Jun Lee

Self Concept as a Writer

Jun Lee has struggled with academic self confidence in all areas of class since the beginning of the year. It was a slow, difficult process for Jun Lee to learn basic alphabet knowledge like the sounds letters make and the names of the letters, essential information for developing literacy (Harrison, Ogle, & Keitly, 2011; Pinto, Bigozzi, Gamannossi, & Vezzani, 2012). His parents reported similar difficulties learning Korean too. His lack of alphabet knowledge and difficulty applying what he knew to writing was evident in his first work in Writing Workshop (Figure IS 1).

Jun Lee's lack of self confidence was one of the reasons I was inspired to try Writing Workshop. According to Graves (1985), "Although writing-process work helps all writers, it seems to be particularly successful with people who see themselves as disenfranchised from literacy" (p.37). I carefully considered different ideas on how to protect Jun Lee's fragile ego. Initial mini-lessons were on the concept of kid spelling and the use of a magic line when students did not know any letters to use to spell a word (Behymer, 2003; Hertz & Heydenberk, 1997). I read Jun Lee's first works aloud and gave him praise. Instead of correcting his work, I used adult underwriting (Behymer, 2003). This all seemed to be working well until I displayed his work with the rest of the classes. Other students saw his writing and questioned him about his string of numbers he used to write "blue" and "2 buttons". Even though I explained it was kid spelling and perfectly fine which the students acknowledged, Jun Lee's ego took a hit. For the next several days, he was unwilling to attempt to write anything down or share. Jun Lee had a full blown case of what Graves (1985) described as "I-don't-know-anything syndrome" (p.37).

Encouragement and praise did not work with Jun Lee at this point. He wanted help spelling every word. He would ask me and his neighbors to help him spell words so much that it was an interruption. If he could not find help to spell a word, he would not write (Figure J1). I decided to try and give Jun Lee learning strategies that would help him perform what he was already capable of doing (Calkins, 2011; Shulz, 2009). Since Jun Lee showed he was writing in the emergent and semi-phonetic stages of writing, I encouraged him to say a word repeatedly and write down what sounds he heard, even if it was just a consonant or two. We had practiced this countless times in phonics class, but he finally began verbally sounding out words on his own for the first time after just a few one on one conferences. I reinforced this behavior with praise, but still needed to remind Jun Lee regularly when he felt frustrated with spelling on his own. When he started using this learning strategy, his writing was immediately and fully in the semi-phonetic stage of invented spelling.

Figure J1- Jun Lee does not write

With his writing finally at a similar level to peers, his confidence grew quickly. More confidence allowed him to write more, which gave him more practice using the different writing strategies we learned. He also started to show interest in sharing. Sharing was difficult though and put Jun Lee's ego at risk (Bomer & Laman, 2004). Other students had trouble understanding Jun Lee's writing and reading which shook his confidence. To counter this issue when Jun Lee first started sharing, I conferred with him about how to read loudly and clearly. I would also ask the students he would share with questions about Jun Lee's work so he knew he actually had an audience that listened to and understood what he was saying (Video J2).

Video J2- Comprehension questions about Jun Lee sharing

When I interviewed Jun Lee, he reported an unexpectedly positive outlook on writing and Writing Workshop. Jun Lee said he liked to write because it was fun and exciting. When asked what about writing was hard, he responded, "No Hard. Now is okay. Spelling and dadadadadada", implying he could repeat the word to spell it. Jun Lee mentioned he felt he had good handwriting and the his spelling and handwriting improved. He also felt sharing was fun because he liked to talk. This is all in sharp contrast to only a few weeks earlier when he would moan and pout when I got the class ready for Writing Workshop time. It took a lot of effort, but I must agree with Graves (1985) that Writing Workshop can be especially beneficial for those difficulties in literacy. Jun Lee developed a positive self concept as a writer. On the last day of recording observations for this project, Jun Lee asked for writing paper at play time for the first time and wrote a letter to his mom and dad with no help from others (Figure J3).

