Welcome to Essentials of Writing! We look forward to working and learning with you. In order for everyone to get the most out of the course, please be sure to read and respond to each others comments.Please try to keep your responses within one allotted "comment" space to ensure that the blog remains manageable for all participants.
Also, you may want to type your comments in a Word Document and either copy from Word and paste onto the blog or save it in a folder on your computer and then post it to the blog. I have written a couple of lengthy comments that I lost before I was able to post it to the blog. This extra step may save you some frustration later on this term.
Last of all, we will write our comments to your posts on the blog, so you will need to check back to the corresponding week for feedback (and to make additional comments if you wish.)
Let us know if you have any questions. You can email us, but please put the words "Question for Essentials of Writing" in the subject line so that we can respond in a timely fashion.
ASSIGNMENT ONE: Post your Introduction to the course Blog.
Introduction Post- Tell us about yourself. Where do you teach? What grade do you teach? How long have you been teaching? How many students are there in your class? Do you have instructional support? What does your current literacy program look like? (If you aren’t currently teaching let us know.) What is your knowledge/training in the area of literacy (be specific about your experiences teaching writing?) Does your district provide training in literacy –especially writing? If so, what exactly have they offered? Has your district been bogged down with getting students to perform well on state writing assessments – prompts? How do you feel about teaching? Are you happy at work? Also, let us know a little about you outside of the classroom: Interests/ Hobbies/Family Life? What do you hope to get out of this course? Post your reflection to the blog.
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My name is Nina and I teach second and third grade at Tucker Maxon School in SE Portland. This is my first year as a classroom teacher and I took over teaching in this position in January of this year. I have 15 students in my class. My school is a private, non-profit school, specifically dedicated to teaching students with all levels of hearing loss as well as hearing students. We are a speaking and listening school and I do receive support from a Teacher of the Deaf who pushes into my class for about 20 minutes four times a week during math. I have many varied needs and learning differences in my class so my literacy program is just as varied. As a school we have two literacy curriculums that we use for our elementary grades and the distinction is made between second and third grade. As a first year teacher, I find it nearly impossible to teach two distinctly different curriculum styles to two different grades simultaneously. Therefore, I use a Daily 5 approach where our word work is directed from the Words Their Way program. I have some background with this and it comes from a Balanced Literacy and Guided Reading approach. This will be my first year attempting it. I feel my greatest weakness as a person and as a teacher is my own writing and therefore, it translates to my work as I struggle to teach writing. I am exceedingly happy to be teaching and I am enjoying my school, colleagues, and students. I am feeling incredibly stressed and unprepared about school in all areas except math. Outside of school I wish I was able to be more active outdoors, with more free time, I love to play games, and I enjoy volunteering. I have an 8th-grade son who has Autism and ADHD. My partner and I struggle daily with his behaviors and the challenges he has in his own life. I really hope to get a strong and solid foundation on teaching writing to 2nd and 3rd-grade students that will give them meaningful, helpful, and useful writing instruction from me. I am also hoping that the course describes differentiation strategies for students who struggle with working memory, dyslexia, dysgraphia, language delays, and other learning difference that make writing a challenge.
ReplyDeleteHello Nina, Welcome to our class. We are confident you will come way with new ideas and strategies to instruct your students. The class does include ideas for differentiation but I don't think specifically for memory and language delays. We will be happy to work with you as you work through the course material and have specific questions. Let us know if you have any questions or concerns.
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