Monday, June 21, 2010

ASSIGNMENT TWO: WRITTEN REFLECTION–Section One- The Essential Writing Life Chapters 1-3

Reflect on the following comments written below from Chapters 1-3 and any additional thoughts that you have after reading these chapters.

Chapter 1: Simplify the Teaching of Writing• Simplify our teaching
• Becoming more knowledgeable about teaching writing
• Examine your beliefs

Regie gets to the heart of her book Writing Essentials with this quote on the final page of Chapter One: “By reducing the clutter in our teaching lives-the overplanning, the unnecessary activities, the paper load, all the ‘stuff’ that takes our time and energy and does little to improve teaching and learning-we bring joy back into our work and the world of our students.” Many of us work very hard and spend many hours complicating our teaching lives. In this book Regie will help you simplify your teaching life for your benefit and that of your students.

One of the frustrations that teachers encounter regularly is the ever changing “latest and best” writing programs that districts or states force on them and their students. With this revolving cycle of programs, teachers are spending too much time learning how to use the program rather than becoming better writing teachers. Regie explains that in the districts where students are the best writers, they are writing for real purposes and audiences and publishing their writing; teachers are not using prescribed writing programs.

Look at Appendix A (page A-2.) Examine your beliefs about writing by reading the statements about the writing process and marking true or false in your book. (Go ahead and write in your book, it’s OK! You can even use a pencil and mark very lightly if you want to.) We found this activity very enlightening. Let us know what you think after you complete the activity.

In your reflection for Section One, please include your thoughts about the following questions or statements:

• Regie demonstrates how to use the Optimal Learning Model (shown on the front cover and page 11) throughout the book. Consider how the Optimal Learning Model fits into your own instruction.
• As you think about how to teach writing so that all students can become successful, effective and joyful writers, reflect on how you presently teach the “12 Writing Essentials” (as described on pages 13-14 in the text) during your daily writing instruction. As we continue to read through Regie’s book, hopefully you will begin to see how you might make changes in your instruction to better incorporate these “12 Writing Essentials.”

Chapter 2: Start With Celebration
• Make sure writing is meaningful not just correct
• Use stories as springboards and ensure that ALL students hear stories
• Write in front of your students and connect home and school

The title of Chapter Two simply states, “Start with Celebration,” and that’s exactly what we need to do for our students. The celebration of all students’ writing needs to be put into the forefront and be made our first teaching goal. Celebrations should happen school-wide, within our classrooms and with students individually. As children begin to see themselves as successful writers, they will take more risks in their writing and in turn will become better writers who enjoy the writing process.
Another key point that Regie highlights in this chapter is to “make sure writing is meaningful, not just correct!” Students need to understand that writing is “enjoyable and for a real purpose and audience.” She also reminds us “that teaching skills in isolation does not make student writers; neither does teaching to the test. And breaking writing into bits and pieces robs children of the joy of writing.”

Regie suggests using stories as a springboard for teaching and learning. Hearing and telling stories builds our students’ oral language skills and these stories are “an entryway into reading and writing.” Only when students are reading and writing real stories can they connect the “skills” based learning to their reading and writing!

Please include your thoughts about the following questions or statements in your written reflection of Section One:

• Regie explains how important celebrating student writing is. How do you celebrate student writing in your classroom? How might you add more celebration of student writing to your day/year?
• Consider what changes you could make in your writing instruction to make writing more meaningful and purposeful for your students.

20 comments:

  1. In chapter one, it talks about being knowledgeable about how to teach writing. I think that is why I have placed reading and writing as a focus to strengthen. I am not a teacher that loves text books or step-by-step programs. I like First Steps because it is a framework. I know as a student that being confined to a text or a step-by-step program was difficult. It is not a one size fits all way to learn. I love thinking and teaching outside the box. I find my students are more intrigued and motivated, plus I enjoy the process much more.

    I feel all students need to feel success and that it will look different from one child to the next. This is why I get so excited about learning new ways to teach!

