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Through Intro to LA I have learned that it really is worth it to go through the whole writing process to submit your best work. Some of the implications of this class is that the observations don't guarantee that you will see everything in action and thus not having much of an example to follow or amend in the future. I really enjoyed the activities and discussions we had in class because I liked being able to see what a sample of third grade writing looks like, role playing during the mini lessons, and seeing the use of new technology (smart board) for lessons. The only piece of technology that was used when I was in third grade was the overhead projector and the occasional television for when we watched movies.
In my future classroom, I will consider using available technology in my lessons and as a means to complete projects, I will use brainstorm maps to help my students get their thoughts organized, and possibly even blogs as part of their journal entries while reading.
I will try to avoid setting writing and reading periods on the back burner if other subjects need more time to catch up on material.
LA was never my best subject, so I am a little nervous that I won't be very good at teaching it. To my students who initially don't like to read or write, I plan on telling them that I didn't like it when I was their age either because I wasn't good at it, but that they would get lots of practice and it will probably grow on them one day.

Field Visit Reflection

Through visiting Ms. Buchanan's class at Smith Magnet Elementary School, I learned that you could incorporate the six Language Arts in just about any area of study. However, I don't feel like I got to see proper writing instruction in action. I would still say that the observations impacted me positively because she gave me some resources to get lesson plans off of, and demonstrated how to use Language Arts instruction in other subjects. I can't really relate many textbook readings to what I saw in action, but as I mentioned, I saw some aspects. Even though I didn't get to see everything in action, I still enjoyed being in her class.

Editing/Revising

My editors didn't really have much to edit the first time, but I enjoyed reading my partners' stories because I got to see a glimpse into their lives that I didn't know about before. The only thing I don't like about peer conferencing is that if you're in the editing stage, and the person who's reading your story doesn't have great grammar skills, then they might mark your paper up wrong. Luckily, we're all old enough now that we can choose which punctuation to change and which to keep to reflect the mood we're trying to portray. I like when people give me suggestions about what to do with my writing, but I don't like to critique other people's writing, unless it's to find grammar mistakes.
Peer editing/revising can definitely be adapted to a k-5 classroom. Peers at that age are capable of telling the writers what they like best in the story, and what parts are confusing. In terms of grammar, a third grade class would look for things like period placement, proper use of capital letters, and spelling.

Reading/Writing Workshop

I've never had a literature focus unit because my teachers always expected us to read some on our own and discuss the reading the next day. Some of my teachers have had class read-alouds, but I think it was to kill time or get us interested in different authors or reading subjects.
In eighth grade, I had a thematic unit on the holocaust. We learned about WWII in history and read the book "Night" in my Language Arts class, but I never had any math or science teachers try to integrate lessons from social studies or language arts classes.
I've been in multiple literature circles, but the part where my teachers have broken the rules is that they didn't let us choose what books to read. We still had different roles we were in charge of and certain pages we had to read at once. Also, our roles didn't switch after each meeting. It wasn't until EDU 255 that I learned the roles were supposed to switch after each meeting. It makes a lot more sense to do it that way, because every group would always find lots of ways to not read and still do well on the assignments.
In writer's workshops, my teachers usually assigned us prompts to write. Some of them had a lot of flexibility, and others did not. I usually hated the ones that didn't have much flexibility if I couldn't relate to the situation given. We rarely ever got to choose what to write until I was in 8th grade. We were finally allowed to write about whatever we wanted in my 8th grade LA class, but it was usually only for ten minutes, so it couldn't really be called writer's workshop, since it was less than an hour in duration. However, we were able to continue a piece if we wanted to, or start a new one, and when we finished, we had the option to share it or not share it after each writing period.
I've done a lot of reader's workshops. I remember in 4th grade it was called SQUIRT. It stood for Super Quiet Uninterrupted Reading Time. We also had SSR. Every so often, we took class trips to the school library to pick out new books to read, and when there was a book sale going on at school, we always went as a class to make up wishlists or buy books if we had money on us.
I really enjoy doing thematic units because they're interdisciplinary and they help reinforce what I'm learning in other classes and I remember the information better if I can relate it to something. I don't think there are any disadvantages to using this method for students, but it does make it a little more difficult on the teachers to try to integrate lessons from other areas.
I would use writer's workshop in my classroom, but I would try to give more flexible prompts so that my students wouldn't dread writing for the rest of their lives.

