Chelsea's Reflection on Graves (Ch. 9-11)

I decided to write my reflection on Chapter 10: Help Children Speak First.
This chapter was mainly about having writing conferences with the
students. It's funny because I have always had the fear of children not
responding to my questions. I always wondered what I would say if they
just looked at me with a blank stare. From reading this chapter, I have
learned that you need to have patience while having writing conferences
with the students. You need to be able to sit there quietly for up to 45
seconds before the student might actually say something. Yes, it's going
to feel like you are sitting there for an hour with no speaking, but waiting
for the child's response is showing them that you are open to listen to
whatever they may have to say about their writing piece. I think for the
first few times, it might feel a bit awkward sitting in silence for that period
of time, but if you push the child to give you a response, you may scare
them off in what they have to say. You just need to give them a chance
to think a little about what they would like to tell you about their writing
piece. I am hoping to have enough time to have writing conferences
with my own students one day. Conducting writing conferences can be
very interesting, especially for the teacher. The teacher will be able to
get to know their students better just by listening to what they wrote in
their simple writing piece. We may think that children don't really have
interesting things to write about, but unbelievably, children have a lot
of interesting things to write about. The students can even the teach the
teacher a few things. Interesting chapter!