Chapters 4-6

Sorry for breaking this up so much. I just like to type as I go, one chapter at a time. I am really enjoying this book! It helps me think in an entirely new way. :)

Chapter 4 Teaching an Essential Habit of Mind

During my previous book study on Ray's Writing Workshop with Our Youngest Writers, Mud was suggested for demonstrating structure of writing. Funny how this book keeps showing up! Love it! The kids really enjoyed this book. The close ups are a great example of various techniques illustrators can employ.

How to read like a writer...hmmm...adults subconsciously do this every day without really thinking about it but kindergartners have not had the vast experience with text that most adults have had so it does not come as readily to them. "You never know you need to think about something like that until you need to think about it." (58) This reminds me of when I go into Hobby Lobby....I never buy certain things until I realize I need them for a project & then I'm like, oh yeah! I  saw those at Hobby Lobby...why didn't I buy them then???? Well because, I wasn't thinking with that particular goal in mind, I was on a mission for a different project. "Game knows game" (59) Reminds me of a childhood taunt..."takes one to know one" lol. Of course in this context, it is a positive connotation. Reading like a writer is like window shopping...you know in the future you are going to be buying something even though you may not be doing it right this instant, you still keep your eyes peeled for things that peak your interest.

"I used her name in conjunction with decisive verbs like showed & made." (63) I really love the way Ray reminds me to sure that the illustrator is not left out. This fosters a relationship between readers & illustrators/writers that helps them relate & keep in mind how they are similar or different in their decision making. I am excited to really help my kids focus on the "why" of decisions, as Ray points out, the why for the close-up technique is to focus on the big idea-mud. This is a technique I really think my kids could try & I can't wait to invite them to give it a shot. :)

Another thing I am excited to invite them to try is the dedication of a book. This could get interesting with kindergartners! :)

Chapter 5 Learning Qualities of Good Writing from Illustration Techniques

This book is going way too fast! I am enjoying it so much I feel like I'm racing through it ready for the next idea but not ready for the end!

I love the illustration comparison of Ice Bear to Surprising Sharks. Yeah for another text-to-text connection! :)

I love watching the response on my kids' faces when I read a text that has a very evident tone. The varied array of expressions on their faces is priceless. I'm excited to just read an excerpt & have them help me create an illustration or vice-versa & to also let them do this on their own, perhaps with a partner. :)

I don't wear my glasses to school but I do wear contacts & let me tell you, this book study is helping them become clearer & sharper by the second!

I love how Anna's memoir visually summed up the story the same way writers use conjunctions & punctuation to loop the end back to the beginning. Some I Spy books even do this- "here are all the objects you found" and gives a list of the objects' names. :) "One way to craft a satisfying ending is to remind readers of the journey they've taken." Awww this is beautiful. I love it! This also reminds me of a necessary part of upper level writing====the closing! This is a great way to explain this & ensure it will appear in their writing for standardized writing tests!

During writing conferences I have been a bit timid, I want to give suggestions but I don't want to influence the tone of the book or change it all together by something I say....I want it to be all them...but Ray says it is okay to let what comes out naturally come out sooooo no more holding back! :) (I mean this in the best possible sense of course!)

Chapter 6 The Writing Workshop

I can't wait to gather a stack of books & hand out the sticky notes & see what the kids mark. Kids are simply amazing, my almost 4 yr old points out things I never would have noticed on my own. I am so excited to let the kids have a hand in choosing the techniques we will study & to transform our entire year! "In a unit of study, students are active cocreators of curriculum." (79)<<<<<LOVE THIS!!! Nothing creates ownership in kindergartners more than helping to create something that we use every day! Really!! I mean even right down to the digraphs & blends we put up on our letter sound chart this year, they participate more when they know everyone is focusing on something they suggested. Allowing students to come up with the inquiries we research encourages metacognition.

And of course, there is nothing better than a suggested list of books for me to have an excuse reason to go hunt down some new books! I'm excited to introduce my students to more writers from different genres & to make them feel like they know them. I'm hoping to find a somewhat local author/illustrator to invite to the classroom. Maybe our new art teacher could also come in & give a brief art lesson. The kids would eat this up!

