TDoss

This portion of the book was quite helpful because it was broken down into mini-lessons that you can use in your classroom to teach writing. It starts off with a listing of suggested literature to use in grades K-2. Many of these I am familiar with, but some are new to me so it's alway helpful to be exposed to new literature. Each lesson is broken down into resources you need, a discussion topic, and how to teach that topic. Lessons vary from teaching about sequencing, writing creative details about the character and setting, writing pattersn, and story elements such as setting and plot. I hope to try some of the lessons out soon in my classroom.

In the book, Craft Lessons:Teaching Writing K-8, the authors talk about shortening the steps for writing that teachers have traditionally used. They advocate using a three-step process -- conceive, craft and correct. They say teachers traditionally have spent a lot of time in pre-writing and editing activities, leaving little attention to the most important part of the writing process -- the writing itself (the craft). Students need time to write in order to become better writers.

The book also talks about four major components of teaching writing -- time, response, responsibility, and literature.  As stated above, children need time spent in writing, just as they need time spent reading, in order to develop their skills. One of the most important pieces of the writing experience is the response -- by the teacher and by peers. Key learning can take place while the teacher conferences with students. The responsibility aspect has to do with allowing the writer to make choices in writing, whether it be about topic or what type of paper to use. Lastly, students need to be exposed to good writing through literature in order to become good writers themselves.  Literature can expose students to story elements, varying points of view, styles of writing, rich language, and much more.