Hey Everybody:
I've started my blog and wanted to share my reflection on a book with a title"Living Between the Lines". I found the book is a good example of this week's topic(Assessment for learning) as well as a leading start for our practicum. the main theme of the book is teaching of writing and the connection between reading and writing. The author encourages teachers to use the notebook as a tool for writing and living then she suggests the shift from notebooks to projects where small groups are the fertile environment for sharing experiences and thoughts. The author"Lucy McCormick Calkins"as a professor of English Education and Director of the Teachers College Writing Project emphsises the importance of reading and writing the story of our lives. The reason for her to highlight real life stories is that they take writers and readers on significant journeys. The point that I want to share with you about time and the idea of giving our students enough "slow to grow"as Eve Merriam said: A Lazy Though
There go the grownups
To the office
To the store,
Subway rush,
Traffic rush;
Hurry, scurry,
Worry,flurry.

No wonder
Grownups
Don't grow up
Any more.
It takes a lot
Of slow
To grow.
The students want clearly set goals, methods of frequent feedback, and records of growth shared with classmates. When students get opportunities to read each others' piece of writing, comment on them and are trained to self-assess their own work they become aware of the criteria of what makes a written project . The students' reflections and reading the classmates' responses enable the young writers to grasp the concept of setting goals for writing projects and looking backward to revise their plans in order to create a writing portfolio which the student may go back and appreciate his\her own improvement and the skills acquired during the learning journey.