ASSIGNMENT EIGHT: WRITTEN REFLECTION- Sections Four and Five- Advocacy Is Also Essential and Teaching In Action: Lesson Essentials
Read Writing Essentials Chapters 11-12 and Section Five. Reflect on the comments below and any additional reactions you have after reading these chapters. Post your thoughts to the course blog.
Chapter 11: Build on Best Practice and Research
• What are some of the key research findings most relevant to writing instruction?
• What are the practices of highly effective teachers?
• How can you be part of the ongoing professional development discussions in your building?
• What about test scores? What are the characteristics of high performing schools?
• Think twice before adopting a “program”
Regie begins this chapter sharing her experiences doing residencies in schools and the surprising (and delightful) discovery that whole school cultures changed during the course of their work improving literacy instruction. As she said, “This is what education should be about…whole schools working together so that all students (can) succeed.” How is the climate/culture in your school? On your team? One reason we continue to look to Regie for inspiration is that we feel she is so practical. There is not one right way or method to teach writing. “That is why formulas, programs and recipes don’t work. Every context, school and person is different and has different needs. Literacy is not a set of acquired or learned skills.”
Chapter 12: Make Every Minute Count
• You need to “REDUCE THE PAPER LOAD!!!”
• What can we do that will save us time and allow us to focus more on meaningful instruction?
• Regie states, “Take more time to see the light!” Don’t get bogged down with daily worksheets and isolated exercises.
Though this chapter is short it is full of valuable ideas and reminders! Regie reminds us in this chapter to stop and reflect about what we are doing in the classroom. Ask yourself: Is this the best use of my time? Is what I’m about to do going to help my students become more joyful and accomplished readers, writers and thinkers?
“It might be that the best use of your time is to read a professional book, see a movie, visit with a friend. Sharing your experiences with your students may be a more useful way to get them to think about their writing than marks and comments on a paper.” “It’s hard to come to school all excited about teaching if you’ve spent hours the night before pouring over papers.” It is a disservice to our students and ourselves “if our out-of-school time is all about paperwork.” In fact, “Teachers’ comments on students’ papers do little to improve writing, even if the comments are positive ones. It is far more effective to conference with students and focus on specific writing issues with the student at your side.”
Also “(b)e sure that most of your writing time is devoted to writing, not preparing for writing or doing activities about writing. Safeguard sustained writing time; it’s critical for becoming a writer. Limit take-home work for students too, and place more emphasis on free-choice reading. Having more reading experiences positively impacts growth in writing skills.”
Regie closes this chapter by reminding us to breathe, relax and enjoy writing- and your life! “One way to reduce stress and have more energy for teaching and advocacy is to have a life outside of school. I worry about teachers and principals who work twelve-hour days. I have seen no research that shows educators who work the longest hours get the best results or that longer reading and writing projects teach more about reading and writing. Keep evaluating whether what you’re staying late for-or the hours of work you take home- will help your students become more effective readers and writers.”
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Chapter 11
ReplyDeleteI agree with Ms. Routman's teaching model and ideas. I work with talented committed professionals who struggle with too much to teach to too many students in a too short school year. HOWEVER, I see how Ms. Routman makes teaching writing well a practical fit. I will talk with my principal about beginning with everyone reading one of Ms. Routman's books and discussing it together. My colleagues already effectively teaches pieces of Ms. Routman's approach well but as a community we should have the same objectives, support each other and use similar language to help our students progress over the years.
Chapter 12
>Is this the best use of my time? Is what I’m about to do going to help my
students become more joyful and accomplished readers, writers and thinkers?
While this seems like simple advice, I can see getting easily distracted once we're on the high speed of the education treadmill by mid-September. I completely agree with the statement above but might need a tattoo inked on my hand to remind me to "make every minute count." That's also a lot of pressure in one way (to make every minute count)- sometimes it's a nice break to do something routine and menial from the madness of a busy school day. ;) But, no worries, I get the idea and agree.
Appendix A (page A-2.)
This was more difficult than I had anticipated. I think this means that my ideas about students and writing are still forming, especially after having read Writing Essentials (but isn't teaching always a work in progress.) Most beliefs were easy to respond to, a few still had me a bit shaky on my response.
CHAPTER 11
ReplyDeleteIt is reassuring to read Routman’s assertion that meaningful change doesn’t happen in a day—it takes “years of hard work, deep thought, and school wide collaboration.” Becoming an excellent teacher of writing is a process. I want to immerse myself in that deep thinking and hard work, and I hope my new team will, as well! In the fall, I will start teaching in a new school, with a new staff, and a new writing culture. These unknowns are daunting, but I now feel more prepared to speak knowledgeably about the writing essentials I want to cultivate in my own classroom. The research findings that Routman cites are simple yet powerful, and I was pleased to discover that my teaching already reflects much of the research. But, I feel like I now have more language to justify why I do what I do—to a principal, to a parent, to a colleague. As a K/1 teacher, a grade level plagued with disagreement about the best way to teach phonics, I especially connected with the research finding that “having students apply what they learn about sounds and letters to their own writing is a part of effective phonics instruction.”
At my new school, there is already a structure in place that allows grade level teachers to meet for collegial discussion each week for an hour, during the school day. This includes professional reading, sharing student work, and teacher observations. Routman cites these conversations about teaching and literacy as critical to effective writing instruction.
