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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My name is Kirky Stutzman. I teach at Chenowith Elementary school in The Dalles, OR. I teach 4th grade then loop my class up to 5th grade. I have been teaching for 20 years.
ReplyDeleteThis year, I started with 34 4th graders. Then after one quarter was changed to a 4/5 blend with 25 students to help reduce class size. The only support I receive is an aide that pushes in for my special ed. students in writing. The nice part is she has been in my room for 6 years now and knows my program and my style. I have her for about 50 minutes.
I have just completed my reading endorsement about 3 years ago. I have been focusing on reading and writing for the last four years. Just last year I took the essentials of reading and loved it. It was my motivator to take this particular class along with the fact I wanted to strengthen my knowledge in these areas.
Our district adopted First Steps and I completed five years of training in this language arts framework. I have also taken several courses on the 6 traits of writing. Our district has not focused on writing as much as I think they should. Math and reading have been our real focus. We have done some work at our school, which has allowed all of us, K-5, to see what the different grades levels are doing. This in turn has moved us in the direction of where we would like to start moving with our writing as an entire staff.
I love to teach, but have found over my 20 years that it has really changed. If you are not careful you can get burned out and become very ineffective. With severe budget cuts, the outlook is very dim. It does not thrill me, but once I get in my room, I can usually pull through. Having enough family time and time for myself is important. I struggled with 34 this fall and felt horrible about what I was able to do with the kids. I am hoping that my room count for next year of 32 so far stays there or lower. I do not see any relief this fall for large class size. Which we all lose when there is no relief in a situation like that.
I am married to a wonderful man named Jesse. We have two great kids, Wyatt (12) and Emma (9). My family loves to travel. We spend many hours involved in our children's activities, from basketball, baseball, football, dance, sports camps,to 4-H swine. We live on a 3,000 acre wheat ranch where we raise animals and wheat. I drive 100 miles round trip for my job, but I wouldn't trade our lifestyle or opportunities my children are able to partake in for anything.
I hope to come out of this refreshed with new ideas for my writing program. I believe I can improve in many ways and I am excited to get started.
My name is Shawna Ortega and I teach at Chenowith Elementary School in The Dalles, Oregon. This next year will be my fourth year teaching a 4/5 loop. I will be getting my same class back this fall as I had this last year plus a few more students. I began last year with 35 students but was able to drop down to 26 after the first quarter when the district added another teacher. This next year I plan to have at least 31 students due to budget cuts and the fact that the district doesn't have the money to keep the teacher they added. I have a Special Ed. Assistant that pushes into my class for approximately 1 1/2 hours during Science/Social Studies and writing.
ReplyDeleteMy school uses First Steps Reading and Writing as part of our literacy program. I have only been trained in First Steps Reading. In my writing program I have used a step by step lesson plan book that was passed on to me by a colleague. It uses lots of teacher modeling and writing together before letting them write on their own. The main emphasis is how to write a 5 paragraph essay with an introduction and a closing. I also use Daily Oral Language/Daily Paragraph Editing. I have found that the students were able to learn to write in paragraphs but at the same time this program seemed to stifle my strong writers and I found myself feeling bored when it came to correcting their work.
Our district is bogged down with trying to pass state tests and the pressure to get the kids to perform is great. As a school we have spent time discussing what to do with writing, adopting common language and graphic organizers to finding a program that we can all get excited about. So far, we haven't committed to anything concrete.
I enjoy teaching and going to work. I like the challenge that teaching gives. It is a job that allows you to try new tactics, strategies and styles. I am always trying to improve each lesson and it is gratifying when I am able to achieve growth and improvement along with my students!
Teaching does get stressful with trying to meet standards, large class loads, meetings, grading, planning, etc. I never feel like I can complete all that needs to be done and spend extra time daily to try and complete all I need to do.
