year they need to write their names using capitals and the whole alphabet.We compare and see their progress, how much thay learned to be independent with their own writing. In this case the journal has a good purpose to keep the records and discuss with the parents about the student's academic setting.

Another look at Grades and Grating- Ruth Ann Blynt- Reflection

The author states:"If we truly to foster lifetime learning, then we cannot contribute to the "there, I've got it, I don't need to work any more" attitude. If we honestly value process over product, and this world demands that we do, then we have to change the way me divvy up the rewards." I totally agree with Blynt. When we are grading our students, we need to evaluate their interest for learning, their desire to achieve their objectives, and the most importantly not just let the students study or learn for the moment but learn for the future.
In my first years of teaching, I used grading to assess the students on what thay had learned, given them opportunities to fix their grades for the moment of evaluation, because I was afraid that they'd catalog me as a bad teacher if I had some students with low grades.
Now with more years of experience I see grading as useful feedback of how much my students have learned and how much I learned myself. The students need to be critical with their own process of learning.
For me, all the assessments need to have a purpose and goal, but the most important grading needs to be motivation for our students rather than frustation.

Teaching Covention in a State- Mandated Testing Context- Bobbie Warne- Reflection

Bonnie's presence inspiring to me, her passion for teaching, and how she deals with the standardized state test,the strategy for approching and praising her high school students in the writing process, helps me to to understand how special is our profession. Her methods are worthy to imitate. Now I can grasp better when she states: "writing is as essential to language arts as breathing to life" This is a good philosophical definition from someone that really has a deep concern about writing and about the students.
When I took a Literacy Methods for Content Learning class, the students who where studing P.E. did not believe that the class was important. They argued that they didn't need to know all the details about writing, because it would not be use in P.E. It seems like some students and some teachers still believe that learning about writing is strictly for English Teachers, which is an erroneous premise. If all the teachers from different subjects will apply a strategy for reading and writing the same as English teachers does,the difficulties with writing will be less problematic.

I AM FROM

I am from books, lotto tickets and magazines,
unique bookstore smell of papers, and aromatic kitchen
fresh wheat bread, yellow potato and green of corn fields,
chasing chickens and bursting silky feathers, and a tug of war pig tales.

I am from parties and Virgen de las Mercedes celebrations; music and dance of huaynos, marineras and tangos;
trips to Paltay family land, a room filled with good ghosts and bedtime stories,
I am from the exotic luisa herbal tea, whose is sturdy trunk shot from the ground with slight aroma blended with allspice and clove,
Whose long limbs I remember as if they were my own.

I am from Three Billy-Goats Gruff fairy tale that my dad whispered in my ears with a soft voice,
lora la habladora and nawerona,
the eyes, voice, heart of Otilia, Jose, Tono, Julie, Juancito, Papito, Mechona, Luchito and Mocochon,
I am from photo albums and boxes of pictures in my mom's night drawer oh memories! Oh memories! When I close my eyes they are streaming with tears.

I am from sunday mass and angels dress up in processions, with sweet deserts as rewards,
I am from singing songs, rosary beads, and prayers whispered quietly while kneeling next to a bed,
I am from the majesty black and white mountains Huaraz, Inca gold and Spanish blood,
Bible that my grandfather read and preached and the verses that were written with very small handwriting.

I am from the day like a nightmare, where my litle sister and I saw astonished how the ceiling and walls went swinging everywhere and the people yelled: help! help! earthquake! My heart mas dying like a sundown in the ocean,
I am from the prophetic moments of the day that I lost my dear brother.
That was the day that I will never forget.

"Conferring" -Lucy Calkins- Reflection

In this article Calkins state: "Our first job, then, whenever we read a writer's entries or drafts, is to be fully present as a listener. Our job for that moment is to enjoy,to care, to be remainded of our own lives, and to respond. We cry, laugh, nod,and sight.We let the writer know she has ben heard" I totally agree with Ms. Calkins.How many times we asked our students to be a good listeners in order to learn better? how many times we sit down with them and listen to their success or difficulties in their writing? The same as we claim for attention, we need to pay attention to the students. Calkins is reminding us the responsability that we carry on; if we listen to them, they are going to listen to us. For instance, confering with our students will more benefitial.

Writing Steps: A Recursive and Individual Experience - Bonnie Warne

Warne, in her article states: "All students need the freedom to play with language, freedom class time should expand and not restrict. They need to know that revision ins't just the third step in the writing process - even if the ISAT might test it that way." Bonnie found,like many of us, the incongruency between testing needs and student needs. She took a risk to describe revision more than just a change in words, which this is the traditional model that more of the students are actually being taught in the schools.
Even though she disagreed with the ISAT tests, she found a better way to approach her students into writing. She help them explore the writing process steps for themselves, and consequently the students discovery that they could enjoy their writing and still meet the criteria for the ISTAs.
Being in this workshop, I have learned from differents authors, including Warne,
that is an open window to look for alternatives that can make the process of writing enjoyable for our students rather just make the students work towards meeting ISAT standars.

