Note: All quotes and page numbers
correlate to Nancie Atwell’s Second Edition of In the Middle: New
Understandings About Writing, Reading and Learning.
I wanted to
take today to reflect on reading letter writing that Nancie Atwell uses and
suggests. This procedure makes a lot for sense to me as a 7th grade
English teacher. This year I have had to teach letter writing and responding to
reading. However, they have been isolated and as a result have not stuck with
my kids. I am 300 pages into the book now, and will go back and reflect on some
other important sections of the book, but wanted to make sure I took the time
and reflected on how to create reading response journals and how I plan to use
them next year.
I will be
using Nancie’s model for her introductory letter for her student’s journals.
She types out a letter that introduces the reading journal and the requirements
and weekly expectations for the journal. This letter is attached to the inside
of each student’s journal. She admits “Although I know it will take kids a
while to get the hang of the system, its rules and regulations are in place
from the beginning; so are my expectations” (297).
Upon receipt
of their journals, students are to “number the pages because this data…[is
reported] to their parents at the end of each grading period, along with the
number of books and the range of genres represented”(297).
I also plan
on using the same expectations as Nancie Atwell:
“Students write and answer letters both
during the workshop and for homework. This means that at any given time in reading
workshop some students will be reading, some will be writing letters in their
own journals, some will be answering letters in others’ journals, and some will
be retrieving or delivering notebooks. All of this happens silently. The
twenty-four hour rule about writing back ensure that letters answered outside
of the class are back in time for the next days’ workshop, and that students
don’t loose track of each other’s journals” (297).
When I
started teaching our department was using SSR logs in which student explained
three details of the text they were reading and either made a prediction, or
connection, or asked a question. However, the only accountability with this was
that students got a grade for their work. I think the Journals would help students
be more motivated as they are writing to their friends and the requirement is
not to be writing every night about what they read.
Nancie also
has a suggested weekly homework schedule in which students read for a half an
hour each night. Ultimately their logs and their end of the quarter reading
list they develop track their overall reading.
I will
reflect more on Evaluation of the reading and Writing Workshop later. Until
next time.