Routman’s thoughts about ELL students resonated for me, because half of my students speak languages other than English at home. She does not advocate for a special “program” for them, and she strongly advocates that ELL students do not get pulled out of the classroom during shared language and literacy experiences. I agree! My goal is to have a “push-in” model rather than a “pull-out” model of ELL instruction.
CHAPTER 12
As a teacher who is often the first one in the building and the last one to leave, this chapter is the most important for my professional and personal fulfillment! I spend a lot of time thinking about my students and their academic needs, yet I also spend time on unnecessary preparation and planning. Routman’s questions will become part of my daily self-talk:
• “Is this the best use of my time?”
• “Is what I’m about to do going to help my students become more joyful and accomplished readers, writers, thinkers?”
• Will this “help students become more competent, confident, and independent as literacy learners?”
TEACHING IN ACTION
Oh, to see Routman in action! I wish I could watch DVDs of all of these lessons, or observe her in person, but reading will have to do! She makes it seem so effortless—I’m worried I won’t take full advantage of the “efficiency of context” during conferences, shared writing, and scaffolded conversations. But, this comes with practice, and I intend to practice these components a lot next year!
I like how she is so transparent with her students, always stating her purpose. I.e.: “The reason why I’m writing in front of you is….” “The reason you need to listen to your classmates read their writing is….”
I like how she will sometimes do a whole-class share at the beginning of a writing workshop, rather than at the end. The purpose is to generate excitement, inspiration, and success.
I like how her think-aloud writing demonstrations include constant rereading and revision. This is a major modification I want to make in my own teaching. Usually I reread and revise at the end of a piece, but it is so much more realistic to do it during the writing process.
I need to modify her lessons for K/1 students, especially in regard to how much time they can sustain listening on the carpet. I also need to figure out what are appropriate publishing expectations for my students. Lots of recopying can be discouraging and time-consuming—I usually type the final copies. Perhaps later in the year, it would be more appropriate for them to hand-write a final copy.
These chapters were timely for me to read because I just received an email from one of my administrators about a training “opportunity” for a new writing program. Apparently it is some sort of “system” that helps students to break down their writing into component parts. As evidence of success, they show before and after samples of student writing. The before sample is a brief, somewhat illegible piece that reveals little student interest. Then, after working through the various graphic organizers, the student somewhat miraculously produces a lovely typed essay that is not only a few paragraphs, but a few pages long. One of our vice principals thinks that we should all be trained in this system. Most of the special ed. Teachers already have and sent along testimonials of their enthusiastic support. I wrote back that while I am happy that they have found something that works for them, as a writer myself, I would never use such a system and therefore didn’t feel it would be worth my time to be trained and then train my students. I know some professional writers and have done my own fair share of writing but never have I had to pull out a binder and work through templates like these. To me, that isn’t the joy of writing at all. That feels more like a recipe. Actually, when I cook, I look at a recipe and then take what I like, adapt it, make changes. Its very much like writing now that I think about it. Knowing the skills is definitely important, but as Regie says, these have to be taught in meaningful context. Otherwise, I can clearly picture the faces of my students (and the glares in their eyes if they aren’t already asleep).
ReplyDeleteI was thinking about your comments last week about persuasive writing. Its funny that so many of my students don’t like that genre but then again, it wouldn’t be fun unless I gave them more opportunities to write persuasively for a real audience on a situation about which they genuinely had interest. There are so many opportunities in the social studies to make meaningful written contributions to local papers, radio, even blogs that I need to keep these in mind as I develop plans. Regie talks about this in both chapters 11 & 12 as she has throughout but it helps to be reminded that this kind of writing is not only more effective for the students, it is more fun for the teacher as well.
The “paper load” that she talks about in the last chapter is something that for some reason has gotten to be more and more of a burden for me the more years that I teach. I have this ridiculous sense of responsibility to read and comment on everything but as she says, most of these comments go ignored. I have clearly set as a goal for myself this year that I will still read and give comments but will be more aware of focusing my rambles. I can structure more in-class conferences and will then feel better about writing less on their papers. I think that I will work on a notebook system for the fall so that I can glance at their writing but maybe for each week pick one day’s piece and focus on that. I could pick the piece that I also model for the students (or have another student model at the end of the term) so that my feedback is more meaningful. This could actually work! If nothing else, it is worth a try.
I looked over the appendices that are all easily adapted to my grade level and subject. One nice thing about my school is that we have instituted “professional learning communities” so it would be easy to bring a conversation about these topics into the mix. It turns out that I will be having a new 9th grade teaching partner in the fall (layoffs have taken a toll in our building) so as a way of getting to know my new partner and design our curriculum together, the statements about writing beliefs could generate a great conversation. One very fortunate development is that my new partner used to be the literacy coach for the building so I’m sure that she will be very open to working on writing and reading everyday and will have some valuable insights that she can share with me.
While reading these chapters, I got very motivated to facilitate a weekly group to discuss literacy in our classrooms. I know a lot of the primary teachers will be interested in joining me. My school has kindergarten through eighth grade, but we tend to stick with our own level. We have staff meetings that include all teachers once per week, but the agenda is always full. We only get once per month to meet as levels and usually there is an agenda set for us. If I were to begin a group, it would have to be on teachers’ own time after school. I think my fellow primary teachers would be willing to do this because we often complain in passing about not having enough time to collaborate, and feeling like we are on our own. I am excited to start this group! A great way to begin will be to use Appendix A to “examine our writing beliefs”. These teachers could really benefit from such a group, because we are all strong teachers with great ideas, but without time to collaborate, I feel like we have not reached our full potential. I think a lot of teachers (including myself) are intimidated by having professional conversations out of fear of being judged. A strength that we have as a group is we all respect each other, and will create a group that is supportive and helpful, not judgmental.
