View of self as author/writer (reported identity in interview)

Observations/examples

Very passionate about reading and writing Enjoys writing for school but also during

his free time at home When he walked in to every visit he was

very excited to see me because he knew that meant he was going to spend at good amount of time writing

Views himself as a good writer and feels very comfortable while he’s writing

Does his best to spell a word even if he doesn’t know it

He has a little trouble getting started writing unless he has a specific topic to write about assigned to him

Has confidence in himself but doesn’t seem to trust himself to write on his own

Also has trouble writing more than one or two sentences about a topic

When he gets to a stopping point he often started tapping his pencil and looked up as if he was looking to the ceiling for guidance

He told me that his writing is greatly influenced by his Chinese teacher

His elementary teacher teaches him using the workshop model

Interpretations

Even with the little time I’ve spent with Steven I can still establish him as a very adept reader and writer for his age. From the beginning of our time together it was easy to see that he truly enjoys reading and writing and spends much of his free time doing one or the other to keep busy. Despite his seemingly intrinsic motivation to write, but still struggles a bit with getting started. I think that this could be a result of him having too many thoughts running through his head at once. I think that some sort of thought web or other organizing tool would be great for him to use. He has a lot of trouble staying on task when he writes as well. His mind will jump around from thought to thought and it takes him a long time to get an idea down on paper. Even though he struggles a lot while writing, Steven still has a very fun time while he is writing and is a wonderful young boy to observe. At no point during our interview did he seem to feel uncomfortable writing in front of me or with the topics he was writing about. He really enjoyed writing his stories and loved sharing them with me even more after finishing.

Recommendations

Starting with his struggles with starting a story, I think that the use of any of the pre-drafting or brainstorming schemes we used in class, such as the ‘Piece of your heart’ or the ‘Biing Method’ would be a great help for him because the schemes can provide him with means of organizing his thoughts. He has a lot of really good thoughts and ideas built up inside, he just needs some help with deciding which ones to use. However, it is very important to keep in mind what Fletcher says in his book, “prewriting should be a help, not a burden, for writers in school (Fletcher, 2001, p.63)”. I think that this is especially important to remember for a student like Steven because he seems to have trouble with the story-writing process as a whole. It is imperative that any prewriting strategy used with him is fresh and enjoyable so that the writing process stays fun for him to use and not a bland routine for him to follow every time he writes.

From my time with him it was also easy to see that he got distracted very easily. He loses focus very easily and any outside noise disrupts his writing process. I would recommend that when Steven writes he does so in as quiet a place as possible, such as a corner of the room when he’s in a classroom. He already had enough trouble concentrating when he was

Kyle Sustich7E:160

Child Study: Writing Profile ReportChild pseudonym: StevenChild’s age and grade: 2nd Grade

working one-on-one with me, so I think the quieter and less distracting the location the better.

Knowledge about genres and functions of writing (reported in interview and observed)

Observations/examples

When I asked him what his favorite thing to write about was, he responded with ‘fantasy’

His favorite book series is the ‘Diary of a Wimpy Kid’ series and he really enjoys writing stories and drawing pictures to accompany those children’s books

His accompanying illustrations don’t really connect to his stories too much

He said that in school his teachers make him write poetry but he doesn’t enjoy writing or reading it very much at all

He enjoys writing notes in school to friends Steven also said that he enjoys writing

letters in school to bring home to his family members

He has experience in writing and making picture books in school

Interest was expressed in writing a chapter book or a chapter story despite never writing one before in school or at home

Interpretations

Based in the interview I conducted with Steven I noticed that he has a fairly wide spectrum of writing genres that he uses, but he doesn’t like to use all of them. He told me that his favorite genre of writing is fantasy, which can be a good advantage for him. I think it is a great help when a student has a favorite genre or topic to write about, because it can guide him or her if they get stuck or don’t know what to write.

