The reading and writing process

In this weeks journal I wanted to talk about something that has been a hot topic in my main placement classroom and that I can now greatly relate back to the Fox chapters. A few weeks ago I attended the writers workshop training because that is what I will be teaching in the winter and spring. While I was at this workshop there were a lot of angry teachers that were explaining that they did not like writers workshop because it does not teach students to write properly, spell correctly or edit their work. This got me thinking a lot about this program and has sparked some pretty interesting conversations between my master teacher and myself. Our conversations have consisted of a back and forth conversation about how on one hand, writers workshop allows children not to get tied down by worrying about spelling and proper conventions and worry more about expressing all their ideas, but on the other hand, is that such a good thing? When do these kids learn how to spell? Is this another curriculum? Could they do both? Most of these conversations have been left unsettled and left with the realization that since the school is telling us to do writers workshop that is what we will do.
However, after reading these chapters in Fox, I feel much more settled with writers workshop because I see the process that kids go through in developing their vocabulary, reading, and writing and I can see now that these kids are in fact learning every day that they write (even if its no where near being "correct" writing).
One thing I found really interesting was the idea of word configuration. "Configuration consists of a word's shape, it's length, or an eye catching letter" (Fox, 71). Even though the kids aren't following direct alphabetic rules they are still starting to really think about text. In trying to write using these skills they are using the knowledge they do know and getting more comfortable with it every time their pen hits their paper. At the pre-school and kindergarten age I fully believe that the use of "configuration cues" are extremely helpful in moving along the process of these young readers and writers because looking for these cues "require that children actively think about written words" (Fox, 71).
One example in the text that I see a lot in my classroom is the example of Lexi. Lexi spells semiphonetically, meaning she, "uses letters to represent some, but not all, of the important sounds in words" (Fox, 78). I can't help but see how this helps a young reader rather then hinders them because they are actually trying to use there phonemic awareness to write what they are trying to say. They are taking what they know about a certain word, such as they know ball starts with B so they simply write B to represent ball. This is starting their process of sounding out words and they are starting to make connections with the sounding of a word and the written word.
Overall, I really enjoyed reading Fox's 3 chapters because it gave me much more knowledge about the process of kids word identification and phonemic awareness. It is a struggle for me as a teacher not to just tell a kid how to spell something when they ask. However, it is so important to help them make the connections of sounding out words and trying to connect those sounds with a written letter. Fox does a really nice job of giving his readers activities as well as explaining all the different phases that children go through in this reading and writing process.