Assignment Nine: Final Course Reflection
(All assignments are due by 3/20 !!!)
Take a look at the last section in Regie's text, Writing Essentials, it's chock full of great resources!!!
Teaching in Action: Lesson Essentials 5 Day Lesson Plans & Appendices
• Secrets of Second Graders• Heart Poems
• Procedural writing• Hero writing
• Persuasive writing
• Appendix survey
Be sure to look through this section. If you haven’t already done so, look at Appendix A (page A-2.) Re-examine your beliefs about writing by re-reading the statements about the writing process and marking true or false in your book. Did you change any of your previous answers? Would you consider bringing this page to your team or even to your entire school to jump-start discussions about writing? Take some time to look through the appendices. There are several useful examples included. One we’d like to point out to you is Appendix L- The Genre Characteristics Excerpt on page A-13. Look to the Writing Essentials companion website at www.heinemann.com/writingessentials for the entire chart as well as directions to assist you playing the DVD.
ASSIGNMENT NINE: Final Course Reflection - Critically examine your current literacy program and develop realistic goals to improve your instruction. Also reflect on the balance between your home and school life. If our students are to become happy, literate people, they need happy, balanced teachers. BRIEFLY, share several of your goals with the class by posting them to the blog for this final assignment.
Thanks for taking our course!!!! Mary & Jackie!
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Final Course Reflection
ReplyDeleteIncorporations:
• More choice within structure – I have always assigned more structured papers (that stifle enthusiasm) than free topic choice (with approval). By controlling the topics, I am confining students’ ideas; this hinders an authentic voice. With more choice within structure, they will have (at least, more frequently) more of a “buy in” and may be able to create a voice that structured assignments only dull.
• Shared writing – I do this infrequently in my classroom but would like to do more of it. I see the value in taking down the thoughts of the student, allowing the student to verbally express him/herself without worrying about all that comes with writing (spelling, grammar, etc.). With shared writing, they can have more freedom but I can still guide them with questioning. I will most likely incorporate shared writing into drafting conferences.
• Meaning first – I have always taught students to first get their ideas down on paper and then worry about conventions. They learn from me that revision is something that should be done throughout the writing process and that editing (for spelling, grammar, etc.) can wait until the end. With peer conferencing, however, students always focus on the latter given errors are so easy to locate and define. I will have to stress this with them and focus their attention on organization, details, etc.
• Frequent verbal conferencing – When Routman said that students often ignore our written comments/suggestions/compliments, it made sense. It seems as if frequent verbal conferences would put more of the responsibility on the student both to pay attention and to note down any changes s/he would like to make.
• Write/publish more short pieces – This would save me and my students both time and energy. I usually have them write four or five 5-paragraph essays during the year. Why can’t some of them be paragraphs? A solid paragraph in some cases would show me they understand compare/contrast or examples just as well.
• Celebrations – When I hand back papers, they go straight into the portfolio. Those with good grades smile when they do so and show off their rubrics to one another; those with poor grades show off their rubrics to one another. That is usually the extent of it. Occasionally I have students share their favorite part, but this is voluntary. More celebrations of this kind would, at least, show that – whether a high or low grade was earned – they can all do something well with regard to writing.
Balance:
Over the summer, I organized my curriculum for each Language Arts class into six areas; after this was done, I shuffled the major sections to allow myself some breathing room for grading papers. I did not do it quite right this year as two classes ended up overlapping with writing papers, but I think it could work with some tweaking. That being said, I often find myself spending at least a couple hours each night (in addition to graduate course work) grading work and/or preparing for the next day. I have taken on more responsibility at school, so that has made it more of a challenge. But I refuse to do any of it before my daughter and I have spent quality time together. I stayed home with her for three years before returning to work full-time. Those few precious hours are not enough but I make them count.
Eileen Wali
ReplyDeleteI know how important it is to balance home and school life. I always want to feel good, well rested for both so I try to get enough sleep, exercise and eat well as much as I can. If I stay on track there is less of a chance for me to handle a situation that in a way that I may regret later. I want to always be kind and think clear at all times. I am not sure if this is healthy for my well being but I always feel like I have to brace myself when I get to school. I am happy at school but if I brace myself I feel strong and ready to face any challenge! At the end of the week my body gets sore and I think it’s from tightening my muscles all day.
