Welcome to Essentials of Writing! 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.
Also, you may want to type your comments in a Word Document and either copy from Word and paste onto the blog or save it in a folder on your computer and then post it to the blog. I have written a couple of lengthy comments that I lost before I was able to post it to the blog. This extra step may save you some frustration later on this term.
Last of all, we will write our comments to your posts on the blog, so you will need to check back to the corresponding week for feedback (and to make additional comments if you wish.)
Let us know if you have any questions. You can email us, but please put the words "Question for Essentials of Writing" in the subject line so that we can respond in a timely fashion.
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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January 4, 2011
ReplyDeleteHello Jackie and Mary,
Greetings from Portland!
My name is Beth Van Horne and I entered the teaching profession later in life than most and after a totally different line of work. I wasn’t happy in my first career in banking and I had always thought I would enjoy teaching so I went back to school to get my Master of Arts in Teaching. I am very happy with my choice and I love working with students.
Currently I am a substitute teacher in two local districts: Portland Public and North Clackamas. I have been an active sub since 2006 and I have subbed for all grade levels from K-12. Presently I sub mostly for K-6. I think my favorite grades are 3rd and 4th.
I have been a regular substitute in a several schools and this helps a lot. The students and I get to know each other and I find I am much more effective as a teacher.
I just completed a wonderful long term teaching assignment in a 3rd grade at Atkinson Elementary in Portland. I started out with the class in September and completed the assignment in December.
My literacy program consisted of one hour of reading in Literature Circles where each reading group had chosen their book. Our class had four reading groups that stayed in the classroom. We had another small group that was pulled out with a reading specialist. After reading we had one hour of writing workshop. Each day we also had about 20 minutes for a read aloud.
My favorite part of my teaching was seeing the progress the students made in writing. The reason I chose this class was because I want to become a better teacher of writing and improve as a writer. I also want to learn how to conference with students more effectively and how to better assess student writing.
The Portland Public School District is emphasizing writing this year due to low scores in the district. In the fall I attended an all day writing workshop provided by the district. The training was in small groups of teachers. We observed an elementary teacher in her classroom during her writing block. I found this was a very productive way to learn about how to teach writing. After her hour lesson we had time to discuss ideas with the teacher. The big writing motto here is “I do, We do, You do,” meaning that I as the teacher will model good reading and writing, then together we will share ideas, and then the student will have the confidence to work alone.
Portland Public has a yearlong plan for writing with lessons for each grade and genre. I found the lessons helpful, especially as a new teacher, but I often improvised and/or created my own. I was very fortunate to have a volunteer come into my classroom three days a week during writing. She was a retired master teacher and it was so helpful to have that extra one-on-one for the students.
I am married with three grown children and two grandchildren. I love flower gardening and bike riding. I also teach Sunday School to a class of junior high kids. I love word games, especially Scrabble, Syzygy, and Bananagrams. I am also in love with “Words With Friends” on my iPod Touch!
Hi, my name is Karrie Locke, I am a second grade teacher at Laurelhurst school in Portland, Oregon. I have been teaching in Portland for 31 years. There are 27 students in my class with a wide range of skill levels.
ReplyDeleteI feel fortunate to have a district wide second grade writer’s notebook to use as our writing curriculum. It is fairly prescriptive and was developed by the district to meet the state benchmarks. We use the Developmental Writing Scale as our assessment guide. This notebook gives us a guideline as to which skills in each genre to focus on. I find it very helpful, however I am not very confident about teaching writing. Way back when I was getting my degree in education, there were no classes taught in how to teach writing, so I feel my knowledge is lacking.
Lucky me, I love where I teach, the students, parents and staff members are all very supportive and work well together. I have not always taught in that type of atmosphere, so I appreciate it a lot! Like everyone else, I get stressed at grading time and conference time, but for the most part, I’m very happy.
My husband and I have been happily married for 28 years it’ll be 29 in March. My eldest daughter graduated from Hawaii Pacific University with honors. She landed a good job there after graduation, so she is enjoying the sun and beach. She is in the process of applying to graduate schools to get her masters. My youngest daughter is a sophomore at University of Oregon we are all looking forward to the championship game Monday night!
I am looking forward to learning more about teaching writing to my students. My challenge will be to feel more comfortable writing in front of my students. I have a hard time modeling my writing because my confidence as a writer suffers.