    In my teaching I do use the optimal learning model. I always start by modeling, then modeling with student help. Depending on the task they either do group, partner, or individual. I love the 12 writing essentials. What a wonderful list to keep before you to keep you focused. The two I would like to work on this year are embracing language and read widely and deeply. I do use picture books during my reading and writing to help with different ideas or strategies. They help present an example of a style, form, or language used. The rest of the essentials I do at some level.

    Chapter two hits home. About four years ago I started running my writing program in a workshop formatt. I do minilessons, free writing, and celebration. The student's favorite part was... celebration. Now, it took time to establish rules and trust, but when that happened, it was marvelous. They would share, read and ask for help (writer's block) or ask for suggestions on improvement. They couldn't wait for celebration time! All students shared and learned that they had written something well. We always gave positive comments and then suggestions, but only if asked.

    One comment in this chapter I love is when reading a student's paper, do not always just correct sentence fluency or conventions. Read it and give positive feedback on what they have accomplished. I can see giving positive comments help build confidence and motivate students to write more. Such a simple concept, but something I haven't put into place. We all get so caught up in the final product, that we forget the important things along the way.

    One last thing I would like to incorporate next year is journal writing. Reading in the book and seeing my son's journal have sold me on the idea of a journal. It really shows the child behind the words and doesn't feel canned.

    I love chapter three. How simple (once again), but effective to think of how we write as adults and put that into play for our students. It was the same realization for the reading process. I do write in front of my students, but I worry about losing them. I can see that you should fit your writing length to the classes ability to focus and stay on task. I always have this sense you should complete the writing in one sitting, but doing it over a couple of days would work. Habits are hard to break.

    I could see how writing and sharing in front of your class would create a bond. I am constantly telling stories and know this is one thing that my students love and really brings us closer.

    The idea of story telling verbally first is awesome. I have had them brainstorm and then share their ideas, but talking before writing would really help everyone in some way.

    Our school has gotten into some debate about graphic organizers. I personally do not like to use them and find them confusing. I love to list out words or phrases then write from there. I am sure a lot of kids feel the same way. Food for thought to share with staff.

    I may not write very much for fun, but I do know I have improved as a writer. I now feel confident when I write, which raises my enjoyment level.

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  2. S. Ortega-
    Chapter 1: I love the idea of simplifying our teaching life. I feel I spend a lot of time planning my lessons and would love to "de-clutter" or remove any unnecessary activities. I also feel pinched for time--there are so many concepts/skills to teach and so little time.

    Regie's concept of not adopting a new writing program but teaching teachers to become better at teaching students to write was a new way of thinking for me. At my schoool we have been trying to find SOMETHING that all teachers could use from K-5. We weren't looking for a specific program to follow but we did want common language/graphic organizers to help our students build new skills each year. I think as an educator we want to hear there is a program/materials that work and when everyone is trained well that students see success. It feels comfortable to say if I follow this process my kids will improve. The idea of not learning and teaching a program, but instead learning to teach using new strategies, tools and ideas is exciting. It feels more creative and free for both students and teachers. I am curious as to how it all works and wonder if I will be able to impliment Regie's ideas into a classroom with 31 plus students effectively.

    Optimal Learning Model- I use this model to teach in my everyday teaching. I agree that it is important to model expectations/strategies for the students first. The next step is to share the process with the students and gradually get them to be able to perform the task independently. I begin by modeling and then I have them create a piece as a class, in small groups or with a partner. Finally, I will give them a task to complete on their own.

    12 Writing Essentials- As I read the list, I feel that I focus strongly on 6 of the essentials, I focus at times on 4-5 others and there are 2 that I know I don't spend nearly enough time on! This last year I started using short stories during my writing class to showcase a specific skill or writing strategy. I noticed an immediate improvement in student performance by using books first to show an example. I plan to continue and use this process more often. The other one I want to focus more on is writing for a specific reader and a meaningful purpose.

    Celebrations- This is an area I can definitely spend more time on. At times I will choose someones writing to share with the class and applaud that student, or have the student share their own writing, display poetry on bulletin board in the hall or keep pieces to share at parent conferencing. None of these were done regularly or often enough. Next year I would like to either spend time each day at the end of class on this or set aside one day a week where we get to share and get positive feedback and encouragement. I believe that writing skills for both the writer and the listener improve through this process.

