ASSIGNMENT TWO: WRITTEN REFLECTION–Section One- The Essential Writing Life Chapters 1-3
Briefly reflect on the following comments written below from Chapters 1-3 and any additional thoughts that you have after reading these chapters.
Chapter 1: Simplify the Teaching of Writing• Simplify our teaching
• Becoming more knowledgeable about teaching writing
• Examine your beliefs
Regie gets to the heart of her book Writing Essentials with this quote on the final page of Chapter One: “By reducing the clutter in our teaching lives-the over-planning, the unnecessary activities, the paper load, all the ‘stuff’ that takes our time and energy and does little to improve teaching and learning-we bring joy back into our work and the world of our students.” Many of us work very hard and spend many hours complicating our teaching lives. In this book Regie will help you simplify your teaching life for your benefit and that of your students.
One of the frustrations that teachers encounter regularly is the ever changing “latest and best” writing programs that districts or states force on them and their students. With this revolving cycle of programs, teachers are spending too much time learning how to use the program rather than becoming better writing teachers. Regie explains that in the districts where students are the best writers, they are writing for real purposes and audiences and publishing their writing; teachers are not using prescribed writing programs.
Look at Appendix A (page A-2.) Examine your beliefs about writing by reading the statements about the writing process and marking true or false in your book. (Go ahead and write in your book, it’s OK! You can even use a pencil and mark very lightly if you want to.) We found this activity very enlightening. Let us know what you think after you complete the activity.
In your reflection for Section One, please include your thoughts about the following questions or statements:
• Regie demonstrates how to use the Optimal Learning Model (shown on the front cover and page 11) throughout the book. Consider how the Optimal Learning Model fits into your own instruction.
• As you think about how to teach writing so that all students can become successful, effective and joyful writers, reflect on how you presently teach the “12 Writing Essentials” (as described on pages 13-14 in the text) during your daily writing instruction. As we continue to read through Regie’s book, hopefully you will begin to see how you might make changes in your instruction to better incorporate these “12 Writing Essentials.”
Chapter 2: Start With Celebration
• Make sure writing is meaningful not just correct
• Use stories as springboards and ensure that ALL students hear stories
• Write in front of your students and connect home and school
The title of Chapter Two simply states, “Start with Celebration,” and that’s exactly what we need to do for our students. The celebration of all students’ writing needs to be put into the forefront and be made our first teaching goal. Celebrations should happen school-wide, within our classrooms and with students individually. As children begin to see themselves as successful writers, they will take more risks in their writing and in turn will become better writers who enjoy the writing process.
Another key point that Regie highlights in this chapter is to “make sure writing is meaningful, not just correct!” Students need to understand that writing is “enjoyable and for a real purpose and audience.” She also reminds us “that teaching skills in isolation does not make student writers; neither does teaching to the test. And breaking writing into bits and pieces robs children of the joy of writing.”
Regie suggests using stories as a springboard for teaching and learning. Hearing and telling stories builds our students’ oral language skills and these stories are “an entryway into reading and writing.” Only when students are reading and writing real stories can they connect the “skills” based learning to their reading and writing!
Please include your thoughts about the following questions or statements in your written reflection of Section One:
• Regie explains how important celebrating student writing is. How do you celebrate student writing in your classroom? How might you add more celebration of student writing to your day/year?
• Consider what changes you could make in your writing instruction to make writing more meaningful and purposeful for your students.
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Katherine Lum
ReplyDeleteAfter thinking about (and marking!) the list of Beliefs About Writing, I realized that for me at least, some of them are not absolutes. For example, “Students should choose most f their own writing topics”. I almost wrote true, but then I remembered that some of my girls have not been exposed to that many different forms of writing, and so they need to see them before they can choose them. I also figured the ‘right’ answer to “Writing rubrics are a proven way to improve writing quality” was ‘false’, but I have to admit that I love using my 6 Trait+1 rubric with my students to talk about their work in more specific ways. I have only read the first section of her book, and I can see how a rubric that is broken down to the traits could lead one to teach the traits individually and artificially, and I have to admit that I have done that. I know, though, that sometimes I use the language of the rubric when I am conferencing with a student about her writing, and it gives us a common language about things she is or is not doing. I wonder, then, if maybe it’s not a terrible thing to use a traits rubric, if it is used thoughtfully.