My life outside of school consists of a supportive and wonderful husband named Ed and three beautiful children: My son Bailey (12), daughters Eliana (9) and Emma (2). We spend most of our time with activities for the kids. They are involved in football, basketball, baseball, softball, swim team, golf and gymnastics or dance. My husband and I enjoy coaching and used to coach at the high school level, but had to put that off when our kids started participating in their own sports. We love to spend time with friends and family and taking family trips when we can squeeze it in!
With this course I hope to re-define how I teach writing so that it is effective and exciting for students. I would like for students and myself to look forward to writing each day.
Hi Kirky and Shawna! Welcome to class. How great to take this class with a team mate. It sounds like your school is off to a good start by sharing writing examples and developing a common language around writing! These are very important steps for the school-wide improvement that districts are looking for.
ReplyDeleteI personally feel that the large class sizes is one of the huge obstacles we need to overcome in really meeting the needs of our students. Basically it comes down to resources- money and time. There never is enough of either and the result is the mass exodus from the education field... the burn-out of teachers. We think you will both enjoy this text and find many ideas to incorporate into your writing programs!
My name is Leon Borgmeier and I teach fourth grade at Knight Elementary in Canby, Oregon. I just finished my sixth year with Canby schools and my fifth year of fourth grade. I had 22 students in my 09-10 class but I have been as high as 31 students.
ReplyDeleteMy writing instruction would be the aspect of my teaching responsibilities I struggle with most. I was an elementary students back in the 1960s and I tend to want to teach it the way I learned it. However, students are different and our understanding of the way writing should be taught is different. I don't feel my school district has a literacy program that supports writing instruction in a cohesive grade-to-grade, teacher-to-teacher manner. It seems disjointed and as we get further into Professional Learning Communities, I see that becoming more evident. Getting our own grade levels on the same page, not to mention an entire school, would mean an investment in time and resources that just aren't there.
I enjoy teaching but I got into the this in my 40s after years in paper mills, sheet metal shops, and warehouses. I turned 50 this year and have three college-age kids...a son who just graduated from Linfield, a daughter who will be a junior at OSU this fall, and another daughter who will be a sophomore at UO. I officiate high school basketball almost year-round to help pay the bills so they can achieve their goals.
I am trying to catch up on these assignments after getting a late start on the course but I'm anxious to read more of the posts and see where the rest of you are and how you got here.
Leon Borgmeier
My name is James Scoggins and I teach English at Willamina High School in Yamhill County. In my two years here, I have taught at several different levels, but mainly senior English. Before I returned to Oregon, I taught for six year in Nevada, where I taught juniors and seniors. My classes have been anywhere between 8 and 25 students, but will be 30-35 students next year.
ReplyDeleteI do not know if the district has a literacy program as each school seems to do its own thing without much communication, which seems odd for such a small district. We have worked together at the high school level, but nothing has been put on paper and has not been from a specific plan of approach. We are pretty much left on our own.
We had pretty specific curriculum and competencies in Nevada, so I have used some of those approaches to teaching writing, but am continually looking for ways of improving. I find one of my biggest road blocks is getting students to understand how to create cohesive papers that pursue a specific idea and that are not simple reports of others’ work. I taught a research writing course to lower-level students last year and found it difficult to get them to create their own ideas based on their reading.
Our district does not offer any training in teaching writing beyond informal meetings between teachers. As the sophomores were the only class who needed to take the state tests, our district approached this by having only one teacher teach the sophomores and relied on her experience to improve test scores. The testing was not organized well and some students only tested once at the end of the year because our test administrator forgot to test all of them.
I have used the writing prompts on the ODE website to get my students used to the tests and have worked on graphic organizers to represent their thoughts depending on the type of questions, but would like to find a more interesting way of getting them to be more creative and organized with their writing.
I have become increasingly stressed and unhappy with teaching since moving to this district, as we do not have much support or guidance in our work. Ideas from teachers are most often met with opposition if they are not in line with established methods, which are themselves often not communicated to the teachers in the first place. This does not create an atmosphere of professional examination of practices and discourages innovation.