ReplyDeleteLiteracy instruction is so important in the primary grades because we set the foundation. I also plan on advocating for more opportunities and support for ongoing professional development. We have a new principal this year, so it is the perfect time to ask for a positive change- and now I have the research to back up my request!
To keep me on track and motivated, I plan on frequently referring to (and possibly posting) some of the lists that are included in chapters 11 and 12, such as Secretes of Good Writing, Fitting in Writing, Timesavers, and Practices of Highly Effective Teachers.
Time savers I need to keep in mind while planning instruction include limiting prompts with no real audience, teaching basic skills in context, expecting good handwriting and correct spelling of sight words, using parents, teaching kids to edit and revise, and telling student why.
I also like the lesson framework that she lists on page 293. Referring back to this list will help me stay on track, and hopefully, will keep me from slipping back into old habits. I appreciate that it is not a rigid “linear model” like most writing programs, but instead serves as a flexible guide for good instruction that can be modified based on student need and teachers’ professional discretion.
Chapter 11
ReplyDeleteRoutman states in this chapter that the best teachers are not followers and have an independent spirit. This really was so enlightening and made me feel a bit better about my own teaching and some decisions that I have made. I think that many times teachers tend to be quick to join in because the district wants this or it is the “latest” thing. I often find myself to going back and asking myself “is this meaningful and does it have a purpose for my students.” If it does, that’s great. If not, I need to reevaluate what I am doing. I think that most teachers know when something that they are doing is “the right thing.” We know that when our kids become engaged (sometimes obsessed) with what we are doing they talk about it during school, recess, and at home with their parents. They are anxious to come to school and can believe it is time to go home.
It really only makes sense that as teachers we need to expose our students to great literature and give them time to read it either on their own, with a partner, or as a read aloud. I think that we also need to give them the time to write. Making it a priority to write everyday is an essential part of developing strong writers. I know that we often all feel overwhelmed by the amount of things that we believe need to be “covered” over the course of the school year. It goes back to is this meaningful and does it have purpose for the child.
I am very lucky to be at a district that values literacy – not programs. We are encouraged and supported in giving our students the time to read and enjoy books of their own choosing.
Chapter 12
I think that as teachers we always seem to have this need to “control” things in our classroom. Letting children explore their own interests and supporting them in that exploration needs to be a larger focus. I just completed an outstanding art class – Annie Painter Art Institute. She believes in giving students time to “play” with art first before discussing design elements. This really reminded me of how Routman talked about writing first, labeling second. We sometimes just try to cover way too much. We need to focus on deeper, more meaningful content, instead of just skipping over and covering way too much. Focusing on the joy of learning is so very important.
Section 5
Talking about writing before actually writing is a key element that I have continued to take from the text. I tend to want to skip over things and just get to writing. I think that having conversations before writing will make the writing clearer and more descriptive.
There are many of the writing activities that I am planning on using in my own classroom. I especially loved the idea of hero writing. I have in the past had my own students study and write about V.I.P.s (a Very Important Person). I think by starting with someone that they are more familiar with and that really impacts their own life the students will feel a great deal of success.
As I’ve mentioned before my school is doing the Regie Routman in Residence Series. It is a professional development program that schools can lead themselves. The program is broken into sessions with excerpts to read (many from this text) and videos to watch as a group. It has been wonderful as a new staff to come together our first year and be on the same page in writing. We have had many deep discussions because of it. Our district also has an early release day each week where students leave early so that teachers can have professional development time. We use our time once a month for the Routman in Residence work.
ReplyDeleteChapter 12 reminds me how important it is to stop and reflect professionally and personally. After my first year teaching half time kindergarten but staying full time and coming in on weekends to get everything done and ready, I had to re-evaluate my work. My second year teaching I worked at a school that was an hour drive from my house. It sounds like a bad thing, but it actually helped me to stop overworking myself. Since I wasn’t able to come in and work on the weekends and I had to drive an hour to get home each night, I was forced to create more meaningful work for students which meant fewer worksheets and busywork assignments. I think because I stopped working so hard outside of school hours I actually became a better teacher. Now that I again live close to my school (I commute by bike – it takes 5 minutes) I was worried I would start working more again, but I have kept up with the habits I formed before. I get there early every day and usually leave a little bit late, but I get everything done and never take things home and certainly don’t come in on weekends. It helps me to keep a balance in my life between work and home. For me, that is important.
As a staff for the professional development we are doing, each teacher assessed their beliefs (whether they agreed or disagreed). Then in our vertical teams we discussed our beliefs. It was a very interesting conversation. It was especially interesting when teachers disagreed only to find out that they had each interpreted the statement differently. At the end of that session we created our own staff beliefs about writing. We revisit those shared beliefs at the end of each meeting and they now guide our work in writing. I recommend doing that activity as a staff if you can.
I enjoyed the lesson outlines and plan to use the lessons for fourth graders with my class. I may even change the other two around to match my level. Secrets of Fourth Graders sounds just as exciting…
Great comments everyone! I’m psyched that both Sarah and Elin are going to facilitate professional book studies in their buildings next year. When I was coaching at Tracey School in Norwalk we started with Regie’s Reading Essentials text..because reading was an easier transition for most to make for most….and yes, Elin, teaching is a “work in progress”, and it seems you’re on a great journey! Sarah – best of luck advocating for a new direction with your school PD!!!