Revision STrategies of Student Writers and Experienced Adult Writers-Sommers- Reflection

Sommer's research about revision is critical; the credibility of his results and studies are obvious.I agree with the author when he says: "Students need to seek the dissonance of discovery, utilize their writing, as the experienced writers do, the very difference between writing and speech - the posibility of revision." That is exactly what we are doing in this summer workshop. I'm glad that we are applying the new concept of revising with our own writing. The results are that we share more with our peers, rather than revising it one time in order to have better results.
As participants of the writing project we have the responsibility to expand the new concept of revising to our colleges even though we need to deal with the mentality of some students that are still thinking that revision is "redoing" because they want to impress the teachers using synonyms and eliminating words that are not needed. I can testify by my own son's definition of revising the way he was taught.

I'll do it my way: Three Writers and their revision practices- Stephanie Dix

Acoording to this research, children have different ways to achieve revision. One student compare and revise most of their texts internally before writing them down, the second student do revision as needed in all stages of writing, sharing their writing with a friend to help them get more ideas. the third student is more in rereading and revising as they progress,according to the teachers's expectations. In this study they found out that students revisted their writing, altering it in variety of forms,but the good thing is that all of the three make cognitive decisions in terms of what to change according to the purposes and in their own different and personal ways. The author states: “The students’ diverse ways of learning to write provides another challenge for the teachers classroom” That is true but also it is true that as teachers we need to respect our student’s technique for writing and revision. Modeling and exposing different techniques is also important. The more comfortable the students are with their own technique, the more they are going to achieve towards their goals in their writing.
For me, it doesn't matter which way the students approach their revision. The only thing that matters is that their writing has accuracy.

After THe End Reflection Chapter XI

In this chapter what I found useful for me to apply in my classroom is the retelling of the fairy tale from differents points of view.
Lane states: "Writers who write whith voice or expresive tono constantly make choices that reflect a personal interes in their subject." Here it is how I will do it: Let them choose a book and read to them portions of it with a strong voice,(always Children like this)and talk about the qualities and how their voice reveals them. Then, they can imitate their voice of any character from the story, and make up their own story like: "I'm Litle Riding Hood and I will tell you a story." The imitation is always playful. I like the idea of finding voice by putting masks, pretending to be annimals,people even things (pencil, crayons, paper, etc)that make their character alive also. At the early ages children like to be on the stage to perform any kind of dream or goal of theirs. I can take advange of that to identify the character of the story that they'rereenacting in their own voice.

After The End Reflection Chapter VII

Lane point it out in this chapter, the importance of creating atmosphere for the writing workshop. From my point of view these ideas are crucial. Always, I'm thinking every year to do something to light up my student's interest in a way that they can be engaged
in the process of writing. I'm so glad that Lane gave my some tips that I will consider applying in my classroom.
I can see the enthusiasm that it will create in my students, when I will tell them: "For our writing workshop, we are going to change the setting in order to make our room confortable with a lot of light, rugs on the floor and cookies on the side." For sure the responses will be positive. I'm imagining their smiling faces an the desire to start right away. Letting my students engage in my writing workshop will be absolutely rewarding.

What's Right With Writing- Reflection

This article brings an important view about writing, Linda Rief stated: "Writing lets us communicate what we know and help us think of things we didn't know we knew until we began writing." She continues "Writing is about representing our experiences, our knowledge, our opinions, our feelings." Under this perspective, not only English teachers needs to be prepare in order to achieve this big responsability with our students. When I was taking some literacy classes, a group of students who were studying for being a P.E. teachers refuse to take the class, because they thought they would never use it with their students.It was hard for me to believe that they wanted to be teachers.I'm very sure they are some teachers still thinking the same. What we can do for change their mentality?
I'm not an English teacher but my integrity and identity call me to be prepare for the sake of my students.

Reaffirming The Writing Workshop For Young Adolescents-Reflection

In this article, Lain presents good ideas for the writing workshop. I like Lisa Fink's idea to encourage the children for digging into details, where students write the story of their own names, after read "Esperanza" by Sandra Cisneros.With this lesson, the students investigate the meanings and origins of their names and explore personal history and tradition. Personally is a good way to create interest in the students to continue writing. I will apply this approach with my children but with the parent's help.
Another strategy that I should apply in my classroom is:structuring writing workshop; she mention "On the first day of the school, I hand out the essential textbook for my writing classroom-a blank spiral notebook or academic journal" As we discuss in class, the purpose of the journal is to provide a place to create rough drafts and also offers a safe place to practice writing.For me, what Lain said is so importantant and critical, because we need to let the students know from the first day of the school what your expectations is as a teacher and the roles that the students need to be responsable for.

