We are posting all assignments for the course now because all work is due 12/5...and I know many of you may be starting to get busy with the impending holiday season!!! :)
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 was really inspired by the beginning of the chapter that told the stories about teachers who had rallied to change district and school policies. It was nice to know that there are other teachers out there who can become frustrated and have been able to do something about it. I also agree that more professional development is a key to any good teacher.
I thought Routman’s comments on one-day seminars were a valid point. I know I always feel like my head is swimming when I leave day-long classes and meetings and am not really thinking about how to I can use all of the good information I just heard. It would be nice to have an opportunity to spend more time processing new ideas and to see demonstrations would make it so much easier to put new thoughts into practice.
Last year, our school decided to focus on two different areas in our school-wide development plan for this year. We wanted to go with math and writing. The year before we had focused on literacy and made some major plans to work together as a staff to learn and use the Daily 5 model. We were all very excited and anxious to see how it would go that year. We helped each other get things set-up and going, we met bi-weekly to check-in with others and school-wide every teacher felt that things were much more successful.
This year we have not put the same focus into our school-wide improvement. There have been no plans laid, no staff conversations and no real fever to help make something better. I think I may need to raise this point to my principal to see what I can do to help get this type of fever going again. I feel like many of the points made in this book are maybe not being followed in my school and this would be a great book to share and from which to generate ideas for our students.
Chapter 12
ReplyDelete“Reclaim the time to live your life more fully!” Wow. Could this be an option for me? I do feel like my life is really bogged down and I really do not have enough time to enjoy things in my life. I would love to be able to have more free time and if I could have one weekend with no school work that would be a blessing.
My principal often sends us emails about how lucky we are to get to do the work we do, and while I agree there is no better job in the world, it is not always easy to keep things optimistic. As teachers, we are held to an unbelievably high set of standards and it can be tough to push through sometimes. I hope that I am doing my best to connect with all of my students and let them know how much I care.
After reading this chapter I am not sure what to do to help me see the light. I know I want to find a way to do this and to do it soon. I need to figure out who I can solicit to help me, and how we can come together as a staff to help each other. I have many colleagues who stay until 8:00 pm many nights. I used to do this myself, but this year decided this was not going to work for me anymore. I was feeling the burn. I would like to find a way to encourage my teammates to do the same.
This year, our district used Title II money to hire several 'coaches' including the literacy coach at our school. This coach was trained at Columbia University and has been to seminars led by Lucy Caulkins. We share him with another middle school and were told that his work with us is completely 'voluntary.'
ReplyDeleteAs I had just finished two reading courses, one based on Routman's book, I was a prime target...or should I say, I saw him as a prime resource. I am the only teacher in the school using his help in reading workshop, and how I'm scheming on how he can help with the writing element.
I mention all this to say that what Routman says about the school environment is right on. The coach is looking at this as a 'wooing' year and he has his work cut out for him. At a recent language arts meeting, we were asked to sit in a location based on how we felt about reading workshops. Two of us joined this coach, and the other person was new to the school.
But if joy is how we are to attract our students, it is true that joy is the best way to attract our fellow teachers. I'm going to focus on learning how to do this well, find the other kindred spirits in the building, and begin the process of real change.
I was especially keen on everything Regie wrote about ELL students. We are required (by state and district!) to teach English Language Development - grounded in the need to begin orally, but still frozen into 'isolated skills instruction.' I have these students for 50 minutes a day...how can I channel the joys of writing and reading workshop into this responsibility?
Fortunately, I have one 2 period class to experiment with - a hybrid ELL/LA. Although I'm concentrating on readers workshop for that one period, I'm wondering if I should try a little subversive action research on modified ELD Writing Workshop for a few months.
The theme is still about the joy. Keeping joy in my personal life - and practicing that joy in my own personal writing and reading? Dare I? How will that translate to the classroom? If I could filter it through what I know about ELD....could these struggling readers and writers find an unexpected pleasure in school?