Assessmet

Assessment is a pretty complicated topic for teachers because they need a constructive way to find out if their students are getting the information taught to them. The most feasible, or common, way is to hand out formal end of unit tests and then put it all together on the final exam. Most kids can handle that method, but there are always going to be a few kids who you know, no matter how much they study, they probably won't measure up to the rest of the class.
I was one of the kids who struggled with formal tests because I didn't know how to manage my time while taking one. If I was stuck on a question in the middle of the test, I sat there and stared at it and didn't know to skip it and go back to it at the end. Also, even if I started studying a week before the test, I was very inconsistent with the facts I remembered and the facts that I forgot, so I got in to the habit of cramming everything the night before the test so that it would be that much fresher in my mind. (I even crammed for the SAT). Depending on the topic, I performed better on some tests than others which is bound to happen, but I found it really frustrating that I had to come to terms that there were some things that I would never understand no matter how hard I tried. Eventually, I started taking my tests in my resource/study skills room and it gave me more time to take the test, so I felt less pressure to finish quickly and it helped a lot.
In the end, I don't really know how much my teachers had to pull for me so I could move on to the next grade level, but they all knew how hard I worked, and luckily for me, they saw my efforts and passed me each year. When I'm a teacher, I want to try to make assessments based on my students' efforts and not just their performance on a number scale. I also want to try to give projects and assignments that I know my students can actually do on their own because I know that when I was growing up, my mom, and a lot of other students' moms/parents, ended up doing the majority of the work for major projects.

Books to use in my future classroom

When I was in 4th grade, I read "A Time for Andrew: A Ghost Story", by Mary Downing Hahn. The story is about a boy named Drew who opted to stay at his grandparents' house for the summer instead of going to camp. Before long, Drew finds an old cigar box with marbles and a picture with a boy, Andrew, who looks exactly like him from 1910. Because of this, Drew and Andrew switch places. The switch helps Andrew because he is suffering from diptheria and needs modern medicine to save his life, and it gives Drew a chance to see what life with siblings is like, since he's an only child. After some time, Drew wants his old life back, so Andrew challenges him to a game of marbles to settle the deal.
The themes of the book are time travel, modern medicine, and being thankful for the life you're given.
All of the elements are exemplified in the story but the setting, characters, and point of views stick out most because the plots differ when the focus is on Drew or Andrew, and the different settings effect the story too.
This book would be a good side-read for a history lesson about the gifts of modern medicine. A good project idea might be for the students to choose an era to travel to, and they could pretend to be either Drew or Andrew so that traveling to the future would be an option too. They could write about things they find in their grandparents' attic.

What makes writing worth reading?

Something is worth reading when the reader can find the main message that was supposed to be learned at the end of the reading. It's really frustrating when I read an excerpt or a story and when I'm finished, I don't know what I was supposed to get out of it.
Personal preferences have a lot to do with what someone thinks is worth reading too. I personally hate when I get to the end of a story and it leaves me on a cliff-hanging note (unless I know a sequel is coming that will bring a more completed resolution to the story). I tend to steer away from non-fiction novels, but I could still say that it'd be worth reading one if I learned something "interesting" while reading.
This question brings me to ask why book publishers deny so many potential stories to be published? because if they don't like what an author writes, they think the rest of the world couldn't possibly enjoy it. If someone writes a book about a dream they had the night before and they bring a draft to a publisher who doesn't like it, who's to say that there's not someone out there somewhere who might get something out of it?