Macey's Mem Fox Reflection #1
Macey Uehara
Mem Fox Reading Reflection #1
Writing has never been a favorite of mine. The only writing I do in my own time is in my journal, or the occasional letter to a friend.
I agree with Mem that the reason why we write is because it matters. I write in my journal because I hope that someday I can look back on my entries and remember my past. I sometimes write letters or responses to letters from friends because I value our friendship. If I didn’t care about those things, I would not write at all in my own time. As future teachers, this will be a useful piece of information for us because now we know that we should find out what matters to our students so that they will want to write.
Mem writes that the first consideration in writing is choice of topic. I was, at first, under the impression that we should always give students freedom to choose their own topic so they can write about something that matters to them. I find it interesting that students are sometimes driven by the fact that they can’t choose their own topic.
Another consideration in writing is audience. According to Mem, we should, as teachers, have our students write for a variety of audiences. I think this might be a good idea because a change every so often is exciting. Something new is likely to hold the students’ attention.
Mem also mentions that drafting and conferencing are considerations in writing. She goes on to say that sometimes only one draft is enough in writing. Other times, there may be thirty-two drafts needed. I find this interesting because in my experience, I remember always being required to write at least a rough and a final draft. Our classmates would make corrections to our rough draft and we would construct our final draft from that. Most of the time, the only marks on my first draft were “Good job. Don’t change anything,” or something to that extent. I began to purposely put mistakes into my first draft so that I could turn in my final draft with changes, as required. So, maybe it is true that we don’t always need more than one draft, but how would a teacher fairly say who will need to write that second draft? Wouldn’t it be unfair for the teacher to only require some students to do the extra work?
The most important idea I got out of this section of reading is that we are driven to write by what matters to us. Our students should be given writing assignments with that consideration in mind. If we know this, we are more likely to have students who consider themselves writers and who genuinely enjoy writing.
Mem Fox Reading Reflection #1
Writing has never been a favorite of mine. The only writing I do in my own time is in my journal, or the occasional letter to a friend.
I agree with Mem that the reason why we write is because it matters. I write in my journal because I hope that someday I can look back on my entries and remember my past. I sometimes write letters or responses to letters from friends because I value our friendship. If I didn’t care about those things, I would not write at all in my own time. As future teachers, this will be a useful piece of information for us because now we know that we should find out what matters to our students so that they will want to write.
Mem writes that the first consideration in writing is choice of topic. I was, at first, under the impression that we should always give students freedom to choose their own topic so they can write about something that matters to them. I find it interesting that students are sometimes driven by the fact that they can’t choose their own topic.
Another consideration in writing is audience. According to Mem, we should, as teachers, have our students write for a variety of audiences. I think this might be a good idea because a change every so often is exciting. Something new is likely to hold the students’ attention.
Mem also mentions that drafting and conferencing are considerations in writing. She goes on to say that sometimes only one draft is enough in writing. Other times, there may be thirty-two drafts needed. I find this interesting because in my experience, I remember always being required to write at least a rough and a final draft. Our classmates would make corrections to our rough draft and we would construct our final draft from that. Most of the time, the only marks on my first draft were “Good job. Don’t change anything,” or something to that extent. I began to purposely put mistakes into my first draft so that I could turn in my final draft with changes, as required. So, maybe it is true that we don’t always need more than one draft, but how would a teacher fairly say who will need to write that second draft? Wouldn’t it be unfair for the teacher to only require some students to do the extra work?
The most important idea I got out of this section of reading is that we are driven to write by what matters to us. Our students should be given writing assignments with that consideration in mind. If we know this, we are more likely to have students who consider themselves writers and who genuinely enjoy writing.
posted by Macey | 11:03 AM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home