Hope, I think it’s a great idea to rally your building to work on a common goal again. How surprising that your administration wouldn’t be supporting a initiative that had such a positive impact in the past. It would be great if you could get the ball rolling again!!! I hope that you and your staff can find a way to “see that light at the end of the tunnel”…I think a big key to this is not working in isolation, but finding ways to work together and share the load. Teri – good for you for being smart enough to see the value of working with a coach. A good coach will follow your lead and support you where you feel you want the help!!! I love how positive you are…and yes…this will trickle down to other staff members as they start “hearing through the grapevine” about the work you and the literacy coach are doing in the classroom. Your students can be your biggest advertisers. I definitely think it’s worth trying to incorporate some writing workshop into your 2 hour LA period, maybe you could even start with 45 minutes on just Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays???
ReplyDeleteChapter 11: Build on Best Practice and Research
ReplyDeleteThis chapter was helpful because the bulleted ideas were very clear and understandable. Teachers who have their students write every day have more positive results. This was a huge reassurance to me, because this year my number one goal and commitment was to make sure that my students wrote every day, no matter what. At parent-teacher conferences I was shocked at the number of kids who said that writing was their favorite subject because, “they got to be creative and free write a lot.” Many of my students are working on writing their own “chapter books” and they almost faint when I tell them that they get to free write (after the mini lesson) for 30-40 minutes. They love it!
The other key finding that I loved hearing was that reading and writing are “mutually supportive processes.” I really try to use children’s books as mentor texts for the writers in my classroom. Often we discuss what the author’s purpose is for writing in a particular manner, style, word choice, etc. I also feel more comfortable teaching reading, so the fact that they should be taught similarly is helpful.
Highly effective teachers all share a common interest: doing what is best for the student. I firmly believe that relationships must be built and trust must be given and received in order for a teacher to truly help a student (especially a struggling student). I feel that I am fortunate enough to have a team that is inspired to work at developing best practices for our students. It also helps that our staff has “adopted” Regie’s book for writing, instead of a true “adoption.” We also have an hour a week dedicated to PLC (professional learning communities) time to officially discuss student growth and interventions.
One point that I really appreciated was the idea that the whole school must take responsibility for the quality of writing produced by the students, not just the fourth grade teachers who are responsible for the state testing portion of writing. As a staff it is so important to join together (in every subject area) and develop some standards that seem equally distributed across grade levels. I will never forget my first year of teaching (a 4/5 split) when only 25% of my students passed the stated test. I felt like I was responsible for the failure of the entire school. Thankfully I had a principal who understood that accountability was needed across all grades (if only it was so easy to be that kind to ourselves).
Lastly, because I started at a new school this year, I sort of “fell into” the writing committee position. This allows me to preview some of the additional DVD’s of Regie’s and decide which are most helpful to show the staff. I feel like I’ve got the insider hookup!
As I sit at home on my Thanksgiving weekend, trying to find the will to score 28 writing samples for all six traits of writing, I read Regie’s words, “Live Your Life.” I can honestly say that if it were not a team norm, I would not be doing it. I have found that often the reality of teaching is that at times, things slow down enough to catch my breath. Then, they speed right up until I feel that I am drowning again.
ReplyDeleteI am going to commit to focusing on taking enough time to plan writing so that there is less paperwork and more writing. Sometimes the constraints of report card requirements and state requirements make this feel really hard, but as Regie suggests, if we can develop a vision as a school, many of these things will fall into place. I feel that my school is on the right track.
My favorite part of this chapter was the idea of sharing yourself with students. I may have mentioned earlier that I always felt like this part came easily for me. The part that was a struggle was how to put this strength to good academic use. This book has made me feel like I can connect through writing to help all students become better writers and feel connected to their teacher!
Lisa, it is so refreshing to hear how positive and excited your students feel about writing. You have obviously done an amazing job creating a true writing community in your classroom. I’m so glad that the coursework is able to support you in your writing work with your school. Your building is lucky to have someone like you taking the initiative to work with and support the staff in writing instruction! (and YEAH!!! To less paperwork…good luck with that!)
