Assignment Nine: Final Course Reflection
(All assignments are due by 12/4!!!)
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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My literacy program is not very strong. I have some curricula that I could use, but that I don't like. It also doesn't fit in with the authentic style of work that I have been reading about in this course. Both grade levels are very heavy in the paper load area. They rely on worksheets and answering comprehension questions. My idea is to give the students time to read to themselves silently, this would be a great time to add in one-on-one reading conferences. I also want students to work on writing, free writing for stamina. I think it is still very important to teach spelling, so I also want them to be working on words. This does not leave much time for guided reading groups, which I also want them to work on. My literacy block is broken into two parts, one part is where we are more focused on all those I previously mentioned, the other is for Writing and Social Studies. My goals are to add in one-on-one reading conferences during their read to self time and get book groups going during that time as well. Many of my students are at a level where they can read to themselves and answer questions in writing as well as a literature circle or a discussion group. I have only a few students who need to work on oral fluency and who will need to be in a guided reading group where oral reading is the focus as well as reading strategies. In writing, I want to give my students directed small projects that they can accomplish in 2 weeks. 2 weeks gives us six 45 minute blocks for writing. If I also, try to make these small projects cross curricular like we are doing now (non-fiction writing about the Solar System to make a class book) then we could have more time blocks in Science or Social Studies for writing work.
ReplyDeleteI have also, noticed that although I started teaching and staying at work more than 10 hours at a stretch, I have now found a bit more balance. On days where I am there for 9 or more hours I notice that my time is spent in social situations, talking with the other teachers and discussing work, or life, events. I am meeting with parents informally to make connections and share about the students work, improvements, and areas of struggle. I need to find more balance though. I must find more ways to relax on my off hours and refrain from mentally lesson planning and problem solving. I like the idea of a more enriching weekend and night life and I am working towards doing so. My goals are to conference more with my students, plan for days that I will stay at work later and days where I will leave on time, and to reconnect with my friends and family thorough planned weekend outings. One of my co-teachers has a few days of the week where she has established they are her late days, and she stays late for parent meetings, to catch up on work or planning, and to have meetings with our team. I think a schedule like this could really help me to and I am going to try it. I am going to use my late days to get organized for January so that I feel I can record my conferences with my students and accurately and efficiently have conferences. As for friends and family, I will let them know that I miss them and ask for their help in getting together more and sharing our lives better.
Your goals and plans look great. Be sure to give yourself credit for all that you ARE doing well! :D It's easy, in education, to focus on what needs to be done or done better. Good luck with your decision to maintain better balance between work and home. This is an important lesson to learn and you are lucky you are early in your career. For some teachers it's years or decades later and usually a health scare that forces them to step back and look for balance. Have a wonderful Holiday Season!
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