I have two separate goals; one for the rest of this year and one for next year:
Goals for the rest of 2011/12 school year
1.Continue meaningful writing every day and always come up with fun prompts or stories for students
2.Don’t stress out about publishing work. If we publish writing every two weeks be happy and celebrate!
3.Continue to love teaching and try not to get down if the students are acting up a little bit. Remember that they are still young and bring them on track firmly but with love
4.The Grammar curriculum is what it is! It’s 30 minutes per week; the students are learning!
Goals for 2012/13 School Year
1.Mini lessons, mini lessons! Refer to Writing Essentials on how to have students write the lessons in their notebooks
2.Establish rules on writing with quiet voices and how conferencing works. Have them write these rules in their notebooks
3.Write in journals every day(free choice or prompts)
4.Start a writing project on a Monday and publish by Friday
5.Confident and relaxed writing teacher=confident and relaxed writing students
6.Do Poetry books again but do not spend too much time on making sure they are perfect for the parents-enjoy the process with the students
Goals For Improving Writing Instruction:
ReplyDelete1. Change from a Writers’ Workshop that operates separately from other instruction, to imbed my Writers’ Workshop within my other instruction.
2. Adopt elements of the Optimal Teaching Model for writing that I am currently not doing, or not doing with fidelity.
3. Incorporate more non-fiction, both reading and writing, into my curriculum.
4. Develop efficient, easy to manage systems to collect assessment data for writing.
5. Foster important conversations in our school concerning our writing instructional practices.
As a specialist and without a classroom of my own, moving forth, I would like to:
ReplyDelete1. Initiate conversations in our building/district regarding writing to: develop school-wide expectations for writing, impress upon teachers a better sense of what students at each grade level are actually able to do in the area of writing, encourage a wider use of strategies such as shared writing as part of daily instruction
2. Seek out and recommend professional development opportunities that focus on outstanding teaching rather than canned or formulaic programs
3. Offer to coach or model “proven” strategies for teachers who want that level of support
4. Create/promote opportunities for more celebration of student writing
5. Continue to focus on excellent teaching of writing with my own children as we work to undo some of their misinformed practices
In regards to balance between my personal and professional life:
1. Continue to make time at home about family
2. Limit work-related conversations during family time (this is very hard to do since I’m married to a colleague)
3. Worry about those things (professionally) that I have control over and learn to let go of the things that I may limit the stress that I bring home with me
Reading Writing Essentials gave me many tools to create an effective and organized writing program. As I reflect on what I read in the book and what I currently do in my classroom, I now understand why certain writing activities or practices I've used in the past worked successfully or not. I don't want to be so hard on myself and say yes, I am doing many things that are working and are aligned with Regie’s philosophy. However, by applying research best practices, I can definitely fine-tune my program.
ReplyDeleteAfter spring break, I will be starting my third trimester. At this time, my writing workshop will have a structure, which will offer a variety of strategies, such as assigning my students expository writings. For example, we will research regions around the world and discuss how to write an introduction paragraph, sub topics, and a conclusion for our composition. Students will get to choose which region they want to study and use books and web searches as resources to gather information. I have done this project in the past, and it's a great assignment for helping students to understand organization and paragraphing. Although this assignment is a big project, which will probably take about two weeks, I have done many smaller assignments with my class this year, so I feel like I'm balancing their workload. I would like to end the year with short stories. Along with modeling my own stories, we will have shared writing time and read many picture books, which provide perfect examples of fictional short stories.
The most important goal for me this year is to get myself in the routine of regular conferences with students. I think this will be the impetus of inspiring a significant transformation in their writing. After spring break, I want to introduce my writing workshop expectations and train my students to work independently. Just like the Daily 5 in reading, I will start building my students stamina by developing goal-building work habits. These positive practices will be applied during our sustained writing time, which will start with a short writing period and then extend in duration as my young writers become more independent. I want to create a quiet writing time, because this way students will be more focused and on-task. Also, if many of my students need a particular skill reinforced, I'd like to have more public conferences. Most importantly, I want to create celebration time in my writing block, where students' effort and creativity is showcased and praised.
