We posted ahead a bit on the chance that some of you may have a spring break coming up and want to get ahead beforehand. There is a lot packed into this third section of the book, so please read and only comment on what was most relevant to you. :-)
ASSIGNMENT FIVE: WRITTEN REFLECTION-Section Three- The Essential Writing Day Chapters 7-10
Chapter 7: Be Efficient and Integrate Basic Skills
• How might we integrate skill work into student writing rather than teaching it in isolation?
• Daily Oral Language exercises – THEY DON’T WORK!!!
• The importance of focusing on meaning and quality first
• All writing needs both a PURPOSE and an AUDIENCE
• How thinking aloud can make your teaching more explicit
• Teaching WRITING – not just the language of writing (process, process, process)
• What about writing standards? In your District and State?
• Key writing minilessons
• Revision – how to get students to care about it
• Letting kids in on the secret that – Yes! – Conventions do matter!
• How can we effectively use word walls?
In Chapter 7, suitably titled “Be Efficient and Integrate Basic Skills,” Regie gets to the heart of what so many teachers struggle with: “Fitting it all in!!!” Many of the elementary teachers that we work with are beginning to feel as though their personal motto is: “Jack of all trades; master of none.” We just don’t have the time to teach well what has to be taught. The only answer to this problem is to modify our instruction so it agrees with Regie’s stance that isolated skill work (such as Friday spelling tests, DOL, grammar worksheets…) will not help our students grow into writers (or readers.) On page 144, Regie shares four components for an integrated Writing Workshop:
1. Identify writing genres that would interest students (and meet district requirements)
2. Decide who the audience would be for each piece of writing.*
3. Model your own writing process and show students how you struggle.
4. Have students share writing regularly (for both celebration and great teaching moments.)
*This created the biggest change in my own class’s writing - once my students began to write with an audience in mind, the quality of writing shot right up!
Regie also gets to the heart of what writing with “voice” really is and addresses how to teach children to write with an honest voice in their own writing. She describes voice as “the writer’s unique personality on paper, his own melody in words, her ‘mark’ as an individual. To write with voice, the writer has to be interested in the writing.” We think that many teachers and students are unclear as to how to add true voice to their writing. Regie suggests, “Voice is in the details – but details that show the real person and story behind the words, not just details for the sake of adding more words…”
Integrating those isolated editing skills such as grammar, punctuation, and spelling into our writing will increase the efficiency of our instruction. Bottom line – if the students care about their writing, are writing for a specific audience, and understand that “the importance of editing (and spelling conventionally) is to make their message clear and easy to read for their audience – or reader, they take this job seriously and work hard at making their writing clear.”
Chapter 8: Organize for Daily Writing
• What is our definition of Writing Workshop? What does Regie say?
• How can we have student choice within a structure?
• The importance of writing talk (teachers and students)
• The ultimate nightmare for all of us…scheduling…finding the time to write everyday
• The importance of routines, organization and modeling expected behavior
• Genre study – why it’s important to have both school-wide and district-wide conversations
• The possibilities within genres
Figuring out a way to “fit it all in” is usually one of the most frustrating things many of us face. It starts at the beginning of the year as we first plan our daily schedule and continues throughout the remainder of the year. Considering how you will create your schedule to include a solid chunk of time for both reading and writing will probably be the most stressful piece to the start of your year.
Create a Comprehensive Literacy Framework: Play with your time and consider what changes you might make in your daily literacy framework for next year. Take a look at the samples that Regie provides on pages 185-187 for some possibilities. You do not have to post your schedule, but we believe this is a worthwhile activity to complete on your own.
Chapter 9: Conference with Students
• What is the purpose of a Writing Conference?
• What are the different types of Writing Conferences?
• How can Share be used effectively?
• How to conduct a productive conference
• What about management and routines?
