ASSIGNMENT FOUR: WRITTEN REFLECTION-Section Two- Teaching Essentials Chapters 4-6
Read Writing Essentials, Chapters 4-6 and briefly reflect on the following thoughts written below and any additional comments that you have after reading these chapters. Post your reflection to the course blog.
Chapter 4: Raise Your Expectations
• Why we need to raise expectations – ESPECIALLY for our minority and lower socio-economic students
• How to raise expectations in your classrooms as well as in your grade level and throughout your entire building
• What about handwriting, spelling and editing expectations?
• How to use the Optimal Learning Model to support your students’ needs
“Raising expectations” for our students is a big push in all of our districts. Under “No Child Left Behind” many schools have been identified as “in need of improvement” and have been working furiously yet unsuccessfully for over ten years to “close the gap” for our minority children. But more important than improving performance on high stakes tests is remembering that if we raise our expectations and teach explicitly, then our students will rise to the occasion and astonish us with the high quality work that each of them is capable of.
Regie has some great insight into the need to raise expectations of our students and feeling comfortable and confident with the decision to set high standards for all learners. She raises the question, What are our clearly articulated, rigorous yet reasonable expectations? This is a question that we should reflect on as individual teachers, and one that should be the starting point for a conversation within our grade levels, buildings and across entire districts.
We’d like to know what you think of one of our favorite quotes from the book: “Worksheets aren’t good enough. The students who can do them don’t need them, and the ones who struggle with them feel defeated by the red marks, which only reinforce their feelings of inadequacy. WORKSHEETS FOSTER MEDIOCRITY!” (We personally wanted to shout out when we read that!) Please include your thoughts in your Section Two Reaction.
In this chapter, Regie also sheds some light on several topics that teachers often ask about. “What about handwriting expectations?” and “Conventions, Editing and Publishing?” It’s always helpful to get another professional’s point of view on these pressing issues! Enjoy the chapter!
Chapter 5: Do More Shared Writing
• Where does Shared Writing fit within the Optimal Learning Model?
• For which learners is Shared Writing appropriate?
• How can we link Shared Writing with Shared Reading?
• How can Shared Writing be used to support word work?
• What are some “Tried and True” ideas for Shared Writing?
Regie's idea of Shared Writing is very different than that of many other professionals in the field. So often we use Shared Writing only with the primary grades. As Regie states, “What a great way to teach and engage all students in all aspects of oral and written language.” If we are to consider teaching through all phases of the Optimal Learning Model, we can begin to see how important Shared Writing is for our students. We think that the idea of using Shared Writing in both upper elementary and the middle schools is a new way of thinking for many of us.
One of the reasons Regie encourages teachers to use chart paper and an easel, instead of projecting to a screen with an overhead or document camera, is that the children are seated right with you on the floor, which usually holds the children’s attention a little better. Another idea that has worked great for me is to move the overhead machine to the group area and place it on the floor in the middle of the group in front of the easel. I then project the machine onto the white space of the easel. It’s great because you’re able to be right there in the middle of the group and have the benefit of writing more quickly onto a transparency rather that chart paper. You’ll need to consider which of your Shared Writing activities you’ll want students to be rereading (don’t forget that you can hole punch transparencies and put them in a binder for future reference) and which you may want posted to your walls on charts.
Regie’s list of “Tried and True Ideas for Shared Writing” (page 112) is very extensive. It would be helpful to take a look at Regie’s list as you create your curriculum map for the year. Where would some of her suggestions fit within your science, social studies, math, reading and writing units across the year?
Chapter 6: Capitalize on the Reading-Writing Connection
• How can we become more effective integrating our reading and writing instruction?
• Are we as efficient as possible with our responses to reading?
• The benefit and necessity to integrate our content area teaching with both reading and writing
• The importance of writing (and reading) more nonfiction
We know research shows that reading achievement affects writing achievement and vice-versa, and we also know that it continually gets harder to fit “it all” into our day. Effectively using reading and writing connections throughout the day in all areas of language arts, math, science, social studies, and even specials such as art, music and library, is our only option.