Regie’s Optimal Learning Model fits in pretty well with my teaching. I have really worked hard in recent years to give my students more opportunity for guided and then independent practice in both the areas of math and reading. What I need, is to figure out how to make my writing as supportive, creative, and authentic. When I look at the list of 12 Writing Essentials, I think I do a pretty good job with some (appropriate topic, organization, elaboration, revision, read with a writer’s perspective), but not so well with others (identifying more varied audiences, creating engaging leads & endings, crafting authentic voice).
Another thing that I do not do nearly often enough is celebrate students’ writing. I try, and we are pretty consistent at the beginning of the year, but I find myself letting those sharing moments go as the year progresses and I feel the crunch of time…. This will change immediately in my room! Our Author’s Chair is going to be dusted off, and I think that I will have students share their work at various stages of the writing process, rather than only what they have published.
I have tried, from the very beginning of my teaching career, to be honest with my students. I have never told them that one cannot subtract larger numbers from smaller ones – because we can, and they will when they get to middle school; I have never told them how many sentences make up a paragraph – because it could be one, or it could be one hundred; I have never told them that a sentence cannot begin with the word because – because it can, if use correctly. But it wasn’t until this week, in my 14th year of teaching that I realized I have not been very honest with my students when it came to writing a prewrite. Reading what Regie Routman said about teachers writing in front of students, made me think about how I write, and prewrite. As it turns out, I do not always write a formal outline or prewrite. Oh, I have a mental outline, of sorts, of what I want to say, but it is in my mind and very fluid. And so as I planned a lesson for my girls to write a magazine article about something interesting to do over a vacation, I changed my expectation about prewrites. Gaining courage from Regie’s words, I once again took the plunge, and modeled for my students my brainstorming, lack of prewriting, and drafting of my own paragraph. My girls seemed so relieved to not have to create a web or an outline! The idea that they could just write was thrilling to them! And that excited me.
Kathy,
DeleteI agree with your idea of using a rubric to help guide writing in my students. For me, it seems that if a student is to be assessed by that rubric, they should have the fair chance to understand it and know what it is they are being graded on. Although I would also agree that it can be used in a very broken way, the concept of the common language and means for students to self or peer evaluate can be highly beneficial if taught and practiced with care.
I also appreciated your honesty regarding the prewriting. I too found that to be a wake up call of sorts, also realizing that I rarely use an organizer or what have you. That was one thing I told myself I needed to correct within my classroom. If it makes students comfortable or they find it helpful, they are more than welcome to use them, but it is losing its title as a requirement.
It's almost funny how we take an activity that should be so simple, and make it exceedingly complex for our students, especially when we don't make it that complex for ourselves. I'm hoping that my students react similarly to your girls in finding relief and perhaps confidence in a new activity.
Hi Kathy!
ReplyDeleteWe have you revisit the Beliefs About Writing at the end of the course to see if you made any changes. (You'll see that Regie says she doesn't believe there are right or wrong answers and I agree with you, yes, using rubrics thoughtfully is totally fine!)
Yes! Remember, celebrations can be quick shares, they don't have to involve food and inviting all the parents in. (Though these are nice sometimes also.) Def. have your students share their writing at the different stages of the writing process. You can quickly and easily ask students, "Who has an interesting lead, " or, "Who has a really descriptive sentence to share with us using powerful words?"
It is exciting!!!! I'm with you, I just jump into writing usually. Truly the prewriting that I do usually is in list form, sometimes web, but that is not usual. I usually just start writing. It's powerful to think of our own methods when we are instructing our students. So glad that this activity was beneficial for you and your girls. :D
I can already tell that I’m going to love this book; the first three chapters have been so enlightening. The funny thing is that everything Regie writes about is the opposite of what I do, and what other staff members in my school are doing. And normally, I think I would be discouraged, but rather I’m so excited to try something new, something that already makes me feel positive about teaching writing when before I felt so negative.