We are so glad that this chapter talks about Share during Writer’s Workshop. Too often this component is skipped by teachers who feel there isn’t enough time in the day to “fit it all in.” However, it’s a vital piece of the workshop and beneficial to all the students. Share sessions are an additional time to teach. The teachers in my school are quite comfortable using Share as their mini-lesson if the need arises. Given the reality of daily schedules they were finding that they couldn’t have a mini-lesson, confer and share everyday. They then realized that their Shares sometimes were the minilessons. For more information about Share we recommend looking at Leah Mermelstein’s Don’t Forget To Share: The Crucial Last Step in the Writing Workshop. In this slim book, Leah explains in detail four types of Share: Content Share, Craft Share, Process Share and Progress Share.
The “Tips for Successful Whole-Class Shares and Conferences” on page 215 are excellent ones to keep in mind. The bottom line for Conferences and Shares is that students should feel successful and want to continue to write. Make sure what you say to the child encourages them to keep on writing. “The conference is secondary; the student as writer and confident learner is primary.”
Chapter 10: Make Assessment Count
• Understanding how rubrics work
• What about Test Prep? THE BEST TEST PREP IS EXCELLENT TEACHING!
• How can we collect reliable data on students’ writing throughout the day?
• Guidelines for grading and providing evidence for parents, administrators and the public
“There is lots of writing assessment going on these days, but little of it actually improves the quality of students’ writing.” As Regie continues she points out that this ‘assessment’ “is seldom used to improve daily instruction.” This chapter is about becoming more knowledgeable about assessments. Regie notes, that unless teachers know how to teach writing well, it can be a waste of time to examine students’ writing and place students on a writing continuum. She encourages you, as a staff to “write together, study together, converse together, gather school-wide data, analyze these data and set goals for improving writing instruction. There is no shortcut to helping students become effective writers and there is no program you can buy that will do it for you.”
Remember to use rubrics judiciously and not overdo it. They should be “used as an evaluation tool, not as the driving instructional force.” “Use professional common sense. It is not advisable to apply rubrics to ALL writing nor to score ALL writing. Just as our students need lots of practice reading many texts without the expectation that they will be assessed on everything they read, they need lots of practice writing without being assessed on everything they write.” (Page 243)
Have your students do a lot of writing! “Extensive writing across the curriculum as part of an excellent writing program is the best preparation for doing well on (standardized) tests. Readers have to read avidly to become readers and the same holds true for writers. Kids who write a lot develop higher-order thinking and understanding that translates to higher achievement on all types of tests.” Be sure to check out “Try It Apply It” on page 246 and throughout the chapter for ideas to incorporate into your program.
As Regie points out in this chapter, “The joy has gone out of writing.” We need to “concentrate on developing kids as learners rather than kids as test takers.”
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Joyce, Assignment #5
ReplyDeleteChapter 7
Regie said students should write about “topics they care about and a reader who matters to them.” This would certainly be new in my teaching. She also quotes “I always tell students why I’m doing what I’m doing”. That makes perfect sense. She claims that revision and editing will come more naturally when children write about a topic they care about and to a specific audience. I love that she says to have children read their pieces aloud. I do that!
Regie writes about so many things that would help me teach/tutor writing. Students would write a LOT every day. I would use minilessons that consist of information the children NEED to know NOW to be better writers. I would hold to her quote that revision is “getting as close as you can to the intended message”. I would use a WORD WALL in a Kindergarten classroom. I labeled nearly everything in the classroom, but did not have a word wall. Regie suggests to discuss each new word for a word wall. Then children are expected to use those correctly. I would love to have the children write and draw the alphabet displayed around the room. When Regie said “Doesn’t that piece sound just like Andrew”, I understood what ‘voice’ is. I will try to be myself when modeling writing.
When my 1st two children were in Kindergarten, there was a word wall of names and pictures of each student underneath them. It was in an unseen corner of the classroom. It could be very beneficial where kids actually see it. My youngest, in Kindergarten now, recognizes every child’s name because the teacher holds up each child’s folder at the end of the day for children to come get thier own.
