Welcome to Writing Essentials! We look forward to working and learning with you. In order for everyone to get the most out of the course, please be sure to read and respond to each others comments. Please try to keep your responses within one allotted "comment" space to ensure that the blog remains manageable for all participants :)
ASSIGNMENT ONE: Post your Introduction to the course Blog.
Introduction Post- Tell us about yourself. Where do you teach? What grade do you teach? How long have you been teaching? How many students are there in your class? Do you have instructional support? What does your current literacy program look like? (If you aren’t currently teaching let us know.) What is your knowledge/training in the area of literacy (be specific about your experiences teaching writing?) Does your district provide training in literacy –especially writing? If so, what exactly have they offered? Has your district been bogged down with getting students to perform well on state writing assessments – prompts? How do you feel about teaching? Are you happy at work? Also, let us know a little about you outside of the classroom: Interests/ Hobbies/Family Life? What do you hope to get out of this course? Post your reflection to the blog.
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Hi Mary and Jackie,
ReplyDeleteI read your welcome letter and am very excited to take this course! I had the opportunity to take Reading Essentials several years ago.
My name is Lauren Lambert. This is my fifth year teaching 2 half-time sessions of kindergarten at Holcomb Elementary in the Oregon City School District. Thankfully I have been in the same classroom. Even so, each year is completely different and I am constantly learning and readjusting.
There are approximately 17-23 students in our kindergarten classes this year. A big part of our current literacy program is called Project Optimize out of University of Oregon. It is highly phonics-based with phonemic awareness (segmenting, blending, deleting/adding, and substituting), D'Nealian handwriting practice, and writing sounds/words. We are thankful to do this in small groups with multiple teachers for 25 minutes a day, Monday through Thursday.
Outside of that designated reading block we are able to focus on the other of the 5 areas of reading acquisition including phonemic awareness, phonics instruction, fluency, vocabulary, and text comprehension. We do this in small groups (centers) and whole group. I incorporate a whole language approach—sight words, small pattern books, tracking, literature, developing strategies/cues, etc. In the beginning of the year we learn routine and following directions. Later in the year I send home kindergarten level “high frequency” words. I also use literature for journal entry prompts, big books for patterns and high frequency word searching as well as modeling tracking.
My education in literacy is from George Fox University's MAT program. We studied Regie Routman's book Conversations. I want to refresh my background in the good literacy theory I learned. She emphasized conducting conferences with children, utilizing whole language, scaffolding, and creating an atmosphere of literacy (word walls, access to books). As a teacher, I review standards and review/create writing scoring guides and document children's abilities to motivate instruction.
Since my first year as a student teacher in Oregon City I have desired Literacy development and curriculum development. Our district doesn’t have any one specific program. Most schools adopt their own program. I supplement Optimize as needed to meet the standards. Exposure to and practice in literacy is important to me, as is giving children an opportunity to love it.
I love my job and couldn’t imagine teaching something other than kindergarten. However, it is quite draining so I like to work out at the gym or jog outside if the weather cooperates. I’ve been married 2 ½ years to my Best Friend and we bought a house 2 years ago. Hopefully we’ll get to have a family someday soon. Much of my wonderful family lives close by so I see them often.
My hope from this course is to build and solidify my literacy program, give students a successful start, and prepare them for 1st grade. I gravitate toward Science and Math and want to be more comfortable and confident in literacy.
Thank you for your time.
Take care,
Lauren Lambert
Hi Jackie & Mary,
ReplyDeleteMy name is Julie Payton. I teach fourth grade, ½ time at Antonia Crater Elementary in Newberg, Oregon. This is my 14th year of teaching. The first three years I taught in Salem, Oregon, and for the past ten years, I have been in Newberg. At both schools, I have taught exclusively 4th & 5th grades.
This year I have 32 students in my classroom, which has been somewhat of a struggle. I do have some support during my reading block, but that’s it. For ½ an hour a day, I have an aide for my higher readers, and for another ½ an hour, I have support for some of my struggling readers. For writing, they are all with me.
Our literacy program is starting to come together. Every classroom in our school has a 90 minute reading block, with an additional 30-45 minutes set aside specifically for writing instruction. All grade levels follow the Reading Street materials for reading, but for writing we are on our own. There isn’t a set program that we all follow.
I have now been trained in many different methods of teaching writing. In the past five years, I have attended trainings on the Four Square model, Step Up to Writing, the 6+1 Trait Writing, and in The Write Stuff. My district has provided the training in each of these models, except for the 6+1. That training was provided through a grant for all 5th grade teachers in the district. Each method is rather different.
My district/school has been completely bogged down with preparing for state writing tests. We are feeling a lot of pressure to teach with prompts/mini lessons to gear them for the “big test.” This has become increasingly difficult for me and my students. I know that I am stressed, and I am sure that they can sense some it. I am concerned about this trend.
