What's Missing From This Classroom?

I think it would be helpful to think about what I want in a classroom by describing Leo’s classroom – because it is not what I want. While it’s not the opposite of the kind of class I want to teach one day, it’s missing many characteristics I’d want to include.

First of all, as I’ve stated before, this classroom does not use invented text. The children are aware of most of the features of print, and are learning high-frequency or “no excuse words.” They also are gradually learning phonics and word-solving strategies, such as “stretching out” words to hear all the sounds. This last technique is the most often used in our classroom and is best described in the next chapter: “Say the word slowly, listen to the sounds, write the sounds in order with each sound represented by one or more letters.” I have seen it taught and witnessed the children using this strategy multiple times. The most important skill I believe these students need to learn and are not being taught is “risk taking” with their spelling. Snowball states, “If children are not allowed to attempt words they do not know, they may become safe spellers rather than good spellers.” (Snowball 11). I am worried that the lack of encouragement of inventive and “fearless” spelling has already had an effect on many students in our class. When the students went outside to observe their playground the other day, they were expected to label their pictures with words. While I saw many wonderful spellings, I was saddened by the many children asking me incessantly, “is this right??” One little girl who I know is quite bright but very preoccupied with being “correct” spelled only words that I knew had been used in previous shared writing lessons. When she asked me how to spell something she didn’t know and I told her to try her best on her own, she ended up switching the word to one she did know. Another child wrote strings of no-excuse-words on her paper that obviously did not relate to the picture she was drawing. However, noting these issues has not led me to a conclusion about what I could do to help them get the idea our of their heads that being “right” isn’t important if it keeps them from writing what they want.

Another aspect missing that is probably my favorite aspect of writing instruction is a Writer’s Workshop. I don’t know if it’s because this is the beginning of the year and they’re only in kindergarten, but my field classroom only has about 15 minutes of independent writing per day. Children can write and draw whatever they want, but to my knowledge, their drawings and labels will stay within their bound notebooks – and will remain the same. I believe, like Katie Wood Ray, that children need to see their work validated in some way in order for them to feel validated as writers. I sincerely hope that some time this year they have an opportunity to further develop their work, and that they will have more time to work on it. I know that my teacher has using a skills-based approach to teaching the children, so it’s possible that more open curriculum like free reading and free writing has been given a lower priority. I understand that skills are important, because many of the children are behind, but I still think that writer’s workshop can be nothing but beneficial to children. They are still writing, aren’t they?