ReplyDeleteWhen I looked at the Optimal Learning Model, I realized that I only follow about 30%. I often give instructions, a minimal demonstration and then expect students to be able to work independently. While working independently, they come and see me for questions or concerns. But the overall process is often frustrating for teacher and student. As I read about the importance of modeling the writing process and personalizing it for students, my excitement for writing time grew. As I read through the 12 Writing Essentials, I came to the conclusion that I desperately needed to share these with my students and display them in my classroom. I do love that they incorporate the traits that students are graded on for state writing assessments, but in a friendlier, whole process manner. They are also all the things that I want my students to get out of writing, in a realistic way.
I am ashamed to say that the celebration of writing is extremely lacking, basically missing from my classroom. I do try to compliment students on their writing, but I found myself identifying with Marquita’s teacher who focused on correctness and Cindy Coronado who started as skills first and impatience for students who don’t make “progress.” We don’t often share our writing as a class or even with groups. I know now that I need to make a change, maybe not a HUGE change, but a shift toward positive celebrations in writing. I want to use the “Capturing a Moment” activity that Regie used with staff members, but with my students. This would definitely include me demonstrating the writing process and my thinking with them. My plan is also to share this with my administration so we could potentially try it at the staff level as well, because the writing and passion is lacking school wide. My students arrive with the ability to copy other people’s work as their writing assignment, not create their own thoughts and words. Regie is rapidly instilling urgency for staff reform in my heart! It might be time to get brave and even lead the activity at a staff meeting! Yikes!
Just another random thought I had while reading, a DUH moment if you will, came when Regie pointed out all the types/forms of writing she shared with students; lists, letters, cards, emails, poetry, etc. I realized that a fun and easy writing form that I use, and would be real to life, is my blog! Especially since some of my entries are about art projects or field trips that my class has participated in, they could see my reflections on the moments.
Oh, Melissa, I am so glad to read that you, too, had let the celebration of student writing fall to the wayside. I felt so bad about that!! I ahve let them share recently, and they LOVED it!!
DeleteI am just as excited about this course as you are. Unfortunatly, I do not see any staff development happening at my current school, but I will sure try and be a voice for this more realistic way to teach writing at my new school!
I think that sharing your blog is a great idea!! The more we can show our students that we are writers, the better! Can't wait to hear more of your ideas as the course goes on!
Smiles ~
Katherine
Hello Melissa!
ReplyDeleteOh your first paragraph made me so happy! I love to hear from teachers who are excited about the text and the potential to make changes in their writing curriculum! YEAH!
Don’t be ashamed of where you are in your class. It’s simply that. Where you are and it’s exciting that you are finding new ideas to try out and incorporate.
Yes, be brave and share with your staff and administration! What about having your students write for the class blog? There’s nothing like a real purpose and audience to raise the bar on expectations and results for students. Plus I bet your families would love to read what the students are writing. :D
We did a fun writing project today with poetry! This week the Oregon Coast has been blessed with BEAUTIFUL weather, so we did chalk poems outside! I asked students to compose their poems in their notebooks, this way they could make changes before they put them on the ground, plus it allowed me the chance to read over the poems to ensure they were school appropriate before they were publicly displayed. It was such a fun activity, most kids wrote 3 or 4 poems and then picked chalk colors and designs that helped showcase their words. They also got the chance then to walk around and read their classmates' writing. It was so exciting to hear all of their compliments and questions to their classmates. I had students imitating famous poets, picture poems that were in the shape of the poem topic, haikus, rhymes, narrative poems, and in the spirit of 4th grade boys, a booger poem... :)
ReplyDeleteJust wanted to share our writing outside the box and our whole class writing celebration!
Melissa,
ReplyDeleteI LOVE this idea!!! Did you make it up? So clever and what a way to add more fun for the students. I'd imagine you would have to remind them before you did the activity that the rain will come and people will walk on them but it's a great way to publish their work. Any details about where you wrote the poems? Only on the blacktop? Sidewalks? Side of the building? I just love this and think I'll share it with my son's teacher who is just starting a poetry unit. (2nd grade) I know they'd love to write it outside. It sounds like you let the students pick whatever poem they were most proud of to write outside.
Oh, I'm so excited about this. (Maybe because the sun is finally shining and we are to hit 80 degrees here in Vermont. It's be a while since we've enjoyed the warm weather.
