Today I had the opportunity to work one on one with several young writers. I was quite excited to tryout all that we have been working on in class. I have been planning extra activities for the class that would give me the chance to do writers workshops and today, in my first experience with the language arts lesson of my classroom, the opportunity presented itself naturally. Clearly these are relevant skills that we have been working on.
I am grateful for having read Hale and her explicit instructions. Without ever having done writers workshop, it is already automatic for me to search for the strength, then find a craft to work on. For the most part I felt like it went very well. I was generally able to find a strength to discuss, though in some cases it was hard. I was also able to find something to work on next with the student. What I discovered through this process was that I need to look over the books again for ideas. With such young writers who could do little more than identify the first sound of words, I stumbled over how to help them. What assistance should I give them? What suggestions should I make? I have no idea if the next step was an appropriate one or if there was something else that was obvious that I missed. I must say though, that it did give me a feeling of excitement and joy, when I said, "Do you remember the suggestion I made?" and she nodded, and she did it! I imagine the lingering questions over the correctness of my on the spot judgments will ease over time. To feel like you are offering the tools your student needs most at the time they can best use them, seems like a comfort of the experienced teacher. For now, I will try to continue to do writer's workshops, and to work one on one with students as often as possible.
I experienced a twinge of sadness after the satisfaction of working one on one with several students today. Working on craft lessons and math concepts and many other skills with individual students seems like an incredible valuable teaching method. I can only guess that if schools remain in the same situation in which they find themselves now, I will not necessarily have extra teachers wondering around my classroom offering one on one attention to my students. It would be an opportunity lost to not be able to work with students one on one.
Molly,
ReplyDeleteI'm really glad you had a chance to conference. I had a pleasant experience as well last week and this week. It is quite evident that working with student on an individual basis is the best way for them to learn. I'm not sure how educators can keep that in schools when class sizes keep getting bigger and the teaching staff smaller and smaller. It is scary and I fear for the students falling behind. All we can do, is try in our classrooms to reach our children one-on-one when we have the opportunity. We have to accept the things we cannot change and deal with what we can change!