ReplyDeleteMeghan – how lucky for you to be starting in a new building which obviously values teacher development and collegiality, providing an hour a week for you to collaborate with your team is awesome! I also agree with both yours and Regie’s philosophy for ELLs – they just need excellent reading & writing instruction like the rest of the kids…and pulling them out so frequently often can further segment their learning. My thoughts on the K/1 publishing (especially K) is that if they show some sort of revision in their writing (adding detail using words/pictures…), I’d consider these published. If you’re putting them up on a board, I’d put a small note up saying that these are “works in progress”. I think they are still too young to have to be rewriting…If there is something small at the end of the year like you suggested, that might not be a bad idea.
Annarose – Yeah!!! (again) for sticking up for what you believe. I agree the program does sound like some hokey package piece of garbage that would NOT produce REAL writing like you said….I’m going to check it out online. I sympathize with the HS paperload (especially in a Social Studies class which has such a foundation in writing like yours)….I think that your ideas about conferring more frequently and using pieces for shared/modeled writing will help you! It seems to me that you’ll have a great partnership with your new 9th grade teacher, I’m sure with her literacy background, that she’ll be able to offer you some continued support in your journey!
Michelle, I loved your ideas…I completely agreed with your comments on how important it is for writers to have the opportunity to talk before writing…I think because of the constant pressure to “get things done”, that unfortunately, this part of the process does tend to get overlooked! Krista – great job catching up! It seems as though you also have the privilege of being a part of a community of learners in your building! I’m definitely going to look into this PD program (Regie Routman in Residence Series). It sounds like you’ve done a great job balancing both your professional & personal life!
Michelle quoted Regie, “that the best teachers are not followers and have an independent spirit”, and I think each of you can pat yourselves on the back….for being knowledgeable professionals who fight for what they believe is best for the students in their classrooms! Thank-you!!!!
Chapter 11
ReplyDeleteI appreciated Regie giving a detailed list of the research that has shown what effective teachers do. It is a good comparison that I can use to help me improve my own teaching. I love that it is spelled out what highly effective teachers do on pg. 268.
I know at my school, we could all really benefit from professional conversations. I plan to talk to my good friend Danielle, who teaches second grade, and see if she would at least be interested in participating in it with me. I think other teachers would be very interested in being involved, and it would be awesome to share some of what I have been learning from this class!
My school doesn't weight in too heavily on test scores, since we are private, so that helps to lessen the pressure there. However, it is obvious that as test scores rise, it can be a indicator that something is going well in class.
I think what has really stood out to me overall throughout the length of this course is that modeling is critical. That was the first thing mentioned on the list of why test scores had gone up for students. That speaks volumtes to me--I can't over model for my students.
Chapter 12
I love that Regie encourages us to reduce the paper load. That is music to my ears! How often did I feel like all the worksheets and such was so monotonous, but just didn't know how to teach in a better way. It is a good feeling to be equipped to teach in a way that kids love and is proven to benefit their overall learning achievement! I am looking forward to making the most of ever moment in class come fall!
Chapter 11
ReplyDeleteOne of the things that our school did at the end of the year was as a staff we wrote down for each grade level what we expected students to be able to do in writing. Then we posted them for everybody to see. This was very helpful. We were able to identify common themes that were not just conventions that we wanted to work on with students. We are going to continue with this next year and review it. This is good as some teacher’s were a bit overwhelmed at what was expected for the students to come in doing the following year. We are continuing our development in writing next year. Program wise we are using Lucy Calkins which aligns very well with everything Regie considers best practice.
As a resource room teacher it is a constant struggle of when to pull students for their time. I do not pull from the 90 minute reading block that our teachers are expected to teach. This has caused complaints as some of the students can’t read the material in the primary grades. In 4th, 5th and 6th grade when some graduate from special education I realize the importance of having them participate in reading group across the grade levels. They are able to access and understand the curriculum. They do sometimes miss the class read aloud as that is often a snack time or a period right after recess when it is easier to have them transition to the resource room. I would like to try some push in with writing but that requires a really consistent schedule from the classroom teacher. I schedule 7 grade levels and students are required to have their IEP service time so I don’t have flexibility after I establish the schedule.
Chapter 12
I think making a year plan of when I’m going to do Reasoning and Writing and when I’m going to do writing work shop would be helpful.The first year I taught in the resource room I primarily used a writing workshop format having read Regie’s book Conversations in graduate school. It unfortunately did not totally meet the needs of my special education students. Reasoning and Writing is a canned curriculum that I modify to best meet the needs of my students although I don’t think it covers everything. Since my student’s have seen success with Reasoning and Writing I think using that in combination with writing work shop format will work well. One of the things that bothers me about education curriculums is there isn’t one magical curriculum or method that will make every child academically successful. As teachers we have to take a critical look at curriculum and teaching strategies and adapt it to best meet the needs of our students.
Professional development wise I usually do my reading in the summer when I have more time. We also have had group discussion groups with professional development books during the year. I love to read for pleasure and struggle with reading for pleasure and professional development during the school year when my time is more limited.
