Reading Reflections

Mercedes Grandin
SMWP Reading Reflection Log

On Writing by Stephen King

“Good story ideas seem to come quite literally from nowhere, sailing at you right out of the empty sky: two previously unrelated ideas come together and make something new under the sun. Your job isn’t to find these ideas but to recognize them when they show up” (King 37)

King’s point is that ideas for writing stories can come from anywhere - which is liberating. The key is in noticing those ideas and taking note of when they show up/come to the forefront.

“I would argue that the paragraph, not the sentence, is the basic unit of writing - the place where coherence begins and words stand a chance of becoming more than mere words. If the moment of quickening is to come, it comes at the level of the paragraph...You must learn to use it well if you are to write well. What this means is lots of practice; you have to learn the beat” (King 134)

“At its most basic we are only discussing a learned skill, but do we not agree that sometimes the most basic skills can create things far beyond our expectations? We are talking about tools and carpentry, about words and style...but as we move along, you’d do well to remember that we are also talkng about magic” (King 137)

“Must you write in complete sentences each time, every time? Perish the thought.” (King 120)

“Good writing consists of mastering the fundamentals (vocabulary, grammar, the elements of style) and then filling the third level of your toolbox with the right instruments. … It is possible, with lots of hard work, dedication, and timely help, to make a good writer out of a merely competent one? (King, 142)

King brings up the components of good writing that are the building blocks that we need to keep in mind when teaching writing to students (vocabulary, grammar, elements of style).

“If you want to be a writer, you must do two things above all others: read a lot and write a lot. There’s no way around these two things that I’m aware of, no shortcut.” (King 145)

“Every book you pick up has its own lesson or lessons, and quite often the bad books have more to teach than the good ones” (King 145)

“But if you don’t want to work your ass off, you have no business trying to write well - settle back into competency and be grateful you even have that much to fall back on” (King 144)

Writing is hard work! It takes practice practice practice and dedication! And writing professionally isn’t for everyone (in fact isn’t for most people).

“For me, good description usually consists of a few well chosen details that will stand for everything else. In most cases, these details will be the first ones that come to mind...If you decide later on that you’d like to change, add, or delete, you can do so -- it’s what rewrite was invented for. But I think you will find that, in most cases, your first visualized details will be the truest and best.” (King 175)

This is interesting to me - whatever visual details come to mind first are usually the most salient. Go with your instincts!

“Before beginning to write, I’ll take a moment to call up an image of the place, drawing from my memory and filling my mind’s eye an eye whose vision grows sharper the more it is used. I call it a mental eye because that’s the phrase with which we’re all familiar, but what I actually want to do is open all my senses. This memory search will be brief but intense, a kind of hypnotic recall. And, as with actual hypnosis, you’ll find it easier to accomplish the more you attempt it.” (King 175)

Idea of helping students but using visual cues and prompts to help them imagine something and also help them narrow their focus from a whole pie to describing just a piece of that pie (e.g. family vs. Uncle Bob).

“The key to good description begins with clear seeing and ends with clear writing, the kind of writing that employs fresh images and simple vocabulary.” (King 179)

“And the harder you try to be clear and simple, the more you will learn about the complexity of our American dialect. It be slippery, precious; aye, it be very slippery, indeed. Practice the art, always reminding yourself that your job is to say what you see, and then to get on with your story.” (King, 180)

“You can tell me via straight narration that your main character, Mistuh Butts, never did well in school, never even went much to school, but you can convey the same thing, and much more vividly, by his speech… and one of the cardinal rules of good fiction is never tell us a thing if you can show us instead” (King 180)

“As with all other aspects of fiction, the key to writing good dialogue is honesty” (King 185)

“Everything I’ve said about dialogue applies to building characters in fiction. The job boils down to two things: paying attention to how real people around you behave and then telling the truth about what you see.” (King 189)

Good writing is about being true to your observations of the real world - real people, places, mannerisms, discoveries, etc.

