I connected with Kittle's commentary on teenagers and knowing our students. Both on the podcast and in the story about Kelsey, Kittle discusses the real "stories" of some of her teenagers. She goes behind the cliche of boyfriend /girlfriend drama and having too much homework into students' stories of loss, trauma, dropping-out, and such. It is so important to keep this perspective so, when we are splitting hairs about a homework deadline or a perfect five paragraph essay, we can remember that there are so many other crucially important things that we do for students. We can't take this for granted. There are many times when students tell us, and write about, things that are difficult to hear. They do it because we have, in some way, made them feel safe enough to open up to us and their peers. While we may not be able to fit this into the box of a "perfect essay" or "final draft", it can be life changing for students and teachers alike. Kittle's call for art and analysis being as crucial to classrooms as any of the other academic tasks students are asked to do is absolutely correct. As we approach testing season, I need to remember to incorporate as much of this as possible into the non-testing time. The students will yearn for it. They are, at the end of the day, people, and not test-taking machines.
Kittle had so many valuable things to say about the writer's workshop. "A writer's workshop must serve writers, not a teacher's need for order." This is crucial for the middle school classroom, as it can be a challenge to engage these young writers in any task. The need to choose from authentic tasks can really hook students in to a genre or area where they feel uncomfortable. The mentor text posters can be great resources and help redirect students from constantly asking the teacher (who may be conferencing with another student) for help. I'm going to try and create these references in my room. I will try the colored pencils and notating of mentor texts. My expanding and commanding students may find that particularly engaging. I also found it helpful for Kittle to discuss the actual physical space that she teaches in, as I too have to share space and travel to different rooms. There are many non-negotiable items in the space, and it's nice to hear what hers are.
Creating a model of "thinking" for my ELLs to follow is a challenge for some of my students. Depending on students' home countries and previous school models, the concept of free-thinking and analysis is unfamiliar for many students- not to mention doing this deep thinking in a second language. Many of my students, say on the intermediate (transitional) level, became accustomed to using sentence starters in their writing as beginner (entering/ emerging) ESL students. We do this for good reason- we try to provide them with prompts to express their thoughts and understanding. Now, as they become intermediate and advanced (commanding), we remove the sentence starters, and expect students to craft their own frames and matrices to express themselves in writing English. This can be a daunting task, and very scary for some. It's a tough balance between providing a written model and modeling "thinking" for intermediate and advanced ELLs.
I agree with you how kittle effectively used real stories and real students to convey how writing affects students. After listening to the podcast, I now have a much better understanding of the importance of connecting writing to the lives of our students. Writing becomes more meaningful, more insightful, more engaging and students become more vested in the writing process.
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