Ultimately, I believe the balance of work and play is essential to the success of an effective educator. I definitely recognize this now, because, in the last month and a half, I've been taking two graduate level courses, along with fulfilling the duties of a devoted teacher, and sometimes exhaustion has deprived me of the motivation and ability to be creative. I appreciate the knowledge I gained from taking this class and enjoyed reading the great ideas of professors and other teachers, but I'm eager to absorb new inspiration by focusing more on friends and hobbies outside of school. Through recreation I can begin to inspire real-creational writing with my students.
When it comes to my schools current writing program I think it is very effective. For the most part it focuses on mini lessons and using a variety of picture books to read with the lesson. I really enjoy this and I think it’s a fun way to teach. The curriculum allows the kids to see the target and then it picks a book that demonstrates what they are learning. I have also found that my kids love to just write and don’t like lessons on writing. Yes, this is great but in order for them to become stronger writers they need to learn how to become better writers. One goal that I would like to set would be for my students to do writing each day no matter what. This is often hard to do when I’m trying to fit in social studies and science but after this course I see the importance. Through Regies textbook I learned that writing can be done in other core subject areas. I think this will be especially helpful in helping me reach my goal. Another goal that I have would be to have my students share their writing and also celebrate it. I don’t do this nearly enough and it is such an important piece. I have a few teacher chairs in my room and I know my students would love the opportunity to sit in them to share their writing. This goal is going to be an easy one to meet and will also really help my students. A goal that I have for this summer would be to create a conferencing schedule for my students next week. It would be a planned time each week that I would be able to meet with individuals about their writing. Having it scheduled would make me aware of it and would also give the students a schedule to follow.
ReplyDeleteGoals for 2012-2013
1) Create a journal with each student that will be a teacher/ student journal- This would be a journal that my students and I would write back and forth in to each other.
2) Focus on publishing a story from each genre- Pick a genre that students need to write in but let them choose what they are writing about within the genre.
3) Teach grammar weekly – Find ways of teaching it effectively without worksheets
4) Conferencing schedule- Create a schedule that we would follow each week.
5) Read professional development books – As a new teacher this is very important so I want to stay current and continue to learn.
6) Not go into school on the weekends or stay late more than 3 times a week
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteChanges to my Writing Workshop
ReplyDeleteAs my final reflection, I have gone through and picked out all the questions I have had and then some of your responses (I didn’t include your responses in the blog copy of my final reflection since they are already on the blog. I just wanted to have your words of wisdom and my goals all in one place.) I have also noted things I am doing or am going to do in Writing Workshop. I have learned a lot in this class and am feeling much more comfortable in my teaching.
1. Re-do conferences
2. Do more author’s chair
3. Lessons/list on what to write about
4. More modeling and shared writing
5. Do some pattern books like Todd Parr
6. Refer to common mini-lessons on page 155
7. MODELING – A lot more
8. Have them work specifically on short pieces so they can focus on their re-reading skills
9. Focus them from the beginning of the year that they are writing for an audience
10. Keep holding them responsible for word wall words and add each child’s name to the wall
11. Demonstrate how I choose a topic, randomly or within structure.
12. Start Writing workshop giving the kids time to think/talk about what they are writing about our what they are going to write about. Lot’s of modeling about what this looks like.
13. Try some “Remember when?” letters.
14. Have a student-directed conversation about editing guidelines
15. Doing sharing at the end gives me the opportunity to tell the students they need to be prepared to share if they want to; that is they need to be able to read their writing easily. Also, they don’t have to share their whole piece; they can just share the part I want the other kids to hear.
16. Discuss the routines of Writing Workshop again. What do they do when they want my attention or they feel stuck or don’t know what to do?
17.”I Write Like I Talk” This is a solid way to talk about voice to 1st graders. That is a way I can get them to begin to understand voice.
CHEERS!
As for the balance of my personal life and my teaching life...I have had a lot of family things going on last year and this year which are taking a lot of energy. I don't know if I decided not to do anymore work at home as much as just wasn't doing it. So, now I get done what I can after school and if I need to, I get up earlier the next day to do anymore prepping or planning. That way I don't feel like I have something hanging over my head all the time. When I leave school, the things I do or think about concerning school are all my choice, rather than something I have to do. It took me many years to get to this point but I am feeling pretty balanced.