It seems that Steven’s teachers in school are doing a good job of introducing many different genres to him. He knows the proper format for writing letters, personal notes, and even poetry. However, even though he knows the correct formats, he doesn’t have a passion to write them. He seems to only be interested in writing short stories accompanied with pictures that most of the time don’t connect too well with what he just wrote. Although it is a useful tool to be able to draw pictures that connect to his stories, it is also important for him to be able to visualize the story in his mind. He did tell me that he has an interest in writing a chapter book but his teachers haven’t let him write one yet. I think that this is a very big problem that should be addressed to his teacher, and I think that Hindley and Fletcher would agree with me. As Fletcher says in his book, “establishing a safe environment so that kids can take risks in their writing,” should be one of our first short-term goals as teachers, and what better way to get students started than having them write about something they already enjoy? (Fletcher, 2001, p.22)

Recommendations

The two main changes that Steven needs to make to his writing are his creativity and genre choice. The overall creativity of his writing is very short, dull, and to the point. It is important for Steven’s teacher or anyone that works with him to help enhance his writing. Fletcher suggests that, “the best way to address this problem is to tap books with lyrical language (Fletcher, 2001, p.120)”. I think that by simply reading a book with Steven beforehand will introduce him to descriptive strategies other authors use and will help him get a better idea of what expressive writing is and how to incorporate it into his own writing.

Continuing along the same lines, Steven has a hard time expressing himself in any genre other than a short story with pictures. Although he writes in that genre fairly well, it is important for him to expand his genre knowledge spectrum. In her book, Hindley recommends introducing writers to objects they never actually realize that they read or write everyday, such as a newspaper or a cereal box (Hindley, 1996, p.86). This is also very similar to the poster we made in class listing all of the different times during a week in which we use writing. Introducing Steven to these objects would show him that he doesn’t always have to write a short story to practice writing. He could write his own newspaper, make a word search, or even make a comic book. There are so many different genres out there for students like Steven to try that we should not be holding them back from these experiences.

Perceptions of writing (mechanics, product, or process; print awareness for emergent writers)

Observations/examples

Thinks that good writing come from lots of practice

Uses teacher and parents as resources to help solidify his writing

Thinks that good writing consists of proper grammar, good spelling, and sentences that make sense

He seems to struggle a little bit when he’s getting started and has a hard time writing a story with more than one sentence at a time

From the brief writing samples taken I noticed Steven show the following:o Shows a logical sequence of events

while writingo Uses proper punctuation and

capitalization consistentlyo Is comfortable in using contractionso Uses proper subject-verb agreemento Has a good sense of keeping time

while writingo A few spelling errors, but overall

mostly correct spellingo He hasn’t developed the ability to draw

pictures that support his writingo Understands proper word order and

checks for correct grammar use during and after his writing

Interpretations

After spending some time with Steven it was easy to determine that most of his writing is dictated by his teachers. He’s uncomfortable picking a topic to write on and has trouble writing for long periods of time. I think that these problems tie back to the classroom and his teacher. He told me that while he’s writing at school he often has to ask his teacher for help and guidance. This is in no way a bad thing because we should encourage our students to ask for help when they need it. However, I feel that he doesn’t rely on himself enough to write on his own. His writing is very clear and he likes to write, but I think he just feels that since his teacher is there to guide him, why not rely her?

He also worries a lot about correct spelling and grammar, which I think ties back to his teacher. He told me that good writing mostly consists of grammar, spelling, and sentence structure, but that his teacher only really grades him on spelling. It’s easy to infer that his teacher doesn’t follow Fletcher’s rule of trying, “to be there as a reader before you are there as a corrector (Fletcher, 2001, p.38)”. Although his short sentences make sense now, once he gets older this teacher’s ideology can cause a problem because more emphasis will be put on his grammar and he has the potential to become lost.

Recommendations

A recommendation given by both Hindley and Fletcher that I think would work perfectly with Steven in his position are individual conferences (Hindley, 1996, p.42; Fletcher, 2001, p.38). Individual conferences would be a great way to introduce new strategies (such as brainstorming ideas; see ‘pre-drafting’ section below) to Steven and help him with his

individual problems, all while giving him the one-on-one teacher attention that he needs. However, the conferences would also be a great time to shy Steven away from that attention and move the teacher into more of a facilitator role. His teacher can not only help him with pre-drafting ideas, but also help him choose books in unfamiliar genres to broaden his reading spectrum, which will then help him, write more creatively in other genres. Each conference he has should help him to become a more individual writer.

