Crafting Writers: K-6

(Super)Brief Summary: Our reading selection of "Crafting Writers," by Elizabeth Hale dealt largely with "specific craft" (7) strategies for developing young students (mainly in the intermediate-elementary range) into independent writing artists. Hale provides the reader with a reading tool used to locate and extract elements of "good writing," which can then be introduced to students as they develop in their writing.

[Apologies for the insert: Does anyone remember whether or not we refer to readings in the past or present tense? I employ the present tense below.]

In trying to come up with literacy related questions, I have felt somewhat stumped. Hale's presentation seemed quite forward and, all-in-all, well presented.

I do appreciate her appeal to the "art of writing" (5). I enjoy having my attention pulled towards the "style" of students' writing (3) and away from the more popular and rigid realm of writing mechanics (16). The "craft" tool I looks to be both fun and effective and is something I would like to begin developing for myself now, if possible, helping me to be readily armed come day one in the classroom.

A thought I found interesting was the relationship between our approach to "craft" and to our children's writing. There are, of course, many parallels which one could draw (i.e., "show, not tell;" focus on student writing, not rules; etc.), but the one which caught my mind was a combination of the "zoom-in" tool and crafting process, namely recognizing the small part, naming it, and saying why it's good (27). These together, though applied differently byHale, seem to be very similar concepts to those which we discussed in class last week.

When looking at a students writing, especially in the early grades, one of the important skills for a teacher is to recognize the "small part" in a student's writing which shows an understanding and skill (and from our exercises, this is itself a skill), note which skill and aspect of writing the element represents and to say why it's good. Then, "zooming in," we can focus our attention on that element and begin to build out from there. The tools which Hale provides in developing craft lessons, while in many ways standing in their own right, seem to be extensions of the "umbrella" skill of precise, positive attention and teaching from the students strengths.