ReplyDeleteChapter 11 and 12 reflection
ReplyDeleteAs I read these two chapters, I reflected on the number of times I dogeared a page and thought to myself about how useful it would be to read that page over again. I especially liked the bulleted research findings, because I felt like this simplified and highlighted things that should be happening in a classroom where good writing is taking place.
The section on research findings on the conventions in writing were interesting to me. Maybe it is the type of learner, I am, but knowing all of the grammar rules was very intriguing to me. I still remember my English teacher from my junior year in high school and her challenging unit all on intricate grammar. The finer aspects of the English language are so complex that I am not sure how they can be learned if not taught directly. That does not mean that it needs to be taught in my fourth grade classroom however. Maybe there is a more appropriate place.
During the findings on the connection between reading and writing, I wondered if writing helps students become better readers. I frequently here how reading a lot helps students become better writers, but wonder about the opposite direction.
I thought the research findings complemented the table on page 270 very well. The table showed how classroom teachers and or schools modified their writing program to better reflect best practices and support student learning. It was another dogeared page.
I think Routman really drives home the point about how valuable conferencing is. I have been doing more and more of it recently. I am not sure if it was in chapter 11 or 12, but at one point Routman mentioned that written feedback to students isn't as valuable. I know it is a lot of work, but I feel that taking student journals home overnight and writing responses to student writing really turns a segment of my class on to writing. I feel like students have become more comfortable sharing with me and are more excited by written responses and free writes if they know I am going to read them. I like placing the journals on their desks in the morning and watching the students come in and scour their journal for comments even before they take off their backpacks. I will take notice to limit my constructive feedback to one point students can work on in their next writing.
One last thing from this chapter was I feel the ongoing professional conversations would be particularly valuable for me. I have read and thought about the entire book, but so often, as a teacher, I forget what I have learned or lose my direction. Just routine conversations with other teachers would help me keep on track, but it is amazing how little time there is in the day. Sometimes, I worry about taking time away from the busy schedule of others.
Regie quoted a lot of key research findings about reading and writing. I have selected a few that resonated with me:
ReplyDelete1. Write every day.
a. I have found that my students do best when they have a chance to write a little bit every day. They don’t lose stamina on a piece they were working on yesterday, but their enthusiasm for it often peters out when they miss a couple days of writing.
2. Develop professional knowledge
a. This is the seventh or eighth literacy class I have taken since going back to the self-contained classroom last year. It took me four or five classes and a year of teaching to feel comfortable as a writing teacher. What a difference!
3. Keep test prep embedded in curriculum
a. My wife and I are looking for teaching jobs in the Portland area for 2010-2011. I hope I find a school that is heeding Regie’s advice…I don’t want to teach to the test! I can’t think of a better way to suck the joy and passion for writing out of my students and me.
4. Invite students to tap personal experiences
a. We know our lives best, right? I have found power this year in leading my students to write personal narratives at the beginning of the year. However, I have found that with two months dedicated to personal narratives (Lucy Calkins units of study in writing) my students grew weary. They were itching to do some other type of writing. The good news? No matter the genre, students can draw on their own personal experiences.
Make Every Minute Count
“Am I making the best use of children’s time?” I love the question that Regie asks at the beginning of chapter 12. Sometimes I just feel exhausted at the end of the week. My wife and I constantly brainstorm ways to reduce the workload of teaching. And I know from experience that I do my best when I’m fresh and have interesting experiences to talk about. The nights that I spend grading tests and marking papers make me tired of school and not excited to go in the next day.
I like Regie’s “My Best Advice” box on page 287. My favorite note is 8. Stop when energy is high!