“For me, what happens to characters as a story progresses depends solely on what I discover about them as I go along - how they grow, in other words.” (King 190)

“Not every book has to be loaded with symbolism, irony, or musical language, but it seems to me that every book - at least every one worth reading - is about something. (King 201)

“Writing isn’t about making money, getting famous, getting dates, getting laid, or making friends. In the end, it’s about enriching the lives of who will read your work, and enriching the lives of those who will read your work, and enriching your own life, as well. It’s about getting up, getting well, and getting over. Getting happy, okay? Getting happy...Writing is magic, as much the water of life as any other creative art. The water is free. So drink. Drink and be filled up.” (King, 270)

Write Like This by Kelly Gallagher

Gallagher reinforces how vitally important and essential writing is for our students, and how they need it even more now that it is being put on the back burner and given less attention in classrooms.

“Writing has become foundational to finding meaningful employment across much of the work force” (Gallagher, 3)

Gallagher discusses how important writing has continued to be in the work force, and the fact that students are less prepared for these careers because their writing skills are weaker than ever before.

“Eighty percent or more of the companies found in the services and the finance, insurance, and real estate sectors, the corporations with the greatest growth potential assess writing during hiring” (Gallagher, 3)

“Actually, the need to write clearly and quickly has never been more important than in today’s highly competitive, technology-driven, global economy.”  (Gallagher, 4)

The push toward standardized testing has put pressure on classroom teachers to “teach to the test” and prep kids for taking and doing well on standardized tests, which are often tied to school funding and report cards etc.

“Putting a lot of pressure on educators to spend an unrealistic time preparing for multiple-choice exams” (Gallagher, 4)

“Buried in an avalanche of standards, curricular pacing guides, huge class sizes, worksheets, over-the-top testing and yes, even more testing, writing - a necessity, a prerequisite to living a literate life - is not being given the time and attention it deserves.” (Gallagher, 5)

The facts below put into a stark spotlight how dire the situation is with students and writing in our country. There are going to be huge repercussions if we don’t start to prioritize writing for students in our schools and classrooms.

70 percent of students in grades four through twelve in this country have been designated as low achieving writers” (Gallagher, 5)

What are the economic and cultural consequences that arise when a nation continues to churn out 70 percent of graduates who do not write well? (Gallagher, 5)

“In developing young writers, my sense is that they are not being stretched much, if at all, in our schools today” (Gallagher, 6)

“Writing well does not begin with teaching students how to write; it begins with teaching students why they should write” (Gallager, 7)

“How do we change the fact that seven out of ten students are leaving high school without adequate writing skills” (Gallagher, 8)

“We must move our writing instruction beyond a ‘cover the state standards’ mind-set by introducing our young writers to additional real-world discourse..we must provide them with authentic modeling - modeling that comes from both the teacher and from real-world texts” (Gallagher, 8)

“You are the best writer in your classroom. Our children need to stand next to us and see how we write” (Gallagher, 8)

“If I want my students to work toward becoming real-world writers, I need to shift the focus of my writing instruction toward real-world writing purposes. Unfortunately, many of my students come to me at the beginning of the year seeing writing as simply another school obstacle to overcome.” (Gallagher, 9)

Importance of engaging students in the process of writing and seeing writing as a value for them in their lives.

Importance of teachers modeling their own writing process and craft for students as a means for engagement.

Benefit of teaching students multiple purposes in writing which “enables students to stretch themselves as writers” (11)

“When my students see me wrestling with decisions as my writing unfolds, it gives them insight on how to compose their own pieces...I show them how I draft my papers. I need to show them how I grapple with this mysterious thing we call writing” (Gallagher, 15)

No strategy improves my students’ writing more than having my students watch and listen to me as I write and think aloud” (Gallagher, 15)

Providing models of good writing (multiple types) for students, learning by example.  “If I want my students to write good persuasive pieces, for example, I need to place excellent examples of real-world persuasion next to them and have them emulate them” (Gallagher, 16)

“Yes it is important to show students how the teacher writes, but it is also of paramount importance to provide students with mentor texts so they can see how other writers compose” (Gallagher 20).