Best Practice
ReplyDeleteWhat I enjoyed most about the advice given, was that learning is relevant and heavily dependent on modeling and not a “curriculum” or “program”. It seems genuine and practical. As a school, we are dedicated to becoming better teachers. Our goal is to incorporate the workshop model (same as optimal teaching model) across the curriculum in all subject areas. Teachers are in all different places in implementing this on a daily basis, but we have the same goal in mind. Every Wednesday is one-hour late start and time dedicated to professional development. I wish more of this time was spent in good conversations across grade-levels about our writing samples. We have started this conversation, but it seems as though new topics are always being presented and this should be an ongoing conversation.
I bookmarked the research in this section because I thought it was powerful and it’s all too easy to get caught up in the routines that we are used to which is not always best practice. This will be a great reference for later in the year when I start to feel overwhelmed to stop and remember what best practice tells me.
Relax!
Perhaps my favorite chapter in this book! I appreciate that to becoming a better teacher, my goal is to work smarter not harder. I need to give less paperwork based on isolated skills and not create huge writing assignments that I take home to grade over the weekend. Instead, I should effectively use writing time to conference with students and use anecdotal notes as my record keeping. I should write at home in my journal instead of writing comments on student papers that will never be read and applied. After conferencing with a student (previous assignment), I can see how in a few short minutes I can teach a skill in a really applicable way and then being able to share that learning with the whole class is so much more meaningful. Best of all, it doesn’t take hours of planning ahead of time!
Section 4:
ReplyDeleteThe reading convinced me that I do need to have conversations and read professional books to be a better teacher. Unfortunately, I do not see my teaching partner up for this, so I will ask two other teachers I know will be up for it. This is one area I can control. There lacks the sense of a building team and after reading I am unsure of how much change I can bring to that situation. The bright side is that I can try to get a few on board with me and we can work on these best practices together. Who knows...it may change the building after all.
Section 5:
This resource is a great way for me to move through Regie's thinking and start to make these automatic practices in my teaching. I am itching to get back to work now!
Closing:
I am one of those that work a lot, especially during the first two months. As I teach longer and change my practices based on best practices, I work saner hours after October. Regie makes a great argument for why I need to have a life outside of school. I will try to have a more balanced life for me and for my students. They deserve to have the best teacher I can be!
I’m moving from 3rd grade to grade 5 this coming school year so I have yet to see how the 5th grade team approaches writing. My impression of our school climate towards writing is one of isolated skill work, writing time as filler, individual classrooms and grade level teams doing their own thing; picking and choosing what they want from our writing curriculum. We adopted a new writing program about 4 years ago so I would think that the district would be looking at the results of state writing test scores to see if there has been improvement. Unfortunately, there has not been any school wide discussion of best practices in teaching writing. We have a 4th grade teacher who will be our new vice principal for this next year. This may be a place for me to start advocating for some change at our school.
ReplyDeleteBeing new to the teaching profession but older (in my late 40’s), I have lived a lot of life outside the confines of a classroom. I immediately felt the pressure to give more beyond what a normal 9-5 job required. However it hasn’t taken me long to get my priorities (a 12 year old daughter, my health, my parents) back in line. You must be efficient, choosy, set personal boundaries at the same time trust in yourself to be a good teacher.
Katherine
Kim
ReplyDeleteChapter 11:
Research shows that for students to become proficient writers, they need to write. I am one of those teachers who have allowed writing to get squeezed out of my day if time gets tight. This year, I want to have a time that is set aside and is won’t get lost in the shuffle of a busy day. I also need to make sure that the writing my students do is meaningful and something that they have a choice in.
Highly effective teachers make every minute count; whether they are having conversations with colleagues, reading professional books, or working with students in the classroom.
Going into this new school year, I already have one teacher who has just read Writing Essentials and we’ve talked about working together to implement new things. I am hoping to target a couple of other teachers as well so that we can offer support, trouble shooting, and encouragement to each other as we work through improving our writing instruction.
High performing schools use modeled writing across grade levels and have a high level of expectation for all students. Also, they work together as a community whether it is a community in the classroom who care about their audience of a community of professionals who collaborate on a regular basis about teaching.
I think that so many of us fall into the “quick fix” thinking of new programs to raise test scores. We all want our students to perform well. I like the thinking of taking students into consideration first and realizing that many of those programs would squeeze the love of learning and creativity right out of them…it sure would me!
Chapter 12:
Many teachers tend to be over-achievers and I think that this can work to our detriment. We quickly take on more and more stuff in an attempt to do the best we can for our students and in the process we do just the opposite; we wear ourselves out so much we can’t give our students our best.
Conducting conferences instead of taking home papers is a great way to manage our time more efficiently. Not only does it keep school work at school, conferences are a more meaningful way to teach.
Teaching in Action:
I think that this check off list is an effective tool to help teachers reflect on what we really think about teaching writing.
~Kim
The timing of reading this last two chapter has been amazing! Right now we (7th grade Language Arts / Social Studies teachers at LOJ) are in the process of reevaluating our writing curriculum. Reading this chapter reminded me of the pitfalls we need to avoid as we assess what we are doing.
ReplyDeleteThe first pitfall we need to avoid is teaching skills in isolation. We are already on that path. When I review my notes from our past meeting in late June, I see various skills and genres we’ve listed. Already we are focusing on the parts and not the whole. We are allowing the state writing rubric to dictate how and what we teach. Instead of focusing on writing, we are focusing on what the state will be looking for in our writing assessments. No wonder our test scores are becoming flat.
