STORIES FROM THE HEART: Teachers and Students Researching Their Literacy Lives by Richard J. Meyer

[Sara Kwasna]

During my masters work I was required to purchase this book, but we only were assigned a few excerpts from it to read.  I remember that I really enjoyed it but as a first year teacher and going to graduate school at night, I just didn't have the time to read anything outside of the required reading and novels that I was teaching.  However, I hung onto the book for all these years and when we were told we could read a book of choice, I blew the dust off the cover and went to work. 

 

This book and the concept of inquiry and teachers as researchers go hand-in-hand.  Meyer discusses how teachers are researchers who share their research via their stories.  He even declares that, "good teaching is research.  Theaching has, at its core, inquiry" (p 58).  How fitting that I picked this book up again now, after my own foray into inquiry. 

 

One of the most profound ideas that Meyer expresses in chapter one is that we, as teachers of writing, must know our own literacy lives in order to understand who we are as literacy teachers.  Oftentimes we expect our students to write the way that we write or even learn the way that we learn.  Embracing our own literacy lives will help us to realize that not all of our students will learn or write in the same manner that we did.  Geane Hanson is quoted in the book as saying, "You are who you teach and you teach who you are." 

 

Meyer discusses the writing of short stories, longer stories, framing of stories, and getting support from groups such as National Writing Projects.  Of course, Meyer also makes the connection between teachers writing and students writing and how writing about our students can help us to become better teachers. 

 

I am glad that I found the time to revisit this book again and especially at this particular juncture in my own teaching career when I could most fully appreciate its intended message.

 

Questions to Consider:

 

1. Meyer says, "Our writing is our mechanism for making sense of the many worlds in which we- with our students, colleagues, and community- live."  How will you use writing in your professional life to help you to make sense this upcoming school year?

 

2.  Meyer talks about how writing is a social act.  Our stories are meant to be shared and the best place to share them is within a community of writers.  We try to find these communites for ourselves and we also try to create these communities within our classrooms.  A community is a place where we "can take risks and grow because of it" (106).  What will you do/ do different to help build your classroom "writing" community this year? 

[Allie Eckert]

This looks like a great book, and one that I am interested in reading. I love the quote that you included, "you are what you teach, and you teach what you are." That is so incredibly true and insightful.

1. In terms of using writing in my professional life, I am planning on journaling this year in terms of student behavior and growth. In the past, I have not been very good at keeping notes on my students, rather I relied heavily on my memory of a specific student or unit in order to determine the worth and success. However, after listening to all of the ideas this summer through the writing project as well as books, I decided that if I truly want to help make my teaching better for my students, it is essential that I make a conscious effort to journal about individual students and my class as a whole. Along with this, I am planning on joining Torrey's Inquiry team, and I feel that in order to truly do an inquiry one must have extensive detailed notes. Not only will this help to make my teaching better, it will also allow me to constantly reflect on my classroom practices, and make alterations when needed.

2. During the last school year, I feel that I did not do as good of a job with having my students share their writing. As I did not begin the school year with the openness that is needed in order for students to feel comfortable to read in front of their peers, my students did not enjoy sharing their papers whole class, rather wanted me to read them aloud. While this still allowed for the students to gain feedback from their classmates, I feel that having the ability and confidence to share in that community is a huge piece in terms of their growth. Therefore, this year, I will begin my school year by having the students share more of their writing aloud to the class in order to build this level of comfort that is needed. Along with this, I will ensure that whenever I am asking my students to share, I also share a piece. Just as with the summer institute, I intend on having author's chair in my classroom as this really helped to not only build confidence, but it allowed for the listeners to gain insight into who the reader is. Another aspect of the summer institute that I intent on using in my classroom is journaling. I feel that by giving students the freedom to write about whatever they please and know that this journal will not be shared unless wanted helps to truly build this sense of community in the classroom.

Thank you for sharing such an excellent book! I look forward to reading it.