My background is in English and theatre. I was an actor at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival and work every summer at the Festival’s Summer Seminar for High School Juniors. This background has made me appreciate and excel in collaboration with my peers, where we can use ideas from everyone involved to improve curriculum. I use some of my theatre training to activate the lessons in my classroom, but need to find a better way of connecting that with writing.
I look forward to using some of the ideas from this class to improve our high school’s methodology on teaching writing and to connect with other teachers outside of our district. As a father of a wonderful two-year-old, I also look forward to finding ways of using my time more efficiently, so I can spend mort time with my family.
My name is Jessica Oberg. I teach English Language Development in North Clackamas School District. I work with Kindergarten through 6th grade. I have been teaching for 5 years.
ReplyDeleteI taught in Virginia for two years and primarily worked with second and third grader english language learners. My love for travel and exploration brought me to the West Coast.
I have a caseload of around 70 students. I have instructional support for 2 hours in the day.
Our literacy program includes Treasures, Treasure Chest, Daily 5 and Lucy Calkins. Students get whole group instruction for about 45 minutes a day. Then some students move to Title 1, special education or ELL for support.
I use Systematic ELD by Susana Dutro to support my ELD curriculum. I must teach the forms and function of language through the domains of reading, writing, speaking and listening. I am looking for more ways to strengthen my ability to teach writing and motivate students.
I have taken a book study group for Lucy Calkins. I took the Daily 5 class a couple of summers ago. I did a book study of writing to the prompt.
I did support a 5th/6th grade teacher during writing time this past year. That proved most helpful to see how she breaks down the Calkins curriculum and makes it more accessible.
I currently still enjoy teaching. I am always looking for ways to increase my knowledge around literacy.
In my spare time, I enjoy the great outdoors. I spend time whitewater kayaking, mountain biking, hiking and skiing. This summer I am traveling to Australia to visit my sister. I am thankful that I will have some course work to keep me occupied on the plane!
Heather Dahlquist-Farnsworth
ReplyDeleteJuly, 6 2010
Assignment 1: Intro Paragraph
Essentials of Writing
My name is Heather, and I am one of the honored teachers hired to inspire students on a daily basis at Firwood School in the Oregon Trail School District. I have been teaching for eight years at Firwood. Previous to that, I was the Director of Education at Sylvan Learning Center for two years.
Last year was one of the most challenging years I have had the pleasure to concur. Due to budget cuts, I was assigned to a blended ¾, housing 34 students in homeroom, 47 students for math and 43 for writing with no instructional support. This upcoming school year, Firwood has returned to straight classrooms and am looking forward to my assignment of 3rd grade.
Our current literacy model consists of guided reading facilitated through the flooding model. We do not have an adopted writing curriculum; therefore, every teacher does things differently. I literally pull a little of this and a little of that and hope it makes a whole at the end of the year. I do parts of speech and components of a paragraph throughout the year as my running thread. I teach the scoring rubric then use those strands to guide my teaching as we explore expository, narrative and imaginary writing. To top it off we use Rebecca Sitton Spelling, which I do three different units at the same time (modified, regular and challenge). My knowledge of writing instruction is limited based solemnly on my Master’s program and real world experience. My school does feel the pressure of performing well on the written state assessment. Through our school wide plan, we are moving in the right direction in my opinion. One of the things we added to our plan for the nest year is to have a written final piece of work, published and on display, every two weeks. I think this will raise the level of concern for many of our students. Another aspect we are excited about is having Regie Routman’s in-service notebook provided to us for training. I enjoy teaching and love the school I teach at. The job itself is exhausting and stressful and extremely rewarding.
Outside the classroom I enjoy all outside activities with the two year old son, Lincoln and husband Mike. We have recently sold our home, so we are in the process of moving. We need to be out by the 20th of this month. We are hoping to purchase land and build. So it will be a year of transition. I am hoping this class will guide me to new techniques to make my writing instruction stronger and more effective.
Welcome to class Leon, James, Jessica and Heather!
