written reflection on writing

 In EDU 300 class, we are going through the writing process and will eventually publish original narratives.  Mine happens to be a rather-lame tale of how I "saved Hannah's life" on the playground when she fell and busted open her chin.  Really I did nothing out of the ordinary, but the situation did scare the daylight out of me. The goal is to soup it up and make it seem like a super hero tale.  Add a little humor to an otherwise scary situation.

Making revisions and edits to my narrative story was unlike other experiences I've had with revising and editing.  For one thing, we had a checklist to help us evaluate the papers.  It was a detailed checklist.  It was not like the ones they give me in Spanish class asking, "Did the writer use correct grammar?"  "Did the writer develop the paragraphs?"  The questions were more specific like, "Do the verbs match the nouns?" and "Did the author clearly state the purpose of each paragraph?"

I'm not really sure this would work in all K-5 classrooms.  After talking with a 1st grade teacher yesterday, I learned that there are different ways of doing things for the younger children and different modifications to make.  She mentioned that she had to role play how peer editing would look for her class so that they wouldn't accidentally be flat out mean to each other when correcting papers.  She also mentioned, that no matter how many times she reviewed periods, question marks, exclamation points, and other conventions, that no student in her class used them--if they used them at all--correctly 100% of the time.  The teacher also wondered whether or not the students knew what they were doing--did they know that when they were editing that they were editing? 

I think it is good that the teacher has introduced her first graders to the writing process.  Exposure is always good.  I just think it is important to keep in mind, the fact that the younger children are not going to do it 100% correctly every time during their stay in 1st grade, they are very needy, and they will need repetition.

If for some reason I found myself teaching in a middle/secondary content specific classroom, the writing process would still work and could be incorporated.  I would not incorporate it all the time, that is what English Language Arts classes are for.  Maybe I'd use the writing process for a content specific essay assignment.  I feel that in the middle/secondary classroom, it is important to incorporate reading and writing, but instruction in either should not be a main priority.  I don't think I'll ever have to worry about teaching in a middle/secondary content specific classroom, but then again, I never thought I'd be where I am today.