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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ReplyDeleteMy name is Megan Shaw and I teach k-2 at Corbett Grade School. This is my eighth year with the district and my tenth year teaching.
ReplyDeleteMy classroom is unique in that I team-teach with two other teachers. The total number of children is 68. The space is very large- once upon a time it was the library. I love the way my partners and I have been given the professional freedom to create what I believe is a very open and natural setting for young children to learn.
The children are grouped throughout the day. Sometimes by ability, sometimes by home -room teacher and sometimes by grade level. With this flexible grouping our ratio is usually 1:23. There are times when we meet as a whole group, but rarely for a lesson.
For reading, we use the Fountas and Pinnell guided reading system for children in first and second grade and for any kindergarteners who are ready for "just right" books. We use Letter land for the kindergarteners who are just learning the sounds. We also use Letter land with the older children to reinforce spelling patterns.
For writing, we use Lucy Calkins as our guide and run three writing workshops. The fist group, mostly Kinders, is made up of those who are just beginning to use words to tell stories.
The other two groups are made up of mostly first and second graders. One group focuses on the needs of children who are beginning to write sentences and label. The other group is for more advanced writers who are working on using conventions, and writing more in depth pieces. All three groups will work on the same type of writing, for example we are currently working on small moments, but the product will be different.
I teach the group that is most advanced. The kids are in the stage where they are comfortable with being a writer, but need to refine their writing in both ideas and conventions.
My motivation for taking this class is that I get bogged down with balancing the nuts and bolts of writing, which is desired by parents and state tests, with instilling a love of writing into kids, which can be a messy and tiring process.
I look forward to reading and chatting with other writing teachers, and am hopeful that with this new conversation will come new inspiration.
Hello Megan and Welcome to class!
ReplyDeleteWhat a great set up you have going. (Though, as a librarian I hope you still have library at school. :D) We think you'll enjoy the text and find some great ideas to bring to your co-teachers.
Fall is our slowest term, but there are some other teachers signed up for the class.
Talk to you soon!
My name is Jessica Ramirez and I teach 4th grade in the Reynolds School District. I teach in a bilingual program so my classroom is also fairly unique. This is my first year at the elementary level and previously I taught for four years at the high school level, mostly alternative schools. I really enjoy my position this year and love the age of the students. I am glad that I have the opportunity to take this course because I feel like I could really use some guidance around teaching writing. I teach math, writing and 60% of my literacy time in English and teach about 40% of my literacy time in Spanish. It is a very different setup and is constantly evolving to better suit the needs of my students.
ReplyDeleteIn September, I started the year off with 41 students. I was at the number until mid-October when another teacher was brought into the 4th grade team. I am now at 28 students and feel wonderful!
I am hoping to get some ideas in the course on how to increase my students’ enjoyment of writing as well as increase their writing abilities. The majority of my students are beginning to write in complete sentences, although not all the time and writing is pretty painful for most of them. I am confident though, with the write tools, I will be able to help them make some strides in their abilities.
I have four children of my own ages 7,6, 4 and 6 months so I am very busy both during and after school. I don’t really have any hobbies besides being a mommy and a teacher.
I am excited to get started and see what I am able to put into practice in my writing block!
My name is Kaetlyn Roberts and I am taken this course for license renewal. I’m hoping to gain more strategies to create excited and effective writers. I currently do not have a permanent teaching position, but I’m working as a long-term sub for middle school PE. Unfortunately, I lost my position due to budget cuts. I became a certified teacher in 2009 and spent 2010-2011 as a first year 6th grade language arts and social studies teacher at Ackerman Middle School in Canby, OR. Being trained as a social studies teacher, the thought of teaching children language arts was daunting. I had no experience or formal training in the subject and still don’t, but I grew to absolutely love working with my inspiring and developing readers and writers and hope to be back in the language arts classroom soon. For the purposes of this course, I plan to reflect on my experiences teaching language arts to sixth graders.
ReplyDeleteAs a sixth grade teacher, I was responsible to teach two sections of language arts and two sections of social studies with class sizes between 30 - 34 students per class. There was not a set literacy program in place. Teaches met in collaborative teams to develop learning targets and some common assessments. As long as you were working toward the learning target, the reading and writing activities you used were your choice. There was no explicit literacy training that I was aware of offered by the district. As a long term sub in the same district, I can comment on the current approach to state testing. As Oregon has to switch to performance task assessments in 2014-2015 school year, rather than the regular OAKS test, and have adopted the Common Core Standards, a lot of time is being spent on the shift toward teaching literacy in ALL classrooms, not just language arts. Personally, I think this is wonderful. Students should have many opportunities to develop their skills and be asked to write and read authentically in all subject areas.