ReplyDeleteWow, Leon! Three kids in college at the same time. :) Don’t worry about catching up, you are doing just fine!
Hi James. Does your district have a director of curriculum? I can’t believe they forgot to test some of the kids? I would have to agree with you that when your administration does not welcome teacher input and suggestions it is difficult to enjoy what you do. In fact, I resigned from my school this year not because of the teachers or students but due to the administration. So now I need to find a new job. :) I’ve always wanted to go to the Shakespeare Festival. I bet this is so much fun. Regie is big in having a life outside of school, so we think you’ll be able to get some ideas to be more efficient and have more time.
Hello Jessica. The Daily 5 and Regie mesh nicely. In fact, Regie was an inspiration for The Sisters. Lucy is brilliant but her system is very regimented. We have had many of our teachers attend Columbia’s Teacher College and also had some instructors come to our school to work with us over the years. There have been quite a few people who have left the Teachers College because Lucy is so specific in the way things are done. That’s one reason why I really like Regie, because she is realistic with the demands placed on teachers these days. Hope you have a fun and safe trip to Australia!
Hi Heather. I can’t believe the challenges that are still going on with budgets and class sizes. 47 kids in math and 43 in writing at the elementary level???? No wonder you felt that this was the most challenging year of your career. Now that you are back to straight grades has your district told you that the class sizes will be reduced? I can’t believe the parents aren’t up in arms about the class sizes. I just don’t know how the kids can get the kind of attention that they need with such large sizes. Good luck with your move!
We’ll be interested to hear your thoughts as we work through the text. Just a reminder as the summer continues that everyone should try to keep their responses to one post to make the blog easier to read. With so many people in the class in the summer it can get overwhelming with so many posts. Oh, one other thing. You may want to work on your posts in Word first then paste to the blog. I have worked on posts and then the network goes down or some strange thing happens and I’ve lost all my work. So now I try to write it in Word first and then post it just in case something goes wrong.
Hi! I'm Rachael Schuetz (pronounced like SHEETS of paper- haha my students struggled with my name until I used that description!). I'm a second grade teacher at Miller Elementary School in Bend, Oregon. This will be my fifth year teaching and I really love my job! One area that I'd really like to focus on this year is writing. I just joined this course, so I will work really hard to catch up with you guys!!! I'm truly looking forward to the opportunity to enrich my teaching of writing and my students' experience.
ReplyDeleteOne of my hobbies outside of school is writing. As a result I really value the process of teaching writing. However, I would like to work on bringing the same passion to my teaching of writing that I feel for my own writing. I know that this has been a challenge for me in the past. I've made writing one of my main goals for myself as a teacher. This last winter, I was fortunate to take the TINT course which used Lucy Calkins Units of Study for writing. It was a great experience and has made a positive impact on my classroom teaching. I look forward to working with all of you in continuing this journey.
On a personal note, I am a 27 year old second grade teacher from Bend. My husband, Nick and I are really enjoying our summer here in Central Oregon. I am thankful for the summer in order to have a chance to take some courses to enrich my teaching and have some time for hobbies and to catch up on the home front! Last year I self-published the book The Long Road to Change after hearing my second grade students inspiring comments about President Obama's inauguration. It's not a political book, but a neat way to teach elementary children about the civil rights movement. As a beginning children's author, I am very passionate about children's books and am always looking for great literature!
You are welcome to visit my class website (from last year) or book website, if you'd like to see more.
http://www.longroadtochange.com/
http://web.bend.k12.or.us/rachael.schuetz
Thank you so much!
Hi, my name is Chuck Fall and I teach juniors and seniors at Benson Polytechnic High School in Portland, Oregon. I have also taught freshmen. I am relatively fresh and new to teaching getting my license in 2003. For the first two years I was substituting and teaching summer school and now I am fully employed at the high school level. Before teaching, I have worked in the workers’ compensation insurance as a claims representative and I have worked in restaurants as a food server and I was a stay-home dad for 5 years before going to college to become a teacher. As a teacher, I still feel that I am on the steep face of the learning curve in terms of figuring out how to create really meaningful and useful lessons that build students’ reading and writing skills. This class appealed to me because writing is at the heart of the work we do. Writing is the skill necessary across all disciplines. We’ve got a hot commodity and its something I want to be able to teach well.