Nowhere in our discussions have we talked about effective teaching practices, especially modeling. Instead of sharing ideas on how best to model writing in front of our students, we have shared “gimmicks” we have used to create a buzz relating to a certain skill we want our students to focus on in their writing. Reading this chapter has clarified much for me. I appreciate how Regie talks about the importance of sharing, writing daily, and connecting with our students. I know we can do this and are good at it. We need to trust our most basic tenets of teaching and the importance of connecting and interacting with students.
We are fortunate at LOJ to have much of the structure and support we need already in place. We have weekly curriculum meetings and team meetings. Our principal supports our decisions and values effective teaching practices over programs and formulas. We even have supportive parents that would love to be more involved and are eager to know how they can support their children. Now we just need to have the confidence to redirect our energies in writing.
What am I most excited about doing this year with my students? Rediscovering the joy of writing. In our focus for higher test scores and our desire to reinforce various skills, we forgot what makes writing fun, powerful and meaningful. To begin with we have left out “purposeful” writing and the audience. How did we do that? It wasn’t being assessed by the state or it wasn’t listed in the scoring guide. Yes, “Voice” is a category, but as we would say to each other when we would analyze our test scores, “The state writing assessment doesn’t give our students points in the category of voice.” Thus we focused on the other parts: organization (using graphic organizers as the cure all), ideas and content, sentence fluency (exercises galore), and conventions (daily oral language). It is amazing! We actually have taken a puzzle and put out all the pieces and have asked our students to put it together without ever showing them the picture. We have focused on teaching them all the parts of writing (topic sentences, transitional sentences, introductions, body paragraphs, conclusions, etc.) but left out whole part about writing with purpose for an audience. YIKES!
Thank you Regie for also reminding me about how I am spending my time when assessing students’ writing. Thank you for saying 80% of what students write doesn’t have to be formally assessed, and students need time (and lots of it) to practice. In the fall I coach cross-country and know the importance of training and practice. We run and do activities to strengthen our running every afternoon. Some days we do some test trials, but that is for runners to get feedback on how they are doing. In cross-country only have a four or five meets during our season. That is when runners have a chance to assess how they’re benefiting from their training. In some ways I need to borrow some of my coaching philosophy and apply it to how I teach writing. My goal in coaching is for my runners to have fun and that they are becoming stronger in the process. I want them to feel good about their ability and themselves so they keep running. As a teacher, I want my students to enjoy writing, feel good about themselves as writers and to keep writing.
ReplyDeleteKelly Rolwes
ReplyDeleteAssignment #8
As I read Section 5, I understood the Optimal Learning Model so much more. At first, I did not really see the use in this model, but after really looking at and reading Section 5, it can to me. I love reading and studying research findings. It makes me more motivated to try and teach something new or different. So the research findings of this section were interesting. I also enjoyed learning about the characteristics of high performing schools. Since the writing standards for 5th grade really introduce persuasive writing and provide this as an option in the 7th grade writing test, I really want to up my game in teaching persuasive writing. This section provided good ideas for teaching persuasive writing.
I loved the Secrets of a Good Writer and involving the students to create this poster in class. This is a great idea.
I do feel I keep my workload manageable. I try very hard to do a great job teaching, but to also have a great social life too. It makes me a happy person when both things are balanced. One of the managing the work load suggestions that I will follow was to reduce the amount of commenting on writing papers. I tend to value personal comments and go a little overboard with time on trying to personalize and help every little thing of the paper. I plan to correct this by more focused comments, utilizing conference time in class, and assigning useful writing assignments.
We all need to take responsibility for being good teachers. I really appreciate that she says this. Too often I feel I'm a teacher that is just trying to get to the end of the list of things I've set out to do, and has forgotten that quality, not quantity matters. My wish is that my school and colleagues could really band together and work towards promoting literacy in all subject areas. We are fractured by subject, differing ideologies, and a general unwillingness to change, improve or be innovative. How many writing "trainings" have we been forced to sit through at the beginning of the year? Too many. How effective? Not at all. After reading these couple of chapters I just feel that we are doing things all wrong.
ReplyDeleteNext year we are being asked to teach an "intervention" class on sentence fluency and conventions. Teaching out of context. Routman would be displeased I'm sure. But, now I'm thinking about the ways that we can make the class relevant, the writing authentic. Currently we are looking at using isolated writing exercises. Just seems like a waste of time now.
I appreciated seeing the list of the characteristics of high performance schools. I was happy to see that we are doing at least three of the items on the list. In PRMS we are working on developing common goals, higher level questions, and have established PLC's for discussion of professional development in our content areas.
I plan to share Routman's book and the many best practices ideas she gives. I really would like to have a discussion group with my colleagues about her suggestions and how we could incorporate them into our school.
Chapter 12 and Appendices
ReplyDelete"Reach each child's heart and open mine." This statement touched me. It reminds me of my true purpose...which has little to do with prepositional phrases, expository essays, or verb tense. It is about relationships, trust and developing that love of the process.
I like the secrets of good writers activity. I do something similar, but have the kids make posters after we brainstorm as a class. Secrets somehow makes if more fun and engaging. Hopefully a year-long bulleting board can come out of this as a good reminder to me and the students.
Something that stood out for me in this chapter, and has throughout the book, is the fact that we have to focus on one skill with the kids...as skill that that kid needs. I resist that. I want to edit everything! I remember a parent getting angry with me because his daughter had a couple of misspelled words on an assignment I had graded. Why hadn't I corrected them, he wanted to know. That incident stuck with me. But, with Routmand and therapy, I will work on not being scattered with what I focus on with individual student's writing.
