Note: These section are packed!!! Pick and choose your discussion points so that the blog doesn't become overwhelming and packed with so much information that participants won't want to read each others' comments. :)
Sections Four and Five- Advocacy Is Also Essential and Teaching In Action: Lesson Essentials
Assignment Eight: Read Writing Essentials Chapters 11-12 and Section Five. Reflect on the comments below and any additional reactions you have after reading these chapters. Post your thoughts to the course blog.
Chapter 11: Build on Best Practice and Research • What are some of the key research findings most relevant to writing instruction?
• What are the practices of highly effective teachers?
• How can you be part of the ongoing professional development discussions in your building?
• What about test scores? What are the characteristics of high performing schools?
• Think twice before adopting a “program”
Regie begins this chapter sharing her experiences doing residencies in schools and the surprising (and delightful) discovery that whole school cultures changed during the course of their work improving literacy instruction. As she said, “This is what education should be about…whole schools working together so that all students (can) succeed.” How is the climate/culture in your school? On your team? One reason we continue to look to Regie for inspiration is that we feel she is so practical. There is not one right way or method to teach writing. “That is why formulas, programs and recipes don’t work. Every context, school and person is different and has different needs. Literacy is not a set of acquired or learned skills.”
Chapter 12: Make Every Minute Count• You need to “REDUCE THE PAPER LOAD!!!”
• What can we do that will save us time and allow us to focus more on meaningful instruction?
• Regie states, “Take more time to see the light!” Don’t get bogged down with daily worksheets and isolated exercises.
Though this chapter is short it is full of valuable ideas and reminders! Regie reminds us in this chapter to stop and reflect about what we are doing in the classroom. Ask yourself: Is this the best use of my time? Is what I’m about to do going to help my students become more joyful and accomplished readers, writers and thinkers?
“It might be that the best use of your time is to read a professional book, see a movie, visit with a friend. Sharing your experiences with your students may be a more useful way to get them to think about their writing than marks and comments on a paper.” “It’s hard to come to school all excited about teaching if you’ve spent hours the night before pouring over papers.” It is a disservice to our students and ourselves “if our out-of-school time is all about paperwork.” In fact, “Teachers’ comments on students’ papers do little to improve writing, even if the comments are positive ones. It is far more effective to conference with students and focus on specific writing issues with the student at your side.”
Also “(b)e sure that most of your writing time is devoted to writing, not preparing for writing or doing activities about writing. Safeguard sustained writing time; it’s critical for becoming a writer. Limit take-home work for students too, and place more emphasis on free-choice reading. Having more reading experiences positively impacts growth in writing skills.”
Regie closes this chapter by reminding us to breathe, relax and enjoy writing- and your life! “One way to reduce stress and have more energy for teaching and advocacy is to have a life outside of school. I worry about teachers and principals who work twelve-hour days. I have seen no research that shows educators who work the longest hours get the best results or that longer reading and writing projects teach more about reading and writing. Keep evaluating whether what you’re staying late for-or the hours of work you take home-will help your students become more effective readers and writers."
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The comments Regie made regarding professional development hit home with me. I have been frustrated with many of the professional development opportunities I have had in my district. Being a part of the special education department, I usually spend my time at meetings and trainings focusing on special education. The focus is on paperwork, process, and law. Not teaching. I am aware of many special education teachers who are “paper pushers” and rely on their staff to do the actual teaching in their classroom. This is not my philosophy but the professional development meetings I end up at often focus on that piece of special education. That being said, from what I have heard and seen at the professional development offered for general education teachers, the focus often ends up being the district or state assessments rather than teaching.
ReplyDeleteThe comments about programs resonated with me as well. My district has adopted the “Step Up to Writing” program as an intervention program and while I attempted to use it, I quickly found that it didn’t work with my students. The idea was nice: color-coding paragraphs so that they are like a traffic light (green for topic sentence, yellow for transitions, red for slowing down to add details), but I found that my students focused on the pieces of the paragraph rather than being able to write a cohesive paragraph. I quickly stopped using it because it was not effective.
Chapter 12 was an eye opener for me. I am one of those teachers that works long hours than carts work home at night and over the weekends. The result is that I don’t get that much additional work done (especially on weekends!) and I am tired and stressed out much of the time. I know that on weekends when I put in an effort to stay away from work, I am more rested and relaxed. Reading Regie’s words and seeing that it’s okay to take time for myself was a much needed reminder.
Yes, it seems everywhere there is more of a focus on data and test results then on collaboration and sound instructional practices. :( I have to agree with you, I think the teachers need to be with our most struggling students (academically or behaviorally) as we are the trained experts. I've seen a lot of growth in this area over the last decade and a half and hope the trend continues of not pushing our students off on paraeducators or assistants.
ReplyDeleteYes, I felt bad when I'd lug home my teacher bag and it would sit by the door taunting me each weekend. So I stopped. So many teachers feel liberated or supported after reading Regie's philosophy. I'm not saying that I never stay late or bring work home, but it's the exception rather than the norm. As Regie said, there's never enough time to get everything done even if you worked 12 hours…so let's live interesting, healthy lives and come back to school each week excited to see our students. :) Good luck, it's more than okay to take time for yourself, it's imperative. :)
As I was reading these last sections, I couldn’t help but think about the implementation of the common core. 2 years ago, our K-2 team went through the standards in the writing and language sections and tried to align our instruction. We first went through and put each of the standards in kid-friendly language – “I can share my opinion about a topic using…” Then we looked at what we were already doing that met the standards and asked ourselves what we needed to add or tweak. Anyway, at the time we did this, I wasn’t overly alarmed by these new standards and I think I found that, in some ways, things were simplified. Now, two years later, I’m feeling less comfortable and it’s because I feel inundated with “common core teaching guides!” I have a teaching partner who spends a lot of time on pinterest and finds all these cutesie little packets to help teach opinion writing, information writing, etc. These are formula packets and they take all the joy and individuality out of the writing process. What Regie says about knowing and understanding the relevant research has given me renewed confidence in using my own best judgment, paring down non-essential stuff, and really just focusing in on what’s best for my students each and every day.
ReplyDeleteThis is my 6th year teaching and I am learning to let go of a lot. I’m starting to recognize when being at school late isn’t making anything better. I get great satisfaction in providing a quality environment and materials for my students, but I have definitely evolved in what I believe that is. I now ask myself, what can we do with this space? How can we organize our time? I am planning on talking to my students about this course and letting them know that I feel we need to find more time for writing each day. I’m going to ask them to help me look at our schedule and figure out how to integrate some additional writing time into each of our days. 5 years ago, I would have felt like I needed to figure it out on my own. Now, I’m excited to invite my students in to the process.
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ReplyDeleteWe love this section!!! So many teachers also write that after reading Regie, they too, felt that they can trust themselves and let go of the "other stuff." YEAH! Oh, powerful stuff!!! That's wonderful that you're going to include the students. They will appreciate it and be more involved because they helped make the changes! Good luck!
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