Regie’s suggestion of taking a closer look at how we use written response to reading is a very important one. Careful consideration is needed to decide if what we’re asking the students to do is “worth their time.” For example, if the response we’re looking for will “deepen comprehension, cause the writer to reflect on the content, and/or foster appreciation for the text” then it’s worth it. We whole-heartedly agree with her statement that many of the overly structured assignments such as book reports can alienate our readers! While response journals do have their benefits for us professionally Regie states, “they also take up a lot of our time!” It’s a very organized teacher who can effectively keep up with their responses without feeling overwhelmed and frustrated. Don’t forget the bottom line – “Be sure that students spend more time reading than writing about reading!” (Page 126)
We are so glad that Regie addressed how to effectively teach summary writing. We know that many teachers have a difficult time differentiating between a summary and retelling – I (Jackie) was one of them until several years ago. The snapshots and procedures that Regie shares on how to teach summarizing are invaluable and should be a reference that we all refer back to throughout our teaching year.
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Chapter 4: Raising Expectations
ReplyDeleteI have always struggled with this piece. Of course I want to raise expectations in my classroom, no problem there, right? Here’s the rub: I never want to take the joy and pride out of the child in order to correct what needs to be fixed. It always seems to me that the kids who need to most “fixing” done are also the kids who need the most confidence building. This chapter helped me see how both of these needs could be met. So much of helping a struggling writer is doing what we as teachers innately love doing: being kind and encouraging.
As far as raising expectations in my own classroom, I feel that this is a task that I will have to be diligent in implementing. I have to really focus on not accepting that my words will do more harm than good. After reading the chapter, I was still unclear about exactly how you get a student to edit and revise their paper without doing it for them. I understood that some of it could be “free” help from the teacher, but what about the students whose papers are almost entirely incorrect? I hope that this is addressed more in depth later in the book.
I love the optimal learning model. I feel like I still need to work on staying in that middle area for a lot longer, in order for all students to benefit from the writing time. I can’t wait to begin challenging myself to stay in this area for a longer amount of time.
Chapter 5: Do More Shared Writing
This was a really powerful chapter for me. I have never taught writing in this way (until this year, using this book). I feel that there were so many valuable pieces to take away from this. The part that I was most helped by was the actual dialogue from the “Magic Book” shared writing. Sometimes I feel that I just don’t know how to sequence things effectively, or that I take way too long on certain other things.
Shared writing supports the Optimal Learning Model and EVERY learner. I love this because, as I have mentioned before, I have a really hard time staying in the middle for long enough. I feel that with this new information, I can work in that area for longer.
The ideas given for word work in shared writing were great! It reminds me of a GLAD strategy that I use called “The Farmer in the Dell” sentence frame. The kids pick adjectives, adverbs, prepositional phrases, and verbs to support a noun that has been chosen. They then sing the sentence they have created to The Farmer in the Dell. Once they have mastered reading it, I transfer their sentences to sentence strips and cut them up. They have to “trade” words to make a complete sentence. I love activities like this because they have such rich knowledge and academic language and the kids are totally engaged!
The “Tried and True” ideas were wonderful! Because I have not done much of this kind of shared writing, they give me an excellent springboard to begin. At the beginning of the year, the kids wrote an introduction for themselves with the idea that a new student would be their audience. I took each of their pictures and we made this into a class book. When/if a new student joins our class later, the book is set on their desk so that they have something fun and informative to look at. Kids love to have their pictures in a book.
Chapter 6: Capitalize on the Reading-Writing Connection
ReplyDeleteI am so glad that this chapter addressed the reading-writing connection. This is something that I have been trying to incorporate this more into my everyday work. I have them reflect on what they read, talk about what they noticed in the science book, etc.
The summary writing piece was huge! I had no idea how hard it was to teach summary writing until I had my own classroom and said something like, “Just write a quick summary of what you read.” Holy cow, not so easy.
This chapter really helped me see that kids have to be taught, then taught, then taught some more, before they are ever asked to do it independently. I like the guidelines that are given on Page 130. I feel that using picture books at first is a great strategy. I also wonder if there is benefit in modeling this each day after read-aloud of a longer chapter book.