I love my job. However, some years I enjoy it more than others. I am not happy at work this year, but that is mainly due to the high number of students, many with special needs. It feels like a lot of management, and not as much teaching. I only teach half time, but I find I am still constantly stressed and tired.
When I am not at school, I am home with my family. My oldest son, Kai, is 4. My youngest son, Tanner, is 2. They keep me plenty busy! In my “spare” time, I do enjoy to read, scrapbook, swim, run, and play games. And I really enjoy my morning cup of coffee!
I know this class adds one more thing to my busy life, but I am hoping that in the end, this class teaches me to be more effective, and less stressed at work. I want to enjoy teaching writing again, and more importantly, I want the students to learn that writing is more than preparing for a test. I am hopeful.
Sincerely,
Julie Payton
Hi Lauren and Julie – welcome to our course! It’s kind of interesting that each of you only get to see your students for ½ of a day each day…your time is limited and your instruction so focused during that shortened day. You also both share the frustration of your schools/district NOT having a focused curriculum, or (Professional Development that supports the curriculum!). This course will provide you will a foundation for solid writing instruction in both of your grades. We look forward to working with you this semester.
ReplyDeleteWritten Reflection-Section 1 (chapters 1-3):
ReplyDeleteThe Optimal Learning Model that Regie teaches in her book is similar to what I have been trying to do. However, I do notice that I move through the stages too quickly. I start out by modeling, but am shifting the focus onto students before they are truly ready. What I have been missing is the middle section “with learners.” That is what I need to focus on. Makes sense, just haven’t been doing it!
I am happy to say that the 12 Writing Essentials are mostly implemented in my classroom. However, the number one essential on Regie’s list, is severely lacking in my instruction. The audience and purpose are not always clear. I am the audience too often, and the purpose is MUCH too focused on passing the Oregon State Writing Assessment. They need to have a better purpose for writing. Until I have that in place, the other items will not come together.
Here are a few ways that I celebrate student writing in my classroom. At the conclusion of a project/essay, we form small groups around the classroom. I give an opportunity for all students who want to share their stories a chance to do so. We also type up our stories in the computer lab, and illustrate them. Once they are finished, the “books” are put on our classroom bulletin board. During other parts of the day, students can read these stories from their peers. Once a year, each student publishes their own hard bound book too! There is a company that we have located at our school that publishes a book free of charge for every student in a participating classroom. (Of course, they hope we buy more copies!) Finally, our principal will read stories/poems/essays at our school-wide assemblies. I am open to learning new ways to celebrate writing, but at the moment, I’m not sure what it would be.
I have been thinking a lot this past week about how I can make writing more meaningful and purposeful for my students. The most obvious thing I can do is stop teaching to the test so much. I need to let the students pick their topics more often as well as the type/form of writing they want to do. I would like to find a classroom in another state that could be pen-pals with my students. That would provide them with a real purpose for letter writing. One more thing I can do is have more discussion with the read aloud books. We can talk about what makes these book good writing examples.
Here’s my final reflection for the week. I have already begun to make some changes to my writing block of time. The students are currently working on a narrative, but they had complete control over the topic! They were also allowed to pre-write with pictures, lists, or whatever they thought would be most helpful. And, the transformation this week is tangible. They are excited to write and have stopped asking me how long their story needs to be. I am very excited to see how they do.
Until next week,
Julie
Assignment #2 Chapter 1-3
ReplyDeleteChapter 1
I feel much more confident that I am incorporating the Optimal Learning Model in my teaching of reading than I do writing. I do not have the children writing consistently for enjoyment or for teaching strategies at this point in the year outside of their Optimize reading/writing time. That is not to say that we don’t do writing, it just looks different in kindergarten at times and I need to prioritize it at a higher level (journal-writing). Right now our writing looks like: writing sounds the letters make, attempting to segment words into sounds, writing high-frequency words and color words, copying words that we’ve written together (such as in a class note or another assignment), illustrating passages we’ve read together, some journal writing, etc. I do have a higher level group who is writing more consistently in their journals but I haven’t consistently conferenced in this area as Regie suggests. I’ve provided scaffolding and encouragement for the whole class, but not too much pressure. I think in past years of teaching I modeled journal entries more and this is a great reminder to do so (I model so much in class and definitely consider the Optimal Learning Model in SO much of my teaching, but journal writing is lacking.) We have brainstormed possible ideas for entries (a writing essential).
I have integrated some class books (books that children write by contributing a page each) and mini-books (books that children write based on literature we’ve read or topics we’re studying) to bring purpose to their writing. We do like to celebrate students’ writing by having them read their selections, posting it in the room or in the hallway, etc. We’ve also written get well notes, holiday cards, and thank you notes (specific purpose, a writing essential) which the children are excited about. I would say that most of this type of writing is more structured, but I give the children (high and low level the option to write what they want if they want to try).
