Regie Routman's "Writing Essentials"- Ch. 3 Reflection

Ch. 3: Share Your Writing Life

This chapter in Regie Routman’s book explains how important it is for teachers to see ourselves as writers and share our writing with students and our staff. Regie explains some times when she met with various schools to write with their staffs. Those teachers learned how to interact with one another and bond through their writing. Regie states that “staffs that are collaborative have higher reading and writing achievement”. A staff that writes together should do so in the same optimal model that was mentioned in chapter one. That model includes demonstration, shared demonstration, guided practice, independent practice, celebration, and sharing.

My school staff has a meeting at least once a month where we go over crucial information about testing, upcoming events, etc. There have been a few meetings where we have done a small amount of writing, but most of that writing was kept to ourselves or shared with just a few colleagues. There was a really fun activity that we did at the beginning of this year that involved writing and “acting”. All of us had to write about one unusual or interesting fact about ourselves. We were in small groups and had to choose one colleague’s writing to be shared. When our school counselor read the writing aloud, we all pretended to be the person with the unusual fact as the rest of the staff guessed which one of us it really was. It was a good time and there was a lot of bonding that occurred throughout the process. I think that if we did more activities like this and increased the amount of writing involved, we could learn even more about each other as writers and as people. After reading this chapter I think it would be a good idea for our staff to have a meeting where we really dug more into writing and instruction with our own shared writing as part of the meeting.

This chapter focused a lot on observing what we do as writers and using those observations of our own writing to help guide instruction. A lot of the things that work for me as a writer will most likely work for my students as well. For example, sometimes when I am going to write a paper for a class I like to talk to my fellow students about the project, gather some information, take down notes, and then start writing a draft. I don’t really think about my word choice or conventions as I’m writing, but usually look at them when I am finished. I like to focus on my ideas and content throughout my writing, making sure that what I am saying is appropriate for the reader or audience. Students are most likely going to work in the same way. Telling them to think about word choice, grammar, spelling, and voice as they write is too demanding and can make writing difficult. Sometimes the best way to write is to start by just letting it flow. You can always go back to reread what you have written and take time to revise and edit your work.

Thinking about how I use writing in my own life can help me be a better teacher of writing for my students. When I write I often write newsletters for my classroom, papers for college, reflections on reading (such as this!), letters or emails to friends, text messages, grocery lists, birthday cards, and more. My students will be writing for the same purposes with similar audiences in mind. It is important that I tell students why I write and share some of my writing with them. It is also important that I explain the reading and writing connection that exists.

According to Regie Routman, “good writers are good readers” and it is important that students see that connection. Regie recommends talking to students about books that you are reading and how you choose those books. She also recommends showing students the reading and writing that you do throughout the year. I personally think that I need to increase the reading and writing that I do on my own time. Usually when I read I feel that I do it because I have to and not necessarily because I want to. Luckily in this case, Regie Routman’s book is one of the more interesting text books I’ve read for a class and is really keeping my attention. This could be something that I share with my students. I’d like to work on finding other books to read that I really enjoy and look forward to reading on my own time. This may have to wait until masters classes are over, but I think it would be a good goal in the long run. Showing my students that I am also a reader and that I read and write for pleasure sets a good example. It makes it easier to explain how important reading and writing are when you are also doing them yourself.

This chapter built on chapter two as it discussed the importance of writing for your students and allowing them to see the whole writing process. I learned that you really do not need to spend a lot of time planning out what you are going to write for your students. Most of your composing should be done on the spot because you want your students to observe the writing process and how it works. Preparing the lesson and doing all of your writing ahead of time to show students the next day is not conducive to learning. As you write for students you should show them what a typical writer does. This includes re-reading your text, thinking ahead, moving words around or re-wording, starting new paragraphs, going back to the beginning, and re-reading the entire piece. I know that I go through all of these processes when I write an email to a parent or create a weekly newsletter to send out to parents. I’m sure I go through all of these processes every time I write. It is important that students see that and learn how to go through the processes themselves.

Some important things I was reminded of in chapters two and three are to stay positive with my students and celebrate their writing. Students want to hear what they are doing well first. Tearing a student’s writing apart by covering it with red pen and only looking at things like spelling, grammar, and voice can leave a student feeling defeated. I’ve learned that you should always focus on content first and allow students to get down the ideas they are trying to express. Once they have down their content, conventions can be reviewed. As a teacher of writing I plan to focus more on helping students build on the content their writing before looking at all of the smaller parts. Regie Routman recommends looking at writing with a “whole-to-part-to-whole” perspective and I plan to work on this for next year.


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