Assignment Nine: Final Course Reflection
(All assignments are due by 6/7!!!)
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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I appreciated looking through the lesson plans. Reading them through helped me to conceptualize going through the process much better. I can't wait to tweak some of them for high schoolers.
ReplyDeleteAfter looking through the checklist of ideas I didn't find that I had altered my opinions all that much. Rather I feel that I've deepened some of the things I theoretically agreed with, like that students need to see their teachers as writers too, and students talking with each other can help the writing process. So yes, I could see this checklist being a great way to start conversations around writing at my school.
I feel like my literacy program needs a lot of work! For one thing I'd like my students to more consistantly have conferences with myself or other staff about their writing. Students changing or revising their writing can be really difficult for my students, but this has to be worked into the process in my classroom until it is expected.
The biggest thing I'd like to improve is to do more modeling of writing. A mentor of mine used to say that I could teach anything if I modeled it enough. I think this is true, and no less so in writing. So next year I plan to do a lot more modeling and shared writing to start my students off on their writing assignments.
Yeah, we love to hear that teachers are excited and planning to utilize conferences in their instruction. One thing that I think is important in writing instruction is that not all pieces needed to be finished. Yes, of course some do, but sometimes it's ok to put a piece away, maybe to revisit at another time, or maybe never. With the amount of writing students need to do to practice, grow and develop, it's not realistic to expect that all pieces will be perfect and ready to publish.
ReplyDeleteGreat plan to do more modeling and shared writing with your students. Have a wonderful summer and good luck in your new classroom next year.