Assignment Nine: Final Course Reflection
(All assignments are due by 6/11 !!!)
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!
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Essentials of Writing: Assignment 9
ReplyDeleteJenny Lucas
Final Course Reflection
Based on the insights I have gained from reading Writing Essentials, I have identified the following action plans that support my goal of supporting my teachers in improving their writing instruction.
Model Whole Class Share in classrooms
Invite teachers to view the DVD with me and discuss the Whole Class Share model
Facilitate a book study of Writing Essentials with our Writing Curriculum Team
Use Section 5 of Writing Essentials when supporting teachers with planning quality lessons
Share my own writing with the staff at our monthly professional development meetings in an effort to inspire them to do the same with their students
When thinking about balancing work and life, I am considering how I can model this for teachers.
Jenny Lucas' comment continued...
DeleteBalancing Work and Home:
When thinking about balancing work and home life, I am considering how I have modeled this for teachers. Many of the teachers in my building have young children at home. As a parent of teenagers, I often find myself sharing how I made the transition from working with no kids to working with kids with them. One promise I made to myself when my son was born is that I would never again take work home. Now, 18 year later, I’m happy to report that I have kept that promise. To keep it, however, I had to develop organizational systems that are simple to keep going. First, my classroom was de-cluttered. I had to force myself to give up that old teacher tendency to keep everything. The only items I now hold on to are items that I use consistently. I kept simple records. I had one hanging file folder for each student which held vital assessment data and report cards. I began my system of keeping a spiral notebook for each student in which I kept conferring notes for both reading and writing. These simple systems saved me hours of work simply because everything I needed was easy to locate. The other practice I took on was to stay late after school 2 days per month. I blocked out the first and third Tuesday of each month on my calendar for this. These were the days that I could do some intense long-term planning or catch-up on anything I was behind with. If I didn’t need to use both dates, I didn’t. This is actually a practice I still use now that I am coaching. It really helps in preventing me from lingering at work too long. These simple changes have served me well over the years. While I am 10% “on” at work, I am 100% “off” when I am not at work. This gives me the energy I need to continue learning and growing both in my professional and personal lives.
HI Jenny, I like the idea of blocking off 1 or 2 days a month for staying late. I think I'd like to try that!
DeleteThanks,
Don
Good luck Don! Hopefully, you won't need both days, but it's nice to know they are there for you.
DeleteAnd...I just re-read my post~ I meant to say that I am 100% "on" at work not 10%! :)
Assignment 9:
ReplyDeleteMy main goal is always to create life long lovers of reading and writing! My goal has always been to instill a LOVE of language and books and then the LOVE of expressing opinions and thoughts and conclusions of such work in a way that shows that the reader not only understood what we were reading, but would pick it up again to read or recommend it to someone else.
A lot will be changing next school year as the budget crisis impacts our classrooms more and more and the struggle will begin to find a way to reach 45 plus kids in a literature class and give them the support and input they need to grow as writers and readers and contributing members of society. I believe that our literacy program will take precedence over other “project” in our school. I believe that our literacy program will most certainly involve this idea of “writing across the curriculum” I mentioned previously. This way each teacher reinforces the skills we will teach in our English classrooms. The expectations of shared writing targets and terminology when speaking of note taking, summaries, paragraphing, grammar, etc. will help the kids realize that writing is fundamental and for all audiences/classes. I see myself now, more than ever, making writing assignments relevant and that to write to a particular audience is a valuable skill for their futures. A science paper or response should be geared toward a scientific audience, but instead of a science teacher not wanting to correct grammar or look for main idea and support, he/she will do so and end up making writing valuable in their classes as well. Sometimes at the high school level, business or marketing or PE teachers don’t seem to think that writing matters all that much and that end punctuation and expressing ideas isn’t critical. With our focus at Sunset on enabling all teachers to use writing freely and to critique it in the manner in which Regie suggests/recommends will empower them to be successful. It is a challenge to try and “teach” peers what to look for in a piece of writing and to make them realize that math requires writing as well as literature and that it is everyone’s responsibility to hold kids accountable for writing and writing well and for feeling good about writing on all levels and in all classes. Writing should be a daily part of each kid’s life and not just on the days he/she has English class. That is my thought anyway. I found several of Regie’s books in our in house collection of resources and have started to read through those also. Even though much of what she does is geared towards younger grades, much of it is applicable when “tweaked” a bit for the high school.
As far as finding balance in the coming years between home and work….. hmmmm… ☺ I believe that the group conferences and shared work and the roving conferences will help me. I also believe that scoring small assignments will ease that burden. One of my favorite things is to have the kids write a well-developed paragraph on a 5x7 note card. It cuts down on the rambling! We also will focus on one target at a time or a piece of the writing process at a time even though an entire summary (as an example) is written. Looking for one or two items per writing helps cut down on the time it takes to “score” that assignment. Group discussions are fun as a way to assess where kids are on a particular skill and I do employ the “popsicle” method to ensure I don’t just ask/rely on the same kids over and over to answer or show examples. I am sorry but I am rarely brief especially when it comes to a topic/subject about which I am passionate and I love to teach writing and literature. My greatest joy is to see that light in their eyes when they get excited about something they have written or something we are reading or have read. I love it when someone comes to me and says… “Hey, Chamby. I got that sequel to Ender’s Game and it is so cool”. I love to teach and I love the kids. Thanks for a great class and for the information now at my fingertips in the form of Regie’s book.