The best part of chapter 12 was Routman's Best Advice list. Really sums it all up. I'm going to print that up and make copies to tape in my writing planner, on my desk, on my bathroom mirror, my computer screen and my teacher bulletin board. I'm afraid I'll forget her amazing advice once the year begins and the clutter clouds my better judgement.
Routman supplies so many great ideas. The templates are especially helpful for me. the Writing Strengths/Next Steps in particular. What an easy way to monitor and keep kids focused on personal goals. We also use No Excuse Words so it fits in perfectly.
I also felt validated a bit with the suggestions to parents. We created a flyer with similar information for parents. It goes home in their very first weekly folder take home. I want to work this year on keeping parents informed and educated on best practices that I'm using and that they can use too.
While my copy of Routman's book is highlighted in pink all over, I think in the coming years it will become tattered, torn and well used. I look forward to becoming a better teacher through her advice.
Sorry for the delay in responding to your comments…I’ve been enjoying the great Northeast (VT, NH, & ME) with my family on vacation, and had very limited internet access to respond!!! Joelle, it is good to have the research to back up your instruction…for other staff members, administration, parents, and others in the community. Good luck with starting the professional conversation in your building…it’s amazing to see that when you find just one person to talk with, there are usually others who want to participate also….and you’re very lucky to be in a district not weighed down with “test score worries”…you’re definitely in the minority! Have a great year! Tamara, it’s wonderful that your building is having the “articulation” conversation. We just started a committee in the district to build articulation across grade levels. I feel your pain of having to figure out when to pull kids…I have to pull for reading intervention and it’s a nightmare! I also wish I could be pushing in for these students, because they really can’t afford to be missing ANY instruction!!! I think finding some balance of workshop and your Reasoning and Writing program sounds like it might fit for your students, you will know what’s best for them. And as far as the professional vs. pleasure reading, I have the same trouble. The only time I can really read for pleasure is on vacation weeks and summer….I just finished reading two great books!!! Christina, it seems as though you have a great professional learning environment in your district (I’m jealous). Good luck working smarter and not harder!!! Sarah, like Joelle’s situation, sometimes all it takes is two people wanting to grow together professionally before others are wanting to join in. Good luck with finding that balance and being the best teacher you can be. Katherine, the balance is so hard, and I hope that you are able to build the professional climate in your building. It’s always easier when you don’t feel so alone in your teaching. Good luck in 5th grade! Kim, I wish you success in not letting writing slide by the wayside. I’m fighting the same fight in my building (and district). Conferring will definitely enable you to manage your time effectively as well as boost your writing instruction!!!
ReplyDeleteChapter 11:
ReplyDeleteIn so many ways I feel like my school is on the right track but maybe the implementation is not right. We have been meeting in Prof. Learning Teams a few times a month but we have only been meeting with our content and grade level team. So we really don't have much of an idea of what is happening on the Mth/Sci. team or on other grade level teams. Each team is working on individually on content issues...when we should be focusing more on writing and reading across the curriculum. Students will not become better scientists or mathematicians if they are not good readers or writers. But we teach each of these subjects so independently and all of the teachers expect the LA teacher to turn each student into an amazing writer in the 1 hour that the teacher has with that student during the day. It is just not possible. I agree with Regie...if we want test scores to go up we need to ALL be teaching writing!!!
We have been told that we will be teaching an intervention class this year with a very specific focus...in 6 weeks we are expected to teach students how to write fluid sentences...pre-test/post-test, prescribed daily lessons etc.. Like Angela (my job share partner) mentioned in her post it is going to be very important for us to figure out how to make this class fun and relevant so that students don't just learn how to pass the test and then walk out of the class with no way to practically apply what they learned.
In my building we are truly fractured and we really need to come together as an entire community not just the grade level/curriculum teams.
Chapter 12:
I totally agree with Regie's statement that teachers need to lead balanced lives!!! And that we need to cut down on the paper work and make sure that we are really teaching and planning for things that will truly enrich the students life. Lessons should be centered around on helping students love to learn. I know that I seem to want to edit each students writing and that I get bogged down with trying to that and the amount of time that it entails. Not good!!! It is time to cut out the busy work and really focus on what matters...that is good teaching.
It's been neat reading other responses to the same material that I just finished reading. Different things stick out to others, but I also noticed many of the same things already mentioned. I, too, feel so much more knowledgable and able to defend my philosophy if need be.
ReplyDeleteHow valuable for us to always reflect and read professional research based materials as a teacher. How even more beneficial for share this information together as a staff. I would love to start some kind of forum with my school. The Routman in Residence program mentioned sounds really neat. I'll be in a new school next year with lots of the same staff. But, it will be neat to come up with our school philosophy together as we'll be starting from scratch together. Our Lucy Calkins program is very similar to Regie's beliefs, however, my school seemed to have almost a critical view of 'just writing for fun' for the most part. It's neat to have more research to back up the reasons why this is so important. My hope at my new school is that I can help make this an important area to be discussed and reflected on together.
The Secrets of Good Writers stuck out to me as a great way to encourage the writers in my class. I can see my 2nd graders really thinking that was a neat reason to keep writing and then to even add to the poster themselves.
This quote just melted me as it is a huge part of my teaching philosophy and I hope it continues to be.
" ...I have to spend time meeting those eyes and giving them reasons to smile. I have to believe I can make a difference."
