Reflection on reading of chapters 1-5 of Write Beside Them

Reflections on Readings of Chapters 1-5 of Write Beside Them by Penny Kittle

I appreciate reading the book "Write Beside Them" by Penny Kittle, it reveals to me a way to teach writing to get result. Her positive outlook on life as a teacher supports the stand point she maintain as a teacher of writing. As a start off. she wakes up in the morning looking forward to her writing class with her students for the day. She said and I agree "If you want better writers, all of the power lies within you. It's all about teaching". It is true that many factors influence the lives of these students but according to Kittle statement and which I strongly support "The factor that had a greater impact than all of the other combined was the effectiveness of the classroom teacher". therefore according to this teacher of writing "Teachers make the difference, not test", Indeed I can boldly echo along with her, what Power - what opportunity lies in our hands.
In 'This I Believe' , I understand that when we are set to teach writing, our focus must be to write along side our students because this will make us more real and human to them that just one distant 'being' called teacher. This method of teaching is like being a guide to our students and I consider it one trusted way to help students become participants in the process of learning to write. I enjoy the transparency involve in this writing, when she express the process she went through as she grew from one point to another as a teacher of writing, particularly from being all 'tell' and no 'show' teacher, when she expected her student to produce product in their writers notebooks without teaching them the process. She said, It is not enough to merely generate ideas, we must develop and teach our students processes, strategies, and techniques for developing their ideas. She makes me see the value of showing students what we go through when we write, so that they can understand that their struggles are similar to ours and they can be conquered.
In her view, students need to write everyday and continuously improve their writing, practice of writing is what is require of everyone who wants to learn to write and it does not matter what level they are. I admire her viewpoint when she said, "I teach students to read like writers, to study model texts and to experiment with forms of imitation", it is like encouraging them to see everything around them from the perspective of a writer.
Kittle also focus on the importance of writers notebook in the writing process and students development, she stated that, students free-writing in a notebook help them find their voice because when they are not bound up by what the writing is supposed to be, voice appears effortlessly. according to her, just as it is important for them to find their voice, they have to move on to controlling their voice which according to her is the beginning of learning to write well.
Having introduced us to the concept of writers notebook, she equally provides us with examples of how to fill it with quick writes. There are only three rules to her quick write and these are,
 Write the entire time, write quickly without letting the critic in your head censor you and relax, have fun, play.