Crafting Writers Ch. 10,11, &12

I like the idea of focusing on strengths at the beginning of a conference, and then kind of "easing" into the things that could be improved. Doing so will make students confident in what they are good at, and will also make them want to get praise for the things that they still need work on, so they will work to make it better, to get that encouragement. 

In chapter 11, I think that having group conferences is a good idea. It would save time, as well as giving students the opportunity to collaborate with their peers, and figure out how to make themselves better writers.  On the other hand, by doing group conferences, you lose that one-on-one time, which can be very valuable. So, group conferences can be useful, but more than likely, students will benefit more from one-on-one conferences.

In chapter 12, rubrics are mentioned. I think that rubrics are very useful tools, and they help students know what to include in their writing to meet all expectations, instead of just writing, and hoping that they are fulfilling the teachers wants. However,  I feel like rubrics can also be stressful on students, in some cases. Students might feel like there is something on the rubric that they don't know how to cover, and it might affect their writing, if they are worried about meeting everything on the rubric.

Crafting Writers Chapters 7,8,9

In Chapter 7, I really like the idea that in order to get something right, you need to practice and experience it, by using "Try-its". I know that a lot of times when I am helping a student, I am tempted to just tell them the correct way of doing whatever it is that they are struggling with, but by trying it themselves, they are able to better understand where they were messing up, and learn from their mistakes.

In Chapter 8, I love the idea of focusing on strengths, instead of pointing out weaknesses. But, if you are always pointing out strengths, where does the pointing out weaknesses come into play? Because those weaknesses do need pointed out, at least at some point, or the student will never fix those problem areas.

And, in Chapter 9, I  definitely think that there are some really helpful ideas to help get kids to understand the things they might be struggling on.

Crafting Writers Chapters 4 & 5.

These two chapters definitely gave me a lot to think about.  They have some great strategies to help kids become better writers. I definitely liked the idea of using your 5 senses when writing something, to give the reader a better sense of what it was like.  With chapter 5, and punctuation, it makes me think about how I will teach this very important concept. I think that out of most everything else, this will be one of the hardest things for students to understand. Because why CAN'T a period go after word? Or why do you HAVE to put quotation marks around duologue? I know that students will have a hard time understand where and why these rules apply, and I hope that when the time comes, I will be able to teach this concept efficiently.