Assignment 9
ReplyDeleteAs I mentioned in an earlier assignment, our district has a district writing binder that outlines our goals for the year. It is actually pretty good and includes different genres, and units to accompany them. The binder also provides many resources to aid in teaching and modeling good writing. I will use this as a template for instruction but I will add several goals from our reading. I think the overall aim of these new goals is to make kids feel happy and motivated to write. There are a multitude of suggestions I plan to implement from the reading. Listed here are some goals that I will use to empower the students and create a positive environment.
Goals:
Daily writing: The kids need to get in the “writing zone” and feel what it is like to produce writing effortlessly. The more they write, the better writers they become.
Free writing: From the reading, I am excited to give opportunity for more free writing. Currently in my class, kids ask if they can free-write when they are finished with their work. Motivation for writing is key.
Free verse Poetry: Tied to free writing is free verse poetry. Releasing the students from constraints creates an environment where kids play with language and produce writing with great voice and word choice.
Audience and Purpose: Knowing for whom one is writing and why they are writing, motivates kids to produce writing that is meaningful.
Rubric: I intend to integrate our current rubric (conventional) with the one suggested in the reading where the focus is on making writing interesting through word choice and voice.
Caring about students: I can be explicit in praise and nurture their efforts to encourage and motivate our young writers.
Invite colleagues: I have already mentioned this class to my partner teacher who has signed up to take it during summer. Ideally the entire staff would read the book. This actually was the goal of our principal two years ago (it fizzled out after chapter two and our staff meetings became unbearably stuffed with “business”). We all have the book. The next step is to revive the project.
Make room for my life outside of school: I really try to keep my home life balanced with school. Outside of school, my focus is on my family. In spite of my efforts, I still stay pretty late at times and I get to school very early. I like the idea of choosing one day every week or two to stay later to take care of unfinished business and planning. I can be deliberate and purposeful in how I use my time. I also try to stay in shape to improve my health and sense of well being but there is always room for improvement.
In class I need to streamline. One way to do this is to improve my organization and record keeping. I will initiate Routman’s suggestion of reducing the amount of unnecessary worksheets and correcting. I have to admit, my desk is a dumping ground even though I try to clean it at the end of each day. I just need to do it! When in doubt, throw it out. Better yet, don’t create the clutter in the first place. One thing I have been doing recently is to correct with kids as we go, thereby reducing the pile of work I need to get to later. To remove the extraneous, I need to ask myself, “Is what we are doing the best use of our time?”
This course has given me a new outlook. I am encouraged by the Routman’s sentiment. Celebrate our young writers and make them feel their ideas are valid and they are important capable people.
I am a bit sad now that this course is over. I borrowed the course text from a colleague and now I want to buy own copy because there are sections that I want to reference as I plan for next year. My goals for next year include:
ReplyDelete• Teach reading and writing together.
• Provide more free writing opportunities.
• Think aloud, write aloud, and read my
writing aloud.
• Do not take every writing piece to final
stage.
• Practice conferencing with students more
efficiently about their writing.
• Do mini-lessons with students that need
extra support.
• Create child-friendly rubrics.
• Use sticky-notes to jot down “gem ideas” as
I conference with students.
I also have questions for next year, which include:
• Do I order student dictionaries or have my
students use their notebooks to create
their own dictionaries?
• How do I find time to conference?
• How do I keep the other students engaged as
I conference? First graders are needy!
I have a lot more notes to go through after reading this book before I will feel ready to try my new writing strategies, but I cannot wait to dive right in. I plan to recommend this class to other teachers, so hopefully they will not grumble about teaching writing, but rather find writing instruction more meaningful.
This course has been so enlightening for me! I have learned so much and re-gained a lot of enthusiasm for teaching. I am constantly mentioning ideas and strategies that I have learned from to my former colleagues and have several teachers interested enough to borrow my book. Change can happen one teacher at a time! While I do not have formal setting to carry out the following goals, I am looking at them as a good reminder of what excellent teaching of writing should look like and what I would like to strive towards when I someday return to the classroom.
ReplyDeleteGoals
• Incorporate more shared writing/shared reading into daily classroom activities and integrate reading and writing instruction.
• Eliminate grammar exercise and teach critical skills within shared writing, mini-lessons and whole-class shares.
• Share my writing life with my students, write in front of them, and talk about writing to help students develop a can-do attitude towards writing.
• Create a classroom environment where meaningful writing happens all throughout the day, rather than just during “writing” time.
• Use a combination of roving and one-on-one conferences to inform and guide my teaching.
By focusing on the above items, I think I will be a happier teacher who enjoys teaching writing. I now know a better way to teach/think about writing, and I am looking forward to using my new skills with my children and future classrooms of students! Thank you for another excellent course!
Hi Amy,
ReplyDeleteI agree with you completely about incorporating the grammar skills and embed them in the writing itself. Teaching anything in isolation tends to stick for sort term but not for what we need our kids to be doing. I have learned a lot from reading everyone else's blogs especially as we all teach different grade levels... all equally important.. although, I still give most kudos to the kindie/1st grade teachers who bear the burden of actually teaching the little ones to read! Wow!
It’s hard to believe that it’s June already and the term is over! It has been a pleasure to work with all of you! Your comments and thoughts have been both interesting and informative! We are so glad you’ve enjoyed the course and text and truly appreciate your kind words! You have all earned A’s for the class. We hope that you have a wonderful summer. I’m off to Connecticut tomorrow as it’s Jackie’s and her twins 40th birthday…a pig roast with a band and 200 people. (I don’t think I know 200 people in one state because I’ve moved so much. ;-)) Thanks everyone! Mary :D
ReplyDeleteThank you, Mary and Jackie!! Happy Birthday to all! I have enjoyed your emails and insight. I feel as if I have made a friend! Take care!!
ReplyDelete