ALL I CAN SAY ABOUT CHAPTERS 1-6 IS YEAH YEAH YEAH YEAH YEAH!!!! THANK YOU KATIE WOOD RAY!!! :)

Chapter 3 Writing & Illustrating as Parallel Composing Processes

Momentum---boy do we ever need that after coming back from a break or even a weekend or for some students the next day...
I think it is especially important for me as a teacher to remember that "readers don't see the process behind what they read." When I assume that a student hasn't done what I asked them to, I need to take a closer look & remind myself of all the little decisions that were made in order for the writer to produce one sentence or composition. I also need to emphasize to my kids to take their ideas home with them, think them over, talk them over with family, etc...I also need to pay special attention to the traces of their eraser marks & question them on what changed their mind.
Teaching the process of writing/composing is really more like suggesting you try something and if you don't like it, find your own way. No one composes exactly the same way every time. Our brains are simply more complex than that! So for me to try to teach my kids to compose exactly like me is a ridiculous notion. We are different people with different experiences & our minds work differently. Basically, this is how I sometimes do it...find a way that works for you & don't be afraid to try something different each time you compose.
Writing & Illustrating as Parallel Composing Processes
I love the paragraph on page 40 where Ray uses the exact same paragraph with words marked through to describe illustrating.
"Anyone who writes illustrates knows that at some point, you think ahead about what you are going to write draw or picture somehow. You may capture this thinking in great detail wit sketches & the like, or you  may capture it with just a little detail or with no detail at all, preferring just to sit down & see what happens after all your thinking. And at some other point, you have to start putting words lines & shapes & colors on paper, and invariably when you do, you'll want to change some of those words lines & shapes & colors. Also invariably, you'll find things aren't quite right--misspelled words, punctuation out of place, typos a line that's a little too heavy, ora color that's not quite the right shade. You'll fix those when you see them. Finally, depending on your plans for the writing illustration, you'll do something with it when you feel it's finished." This is an excellent way to illustrate her point that writing & illustrating are both composition.
Page 42 reminds me of my young writers' limited experiences. This is another reason why a student might write over the same topic over & over. They are only an expert on that one topic. Some days when I am hoping to read a fantastic story I have to remind myself that they don't have the same experiences I have had. Imaginary stories are especially difficult for kindergartners. Some of them can't "imagine". When I suggest all the crazy ideas they could write about many will take the exact example I used & write about that, so then I end up with 5 stories about the same thing. It is very easy to influence them in deciding their topics although I don't mean to. This does not lend to "teaching them to intend their own acts."

For the coming year, I would like to focus more on the illustrations in books & discuss the techniques authors used. This year I did talk to students about various writing structures- we looked closely at how authors might choose to write their text in a straight line, on different parts of the page, in a spiral, etc...I had one pair of girls who coauthored a book about flowers for mom who wrote the entire 5 page book in spirals that looped back to the first word of their sentence, I was so impressed it literally took my breath away! This reminds me of pg 50- the emphasis that text can be incorporated into the illustration & Daniel's snake zzzzz sound. :)

This year I allowed my students to coauthor a book. This was a difficult task for them. Some of them still weren't quite understanding that it is okay to look at a book for ideas but not copy it. Then other pairs had only one student doing most of the work. It was interesting to watch though. They were surprisingly engaged & focused on the task at hand.

Pg 45 talks about Ella's "meticulous color"....GRR major fail on my part! I always had them wait until they were finished drawing to color their pictures. Color may be a key to their forward motion!!!!!!! I need to let them color when they feel they need to!!!! It is a huge decision for them! WOW Ella's Book about Dresses & Weddings is very advanced! Look at those music notes at the top of page 49!!! WOW!!!

The list of sites provided for looking up information about the process of composing is awesome! I can't wait to check it out & share the information with my kids!

Chapters 1-2

Chapter 1 Why Illustration Study Matters to the Development of Young Writers
Visual grammar- now there's a term! Love it! (pg 2)
I previously read Ray's About the Authors: Writing Workshop with Our Youngest Writers. She constantly reminded me to consider all of the decisions our young writers were making & the actual sophistication of these decisions. Page 3 of In Pictures and In Words reminds me yet again to be aware of the decisions Clay made when he "carefully constructed a page where the reader can lift the flps to see the bat hanging upside down in a hanging position during the day and in flight during the night." Yet another sophisticated decision was made when he traced "his hand to show a close-up of the watch on the wrist, and when he used a graph showing the relative danger of the black widow."


Something I am looking foward to this year is watching my kindergarteners' writing stamina grow. It is amazing how they go from barely drawing a picture that makes sense to writing entire books by the end of the year. I am so excited to watch them grow! I love how Ray says (pg 3) that " I also see into his future, and I know when he is sixteen or twenty-six, or however far I want to look, being an effective communicator will involve getting words down on paper, but it will involve so much more than that --just as it involves more than that for him now, when he's six." Imagine, being able to see a kindergartener's future just by witnessing their writing grow. I love it!


