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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Hi. My name is Mary Chamberlain and I teach at Sunset High School in Beaverton Oregon. I am both and old timer and newbie teacher as I originally began my teaching career in 1982 and taught Junior High through 1990 when I became pregnant with child 4 and decided it was time to take a year off! That year became approximately 16 when I took a look around and thought about where the next chapter of my life would take me. In that time, I was never far from the classroom or school as I was volunteering in my kids’ classrooms and doing volunteer “stuff” as some of you, I am sure, can relate. I went back to teaching and rediscovered the joy of my own classroom. I started out as part-time and am now a full time 9th grade literature teacher and loving every minute of it. I have 5 classes of approximately 35 -37 kids in each plus an Advisory (career ed class) of 24 and an AT (our extended study hall type class) of 34. I teach several novels throughout the year as well as THE ODYSSEY and, everyone’s favorite, ROMEO AND JULIET!
ReplyDeleteOur school has a great literacy library and for several years, we had on site lit consultants who worked in our classes with us and helped us with scaffolding, breaking down assignments into manageable chunks, text marking, analytical paragraph writing, and other assorted literacy skills. Currently the English department is working with our staff to encourage writing across the curriculum and that has been a fun and interesting challenge. We do have literacy training, or did, in the school district. I teach the fundamentals of writing that starts with what we call concrete details and commentary and moves from sentence structure to whole body paragraphs. We work with a proficiency model. We teach a basic body paragraph comprised of 8-10 sentences with topic sentences, details, commentary, and concluding sentence. We build on that in future years. As Sunset, and in my classroom, we focus on teaching kids to be independent thinkers (as much as concrete 9th graders can be!) and to provide solid evidence from the novel, poem, short story, play, etc to prove their points. The writing prompts for the state writing test are interesting, to say the least, and our department has done a good job with prepping kids and changing our writing assignments to provide the kids with the tools they need to succeed on that test, but it is a challenge for sure. Kids come to us with all levels of skills and scaffolding becomes so important to their success. I love teaching and am passionate about my curriculum and the kids and love going to work each day. Even though I have a ton of kids, I try to get to know them on a personal level and to get their assignments back to them in a timely manner which at times proves to be impossible due to the sheer number of kids, but I do my best.
I love the energy and excitement that kids generate and my goal is to get them to realize their potential and love to read the write. I try to make my lessons different and engaging so they don’t “tune” out. ☺ I am not always successful, but I try! ☺
I have 4 kids and the last one is in college and he plays baseball. The other three are as follows: lawyer, teacher, and PR specialist. I enjoy working out and reading and have time for little else! I am excited to take the class and see what new ideas and concepts are out there for me to “borrow” and use to get my kids excited about learning!
Assignment 1: Introduction
ReplyDeleteHello. My name is Jenny Lucas. I am currently a half time literacy coach and half time Title 1 literacy support teacher.
I have been in education for 26 years. I started teaching in California and have spent the last 15 years working in the Centennial School District in Portland, Oregon.
I spent the first 20 years of my career teaching kindergarten, 1st grade and 1st/2nd grade blends. I have served as a literacy coach for the past 6 years. However, I have been fortunate to work with students during this time as well. 2 years ago I split my time between coaching and teaching an afternoon kinder class. This year, I spend half of my day pushing into primary classrooms to support students with reading and writing.
I like combining teaching children with coaching teachers. I feel that teaching kids influences the relevancy of my coaching. I enjoy working beside teachers and learning with them as we try new instructional strategies together. I have the opportunity to “practice what I preach” which helps build credibility. I am “in the struggle” alongside my teacher colleagues and this keeps me realistic as I work to nudge them forward in their thinking and instructional practices. I see teaching as an ever-evolving endeavor. It’s simply not possible to teach well without continuous self-reflection and growth. I don’t think teaching is something one can ever truly master. We are life-long students of the art of teaching.
While I love my work and continue to learn as much as I can about instruction, I have other interests as well. I have a love of interior design and gardening and my husband enjoys building and landscape work. Together, we have renovated our house and garden, doing all of the work ourselves. It has been great fun to work together! We have 2 teenagers who both have artistic interests. Our daughter enjoys photography and dance and our son enjoys drawing and animation. We support their interests, which keeps us quite busy. My way of relaxing is reading. Nothing sounds better to me than curling up with a good book and a cup of tea! I am in 2 book clubs and love talking about books with my friends. My favorite genre is historical fiction.