Another method suggested by both Hindley and Fletcher as well that might work with Steven is pairing him up with another student or a small group. Having him work with another student or a group of students could help him choose topics and help him with his writing. He can use the other people in his group to not only bounce his ideas of them, but also use their ideas as well. At the same time this will also help shy him away from relying on his teacher because after writing he can come back to the group and share his stories with his peers and get some critiquing from someone other than his teacher.

Use of writing process: pre-drafting (getting ideas)

Observations/examples

Before writing I asked him if he had any strategies for brainstorming before writing, he responded, “no”

I told him he could write about anything he wanted

We practiced multiple ways to pre-draft including;o Piece of your hearto Bing method / Connections webo Created a floor plan of his room to

develop ideas to write about All of the pre-drafting ideas helped him

tremendously in picking out a specific topic to write about

For the first few writings he wanted to draw pictures first and write the story second

For the final writing I wanted to challenge him so I had him write first instead

When he decided that he wanted to write about the “Wimpy Kid” books I also had him write out some of his favorite and memorable events from the books that he could use as content in his own story

Interpretations

When I first started writing with Steven he often struggled with starting his writing whenever he wrote about a topic of his choosing. Only after practicing some of the pre-drafting ideas suggested by Hindley, Fletcher, and our class did he begin to feel comfortable starting a story on his own. I tried to leave the topic choice completely up to him so that he could understand the full effect of these pre-drafting ideas. We wrote out webs that not only helped him decide which topic he was to write about, but also the content he needed to complete his writing. He seemed to feel much more comfortable with his writing once he had a plan laid out for himself to follow.

After pre-drafting and writing a few stories he told me that he had a big problem with deciding which idea in his head to write about and that these pre-drafting ideas helped him out a lot. He now feels like he has the tools to start an open-topic story all by himself. Giving power like this to a writer gives them more confidence in their writing and can only help them as they progress to becoming a better writer in the future. This is clearly a crucial component of the workshop that his teacher did not spend much time on when first teaching him how to go progress through the workshop model process. Pre-writing should be viewed as a “rehearsal” and not a “rigid routine (Fletcher, 2001, p.63)”.

It would be a great idea for Steven to use these pre-drafting skills as much as he can, but as I quoted Fletcher earlier in the study, “don’t let it

become a rigid routine (Fletcher, 2001, p.63)”. I thing the Biing method worked the best for him and he should probably use that the most in the future. I found that when he has the chance to look back on his own writing and dig deeper, he could almost always come up with a new topic to write about.

Recommendations

It is important that Steven remembers to write down and use all the webs and maps he makes while pre-drafting. While we were pre-drafting during my visits he would usually try and just listen to our conversation and remember it in his head, which is where I think most of his problems with starting a story come from. If he just takes all the thoughts running through his head and puts them on paper he can be an even more accomplished writer than he already is. I would recommend that whenever he writes for class or in his free time he makes a connections web or some other form of brainstorming web to keep his thoughts organized and in front of him while he’s writing.

Use of writing process: drafting (putting ideas on paper, physically writing) Observations/examples

After he finished writing a sentence, Steven would go back and read over what he just wrote and checked for errors

As stated before, we drew pictures together that helped support his writing only after he was done with his story so that he could use his drawings to support his story and not the other way around

When he got stuck writing, he would tap his pencil and look at the ceiling

He could recall the full names of characters from the Diary of a Wimpy Kid story and could spell them correctly

Skips out on adding punctuation, especially apostrophes, until done writing a whole sentence

Interpretations

For his published story, he decided to write about something that he enjoyed, his favorite book series The Diary of a Wimpy Kid. He often brought one of the books to our interview and always wanted to talk about it, so it was easy to tell that he was really excited to be writing about the book. I gave him a piece of paper and told him to write as if I wasn’t there. Right from the beginning he had problems because he didn’t know where to start, but I didn’t communicate with him. I wanted him to try and come up with the ideas on his own without any help from me. Eventually he started writing after a few minutes of thinking. Throughout his writing he would often stop and start fidgeting, tapping his pencil, or looking up at the ceiling. I once asked him why he did this while he was writing and he responded by saying, “it helps me think,” but he couldn’t elaborate on it anymore. I really think that when he pauses while writing he is actually trying to choose one idea from many that are floating around in his head. I think that it would be very interesting to see inside his head to see these ‘strategies’ helped him write his story. Even with this help from the ceiling it still took him about 10 minutes to finish writing three sentences, after which he seemed very relieved to be finished.