Figure J3- Jun Lee writes in his free time

Effects of Teacher Modeling

Jun Lee required structure in language models to feel comfortable producing work. When I presented him with a verbal language model, he got nervous and lacked the confidence to begin putting words on paper. Even when I encouraged him to draw a picture as a guide, putting the first few words on paper was difficult. Confidence in spelling was holding him back. Jun Lee constantly wanted assistance. He could not function independently, a necessary skill for students in Writing Workshop (Calkins, 2011; Fletcher & Portalupi, 2001).

When some key words were written on the board, Jun Lee felt comfortable knowing his spelling would be correct. In the interview, Jun Lee mentioned that he preferred not to write at home because words were not spelled on a board at his house. He was able to produce works in similar length to peers with this bit of support. When he lacked confidence, Jun Lee usually did not add his own words or sentence structures outside of what was displayed on the board. Towards the end of the observations as his confidence was growing, Jun Lee began to experiment with his own voice. After discussing the target language and having the words 'because' and 'igloo' spelled out for him, Jun Lee added some unprompted information about his imaginary life in an igloo (Figure J4). After gaining some confidence and advancing his spelling to the semi-phonetic stage, Jun Lee responded most positively to weak language models being written on the board. The confidence he built over several weeks enabled him to engage in more open, authentic writing in his own voice.

Figure J4- Jun Lee expands his writing

Jun Lee had a strong initial preference for full phrases and works to be written on the white board. He responded well to them when he lacked confidence to write in his own voice. Jun Lee expressed himself better without the pressure of coming up with the structure and spelling of entire sentences. He was also much more willing to misspell the few words needed to fill in the gaps of the models than to risk writing an entire piece that was incomprehensible to others. He used illustrations to make the writing his own and to organize his ideas (Behymer, 2003; Calkins, 2011; Fletcher & Portalupi, 2001). Even though he was confined by the language models and would not expand on them, Jun Lee often developed fun, humorous pieces like vacationing on a volcano (Figure J5). While strong written models of target language did not invite too much elaboration from Jun Lee, they did help provide him with a foundation to build confidence in his writing when he was struggling (Behymer, 2003; Fletcher & Portalupi, 2001; Hertz & Heydenberk, 1997). By having a strong model available to reference, Jun Lee knew he could safely share what he had written. The opportunity to use strong models early in the development process facilitated growth to the point where Jun Lee could write more openly using less structured, less explicit language models.

Figure J5- Jun Lee packs to visit a volcano

Writing Product development

Jun Lee showed positive development of his spelling, word use, grammar, and handwriting over the course of the Writing Workshop. In the first few writing opportunities, Jun Lee would often write random sequences of letters and numbers to represent words. Sometimes a high frequency word would be spelled correctly while another word would be represented by a single consonant, usually the initial consonant in a word (Gentry, 1982). Conferencing played a critical role in Jun Lee's spelling development. By showing him learning strategies to help identify sounds, Jun Lee overcame his dependence on others to spell. Over time, Jun Lee was able to identify more sounds in words and write two or three representative consonant sounds and an occasional vowel (Figure J5). He now represents most surface level sounds in words.

Through Writing Workshop, Jun Lee has successfully given his opinion, told a narrative story, and given information. This satisfies the three genres of writing required by Common Core standards (National Governors Association Center for Best Practices, 2010). Jun Lee is still developing other Common Core language standards like using various nouns, verbs, and adjectives correctly. He has improved a great deal in these areas in the last six weeks though, and should continue strongly for the rest of the year now that he is confident in himself. Jun Lee has especially improved in using verbs with more correct meaning. At the beginning of Writing Workshop, he would overuse 'I am' and 'I have/has'. Now Jun Lee's bank of verbs has expanded and he overuses 'am' and 'have' less often.

Even with great growth in several areas, Jun Lee remained stagnant in a few skills. Jun Lee consistently used subject/verb/object word order during the whole Writing Workshop observation. He did not deviate from this pattern. Jun Lee also employed seemingly random capitalization. This stemmed from his lack of alphabet knowledge, one of the key factors to his struggles with literacy (Harrison, Ogle, & Keitly, 2011; Pinto, Bigozzi, Gamannossi, & Vezzani, 2012). Jun Lee used some capital letters when he does not remember how to write the lower case letter. Overall though, Jun Lee has developed many of his writing skills well over the course of our Writing Workshop.