Assignment Nine: Final Course Reflection
(All assignments are due by 8/20 !!!)
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!
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Assignment 9
ReplyDeleteI’m actually proud of my home-school life balance. I have been working for years to make sure I’m not sacrificing my rejuvenation-time to stew about things in the classroom (the exception is my sleep- I need to work on shutting my brain off at night!). This is probably easier for me in my position than a high-school English teacher, as I don’t bring work home, and don’t have piles to grade. I feel very lucky in this way, and my students benefit from the energy I can bring them each day (they require it!).
This class has helped me clarify my goals for writing a devise a fantastic plan for the upcoming school year. I am excited to get back in there and see how I can engage and inspire students to feel like writers! My six-point plan of improvement:
1.Morning message
I want my students to be working on their reading and writing skills right out of the gate in the morning. I love this idea of sharing writing even when it’s not “writing” time.
2.Continued writing throughout a week
Instead of a prompt that results in two sentences, this will help students invest, and give me some fodder for conferencing with them (sometimes conferencing upon two sentences is tough).
3.Modeling idea-getting as well as crossing out and rewording
When I model my writing to them, I need to model the choosing of the idea as well as my thinking process as I’m writing. All these are beneficial for them to hear.
4.Only write as much as my students write
This is still difficult for me to wrap my head around, but the idea of modeling my piece the length I want theirs, then doing a longer shared writing piece helps me feel like I’m challenging higher students without overwhelming lower students.
5.Giving students more choice in what they write
I have already photocopied Routman’s suggestions of writing topics and put them in my classroom. I am excited to give students a topic, but let them have more choice (ownership) in what they write within that framework. I can already hear the celebrations inspiring student ideas right now!
6.Celebrations as short and daily
Now I laugh at celebrating only once a month at the end of a writing form for young primary children (as I’ve done for years). How foolish! They need more immediate reinforcement as writers, plus it builds community to have your peers hear your thoughts. Not to mention, when we say, “think of your audience”, but then never give the children an audience for their piece, we might as well have not said anything at all. Finally, the constant public engagement with students about their pieces helps students draw the conclusion that their writing is valuable!
Every other year the district has me pick a new goal as a teacher. This cycle, my goal is on the topic of writing. I look forward to including my new plan into my goal-report and using my knowledge to help improve writing in my school. Overall, I was worried that Routman’s book would have too wide a perspective (K-12) to be helpful for me, but I found her ideas inspiring and useful across the elementary grades.
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ReplyDeleteAssignment 9
ReplyDeleteAs I have said before, last year my writing program lacked in every way. This summer, and the two courses I have taken, have inspired me to create a better Reader’s Workshop and Writer’s Workshop time. I have had kiddos filling out grammar work books, fill out comprehension sheets, and retelling stories on a graphic organizer. I have also not made time for writing conferences, sharing, and mini-lessons. I wonder what I was doing?? Anyway, this year all of that will change! I will use the four resources I have read this summer (the daily 5, Creating Young Writers, after THE END, and of course Writing Essentials). These are my goals and intended structures for next year:
Readers Workshop: Use Daily Five and Reading Essentials to direct students in meaningful reading and writing activities, guided reading groups, and lots of read aloud (ideas for read aloud: Pippi Longstocking, Edward Tulane, Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle, Tale of Despereax)
Writer’s Workshop: 10am to 11am everyday
Demonstration/modeling/mini-lesson (15 min.), this will be based on the mode of writing, introduce the Writing Notebook (composition notebook for each student). In their Writing Notebook they will have 4 sections: Ideas (lists, webs, etc); lessons (keep track of mini-lessons taught and practiced); word collections (list of color words, other words for “said”, etc); and resource section (resources for editing and revising)
Sustained Writing (30 min.), Students will have a Writing Notebook and a two-pocket folder. The two pocket folder will have a green dot on the left and a red dot on the right pocket. This will help students keep track of “still working” (green) and “done” (red). We will use Writing Behavior on page 189 of Writing Essentials. They will also have their Writing Notebook for help and recalling past lessons. My goal is to have students complete a baseline writing assessment (required by the district) about their summer fun. Then move on to “All About Me” piece. From there we will move through the different modes. I would like to have all of the modes taught my winter break and then go through them again depending on the reading curriculum (lots of science and social studies themes). I will choose my lessons/demonstrations by first deciding what mode will be taught and choose the concepts students need in order to be successful writing in that mode.
Whole class share (15 min.), individual students can share and incorporate whole class share conference
Some questions I still have:
Do I abandon isolated writing exercises? Are lessons on good leads isolated if we are working on a personal narrative?
Free writing? Still wondering if kiddos don’t get any time to free write? When they are done other work?
No illustrating in 2nd grade?
Do students only write using the demonstration lesson that day?
When reflecting on this course and my classroom, I am definitely developing as a teacher of writing. I am very excited to go back to the classroom and implement everything that I have learned. I completed the section about examining my beliefs about writing. I was very surprised. I am excited to share this with my team teachers and take a closer look at our year. I have no doubt they will be just excited as I am, which helps to have others to brainstorm ideas with.
ReplyDeleteI was also surprised how many additional resources I found in the appendix. Just a few of the changes I will make in my classroom this year include: higher expectations, modeling, giving choices, writing everyday, making writing meaningful, celebrating often, and making conferences successful!
