While watching Routman lead writing conferences I was struck by how fast the conferences went, yet how much learning took place. The conferences are filled with learning and celebration. Routman validates the student’s voice by rereading their writing, using their words to draw their attention to what was effective and why, and has students applaud after the writing has been read.
Some of the reasons I think the writing samples are so strong are because the students are aware of their audience; they care about the topic, and are given choice within a structure. All the students in the fourth grade class wrote a poem, yet their topics were all meaningful to them personally – that is how there is so much voice and often emotion behind their words. It was interesting how while watching the video you didn’t know who the “high” or “low” kids were because all the students wrote wonderful poetry.
A strategy that I think is helpful is how Routman uses sticky notes to organize student’s writing. This is an effective way to organize a writer’s thoughts and scaffold them so they can do more writing on their own. By writing on a sticky note, it tells the writer, I respect your work, so I’m not going to write on your writing. I want to use this strategy in my classroom with students who are having trouble sequencing their story.
Another part of the DVD that was very informative to watch was the spelling lesson with Derek. In his writing sample he had missed many high frequency words. Instead of giving the words to him, she made him use what he already knew about phonics to rewrite the words correctly. When Derek is having trouble spelling the word “house” and is missing the “/ou/” sound, Routman says, “Do you know the word ‘out’?”(348) She builds on what he knows so he can be successful. I want to apply this strategy of building on what students know to get them to spell words so they become better spellers and more independent writers.
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