“Good reflective writing moves beyond recounting the past; it brings new insight to the writer” (Gallagher 24)

“Expressive writing is personal writing. The writer shares thoughts, ideas, feelings, and questions about his or her experience..it exhibits the author’s voice. Though also personal, reflective writing often moves beyond recounting an experience and into an exploration of how that particular experience has shaped the writer...it is a vehicle for exploring and discovering new thoughts. In reflective writing, the author often looks at the past as a means for looking into the future” (Gallagher, 25)

“It is critical that the best writer in the room models the confusion, the messiness, the stopping and starting, the hesitation that comes with trying to compose” (33)

“I sat down and considered the following: What worked in that lesson? What didn’t work in that lesson? What can I do next time to strengthen the lesson? Did my students take what I wanted them to take from that lesson? This reflective log advanced my teaching more than anything else I have done in my career. It taught me the value of reflection” (Gallagher, 60)

This quote is powerful for me because while I do think I am a reflective practitioner, I haven’t been as explicitly reflective as Gallagher in terms of writing down my reflections on each lesson. That seems daunting to me. I do think I should keep better notes about units of study and certain key lessons though and will try to do this so that I can learn and grow from my teaching practice.

“I propose that our students should be doing a lot more expressive and reflective writing in our schools...I like to think that the more our students write reflectively in school, the more equipped they will become to overcome the superficiality that awaits them in life beyond school.” (Gallagher, 61)

This is a good point to make in that nowadays the pace of curriculum feels rushed and like we are trying to cram breadth over depth and also forsaking many different types of writing. I like Gallagher’s focus on teaching students writing for the real world, such as writing a letter to an insurance company, writing a cover letter to apply for a job, etc.

“This is not a call for teachers to put aside literature; on the contrary, it is the very teaching of how to evaluate literature that sharpens our students’ ability to evaluate more imporant, real-world elements. Let’s move them through and beyond evaluating literature and into judging areas of their lives that will give them the tools to be literate citizens in a participatory democracy” (Gallagher, 113)

“There is clear evidence that activities involving writing..lead to better learning than activities involving reading and studying only. Writing assists learning...In other words, writing doesn’t simply allow us to restate ideas; it leads the writer to new ideas. Writing is often generative”(Gallagher, 116)

This idea that writing generates ideas and creativity is an important one to remember, especially in terms of giving students time to write opening and to use writing as part of their brainstorm and creative process. Gallagher presents strong points around letting students write first before they speak/respond out loud, as it often enriches and elevates the classroom discourse.

“If we want our students to develop into deeper thinkers, we must move them beyond the kind of writing that is used to simply check surface-level comprehension and have them extend their thinking in writing activities that encourage inquiry and exploration” (Gallagher, 117).

This idea of promoting higher order thinking in students is important. Much of what has become rote in schools and classrooms is lower order thinking where students are expected to produce/arrive at a single answer, rather than more open-ended problem solving that requires deeper analysis and diversity of viewpoints/perspectives. As teachers, we need to focus on how we can generate this deeper higher-order thinking in our classrooms, as it’s really the steppingstone for students to take off in their learning.

“If I want deeper discussion from students, I need to provide some time to generate thinking via writing before initiating classroom conversation.” (Gallagher, 118)

This is a nugget of wisdom from Gallagher that I will take with me into my classroom. Providing students with time to brainstorm and write down their ideas BEFORE they respond via oral discourse allows for both deeper learning and engagement

“If we want our students to be able to analyze and interpret - that is, to gain a better understanding of a person, place, phenomenon, or thing - then we have to teach them to really look.”  (Gallagher, 142)

Helping students with their observation, critical reading, text annotation skills, etc. is important so that they have more to draw from in terms of ideas for their writing.

Providing students with background knowledge is also essential for deepening their comprehension of text.

“What was going on in the poet’s life at the time he wrote this? What is the historical context? Societal context? Political context? Religious context? These are the types of questions that are foundational to thoughtful interpretation.” (Gallagher, 148)

“One way to get students to sharpen their analytical skills is by requiring them to compare and contrast.” (Gallagher, 149)

“It is imperative that we move our students beyond the simple “What?’ questions. The more our students wrestle with the ‘How’ and ‘Why’ questions, the deeper thinkers they will become.

This goes back to promoting higher order thinking in the classroom in order to engage students and deepen their understanding of essential questions and issues/problems.

Gallagher bring up some interesting points here in terms of promoting the higher order thinking that often gets back-burnered and how we as teachers can draw students into that higher order critical thinking in our questioning methodology and strategies.

“I want to bring my students beyond simply taking a stand and move them into writing that actually proposes solutions. I want their writing to be calls of action, and as such, I want them to convince their readers to do something.” (Gallagher, 186)

Teaching is democracy and social policy in action. Students and teachers can be activists and we as teachers can help our students by giving them a platform to express their voices and opinion on important problems and possible solutions in our world.