    Share Writing Life- I like the idea of writing in front of the class and noting our writing thought process. Students will learn to see how to decide what is important and what is not important and how to pick the right words depending on the audience. I believe this will give writing a purpose and hopefully that will be a motivator to the student to produce quality work that they are proud of!

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  3. This was some interesting reading to start off the book. One of my thoughts as I read the first chapter was how Routman wrote of teachers being bogged down by procedures and processes yet gives me 12 more "essentials" I need to teach. As I read the rest of the chapter and the next two chapters, I started to see how those 12 elements blend together and can be used throughout the daily curriculum.

    The Optimal Learning Model is a nice framework for showing how to gradually pass the responsibility from the teacher to the student. I believe my writing instruction often follows that model...but not nearly enough. I teach fourth grade and I should have that model displayed in my classroom while we are writing. I could see that helping me focus on what I need to do to help bridge the extreme gaps between my better writers and my struggling writers.

    The two ideas that helped me the most in chapter two are the importance of stories to developing writers and how my students need to see me write. I am always sharing some chapter book with my students and I know how an interesting event in a story can inspire good writing. I can use their own stories as more of a springboard to improve their writing. As for writing in front of them, I don't do that enough. I take an story from prompt to printing early in the year but then I don't return to that process and show my students how best writing comes from that process. It is something I should model much more.

    Finally, for chapter three, it is evident how important it is to be a writer as I teach writing. The "Try it/Apply it" list on page 43 presents some good examples of ways I can show students the different ways I write...formal and informal, notes and complete sentences, lists and reflections.

    The celebration of student writing should be a big part of a classroom experience and my classroom can use more of it. Blaming it on the lack of good prompts or the pressures of the state writing test are just excuses. My students can write better than they do and I can celebrate that growth better than I do.

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  4. First of all, I will be interested in more guidance as how to apply the concepts Routman gives to the secondary level. I only have my students for 50 minutes each day and don't always have the time to implement writing into the class period, and with about 100 students, not enough time to grade their pieces. The concept of simplifying my teaching of writing is one I am eager to begin!

    OLM: I use this in most of my lessons, but find I need to spend more time on the "Demonstration" portion. We often assume that students have the writing skills they need by the time they reach high school and so often get write on to the individual practice. I have found myself having to re-teach concepts, mostly on the mechanics side. I think much of this comes from the students having lost interest in writing, much as they do with reading, through the middle school years. (There is some great research on this communicated in Trelease's The Read-Aloud Handbook.)

    I hope that by finding ways of making writing more applicable to their lives, individual, and creative, the students will be more interested to write and I will be more interested to read their pieces. This is one of the dilemmas I think I will find with Routman's approach: What impact will I have as a junior-senior English teacher if I am one of the only teachers who use Routman's approach in my district? This does not lessen my desire and intent on using the information from the text, but I will be interested to see if I get push-back from teachers and students if I focus more on message and audience, rather than mechanics.

    Anyway, I will spend more time demonstrating writing to help ensure their success with their individual practice.

    12 Writing Essentials: I use many of these approaches, but am interested in working more with establishing a specific audience. I will have the students create a list of people important to them for different reasons, and have them choose one of those people as their audience. I think this could help them focus their thoughts and possibly use more specific language. I currently teach many of the essentials with specific lessons, but need to knit them together better.

    Chapter Two: When we do celebrate students' writing in class, it is mostly of smaller, more creative pieces (Ophelia's diary, Hamlet's letter to his mother, poems, etc.) I would like to implement more celebration of more formal pieces, as this is a major part of our curriculum. I find that I am pressed for time in getting on to the next unit or getting the pages graded that we don't take the time to celebrate enough.

    As well as using specific audiences for their writing, I would like to have the students write more on topical events that connect the literature that we read. My seniors read Gilgamesh and it would be interesting to see how they apply their knowledge of Iraq to the study of this epic.

    I would also like to add more creative writing to our exploration of literature and genre. Again, I am often so bogged down in trying to prep for five or six different preps, as well as directing plays, that I don't assign enough writing, since it needs to be graded. I would like to try assigning more writing focussing on meaning and purpose, and choose about five pages of that a month that we use to improve mechanics.

