Assignment Nine: Final Course Reflection
(All assignments are due by 3/16 !!!)
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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Thank you for a very helpful class! Please verify for me that you have received all my assignments.
ReplyDeleteThank you, Jean Holler
Assignment Nine
ReplyDeletePart Five, “Teaching in Action: Lesson Essentials,” presented many techniques of value to me, and having viewed the DVD helped me visualize and “hear” the lessons. Regie’s view of writing (poetry, procedural, hero writing, and persuasive) as a “self-perpetuating loop of…demonstration, teaching, sharing, celebrating, and setting new goals” refocuses the goal as finesse of process, not product.
I am attempting to improve my instruction in these ways: To purge files of worksheets and teach conventions as they arise in student work (for example, noting and recording the vocabulary used in student persuasive pieces). I am incorporating talking before writing, expecting more detail (“He tells us… ‘four eyes’ and ‘bug face;’ he doesn’t just say, ‘People call me names,’” demonstrating how to let the reader know what’s coming, and the importance of rereading, of caring about one’s audience (writing for a reader). I am using more than ever Regie’s editing techniques—lassos, arrows, asterisks, stars, cutting and pasting, carets, and skipping lines.
I liked the simple rubric for persuasive writing:
Opening lead that states purpose.
Position statement with supporting arguments.
Closing summary.
Also, the simple, three-part rubric for informational essays (p. 184):
Opening statement—state the topic, get the reader’s attention.
Information—provide facts and supporting details.
Summary—restate the main points in a new way to remind the reader why the topic is important.
Regie has brought to light what the grind of testing makes us lose sight of— provision of choice, the importance of audience, talking before writing, of listening for a student’s voice, respect for student work (using Post-its instead of marking up work) and high expectations. Her writing, complimented by her DVD and website, have re-inspired me!
This class has inspired me to incorporate new ideas and strategies into my current writing instruction. While taking this class I have learned many new techniques to bring into my classroom and have gained a deeper understanding in ideas that I have already been familiar with. My current literacy program contains writing lessons that incorporate shared writing and independent writing, however many consist of prompts and sentence frames. These prompts and frames work great for many of my students, especially my beginning writers and readers, however my more advanced writers often loose interest. I plan to still incorporate these lessons, and use the writing prompts and frames more often as a choice rather than required. My students enjoy writing and I want them to continue to enjoy it. Since taking this class I have really cut back on my paper load that I take home. In the past I responded to writing pieces on a sticky note, complimenting a specific part of the writing. I now however, offer a compliment when a student shares his/her writing piece aloud in front of the class when we have our author share time. This is much more beneficial because not only does the writer here the compliment, other students do as well and learn how to improve their own writing. I also copy less practice sheets and do more whole group lessons surrounding grammar and punctuation.
ReplyDeleteBelow is a list of ideas and/or strategies that I have now incorporated or updated in my teaching due to the knowledge I have gained from this class:
*I have helped my students learn how authors and other students can inspire us to write.
*My students and I have completed more shared group writing activities.
* I have started having my students respond in single sentence answers on white boards rather than speaking.
*My students and I often discuss how we can think about our audience before, during, or after a writing piece is complete.
*My students share more of their work and others gain new writing ideas.
*I have begun to incorporate writing conferences in an effective and efficient way.
*I have gained new information from research surrounding writing and early writers and their writing development.
My goal as a teacher is to continue to incorporate the above ideas and techniques, along with following the Optimal Learning Model more often. I am looking forward to continuing to use Regie’s ideas next year, and plan on rereading this book throughout the summer so I can head into the new school year ready to inspire my new class of writers.
Wow, Jean and Leslie! It's impressive to see your take-away points. Your ending comments means a lot to us! We truly believe in Regie's ideas and that you feel inspired after reading her text affirms this for us. Thanks for taking our class! Have a wonderful Spring.
ReplyDelete