I agree with Regie’s philosophy that dictionaries are for editing. I worked on sounds with my Kindergartners, yet strongly encouraged sounding. Now I see the benefit of the word wall. I am not sure what I think about Regie’s philosophy that children learn their sounds from read aloud alphabet books, rhyming, word play, and invented spelling only.
Chapter 8
When I read this “A successful writing program requires a knowledgeable, organized teacher with excellent classroom management skills”, I thought “UGHH”. I know my classroom management skills were not great when teaching Kindergarten. But, Regie reiterated the things I learned in “the first 6 weeks of school' class about teaching and modeling. I can do that. I was struck by how much she uses the Optimal Learning Model: turn and talk, writing, revising, editing, quiet setting, word wall… Later she explains what she does for management: a sense of urgency, every minute counts (my oldest child’s 2nd grade teacher was ADHD and she ALWAYS had the kids busy. There were never management issues). Make learning relevant, interesting, and engaging. Bond with each child (my kindergartner now has a teacher who greets every child as they enter the classroom. The others wait in the hall while she takes time with each child.) There is TRUST in her classroom!
In Kindergarten and with tutoring, I would incorporate: Do you care about the subject? Can you tell a lot about it? Can you include details? I also like the idea of sticky notes on children’s writings. I would like to keep a history writing folder. I will refer to the many topic ideas listed on pages 169-172 and 198-200. I would like to use a lamp for quiet writing time. I used to do this for quiet reading and the Kindergartners loved it.
When thinking about what I would change in my Kindergarten classroom schedule to incorporate more writing: I would have them write every day across the curriculum. I still like the idea of journals each morning. Maybe my view will still change. I would include more ‘shared writing’. We would have ‘whole class share times’ each day for celebration and for minilessons. We would read as writers every day.
Chapter 9
ReplyDeleteI LOVE this quote about conferences “to celebrate, validate, encourage, nudge, teach, assess, and set goals.” I have learned I should ALWAYS begin with something the child has done well. Content and what the child has done well come 1st. Corrections come later. Regie writes to celebrate, support and move the writer forward.
I will have to focus to not ‘restate children’s oral responses “, but to let the children listen to the child. I would like to use sticky notes for Kindergartens/tutoring writing. I like the idea of using colored dots on the page where a correction should be made.
I was never good about anecdotal notes. I should become better at that. It would help me have a quick reference to come back to. When children are writing, I would give them a 5 minute notice before writing is done. They can finish their thought, then reread. If I am alert enough, I would like to see which students are trying new concepts learned in their writing. That child would get to share his/her accomplishment. When students share the first time, I will not look at their piece, but just listen to the ‘content’.
Frontloading is Regie’s strong philosophy. I will teach with this philosophy. Regie suggests shared writing about conferences and editing. “Independence is the goal of all excellent teaching”: a very good statement.
Chapter 10
Regie’s comments about what grips the reader: inspiration, the language, the words written, not conventions and form. I agree completely that rubrics take away the ‘inspiration’ in writing. I like the idea of creating ‘child friendly rubrics’. I can imagine Regie’s ‘Reading Essentials’ book and would like to read that now. I agree completely with the statement “THE BEST TEST PREP IS EXCELLENT TEACHING! I was and still consider myself to be a horrible test taker. I panic. If teachers had been positive and had woven a challenging curriculum that prepared me for the tests, I would have done better. When I taught Kindergarten, I did not even call tests: tests. I errored by my fears. I like that Regie’s assessments are positive and encouraging. She models, guides, and helps. Learning is a process. I love that she emphasizes the child more than grades.
I have never heard that kids who write a lot have a higher order thinking and understanding. I wish she would have expanded on this. I know that teaching a concept uses more brain involvement; therefore people who teach get a better understanding of the concept. Maybe the same holds true with writing. I would like to apply all ‘try it apply it’ from page 246: 20-30 minutes of writing each day, minilessons 5-15 minutes, whole class share, announce time frame for writing, announce 5 remaining minutes, topics are relevant, frontloading, quickwrites, and freewrites. I would like to save excellent and not-so-good entries children have written for future teaching.