ReplyDeleteAssignment #9: Final Course Reflection
ReplyDeleteMy “Happy Literate People” Goals (In no particular order)
1. Try Shared Writing!
• This is something I have never done, but I think it could be fun and engaging especially for my middle school students. I think I will adapt it for my high school students—I’ll try having small groups work together to do their own shared writing, for example.
2. Write In Front Of My Students More Often!
• I do this once in a while, but I want to make it a regular component of my teaching. It could look like this: writing on the overhead, showing my work done in my notebook/journal, share previously done writing drafts from high school and college.
3. Emphasize Conferences !
• This is also something I do already, but I would like to put more focus on it by conferencing more often. I want conferencing to be something we do weekly in class, and I want to do conference(s) in front of the class weekly. I want to teach my students to have conferences between themselves as well.
4. Focus On Quality Written Feedback!
• I like what Regie says about not giving too much written feedback on assignments, since students don’t necessarily learn from that. I would like to be more conscientious in giving written feedback so that I am focusing in on one or two issues and not overloading students with every little thing.
5. Celebrate More!
• I want to find ways to celebrate every day in class. I do anthologies, but I would like to work on having mini-celebrations during writing workshops. This can take the form of public conferences, I think, and more sharing of work and verbal praise. I want to encourage my students to find things they like about their writing to celebrate also. And I want to spend more time celebrating the work of authors we love.
6. Discuss Teaching With My Colleagues More!
• Meeting with my fellow language arts teachers to discuss what we’re doing, challenges, research, goals, and evidence of real learning is a great idea. We only meet once in a while—quarterly.
7. Try The Stuff On This List!
• It’s so easy to get stuck in a rut and to be nervous about trying new approaches. My goal is to take it in stride and know that I am taking positive risks to improve teaching and learning in my classes.
That’s it everyone, You Did it! You have all completed the requirements for the course and have earned A’s. Well done. We have appreciated your thoughtful responses this term. It has been a pleasure working with you. Your goals for applying the ideas from the text are great!
ReplyDeleteJennifer we absolutely agree that your daughter is your priority! We’re glad you had time to reflect on your instruction and find areas to tweak. And yes, a solid paragraph may have better results demonstrating understanding of a topic than a 5-paragraph essay. We’re sure your students will enjoy the addition of celebrations to your classroom. Who doesn’t like to celebrate? :D
Eileen,
Maybe you can get into the habit of checking your body throughout the day. What about at snack, lunch and dismissal? Physically loosen up your body at these times and maybe you’ll feel better on Fridays. We’re glad you mentioned referring to the text, we HIGHLY suggest that you all reread this text at a later date. Maybe next summer, you’ll take even more away from it if you do!
Brad and Sarah,
Kudos to both of you for planning to initiate conversations in your district around writing instruction! And again, family first! Let go of that stress if you can Sarah, easier said than done, but being aware of it is helpful.
Niji,
We agree! We think conferring will bring about noticeable change in your students writing. YES, balance of work and play is essential for everyone, students and teachers alike.
Hello Brittany,
We’re happy you mentioned having students write every day. The more they write, the stronger writers the will become! Keep up your professional development; there are so many wonderful texts to read and workshops to attend. I still love going to seminars and workshops or finding a new professional books to read! The learning never stops. :D
Ann- We’re so glad you found the course useful and informative! Writing down your plans and ideas is a great way to actually make them happen! Good luck with implementation! We’re glad you have found balance between your workload and home life. Often it takes some major event before teachers start putting their health and well being before school. Hopefully your family situation is improving and you’ll be able to focus on your health and happiness!
Hi Jordia,
Your comments are a great way to end the term. Yes, meet more with team members and discuss successes, challenges, research, goals, and share student work. Try new approaches and take it in stride because you are working towards improving your instruction and learning for the students. Well said.
Everyone, have a wonderful Spring and a great end of the year. Perhaps we’ll see you in another course some time. ☺
I will be going back and responding to the posts that came in this last week or so. So if you haven’t had a reply to your assignment, it will be coming this week.