[Rose Whistler]

1. I hope to continue my own journal writing that I began in the ISI. It is so easy to slip back to old habits and as Allie said, think that we will remember without writing things down. But in reality, establishing a writing time, as we did this summer (sacred writing time) forms a new habit. Keeping a journal will allow me to continue on my path of becoming a writer who teaches writing. I feel I will be more effective because I will see the stumbling blocks that we all face as writers. This will, therefore, help me to be more aware of the struggles my students encounter. Also writing will allow me to be more reflective in my professional life as a teacher. To put my thoughts and concerns on paper helps me sort the confusion I sometimes feel when faced with an issue in the classroom.

2. This year I hope to be more sequential in teaching writing to first graders. I will work within the writing workshop to teach minilessons that focus on the 6+1 traits with short and long term goals in mind. I also want to make conferencing easier and more valuable, focusing on just one aspect and therefore having time to see more students within the time frame. Fletcher says to affirm the writer by listening and being responsive to his/her needs. Keep the conferences short, just a few minutes, and don't just add to the piece but to the repertoire of strategies the child can use. Lucy Caulkins says to "teach the writer, not the writing". I hope to remember this as I embark on another year as a teacher of writing who establishes our classroom as a safe place where all students feel valued for their work

[Julianne Dillard]

Hi, Sara! Now I have yet another book to read--this one sounds like a great one!

I would echo Rose and Allie in saying that I will incorporate more written reflection about my students and the day-to-day classes. I'd like to be able to give students a gift of writing at the end of the year, one that I can fill with specific anecdotes that show them I really paid attention and that they've grown. A journal would make that do-able. In addition, I have a section of my personal "writer's notebook" dedicated to capturing the teaching related ideas I'd like to explore in writing. It's right after the parenting, wife-ing, and fictioning sections. ;)

As for community building, I plan to do a range of "getting to know you" activities and to make the peer response interactions grow incrementally as our community grows. I won't throw them right into full-on response, but we'll move there gradually after modeling skills for group interaction and helpful feedback. I suppose in my creative writing class, we'll have to move that process a bit faster as I've got a plan to move into a work/respond/work/respond cycle by the fourth week (we only meet Fridays). In both that section and the comp sections I have this year, I want to draw responders and authors together after revision so that the two can see how effective the feedback was. I am hoping that getting to see their feedback impacted or missed the mark with another writer might enhance our community feel, but we will see!
Thanks for the wonderful suggestion, Sara!
Julie

[Nicole Marvin]

How will you use writing in your professional life to help you to make sense this upcoming school year?

If making to-do lists and writing these posts will help me make sense of this upcoming school year, then writing in my professional life will be this. I also plan on writing with my students during SWT too, thanks for the idea Nadyne!


What will you do/ do different to help build your classroom "writing" community this year?

I want to be a better model to my students and show them that I still go through the writing process. Last year I told my students I would write most everything I assigned them and share it. What a task that was, sitting there tapping the keys at midnight, but they paid attention when I shared my pieces with them. I am going to continue that process this year, but my pieces aren't always going to be complete or polished this time. We are going to attack them together and make them better.

[Christy]

Hi Sara,
It sounds like this book ties write into the NNWP and summer institute. I would say that we all found our literacy lives either from the past or in the now. I believe that the revelations of our writing will show in our writing instruction this year. I like the idea of writing about our students. I think a great way to do that would be to capture the good moments wether they are funny, ahhha moments, revelations about what I am teaching or student reactions to lessons. I think this would be a great way to create a memoir at the end of the year as we could reflect on those treasured moments.

This year I am going to have writing folders and use the writers tool box from Barry Lane's book and Jen's presentation. So far I have it organized. I plan on jumping write into re-vision next week with our first paper. Re-vision is something I have never done well. I understand the importance to it now. I also plan to have the students keep a protfolio of their work from the year and share it in a celebration with the parents ant the end of the year!

All of this is great for inspiring good writing in the classroom. Thank you for sharing your book and insight.

Christy