It is the time of year where will be doing more independent work, more reading strategies, and more word work, sentence-building and literacy whole group. Earlier this year we had a guest teacher Mrs. Hines (my Cooperating Teacher from my MAT program who is now a district-wide reading support teacher) come in to do a writing baseline and some lessons associated with the science unit of that time. Some kids were slightly worried at that time that they couldn’t write but once they were assured of their abilities and our expectations, they weren’t as hesitant. I want them to “see writing as doable” (p. 7). Much of the creative writing that encompasses the 12 writing essentials is not something we’ve explored as much, especially since much of that writing would need to be dictated.
Assignment #2 Chapter 1-3
ReplyDeleteChapter 2
I love Regie’s Reader’s Theater reminder (p. 23). I completely agree that oral language increases fluency, ideas, and illuminates the necessities of story-writing. I see our ELL use media to help those learning with their oral language development. They record little songs and plays. I could do that more in class too! I want to continue to expose my children to rich literature (p. 24), but also model writing at the level I expect of them. I definitely like to include personalization in our classroom (showing them the books I read, classes I take, including my husband in examples, etc. and also inviting them to do the same—although it is hard to do in a classroom with so little time). I don’t want them overwhelmed with writing rules so I encourage parents to see invented spelling (phonetic spelling) as valuable and something that can be more accurately done at a later time (depending on what level they’re at currently). I share the fact that English has many tricky sounds and I praise them for what they do. I do share the necessities (finger spaces, punctuation, etc.) meaningfully, but it doesn’t always automatically carry over into their writing nor do I expect it every time.
Many of my students do write at home. When they bring it in to share I like to read it with kids (especially if it relates to something we’ve done in class), then ask the student if we can put it on our bookshelf for a few days (letting kids promise to carefully take care of it). Even if it is just a great example of coloring I use that as part of my expectations.
Chapter 3
I was reminded of my feelings of writing in this chapter. I don’t believe I was taught writing mechanics and parts of a sentence in school (or maybe I was and I was consumed with family life at that time—my parents divorced when I was young and I remember little of my teachers, etc.!). I also wonder if there were gaps between grades and certain elements in my education were skipped (I realize as a teacher now how very important it is for consistency, communication, and continuity in an elementary building—however, not at the expense of creativity of a teacher). Anyway, I say that to mean that I believe I learned how to write by reading; I learned what sounded correct. I believed that I liked to write during certain times of my life more than others. In school I ALWAYS remember feeling pressured and BLANK when we had free writes. I did not like to read aloud (even though I was a good reader) let alone read something I wrote. I could never figure out how to read aloud and think about the content at the same time—I am too reflective and therefore have to take time in reading. Plus reading aloud meant that I focused on pronouncing the words and fluctuation my voice, etc. so that I sounded okay to others. I want to remember this in my teaching: I want to give children more flexibility, options, and less pressure (although a certain amount of pressure is needed at times).
A few things I will take away from this chapter are: 1) I want to have more conversations about writing and reading 2) I want to focus on content (although independent writing at this stage often means kids don’t write as much—maybe they write more words they THINK they can spell and get their thoughts down without elaborating) 3) I would like to get Debbie Millers idea (from Reading With Meaning) in place which includes a “I recommend” and “why” chart so students can reflect on books and encourage others to try them (putting more worth and purpose in reading) 4) show them what I am reading (not just tell) as I did when I took the Reading Essentials class.
I don’t know what it’s like to teach to a state test as Julie talked about, but I do know that there could be more “meat” to our writing ☺
My name is Virginia Knowles and I have been teaching at Welches School , which is located about 20 minutes East of Sandy for ten years. I taught fourth grade my first year, moved to ½ time third grade, next it was ½ Kindergarten, and then CHIPS- Children Immersed in Print Successfully which is a literacy enrichment program for Kindergarten and finally this will be my third year in a fourth/fifth grade blend.
ReplyDeleteI completed the READ Oregon program and earned my reading endorsement about three years ago and consider teaching Language Arts to be my passion and strength.
My district has offered staff development in writing using the First Steps Program, the Teaching the Qualities of Writing by Joann Portalupi and Ralph Fletcher and we have also been given a copy of the Writing Essentials by Regie Routman.I defiantly do not feel like I have had a lack of education or training about how to teach writing. If anything, I feel that there are so many good programs out there that it seems overwhelming.
I am lucky this year with a class size of only 25. Our school has high poverty so we qualify for School-Wide Tile One support which allows us to have small groups reading with groups with trained EA’s for ½ hour four times a week.My literacy program is based around the Daily 5 program, with bits and pieces pulled from several different programs including the writing programs I’ve listed above.
I am feeling very discouraged with the pressure to have fourth graders pass their writing benchmark. Because I keep my fourth graders for a second year in fifth grade I am able to see the amazing growth between a student’s writing in fourth to fifth. The progress and growth is amazing. I wish I could base a student’s writing assessment individually from the time they start with me in fourth to where they are as writers in fifth grade.
