Assignment Nine: Final Course Reflection
(All assignments are due by 6/10 !!!)
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 writin• 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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My home life consists of coaching volleyball, playing with my nephew, exercising, hanging out with my family and reading as much as I can. Also getting ready for my wedding that is coming up in July! My balance between school and home life is up and down. Sometimes I have so much going on at school that I am bringing a ton of work home, and other times I have so much going on in my home life that I bring that to school as well. That is probably not the best thing to do, but I think it is pretty human. And I try not to do it if I can catch myself.
ReplyDeleteUnfortunately, I don’t know whom I will be teaching with next year or who my principal is. So I won’t know if this appendix survey will be welcome or not. I am going in as the youngest in the school and with many staff who has either been there for 20 years or is new. So I am intrigued to see the new dynamic that will be at my new school. This year I feel like I was rushed to get through so much that I didn’t model as much or if I did model writing I wasn’t prepared well enough or I took too much time. I haven’t taken notes on conferences and I think that with the new little conference sheet that I have gotten from this course I will be using notes for myself and the students more.
My goals for next year are like I said above going to have to be tentative. However this is definitely a brief outline of what I would like to do. I know that I will have to go to my new school and work with my other team teachers to figure out what topics might already be in the works and if they have specific things they do. But these are my ideas:
I would like to incorporate writing in a 4 square graphic.
I would like to start the year with on-demand writing so that I can have something to measure against at the end of each trimester.
I would like to use my mini-lessons more effectively so that I am not talking so much.
I plan to pre-write all of my modeled writing so that I can target specific goals.
I plan to use everyday writing topics with a focus on audience and purpose. Then I will have a weekly focus on conventions and have them fix that in their own writing.
I plan to take quit a few of the Good writers know how to: and make them posters for my classroom.
I plan to make a word wall that has more to it.
I plan to have my students celebrate writing in a different way each day, whether it be big or small.
I plan to have my students have specific spelling words that go with their LBD, but also have them use each weeks focus words in their writing.
I plan to use Daily 5 to focus on short response questions.
I plan to focus on sentence structure and how to use different sentences and lengths.
I plan to have my students still have a focus on topic sentence and details.
I plan to continue my poetry unit, speeches and essay writing.
I plan to incorporate memoirs into the end of my year as a 5th grade graduation writing assignment. Kind of like an end of the year reflection on their elementary experience.
I plan to focus early on conventions, sentence fluency, paragraphs, etc. So that we can work on it all year long.
Section 5 was like a little gift from Regie Routman! It is always nice to see how another teacher implements a lesson, and here I particularly like that Regie actually shares her words with us. I almost feel like I am observing her! I don’t know exactly what the writing expectations are for my new school, but I can see myself using all 5 of her samples with my fifth graders in Lithuania. Almost more than her lesson plans, though, I loved the resources in the Appendices. My favorites are the Understanding Nonfiction, Writing History, Writing Strengths/Next Steps, and the Genre Characteristics. I think that these would all be great additions to my students’ writing folders to be used at conferences or for a mini lesson. Because I had really wanted to start a teacher’s professional book club at my school this year, I also really liked the Weekly Professional Conversation Guidelines. I get the feeling that my new school has more interest in something like that (and I already have a first book title picked out!).
ReplyDeletePerhaps one of the most startling ideas from this entire book was the emphasis that Regie put on conventions. While I am most certainly not one to ignore proper spelling, grammar, and punctuation (yes, I favor the final comma in a series!), I have spent the last several years trying to downplay their importance in my students’ rough drafts. I have encouraged them to save those corrections for their final editing so they don’t waste time looking up the spelling of a word that they end up cutting out as they revise. It was surprising to me that Regie placed such a high importance on the correct spelling of words even in rough drafts. I think that I will still have my students save the dictionary words for their final edit, but I am certainly going to hold them more accountable for grade-level appropriate words! Seeing her Grade 4, Editing Expectations was helpful for me.
In fact, I have found this whole course to be helpful! I have enjoyed reading more of Regie’s no-nonsense/common sense approach to teaching writing, and I hope to implement more of her suggestions next year. As I have mentioned, I am moving to Lithuania to teach grade 5 at an IB school. I know that there are different expectations for teacher collaboration and student learning, but I am confident that teaching with this more workshop approach will be an excellent fit. Some goals I have already set for myself for next year include:
• Thinking of some authentic writing prompts so that my students can write for real audiences
• Prepare myself for more shared writing experiences (just did another one today and it was fabulous!)