Assignment 4: Part II Response.
ReplyDeleteI found Chapter four on raising expectations to be particularly insightful. Socio-economic issues are not a huge problem in my school. However, I feel that raising my expectations of what kind of writing I expect out of my students is. I also agree that raising our expectations as a staff of what our children should be able to accomplish as writers is even more powerful. I feel like for the most part my students are strong readers. There is no reason that they shouldn't be equally strong writers.
Too many times, I get bogged down in editing rough drafts for errors that I know the students know are incorrect. Starting this morning, I began demanding rough drafts that are free from errors that the student should be able to correct on his/her own. I pointed out to students that they are quick to point out errors in my work and in the daily sentences corrected as a class on the board, but too often the breeze through their writing and leave it full of careless mistakes.
Write now we are working on persuasive essays and I thought it was particularly insightful that errors are distracting to our targeted audiences. I pointed this out to students. The optimal learning model is an effective tool for informing students about what exactly your expectations of them are.
In response to the comment about less worksheets in the classroom, I agree that our goals as teachers is to provide students with more meaningful, targeted lessons and worksheets don't accomplish this. I feel that worksheets are especially out of place in the realm of writing.
Chapter 5
I believe that Shared Writing fits squarely into the shared demonstration and guided practice sections of the OLM.
Shared writing one activity that I don't do enough of tin the classroom. It is the type of lesson that after I finish an activity, I comment to myself about how productive that exercise was. I should create space and do more of it.
I find Shared Writing to be particularly useful to integrate writing across multiple content areas. I try to frequently use it in science to summarize the purpose and content learned in specific hands on lessons. For me is a great wrap up activity and allows students to access and use language to explains what we just accomplished and observed.
I enjoyed Routman's list on page 112. I especially liked all the stand alone exercises such as procedures for the classroom, recipes, and welcome letters.
Shared writing seems to be another means of communicating expectations of writing to students.
Chapter 6 reflection to come after I read it.
Thanks
Thanks Lisa and Tod for sharing your comments. Lisa, I’m glad that you are feeling a little more comfortable in supporting students in revising their work and making it better. I think the most important thing to remember is that you need to work with them on only ONE teaching point during your conferences…try to think, “What’s the ONE most important thing I can help this student with that will move the child forward in his/her writing skills?”. That way you stay focused, and the child can focus on making one thing better rather than a laundry list. Tod, I completely agree that it is so important for grade level colleagues (as well as grades above & below for articulation), have the opportunity to meet and discuss student writing. Using “audience” is a great way to hold students accountable for their editions and expectations. I’m glad you both had such an “Ah-ha” moment about the shared writing…when I was teaching 4th grade, I found it to be a missing link in my writing instruction. Once I started using it in my instruction, it really made a difference.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the suggestion of focusing on ONE skill at a time. Sometimes the perfectionist in me wants it all correct, right now!
ReplyDeleteChapter 4
ReplyDeleteThis chapter gave me pause for some serious thought, and I felt the end of it is very inspiring. I am often questioned by some of my fellow staff members who wonder why I would put such hard tasks out for some of my students. I hear repeatedly, “I think that is a big undertaking.” The quote about attempting without failure however is a big part of why I do what I do with my class. Is there really ever a failure if you try?
I often hear from others that ELL students will succeed just as soon as they have the language. But is this a reason not to push them right now? I want to go and make something really exciting happen with my ELLs so that I can show this to others and hopefully inspire them to take the same kind of action.
The portion on handwriting and fixing up writing really blew my mind. We have LOTS of conversations in my building surrounding handwriting and I find a real division amongst schools of thought. I must confess that I am a fan of technology, so I do not place a huge weight on handwriting. I also am someone who does not have exemplary handwriting, so I hate to critique my class when mine own is not up to par. I thought that Routman shares a good message about not excepting less than par. It would not be such a bad idea for me to ask some of my students to try a little harder on handwriting when submitting a final draft of a paper.