Chapter 11
ReplyDeleteMy school is one of the ones Routman writes about; we’re really focused on improving testing, so we’ve been teaching about the test and practicing a ton. Despite this, our writing scores continue to be low. I suspect it has something to do with isolated teaching. I thought about experiences I’ve had where teacher collaboration improved our collegiality. Last year, the staff had professional learning conferences about how to engage online learners. The conversations we had and some of the tricks of the trade I picked up from them (especially as a relatively new teacher,) were energizing. One thing I realized after reading this chapter is that I can be influential in helping our school and other schools get away from some of the tasks that are time-consuming and ineffective. I want to share this book and this class with my colleagues and figure out why our students are struggling with the writing test when I see examples of strong writing on other assignments. I didn’t think that I have the experience to speak up. Then I was asked to outline what I liked about our program and what needed to be changed. Seeing my more experienced colleagues respond positively to my suggestions gave me a lot more courage and confidence that I was able to diagnose what needed to be changed. We are in the process of evaluating those ideas now, not only at my school, but with the other schools of our organization across the nation.
Chapter 12
The line, “It’s hard to come to school all excited about teaching if you’ve spent hours the night before poring over papers” (284) resonated with me tonight. I’ve been poring over papers for a few extra hours every day this week, and I can feel my love for writing waning and my stress level waxing. Since I don’t see my students face-to-face, I thought that I was teaching by giving them extensive comments and feedback on their writing. I realized that I was really justifying the grades I assigned. If I took the 10 minutes it takes to score, type comments, and save their papers, and instead conducted a writing conference over the phone, would they feel more empowered? Would I see the changes we talk about? How do I translate these ideas to my unique classroom? I want to begin by teaching the secrets of good writers on pp. 282-283.
Ch 11
ReplyDeleteLast year our staff realized that we needed to focus more on grammar basics with our students because, although skills were being taught, we didn’t see them being used as students progressed through the grades. As I’ve read through this book I’ve realized the error in this thinking. I have had several conversations with our principal, as well as the middle school teaching team, about looking at the bigger picture. The worksheets and formal grammar instruction just don’t work. Regie shares research studies that reinforce this. I’ve talked about this book quite a bit. Some of our teachers are familiar with Regie’s Reading Essentials book, so they know her wisdom. My hope is that we as a staff can take a closer look at the book and begin implementing these strategies throughout all the grades. I think it will be hard to convince many of our teachers to change what they’ve been doing for years. I know that following these principles is still hard for me. I’m trying to do just a few new things at a time because it’s easy to get overwhelmed with what I’m not doing. I take to heart Regie’s “Best Advice” on pg. 287 to keep me on track and motivated. I hope that if I can show the progress I make with my students then other teachers will take a closer look at the book and we can have more professional conversations about these “essentials”.
I like the bullet points that Regie gives regarding best practices. These are easy to understand and succinct, therefore, easy to put into practice. The point that Regie keeps making is that we need to have our students writing every day, she also adds that our writing routines need to be predictable. My routines have been anything but predictable. I’m working hard to follow the steps of the OLM so that our writing workshop is more predictable. Actually, I like Regie’s use of the word “writing community”, that’s what I’m using in the classroom.
My main focus and new writing mantra is to bring joy to student writing. An email I sent just the other day to a parent said that my goal for Zach was for him to realize that he’s a good reader and writer. I shared his book review with the class, pointing out his good word choice and how his enthusiasm for the book really came through in his writing. Zach beamed. I don’t know that his writing has been shared with the class like that before. Building more writing time into each day, giving more choice, and giving more free-write time have been the best first steps for changing my writing program and for nurturing enjoyment in writing for the students.
Ch 12
ReplyDeleteReduce the paper load, limit the work you take home: this is every teacher’s dream. It’s definitely mine as I lug my school bag bulging with papers home every night (and often times I return to school with not much accomplished with that bulging bag). As I read this chapter I was reminded of the poem that Regie shares on pg. 30:
Ring the bells that still can ring
Forget your perfect offering
There is a crack in everything.
That’s how the light gets in.