Assignment Five- Alana Ollerenshaw
ReplyDeleteIn chapter seven, one of the topics Regie focuses in on is not teaching grammar, spelling, etc., in isolation. Teaching those skills within the framework of writing, helps children understand/learn better. I personally struggle quite a bit with this in my classroom. Spelling is taught during the children’s reading block and then grammar is taught during a separate half hour during the day. I have been thinking for quite a while that the grammar skills in particular do not seem to be transfer to the children’s every day work. My teaching partners and I are currently in discussions on making some changes for next year.
I also agree whole heartedly with Regie that when kids know that they’re writing for someone in particular, their writing is better. Actually, I tried this out last week with my class. They voted on what to write about and then I told them that our principal was going to come by and read them. You would not believe how motivated they were, especially to add details to their writing! The next day after my principal read the kids work, he took the time to stop my class on the way to lunch and tell them how proud he was of their writing. This praise from the principal was much enjoyed by the kids.
I do gear a lot of my mini lessons based on trouble that I see the children having in their work. In addition, I use shared writing and interactive writing to address issues as well. Currently one of my biggest struggles is getting kids to revise on their own. I’ve been asking the children when they bring me their journals, if they’ve checked their work. Some of them have assured me yes and then I see errors that I think they should have caught. I will continue to address revision of content and conventions in my teaching.
Chapter eight caused me to rethink what I thought writer’s workshop to be. Previous to this chapter, I had taught mini lessons, given students a topic to write about, and then been extremely frustrated by only having time to conference with one-two students a day on their writing. Reggie’s ideas of student’s conferencing in pairs/table groups, the teacher conferencing in front of the class with them listening in and independent conferencing are exciting to me. Since more than one child typically is struggling on the same thing, addressing it in front of the class is a wonderful way to “kill two birds with one stone”. I also like the idea of kids’ conferencing with each other. My hope is that by doing this they will pick up ideas from each other that they might not have thought about otherwise.
My school already has decided when each genre of writing is to be taught at each grade level. This is very helpful to me and the fourth grade teacher’s appreciate everyone having more accountability in the teaching of writing. In addition we have been trained on a behavior program that emphasizes the importance of teaching, modeling and expecting desired behavior from children in all settings and places, so our kids know the expectations during writing as well as other times throughout the day.
Chapter nine gave me an a-ha moment. I had not thought about having a content conference and an editing conference. This makes perfect sense to me now. Children need to see first our focus on the content and then the editing. It was very informative for me to have read the different kinds of conferences there are, such as quick shares, roving conferences and one on one conferences. I had been of the mindset that all writing conferences had to be one on one. I also love that Regie stressed the importance of front –loading kids so that conferences go quicker and smoother. That is so true!
In my classroom, the children know what my expectations are during writing time. So, since I now want to bring writing conferences back, I will need to teach those rules too. Thanks for the reminder Regie!
The last chapter was about writing assessment. I LOVE the idea of getting together with my colleagues and developing child friendly rubrics. My kids have not seen a rubric yet, but have been orally told by me what criteria I would be looking for in their writing. Another idea that I really like is showing my students excellent work and having them identify why it is a good piece of writing. I did this two weeks ago in my classroom. I obtained the child’s permission to share their writing with the class and then I read it out loud while the class followed along on the projector. The kids complimented her on her use of details, ending marks and staying on topic. It was educational and a celebration for the child whose paper it was.
ReplyDeleteRegie doesn’t dismiss rubrics but encourages us to use them judiciously saying that when adults write, we’re not focused on the six traits. I agree that kids do need to have experience with rubrics, take practice tests, write on demand and be encouraged to write to those “deciding people.” But Regie reminds us to keep all of this in perspective and that the best way for kids to get ready for a writing test, is through great teaching.
All in all these four chapters were a great read!