Thanks for sharing!!!!! :) Mary
I'm sure I'm not the first person to have this idea ever, but I wanted to do somethings outside and tied it to writing since that is on the forefront of my brain! We wrote the poems on the blacktop recess courts. The students did comment that they would be walked on and played on, but were hopeful that perhaps people would pause to read first!
ReplyDeleteThanks Melissa! I passed it on to my son's teacher and we are going to do it as well as a poetry graffiti around the school. What fun!
ReplyDeleteIn response to chapter one of Regie’s book, I have quite a few different thoughts.
ReplyDeleteOn our assignment sheet it states that the statement, “ By reducing the clutter in our teaching…” etc. is the heart of the book. However, I consider the statement where she explained that programs with no specific curriculum but write for purpose and an audience are more successful, to be much more interesting and thought provoking. I have many questions about that. I am at a school with no real substantial writing program and I have teachers that are struggling and overwhelmed trying to better their students writing. I am drawing my answers and reflections on a current staff meeting where we addressed this same concern and teachers wanted direction to know what are the best practices to teach grammar, conventions and sentence fluency. I want to know what specific teaching practices those programs are using?
I understand the Optimal Learning Model to be an I do, We do, You do model for a writing strategy. I use this model in my classroom. I do like that she says to incorporate reading into your writing. I believe I need better examples for students to see and read before they try to write. Especially because students tend to copy or use a similar version or words that I use when I model writing. I also think the idea of incorporating the writing theme into a read aloud or small group readings are a good idea that I will be using in my classroom. I agree that this model is the best way to show writing and consume students with a writer’s identity. I like that all scaffolding is shown to them and shown as an expectation. The problems I run into are that my students seem to be disengaged during the modeling time. I try to keep their attention by writing stories that are interesting and/or funny. I have students that start writing their story as soon as I start writing, just wanting to be the first one finished. I have 37 students in my class, how do I get around and conference with them all within my scheduled writing time? When I write I use larger words to increase their vocabulary and try to use vivid verbs that they can see help my writing be interesting. However, that isn’t affecting their writing scores. A lot of times their sentence fluency and conventions suffer due to rushing through the writing process. They enjoy writing but don’t enjoy editing and making it better.
I agree with Regie that teaching skills whole-to part-to whole and integrating them in the writing does work well, but I think that they need specific instruction while modeling those skills.
Jessie, I understand your concern that children are not engaged during your modeling. Part of it may be that you have so many students! My heart goes out to you!! I'm not sure that I have any great suggestions for you, but I do have a couple of ideas you might like to try. I recently started teaching with more of a workshop style. That is, my kids work independently at different kinds of tasks (reading independently or with a partner, spelling practice, writing in their journals, playing games with vocab words...) while I meet with either individual students or small groups of kids. This not only allows me to differentiate my teaching, but it also means that the kids are paying better attention because there are less kids around them to distract them (or allow them to 'fade' and not participate). I wonder if you could set this up in your classroom and then do your modeling/shared writing with smaller groups. Also, I would say, don't worry too much about not meeting with every child the same number of times. I have found that some of my kids need to see me more often, but some can go a couple of days before meeting with me again.
DeleteHang in there!
:)
I have the following thoughts about the 12 writing essentials:
ReplyDelete#1 Write for a specific reader or a meaningful purpose. Does this mean to have each topic or prompt geared towards someone, like a letter but also a research essay to inform a specific person?
#2 Determine an appropriate topic. I think this is a beneficial essential because it tells you to research, narrow your focus and determine what’s most important. This tells me that I need to know what I specifically want from them with each topic. I could make a rubric that tells the learning targets and skills for each of the topics before I give them the assignment.
#3 Write in an easy to follow style? That seems a little subjective to me, what does an easy to follow style look like exactly?
#5 Embrace language. I think that I have done this in the past too late into the year. I need to do this at the beginning of the year to set a standard or expectation of language in their writing.
#7 Compose satisfying endings. I really want to work on this. I am so tired of having my students write, “I hope you liked my story,” or “ I hope you enjoyed reading my paper, I enjoyed learning about it.” They write a great paper and then end it being a narrator.
I think that Regie really makes a good point and I plan to post these questions in my classroom, when she bullets the How can I… or what do I…statements. I like that these are things that the students should have in mind instead of just thinking about how many sentences they need to write to be finished. I really like the statements about what they do and then what they should be thinking of. For example, I wrote two short sentences and thought, now I need a long one. Or thought to myself, my voice is missing here. I am going to put this into my lessons to get my writers to start thinking like writers, not just writers writing because they need to get it finished.