I need to make every minute count as Regie says. Making a point to actually have a life outside of school. I along with so many others already mentioned the teacher that arrives early and leaves last. I'm still trying to get better at that! But, this chapter gave us some many reasons and ideas to help! I, also, agree with reducing the amount of paper! I know other teachers who think it's easier for them to keep up the paperwork, but it is nice to read the other side to support not doing this. I'm excited to try some of her own lessons in the back. They will be good to mix into various writing units to add a fun lesson!
Assignment 8
ReplyDeleteI would love to get a professional discussion meeting going in my school. I am a fairly new teacher and I still have a lot to learn! I’m surrounded by veteran teachers, but have learned little from them. Our meetings are taken up with budget and logistical news, not professional discussion. It is a shame because I’m sure I could learn so much from the teachers around me. I briefly was in a school that valued this very much- they read a professional book together and would have discussions. It seemed like it brought the staff together much closer than many other that I’ve seen. My goal is to keep developing my professional knowledge by reading books/articles, asking questions to peers and taking classes. I’m thankful that my district has not adopted a specific writing program that teachers must use. The teaching decision making is up to me- and I want to use the practices of highly effective teachers. I think this book has given me strategies and ways to make it fit for me, as every teacher has different strengths and weaknesses.
It is always nice to hear that our time is valued and to not take papers home! It would be impossible to score every piece of writing our students do and I haven’t even tried. I truly do believe that teachers are better when they have a life outside of school and a way to relax.
Chapter 11
ReplyDeleteIt was almost eerie to read the posting by Kelly right before me. I am in almost the same situation: there is very little collaboration and professional conversations, yet I know that there is an abundance of experience and knowledge in our staff. I really liked the "Characteristics of High-Performing Schools" list, and plan on sharing it with my colleagues. There are too many things on that list that I cannot check off. Hopefully they will see that, as well, and we can get a conversation going.
Chapter 12
I was happy to see Regie's comments about connecting her home and school lives. I think it is important for students to know that we want to share our own experiences with them so that they will feel safe to share, too.
Teaching in Action
How happy I was to see real-life examples of what this book has been about! While I have always been afraid of poetry, the sample lessons that Regie includes in this section made me want to get started planning a short poetry unit to kick-start the year.
Literacy has been the main focus in the Tigard Tualatin School District for the last several years. All teachers were trained in a literacy program designed to increase literacy skills across all subjects. Several times a year teachers meet in subject areas with other teachers in the district and we also meet several more times as grade level teams.
ReplyDeleteI think Regie’s philosophy on writing instruction is certainly worthy of healthy discussion during one of our next language arts meeting. I’m certain I will initiate a conversation about this class and will certainly recommend Regie’s book to anyone who seems interested.
One aspect I particularly like about Regie’s philosophy is reducing the amount of paperwork that flows across my desk. Although, I think some worksheets are very valuable, many are not, and are essentially busy work for the students. That busy work then needs to be graded by me, which adds up to a lot of extra work for very little gain. By reducing the amount of paperwork and focusing more on writing meaningful pieces, I will cut down on homework and it will allow me more time to roam around the room to offer guidance and conduct roving conferences.
The appendix has many useful lesson plans and reproducible that will certainly come in handy this year. My favorite sheet is the writing record, which I plan on using in my classroom to track what students are writing. The questionnaire in the appendix A really makes you think about your own personal philosophy towards literacy instruction. Those questions would be perfect for to start a discussion in our school/district to see how other teachers view writing instruction.
Our district has a plan to improve and align reading, writing, and math across the grade levels and curriculum. Two years ago we adopted a reading program and all the RTI and efforts were directed at reading. This past year our focus was writing. We looked at the 6 traits writing rubrics and what they looked like at each grade level. We formed grade level committees, chose areas of improvement and focussed our energies in improving those areas. Teachers that were successful in showing growth shared their strategies with others. We did some student mapping to see the progress made in each classroom and talked about the changes in each class and the relationships between students abilities, teachers, programs, etc. Having a fucused discussion on writing throughout was definitely helpful.
ReplyDeleteIn terms of using time efficiently, I have only one half hour to 45 minuted with my ELD students. I try to cover as much ground in that half hour as possible but also in a way that students don't feel overwhelmed. I chunk information, model explicitly, we have plenty of guided practice, before they set out on their own. And as is the nature of writing we practice, practice, practice. I just participated in a Step Up to Writing training and walked away with quite a few new tools that I think will make the teaching and writing process more clear and therefor more efficient for both for myself and my students. I am excited to integrate these new skills into the writing process.
Thanks for your comments Kristin, Kelly R, Angela, Megan M., Kelley, Kelly B., Leslie, Brad, & Lily. I absolutely loved Kristin’s comparison of us as writing teachers to being coaches! I couldn’t agree more! As we use the Optimal Learning Model, we are coaching our students towards independence in writing. Reading all of your comments, I heard many of your frustrations with the effects of having to address the state writing assessments, the lack of professional conversations that are happening in your buildings…
ReplyDeleteKelley commented on this quote " ...I have to spend time meeting those eyes and giving them reasons to smile. I have to believe I can make a difference." You guys can make a difference!!! Even with these frustrations that we all deal with in our profession; you have the power to move forward with your knowledge of what good writing instruction is. Maybe that means inviting others into your classroom to share some of your instruction, maybe trying to start a book study or other professional conversation with other colleagues. I hope that this course will help each of you can find some way to make a difference.