My mother just recently retired from teaching and both my brothers are in education- one as a teacher and one as a principle. Teaching is my blood and I love it. I like many teachers, can not imagine doing anything else. I do feel discouraged by the pressure from the state to have all students develop at an equally progressive rate when we, as educators should respect the undeniable truth that children grow as learners at their own unique pace. Not all academic growth can be measured by a test. I try to remind myself that the growth I see on a daily basis is more of a true measurement then state test assessments.
What I would like to learn from this course is how to pull all the ideas and good bits and pieces about writing instruction I already have into a more cohesive writing program for my students.
Outside of the classroom I have two children. My son is seventeen and is at Mt. Hood CC, planning to go to U of O next year as a transfer student. My daughter is ten years old and is my teaching partner’s class. She has struggled with sight challenges due to some really long official medical term, despite this she is reading at a high school level. It has been amazing to watch her strength of will while learning to read.
I have been married to my high school sweetheart for 18 years. We live east of Sandy by the Sandy River , only a few miles downriver from my parent’s home where I grew up. I love to be outside, read, but I must admit that my favorite is watching movies. When ever I talk to my kids about creating an “expert list” for their writing journals I explain how really great I am at watching movies. J
Hi Mary and Jackie,
ReplyDeleteMy name is Derek, and I’m a late registrant and therefore a little late to the party. Though I should soon receive my copy of the book and be able to catch up.
I’ve been teaching for about 7 years, and am currently teaching 7th grade Language Arts and Geography at a middle school in Salem, Oregon. Most of my career has been spent at the middle school level, but I’ve also taught high school, as a substitute, and even in the United Kingdom for a year. My classes generally have about 28 students in them, and my Language Arts classes are considered special-ed loaded as they have been filled with a higher percentage of students who qualify for special education. Because of this, I do have some additional support in my classroom for half of each block.
This is my first year in this district, but to my knowledge there is no current district-wide writing program. With that said, I do know that the district is planning to use Nancy Atwell’s program as a guide beginning next year, which I have used previously in a different part of the state. Likewise, the district is currently experimenting with various literacy supports but they do currently vary from school to school. In my school, students who do not currently meet state reading benchmarks are placed into either a Read-180 or another reading intervention class depending on the students’ most recent test-scores.
Most of my training in terms of literacy has come from school or district wide professional development training. In the past, I have taken several professional development seminars on teaching persuasive/argumentative writing, as I mostly feel that that is the most important type of writing for students to master. However, I am looking for ways to improve my writing instruction all around, as I believe that proficient writing is not only important for students to find success later on in academics, but also to organize and better formulate their thoughts. I feel that I am pretty good at recognizing good traits of writing, and teaching individual elements of writing. However, writing is more than just its elements or parts. I am looking for help in teaching a more holistic process of writing, as well as a way to help students understand that writing is an ongoing, organic process.
As for me, I do love being a teacher. I can’t see myself in a different profession. Though when I’m not teaching you’ll find me scratching my dog’s head, running in wet Oregon weather, or playing juvenile sports (kickball, dodgeball) in adult recreation leagues.
I look forward to this class, and digging into the text.
Derek
I am falling in line right behind Derek! I am still waiting for my final approval for this course from my school district; although I will still take it with our without their dollar. I just got my book so I am hoping to dive into it and get somewhat caught up this weekend.
ReplyDeleteFor now I will tell you that I live in paradise, that being Sisters, OR. We have sun and snow, and not much rain! It was by God's grace that I got hired here as jobs do not come easy. We are a small district: 1 elementary, 1 middle, and 1 high school. We are also highly desirable.
This is my fifth year at Sisters Elementary. Currently I am teaching 3rd grade, with four year previously in 2nd. My total teaching experience is about 12 years. I have taught mainly grades 1-3 with some subbing / job-share experience in middle school and kindergarten.
This year I have 23 students. This particular grade was large so we added a fourth class about 3 days before school started (that was me!). Unless a teacher has life skills students, instructional support does not exist. We rely heavily on parent volunteers. Fortunately our ERC and Title 1 department are extremely efficient.
We are focusing on writing in our PLC meeting this year. We have “adopted” the 6+1 Writing Traits idea. I say “adopted” lightly because there is no formal training, just us teachers reading the book and discussing it in grade level meetings. Last year I took a Writers Workshop course through TINT and was excited to start off the year with all that I learned. But now 6+1 Traits overrules.
We are feeling bogged with getting students to pass ALL LEVELS of the state testing, not just writing! But writing is definitely an area that proves difficult to teach. I am looking forward to learning new ideas and suggestions for engaging students in writing and instilling the love of the “voice of their pencil.”
Teaching was a career change for me. I fell in love with it when my daughter was in pre-school and I would help out in her classroom. By the time she was in Kindergarten I knew it was time for me to head back to school myself. I graduated from George Fox MAT in 97 and have been teaching ever since.