Recommendations

I think the most important thing Steven needs is practice and more practice. As stated many

times before, he seems to never know what to write about and just wants to finish the assignment as quickly as possible. I feel that if his teacher helps wean Steven off of her required guidance he will be in much better shape as an individual writer. In my short time with him I could see that he has a lot of trouble writing without guidance from someone else. I noticed that he had a lot of trouble writing without me helping him along. A situation that could work well for Steven at this point might be providing him with pre-made Biing charts to use during the pre-drafting and drafting process. If he has a strong starting point and supporting information already mapped out for him, it should help him tremendously when he’s writing on his own. Specifically, I want him to use the maps while he’s drafting. Instead of looking up to the ceiling for inspiration, I want him to look to the Biing instead. It will help him organize his thoughts as he is writing and guide him in putting his ideas into his writing.

Use of writing process: revision (meaning)

Observations/examples

The first version of his story was fairly short and dull

Asked him questions in order to help him expand his writing and add details to his storyo We expanded his story from 3

sentences to 5 sentences by adding information about another one of his favorite characters

o He wrote about why he liked the specific characters

o He left the original 3 sentences from the first draft alone and simply added on to them

Interpretations

After he was done writing, we talked about his story, including why he chose to write about Greg and no other characters, and looked back at his original connections web we completed before writing. I wanted to point out to him that he had all the information he needed to write in front of him, yet he didn’t use it. It was easy to see that he completely disregarded the information he had on his connections web aside from the topic choice, which caused me to ask him questions to help him expand his writing. I asked him why he only wrote about one character, why one fact was enough, why didn’t he write more? I felt that he could layer his story more by adding a little bit extra to the end.

He wrote about the one character he liked ‘Greg’ and I asked him if he liked any others. He responded by saying he enjoyed reading about another character named ‘Rowley’. I then asked him if he would look over his story again and try and add a little more to it this time by writing a little bit about Rowley. He left the first three sentences the same but added two more sentences about Rowley. This is the adding layering I was looking for. However, it was still clear to me that although he was writing about a topic he enjoyed, without guidance from someone else he still could not write on his own.

Recommendations

As Fletcher says in his book, “writers tend to be fragile, highly sensitive, breakable creatures. That’s why it’s so important to give them concrete praise (Fletcher, 2001, p.51)”. This statement holds very true for Steven because I don’t think he gets the praise he needs. He has confidence in himself to write accurately like his teacher wants him to, but he doesn’t have confidence in himself to write freely and independently. I think that he spends all his

time thinking about writing ‘correctly’ that he doesn’t put enough effort when he can write on his own, which is why he relies on his teachers or parents because they basically do the writing for him. It’s important for Steven to receive praise for his own work so that he can build confidence in himself as an independent writer. When he feels better about himself writing with the help of anyone else, it will have an immensely positive effect on his work as a whole.

It’s also important that he performs and uses the pre-drafting strategies when he writes. We made great progress and had a lot of ideas for him to write about when we made the connections web before writing, but he didn’t use any of them when he actually wrote. This might have been partially my fault because I didn’t have the connections web out when he was writing, so from now on I would make sure he has the web available to look back on and write from. I would recommend to Steven that after every time he writes, he goes back and compares his writing to his brainstorming web and asks himself questions. Does his story reflect the web? Did he use most of the information from the web? Is there anything else from the web that he can add to the story? Asking himself these questions will get him to think more analytically of his writing and help him become a more creative writer.

Use of writing process: editing (mechanics like spelling and punctuation)

Observations/examples

Steven did most of his editing while he was writing. He read over each of his sentences after finishing them.

