Spelling and Writing

Throughout this week we have learned a lot about the writing process and spelling development. While we were discussing the writing process and as I was preparing for the mini lesson, I found myself reminiscing about writing when I was in elementary school. When I was in school, especially when the state writing test was involved, we always practiced the writing process. We had writing workshop folders that we kept all of our work in. We would always brainstorm, put those thoughts into a thinking map, write a rough draft, peer edit, and the write a final draft.

My opinions on writing haven't especially changed over the semester. I have always felt that writing was a great way to present ideas and thoughts, but never especially enjoyed it in a school context. Writing papers always makes me feel overwhelmed, even with the writing process involved. However, when I was a junior in high school we had to keep a journal. Some days we had specific things to write about, but other days could be free writes and we were able to fold the page over if we didn't want the teacher to read it. I always enjoyed that assignment.

I have enjoyed having a blog. It has helped me reinforce course concepts and relate them back to my personal and professional life. At first, I was not at all excited about having a blog, but I have really came around to the idea. I think it would be interesting to use in upper elementary and middle school as well.

I haven't finalized what I want to write about yet, but I think I will write about my experience at being a camp counselor at Camp Friendship. Camp Friendship is for children with cancer and their siblings. I did this for Junior Enrichment for Teaching Fellows, and at first I was dreading going. However, it was an amazing experience that changed the way I view a lot of things in life.

Social Skills and Language Arts

I believe that language arts skills are directly related to one's social skills. Our abilities to communicate are founded in reading and writing, and if these areas are delayed or weak, then communication can be difficult. This is a huge issue in the classroom. Students who may be delayed in reading and writing may suffer from low self-esteem which can cause them to feel inferior to their classmates. In addition to an elementary school setting, so much of today's society communicates through technology. Whether it be email or text messaging, a lot of social interaction, even as young as elementary school, is founded in text. Students communicate by writing and reading what the other says, and if there are delays in this area, students social skills may suffer.

In observing in different classrooms, I have seen how delays or disabilities in reading and writing can affect students' social skills. Many students only feel comfortable socializing with students who have the same abilities. One student I tutored never especially socialized with many of her classmates. However, I don't think it was a language barrier by any means because she was in constant conversation with her one friend in the class, who was also pulled out for help with reading.

As a teacher, we must first realize the connection between language arts and social skills. It is our job to differentiate to where every student feels successful. Students spend so much time in our classroom that we must realize we have a huge impact on their self esteem. We should help develop their comptence and sense of self to aid in their social skills. Also, some students may need you to directly teach social skills and role play social situations.

The Reading Wars

The reading wars is a hot topic in education involving which way is best to teach children to read: phonetics or whole language. When I was learning to read, my teachers used the phonetic approach. There was a letter to talk about every day. I especially remember going over long vowels and short vowels and making the different sounds. I don't especially remember word walls in my classroom, but I remember having a set of flash cards at home with different sight words on them.

When we are reading, sight words are automatically recognized. I believe that we create our own sight words based on our exposure to certain vocabulary. Simple words such as "the" and "it" are definitely sight words that we do not need to decode because these words are used so often in daily life. The more children are exposed to text, the more sight words will automatically click for students to gain a better understand and become more confident readers.

Symbols have a huge impact on literacy learning. At EBH, we have several picture books that the children look at. These books have the words girl, boy, apple, banana, doctor, etc. and then a picture of what the text is describing. The children recognize the picture, point to it, and identify it. By doing so, they are associating the symbol of doctor with the word doctor. Symbols are so important to literacy learning. I have seen many teachers label everything in their classroom. This association of a symbol with a text plays a huge impact in children becoming comfortable with using words. All of the sudden, it clicks that the letters c-h-a-i-r are symbolic of what the student is sitting in.

Good Writing

Although grammar and sentence structure are important, I think that what makes writing worth reading is when the words say something that requires a person to think deeper about whatever the topic is. Good writing should cause a person to feel some type of emotion and feel that they are a part of the text. The heart of the message of the writing is what makes it worth reading, but there are some parts of writing that can hinder the main message. If writing is not organized well and does not have a clear flow, then no one can understand it. Therefore, the reader would not be able to take away the ideas that the author was hoping to express.

I also think that what makes writing worth reading is completely based on personal preference. Some people enjoy a good love story, but to others this would be a waste of their time. Others have favorite authors, and they particularly enjoy that person's writing style. To them, this is something that is worth reading. All in all, I feel that writing is worth reading if it is enjoyable and one can get something out of it. This "something" could be anything from a deeper understanding of a certain subject to feeling a certain emotion.