I’m happy to say that my district has embraced a balanced literacy approach to instruction. As a literacy coach, I have helped write a guide to balanced literacy that is used in all of our elementary buildings as a foundation for understanding balanced literacy instruction. We also conducted a district-wide training of balanced literacy in which we highlighted the components of reader’s and writer’s workshop, the gradual release of responsibility, authentic assessment, and thinking strategies. Centennial teachers, specialists, and administrators now have common language and employ common practices.
This year, we are supporting our teachers with creating maps for the Common Core English Language Arts Standards. Next year, our teachers will be teaching these new standards and I will be supporting them along the way.
Over the years, I have been lucky to have been involved in many trainings, book studies, and workshops that support balanced literacy. Taking both Essentials of Reading and Essentials of Writing TINT courses is another way for me to deepen my understanding of balanced literacy instruction. While I have skimmed bits and pieces of both of Regie’s books, I have yet to actually read both texts all the way through. These courses will provide the opportunity to “dig into” these books in a meaningful way. I’m hopeful that these courses will help me to gain insights that will strengthen both my teaching and my coaching.
Hello there, I am an even later comer! My name is Don McKie. I teach second grade at Ainsworth Elementary in Portland Public Schools. This is my 13th year teaching in public schools and I have 21 students in my class which does not have extra support. Our district actually has a very detailed writing binder that outlines writing instruction for the year. It is fairly comprehensive although I don't always stay on the same page when other ideas come up. We are using Scott Foresman Reading Street for Language Arts.
ReplyDeleteDuring writer's workshop, we begin whole group shared write about topic (ie. How to), review resources available (charts with transition words, amazing adjectives, etc.), and begin independent writing. Students move in and out of conferencing with teacher and students. We also refer to our editing marks once we have revised our work. Published works are shared although not always. Our school improvement plan addresses writing in the areas of revision and sentence fluency so I try to augment and focus in these areas. My training in writing is varied. Nike has worked with our district in the area of writing. Last year we dedicated our late start days to writing instruction, specifically in the area of sentence fluency and revision. Staff presented lessons and were given the opportunity to observe colleagues teaching writing. Recently (last summer actually) I took a class on poetry through Linda Vanderford (highly recommended). Our district is struggling with upping writing scores. Currently I enjoy teaching although I think writing is the most difficult subject to teach. I am happy at my new assignment and school. Outside the classroom I have a wife and two kids (9 and 6). They take all free time (well not really, but it seems that way!) but we have fun! I like to ride my bike and hit some tennis balls when I get the chance!
Hello Mary, Jenny and Don!
ReplyDeleteWelcome to Essentials of Writing. We’re excited to have you in our course this term.
Mary, how wonderful you were able to take so much time off to be home with your family. I’m currently at home with my daughter Ellery Grace. She will be one in May. My boys are in Kindergarten and First Grade. I’m enjoying the stay-at-home life and PTO/Volunteer opportunities so much because I know that I will have to return to the classroom all too soon. :D I had just taken a position at a high school and found out I was pregnant with Ellie. I do have to say she’s the most amazing, easy baby ever. Which is especially nice as she is def. our last baby.
Hello Jenny! We’re excited to have you in both Essentials of Reading and Essentials of Writing. You’ll have to let us know which format you like better as the Reading class just has you email assignments rather than interact with other course participants. We have had teachers in these courses that have also read parts (or all) of Regie’s texts and felt they got so much more out of her books after taking the classes. We hope you find you have a similar experience!
Welcome Don!
I also have taken some of Linda Vanderford’s courses and would highly recommend them! I believe the last one (quite some time ago) was a vocabulary course. I think it’s wonderful that your district gave teachers the time to observe colleagues teaching writing. There are often many wonderful things happening right within our own districts and we can learn so much from each other if we have the time to observe and discuss.
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ReplyDeleteMy name is Megan Kilgore and I am just about done with my sixth year as an elementary school teacher.
ReplyDeleteI teach in a rural community at Clatskanie Elementary School in Clatskanie, Oregon. I have taught Kindergarten and First Grade and can’t decide which grade I like better. This year I have had the smallest class size ever, starting with 20 and now I am at 17 students. I hope that means I am not scaring them away. Most classes at this school do not have instructional assistances, unless you are lucky enough to have a child that needs that one on one help.