He then re-read his whole story and looked for errors as well

He could recall the full names of characters from the story and spell them correctly

Left out punctuation on purpose during the first time writing each sentence

After writing his first draft he re-read his story and fixed the following:o Underlined Diary of a Wimpy Kido Put an apostrophe in “it’s”

Interpretations

Steven did a lot of editing of his story on his own without being prompted by me. He told me that at his school his teacher taught them how to use the workshop model and that he found it easier to edit his story while he was writing instead of at the end. For this reason, after every sentence he would go back and re-read what he just wrote and check for spelling, punctuation, and anything else that looked incorrect to him. It surprised me to see that while he was writing he actually left out punctuations, specifically apostrophes and underlining, until he was done with the sentence, then he went back and added them in. I asked him why he did so and he responded by saying that he could write faster if he didn’t have to worry about punctuation. I understand that he uses this strategy to cut down on the time he spends writing each sentence, but it does leave the potential for more errors. To me, it feels as if he’s confused about the workshop process and that he’s combining the drafting and editing parts of the workshop model together into one component. It’s very important for his teacher to make sure he keeps each part of the process separate.

Recommendations

Steven does a great job of editing his own work during and after his writing is finished. This is most likely a direct result of his teacher teaching the correct use of the editing part of the writing process in her classroom. It is easy to see that his teacher has followed Hindley,

Fletcher, and other authors in using their editing strategies (but not so much their pre-writing strategies which is a separate problem) and teaching them to her students. The only change I would recommend Steven to do while writing is to add in the punctuation during the drafting process. I recommend this because although the process might work well for him now, in the future when he starts writing longer sentences he has a greater chance of forgetting or skipping over a word that needs punctuation added to it. It’s also important for him to understand the process and mini-lessons that his teachers are presenting to him. I don’t know if this is a lone occurrence of him not understanding strategies that I worked on with him, but I feel like he didn’t get the full effect of the strategies, such as brainstorming, especially since he didn’t use most of them. He seems to understand them very well when I’m working with him, but he doesn’t put anything into practice. I would like to see him be checked up on during conferences to make sure he understands and applies these strategies.

Evidence of development (invention, approximation)

Observations/examples from all writing:<1% invented spelling

charachter character

Interpretations

As previously stated in the section above, from his first draft to his final product Steven’s spelling was almost perfect. Even though his story was only five sentences long, he still only had one spelling error, which was spelling the word ‘character’. This appears to be a very reasonable mistake to make because character has a repeating ‘ch’ sound but the repeat sound is spelled without the ‘H’. This is a perfect example of Ogland’s description of using a “visual strategy” to construct writing (Ogland, 2001, p.35). When he tries to write down a word he doesn’t know how to spell he sounds it out in his head first, then writes down his best approximation of the word. While he was writing, he rarely paused in the middle of a word to think about how a word was spelled. He felt very comfortable the entire time writing and seemed to only write with words that fell within his vocabulary. I think this example goes to show that Steven’s teachers must be doing something right when it comes to his spelling in school.

Recommendations

As stated before, Steven’s teachers must be doing something right in his school for him to be spelling so accurately. During my time with Steven, his responses were always fast and accurate, but I felt as if he was holding himself back from using words he didn’t know. If I were to place him in one of Ogland’s “Three Types of Spellers” categories, I would place him in the ‘Reluctant Readers’ category (Ogland, 2001, p.33). He seems to only use high-frequency words that he knows how to spell and rarely takes risks on words he doesn’t know (as exemplified by his work only having one functional word). He is very comfortable with the words that he’s writing now, but I think that introducing harder words to him could help make his writing more descriptive and help him prepare for future language arts classes. He needs to be encouraged to take risks and be assured that incorrect spelling is ok and is part of the process of learning to write. The best way to do this, in my opinion, would be to introduce

new books to him that are above his current reading level. Doing so should encourage him to use more of the challenging words that he sees while reading in his own writing. When he comes across a word he’s read or written that he doesn’t know how to spell, he should also write it down in a spelling log. Doing this will not only make it easier for him to converse with other students or his teacher if he’s having problems with high-risk words, but it also gives him a chance to try and spell words correctly on his own before talking to someone else.

Other? (Any other information that you feel is important to report)

Steven has attended an outside Chinese school since age 3. He continues to take classes from the Chinese school in addition to his regular classes at his elementary school.