The Arte of Teaching and writing-Reflection

In this article I found practical ideas about writing, some of them I will apply to my classroom. Lucy McCormic mention that the writing workshop should demand more predictability than creativity.That means the teacher needs to organize time for writing and be consistent with the mini-lessons, McCormic suggested an hour a day everyday for the writing workshop or three days a week. It is up to as if we really wanted to engage our students in writing, we need to committed our precious time in learning writing,with no interruptions. Being consistent,is another important element it’s something that all of us should do in order to create a writing atmosphere, because if the students know from the first day of the school that they have specific time for writing they can anticipate and plan for their own writing, they don’t need to wait for the teacher’s direction. In other words, the transition from one activity to another will be smooth.

Britton Reflection

According to Britton's model: Transactionalwriting, expresive writing and poetic writing are what they called forms of parallel lines of development in the writing process. Transcational and poetic writing are in opposites poles; in the midle is the expresive writing. The expresive writing is caracterized because is public, have a wider audience and is flexible in the sense that they can be change from expresive to transactional and expresive to poetic writing.
In the way that the author explanied the process, I think this model should apply for all levels of education. Britton said: "A young child speech will be expresive for the very reason that in his egocentrism he finds difficult or impossible to escape...and continues.."A child take time therefore to learn how go respond to the demands of a situation requiring transactional speech.." I have experience these stages with my preschoolers and kindergarden children, when they have intention to comunicate with the world, they grab a piece of paper and draw their name on it, even if they draw some lines, they are pretending they wrote their names, for them all representations of writing have meaning. What a good way to start the writing process with a lot of imagination. Now is our responsability as a teachers to praise them and encourage them to get in involved in the process of writing.

Emig Reflection

Emig's points out some important tips: For example: when she mention, that we need to shift our thinking from teaching writing (magical thinking) to learning to write (No- magical thinking), where the teacher need to be part of the process of learning rather than controller or test giver. Analyzing my own teacher career, I always thought that the teacher is role is to be in the front of the class performing in the ways the students can say: "I'm a good teacher". I believed so many teachers still thinking like that. After I read Emig. I'm ready for change. I want to internalize the idea that writing is predominantly learned rather than taught.
With this conception in mind as a teachers we need to be an example for our students: write, write, write in order to help our students in the process of writing.
Furthermore, is our responsability to pass this idea of learner to write to the parents, they need to know the importance of having the same experience of writing as their children. Being the example is always rewarding.
What I do not agree with the author is when she said: "..men teach as revelation, as an expression of ego, most men aren't capable of getting out of the way. I think that is the reason there is poor teaching of writing, she continues: "I think women in my experience are often very, very good teachers of writing because they're willing to put their ego aside." For my point of view, the author is extremely sexist in the way that she describes men teachers vs. women teachers. I'm very sure we can find, very good men teachers and a very good women teachers, also we can find bad women teachers and a bad men teachers.

I' am from.....

I'm from llamas and green prairies,
I'm from rice, oat and milk,
I'm from a big family that lives in a room between the store and a small kitchen,
I'm from the smell of magazines and lotto tickes covered with dust and unforgettable memories,
I'm from corn, potatoes and lemon in a house filled with aromatic cinammon smell,
I'm from avocado tree,
Whose long gone limbs I remember as if they were my own,
I'm from Virgen of Mercedes celebration, the Christmas song and mass tradition,
I'm from mama Otilia,
I'm from papa Jose and brother Ignacio, I will asked them: Will you come back tomorrow?
Oh memories!, oh memories!
I'm lora la habladora
I'm from "mommy,beautiful mommy, you are like the star in the sky,
I'm from a close family, with many memories and mementos.
I'm from Peru and Spain, picarones, pachamanca, cebiche, and paella
I'm from the very scary memories of one day like nightmare, where together with my little sister, we saw astonished how the ceiling and walls went swinging everywhere, and the people yelled: help! help!
My heart was dying like a sundown in the ocean to see such a catastrophic moment.
I'm from the prophetic and scary day where I lost my dear brother.
That was the day that I will never forget.

Muffet reflection

This article sounds very interesting to me, just because he has a different point of view about approaching to write in composition course, he talks about sequences that the student need to follow, starting with the abstraction of ideas from the ground, share,comparing and ended in formal writing. The way that he explained it make logical sense to me, I can see the importance of taking time with our students to let them think about themselves (memories) in order to get a safety place to started their writing.