For the past several years, my district has not provided direct literacy training, due to budget cuts. Teachers do have a set limit of funds to spend on professional development, but all classes have to be approved by the principal and the superintendent. I decided to spend my funds on obtaining my Master’s Degree in Literacy. I really enjoyed those classes. I thought that I would like using Pearson Scott Foresman Reading program that my district adopted, but it doesn’t lend itself well to free exploration. I have to make sure that I get to every skill each week or students will not have at least been introduced to skills before going to second grade. I want mastery and not just a rough introduction to skills. This is difficult with lack of consistent time.
My district’s writing scores are doing well this year. More students are meeting, then in the last two years. Yeah! I however did not enjoy using the 4 Square writing template anymore. It is getting old and I am trying to find new ways for my first graders to organizer their thoughts in such a way that is not robotic.
I am from Warren, Oregon, but decided to move to Clatskanie, due to my job. I did not like having to drive over the icy Rainier hill every day. I have one little dog named Bear and he keeps me from living at the school. I am glad I have him to come home to and take for walks. When I am not thinking about my students, I like to go camping and garage sales or antique stores to look for those special vintage items I can use to decorate my apartment. I am trying to buy a house so I have more room for those vintage items. I cannot wait to start this class.
Hello! My name is Amy Brandvold and I’m very excited to be joining this class. Presently I am a stay-at-home mother to my two girls and I substitute teach 3-4 times per month. When I was a full-time teacher (five years ago) I worked in the Lake Oswego School District teaching first grade. I loved being a classroom teacher, and I fully intended on going back full time once my youngest daughter turned one, however my heart had different ideas and so here I am enjoying every, or rather almost every moment, of parenting my young girls!
ReplyDeleteWhen I was in the classroom, the primary grades had no formal writing program (things have since changed and more focus has been put on developing young writers). We used the Read Well reading program for both our reading and writing objectives. Our main focus/goal was how to write a sentence. I tried to put in journaling, writing prompts, and a make-shift writing center to supplement the lack of curriculum, however in my first few years as a teacher I lacked have the confidence or experience to do anything more. If only I could go back and talk to my younger self!
In college I was trained in how to use Lucy Calkin’s Writer’s Workshop methods. After several years of struggling along knowing I wasn’t giving my students the best learning opportunities in writing, I used PTA funds to buy a set of Calkin’s books. After gaining skeptical permission, I launched a Writer’s Workshop in my classroom. What an amazing difference, I only wish I would have started sooner! My students were excited and wanting to write and their confidence inspired me to attempt lessons and projects I never thought would be possible in first grade! I had several parents and grandparents, that I trained, who came faithfully to each session to help me by circulating around the room while I held brief conferences with students. I loved that through very short mini-lessons, students of all abilities were inspired to write authentically.
While I no longer have my own classroom, I am still very passionate about my profession and consider myself a life-long learner. I took the Reading Essentials class several years ago and was very inspired by Regie Routman’s methods. I have great expectations for this text! Writing instruction is one of the areas that I wished I would have further developed while I was still with students every day, and I am hoping to gain ideas on how to be more effective in this content area.
In addition to being with my girls and substituting, I also enjoy cooking/baking, reading and going to the gym. I also volunteer with Healthy Start/Healthy Families of Clackamas County, running a community playgroup. I’m looking forward to getting started with this class!
Welcome Megan and Amy! We’re happy to have you join us this term.
ReplyDeleteMegan, we think you’ll def. find this text useful and chock full of ideas that you’ll want to implement into your classroom. Last term we had a 5/6 teacher who also was saying he was sick of the 4 Square template and finding it too formulaic. We’ll be interested to hear your thoughts after you finish the class (this goes for everyone.) Happy Reading!
Hi Amy! We’re happy to have you in class again. I am also at home right now with my daughter; she’ll be one in few weeks. I LOVE it! Though I keep my eye out just in case that “perfect” job comes along. I think we’d all agree with you if we could go back in time to our beginning teaching selves we’d have a lot to share! I certainly know there was a lot of room for improvement in my teaching, but new teachers often have the excitement and enthusiasm that more experienced teachers lose. I’m amazed with what kindergarten students are able to write when they are given the time, structure and opportunity. (I have a K and a 1st Grader.) Let us know what you think of the text when you’re done! Talk to you soon.