Our Writing course for the NLGL cohort may have met online over the summer, but it was the first true writing community I have ever had the honor of joining. We became writers who read each other's work and commented on each other's craft and celebrated as we made changes and prepared to publish our pieces. It was a deeply emotional experience for me as I shared bits of who I am with my colleagues through writing. I realized through this course just how significant writing could be in fostering a strong classroom community and what a role talk plays in this community. Discussion gets students started selecting topics and allows the teacher to get to know students more deeply. Verbal rehearsals before starting the work of writing allow students the freedom to organize their ideas by talking with peers before putting the pen to the paper. When working on revision, a teacher has the chance to give one student her full attention and communicate volumes of respect and admiration for the child, not just for the work accomplished. In peer revisions, students learn to be constructive and kind and learn to listen to each other effectively. Then, when students are writing for an authentic purpose and a real audience, they come to understand that they have a voice, and their voice matters.
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For more information about writing instruction including dialogue, visit my LiveBinder here and use the code writingrocks to access more links with other great resources. |
This video is borrowed from Tim Bedley's YouTube channel where his fourth and fifth grade students model what to do and what NOT to do during peer reviews in writing. This is the kind of constructive classroom community the writing block can create.