Reflections from September 18th

I find myself a little astounded.....I am doing my first (of many univsersity) reflection(s) on-line, for public viewing! I can feel a bizarre tension within as I type this. I do not think that this tension comes from a sense of vulnerability though, as I can write and not write whatever I choose. Perhaps typing letters which make words which make sentences which make stories which come uniquely and adventurously into this world, seems distant when inserted into a glowing screen. I find it difficult sometimes to consider how my stories are held as delicately and as secretively as cyber space will allow. This world of technologie has wonderful and huge implications for communicating with our world and with our classroom, but I feel a little simplified knowing that with an intentional, accidental, or coincidental touch of "delete," my stories and words are lost forever - and nobody even has to know.
So, here I sit - in front of the screen, reflecting upong my learning in the world of writing and specifically in Edel 408. It was wonderful to hear the stories and pieces of writing that people shared in class yesterday. I feel as though I have been introduced to my classmates in a way that has given us all a kind of backdoor into each others lives. I was in awe of how willing people were to share their writing and the level of trust each person had in placing their stories in front of them and believing that they (and we) would not be hurt in response to our reading.
When we did the excercise in class yesterday where we were asked to consider all of the writing we had done in the last 5 years, I was really amazed with how much writing I had done because I had been asked to write or because I needed to get something out of my writing (I believe this is called Transactional Language according to James Britton). Writing for enjoyment only seems to come for me in moments of stress or tension (where I need to write out my thoughts) or when I have experienced something wonderful (and I want to write it down to remember it!). Since I have been in university, the focus of the majority of my writing has been on making sure my writing is correct (correct number of sources, correct format, correct essay topic, correct citation, etc.) instead of really meaningful for me. In our textbook, on page 21, it talks about the importance of making sure that our writing is menaingful, "not just correct." Meaningful writing is significant, interesting, exciting for kids - and us students.
I have so many questions about teaching children to write. During my IPT, there was a huge variety of abilities in regards to "proper" writing, reading, and literacy in my grade 6 class. I almost felt overwhelmed just watching my mentor teacher try to "balance" the balanced literacy program that the class was involved in. The experience and background that each child entered the class with was so extreme from one end to another, that I wouldn't even know where to start.
My question is: How do you teach a community of children to write, when they all come with such diverse abilities?
My other question is: (Regarding James Britton's three ways of organizing writing) How much of each category do you encourage kids to engage in? Are the three kinds of writing split equally?

I think that's it for journal entry number 1!! I haven't yet seen anybody else's blog, so I hope this was not too long (or too short).
Have a great weekend!
Cayley

Trial Post

Hello World (and my EDEL class).....here is my first post!