"Study as if you were to live forever, live as if you were to die tomorrow." (Maria Mitchell)

WRITING ACROSS THE CURRICULUM

Nancy Patterson (in photo)


Kari Scheidel was the first to speak during this session and she shared some of the different ways she integrates reading and writing into her fifth grade classroom. It was neat to hear perspectives from a teacher who currently was teaching because she has first-hand experiences with students. She talked about how she included writing in all subjects, not just reading or language arts. For example, she has her students keep a personal notebook that is kept in a certain area of the classroom.

After teaching a lesson, say a geography lesson, she asks her students to write a few sentences in their journals about what they learned that day. There aren't any right or wrong answers, but it's a way to get students writing and encourage them to record what they learned without a worksheet.

Kari Scheidel is also the co-director of the Lake Michigan Writing Project.. She created a brochure of several samples of activities that were created by the LMWP and also used in her own classroom. Also, she included samples of student work during literature circles and current events response forms in the brochure to give us an idea how students respond to the activities.

Nancy Patterson was the second speaker during this session and although she had to move very quickly through her presentation, I came out with a few key points that I thought were important to keep in mind when teaching students how to write. They are as follows:

*Writing should NOT be based around FORMULAS (i.e. attention grabber, introduction, body, conclusion)

*Writing begins with meaning, so consider the audience and the purpose (and the audience doesn't necessarily have to be the teacher)

*Have students analyze their own writing processes instead of grading "right" and "wrong"

*Encourage students to think of their writing as one continously evolving paper instead of in draft segments

*Make sure students know that making mistakes are part of the learning process, and it's okay if their writing isn't perfect

Again, I came out of this session with several great ideas and advice that I will keep in mind for my future career.