Welcome Beth and Karrie!
ReplyDeleteBeth – I always love working with teachers who come to teaching from other professions. You always bring such a unique perspective and enthusiasm to teaching. It’s great that you’ve been able to have such consistent substitute experiences. Are you looking for something more permanent? Or happy with the flexibility that subbing provides? It must be a little bit sad to have to leave a class that you invested so much into as you did in December. I completely agree with you…having the opportunity to see a master teacher in action, is by far the best form of PD!!! I also love Bananagrams…my son just got it for his birthday…and we’ve been having a blast playing! :)
Karrie – You are not alone with feeling frustrating with your lacking education in writing. I think most teachers feel the same whether they received their degrees a while ago, or are recent grads. University programs just don’t seem to provide teachers with the training they need to teach (effectively) writing (and reading). I am very jealous of you daughter enjoying the Hawaiian sun right now as we are getting hit with snow storm upon snowstorm out here in the east :)
Hi! My name is Lisa Hickey and I teach 3rd grade in Eugene, Oregon. I have been teaching for nine years. There are 25 students in my room, although during writer’s workshop, I average about 15. I have six students that receive English Language services and two students that receive special education help at that time.
ReplyDeleteWe use Houghton Mifflin for reading and we do not use a program for writing. I use the writer’s workshop format in the 45 minutes I have to teach writing. I use mentor texts daily to show a specific writing technique or to just demonstrate what good writers do.
I use Lucy Calkins’ Units of Study to teach writing but I have also used material from Katie Wood Ray and Regie Routman. We devoted one year of staff development a few years back to score papers and get everyone on the same page but we didn’t want a scripted program. (I still don’t.) We received district wide six traits training but I only use bits and pieces of that. As a district we do not score well in writing, even the high socioeconomic schools. I have about 25-30% pass every year and that is quite good for the district. I have also gone to the Oregon Reading Association conferences and I’ve heard Regie speak.
Overall, I enjoy teaching. By choice, I work part time so I can be home with my two boys (four and two) in the afternoon. I work hard to balance work and my life so I do the best I can in the hours that I am at work. I rarely take work home. I find that I am a better mom and a better teacher by this balance.
Outside of work I enjoy being outdoors hiking, camping, running, going to the park or tending to our garden. I typically read while my boys are napping.
I hope to incorporate more of Regie’s style in my teaching. I have read bits and pieces of this book and I am hoping that by reflecting on the chapters and reading other posts, I’ll be able to use some techniques that I have forgotten. I’d also like to fine-tune my editing conferences.
Hi Lisa :) It sounds as though you really have a great writing program in place in your classroom. How great that you can work with 15 kids during your writing block…are the kids who are pulled out at this time also receiving writing instruction since they miss it in their homeroom class? You know, I’m not a fan either of scripted programs…but I do really like the 6 Traits of Writing program, because it’s NOT a scripted program (unless they’ve come out with something new that includes a scripted component)…??? How awesome for you to be working part time…is it a job share where you work mornings or afternoons…..and someone else does the other…or 2 ½ days each??? Very jealous!!!
ReplyDeleteHello Jackie and Mary,
ReplyDeleteI am a 3/4 grade teacher at Tobias Elementary School in Aloha, Oregon. I've been teaching for 24 years and have 30 students in my class. Currently, we are teaching Houghton Mifflin reading program for a 90 minute literacy block. We've had extensive training in HM. Last year I taught Language Exclamation to a group of intensive readers and loved the writing program. This year I am teaching strategic readers, but have incorporated the writing program from Language! to my current class.
Our district and our state has typically not done very well on the state writing test. I'm not a big fan of it myself. I feel like 4th graders are in the beginning stages of learning to write well and the last thing they need is a state test telling them that they failed at writing. There is a lot of pressure from the district to help students perform to standard. They've offered numerous writing workshops, many that I've attended. Four Square Writing was one of them, but it seems to have gone by the wayside. Encouraging boy writers was another and a course like this one has been offered as well. Overall, I love teaching, but the stresses of the "other stuff" seems to get in the way.
Outside of school, I live on a farm with my husband and 11 huskies. We use to dogsled, but my husband's back is bad so the dogs are no longer pulling sleds. I love to do pottery and garden as well. We also have 3 kids in college at the moment! Yikes! I hope to refresh my skills in the area of writing and gain some new insight into the process.