Assignment 5, chapter 7 and 8
ReplyDeleteWith each chapter I read, I reflect more and more on what we do each day, the pace of my class and the purpose for each activity we do. I also reflect on Best Practices as I learned them when going through the MAT program and have to wonder how, as districts we continually set ourselves up with programs and trainings that place teachers swimming upstream and ultimately going under and giving into practices that really do not help our students reach their full potential; then wonder why they don’t pass standardized tests. Our State and District standards are too low…pages 150 and 151 were a great affirmation of that.
As I was teaching spelling and grammar over the last two weeks; yes as isolated activity pages courtesy of our reading program, I put a toe outside the box just a little……This week we wrote shared sentences together with the spelling words. We talked about how spelling the words correctly helped with reading the sentences smoothly. We also talked about the audience we were writing for – us! In every chapter Regie emphasizes audience, and how true – without really knowing who you are writing for, how can you put a real purpose to your writing. Then each day we read the sentences together. Today we did dictation – not a spelling test this week as it was a short week due to testing (-: The results were amazing. Even words that were not the focus words were spelled correctly. My sped kids, two of whom cannot read, got some of the words down. Teach it First, Label it Later, along with Reduce Isolated Skills Work gave me this idea - for grammar next week we are starting with a read aloud and summary first. Then will identify our focus skill in our summary and then practice it with our pages…. The goal – to be sure the why is explicit.
I do not feel that classroom management is an issue for me. In my class we are organized, and have our routines and expectations down. For the most part days go smoothly, and we have established a caring, safe environment. Because of this, adding in and modifying our approach to writing has been pretty easy. Regie is right, if it is a priority you can do it. I am a better writing teacher now – just by writing in front of my kids on something each day and talking about it; also by thinking about the Optimal Learning Model and how to apply it in my teaching.
Mini lessons are a great way to set an objective to work on without bogging kids down with too much at once. I do some whole group and many one on one. When it comes to writing, mini lessons produce better results than a long drawn out lesson where the kids lose focus and often meaning.
Our schools view of Writer’s Workshop is a 30 to 60 minute block of time devoted to teaching writing as defined by Lucy Calkins. I really like Regie’s definition from pg 174. It makes “workshop” feel not so much like a rigid, dreaded, overwhelming project to be set up, managed, and assessed, but as a natural part of good teaching incorporated throughout the day.
My word wall has to come down; it has the sight words and vocabulary words we have done in reading; in-spite of constant reminders to look and find the word, the kids just don’t. I was not planning on having one next year until I read about constructing the word wall with students. I will give it a try next year using the guidelines on pgs 166 and 167.
As a district we have aligned our grade levels. Each grade, district wide knows what they are responsible for teaching. Now if we could all get on the same page with doing it effectively.
Chapter 9
ReplyDeleteA writing conference is a meeting to discuss a student’s work. I guess I have been doing them all year! They are better now as we are writing more and higher quality work, and also a lot more positive – wow without even having read this chapter. (-:
I have done the roving on the run conferences, but have not kept any records. I have sort of done the whole class shares when I have commented on a student’s piece when they read in the author’s chair. Next steps, teach my student’s what to listen for, and make my suggestions more helpful in guiding them forward. I have done quick share - not nearly enough or specifically with writing. I think using it to reinforce a concept would be powerful and encouraging for the other students and well as motivating for the student whose work I am sharing. Also seems that it would build confidence and encourage the writer to keep trying to improve. I do not see myself getting to one-on one formal conference or peer conferences this year. I love the idea of getting the kids involved with is.
A productive conference is one that leaves the writer feeling good about their writing and helps them with how to move forward with their writing. The teacher must validate the student’s writing - ensuring they understand what they writer is saying. They must include praise – lots of it; the Language of Helpful Response provides some really helpful ideas.
Management and routines are key to establishing a safe environment where children feel comfortable trying new things and extending themselves. The understanding, support and encouragement of classmates are so powerful.
