Assignment Nine: Final Course Reflection
(All assignments are due by 6/9 !!!)
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!
(All assignments are due by 6/9 !!!)
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!
I’m lucky that my school gives teachers a lot of latitude in the way we teach writing, so I don’t have to worry about fitting a certain program into my teaching. That being said, in the past I have certainly been guilty of teaching a lot of writing skills in isolation instead of approaching writing in a more holistic, process-oriented way. So I know that I need to do more writing in front of my students, modeling and thinking aloud as I do so. Just recently, I shared writing an email to a colleague about when our students could get together for a shared project, and I feel like my students gained a lot by watching me do just that one piece of organic writing. I want to continue being positive and supportive when I discuss my students’ writing with them, but I also want to be more purposeful and strategic with conferences. I’ve done a few more conferences this week with their letter-writing project. Not only am I enjoying the conferences, but I also feel like I’m teaching them more and they are doing a better job of viewing writing as a recursive process.
ReplyDeleteNext year’s going to be different for me because we’re switching to mostly push-in, which means I’ll be co-teaching with 3-5 teachers. Many things will need to be negotiated with my colleagues, and thus I won’t have complete control over what the literacy time looks like. I am definitely going to share the conference format and templates to be used. I will also contribute what I’ve learned about needing lots of writing time, using the optimal learning model, and writing for a real audience when I meet with the teachers to co-plan. Since I will be able to push in for the whole literacy block next year, as opposed to pulling kids out for part of it, we will be able to make much stronger connections between reading and writing. They have been a bit divorced from each other this year, unfortunately.
My goals for next year include: journaling so I can feel more like a writer and be more natural when I write in front of my students; conferencing regularly with students; and, sharing more of my home/personal life with students when appropriate. I have struggled for years to have a good work-personal life balance. And as I try to do more for myself, I can share that with my students via writing.
Kelly,
ReplyDeleteThanks for your comments and suggestions while going through this class together. I really enjoyed speaking freely to another professional without worrying about what it means at work tomorrow. Opinions and challenging what we are supposed to do can be a tricky topic.
Good luck with your future writing endeavors. I hope to meet you again sometime.
Assignment 9: Final Course Reflection
ReplyDeleteCurrent writing program: Since I have been with the district, it has always been true that at least one hour of writer’s workshop be in place. We need much more time talking professionally about writing and how it relates to reading. We spend nearly all of our professional development on reading. It should be both. The great thing about our reading, we always have elements of writing within that. For example, in my first grade guided reading groups, half of the lesson is reading through the book, vocabulary, and picture walks. The second half/day is taking words, sentences, responses and working on skills. The students might write a sentence, cut it up, and then put it back together. Or, we might work on a word family and make other words using that rule (ill: hill, will, Bill, still).
I am concerned with the adoption of a new reading program. For the reading program to “work” it needs to be taught with fidelity. I have a feeling they will ask that of the teachers until we can prove that it is not working for our students. When there is a program, they know enough to make reading/writing connections but they are usually contrived and take choice right out of writing. I might be spending my summer working on a workaround for the program or looking for research that debunks the curriculum.
Home vs. School Life: Not only do we have a lot to focus on getting ready to teach, we also have a new teacher evaluation system being implemented. That has taken more time that it does to plan instruction. I want to spend my time planning great instruction not proving that I have done so. Come and watch me teach if you want to know how it is going. On the positive side, I just started a new dance class and I make sure to be home everyday to walk the dog with my husband. That is better than I can say for last year.
Outline of Goals:
• Read page 296 before every writer’s workshop
• Use the weekly lesson plans as an outline while planning writing
• Use sticky notes to jot down ideas for kids and teach them the same
• Keep students accountable for word wall words
• Teach “turn and talk” to be more effective
• Tell the kids, “It might be hard but I am here to help you.” Everyday
• Create a “good writers” chart with the kids
• Set audience and purpose for each day of writing
• More public conferences
• Check in with struggling writers first to get them started
• Describe my daily job to the kids so they know what I need to do and why that time cannot be interrupted
This course came at a busy time and it was tricky to complete timely. Yet, I am so happy about all of my take-aways and already look forward to next year. I have never felt strongly about my success in writing instruction. Now I have a lot of confidence and it is a good place to start.
I wish you lots of success next year! I hope you're able to teach your students well without being hampered by a mandated, restrictive program.
DeleteHi Kelly S. and Kelly N.
ReplyDeleteYour reflections are excellent. We're so glad you were able to have some time, even during the busy end of the year, to think, learn and reflect about writing in your classrooms. I highly encourage you both to re-read this text again, as you'll come away with even more ideas each time you do.
Have a wonderful Summer. I will email your grades to you.
Mary :)