Hello, my name is Tracy Heinrich and I am currently teaching 5th grade at a K-8 school called Laurelhurst, in Portland, Oregon. This is my 23rd year of teaching, and I’ve taught grades first through fifth. I really enjoy teaching 5th graders! They are still kind and thoughtful to each other, and to me. I currently have 28 kids in my class, but as you know that could change at any time. Most of our classes are large, 30-32 kids in grades K-5, and even larger in the upper levels, 6-8 grades, with 45+ kids in a class.
ReplyDeleteMy husband and I have two kids, a daughter that is a sophomore in college, and turning 20 in March, and a son that is a sophomore in high school, and turning 16 in two weeks!! Where does the time go?!
The school district I work for has built in professional development times once a month when the kids come to school two hours late. We have been focusing on writing this year, like we did last year and the year before that. Yes, like most districts, our training is determined on how well or poorly our students perform on the state writing tests.
The literacy program we are using in our school district is Scott Foresman. It includes spelling, reading, writing, vocabulary, fluency, various strategies for understanding and comprehending, and much, much more. In fact, it can be very overwhelming to use. I have worked with my other two 5th grade teacher teammates to scale down the program and make it work for us.
Our district has been working on improving the writing skills of kids for the last four or five years. Two years ago they had several teachers from all over the district meet in the summer for 3 weeks to put together a “notebook” of writing lesson plans for teachers. Some of it is great and some I choose not to use.
I loved to write when I was in grade school, but I never felt confident with my writing skills. In fact the older I got the more intimidated I became. Since teaching fifth grade and reading fantastic books like Regie Routman’s Writing Essentials, I have slowly gained more confidence and taken more risks with modeling my own writing with my students. I’ve read parts of Writing Essentials, but not the whole book, and not with eyes of a more confident writer. I’m excited to get started!
Hi! My name is Kelly and I teach 3rd grade at Willamette Primary in West Linn. This is my 5th year teaching. I have 27 students this year.
ReplyDeleteWe do not have a writing program that we use regularly, I pull from several sources. We have the Lucy Calkins program, and I usually do a unit or two from that each year. Writing and reading have been a big focus of our district for the past few years, so we have taken classes, and spent several staff meetings discussing best practices.
Writing instruction has been a big goal for me. I am constantly trying to find ways to make each of my students feel successful, and trying to find a way to help them improve their writing. The 4th grade teachers feel a lot of pressure becuase they have the state writing test. I feel pressure to focus on math and reading, especially this time of year because that is what 3rd graders are tested on. I am hoping that after taking this course and reading the book that I will have some more insight on the best way to teach writing. I hope that I leave with ideas for lessons that I can use right away.
Hello! My name is Nicole Campbell and I am a 2nd/3rd grade teacher at Willamette Primary, in West Linn, Oregon. This will be more third year of teaching. This is my second year teaching a blended class, I was previously a special education teacher at Willamette. I currently have 27 students in my class, 15 second graders and 11 third graders. I receive instructional support for 45 minutes every day, where my assistant supports our reading workshop.
ReplyDeleteAt Willamette, we do not use a set literacy program, but select from various resources to support our literacy program. In my classroom I use parts of Lucy Calkins, Step Up to Writing, and various miscellaneous resources to support mini lessons. We use a workshop model during literacy, which is something I am still learning to become comfortable with. I have had formal training using the program Step Up to Writing, and find the tools from this program are helpful in supporting struggling writers. A focus in our district, and most importantly our school, is literacy. We have devoted several hours of staff development time over the past few years to having conversations as about best practices in writing.
I have had the experience of feeling the pressure to get students to pass the state writing assessment, as I taught 4th grade writing in special education. As a third grade teacher, I feel it is crucial to get students comfortable with writing from prompts and learning to independently edit their work, in preparation for fourth grade.
I really enjoy teaching, although teaching a mixed age class presents its challenges daily! I am a young teacher, so I still feel relatively “fresh” and I am very cautious about making sure I don’t burn myself out! In my free time, I enjoy exercising, cooking, reading, and spending time with friends and family. As I set goals for myself this year, one was to focus on my writing instruction. I hope to take away strategies and ideas from this course that I can implement in to my practice, to improve my writing instruction.
Hi Ann, Tracy, Kelly and Nicole…and welcome to our class!