Chapter 10
As I was going through the MAT program, I really liked the rubrics that were used to assess my papers; I knew exactly what was required to score well. They were teacher created, and combined content and evaluation. I like the fact that rubrics let parents and students know the expectations and that the criteria are the same for all students. I have not used rubrics since moving into the primary grades but really liked the content rubric examples and can see how they can help students evaluate their own work. I hope my team is open to the idea of doing these together.
I have not taught test prep for writing and do not know to what degree the 3rd and 4th grade do test prep, but I can see how kids would get burnt out before even being asked to take the test. I just asked my daughter about her writing experiences – she is in 6th grade now – and she says that she has always hated writing because it is always on what the teacher wants her to write, with focus on yes, the six traits. Especially in 4th grade when they “had to write to prompts” all the time.
There are many ways to assess our students writing on a daily basis, as the chapter on conferences, as well as the list on page 251 indicates. As Regie repeatedly points out, there is no substitute/method to get great results other than great teaching. To do that, teachers need to know HOW to teach writing well – following a program and teaching the parts is not cutting it. Assessing just the parts is not the way to inform our teaching.
I like the Humane Guideline for Grading. It sets the tone to positive and self evaluative rather than negative. It does not focus on, or pick apart every piece of writing a student does. I also like the ideas for sharing progress in the Try It/Apply IT section on page 254.
I think the publishing of a student’s work over the years is also a great idea and would allow anyone entering our building see that growth with writing IS happening at our school.
Alana, I am impressed that you asked your principal to come read the children's papers. What a great way to include motivation, audience and immediete response!
ReplyDeleteWhat behavior program is your school trained in?
Deanna, I hear you about praise: LOTS of IT! I have learned this in this class, watching teacher's teach my children, watching coach's coach, and in other classes I have taken.
I also have asked my children if they like to write at school. One replyed 'sort of' and the other quickly stated 'no'. They both said they hardly ever get to choose what to write about and they never have an audience in mind.
I need to make a correction from my entry. I realized that I misquoted myself. The first statement I wrote was "children should write topics they care about and a reader who matters to them." When I taught Kindergarten, I attempted to do the first. The journals were almost always open ended so the children could write about what they liked, their interests, their favorite people, pets... yet, they didn't know where to start. After teaching Kindergarten, I thought I should have given the kids more focus with their entries. Now, I'm a little confused. I realize, writing with a purpose and to a specific audience with every writing would really help.
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteThanks Joyce, Alana, and Deanna for your comments about Section Three.
ReplyDeleteJoyce – it definitely seems as though this section gave you a lot to reflect on in your own teaching of writing, as well as confirm some of the great writing instructional practices you already use. You mentioned a little bit about word walls, I agree with you that word walls aren’t usually as visible as they should be if we want our students to actually be using them (not just as wall art). Even more so though, I love the idea of word walls that are interactive…maybe made with Velcro and low enough that kids could manipulate the words and bring them to their seats if necessary. I’ve also seen walls where the words are also on laminated cards in envelopes below the word wall (again, kids can manipulate and bring back to their seats). One other thought since I’m on a “Word Wall” tangent is that you could divide up a manila file folder into square grids and each grid has a letter and kids put words they need support spelling in the appropriate boxes as time goes. You mentioned being a bit confused about choice in writing. I think that purpose and audience are the key. It’s OK to have guidelines around the “choice” so that it’s not so difficult for a Kindergartener or and student really, to choose what to write about. I think it works best when kids write within the guidelines of a genre or unit of study. For example, in K, kids might be writing in a narrative unit about a special place they like to go, or special moment. In a functional unit of study, they may choose to write about how to do something they know a lot about like riding a bike, or kicking a soccer ball. It’s about giving choice, but with guidelines, so that it’s not too open and difficult for them. I hope that helps clarify my thoughts on this :) I really enjoyed reading all of your comments on this section! I’ve enjoyed reading your comments back to other class participants as well.