The information shared about the OLM by Routman in this chapter has helped to give me a little clearer picture of how to use it. I would like to try and get a shared pen paper going some time in the next week to see if it will help get some ideas popping around my class and to help a few reluctant writers to push forward a little more. The piece of this that I am struggling with is to take the time to spend completing this activity. I want my writing time to be spent having students mostly write, but if we often share the pen, then that will cut into some of their writing time.
Chapter 5
ReplyDeleteI have to make a confession. This is pretty bold to put this out into the cyberworld, but I am going to admit to all of you that I am a reformed literacy worksheet-aholic. My first year we were following a flood model for reading instruction, and that meant that we had to create centers, or some other kind of activity for the rest of the class to fill their time with while they were not in a reading group. I had five drawers of various literacy practices and each day a small group of kids rotated to the next drawer. It was not a pleasant experience.
That spring our school took a serious look at revising our reading instruction and I was thrilled when we decided to embrace the Daily 5 model for literacy time. It has been wonderful change to move away from copied time-fillers to more genuine literacy tasks that actually allow for real use and practice of literacy skills. I could not imagine teaching writing through a serious of worksheets and I really do very little of that practice in math as well. The Daily 5 has inspired me to also look at my math practices and how I can get away from meaningless tasks in this area as well.
I love the framework that Routman has included for the shared writing lesson. I am really excited to try this out with my class. I have some very low profile ELL students this year, and some TAG students that need a little more of a challenge and this is a great, easy way to differentiate instruction. I want to get a lot of these class books into my classroom library so that students can start reading these as well to help them with their independent reading practice. The framework is nice to have because I am a little unsure as I jump into this uncharted territory, so this will help my confidence to go and put it into practice.
Chapter 6
ReplyDeleteI am really lucky to have started teaching in a time when we now understand that writing does not have to wait to be taught after children learn how to read and that we know the power of writing about reading to help nurture both activities. I do a lot of writing response activities to reading and I am always amazed at the growth in my classes’ ability over the course of the year with this skill.
Without even knowing it, I was already on track with the reading-writing connection in my classroom. For the last two years, I have made my reading homework tied to a child’s chosen response. I give them a spiral notebook after the first weeks of school and we begin by completing work together. I read-aloud a book, and then we work together to write a response. They copy this response into their spiral. Then I continue with modeling examples and then asking them to write their own response on the same story I modeled. After a few weeks of this being done in school, the spirals go home as weekly homework and students are expected to read every night and then complete a minimum of three responses each week.
Another success I had this year with my ELL students was to set-up a successful science journal structure. We would read a non-fiction book as a class, discuss the information and chart new facts together, and then I would have the class write new facts in their journals independently. I found by doing the information finding and some pre-writing together, they were able to come up with their own responses much more easily.
I am excited to try all of the hints and framework that Routman has in this chapter on summary writing. Some of my higher-level students will need to be able to write summaries for their upcoming reading assessment, and I would like to share some of these lessons with them to help them be successful in this skill. I am also going to see if I can partner with our school library to see if she will allow us to hang book reviews in the library. If so, then I will teach the book review lessons she shares as well. This chapter is brimming with great ideas for lessons and tasks that are authentic and help to get the students really thinking about their audience.
Chapter 4
ReplyDeleteI completely agree with the need to raise expectations. As a middle school ELL teacher, I am dismayed at some of the poor habits my students come to me with....some are still not capitalizing the first word in a sentence, or 'I'! So I really appreciated Routman's way of addressing it: "Your errors and poor handwriting distracted me." I deal with some of these habits directly. I really stress that if the word is right in front of them, they need to copy its spelling correctly...and that caps at the beginning are just 'what we do.' I also have 'no excuse' words posted, and if they are misspelled, the student does go to the board and copies them 20x (with light hearted humor, don't worry! Some like the chance to write on the whiteboard!)
What I want to focus on more, however, is that whole 'publishing' piece, which really provides a direct and very positive motive for better effort.
As a trained secondary teacher who has found herself dealing with much more elementary level skill needs, I was glad to read Routeman's comments on rubrics...the need to focus on the writer, not the writing. It keeps coming back to that....