ReplyDeleteAnn – I think we would all love to do away with our state tests…I think we’d all be better teachers without the fear of test results hanging over our heads! How very interesting and unique to have a brood of sled pulling Huskies..and WOW…3 kids in college? That is quite a feat…I’m already worried about having two in at the same time :)
Tracy – How wonderful to have been able to taught such a wide range of grade levels throughout your teaching career thus far. I think that it allows you to have such a wonderful perspectives of your students. You guys definitely have some very large class sizes out there. I’m always surprised when I read the numbers, and then chuckle when I think about the outcry that comes from teachers when they’re over the 25 number. I love the idea of districts having built in PD time for teachers, unfortunately, it’s often to “high stakes” test driven.
Kelly – It definitely seems as though you’ve some very supportive writing PD offered through your district over the last couple of years. At least you guys don’t have to take the same tests each yearur students out here have reading, writing, and math every year starting in Grade 3, in addition, 5th graders need to take a science test. I think you will definitely get some great idea from reading Regie’s book.
Nicole – I think a 2/3 split would be one of my top “grade” levels to teach. You are lucky that with a class of 27, you have support staff coming in for reading, unfortunately, this doesn’t help you with writing needs. I agree with your philosophy that we do have a responsibility to prepare our students with the tools they need to achieve on testing in future grades. It’s the “it takes a village” mentality :).
Hello Jackie and Mary,
ReplyDeleteMy name is Erin Dugan and I currently teach kindergarten at Woodland Elementary in Fairview, OR. I just typed this all out and then it got lost so I am a little frustrated at the moment so this post is going to be brief.
I have 29 students, no assistant and this is my third year teaching, first year teaching kindergarten. I previously taught fourth and fifth so there was an adjustment period!!
We have a full-time literacy coach at our school and we use HM for our literacy program. I have only about 6 kids who go to title 1 for reading support.
This summer I took the THE DAILY 5/CAFE class offered through TINT and it was awesome. I have implemented parts of this amazing literacy tool into my teaching of reading and writing.
I became a teacher later in life than most (age 41) but I love my career and feel it is very rewarding. It is very stressful though and I work hard at keeping up to date on current research and strategies that will make me even more effective and successful in the classroom.
I am a single parent of 3 beautiful daughters who I love to spend time with.
Thank you for reading!!!
Sincerely
Erin Dugan
Welcome to our course Erin! I’m sorry that everything that you wrote deleted on you. I write all of my comments and postings up in Word documents and then post them into the blog. That way I won’t lose all of my information if something funny happens. So WOW!!! 29 Kindergarteners!!! You really have had a HUGE adjustment! I absolutely love the Daily Five and CAFÉ as well. I’m working with TINT now to try and offer a distance course working with CAFÉ right now. I hope you enjoy the course!
ReplyDeleteHello! My name is Kristi Olson and I am a first grade teacher at Willamette Primary School in West Linn, Oregon. This is my sixth year teaching. I have 21 students in my class this year, and I have an instructional assistant for 45 minutes each day. She helps with my struggling readers. I use the Lucy Calkins Writing Curriculum for my writing instruction. At our school we pull from many different resources for our reading instruction. Not having a set reading curriculum gives us the freedom to meet our student’s needs as we see fit. The first year I taught my school had a yearlong commitment with the Community of Writers. It was a great experience and really helped me focus on what and how I wanted to teach writing my first year of teaching. I know that our district has worked hard to improve writing scores, however each school and teacher see fit. I love teaching, and have known since I was little that I would be a teacher. I absolutely love my school, and couldn’t imagine being anywhere else! I am very stressed and tired, especially with all of the budget cuts and concerns for next year. We have 15 furlough days this school year, so we are trying to fit our regular curriculum into a shorter time-line, which can seem rushed. In my free time I love to cook, play tennis, and sleep! I hope that I gain practical strategies that I can implement into my daily writing instruction.
ReplyDeleteWelcome Kristin! It definitely sounds as though the building in which you teach offers some great flexibility in instruction as well as the ability to work with some great programs and professional materials to support your curriculum and instruction. Not all of us are so lucky! I think that you will provide many practical strategies and ideas as you read through Regie’s book.
ReplyDeleteHi! My name is Jenna, I am a first grade teacher in Medford, OR. I have been teaching for 6 years, previously I taught Kindergarten down in Los Angeles. I moved to Ashland, OR last year and spent the school year working on my Oregon credential and substitute teaching.