Picture Book Making as a Template for Playful Exploration
Just the heading already has ideas exploding from my mind! I recently came across a pin on Pinterest:

 

I want to create something like this picture for students to use in conjunction with their writing. Perhaps, they can write a story telling me where their little person or car went: First, I went to the store, then I crossed the railroad tracks, finally, I parked my pink car in front of my blue house. I want to use this playful exploration to help my writers build stronger sentences using adjectives, time sequence words, and chronological order. Funny how I was thinking cars & the quote from pg 10 says, "Play is an important vehicle for developing self-regulation as well as for promoting language, cognition, & social competence." Since the beginning of writing is all about making picture books for kindergarteners, I think the car activity will help the students picture objects & actions that they can actually draw & add words to as they are able as their fluency progresses. I think this will also guide them through their process decisions. 

"They are not drawing instead of writing..." (10) As a kindergarten teacher, I love the fact that this book points out the strengths of teaching into & out of illustrating. Children learn through so many modalities that if we are forcing them to choose one or choosing for them, we are limiting them.  Allowing them to expand on their illustrations with great detail helps them read their writing back to me although they aren't exactly sure what they wrote with their invented spellings. Allowing my kids to use illustrations as prewriting is definitely something I need to incorporate more! This year with our books of writing, I had them write a story & then illustrate. This is exactly backwards & I'm so glad to be reading this book so that I can help my kids become better writers! It is only logical that illustrations & words should be  valued equally considering various learning styles (kinesthetic, visual, auditory, etc...).

Chapter 2 Building Stamina for Writing by Supporting Childrens Work as Illustrators
Stamina whoa...now there is something high on my Christmas wishlist!
"No points for drawing on most standardized tests." (19) Now there is a valid point! We are taught to teach to all of the intelligences/learning styles etc...but students are not assessed based on their strengths!
As an adult, it is very easy for me to take for granted the things I know how to do. I forget that at some point in my childhood, I was taught to sit in a chair, pay attention, concentrate on what sounds letters make...These are all part of building stamina in our young writers. Not only that but now onto writing. We expect them to make something out of nothing & they are given little to go on. The poop scooping references are just too funny but sadly true...worksheets are nothing more than mundane tasks that point the student in the clear direction we want them to go...just like handing them a shovel & asking them to pick up dog poop or handing them an iron & a shirt. It is very clear what is expected of them & the end is visible. These tasks require no higher order thinking. This isn't so with writing! Writing could arguably be considered a semantic shift...it is doing something...it is something you hold in your hand but the vision is very abstract...In writing, students determine their forward motion. Allowing them to alternate between illustrating & writing helps build stamina. Illustrations can be used to help them see their forward motion & the direction their writing needs to go.

I love this quote from page 21,

"Writing is the act of motion. Writing is the commitment to move forward, not to stew in our juices, to become whatever it is we are becoming, Writing is both the boat and the wind in the sails. Even on the days when the winds of inspiration seem slight, there is some forward motion, some progress made. The ability to show up brings with it the ability to grow up. (The Writer's Life, Julia Cameron 2001, 96)

I love the line about the boats & wind in the sails...wow....

I thoroughly appreciate how it is pointed out that it is OKAY for students to write on the same topic again...and that although the teacher may see it as "obsessive", it really isn't & most times the writer extends the topic.

Something I want to incorporate is the date stamp. This is a wonderful idea to promote self-monitoring & metacognition.

OOPS I almost forgot the guiding questions!
How might you explain to students that illustrating is composing?
I would remind them that they make the same decisions during drawing pictures that authors do during writing. They have to think, prewrite/draw, revise, edit, etc...

How might your attitude towards writing affect your students’ willingness to write? Showing excitement will create excitment. Showing that I value the time & effort they put in will make them more willing.

How might you help students build stamina in their writing? Start in short increments.

What language might you use with your students talk about reading like a writer, both as a writer of words and pictures? I would use words like vision, captions, character, setting, plot, sequence of events...

Name several books (not previously mentioned in this text) you would gather for your classroom’s units of study on illustration. Anything by Eric Carle of course, Scholastic books have excellent pictures as well! This is one of my favorites-Me With You! It is easy to relate to- readers can plainly see this is a dad & daughter who do things together, experience various emotions, etc...the pictures are wonderful & don't require words.

Another of my absolute favorites is Good Dog Carl.
 It has a small amount of text at the beginning of the book but none throughout the rest of it. I used this with my kids during our study of captions. The actions of the baby & Carl were so evident, anyone could create a story based on the detailed pictures. :)

In Pictures and In Words Book Study

Join us in studying Katie Wood Ray's In Pictures and In Words.  I am looking foward to diving in! I am a little behind because I just got my book last week but Ray's books are quick reads because they are soooo interesting & provide many examples of student work.

Click here for Growing Kinder's blog & study of this book chapters 1-6. http://growingkinders.blogspot.com/2012/06/in-pictures-and-in-words-chapters-1-6.html.

Click here for chapter 7 http://growingkinders.blogspot.com/2012/06/in-pictures-and-in-wordsch-7-ideas-and.html.

I will make a separate post soon with my comments/insights.