RD, thanks so much for posting your wonderful thoughts (notice
how you have connections to Atwell--did you see my post about
the interplay of good proflit?). I got as far as finding the
text in my classroom and bringing it home. I am overwhelmed
reading the two texts I INTENDED to read and must admit I
haven't even opened it since I brought it home.

I love your observation, "The idea that stuff 'sticks' better
when we add more sensory information to our conceptual
understanding can't be underestimated, in my view." This fits
beautifully with what I'm trying to do with Crafting Writers!

Thanks!
Judy

On 6/29/08, RD wrote:
> I've read Chapter 1 and half of Chapter 2 so far and I'm
> making lots of connections to Atwell's 'Writing Lessons
> that Change Writers'. Both texts stress the importance of
> using real world writing, and to me, this is 'golden'
> advice (halleluyah). Both texts also use the inquiry
> model, however I'm thinking that Wood Ray is more open in
> her approach to letting students figure it all out on their
> own, whereas Atwell definitely begins a 'study' with
> specifics that she wants her students to notice (not that
> Wood Ray doesn't) and she may be more likely to steer her
> students in that direction if they don't 'notice' these
> things on their own. I'm not sure about that point yet,
> but I'm just getting that feel from Ray.
>
> I'm loving the notion of developing the ability to 'read
> like writers' through the inquiry model. After all, this
> is what I really want my students to do. Nevertheless, at
> first I thought it might be too much of a 'leap of faith'
> to expect students to identify the 'important stuff'. But,
> Ray emphasizes the importance of selecting texts that will
> lead students to make good 'discoveries', so the guidance
> is embedded, really.
>
>
> I love the idea of doing a 'study' on punctuation. I feel
> that sometimes I'm very 'genre' oriented, and this would be
> a good way to break the mold. When the grade one student
> talked about the ellipsis being like 'hanging off a cliff',
> I was struck by the need for students to visualize their
> understandings. The idea that stuff 'sticks' better when
> we add more sensory information to our conceptual
> understanding can't be underestimated, in my view. A cute
> little anecdote that illustrates this point: I had a couple
> of students that had a hard time understanding the function
> of parentheses this year. I can't say that I blame them
> because they had formerly been told that the words in
> parentheses are 'added information that is not really
> needed in the sentence'. Why put it in parentheses if it's
> not needed, they asked? Well, it is needed! After reading
> several sections of different texts that used parentheses,
> one of my students said, "The stuff in parentheses is like
> the stuff you'd whisper to someone sitting beside you. You
> know, like with your hand cupped to the side of your
> mouth!" So we built this connection between the shape of
> the parentheses and the cupped hand, adding information
> that IS necessary to the content but not necessary to make
> a complete sentence. The funny part is that when asked on
> one of the reading tests that I have to administer three
> times a year what the function of parentheses was in a
> given sentence, a few students wrote something about the
> cupped hand and the whispering to someone sitting beside
> them. Well, they got the basic idea!
>
> Using real world texts just makes sense to me. My students
> are much more inclined to 'buy into' writing that begins
> with a real world study. And frankly, although I was a bit
> shocked at her vehemence towards the 'graphic organizer', I
> completely 'get it'! It's like those g-d awful sentence
> starters that teachers use with students who are below
> grade level, just to get them started, or to get them to
> write. Blech! This anti-graphic organizer stance again
> reminded me, again, of Atwell who abhors the 5 paragraph
> essay (which Ray also points out does not exist in the real
> world). Atwell is also not afraid to tell students that
> starting an essay with a cliche question is just boring and
> insulting to the reader. "Have you ever wondered why there
> are so many Walmarts in your city?" "Did you know that in
> some countries children, as young as 10 years old, have to
> work for a living?"
>
> I find that my students come to me with many a formula for
> writing specific kinds of text. For example, have you ever
> read the follow kind of lead for a research paper?
>
> ****It is big. It is a mammal, and yet it lives in water.
> It communcates by 'singing'. Yes! If you guessed a whale,
> you're right!****
>
> Yes, I'm all for moving towards real writing and away from
> the formula. This year I used many of Atwell's ideas and
> my students' writing exploded! I'm excited to build on
> this with Wood Ray's approach.
>
> One more thing - I love what she says on p.30. She is
> talking about how, because of the 'study' approach, the
> teacher knows what her students are trying to do with their
> writing and is therefore in a better position to
> really 'appreciate' the attempts that the student makes in
> using a particular aspect of craft.
>
> "I am moved by the profound implications of this for the
> writing lives of children, what it could mean to them if
> their teachers developed the eyes to see and appreciate
> what they are trying to do as writers instead of - or at
> least in addition to- what they haven't done."
>

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