We moved to Central Oregon in 1999. It certainly provides activities for everyone; there is so much to do. I love being outdoors: hiking, camping, gardening, snowshoeing, and so much more. I love spending time with my husband when he is not traveling. Our daughter is a junior at George Fox which has left us empty nesters (except for her dog and two cats). It was a very hard transition for all of us but we have adjusted. We love having her home, even though we know that someday she will have a home of her own.
Well I have rambled on long enough. I am looking forward to all that this class has to offer. Several of my colleagues have read Writing Essentials and have spoken high of it. Regie Routman is excellent and I am excited to put her ideas into practice.
Welcome both Derek & Clara! No worries – you’re not too late…that’s the benefit of the distance learning course! Derek – I think that Regie Routman’s ideas and philosophies will coincide nicely with the work you’ll be doing wit Nancie Atwell. She’s another of my favorites!!! Clara – it sounds as though you live in a beautiful part of the country! I think we’re getting bogged down with state testing all over the country beyond the point to where I think it’s actually damaging our instruction. I’m all for accountability….but there has to be a better way. I hope that Regie, is able to help make the process of writing more enjoyable for both you and your students!
ReplyDeleteAssignment #3 (Sharing Your Writing Life)
ReplyDeleteI must admit, I was a bit nervous to actually write in front of all of my students. However, it proved to be a very powerful turning point in my classroom. I began by telling my story to them. For this assignment, I chose to tell them about my first day of teaching, back in 1996, long before they were born. The students were captivated by my story. I taught in Salem back then, and I was hired to take over a 4/5 blend six weeks into the school year. The students were not hand picked, they were the students who simply volunteered to change rooms. As you can imagine, it made for an interesting day back then, and an even better story now!
After telling them my story, I wrote it with them. What I learned about my process is that I re-read constantly as I go. I kept repeating what I had written to see how it sounded out loud. As a result, I did my editing as I wrote. I did not simply write the whole draft, and then edit at the end, which is the process that is most often taught in writer’s workshop. This was really important for me to understand, as other students probably process in a similar way.
The only pre-planning I did was to pick my topic. I wanted to truly test what it would feel like to write on the spot as I ask students to do all of the time. When I got stuck, I would read what I had already written and that usually sparked what I wanted to write next. Since I had told the story to my students already, they were able to chime in with details that I had forgotten. (They were actually listening!) When I was finished, I read the whole piece to see how it flowed. I did my final editing at that time.
My process was the same when I wrote a short piece at home. I didn’t do a lot of pre-writing. I simply began to write. As I wrote, I would go over it multiple times and edit at the same time. I did find that I needed a quiet space to really think about what I wanted to write, and I know that is true for many of my students as well.
This was a great experience and I do think this will help me understand my students better. There is not a "one formula fits all" for writing, it’s just trying to find what works for each of them.
Sincerely,
Julie
Hello Mary and Jackie!
ReplyDeleteMy apologies for the late start, hopefully I'll have the book within 3-5 days!! I'll play catch-up with assignments when I get the book. Hope this works for you. I'm currently a Special Education Learning Center teacher w/ Portland Public Schools, working with a wide range of student writers (we are a K-8 school). Primarily I work with 4th-8th grades, assisting with writing assignments from their general education classes, as well as supporting the student's writing skills in many other ways (depending on their individual need). I do love teaching, but also find it challenging, as well as tiring at times. I've been teaching for numerous years (25???)The district I work for is huge, so there are numerous trainings available, as well as numerous hoops to jump...the school I'm teaching in has been focusing on "writing" this year, so that has inspired me to take the course. Who says you can't teach an old.....new tricks? I'm always looking for new information,ideas, tools, you name it.....all in the interest in helping struggling writers. Since I work within Special Education, I definitely work the "struggling writers": gives me challenges, but I think I've had a fair amount of success over the years. Looking forward to the class!
Outside of teaching, I'm a professional musician (flutist) and am playing in several orchestras and chamber groups currently. I'm teaching half time now to more easily accomodate the music biz. I have adult children (one is a writer!!) and one child still at home and attending high school.
Thanks,
Erin Tierney
Assignment Four: Written Reflection Section Two-Chapters 4-6
ReplyDeleteChapter 4: Regie makes some interesting points about reaching the minority and lower socio-economic students. For many years, those are the two populations of students that my district has been struggling with. Their test scores are well below the non-minority and mid to higher socio-economic kiddos. We have all taken SIOP training this past year, and have implemented several new strategies to help with this population of kids. Writing is one of the most difficult areas to reach these students, but I am seeing growth this year.
Regarding her comment of “Worksheets aren’t good enough….” I am in complete agreement. The students that do well on them are the ones that don’t need the practice and so forth. I’ve also learned over the years and this is especially true in writing. For example, if I give out a proofreading activity that focuses on run-on sentences, the students tend to find the mistakes. The same is true with a Daily Oral Language activity. However, when they are editing their own work, they do not find the errors. The correlation between drill and direct application are not apparent, in my experience.