Summary of key findings about child

Steven is a very accomplished and avid writer. He truly loves to write and has many great ideas and topics he wants to write about. His problems come in when he has to make a decision about what to write about and digging inside his head for content to put down on paper. It’s clear to me that his teacher did not put enough time into the pre-drafting phase of the writing process, and Steven’s writing has severely suffered because of this. When he takes the time to do pre-drafting brainstorming activities and actually use the pre-drafting information in his writing, it has an extremely positive effect on his writing as a whole. He feels much more comfortable writing and doesn’t spend much time staring at the ceiling when he has ideas already written down for him to start from. He is a very accurate speller and knows how the English language works very well for his age. I would just ask that he try to challenge himself a little bit more. He often writes only with words he knows how to spell and rarely takes risks on challenging words. It’s important for him to know that it’s ok to make up the way a word is spelled as long as he tries to use some sort of strategy to figure it out. He has enough confidence in himself to write with the vocabulary he already knows, why not try and push him to do even more? Steven has great potential that needs to be put to use inside and outside the classroom.

Classroom Writing Program Description:

The two things I want to implement within the first few weeks in my classroom is a permanent schedule for my students and a strong sense of classroom community. First off, if I establish a set schedule for my students to follow everyday they will be more focused and prepared when it comes to writing time, which means less time will be wasted with transitioning between subjects. I also think building a strong classroom community is a crucial part of every classroom and should be done so as early as possible in the year. From early classroom games and activities to extra sharing time at the beginning of the year, each of these procedures should help each student feel more comfortable with his or her peers. When students feel comfortable with their peers they are likely to write more freely and share their work without any added pressure.

An important object I want to introduce into my classroom is a writer’s notebook. Each student will have the chance to choose their own notebook so that everyone in class has a chance to see each student’s individuality. The notebook will not only be used as a note taking tool and a place to write their class work, but most importantly it will be used as a place for my students to speak freely and with a purpose. In their notebooks students can write about whatever they want and however they want. If they want to write stories, comics, letters, or anything else, they are welcome to do so without fear of reprimand by me. The notebooks will not only give me a window to how each of my students write, but they will also

help me find out more about each of my students as an individual.

Another way to find out more about all of my students is by holding individual conferences with each student as often as possible. These conferences will give me one-on-one time with each student and will hopefully help me gain a great insight into how each one of my students progressing through my class. Conferences would also give me a chance to check for understanding of my previously taught mini-lessons. They will also give me a chance to look at each student’s whole body of work throughout the year and make it easier for me to notices tendencies that individual students might be having. These tendencies can then help me form mini-lessons to teach not only to the individual student but also the whole class if need be.

Many of these mini-lessons can be geared towards teaching spelling to my students. I don’t believe in giving my students spelling tests because they don’t really connect to any reading that the students do. Often times students will take a test on Friday and forget the words by Monday. I most certainly don’t want this to happen in my class. Instead I would rather have my students learn spelling as much as they can on their own. I would give every student “1st Try, 2nd Try, OK” charts so that they can edit their own work by themselves. Of course I would help them if they get stuck, but the more they can learn by themselves or with the help of a partner the better. I would also put up a list of frequently used words in a genre if we were doing a specific genre study. (ex: sunflower, tulip, lily for a Flower genre study)

I will have my students practice writing every day. Every writing session will be started with a short mini-lesson followed by individual and group writing time. I hope to give my students as much time as possible to write, but I will also leave aside time for group and class-wide sharing. It is important for every student to share some of their work with other students so they can not only get feedback from the other students, but also maybe give their classmates ideas and strategies for their own writing.

Most importantly, I will be sure to teach in a cyclical manner. Everything that I teach to my students I will be sure to go back and check with each one of them that they understand my lessons like I wanted them to. If any student is having a problem I will do my best to figure out why. If it is a class-wide problem, I will do my best to correct my mistake so that every single one of my students receives the best education possible.

Steven’s First Draft:

Steven’s Published Project: (He wanted me to type out the final draft)

I like Diary of a Wimpy Kid because it’s funny. My favorite charachter is Greg Heffley. He is my favorite because his pants always fall down. I also like his best friend Rowley. I like him because he is funny and his head is shaped like a square.