    I will also do more writing myself next year. When I have created pieces (myths, poetry), the students have appreciated my victories and not-so-victories. It helps them see that they don't need to be perfect to communicate with their writing and that the process is most often more important than the process.

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  5. Assignment 2 (Ch. 1)
    I read through appendix A-2 to examine my beliefs about writing. It became apparent that I have a certain beliefs about teaching writing, whether right or wrong.
    I disagree that students should write only if they can publish. Obviously, they should be able to publish some pieces. However, journaling can help them practice many aspects of writing. I disagree that students can write fiction without much teacher guidance. Fiction is hard for children to write when most often they are writing personal narratives since they are most knowledgeable about themselves. Students need guidance to help develop characters and story structure and making sure elements of fiction are present in writing.
    I agree that students need to see their teachers as writers. Teachers need to inspire their students and model personal examples to demonstrate a new technique or idea. If they don't see you as a writer, why should they write for you? I also agree students who read more are better writers. Reading increases students' vocabulary and models effective writing.
    I use the Optimal Learning Model in my classroom. It is important to model and explain to students when instructing writing. I think aloud to show my thought process. I often color code, use graphic organizers and sentence frames to demonstrate and scaffold writing. I will write, then we will do a shared writing. Then students practice independently and share.
    The 12 Writing Essentials is a nice checklist. I would like to work on teaching engaging leads. This is hard for students and I don't think I have modeled that enough. I also want to help students present ideas clearly, with a logical, well-organized flow. Students have a hard time organizing and staying on topic and adding descriptive details. I would like to focus on that next year.

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  6. Assignment 2 (Chapter 2): Start with Celebration
    How do we celebrate individuals, as a class and as a school? I conference with each child and give positive feedback about the strong parts of their writing. You can always find something positive that a student has accomplished. I allow students to share with the class if they want. As a class, we read our stories on the document camera. At the end of the story the students call on others for questions and compliments. Students get a chance to share writing and hear something positive from their peers.
    We have a school writing celebration several times throughout the year. All employees (principals, P.E., Music, etc.) take a group of mixed students from all grade levels. Students bring several pieces of writing that they are proud of and want to share. They read it aloud or can have the teacher read it if they are too shy. We have a question/answer session after each reading. Students can compliment and inquire about the author's writing process. The environment is really respectful and the older students are good models.
    How can I make my instruction more meaningful? I need to model more stories from my life. I do this, but need to incorporate this more. This gives the students a chance to learn more about me and see me as a writer. Students need to have choice in their writing. They need to write about experiences. Limiting students to a prompt all the time diminishes their creativity. Students are more invested if the topic is meaningful and pertinent. Allowing time to free write makes it more meaningful. Students are able to brainstorm ideas that are personal. When students write from their heart, their writing is more powerful and meaningful!

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  7. Assignment 2 (Chapter 3): Share Your Writing Life
    A lot of learning how to teach is on the job training. My university did not require writing as part of teacher education classes. I need to be more reflective on myself as a writer and how that can refine my writing instruction.
    Regie talks about writing together as a staff. We have taken time at staff meeting to journal, reflect, and share. This would reinforce collaboration.
    Personally writing allows you to realize the expectations you have set for your students and how difficult writing can be for students.
    Regie suggests that students read their writing aloud (peer, self, teacher). I truly believes this helps the student to see if their story sounds right. Did they leave something out, is there emotion? Does it flow?
    I like how Regie discusses doing the composing on the spot. I do this and this helps students watch as the story comes to life and reinforces their vision of you as a writer.

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  8. Hi everyone, just a reminder that we STRONGLY encourage you to make comments to EACH OTHER, not just us as the instructors.

    The purpose of the blog format is so that you as students can connect and have conversations with others in the class. We do not have a requirement of how many comments you need to make (we don’t like this when we take classes ourselves) but ask if you have a thought or see a post that speaks to you please let that person know.

    We hope you all had a nice 4th of July holiday. I (Mary) actually got to visit with Jackie last week in Connecticut, a rare treat since we live 5 hours away from each other.

