Response to Williams

While reading Williams "Preparing to Teach Writing," I was very interested in the tone he used. Williams did not use a tone of questioning or wondering as he wrote. Rather, he seemed certain of the assertions he posited. There were times I found myself wondering what students he had used these methods with, and how he knew that the methods worked. Williams was a very concrete writer, who did not allow a range of ideas or attempts, rather is was more like a formula for teaching. If a teacher did these three things, students would write and workshop well in class. However, I am not buying the formula. The classroom is an environment that is always changing. To say that one thing will work all the time with all students is impossible.

Williams writes of the need for the classroom to be a community in order for students to be comfortable when workshopping their writing. He states that the students should have some time to get acquainted with each other in the beginning of the term. Williams also states that students should learn how to form feedback based on the teacher's modeling. Although I agree that the teacher must model the desired behavior, I do not think that this is enough to teach students how to give feedback to each other in the workshop setting.

One resource I found when looking through information for my student teaching is teacherweb.com. This is a website that has lesson plans that can be used for class. They are broken down by age group and subject area. There are lesson plans for writing, literature, speaking and much more that would be very useful in the English Language Arts classroom.