Alana – Most of the research about grammar and spelling instruction supports your own observations from your classroom, there is little of no transfer of the isolated skills into the students’ writing. It does sound like you have a very well balanced writing workshop up and running in your classroom. It’s great that your Principal is so supportive of both yours and your students’ work. Revision has to be “appropriate” for first graders. The biggest piece is making sure that their writing actually says on paper what they want their reader to read. I’m glad that Regie’s take on conferring has given you some food for thought. I love the 1:1 as well as small group conferences, but haven’t had as much success holding the whole group conference…and throughout the process of our workshop, love having kids meet with me for either the content or editing conference.
Deanna – Reflection is what taking classes at this point are all about. The best teachers are the ones who can reflect on their own teaching and find ways to refine their craft! I think that when teachers are done being learners themselves, it’s time to either retire or find a different career path :) I had to laugh at your point :
ReplyDelete“I have to wonder how, as districts we continually set ourselves up with programs and trainings that place teachers swimming upstream and ultimately going under and giving into practices that really do not help our students reach their full potential; then wonder why they don’t pass standardized tests.”
I have been so stressed out at school for the last several weeks. I just feel I can’t fight the battle anymore. My Principal says she holds these “best practices” belief for teachers, but then turns around and buys these awful test prep worksheets, allows everything but reading and writing to take precedence in our building….I could go on, but won’t. We’re going to have to make some changes soon, teaching cannot not continue on the course it’s on or else it will implode. I have to congratulate you for allowing yourself to “step out of the box” and teach the grammar work in a way that you felt was good teaching…I’m so glad that you had such great success with this.
Chapter 7
ReplyDeleteIt’s so hard to release the idea of the original list on page 144. The new writing goals sheet feels like you are short-changing your students. How are the students getting to work on the skills they need to know?
I like the phrase, “The reason we are doing this.” I’m going to steal it and use it.
I see that the change is really about a simple shift in the language you use. The teacher talk lesson on page 152 shows this shift. Interesting.
Another main point of this chapter is students’ buy-in into the topic. I think next year I will always be checking to make sure the students have buy-in to the topic. Make that topic interesting and relevant.
The last idea I will steal will to start a word wall. I always thought that the word wall was a younger classroom item. Looks like I was wrong.
Chapter 8
Some of the items listed on page 174 as “not being writer’s workshop” are part of my writing time. I teach individual writing traits. I teach a liner writing process. How do I make my writing time not have these?
The goals should be communicating a message to your reader? What about everything else?
The one area I always need work on in the On the To-With-By model is the With portion. I have been especially bad on this in my writing time. I rarely have students share with each other during writing time. I know now that I need to change this.
As with other chapters, I need to use the nice and easy “A Framework for Teaching Writing Genres” on page 196-197. What a clear plan for teaching a genre. I am borrowing this book from a co-teacher for this class but I now know that I am going to need to buy it to have all this material to use for next year.
I know about the power of writing letters. I started having my students write business letters a couple of years ago to send to someone in the real world. Having them do this increased their interest to the highest levels I have ever seen. Students are sharing letters they got back in the mail, ask me if they can write some on their own and bug me about why they haven’t gotten a response back from the recipient of their letters.
Chapter 9
I don’t do many whole group conferences. It sounds like a great idea to teach some lessons in an authentic way that involves all of the students.
I am always trying to figure out ways to take great notes. I like her roving conference tracking form on page 217.
I like the part about repeating the message of the students being responsible for being an editor. I will be using this line.
Chapter 10
It looks like I need to go through all those piles of saved student papers that I have and organize them by genre and then has the students have access to this pile. What a great idea.
I need to teach the specific language of the prompts. I don’t think I have ever done that.
Thanks Gary for your comments for assignment 5. I began to love teaching writing when I understood the importance of purpose and audience. When your students have “buy-in”, or purpose, they will invest more in their writing. I’m not sure what you meant about teaching a “liner writing process”….did you mean linear? If so, it’s really more of a cyclical process (within genre units of study), not linear. The cycle I work with consists of these stages:
ReplyDelete1. Brainstorming (ideas)
2. Exploring (ideas to see if you have enough to “say” about one of your ideas/topics
3. Choosing (which idea will you choose to write about?)
4. Drafting (writing the piece) – within a unit, kids may write several drafts. Prior to the “revising” portion of the cycle, kids will pick which piece they will revise, edit, and bring to publication.