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  9. Hi Kirky. I have to agree with you. I’d rather have a framework than a “program” to follow for instructional purposes. (Except in math… not my strongest area. :-) )

    And I believe your thoughts about students needing to feel successful are right on. I mean think of yourself, when you aren’t doing something well and being corrected for every little thing, does it make you want to keep doing it? For me, the answer is no.

    Oral rehearsal is very powerful, especially for our younger, struggling and ELL students. Helping students process what they are going to write or how they are going to begin their writing is time well spent.

    And again, I agree with you. My personal style of writing never has fit with graphic organizers. I use lists and brainstorm. I think they are fine to introduce and model, but I would share a variety of ways that writers organize their thoughts.

    Shawna- perhaps you and Kirky could organize a book group at your school after you read this text. You could ask your principal for money or your curriculum director.

    My philosophy is if I don’t ask the answer is always no. I’ve often been happily pleased with my requests to the principal, PTO or other administrators like technology and curriculum directors. Perhaps there could even be some curriculum money available for people who participate.

    Students do love to see their teachers write. It’s great if you have access to a document camera but overheads work just fine as well.

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  10. Hello Leon,

    We’re glad you found Regie’s suggestions something you could incorporate into your program, rather than feel it’s just one more thing to do. There may be things that work for you now and things that you can try another time. Take what works for you and revisit at some other point. This is why we really like Regie, we feel her approach is realistic to the demands that teachers face.

    Hi James,

    As you work though the text and feel that you aren’t getting the answers you want for the secondary level we’re happy to talk to you on the phone. I think it would be too much to try to get all the details of your program in the blog and be able to offer suggestions without speaking to each other. So as you work through the chapters, let us know how you are doing and we can plan a time to connect if you like.

    (Everyone, feel free to also email us at Maryandjackiereading@hotmail.com if you have a comment or issue you would rather discuss more privately.)

    I absolutely think if you make the assignments more relevant to the student’s lives you will see an increase in performance. For myself, I would be willing to implement Regie’s ideas even if other teachers weren’t. In fact, I have- even though I’ve been called to task for it. (Long story, but I left the district because I couldn’t teach in a way that I fundamentally disagreed with.) Anyway, sometimes changing districts is the answer. It’s not an easy answer, but it’s a choice. Another idea is to talk to your team or even your principal and let him/her know what you’re thinking and why. Explain that you feel that focusing on message and audience will improve the student’s writing and you ask the principal to support you in your effort. You could agree to check in mid-year and end of year to discuss the successes and challenges that you encountered.

    You also mentioned about having to grade all of the student’s work. Do you have to? Is it a pressure you put on yourself? What are the district requirements? Can you have students submit a page from a journal that they are proud of or want feedback on or one piece or portion of a piece that they could use your input and guidance? Sometimes, we as educators think we need to grade everything to justify the work we are doing, but really it’s only our expectations… not the principal’s or district’s.

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  11. Hello Jessica,

    At the end of the class we ask you to go back and revisit the appendix to see if you have changed any of your thoughts. Perhaps you will, or perhaps not. :)

    There are so many children’s books out there that have amazing leads. You can use great picture books to support your lessons on leads, effective endings and powerful language.

    Pull some books that have great examples like: one’s that start with dialogue, a question, quote, a flashback, an action or exciting event, or character’s thoughts…

    Read,Write,Think’s website has some lessons for teaching leads. You can do the same thing for effective endings as well with examples from children’s books.

    I think it’s great that you have had time to write as a staff. I also have found that giving teachers a prompt at a staff meeting and asking them to write for 15 minutes and then share def. opens up some eyes to what we ask our students to do and how difficult it can be for some.

    Reading with a peer is a wonderful strategy, and I believe we need to teach and model this; not just expect the students to know how to do it. The time and effort spent in clearly defining and modeling our expectations is well worth it.

