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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Appendix A- This was an interesting activity. There were some that I definitely believed were true or false and others that I thought this could be true if... This was a good way for me to examine my own beliefs and organize them without starting from scratch and just trying to list all my beliefs.
ReplyDeleteChapter 1
I use the workshop model in my writing instruction. This is very similar to the Optimal Learning Model. I find this to be a great method for teaching writing. This year I am really focusing on the shared part of this model. I want to get better at having worthwhile writing groups and conferences. I am using Matt Glover and Katie Wood Ray's conference template:
Conferring notes should include:
Name/Date
Strengths
Teaching point
Next steps
Take notes AFTER the conference so the kids aren’t distracted during the conference.
You’ll never know if your teaching point was the best one to teach or not. You only have once chance to teach. Then you can reflect and get better next time. So don’t beat yourself up about it.
There are parts of the “12 Writing Essentials” that are a part of the way I currently teach writing. The areas I would like to focus on are being clear about the purpose and audience, creating engaging leads and satisfying endings, revising, editing, and producing.
Chapter 2
I have been teaching part-to-whole and would like to move towards whole-to-part. I used to do this better. As I have been trying to figure out common core, create curriculum maps and follow them, and focus on data in PLC's I have begun to focus on skills. This is taking the joy out of writing for my students and myself. I need to see that it can still be done while following standards, collecting data, and following curriculum maps. I have been using parts of Lucy Calkin's primary writing which includes celebrations at the end of units. I need to include these at the beginning and throughout as well.
Chapter 3
I have made it a goal that I write in front of my students every day this year. I also want to begin to collect real life examples of my writing in a folder that I can share with students during modeling and conferences. These chapters were very inspiring and convicting- in a good way that helps me reflect on what I need to change in my writing instruction and how I can simplify and bring the joy for writing back into my classroom.
Hi Tony,
ReplyDeleteGlad you enjoyed the assignment. It will be interesting after the course is over to see if any of your beliefs have changed.
I am a fan of Katie Wood Ray. :) Yes, excellent reminders about conferring. I think focusing on purpose and audience are excellent areas to concentrate on as well as the other areas you mentioned.
Excellent ending points...simplify and bring back the joy!!! I think we all would do well to remember these two points. :D
Assignment Two- Written Reflection- Section One
ReplyDeleteLet me start by saying that I changed several things within my small groups after reading just the first three chapters. The “Optimal Learning Model” reminded me that I need to be modeling more for my students. When I only have 30 minutes with my students I tend to want them to write, write, write. I am able to work with students more individually than a classroom teacher and I tend to conference with them daily. I just need to make sure to add in more modeling.
With looking at my program I am always talking to my students about the audience for which they are writing. We work on making it interesting for the reader. The improvement I needed to make is create and audience other than myself. I have made sure they are reading sentences to each other. When a student had a beginning that caught my interest, I had him read it aloud to the group. I also made a quick simple change, by letting the student sit in my chair when they shared within the group. It is such a simple move and it mattered to the student. This also helped in holding the attention of their peers.
I have made more of an effort to get them excited about their writing. My goal was to see more success on their faces. It worked with just a few tweaks to instruction. I have shared some stories with parents and colleagues already.
I look forward to learning more and continuing my excitement. I know my students need to feel success. They need to be willing to write without the fear of the errors they are making. I am lucky to have the small group environment to help them with this side of writing.
These first three chapters have already given me some ideas on how I can change my attitudes and beliefs about writing, along with my students. Many of my students struggle with writing (thus why they receive specially designed instruction). I have already made some changes and am excited to continue to change my perspectives so impact the perspectives and attitudes of my students.
ReplyDeleteChapter one reminded me of the importance of I do, we do, you do as in the Optimal Learning Model. I see my students for 30 minutes and in that time I have been focusing on them writing and teaching as they write. I need to incorporate more “I do” and “we do” as that is what they need to become better writers. I also need to collaborate more with teachers to know what they are doing in the classroom so I know how much modeling they have already seen so that I then can add to it. I know that some of the teachers I work with are using parts of the Optimal Learning Model.
As I read the “12 Writing Essentials” I noticed there are areas I do cover well and others that can easily be improved. I frequently give students free write time and/or choices for topics, we constantly work on conventions within their own writing as well as mine, and we reread and review their writing with guidance. I need to focus more on thinking about the reader and the purpose, which sometimes I do not know (or don’t see one) as they are bringing writing in from their classroom. It is clear that the teacher is not making the purpose clear to the student either when the student cannot tell me the purpose. If students don’t see the reason or purpose for what they are writing than they are much less willing to write or be able to come up with ideas for their writing.
While reading chapter two I realized I do not celebrate student writing nearly enough. I support and encourage students, but we focus so much on getting a product done that goes back to class, that we don’t celebrate as we should. I have changed my focus of giving feedback from how they write to what they write thus encouraging them to continue. I also need to model writing for my students more frequently so they can see the writing process in action. I liked how Regie suggests using stories and writing in the moment as a model rather than preplanning behind the scenes. I want to ask my students “what is writing?” and “what do you like about writing” so that I can see what they believe so I can begin to change their perspectives and experiences to positive ones.
Leah and Tia,
ReplyDeleteYour posts are so exciting to read. Everytime we teach this course it's so exciting to see how teachers are adjusting their writing instruction! I say it all the time, you will def. want to come back and re-read this text and parts of this text. Each time you do you will come away with more ideas. :)