Chapter 5: Do More Shared Writing
I had mixed reactions to this chapter. In theory, doing more shared writing sounds fabulous. However, in a class as large as mine (32), with several diagnosed ADHD kids, this is extremely difficult. I lose many students’ attention if I try to do very much as a whole class. Many students simply can’t focus. Combine that with the size of my classroom, there simply isn’t space at all to pull kids together on the floor in front of me to use chart paper with. The only option I have is to use the document camera.
I think shared writing is effective if it can be managed. In smaller groups I have had more success than with the whole class. I will continue to challenge myself with this idea and see where it leads.
Chapter 6: Reading-Writing Connection
I enjoyed this particular chapter. I needed to remind myself of the important connection between the two subjects. Of course this isn’t new information, but it is easily forgotten when we are instructed to teach a certain number of minutes per day in reading, and in writing.
I too learned from her examples of teaching summarizing. My students really do struggle with this concept, so I will give her strategies try. I hadn’t really thought about the fact that I should model this for a good portion of the year before they try it in groups and eventually on their own.
I was struck by something she said in this chapter. On p. 123, she states, “Children who read literature-well written folktales, narratives, and trade books-become better writers than children who primarily read basal reading texts.” I was excited to read this, because I have always felt this to be true. I was also sad, because my principal, and district, have required us to stick to the basal for our reading instruction. This is the first year I have been unable to teach a unit with a novel, and it has been difficult. I do feel that their writing is reflecting this change. Time will tell. I will continue, however, to teach with picture books in writing, and with our read aloud books. I didn’t have to give that up!
Sincerely,
Julie
(Julie - I moved your assignments for #2,3,&4 to the appropriate weeks of the blog...look for responses there soon!)
ReplyDeleteWelcome Erin! No worries – you’ll catch up..it’s the benefits of a distance learning course. It seems as though you live a very exciting dual life…teacher by day; musician by night. I think that you will love Regie’s text and that it will support you with the writing work you do with your special needs students.
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ReplyDeleteHello Mary and Jackie,
ReplyDeleteThis is my second course from you ladies. I took Essentials in Reading this summer. I am excited to learn ways to fine tune my writing instruction!
My name is Jennifer Partlow, I am 26 years old. I. I love hiking and camping. I am also into watching Food TV and learning how to make new food dishes. I am currently in my 4th year of teaching in the David Douglas School district at Menlo Park Elementary.
My first 2 years of teaching were for 1st grade in a job share. I took the job share position to get my foot in the door. On my off days of teaching I substituted for K-6. I loved having the opportunity to experience different grades and learn first hand about each development level. These past 2 years I have taught 3rd grade full-time. It has been a rewarding experience having my own classroom, yet it felt like my first year of teaching all over again. I have 25 students in my class. This seems pretty rare these days.
David Douglas uses Houghton-Mifflin for our literacy program, and we are required to use it 90% of the time. Because it was my first year at a new grade level I tried really hard to stick to the curriculum to make it a bit easier for myself. I also used the Daily 5 method from "The Sisters" in my 90 minute reading block.
At Menlo we had a wonderful reading coach. She co-taught lessons, gave ideas on how to enhance the curriculum, and worked with students. Due to budget cuts, we no longer have a reading coach. The only training that I am aware of my district offering is to learn to better use the Houghton-Mifflin. They do however, provide funds for workshops. I attended a workshop incorporating music into literacy. It was great for 1st graders.
This coming Monday I will be attending a Lucy Caulkins workshop focusing on small group instruction.
Good morning!
ReplyDeleteI am getting such a late start to this class, but because I love the course topic and am excited about it, I am sure I can catch up quickly. My name is Katy Smith, and I teach at St. Thomas More School in southwest Portland.
I have taught for 23 years, mainly in grades six and eight, and mainly English and social studies. I love what I do: I love integrating English and social studies, and I love learning new ways to teach writing.
I talk often to the other teachers in my school about writing. i don't think we do enough of it. How much is enough?! Being a private school, we have a little more flexibility than some with how we approach writing. No tests to prepare for. Of course, we take standardized tests, but there is no writing component.
In my own classroom, we write often, both "formal" and informal writing. Because most of our students will go on to very traditional private high schools, I do feel some pressure to have the students write formal essays and literary analysis. We also write things like fables, myths, and alternate endings to the books we read. Those are the assignments my students and I enjoy most!
We do not get much literacy training form our district, but I seek those classes out myself, and I read many books about writing. I am at the tail end of my Masters in C and I, and my action research project addressed improving boys' attitudes towards writing.
I like to write myself, though I don't do enough of it with my students. I love to read, travel and play tennis. I have a wonderful husband and two great girls: a senior in high school and a seventh grader.
Thank you for teaching!
Katy Smith
Hi Jackie and Mary,
ReplyDeleteMy name is Nicole and I have just registered for the class this week. I have never before taken an online course. I thought I would try it since I am a new mom, and it would be easier to pace myself when I am able to spend time working on classwork when I have time available.
