Christina Lim
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REFLECTION: GRAVES CH. 12,13,14

CHAPTER 13&14:
After reading these chapters, I realized that to be able to effectively conduct conferences with your students, you must incorporate them frequently, and be consistent in your actions. As I read Betty’s story, I didn’t realize that she had planned her conferences, as well as students who needed to be met with, the night before. There are rules and guidelines, as well as, reason and purpose to everything that happens in a structured conference. I also enjoyed reading about Michael, how Mr. Altman helped to bring out ideas from a piece of work that Michael had thought was “Dead”. This book gives real solutions, as well as advice to real situations that may, in fact, one day occur in many of our lives.
The idea of all-class conferences seems like a strategy I would, maybe one day, like to implement into my own class. I think it’s great that the children are comfortable enough with each other to share their pieces of work, as well as ask their peers for help, it they need it.
As for chapter 14, I liked this chapter because it takes you step-by-step through every tough question posed by teachers, as well as step-by-step, detailed solutions; this chapter is a very useful tool for teachers to have.

Christina Lim
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GRAVES REFLECTION: CHAPTER 15

As I finished this chapter, I realized that being a writer is a long, and maybe, never-ending learning process. I enjoyed how the book showed the individual steps, and levels of competence when it comes to being an effective writer. As the books shows; Sarah is at the first stages of becoming a writer, her work still has little or no meaning to her, but with the proper attention and guidance by a skilled teacher, Sarah will one day be writing pieces that all have significance in her life.
I also liked the part of the chapter that gives us some help when it comes to asking good “Prompt” questions to our students about how to see the importance in their pieces of work. I have noticed that throughout this book, that certain chapter’s are devoted to appropriately teaching professional educators how to deal with problems, and handle some unfavorable conditions. I appreciate that this book is such an important educational tool, which makes me feel more confident in myself, as a future educator in training.

Christina Lim
ITE 313

REFLECTION GRAVES: CH. 18, 19, 20

As I stated earlier, about chapter 15, the writing process is a difficult one to master, with many hurdles to overcome, as stated in these chapters. As chapter 18 points out, there are many types of hurdles when it comes to spelling cases. I agree that poor spellers need to learn to understand their individual problems with spelling, but never at the expense of their own content. I believe for this to happen, the student must be surrounded by positive influences, as well as a competent educator, who is ready and willing to take on these hurdles.
I also like how this book gets personal; it gives the reader the advantage of reading and learning about specific situations, and how to help. As the book stated: “The process of helping children realize that their speaking or writing is worthwhile is a slow one”, is something I have come to realize. I just hope that when my time comes, I will be prepared to handle these types of situations effectively.

Henderson Reflection 18-20

I chose to reflect this time on ch. 18, Spell to Communicate. This chapter really stood out to me. As in my previous post I talked about spelling tests. On Thursdays, I have been giving the spelling pre-test. After the test I would go through and correct them all. A couple times that I have given the test, only 3 or 4 students were getting the word correct. It really bummed me out. When I would look at the other tests, I just felt so bad. I really thing the students have a very hard time understanding the words I say because of my accent. I would look at the words they misspelled and say them to myself and they were spelled exactly the way I would say them. For a while I was starting to think that maybe I needed to take a class on pronounciation. But my mentor being encouraging, told me that my words were fine. She said that even if they had a hard time understanding the word by itself, the sentence I gave should have made it clear. I still feel bad. The spelling tests are a link I think to what kind of writers the students are. The ones that never try on the test are the ones that have no creativity to their writing. There are some students who come up to me that are very good spellers and ask to spell some pretty hard words. This makes their writing more enjoyable to read. Too often I have to ask the not so good spellers what certain words are. Usually they are very easy words they should be able to spell on their own but can't.

Henderson Reflection 15 - 17

I chose to reflect on ch. 17. I did not realize there was so many elements involved in writing. I do not think that I have great handwriting but it is legilble. My kids in the first grade are just starting to become good writers with hand writing. Most of them are still having problems with which way their b's and d's go as well as there p's and q's. They have problems with the height of their letters and sometimes there is a capital letter when there should not be. I do not think I can stress to them enough the importance of their handwriting. This past Thursday I was grading the spelling tests, because I could not read half of the letters I marked it incorrect. I also marked off for capital letters when there shouldn't be. I do not think I have ever heard so many students complain. My mentor teacher was great though. She backed me up and told them if they didn't write the letters neat enough to read, then it was going to be marked incorrect. I know they are just learning but if they are not told about it now they wil not correct it. When I was in school, we got graded on penmanship. I am not sure if it is still part of the grade but it will be something that I will take into account with my own class. I don't think I would teach it to the extreme that the chapter lists under pressure though.. I did not know all that affected handwriting.