ReplyDeleteOne of my colleagues from Benson, a math teacher, got a letter-to-the editor published in the local paper that lamented the amount of time spent getting all our 10th graders to complete the state tests in math, reading, writing, science, etc. The context for his remarks is the impending dismissal of a 100 teachers due to budget shortfall. A lot of time is spent getting students to pass the 10th grade state tests.
I know Portland Public Schools struggles to get kids to become stronger writers; Benson was pegged a “failing school” one year when more than half the students failed the reading and writing tests. When I got hired full time at another school it was under a grant to advance the Striving Reader’s program developed by the University of Kansas education department. PPS has many struggling readers and writers. However, my high school does not follow any specific writing program. Personally, I am looking forward to simplifying my approach and expanding the amount of writing I do in my classrooms.
Last year was a very difficult year for me. In one class in particular, 85% were characterized as “academic priority,” meaning they were strugglers. In hindsight, I can see the need to enhance the way in which I structure my class and run the lesson. To improve the climate in my classroom I am reading Discipline in the Secondary Classroom by Randall S. Sprick, PH.D. My students would qualify as a group requiring “high structure.” I will be doing a number of things differently next year. I am excited to be reading Writing Essentials because the writing-centric classroom is consistent with the structures called for in Discipline…Most importantly, I am excited to put into practice lessons from Writing Essentials.
Hello Rachael and Chuck!
ReplyDeleteWelcome to class. Rachael, it's nice to have you in another class. Chuck, already you seem to be on the right path- improving the climate in your room, simplifying your approach and expanding the amount of time students write in your class!
Thanks! Just wanted to add a bit more to my introduction specifically around classroom instruction and writing.
ReplyDeleteIn my class this last year I had 25 students. We didn't have any instructional support with writing. Students who were on an IEP got a few minutes of help with writing during their pull out reading program. Writing was still a great struggle for most of those students. Our support focus at second grade is on reading and math. I know that they would include more writing support if funding allowed for it. Even at second grade, we feel the push to prepare students for the fourth grade writing assessment.
One of the main reasons that I'm taking this course is that I feel underprepared to teach writing. My undergraduate and graduate teaching program focused on reading and math. Although reading and writing are linked, there wasn't any specific course on how to set up a writers workshop or any writing lessons in your classroom. Since graduating I've taken a two day workshop on Writing Towards the Benchmarks and the Lucy Calkins' course I spoke of earlier. I gained a lot from these classes, but have found that I still have a ways to go!
Rachael,
ReplyDeleteI think you'll find many useful ideas in this text to implement into your writing program. We can also recommend some other books on the topic of writing instruction if you want.
My name is Amy Jensen and this is the first time I have done a blog and most likely the last. I am not comfortable writing a public post, so to my teachers, my responses will be vague. (Maybe I will like it?)
ReplyDeleteI teach 4th Grade at Menlo Park Elementary School. Next year will be my 5th year there and my 9th year teaching. My school has 77% of the population on free and reduced lunch and 25% is ELL. Working with kids in poverty has many rewards, however, there are many challenges as well.
During the 09-10 school year, I had 22 students in my class and one student was mainstreamed full time from our special Education classroom SLP-A. I did not have an assistant. Last year was my first year as a fourth grade teacher. (I looped with my 3rd graders.) I have never had such a stressful year in my entire life. I worked harder than ever to prepare my students for the state writing test and sadly most met conditionally, which is not meeting. I am giving it one more try and if I don't get results, I will leave this grade level. Maybe this book can help? Do not even get me started on my opinions of that test!!!
I am very busy outside of school keeping up with my almost 2 year old.