JMoore

2/8/06

Craft Lessons by Ralph Fletcher and Joann Portalupi is a how-to book on writing.  The first assigned reading delved into the purpose of the book:  Age specific craft lessons to support the need for unplanned teacher moments rather than relying preprinted materials.  The problems that teachers have faced is identifying grade level expectations for writing.  The authors state that yes, there should be grade level expectations that are based on appropriate developmental abilities of the child.  The authors present a 3 step process CONCEIVE-----CRAFT-----CORRECT, and state that the middle stage receives the least attention by teachers and students alike.  In the introduction section, the authors present a template for each craft lesson presented.  The rest of this initial assignment was called Setting the Table for Craft. This section star5ted by identifying the need to learn to write.  That is, there are no short cuts to writing.  Students must write in authenic ways regularly.  Next the authors identified shared beliefs on writing.  1.  Time must be given to students to write.  2. Response by both teacher and student is needed.  3. Responsibility or student ownership of writing is critical.  Therefore, choices of writing assignments are necessary.  4. Literature sparks writing and consequently must be used in conjunction with the writing process.

With this as background the book is divided into grade level areas.  I will be studying the 5-8 section of the book.

Thus far the book has rekindled the feedback (response) part of writing.  Rather than editing and correcting errors on papers, more dialogue on the worth of the paper can motivate the writer to continue the upward trek rather than give up.