Chapter 5
I was so glad to read this chapter, and look forward to more opportunities to practice it. I knew to 'model' writing (demonstration) - but that process took SO much time! And I was never convinced it was effective. Now I know why....I had missed step 2: shared demonstration.
In shared writing, the sharing is student focused...the writing, teacher modeled. This is the piece I had missed before. Even this month, as I am teaching the academic "cause and effect" paragraphs, I realized I only provided a model - much better to go back and have the students work with me on writing up...
Chapter 6
ReplyDeleteI am working with our school's literacy coach to establish a reading workshop for my 6th graders - I am very pleased with the vision and direction of this class. As the students build endurance, they will be reading 20-30 minutes daily. Soon, we will be introducing the reading journal element (2 rounds of Outdoor school really messes with my schedule!).
Regie's connections are very helpful. When it is time to introduce reading journals, I'll begin with the lesson on summary. As the literacy coach pointed out: students naturally talk about plot...we have to teach them to talk about character and the rest. So teaching them how to write an effective summary is critical - it is their 'first reflection' of what they read - but not their best. Right now, we're talking a lot about knowing the characters and the key phrase : What seems to matter? As we talk about this, I'm hoping that when they start to write, it will show up in their journals. I have every confidence that as they react to their reading, they will know better how to write themselves....
Chapter 6 Reflection
ReplyDeleteIn this chapter, I really appreciated the specific instruction section on how to teach students to write effective summaries. In my experience, students verbal summaries given orally are too verbose and oftentimes students written summaries miss key points. Again I feel like this shared writing experiences are extremely important in instructing students how to write complete, concise summaries. My fourth graders keep reading journals. Whenever they finish a book independently, with their lit group, or as a whole class they update their reading journals with a complete plot summary and a short review. While the first few books were difficult for the students, by this point they have settled into the routine.
Chapter 4
ReplyDeleteI planned to be a high school teacher and wound up getting a job as a middle school teacher, instead, so I actually worried about being too demanding of my students. Chapter 4 helped me realize that I have reasonable expectations. In fact, I could require even more from them than I do. For example, I spend a lot of my time correcting first drafts for the students with errors I’m sure they know are wrong, as Tod mentioned, instead of simply publishing a “no excuses” list. I’m going to save myself some time by creating one over the holiday weekend!
One area where I still feel uncomfortable defining/enforcing rigorous expectations is for my IEP and 504 plan students. Where do they fall in this mix? I expect less and soften my standards with my IEP kids—sometimes beyond what their learning challenges require—because I don’t want to be too demanding.
Chapter 5
This chapter is what I was looking for when I signed up for this course: a way to teach writing strategies, rather than talking about writing, in a way that gives them a chance to see and practice what they’re supposed to be doing before I send them out to try in on their own (OLM). At first, I had a hard time wrapping my brain around using extremely limited time (an hour a week) to complete a shared writing lesson with all of the concepts listed on p. 91 in an online classroom, especially if I add in shared reading. As I read the “Shared Writing in Action” section, I began to see how it would strengthen lessons with more demonstration when I teach my expectations for writing assignments. I wholeheartedly agree it can and should be done; I feel that many of my students find themselves feeling stranded with bigger assignments than they’ve done before and not enough tools. They love interacting with one another, too. Engaging the students and making them feel like they’re part of a community is crucial to their success in the online learning setting.
Chapter 6
While there was a lot of good information in this chapter, the section on summarizing caught my attention the most. Plagiarism issues over the past three years have made me realize that many of my seventh graders don’t know how to choose the main ideas and restate them in their own words, so they copy and end up having to redo assignments (or earn zeroes, in some cases,) because they lack this skill. It’s very inefficient. As we prepare for our big research project, I’m going to re-teach the summarizing procedure Routman outlined specifically. I especially appreciated how she says to explain that it’s about deciding what’s most important, instead of labeling it right away as summarizing.