I have had an interesting past year. I had twin girls 9 months ago, who were micro premies. I was forced to take 9 months off work and now I am back working half time. I returned at the end of November so I am trying to learn how to balance my working life with my home life. It is challenging! I absolutely love being a mom so I am having a hard time making time in my life for my, now two, passions...family and teaching.
I am a 2nd grade teacher in David Douglas School District. I have taught for 6 years. I currently job share and we have 27 students in our class with a 3 hour assistant. However her hours are spread out during the day and she is often there during our specials. Our school has over 70% free and reduced lunch. I am not sure of the exact number this year but it is somewhere in the 80's I think. The students who attend our school are very affected by the hard economic times.
Our class this year is very tough. We have several challenging behaviors who tend to overtake the class somewhat. As a whole, they have a really hard time following 3 step directions, orally and written. They are very immature (even for 7 year olds). They are also very mean to each other. We have done extensive team building work using Tribes and other resources, as well as set up several positive reinforcements both individually and as a class. I am feeling a bit challenged with these kiddos. Part of me feels like it is just one of those groups, another part of me really feels as if I would have been there to start the year out, things may have been different. Although, it wasn't an option. My teaching partner and I get along very well and have worked really hard on creating a positive learning environment. It is a work in progress. I think that having a tough class is making it even harder for me to transition back into work and being away from my babies.
I was very passionate about literacy as a whole at the start of my career. After 2 years, our school became a reading first school which was devastating to me. I was unwilling to let it spoil all of the other wonderful things my school had to offer. Since then, my philosophy on literacy hasn't changed, but how I teach (within the restrictions of my assignment) has changed. I now teach reading and writing as separate subjects...yes, it is sort of possible although not ideal. As a result, I have really taken writing as my "project" for last few years. I have read a lot of work by Ralph Fletcher, Lucy Calkins, Regie Routman and Katie Wood Ray that have helped shape my writer's workshop. I have even attended several conferences with some of the authors. Our school has spent the past two years focusing on writing schoolwide. I was part of Site Council who planned several activities such as book clubs and a writer in residence.
I have found Writer's Workshop to be very challenging to run efficiently and effectively. I find that I am constantly tweaking it and changing things year to year. I also feel as if it will always be that way as I grow as an educator and as the needs of each class change. That being said, I find it to be very fun and exciting.
I have already read this book in Grad school and I thumb through it continuously, but I love it so much that I can't wait to delve back into it this year as I try to find a renewed energy for teaching. I am very much looking forward to reading it and reading other's responses and experiences. I may be a bit behind others, as I try and fit this into my new role as mommy. Thank you in advance for your patience with me.
Sincerely,
Nicole McGowan
Mary and Jackie,
ReplyDeleteWhile I feel I am posting assignment one a bit behind everyone, I am thrilled to have finally received my "Writing Essentials" book, and I have read it every night since getting it on Wednesday!
My name is Jenni Bergemann, and this is my first full year of teaching. I received my MAT last year after making a wonderful (but challenging) career change.
I currently teach 4th grade at Chenowith Elementary School in The Dalles. Chenowith is a Title 1 school of about 485 students. I currently have 25 students in my class and there are 2 other 4th grade classes at this school. The 4th grade students loop with their teacher for 5th grade as well - so next year I will have many of these students again.
Chenowith has many challenges, but it is a wonderful place for students. I work with many caring and dedicated staff members. Our literacy program is well focused on leveling students in reading based on their DRA. I currently teach a one hour reading block of 4th and 5th grade students that read at a DRA of 34 to 38. We also dedicate a 45 minutes to vocabulary and writing, and I read aloud to my students for 15 minutes each day. The current reading program many of the staff have been trained in is First Steps.
Although reading is strongly emphasized and structured, there is more of an "on your own" approach to teaching writing - thus my interest in taking this online course. The principal and staff are currently working on how to make the writing program better across all the grades, but currently we are not getting any specific training from the district.
I will admit to having very little coursework in teaching writing, but a lot of experience writing myself (and eight years of college didn't hurt either). I have been working with students in my class using materials and ideas from Writing A-Z, and other Scholastic Writing prep books, but I have very little foundation in making it smooth and consistent. I am hoping to get some great ideas, strategies, and skills from this class.
There is significant concern from the staff about the State Writing test, and making sure students are prepared to write. We will be administering our State Writing Test to our 4th graders starting this week (Feb. 9th). I am concerned that my 4th graders are not ready, as I feel I have not focused so much on having them write for themselves. I know through this course that I will learn to teach writing better and help my students learn to love writing as much as I do.
I love teaching every day - despite the difficult student population that I have in my class. The students are eager to learn, and I have so much fun watching them learn and share new things they have learned. I feel very supported at my school, especially as the "new" teacher, and although I am tired, it is a very good tired. I am fortunate to have great support at home!
I am married and have two beautiful daughters, ages 13 and 10, who love school. Our family values education, and they all are so supportive of all I do - despite the long hours and some late nights.