5. Revising
6. Editing
7. Publishing
For example, if we were working within a fiction unit, kids might possible have several fictional pieces that they will need to choose from to bring to final publication and celebration. Letter writing is a super way of making writing real for students…it provides the “audience” necessary for purposeful writing.
Chapter7:This is another chapter I really enjoyed. It spoke of the basic skills that all writers’ need but that teaching them like students live in a vacuum is of no use. I would say I spend 90% of my day teaching students skills in isolation. Regie’s idea on teaching “key writing mini lessons” was helpful. Having students think beyond themselves and to their reader will expand their writing process and give more focus. I also liked the mini lesson for teaching adding details or giving examples in order for the reader to better understand the writer. I can think of a handful of extension activities that would work for my students. Calling a rough draft by “first thoughts” is probably the most helpful in the early years. Students work hard to produce those few limited thoughts that they can’t imagine going back and changing it. If students understand order then I think it wouldn’t be hard for them to understand first thoughts and second or final thoughts in their writing process. Regie’s look at the use if words walls were also helpful. This is a resource that I’ve always struggles with. My students don’t currently access the very limited word wall I started this year, but realized why. I never really taught them how to use it. In most cases the words I use do go beyond the scope and sequence words provided by the reading curriculum but once students have identifying them when presented for the first time they no longer seek those words. I think I have still need some development in this area. Chapter 8: I was drawn to the topic of chose in writing. So often we put strict guidelines (probably because of standards) on what and how students write, that we forget to ask them what they want to write about. The other aspect is teaching students how to make a choice; again it comes back to demonstrating that skill and then having them practice the skill. “Choice within structure leads to high quality work” is probably the most important statement in all this. Setting up the environment for success gave great direction: demonstrate more writing and have more conversation about writing before they write were the best advice from that section. I think saying teachers need to provide structure DAILY within writing while still allowing students to independently make choices when possible can sum up the chapter. The more predictability we give students the more they can foster ideas and growth in their writing and sharing. On page 202 the Use writing to perform acts of kindness was inspiring; students and teachers alike can participate in these activities.
ReplyDeleteChapter 9: Conferencing with students during a writing workshop can serve many functions, but ultimately comes down to having a conversation with the student about how they are working through the writing process. It can be time affirming, correct, or demonstrate a skill while listening to the student share about what they are creating. Conferencing can take place 1:1 or whole group with pros and cons to teach model. For the whole group conference I like the idea of not sharing everything. Teachers can give feedback and check in with all students without taking the time to hear every word they have produces. I think the best way to conduct these conferences is with a checklist. Chapter 10: When developing rubrics its important to keep the students in mind. In order to this I think saving examples for students to see is helpful and concrete for students to see what other students have created in the past. I also agree that not all written work needs to be assessed. Students I think begin to feel that pressure and therefore become anxious about the work they produce and the standard to which they have to perform. I was blown away by the thought that only 20% of state departments align standards with curriculum. If this is the case why aren’t more districts looking for curriculums that will align with state standards, unless of course best practices and the curriculum that align with best practices don’t align with state standards. What exactly are they doing at the state department anyway to come up these standards. Most of the time it doesn’t seem like they ask teachers about standards or how to teach it.
ReplyDeleteThanks Lindsay for your comments on assignment 5. It’s a scary thought that our most struggling students are the ones that are receiving the most isolated and fragmented instruction in schools across the country. The more kids can link and make connections with their learning, the better retention and understanding of learning there will be. I’m glad this section had so many useful tips for your classroom instruction. I’ve been going crazy with curriculum woes….why can’t the state just let us know WHAT we need to teach, and make sure that we have the BEST research proven materials needed to teach effectively (and I don’t mean buying us canned programs…I’m more speaking units of study…).
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