“It’s hard work, but having my students stand next to me and watch how I write has elevated their writing more than any other strategy” (Gallagher, 200)

Importance of modeling writing for your students in order to show them the process, which is just as important, in fact more important, than the product. Students need models and examples to work from and to help them develop their writing.

Testing is Not Teaching by Donald Graves

"I've long since learned that until students care about their work and are then shown how to read their papers from a variety of perspectives, not much happens to improve their work." (Graves, 31)

This quote is powerful for me because it emphasizes the power of engagement, reflection and meta-cognition in deepening student learning. In the "race to the finish" that often characterizes the school year, it seems that teachers and schools often emphasize volume and work completion with the teacher in the evaluator role, rather focusing on engaging the student in self evaluation. The idea that students need to examine and evaluate their own writing (and be assisted with that process) in order to really grow as writers, seems crucial and yet often overlooked.

This idea of self-evaluation is further emphasized by Graves: "The child spends the most time alone with the work and therefore must possess the tools to make evaluative judgments. No question, the teacher does have an evaluative role but his primary role is to teach the students how to evaluate, how to read their work, and how to ask critical questions." (Graves, 28)

A teacher who spends the bulk of their time evaluating work (as most teachers do) may better use that time to teach students how to self evaluate. Particularly with formative work, I often find students don't take the time to read teacher evaluations anyhow. This is an ongoing uphill battle & cycle that needs to be shifted to focus on student self-reflection and evaluation.

“They also read work of top authors in the various genres and deliberately look for characterstics to include in their own writing.: (Graves, 28)

“Learning how to evaluate effectively takes a lifetime. It’s about reading the world, reading texts, reading problems, and, above all, taking responsibility for the quality of our work” (Graves, 29)

“The problems of a democracy are not solved through a single, quick answer but by tough-minded thinkers who sustain thought on one problem for days, months, or years...Current tests require one right answer and are conditioning American children to think this is what learning is all about. The massive amounts of time spent either preparing for tests or taking them have displaced writing and original, long thinking and dulled our students’ thinking edge” (Graves, 34)

It seems we’re in a crisis where writing is getting chopped and writing time is being lost across all content areas, as a result of pressures of standardized testing, Common Core and other requirements.

“Normed assessments tied to high-stakes rewards have turned teachers’ attention away from what should be their primary concerns - expressive ability, long thinking and skilled integration of learning into life.” (Graves, 38)

“Our children have less and less access to well-prepared teachers. High stress raises absenteeism...Students have teachers who are highly susceptible to method-oriented teaching packages rather than those who teach in response to student needs” (Graves, 41)

This quote really hits home for me as it resonates with my own experience in my teacher education program. I don’t feel like I was really prepared to work with the diversity of student needs that have presented themselves to me.

“Increasingly, however, states and even the federal government have usurped local control by constructing state curriculum frameworks tied to required standardized assessments.” (Graves, 43)

“More and more assessments are drifting farther and farther away from what strong teachers actually do when they teach children to read and write” (Graves, 44)

“Unfortunately, the gradual drift away from local initiative, student and teacher responsibility, and the assessment of characteristics of the perceptive, divergent thinker are being lost.” (Graves, 47)

“Teachers are buried in an avalanche of expectations: standards, testing and expanded curricula...They (teachers) are rarely parts of a long-term plan carefully developed in conjunction with the teachers...In our insane preoccupation with test scores, we have failed to conduct research where it is most needed, in the classroom.” (Graves, 50)

“It usually takes several tries before children begin to pass from outside their subjects to inside them and experience what successful long-term thinking feels like” (Graves, 57)

“Writing is an act of self-transcendence” (Graves, 60)

“She had few breaks, barely time to get to her locker or speak with classmates, and only twenty minutes for lunch. Worse, her independent reading dropped significantly. If Laura felt the pressure of time, her teachers felt the pressure even more” (Graves, 71)

This quote is powerful and simultaneously scary. The more we seem to rush and increase the pace of learning, trying to cram so much into a small amount of time in a year. We are going for breadth over depth, and at what cost? Anxiety and stress levels have risen to a toxic state in our students and in teachers. This is unsustainable. Something’s gotta give if we want meaningful learning experiences for our students.