Assignment Nine: Final Course Reflection
(All assignments are due by 3/17 !!!)
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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One of the biggest takeaways I will have from this course is the importance of helping students to realize the joy in writing and to have fun with it. It’s such a simple concept but is so easily forgotten when faced with high-stakes testing, data-based IEPs, and all of the other small details that come with a teaching profession.
ReplyDeleteAnother takeaway I have is to keep writing instruction simple and to not overthink. So many programs break writing into tiny skills (and therefore I have followed suit) and really, writing should be taught as a whole. I think that if I stop overthinking my writing instruction, keep it simple and down to the essentials, I will enjoy writing instruction more and my students will enjoy writing class more.
I started out this year with a clear goal of having balance between work and home and as a nutty school year played out, it quickly snowballed into late nights at work and work brought home in the weekends. The result has been me being exhausted and feeling burned out. I need to remember that no matter what I do, my list won’t have an end to it and it doesn’t always have to be done immediately. I know that I love my job and I don’t want to do anything else but if my whole life is work, I won’t be able to enjoy it and it will truly become just a job, rather than my passion.
Goals:
-Help my students to enjoy writing
-Model more
-Conference more
-Define the audience
-Take care of myself
Thank you for a great course!
Thanks Meg! We're glad you enjoyed the material. It's been a pleasure having you in the class this term. Your goals look great. Here's to more joy in writing, for all! Have a wonderful rest of your year.
ReplyDeleteThis course and the book have had an immediate impact on my classroom. I feel more confident about saying no to activities and lessons that complicate writing for my students. I am looking at my current schedule to carve out more time to devote to writing and, within that, more time for me to conference with individual writers and for students to share their writing with one another. I have renewed resolve around the power of the reading-writing connection and taking advantage of that with thoughtful and deliberate sharing and conversation.
ReplyDeleteI really do believe that the most important thing I can do for my students is to be healthy and happy and have an open, listening heart when I greet them each day. In order to do that, I need to have enough rest, healthy food, and happy time with my family. When these things get out of balance, I feel it and I know they feel it. I’m learning to make better decisions about what to let go of – to go home sooner, to make it to my daughter’s jazz concerts, to read really good books, and spend time outdoors – all of these choices make me a better teacher.
My goals for next year are: Increase daily time for students to be writing
Focus on writing with a clear purpose and audience
Develop a writing conference template, similar to my reading conference template.
Conference with students on a regular basis
Share writing on a regular basis
We are so glad you also found Regie's text an encouraging resource. Make sure to plan to re-read the book either this summer or next year. You'll take even more away the next time you do. :D Great goals! Good luck with the rest of your year! We enjoyed having you in class!
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