Crafting Writers Chapters 7-9

I enjoyed reading these three chapters. I feel like I learned a lot that I personally do not remember doing in Elementary school. Chapter 7: Teaching Craft Lessons was my favorite chapter out of the three. I liked how Hale explained mini lessons on she personally does them in her classroom. This helped me brainstorm ideas of what I would want to do in my classroom. This was extremely helpful to me. I also liked her idea of Live Writing. I loved when my teachers would write on the overhead because I felt that it was more interesting. The children definitely interact more with other students and the teacher when they are all participating to write a paragraph on the overhead. I also like how she focused on conferences. I never remember having conferences with my teachers about my writing, so this is an item I would love to implement in my classroom. Hale gave us some small things that she practices in her classroom, but it wasn't overbearing and telling us what to do.

In chapter 8, I liked how she pointed out to find strengths in students writings. Let them share their quick-write in front of the class, use their writing as an example. Make them want to take ownership of their work! Having them interacting with others and their writing is extremely beneficial to the students. If the student is starting to implement a craft that was a weak spot for them, tell them that you notice they are starting to use that craft in their writing. We need to intrinsically motivate these students, especially in their writing. They need to be motivated to share their feelings, thoughts, emotions, etc.

In chapter 9, I liked how it set up items the teacher could talk about with students in future conferences based on prior conferences. You have to be the final one who makes the decision of what to teach, but Hale gave useful hints that can help you plan future conferences/lessons.

Overall, I thought that the majority of this reading was useful to me.