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  12. Chuck Fall
    Assignment #2
    Reflection on Chapters 1 –2

    Chapter 1

    I am aware of the Optimal Learning Model and I have practiced it somewhat. I am looking forward to using this approach completely and routinely. Reading about this method reminds me that it is an important and essential approach to take. However, it demands thoughtfulness in terms of thinking through the steps of every class in a higher level of detail than I have given in the past. I think I have been too loose and implicit rather than explicitly showing the practice and then giving students the time to practice and do the lesson independently.

    The “twelve essentials” universally apply to all levels of writing. What is interesting is that the 12 Essentials are not a formula or a method; rather, they are a range of activities, or mental practices, things to think about, that will lead to a highly coherent and interesting piece of writing. Significantly, the first in the series is an intention to reach a particular or group of readers for whom you have a meaningful message to communicate. Lastly, the expectation that a writer will be responsible to the end to generate effective writing demands a kind of stamina I hope to help my students develop. Ultimately, these 12 Essentials becomes a basis for a sustained conversation I want to have with my students over the course of the year we spend together. Personally in my teaching, I touch on these essentials by talking about them, but I fail to structure optimal lessons and demonstrations around these ideas. Sometimes my lessons get bogged down in lecture and less time is structured for practice. Allowing time for a student practice, followed by independent work could make the class a more productive environment.

    I appreciate the call to “become more knowledgeable” and to “examine our beliefs” about the writing process. I struggle with the idea that a teacher “cannot teach writing,” that writing develops organically through some intrinsically natural process in the individual. I don’t remember when or where I read this, but I heard it somewhere. But I think writing can be taught. I am persuaded that the author is onto something critical with the Optimal Learning Model because it involves explicit demonstration, guided practice and then independent practice. (It is used in Sprick’s text). I intend to plan my classes with a higher level of detail and structure called for best practices.

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  13. Chuck Fall reflection
    Chapter 2: Start with Celebration.

    Before I read a single word from this chapter the title reminded me of the need for the classroom to be about celebrating student work. The title speaks volumes. Regie’s call to start the year with personal stories as a “springboard” for the year is an exciting prospect for me. I plan on using her idea as an “icebreaker” activity as a way for me to get the kids and for them to get to know me. The beautiful thing about calling on stories is that everyone has one. There cannot be “ I don’t have anything to say.”

    Giving a brief demonstration, or at least listing a range of stories to tell, would be easy to do and an opportunity to show how I would approach the assignment. I probably will demonstrate an example of my own (on the spot). As Regie recommends, by letting students choose stories, their writing becomes infused with meaningful reflections on their own life experience. These stories then become grounds for exploring a range of topics central to good writing: language, story structure, life events, etc.

    I look forward to doing more to celebrate student work. I have missed opportunities to do this. Next year I intend to do more to read student work aloud (with permission), post it on a “good job” board, and possibly, post it to a classroom blog site.

    I look forward to expanding the range of topic choice so students can find something they would be willing to write about. I also look forward to developing a body of writers among my students who share with each other, thus; their audience becomes each other and not just the teacher. A class blog would open their writing up to the whole world.

    Making writing fun is probably one of my main objectives this next year. I intend to make modeling the writing process and sharing writing a central piece of my teaching strategy. I am hopeful that I will be able to motivate students to write a lot more if I can generate fun activities, provide meaningful prompts, and impress upon the students the virtue of writing interesting stuff. Hopefully, by using approaches in Writing Essentials I will add levity and bring more joy into my classroom.

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  14. Heather Dahlquist-Farnsworth
    Assignment Two: Written Reflection
    July 13, 2010

    My first three years of teaching I had the privilege of working for a phenomenal principal who spoke continuously about the Optimal Learning Model. I have always heard it referred to the: I do it, We do it, You do it model, but I also like how Regie refers to it; To Learners, With Learners, By Learners. I use this model within every lesson and unit I teach. When I plan my lessons I emphasize the To Learners, and With Learners components of this model.