• Prepare some conferencing sheets that I can keep on a clipboard so that I can easily take notes when I conference with students
• Buy stationary and start writing letters to my daughters and friends so that it will be natural when I talk about letter writing with my students! (Plus, my younger daughter is a snail-mail lover, and I feel that it is about time I join her!!)
• Buy a pretty journal in which I can start keeping a reading log
• Make a list of expected grade 5 topics that I need to make sure my students are proficient at so that I can readily spot teaching moments when I conference with students
Hold on to your hats, ladies – it’s going to be a wild ride!
As I reflect on my school year, which went screaming by at the speed of light, I am content with the balance between school and other activities. I have developed a good schedule of time in which I am able to take care of my teaching responsibilities, plus other professional activities in the way of classes, committees, and extracurricular activities. I do bring home work, but also do not always open that bag I hauled home. I have learned that although it may need to get done, some things can wait a day. This schedule also has allowed me to act as the secretary for my church with weekly responsibilities and teach middle school Sunday school classes this past year. Of course, I have time for family and friends, personal time and relaxing too! This next fall I am keeping some things on my plate, but trading others out. I will no longer teach Sunday school, but am taking on the role of union president for our teaching association. I am looking forward to a moderately busy summer that will keep me from getting cabin fever and provides the opportunity to travel for my brother’s wedding! Yes, I feel busy at times, but I am the type of person that needs to stay busy, lest I get complacent and lazy!
ReplyDeleteI will still be teaching 4th and 5th grade next year, this year’s 4th graders looping to become my 5th graders and getting a new group of 4th graders. I will still be working with one of my current teaching partners, whom I have developed a good relationship and friendship with, so we work well together. The second teaching partner, who had the stroke in January, is still sort of up in the air. He very much wants to return, but I think speech is still limited and so the district is not sure what to do. As for the rest of the K-5 staff, it remains the same as this year. Our middle school staff is seeing a big shake up with at least 2 teachers leaving for various reasons, and maybe even a third. I do however, want to start conversations throughout the building that focus on writing and would be very willing to share the Examining Beliefs About Writing page with my colleagues.
As I read through the Beliefs survey again, I do see how my thoughts on writing have changed or adapted. The thought that prewriting needed to be a separate activity and was mandatory is now ridiculous to me considering I don’t do those things as a writer. I will still teach the skills, but they will be a tool for students that find them beneficial or need a bit more structure. I also have always thought of writing as a step by step process, but again thinking about my own writing and Regie’s words I have come to realize that many steps can occur at the same time, and that’s okay!
Some of my goals for next year include:
• Setting a consistent and purposeful writing time (no matter how much or little time I have)
• Incorporate shared writing experiences, shared conferencing and more effective 1 on 1 conferences.
• CELEBRATE! Publish, display, share, smile about writing!
• Be an active writer myself, model for my students; bring in real life examples to show my students where writing fits beyond the classroom.
• I also know that I need to work on my editing instruction and focusing on GOOD writing before editing.
• Be vocal with the administration and my colleagues about writing, with the hope of developing a book club or writing focused PLC team.
I have thoroughly enjoyed taking this class, reading the text, reading all of the wonderful posts and ideas on the blog, and receiving the support and encouragement from all of you ladies! Thank you so much for a great experience. :) Happy summer! And have a great next year!
Hi Jessie,
ReplyDeleteThese are wonderful goals to start the year off with. Good luck with your wedding and also your new school.
Kathy,
Good luck at your new school! We're so glad that you have found the book useful! Your goals look great also.
Melissa,
You are busy, but it does sound like you have a healthy balance between home and school. :) Good luck with all the changes at your school as well. We're so glad you've enjoyed the readings and format for the course!!
It's been an enjoyable term working with you all and a pleasure to see your participation with each other.
I will be going back to respond to the earlier posts this week.
We've enjoyed having you in class and hope to see you in another course sometime.
I will be emailing you your grades.
Have a great summer!!
Mary