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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ReplyDeleteReduce the paper load and worksheets are not worth it are the two best pieces of advice to give to a new teacher, or any teacher really. I spent way to much of my first 6 months as a teacher fulfilling the previous teachers established routines as a heavy worksheet and paper heavy program. When I took over for her after just 3 months she had accumulated stacks and stacks of papers. I later found out she had also filled her trunk with the students work as well. I was shocked initially. Then I became more familiar with her routines and found out why the papers she had accumulated were so many. Since I was taking over for her mid-year I attempted to keep much of what she was doing the same. Being as it was my first ever full time teaching position, I thought it best to try to go with the flow. I quickly learned how to close the building as I found my self putting in 10-11 hour days 4 or 5 days a week and going in once a weekend to do more work. I was spending hours finding the worksheets, making copies of the worksheets, and grading the worksheets. When I began to give the students their graded work back they were all very confused because the previous teacher had not returned so much work. I moved quickly away from the old styles and routines and made my own using more hands on and experiential learning. So when I read the end of the book and I saw the resounding words in the closing, I resonated deeply and immediately with the notions. Write your own ending speaks to me to not just expect the book to be open and shut. I need to take my experiences and what I have learned and meld them together to be my own.
On another note, I need to evaluate and find balance. The advice and directive to safeguard writing is controversial to me. Though I value the students need to write, capture and tell stories, and express themselves using written language. I can’t bring myself to the place where I am distinctly and purposefully saying in my schedule, “these 60 minutes every day are for writing”. I guess that I don’t value it enough or that I just don’t have enough instructional time. My efforts are in safeguarding math. When I took over my classroom of 2nd and 3rd grade students, more than half of the students where not fluent in addition facts 1-10. This is a first grade competency and my students were severely lacking. On the schedule I also notice that math was getting 2 days a week for an hour each day. Math became my priority and is where my loyalties continue. That is not to say that I don’t value writing and that my students don’t have and meet high writing expectations. We write everyday in math to explain our math thinking and I have a dedicated block of free writing for stamina in my literacy block that is 15 minutes. The students write for their homework and in science too. I just feel that if I gave more time to writing, other areas would suffer. I devote three 45 minute periods a week to writing and incorporate writing across subjects routinely. I will need to continue this conversation with my colleagues and revisit my thinking to keep processing and evaluating our academic time.
That said, I am also highly looking forward to implementing some of the lesson ideas in our writing to see if I can achieve the same results. I hope to have highly engaged, knowledgeable, and dedicated writers who write authentically and with purpose when I use the same lessons and the same strategies. In the meantime, I will continue to evaluate how I best use my time and find new and interesting ways to enrich my own writing life so that I can in turn enrich my students lives as well.
I think you hit the nail on the head… " I will need to continue this conversation with my colleagues and revisit my thinking to keep processing and evaluating our academic time." In an ideal world we'd have enough time for everything. But in reality, we do the best we can and revisit, reflect and monitor how things are going. This is a great perspective to have as an educator!
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