    When it comes to my overall teaching of writing I believe that students need a purpose for writing. Every piece of writing should have a purpose behind it. At my school we have a publishing house where students may go and transform their written piece to a book that can be checked out in the school library by other children. My class also publishes a school newspaper every month that includes current events, creative writing, comics, editorials that craft an authentic voice. In addition, I keep a spiral notebook on the whiteboard shelf so students can write me notes. I check it on a weekly basis and write them back. These are just a few ways that students can make their writing have meaning. We also explore narrative, expository and imaginative essay writing through the writing process. This is the area of my teaching that I create mini-lessons that will help support my students in effective writing. Parts of speech, spelling, grammar and conventions are just a few running strands throughout the year that I never let up on. I use their pieces of writing to generate my lessons. Students feel that they can experiment with language in a supportive environment with their peers. To improve my teaching I will try to have my students talk about their writing a lot more. This might help generate ideas and inspire others. I also think that I will sit down and write while they are writing. Lead by example. The only trick here is my class size and load. It is a good goal.

    When it comes to celebrating writing I have an almost passing mark. However, I think I have a place to start changing that. Our new school wide goal is to have students publish one piece of writing every two week. Before school ended, I met my new class and had them color self portraits. I am going to hang those up in the hallway and have their published piece of writing hang in the hall next to their portrait. Before we hang them up though, students will present their writing to the class. We can also invite our principal or librarian in to help us celebrate. When my students pieces need to come off the wall, we can place them in a classroom library collection book to enjoy year-round adding to the meaningfulness!

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  15. Chapter 1
    As I am reading the first section of the book, I am impressed at how Regie’s writing and voice truly speaks to me. Regie’s quote about “reducing the clutter in our teaching lives…we bring joy back into our work and the world of our students” truly wrapped up one of my main goals for myself as a teacher. I am struggling with having been informally taught multiple approaches and many of the “latest” writing programs in the past few years. I have found challenge in following these changing programs and losing the interest of the class. In my class my students do write each day, most of the time with out a prompt or specific activity. The kids have always enjoyed it, and I am glad to see that this one approach isn’t as off track as I had wondered. My students do enjoy writing time and gain comfort with that time throughout the year. On this note it was very interesting for me to take the Examining Beliefs About Writing quiz. I found that I kept questioning myself, and wondering if my opinion on these statements was correct. Ha! I have to accept that some of this learning is a journey rather than a specific answer given in the first section. The test led me to understand that I do yearn for confirmation in my teaching techniques as well as new ideas! I like that Regie told us that there isn’t a “right” list of beliefs, but a constantly evolving set of goals which draw from our own experiences. It was interesting comparing the whole-part-whole system to the part-to-whole system. I know that I am much closer aligned to the whole-part-whole system and so is my second grade team.

    When I was reading about the Optimal Learning Model I realized that it was something that I was missing in my teacher preparation courses. I am looking forward to watching the DVD of Regie’s teaching, as I learn well through this type of observation. The Optimal Learning Model also made me think of how I should be teaching writing. My students need to see me demonstrating writing or working with a shared writing lesson in order to best scaffold their learning. Then with time I can expect them to have improved results on their independent practice. I’d like to gain more ideas about how to demonstrate writing for the students.

    I loved reading about the 12 Writing Essentials for All Grade Levels. I’ve always agreed with Regie when she said that, “All of the writing essentials that follow are taught and re-taught… What advance are the writers' control…through authentic use.” I know that my students’ gain very little from a practice worksheet on adding periods. However, when excited about telling a story, and needing to put the right punctuation in, there is an authentic learning experience with authentic interest. I liked the 12 Writing Essentials because each student is going to be working towards those goals with a different level of proficiency. I know that I do need to make changes in my writing instruction to better teach these 12 essentials in the most authentic way.

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  16. Chapter 2: Start with Celebration
    I loved this chapter! It really reminded me how much kids like to express themselves and share their ideas with others. It is their chance to have the spotlight and undivided attention. Each of us enjoys expressing ourselves and having even one person’s attention. I try and make the writing in my class meaningful, as the kids often self-select what they’d like to write about. I had one second grader who was shocked when I told him that yes, he could write about his new Lego Star Wars creature. I got great detail out of a very reluctant writer! At the end of most writing periods we have time for kids to sit in the Author’s chair and read their writing. Last year about 80% of my kids loved this time. I had a few kids who didn’t want to share and I respected that. I just struggled with how to properly celebrate those kids, and how to build their confidence.