I am the most anxious about successful conferencing as I see how beneficial it is to each and every student and I have yet to make it successful after failed attempts. I do think Reggie's book and watching the videos has helped me get a better grasp on what it should look like in my classroom. I am also very excited to look at our yearly writing plan with my teammates next week. It will look much different this year than it has in previous years! I have already started doing some brainstorming and I can't wait for their input. I am very excited about the writing changes in my classroom this year and am putting Reggie's book on my pile to go back to school with me!
This book has been wonderful for me. I took this course because I felt that my writing program had no direction and really nothing great about it. I hated teaching writing and students hated doing it. This book has allowed me to free myself from boring prompts and constricting formats. As I look forward to this upcoming school year I plan on teaching the types of writing that my district requires but allowing the kids to create authentic pieces that have a purpose for them.
ReplyDeleteMy main goal for this year is to focus on choice and authentic writing. I want the students to really understand the importance of writing and how great of a communication tool it can be. Writing is a way to express your thoughts and ideas to a number of people. We will focus on the content of a message instead of one specific structure. I want the kids to choose topics they can buy into instead of me always giving a prompt they need to respond to. I also love this idea because then they are never "done" with their writing because they can always start a new story.
I am also going to really focus on celebrations and prewriting storytelling. I have done a little of both of these in the past and especially have seen how helpful the talking before writing is for my student population. I am not sure why I haven't used that more often. I also want to focus on celebrating more and having more meaningful celebrations that elevate the writer.
Finally, I want to make sure I do more think aloud in my modeled writing for my students. I write in front of my students but not neither enough and I definitely don't model my thinking enough in front of them. I want them to see me reread, change words, and cross out. I feel it is very true that the kids need to see us "struggle" and be thoughtful about what we write. I want theme to know that this writing matters and they owe it to the reader to produce a quality piece that is interesting.
This course and Regie's book have really freed me from the chains of writing I felt before. I am now excited to teach writing and watch my students become writers. I am sure my renewed enthusiasm for writing will result in higher student achievement.
In three weeks I will have my first writing class. I am very thankful that I took this class. I am excited. I know that if I hadn’t taken this class that I would of probably fallen back on worksheets and advice from colleagues. I now have the confidence that I can create an authentic and purposeful experience for my class. I would say that my attitude towards teaching writing has changed significantly. Perhaps the biggest shift in change is viewing myself as a leader of good writing instruction vs. a beginner. I am ready to set up a writing support group for the teachers. There is a need because most of us will be new to teaching writing. It made me laugh when Routman wrote to forget about having food at each of the meetings. There are some in our school that seem obsessed about meeting with food. It seems that I have to spend more time making sure I have food for a meeting and all of the appropriate utensils or dishes than actually meeting! I agree with Reggie!
ReplyDeletePart of my plan for myself will be to set up a writers group but to also continue my professional learning through the Oregon Writer’s Project. I think this will be especially helpful to us because it will get us involved with other writing teachers that most likely have more experience than us. Regie certainly gives us a lot of advice to avoid pitfalls, but she does also write that we have to be genuine. This year we will all take ideas and advice. The most important thing to me is that I have modified it to make lessons mine; and that I spend the time to reflect and change as we write.
My first priority in class is to shift the attitude of the students in class. I want them to have fun and see it as useful. Kids will want to be taught how to do the other elements correctly once they have the buy in to the writing. When I get back next week I need to find out about our policy on posting. Middle school kids love giving their opinions on things. I am looking forward to having them write reviews, blogs and more on the internet.
I don’t feel that it will be difficult for me to find interesting things to write about. My challenge, as a novice writing teacher, will be to be aware of how to create mini-lessons based on feedback and need. This is the component of teaching that I will need to bounce ideas off my colleagues. I like to think that I will do this perfectly next year but I am still getting better at my craft and I’ve been doing it for fifteen years.
Thank you for this class.
For me, one of the hardest things about this class has been my own inability to put Regie’s ideas into practice. Because of where I am in my career, I definitely miss the ability to try and experiment with the ideas in the book. However, I also feel enthusiastic about having exposure to Regie’s book so early in my teaching career when I am still forming my own values and ideas about the kind of teacher I want to be.
ReplyDeleteIn the fall, I may have the opportunity to teach in an after-school writing program. Although the club is focused on creative writing, I hope to take some of Regie’s ideas with me into that experience. Even the lesson framework(s) for Secrets of Second Graders and Heart Poems are highly adaptable for this kind of environment.
Finally, as I believe I stated in my introduction, I want to become a writing workshop facilitator with Write Around Portland. I know Regie’s ethos of respect for students, her recommendations about joy and celebration, and her context-driven approach to teaching writing skills will influence me in that and many other future writing courses in which I plan to be involved.
I’m not sure if I have found the answer (yet) to my initial goals for this class: seeing how elementary and secondary writing education influences adult writers—the kinds of writers likely to end up in the college writing center looking for assistance. I do, however, feel as though I see where the system might be doing these students a disservice in teaching without engagement and context and how my future work can help adult learners to succeed academically with joy and pride at their accomplishments.
Thank you for this class. It has been challenging and thought-provoking!