ReplyDeleteThis school year I got hired as a first grade teacher a few days before school started so while I was extremely excited, it has also been a little overwhelming. A few years back I attended a writing conference that really inspired me and helped me to implement some great writing strategies into my K classroom. Though I feel in the process of having been away from my own classroom for a year, as well as now being submerged in learning a new grade level and curriculum, I have somehow abandoned many of the writing strategies I learned. For the first half of the year I felt like I was just trying to keep up, but now that I am getting more comfortable with my new grade level and curriculum I want to focus on bringing more effective writing strategies back into my classroom and making writing less intimidating for my students.
I have 24 students in my class with a varying range of abilities. Some of my students can write sentences while others are still writing strings of letters. Our school puts a large focus on reading and the writing program is lumped in with it. However, I’m finding it mainly focuses on the mechanics of writing and not actually having the students write. The district has also started talking about wanting to put more of an emphasis on writing next year, so I am hoping by taking this class now, I will be more at ease with teaching writing next year, and ready to begin the school year with my writing strategies in place.
Outside of teaching, I have been enjoying exploring Southern Oregon. I love going on hikes with my dog and spending times outdoors, camping and rafting. Though the winter months are soo cold up here (at least for a Southern CA girl!) that I have to admit I have been spending a lot of time indoors the past couple months baking and reading.
Hi Jenna! Welcome to our class. It does sound as though you’ve had a whirlwind year so far. It sounds as though you are limited on actual time for writing instruction as well…and that it’s sort of just “lumped in” like you said with reading. It’ll be fun and exciting (hopefully) to work on writing as a PD focus next year!
ReplyDeleteMy name is Scott. I am currently in my 8th year of teaching fourth grade in Portland, Oregon. Our school is on the edge of the city and has been quite crowded for a number of years 27-32 kids, 4 classes per grade). A majority of our students are on free and reduced lunch, while we are also bordered by a number of wealthy families as well. We have many ELD subgroups though the majority are from a Slavic background. Others are Hispanic, Vietnamese, Chinese, Micronesian, Filipino, Romanian, Moldovan, Nigerian, and Sudanese. Our school district requires a two hour literacy block which includes whole group, independent, guided reading, and writing. We have support for students on IEP's as well as a reading instructor with assistants to work with guided reading groups. This gives us half an hour a day with 4-6 students at the same level. I currently have one student who is autistic and one student with severe physical and learning disabilities. They share an aide who also provides them sensory breaks and helps with restroom assistance, on top of assistance on their classwork. My training in literacy goes back to my undergraduate literacy training courses. As an elementary teacher, I have worked with my staff and reading professionals on various programs that became part of our school-wide programs. A year and half ago I finished my Master's in Curriculum and Instruction with a focus on Integrating the Arts. There were literacy components in this program, but mostly focused on writing (poetry, story telling, songs). In our district, our focus seems to shift towards changes in our test scores. Last year we saw a need in writing, and the school district rewrote the expectations and created a timeline for teaching writing.
ReplyDeleteI really enjoy my job while am working with the students. When I am prepared and excited, time flies. I have a whole different confidence in the classroom. The time outside the classroom is where I feel the stress. Constantly wondering about observations and data. Dealing with students who have difficult homelives already. Trying to meet all the expectations. TIME!
Outside of school I love to follow sports. I have three daughters 2nd, 3rd, and 4th grade, that keep my wife (wonderful substitute teacher and more importantly wonderful mother!) and I, very busy. I coach basketball and softball, and I teach a half a year of K-2 Sunday school each year. I love it though. In my spare time's spare time, I like to watch movies and read a variety of books.
Through this course, I hope to revamp my writing instruction to make writing easier and fun, while still meeting the expectations set before me. I don't want to be banging my head about what my students can't do, but instead be building on all the potential that I see.
Thanks for your response Scott! WOW…you have a great mix of language learners in your district, which can be an incredible learning experience yet at the same time, quite a stress on an education system. Unfortunately, across the country, I think all districts have begun to focus their attention on the test scores which is causing a downward spiral to the quality of education our students are able to get from teachers. It sounds as though you have your hands full with both your career and family, but that even though it is stressful, you are able to find a good balance between your profession and home life :)
ReplyDelete***You can make the rest of entries brief so that I can read and respond to get your grade in on time :)