I absolutely love teaching and hope to have my own classroom again soon. I feel energized and have so many ideas I want to try with students. I miss having my language arts/social studies classroom.
Most of my time outside of being a long-term sub for PE is spent with my amazing 11-month-old daughter. After emptying the contents of the tupperware cabinet, chasing beach balls around the floor, singing Wheels on the Bus and all the other Mommy-like activities that occur on a daily basis, I enjoy some quiet time chatting with my husband and having a nice glass of wine. As new parents, we are getting some personal balance back into our lives and I have begun to train for Hood To Coast again and will resume competitive outrigger paddling. As a family, we love to get outside when the weather allows and also enjoy cooking for family and friends. If I get a chance, I love the combination of good coffee and a good book.
I just recently registered for the course, so I'm a bit behind. I hope that's OK.
Hello Jessica,
ReplyDeleteWow, with 4 young kids and teaching full time I can imagine you are busy. :D I am so glad that a new teacher was brought in and your class size is down to a manageable number! We are confident you will find ideas from the text to increase your students’ enjoyment of the writing process!
Hi Kaetlyn,
So sorry to hear that your position was cut. It sounds like you have a positive attitude though which is really important. Yes, def. reflect on your last year’s experience and also what you intend to do when you get back into a LA classroom. That’s totally fine for the course assignments.
When you mentioned that you were a long-term PE teacher my first thought was to look for ways to tie literacy into the program when you can. I realize that it’s not the same as a traditional classroom setting, but as a librarian I always had a note written on my chart when the students came in and tried to bring as much writing instruction into my lessons when they naturally fit. I saw it as a support and affirmation to what the students were hearing and learning in the classroom.
For example, at the elementary level, I would share with my students that I have a hard time spelling, so when I wasn’t sure if I spelled a word correctly I would circle it on the chart and come back to it AFTER I got all my ideas down. I made two points, the first being that it’s much more important to get your ideas down then to worry about the spelling and the second is that even though I have a hard time spelling some words I still consider myself a really good writer and have been told so by many different people. :D
Later in the text you will read more about letting go of the mechanics and spelling, at first so students can get all their ideas down, and then showing students that it is their responsibility to make sure what their message is (their writing) is clear and error free for their audience (their reader.)
I also worked in a high school as a librarian and had a duty in the writer’s workshop. So I was able to still work with the students on writing skills. I was amazed to learn that the high school students were so similar to the elementary students when it came to revising or changing their writing. They still wanted it to be done the first time they created it.
Looking forward to working with the both of you this term. All work is due by 12/3 but we usually build a couple of days into the deadline to allow for extra time, so if you are finding you need an extra day or two at the end of the term, just let me know.
I really think you’ll enjoy this text and also feel free to look back on last term’s comments on the blog. We leave one term previous up and it’s nice to see what other teachers wrote.
My name is Jen Lawrence, and I teach third grade at Findley Elementary in the Beaverton School District. This is my fourth year teaching. Prior to this year, I completed my student teaching at Raleigh Hills School and then taught Kindergarten for two years and first grade for one year. I was laid off this summer and recalled to third grade at Findley! I have 30 students in my class this year.
ReplyDeleteWe do Daily 5 (which is really more like Daily 4 in our class because we do not have a listening station). While the students are cycling through read to self, read with a partner, word work, and work on writing, I am meeting with small groups, working on the skills that they are focusing on at the time, i.e. summarizing, fluency, comprehension, etc. We use the Lucy Caulkins Writers Workshop to teach writing in our class.
My knowledge in the area of literacy mainly comes from our former Literacy Coach at Raleigh Hills. She was fabulous and really helped out new teachers with understanding how to set up Writer's Workshop in the classroom as well as how to build a successful Daily 5 routine. I have also observed at a number of other schools to see these in action.
I am not sure about the district as a whole and state writing tests. Almost all students at Findley meet on the state test, so the pressure isn't as great at this school. However at Raleigh Hills, there was a huge pressure to test prep and get kids ready to be successful on state testing.
I love my job. I love what I do. I truly enjoy going to work each day. I thought this year would be extremely challenging due to the new school and new grade level, but I have a fabulous team and am loving it. It has been a seamless transition!
Outside of work, my husband and I love to be outside with our dog - hiking, biking, skiing, etc. We love to travel and enjoy what the Northwest has to offer! Yoga is the best thing for my teaching life.
I look forward to reading about writing from a source other than Lucy Caulkins. It will be great to try to infuse some of the things I like from Regie Routman into what I already do in the classroom. It's always great to get another perspective!
Hi Jen! That's wonderful that you have such a supportive new school. We feel that the great thing about Regie's ideas is that you can use them with what you are already doing in your classroom! Let us know what you think when you finish the text.
ReplyDelete