Since I’m a subject-specific (English) teacher, linking reading and writing is a natural part of my class. We write about what we read frequently. The units focus on one style of writing and we practice that after reading examples of it and deconstructing what the authors do. Unlike when I was a student teacher, there is a focus on teaching non-fiction reading and writing specifically in the lessons I use now. The thought of reading what we write as a class (as opposed to published authors) was a new concept. As I mentioned with the chapter on celebrating writing, this is an area where I could definitely improve by giving more examples and non-examples written by classmates.
Chapter 4
ReplyDelete“Raise expectations” has become a mantra of sorts for me, especially after reading this chapter. It is something I think we are all aware of; yet figuring out how to implement higher expectations without raising student frustration is difficult. This chapter has given me a good start for helping students take more pride in their work. I have spoken to my principal about raising expectations, as well as our middle school staff. We are having more staff discussions about raising expectations and supporting each other in our efforts. I have looked at my blank weekly lesson plan page and really thought about expectations before filling in the boxes. I am really trying to model my writing and editing process out loud more often. This is a challenge for me ~ especially to think out loud. But I’ve been reinforced by a couple student comments, such as “Remember when you said, ‘This isn’t exactly what I mean, I need to come back to it’ well, that’s what I’m feeling like with this part.” It’s good for me to hear them echo what I’ve said. I, too, have established a “no excuses” list of words and posted them on the wall. When I receive an email from a student that has numerous errors (including “i” and “u” for “I” and “you”) I reply with “I will respond to your email when you make it professional”. Prior to this chapter I would answer their question and also remind them to be more careful with their spelling, etc. when sending an email. This is one of the ways our middle school staff has supported each other ~ we are all responding to emails this way. The Work Cited page isn’t addressed here, but it’s an important part of the research process. Before reading this chapter I would list the mistakes they made and require them to resubmit. Now students must take this more seriously and submit it in proper form. This is another way that the middle school staff is raising expectations by being more consistent with Work Cited in all grades and subjects. The scaffolding ideas have been helpful for me as I realize that many of my students have not had explicit instruction or modeling before. I assume (wrongly) that they know how to get started on a writing piece. I’m more aware now that I have given too much rough draft editing for my students, thinking this was the correct way to support students’ writing. I realize that they don’t look as carefully at their rough draft when they know the teacher will let them know what’s misspelled, etc. Regarding worksheets, I have to admit to using them and thinking they were a good teaching tool. I had students do worksheets if they were done with their writing while I was conferencing with other students. I do understand now that the worksheets don’t carry over to writing. Once again I see the wisdom of the whole-part-whole instruction method. It’s apparent that there’s no joy in worksheets and a new focus for me, as Regie continually reminds us, is to bring joy and celebration to the writing process.
Chapter 5
ReplyDeleteI love this chapter! I believe shared writing is appropriate for ALL learners ~ myself included. Having students create a strong writing piece together is a great way to build classroom community and share in the joy of writing. I made a poster with Regie’s steps for shared writing, which we take out when we do this activity. We began with a simple class newsletter and although it doesn’t have all the components I’d like (for instance, an editorial piece or a student-created comic), it’s a start. In January and February I’m planning on having the class write two brochures together: one will welcome new students to our school and the other will be for parents and how they can best support their student in middle school. These activities are making the concepts of “your audience” and “your reader” more clear. We will also write an invitation to our science fair for our principal and parents.
This Friday my students will play a water cycle game with their 3rd grade buddies and then they will write a creative story together about their life as a water molecule. I’m thinking of ways I can have my 7th graders do more writing with their 2nd grade buddies when we study rocks and minerals in science. This science unit culminates in a field trip to a museum with rocks, minerals, fossils, etc. It will strengthen their understanding and friendship if they can write about this trip together. These activities will support and strengthen word-work, but also will be great for science concepts as well. Before any "buddy-writing" we will review the steps for shared writing. This is not whole-class shared writing, but buddy-shared writing, and I think it will be beneficial for all the students.