I realize that in my perfectionist drive to help my students cover all the bases needed for high school, I’m zapping myself of energy and enjoyment and worse yet, I’m zapping them of the same things. We are finishing our first trimester this week. I look forward to having time over Christmas break to think about how I can make more changes to my school day so that expectations are still high, students achieve, and there is less stress for all. One thing that I try to remember to do as I make lesson plans and review previous lesson plans is to ask the question “how did what we do help students become more competent, confident, and independent learners?” (pg. 286). I took out the word “literacy learners” because I also teach science and religion. I feel this more general question should be the starting point for writing the week’s lesson plans. Although the question is in past tense, it’s still a reminder of what a lesson should strive to do for the students.
Reading this last section of the book revives in me hope that things can be different. My school is something of a disappointing place to be this year; it has been going downhill the last few years and seems to have hit a critical point. We have a great deal of strife in our building and I think our students are feeling it. We have two literacy coaches, one for k-2 and one for 3-5. The k-2 teachers are happy with their coach and feel strongly that they benefit from working with her. The 3-5 teachers do not trust their literacy coach and feel as though she is there to merely find things ‘wrong’ with their teaching and report it back to our administrator who is a close friend. Many of us have ‘problems’ with this coach but know that we cannot discuss our problems with administration because of their personal relationship. This is creating a not-so-positive, definitely non-collaborative environment for our students. Reading this section makes me realize how very different things need to be for our staff and students. We need to be working together.
ReplyDeleteI appreciate the thought that we need to make things easier; you know, ‘Work smarter not harder’. I have a teaching friend who is at work until at least 6pm every day. After reading this book and being in her room, I think she would benefit from reading Regie’s work. Getting rid of worksheets and using the students own writing to teach those same ‘worksheet’ skills will make for more authentic, more effective learning. (I bought the book for my friend today. I hope she doesn’t think it a bad Christmas gift.) I think that a staff study of this book would be a fabulous idea. I believe we would all benefit from reading it together and sharing our thoughts and new teaching ideas generated from a shared reading. I can’t do anything about the school atmosphere, but I am going to suggest that my grade-level team do a study of this book together and work together to make changes to our teaching.
Thanks Tod, Alicia, Yvone, Scott and Amy….
ReplyDeleteTod - I’m glad that these chapters were full of important and reinforcing information for you!!! I think that if your students are motivated by your written responses to their journals, you keep it to ONE targeted teaching point, and YOU are not overwhelmed with the work….then it’s great that you are investing the time in responding to your students’ work!!! As far as professional conversations, have you thought about trying to get a book study started (either with this book or another)…in your building? Scott - I love Regie’s quote – “Stop when energy is high” also…I just think we have to remind ourselves of this over and over!!! I hope that you and your wife have success in finding jobs in the Portland area…and that you find a school that supports your professionalism and teaching philosophies.
Alicia – I’m sure that you are right…research shows that teaching skills in isolation does not increase student achievement…but can bring it down! And WOW!....look at the change that you have initiated – good for you – and best of luck as you strive towards making these changes with your colleagues. Yvonne – it sounds as though it would be a great stepping stone for your colleagues if you offered to facilitate a book study with Regies’ Writing Essentials book either in the spring or next year…and you’re right – Change takes time - you are much better off making change slowly as to not get overwhelmed. It sounds as though you are doing a wonderful job trying to build a community of writers in your classroom. I know that line, “reduce the paper load, limit the work you take home” is really hard to figure out. I think it actually requires a school wide change in beliefs, but that you can find small ways to make change within your own classroom. Good luck…
Amy – I’m so sorry that that you are dealing with such a sticky situation with your literacy coach and administration…especially because a coach can be such a positive and rewarding experience. I wonder if your administration would be willing to make a switch with the coaches for several years…or if the coaches would be willing to switch…..??? I wish you success as with everyone else as we all try to reduce our work load. I think the book would be a great gift for a colleague and thumbs up for volunteering to facilitate a book study!!!