    A few years ago I set up a bulletin board that was labeled “ A Community of Writers”. Each child had their picture up somewhere on the bulletin board and they could choose one piece of writing that would go up on the walls each month. I stopped doing that when I moved to a portable classroom without much bulletin board area, but I think that I should consider bringing that back. It was a neat celebration and the kids enjoyed sharing and posting their writings. That bulletin board seemed quite meaningful to my kids as they got to choose what would go up on their wall space!

    I really liked Chapter Three about viewing ourselves as writers. I have always loved to write and value the written word. I know that I pass on that enthusiasm to my students when we read books I’ve written. I always tell them, “See, anyone can be a writer! I am! You are too!”

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  17. Hi Chuck!
    Glad you enjoyed the chapters. Especially since you are at the high school level, I would suggest you check with your district technology director and/or librarian about posting the students work on a blog or web page. I think the safest thing to do is to have students (and guardians if appropriate) sign a permission slip in the beginning of the year or term giving permission to have their work posted. Our district web coordinators and technology director spent a lot of time last year discussing the issue of posting student work and the legality involving intellectual property that accompanies this. Even though it’s a class blog, it can’t hurt to ask about this and obtain a permission slip if needed.

    Your last paragraph sums it up beautifully.

    Hi Heather!

    Yes, the OLM does go by some other names. :) Sounds like you do some great things in your class to make writing more meaningful for your students. You mentioned one of the most important things to help students to become better writers, “Students feel that they can experiment with language in a supportive environment with their peers.” Having a supportive environment is so important for students to feel safe enough to take risks and accept the constructive feedback that will help them move forward in their writing. This trust doesn’t just happen; it’s built over time. I have held many writing celebrations in my library with classroom teachers and students. It’s a wonderful way to give the students recognition.

    Hi Rachael!

    I love that you didn’t force the students to share if they didn’t want to. To your question of how to celebrate this 20 percent of the students I would say ask them. Have a private, brief conversation with these few students and say that you want to celebrate their writing and their effort and how would they like this done. You might need to have a couple of ideas to suggest to the student, but I bet some of the kids will be able to give you specifics about what they would like. Maybe they want you to read it or a friend to stand with them. Or maybe you could give them advance notice early in the week and they could think about what piece they want to share and practice at home. Perhaps they just want their piece hung up on your easel or blackboard. Another way to approach this for the student who says “I don’t know, I don’t care and so on…” is to tell them that all students are celebrated in this class and you can pick a sentence, ending, lead, descriptive paragraph, etc… that you are proud of and want to share. When we share great examples of writing it helps other students learn to be better writers.

    Hope one of these ideas might work for you.

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  20. Amy Jensen
    Writing Essentials
    Assignment 2

    I started out by recording true or false in the appendix section of the book. I will be very curious to see how any of my thoughts may change as I read this book. I may copy the the 12 Writing Essentials list and place in my plan book to keep me focused on intentionally teaching writing this coming school year. I am one of those teachers Regie talked about who is caught up in test scores and formulaic writing programs. We currently do not have a writing program for our district other than teaching the six traits. However, my grade level team uses a scripted program from Scholastic that is designed to get students to pass the state test. We do so much prompt practice it is ridiculous! It is so hard to get authentic writing when it is taught this way. It was very hard for me to get into this type of cookie cutter writing but I was told it was the best way to get kids to pass the test. Their is some choice within the prompts but most is laid out for them to plug in their own ideas. I hoping to gain some new ideas in Regie's book.
    OLM: I do use this model and spend most of my time modeling for sure! I was VERY frustrated by how long it took my class to be ready to write independently. We were almost to test time and some still needed more guided practice. Maybe if I took more time to celebrate their writing and make them feel more like writers they would have taken more risks. My students were caught up on editing rather than revising and making their ideas more powerful and descriptive.
    One thing that certainly worked for my class last year, was being allowed to talk and share their writing as they worked. My room was never silent. They always would be reading it back to themselves or sharing it with a neighbor. That is something I myself do when I am working on writing. I will share that out loud in front of my kids from the beginning of the year so kids can see how I operate as a writer.

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