Chapter 6
I took a class from high school English teachers last June. It was designed for middle school teachers, focusing on the skills that the high school teachers feel are essential for the transition to 9th grade. One of the things they spent time on was the importance of summarizing. I appreciate how this chapter takes us through a step-by-step process for summary writing. I have the guideline on pg. 130 typed up and in front of me as I walk students through a summary. I’m doing more summarizing with my students both in our literature class as well as in science. I’ve also used the template for “Understanding Nonfiction” that Regie shared in Appendix D. It’s a good tool for students to use together, especially for those who struggle. I haven’t had the students use it individually yet, but plan to. After several small group practices with it, they will hopefully be able to do a good summary of a chapter in their science text.
When we read our literature book together we are always on the look out for “notable phrases” or “wow words”. We have many class-made posters on the walls and our “Notable Phrases” is one that we continually add to, writing phrases from books or magazines that we enjoyed reading (alliteration, assonance, etc.) or that help us to understand the story or a concept better. As I read this section, I thought I should add a poster where we celebrate the students’ own “notable phrases” from their writing. I realize that I need to do more with response journals when we’re reading literature. I have some good templates that I have the students glue into their spirals, but Regie gives other ideas for annotated note taking that I will be using. I made a bookmark for each student with the bullet points for understanding nonfiction on page 129. They can use these in science and social studies.
Chapters 4, 5 and 6 seemed very practical. I saw several aspects that I would like to implement in my classroom immediately:
ReplyDelete1. Reading aloud at least three texts a day (p. 57)
a. I usually read aloud twice per day, once during a 15-minute read aloud block and again during our readers/writers workshop. I would like to make time in my schedule to read aloud more to my students, particularly non-fiction texts. My plan is to take part of our social studies/science time to read a text related to our unit. I will also try to use the last 5-10 minutes of the day (after students have packed up) to read more from our class chapter book.
2. Focusing on audience (p. 57)
a. We use the Lucy Calkins units of study in writing. So far I haven’t done much work about focusing on audience in my writing instruction this year. I think this will naturally pull out greater voice and care in my students’ writing.
3. Write across the curriculum (p. 65)
a. Our school only allots 90 minutes per day for literacy. I would like to expand that time by doing more cross-curricular writing. Most of our units of inquiry lend themselves to writing.
4. Raise handwriting expectations (p. 66)
a. Some of my students are capable of producing good handwriting but don’t put forth the effort. I have one student in particular with whom I plan to raise expectations. I hope that this will encourage him to be more thoughtful with his writing in general.
5. Create time for shared writing (p. 88)
a. Already I have witnessed the power of composing writing with my students. However, with only 90 minutes for literacy I am always hurrying to get my students to independent practice. I am going to try to use our morning meeting time for shared writing to start the day.
6. Cut up and reassemble sentences (p. 93)
a. Our grade level follows six units of inquiry during the school year. Each unit of inquiry has a central idea that drives the unit. For the last three units of the year, I am going to give my students the words of the central idea and challenge them to recreate it. I think this will help put us all on the same foot at the launch of the units.
7. Expand the options for literature response (p. 125)
a. To capitalize on the reading-writing connection, my school adopted the Fountas and Pinnell readers notebooks, which centers around the reader’s letter. Although these readers letters deeply inform me about my students’ reading (and writing) abilities, they are time-intensive for me. When it comes time for us to begin our book clubs in January I am going to go for a less time-intensive response for me. I plan to give my students several options to respond to their group novels: book review, book blurb, author profile, mock interview with an author, readers theatre script and letter to an author. Not only will this be less time for me, it will hopefully give my students a fresh way to respond to what they’ve read.
Chapter Four
ReplyDeleteDuring the past two years, as I taught the literacy block in a third grade classroom, I have always felt as though I was having high expectations for my students. In reading this chapter, and about what Regie’s first or second graders were doing, I remember that while I always wanted to have high expectations for my students, I have also wondered exactly where my expectations should be. There again, I struggle with that this year after having been moved to fifth grade. Where should my expectations be? Should they be at near perfection, but at a kid level? I am beginning to understand that the answer to my question is, “Yes!” If I don’t have that level of expectations my students cannot possibly meet them. I teach in a high poverty school and have a significant population of Ells, I need to raise my expectations for all of my students. I hear people complain all the time about ELLs and their ability to communicate, but yet I feel, now, that I have used that label to make excuses for why they struggled with a particular task instead of using that struggle to teach a lesson.
