Question 1 - Think and Search

These are the core elements of what writing is about! Students should be encouraged to speak their truths and embrace the more genuine and personal elements of writing. If students are taught to think of these 3 things first, I feel that it would engage them and get them even more excited about writing, while producing better final products in the end.

I love the way this analogy is used here! This essay opened my eyes to just how frightening the 5-paragraph essay really can be - this section reminds me of the part in the Kittle and Gallagher video where they discuss taking note of energy and passion in student writing pieces first, rather than just always going after structure, form, and grammar.

Using feedback from others when it comes to writing is crucial. It is such an opportunity to have a piece of writing read by someone else and to then use it to grow or improve the writing. I think people often have the misconception that getting feedback means that something is terribly wrong, when it really just presents suggestions for growth.

I really like this idea - I think it would be really interesting to see the conversations that could come from students taking part in an activity like this that meshes both their voice and the author of a text's. It seems like it would really personalize the reading/writing experience and process.

It is important to let students know that the classroom is a safe place to take risks. Taking risks means exploring and being curious, and not getting it right the first time, especially if someone is trying something new is alright. Students need to know this.

I love this - the idea of "approaching learning from an active stance" is exactly how it should be from both a student's and teacher's perspective. Students should be actively involved in their own learning and teachers should be equally as involved and active in each student's learning process. The blending of these is when the best education can shine through!

I think openness is such an admirable quality an individual can have, especially when it comes to writing. To me, this means being open to the ideas your mind can present, but also the ideas those around you can bring to the table.

This is exciting! It will be amazing to see what future forms or ideas for differing forms of instruction come with more research in this field. I would be curious as to how they plan on conducting furthering research on different areas of writing/different age levels of students.

I find this antidote important because it showcases how vital it is to give students different avenues for writing in the classroom. They should be given the chance to write in different formats, for different audiences, and in response to different emotions. This will make them a more well-rounded writer.

I think giving students an example to model their work after can be really important for the learning process. While it is vital to let students lead portions of their learning, especially while writing, having a good sample or model to go off of is important for improvement and inspiration.

I find this statistic to be really inspiring. I love that it can be proven that working together on something can have a huge lasting positive impact. This just shows the importance of allowing students to connect with their peers in the classroom and learn from one another, not always just the teacher at the front of the room.

This is a very important idea to remember when working with students of all ages. Each student will be coming from a different background and different experience level outside the classroom, and it is important to account for those inside the classroom.