I do hope to teach students to love writing and get them prepared for a lifetime of writing that is meaningful to them and others. I look forward to catching up to the rest of the posts as well!
Thanks for your patience in having me get my materials and registration in!
Peace,
Jenni Bergemann
Hello Mary and Jackie,
ReplyDeleteMy name is Hillary Currier and I’m in year 16 of teaching high school. I have been teaching at Jesuit High School in Portland since 2004. I feel a bit like the odd man out in this class because I teach high school and because all of my experience has been in private schools. Please don’t hold that against me as I work my way through this course.
I am a latecomer because I am desperately trying to finish my 4.5 quarter hours for TSPC by April. Yes, I am a procrastinator too. However, I will try to make up for lost time over the next few weeks.
While I consider myself an English teacher by training and experience, I haven’t taught an English class in the last four years. I teach 3/5 time: yearbook, photography and journalism. Of course, the journalism class is all about writing, and that’s why I thought this class might be a good fit.
I’m at a point in my life and career where I’m pretty burned out with being a working mom. I have two young kids, three and seven, at home, and its torture to drop them off at their schools every morning while it is still dark outside. I hate not being able to volunteer in their classrooms. I can hardly stay awake at night after my kids have gone to bed to do my own school work.
On the other hand, I feel very fortunate to be 3/5. With that schedule I can be home almost every afternoon to pick them up from school. And the classes I teach, though they have deadline pressures and require quite a bit of outside work, do not have a huge grading burden. My classes are all electives, so, I get to give a lot of A’s. (Well, that as you might guess, is a double-edged sword because I often feel the pressure to give students good grades “because it’s an elective, not a real academic course, and it’s hurting his/her GPA.”)
I’m not really sure what I hope to get out of this course. Because of the nature of the class I teach, my interaction with the students is already unusual—more editor than teacher. I actually get to talk to them one-on-one about their assignments a couple of times a week. We work together to reorganize paragraphs, tweak passages and correct grammar. In fact, what I get to do is so unique and unusual that I dread having to go back to the traditional English classroom.
These days my colleagues are dealing with 30 students per English class. (I know most of the teachers taking this course are dealing with similar numbers, but that’s a really terrible ratio for a private school! ) In the past couple of years, the total student load for an English teacher has increased by about 20 students. English teachers have really cut down on the amount of writing they are giving because they find it so hard to assess the work in the way they have been used to. Perhaps the text will provide some insight.
I’m sure I will get some new ideas for my own classes. Perhaps I will learn something here that I can take back to my department as well. And finally, my son, Jackson, is a first grader in Portland Public Schools. Maybe I will gain some insight to help him become a better writer.
Welcome to Jennifer, Katie, Nicole, Jenni, and Hillary! You all come from such varied backgrounds in both teaching experiences and professional development opportunities. We look forward to what each of you have to share throughout the course. Don’t worry about the late start….it’s the benefit of distance learning courses! (and major kudos to Nicole for getting back into the game after having premie twins!!!!)
ReplyDeleteHi Hillary - I just want to introduce myself. My name is Clara Hughes, I teach 3rd grade at Sisters Elementary (in Sisters, OR). My husband's brother is the AD and teaches at Jesuit, you most likely know him - Mike Hughes??
ReplyDeleteGood luck with this course. I love read Writing Essentials, I have written all over the margins of the pages. I only wish I had more time to read!!
Tell Mike hello for me.
Greetings blog members! I am Lindsay Demaray, a novice English teacher of two years, teaching English to 7th-12th graders at a private alternative education placement in Oregon City, Oregon. I have an average of 10 students per class, of which 90% of the students are on IEPs. I always have a second teacher or aide in the class to help support students. Because we are not directly affiliated with a district, there is not specific literacy program or writing program (or much support for that matter) available.
ReplyDeleteThere has been a recent emphasis on writing, or at least collecting writing samples from the students in order to start tracking data. This appears to be a good idea, but like me, the other four teachers are fairly new and we have not had a lot of training or experience in scoring/evaluating writing samples. Moreover, most of my students are performing way below grade level and struggle to even begin the writing process (sometimes refusal), let alone construct organized writing.
However, lately I have been spending the winter trimester teaching “Business English” where the focus is on shorter, more professional writing: memos, letters, reports, proposals, etc. I have had HUGE success! I am still figuring out why this is, so stay tuned for more reflection in the 2nd post.
Outside of school, it is me, my husband, two pugs, and a large, angry cat. I enjoy crafting, exercising, cooking and eating! I look forward to getting some insight and new perspective on engaging students in writing and perhaps change my view of what writing should be for a population where the 5-paragraph essay has little value.
Hi and welcome Lindsay! I think you'll enjoy reading all about Regie's reflections on writing. As far as having success with the shorter "Business English" pieces, I'm sure it has something to do with how much purpose each type of writing holds for the students. These are very relevant types of writing for your students. I hope you enjoy the course.
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