My ELL students, and the great many high poverty students, in my classroom are already behind my more advantaged students due to their family’s abilities to provide exposure to more life experiences. Often, lower SES students have parents with low levels of education and so don’t have literary experiences at home. I need to provide that at a deeper level to help these students cross the achievement gap.
I can, and will from here on out, have an expectation of perfect conventions in all work my students turn in to me. I do not teach writing this year, but my students will be writing responses to our learning’s about the American Revolution and I can definitely have the highest of expectations for those papers; I just have to do it without treading on the feet of my job-share partner.
I have a question that I would really like an answer to, what do I do with a student who has a spelling disability? I taught this student in third grade and have her again this year. She goes to LRC four days a week for reading (which she no longer needs) and writing support. While all areas of her academics have increased, the child cannot spell. She has no spelling skills; she cannot sound out, chunk, … When helping her with writing, how do I help her when EVERY word in her paper is spelled incorrectly?
Chapter Five
Shared writing is an area that I have not addressed in my first two years of teaching literacy, and is an area that I came into this class hoping for some guidance and suggestions. After reading this chapter, it is even more obvious to me how important a part of my literacy program I have been leaving out. I truly did not realize how important to my students it might be and I feel badly for not incorporating it sooner. It fits so strongly into that middle area of the OLM and will help me to give my students the full benefit of my teaching and their learning; it will make me a better teacher.
Chapter Six
Since I don’t get to teach literacy this year, the first area that I am going to address shared writing is in my science unit that I started this week. With the holidays coming it will be a short unit so will be a good one in which to focus on teaching my students how to summarize their reading and write that all important summary. Excellent! I am very excited to find a way to incorporate more literacy into my content areas!
I will be teaching my first social studies unit, in January, on the American Revolution. I have been scouring the libraries and internet for good non-fiction books and some historical fiction that I can encourage students to read. Again, I have to do what I can during my content area time , but know how valuable reading and writing non-fiction can be especially since high stakes testing is primarily non-fiction.
Thanks Hope, Teri, Tod, Alicia, Yvonne, Scott and Amy. Hope – I absolutely love the high expectation attitude you set with your ELL students. They are lucky to have a teacher who believes in them and understands that we also need to have high expectations for them. Don’t worry about your confession, during the first five years of my teaching career, I was labeled the “Center Queen” and was even hired to give inservice to teachers across the district. You mentioned Daily 5 and math practice….I think they are even coming out with a book for Daily 5 with math??? Teri – I think the publishing piece will work better for you if you try to encourage the kids to write shorter pieces. I know then when my kids stopped trying to write the chapter books like they were reading, the entire writing process went faster. Tod & Teri, you both discussed having your students use a reader’s notebook during reading workshop…Aimee Buckner has written a great book titled, Notebook Connections: Strategies for the Reader's Notebook, which is a great resource as you try to fine tune your written response to text. Alicia – I’m glad that OLM became a little clearer for you in this chapter. I also loved Regie’s section on summarizing, and your comments are reminding me that I wanted to share some of this info at a faculty meeting before we can into our CMT boot camp…(before our mastery tests). Yvonne – It’s great that you are having the conversation about raising expectations for your students school wide. Yeah on trying to break free of the worksheets….just think – less for you to correct!!! The “buddy-writing” program sounds like a great program! Scott – great list of things you’d like to implement…I love that you find the time to read aloud 2 times a day…this is so often lacking in classrooms. Work on your list slowly…you don’t want to burn out! Amy – As I wrote to Hope, your students are fortunate that you have high expectations of them!!! I don’t think that you can expect your student with spelling disabilities to spell correctly in her writing…this should be an accommodation for her. On final published pieces, I would let her use spell check or even have an adult support her with final editing. I do think there should be some accountability for her..(ie sight words or specific patterns she’s worked on…..).
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