Chapter2
ReplyDeleteI totally agree with Regie when she says that it is important to celebrate writing. I did so well at this last year and so did our school. I had a celebration after each of our papers was finished. I went away from that this year with the rush and major emphasis on reading and math. I feel like I get what Regie said about clearing out the clutter. Writing has to be a priority and it has to start with enjoying it, and now I can see maybe why my students could be so result oriented. We are just pumping out papers, getting our grades and putting them in the portfolio.
Our school used to celebrate writing by having students chosen to read a current writing assignment in front of the school at a weekly assembly. We have also gone away from that as well. I want to get back to both of those things. I am finishing up a poetry unit and I am going to celebrate it with my students.
I really like even the small celebrations like trying new things or sharing each day a little piece of writing. Again, that was something that I even did this year and it got pushed to the side for other priorities. She also says that choosing what we celebrate shows what we value. That really resounded with me, because it seems so simple and I never thought to use the focus of the assignment as the celebration. That seems so simple but so effective.
I think to make my students writing more meaningful and purposeful I will be choosing different topics that I think are broad enough for them to connect with but also use a rubric that is specific enough to really work on the skills I want to target. I think that it is interesting that she said on a side note, I think it was a tip, that we shouldn’t have our students write journals in the morning that it makes their writing worse. I do a free write every Monday, so that they can tell me about their weekend and feel free to write whatever they want. Now I am wondering whether or not that is beneficial? So I am really rethinking that strategy for next year. I do write in front of my students. I model the beginning of each paragraph, but I don’t always write the whole story or the whole paragraph. I think that this is a place that I could improve on in my modeling. I need to write the whole story in front of them even to reiterate each simple skill and show a well-written model of sentence fluency.
Hi Jessie,
ReplyDeleteWith such a large number of students in your classroom you are not going to get to each student as much as you want. The priority would be for you, as teacher and expert, to work with your below-level/struggling students frequently. They need the support the most. I would develop a schedule for your at-grade level and above-grade level students to make sure that you are checking in with them also. Maybe you can meet with them in the morning, a time outside of your literacy block, or make Fridays the day you check in with your students meeting the expectations. It may have to be once every couple of weeks or even once a month. Not as often as you would like but at least you would have a system of touching base with the advanced students. I would also see if you could have SPED, Reading support, paraeducators/assistants, librarian, or volunteers trained and schedule them to help you. This way an adult can be checking in with the at/above-grade level students and you can be working with the students not meeting expectations.
Your assignment is pretty long and I’m taking it as a sort of stream of conscious post. So if I miss something or you want more specific information just let me know and we can email each other or chat over the phone. Some of your questions will be answered with the readings, but I want to make sure to answer any lingering questions that you may have. ☺
For #1 “Writing for a specific reader or a meaningful purpose.” You don’t have to make every assignment be a letter or grand argument. I take it to mean that we need to help our students to be mindful of who our readers (audience) are and what is our purpose when writing. Is it to educate, persuade, sell, inform? When the students are aware who their intended reader is and what the purpose of writing is their quality will improve. And it is ok for the audience to be you, the teacher or a review of a concept.
I would start saving or noting examples of great endings. Either in books, magazines, student papers, wherever you can find them. Then share them with the students have minilessons on the subject. Teachers often share literature that demonstrates great leads or descriptive language, but we can also do this with strong conclusions (or endings.)
Yes, I agree 100%! More joy and celebrations around writing! Poetry is a great unit to reintroduce celebrations into. They go together nicely.
I am a big fan of offering students choice within structure. Not only would I suggest using rubrics with your students but I would also suggest sharing examples of student work that show each score on the rubric and having conversations about this with the students. (No names of course and if you can collect some from other years, online, or other classes or schools, so no one is embarrassed.)
One point that I think is helpful to keep in mind when writing in front of the students is to only write what they can do or a little more. I know you have older students. But for example if you were teaching 1st grade you wouldn’t write a 5 paragraph story in September. You would want to write about what your average students can do or a little more to help them stretch a little.