This year is my first teaching DC Public Schools. After several years of charter school life and long workdays, I've taught a variety of curriculums and ideologies. Some schools have emphasized math over reading, others phonics and grammar over comprehension. As I drew up my daily schedule with the first grade team in August, we dedicated time to close reading, math, guided reading, and phonics, but, as in years past, writing was relegated to an "end-of-the-day, if-you-have-time" activity.
Donald Graves argues that good writers make good readers, and vice-versa. In my first three years teaching in Memphis, writing was always part of my daily schedule. I imagine most teachers have noticed the same things I noticed then - my students who were the strongest readers were the best writers. Likewise, students who were weak in reading were also weaker in writing. However in my experiences teaching in both DCPS and a large charter network in the city, I've found that writing tends to be ignored for other parts of the literacy process.
At the end of the day, I try to provide my students with some free write time by providing a menu of writing options, such as "What did you do at recess?" "What did you learn about today?" and "What did you have for lunch?" However, I usually don't have the time to complete essential parts of the writer's workshop process like conferencing, revisions, and sharing. I haven't taught writer's workshop in a few years, and re-reading the launching process made me think about ways I can weave writing into my curriculum more. For example, how can I use familiar texts (i.e., what we are reading in close reading during the week) to give my students writing experiences that go beyond written responses? My kids are constantly making self-to-text connections with the books we read during class. Their storytelling and oral fluency are very strong, and I could channel this into a time to work on personal narratives with the launch, "what does this story remind you of in your life?"
My schedule is pretty tight during the day, but my students do have writing time during centers and some extra time at the end of the day. I want to think about some ways to use this extra time to put a stronger emphasis on building their writing skills.
