Week 10- writing

Routman's text resonates with more this week, especially the part where she says to tell students explicitly and tell why they are studying what they are and doing the things that they are. I think all too often, adults forget this step when instructing students. I say adults because I believe that teachers and parents can easily forget this step in explaining usage, concepts, and theories etc. to children.

I can say that as a teacher in training, I think I always think about breaking things down while I think about how I might teach something, but from what I am beginning to learn, when teaching writing, this may not be the best thing to do for students' learning. I can see now that they have to see the whole piece and then have the instruction go to pieces from there along with the why's.

This is an important lesson to learn and I can hypothesize that it will take practice, to almost think backwards from what we might originally think about doing for a writing lesson. The books from Fox and Routman will be right there, next to me, in my teaching, not far from reach. I think they are one of the most valuable tools for teaching reading and writing. They outline the neccisities clearly and break the concepts, methods, and theories down into simple terms that are easier to digest, this I appreciate very much.