Coby’s Reaction to Donald Graves Preface to Chapter 1

In his book, Writing: Teachers and Children at Work, Donald Graves points out in the preface that children will want to write if we let them. He begins by saying that we underestimate what our children can do and that we should give them higher expectations. Graves emphasizes that the teacher makes a lot more difference than any methodology. He stresses that students need to choose their own topics, be responded to regularly, spend three out of five days writing, publish their work, witness their teacher’s thinking, and maintain collections of their work.

In his first chapter Graves states that reading and writing are partners not steps. He says that teachers should teach writing no matter what and encourages them to practice writing because writers do a much better job teaching writing than non-writers. Some of the things that Graves suggests is writing groups of five that share their writing with each other and correct each others errors. He explains that when students help someone else they are better able to help themselves on their own drafts. Graves says that a good way to get focus children is to ask them a bunch of naïve questions so that they still retain energy and ownership of their writing.

I really like Graves ideas because I have seen them work in Greg’s class. Knowing that I would get class time to be creative and have fun makes me excited to go to class. These chapters made me want to teach a writing block lesson to the children that I have at Mililani Uka. I could help to make writing more enjoyable for them. The thrill and energy that they will feel when they have ownership of their paper will be priceless. I would like to do for them what was not done for me in elementary school.