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 Cindy Peterson. At the age of 53, I’ll be starting my second year of teaching in the fall at a rural Title 1 elementary school in southwestern Oregon. I worked for my school district as an aide (primary computer lab manager) for 8 years, then moved on to production manager at our local weekly newspaper. Next I was a nutrition educator through the SNAP food stamps program, then became a volunteer coordinator at our county extension service while I earned my BA in Education. I was hired this school year as a second grade teacher, 11 days before students arrived! I’ve been moved to 6th grade for the next school year where I’ll be teaching Writing and Language Arts for all 6th graders, and I believe I’ll have under 20 students in my homeroom class. There is no instructional support or writing curriculum. We use Houghton Mifflin’s Trophies for our reading curriculum. I have never taught writing before, but I have done a lot of writing, primarily for our local newspaper. My articles were generally informative pieces on school issues, board meetings, etc., but I also wrote a lot of personal interest stories. My district does not provide training in literacy, aside from the occasional workshop or guest presenter. I don’t have much knowledge on the district’s experiences with writing assessments, but I do know that writing skills are a concern for the teachers in our K-6 building. I love teaching. I definitely took the long way around to land in this career, but it feels like the perfect fit. This first year was tough, as I’m sure most first year teachers would agree. My favorite analogy is that teaching your first year is like trying to fly an airplane while building the plane. I was looking forward to my second year in second grade, when I could fine tune my management and lesson plans. But, with such a change in grade levels, I feel a bit like I’ll be starting all over again. Outside of the classroom I enjoy spending time with my family including my husband, two grown daughters, and three grandkids. I enjoy a wide variety of hobbies including quilting, knitting/crocheting, decorating, digital scrapbooking and gardening. By the end of this course I hope to be able to outline what I will teach my 6th graders, and have a draft of a pacing guide. I’m also looking for ways to inspire and empower my students in their writing.
ReplyDeleteHello Cindy,
ReplyDeleteWelcome to our class! I believe you are really going to enjoy this text and will be able to use it to help you develop your curriculum and writing program. In fact, I tell students they are going to want to read this book more than once. You will take away new information and ideas each time, I know that I do. We look forward to working with you this term!
My name is Patricia Rhodes. I taught middle school math for 24 years, this past year I moved down to 3rd grade. I LOVE it. While I loved teaching middle school math, after 24 years I wanted a change, it was such a joyful year. I teach in Willamina, a small rural district. Last year I had between 21 - 25 students in my class. This coming year will be about the same.
ReplyDeleteThe literacy program we use is from the Treasures curriculum. I followed it the best I could, but was very unhappy with it. It not only didn’t make a lot of sense to me, I couldn’t find where it was at all CCSS aligned (it isn’t). I am taking this class to get a better plan on teaching reading and writing and implementing it into my classroom next year.
The only training I have had in teaching literacy was college some 26 years ago. I never put it into practice in the classroom because I have been teaching math the whole time.
My district will support me in any training I want to get in literacy, they just do not do inservice in the school for it. There was a big push several years ago to get the elementary teachers trained in literacy but I missed that. I can get any help I want from my principal and colleagues. I just sometimes don’t even know what to ask for help with. Thus this class.
We do have a push for the students to do well on the state tests. We all work hard at having that happen.
I love my job. I have a great building that I work in, with a dynamic principal. It is a big change for me to work on a team and have support from colleagues. (I was the only math teacher for middle school for 8 years.) Since moving down to 3rd grade I find my energy level is much higher than it was. There is so much less stress in my new position.
Outside of work I am a wife and mother. I have two daughters, one that just graduated college and one that just finished her first year. I love to garden, read, and enjoy our animals.
I want to be the best literacy teacher I can be. I want to learn as much as I can to help my students read and write. I want to make sure my students love reading and writing as much as I do.
My name is Theresa and I teach third grade in Portland, Oregon at a private school. I have 24 students. I just finished my 18th year of teaching. This year I have instructional support for 1 hour a day, but next year will most likely lose that support with declining enrollment. Current literacy program I used is a conglomerate of chapter books, Open Court, Daily 5, and 6 traits writing. I’m not in a district, but my school provides training most recently in formative assessment and the option to do outside staff development in an area of our choosing. We don’t have state writing prompts we’re accountable for. I’m still loving teaching, but am stressed and tired. I have a family and like to read, and be outdoors.
ReplyDeleteMy name is Lindsey and I am currently teaching 2nd grade in Tigard Tualatin School District at a Title 1 school. Before I got my teaching degree I worked as an elementary school secretary for 5 years. I taught 5th grade, 1st grade, and just completed my second year in 2nd grade. My first 3 years of teaching were a whirlwind and I was mostly focused on basic survival. I am very happy to be in the same classroom and grade level again this coming school year. I feel like I am starting to develop a much deeper grasp of the curriculum and standards which has made teaching much more enjoyable. Although I always wish there was better pay, more support, more planning time, etc., I am also thankful to be in a career that is meaningful and inspiring.
ReplyDeleteMy class size last year was 22 students and this coming year it will be around 25. I do not have an instructional assistant.
We have a mandated district wide reading curriculum called Journeys that is aligned with common core. We have a daily 90 minute reading block. We skill group for reading and I teach the On/Beyond level reading class. We do some stations in reading that involve short, written responses, but the primary focus is fluency, vocabulary, and comprehension.
I teach writing to my homeroom class for about 30 minutes daily. We do not have mandated curriculum for writing. I have not had any formal training. I have used a combination of Lucy Caulkins and Portland Public curriculum. Last summer I took an optional and informal “writing across the curriculum” workshop through my district. We have district level writing assessments that must be given for each writing unit, but there are no state level assessments in 2nd grade. I have been on the district writing committee for the last year and helped create the writing assessments.
I enjoy reading, hiking, cooking, and spending time with friends and family. I grew up in Austin, TX but have lived in Portland for almost a decade.
I hope to refine and supplement my current lessons through this class. I don’t feel like writing is one of my strengths and I would like to gain confidence and have better tools. I’m looking forward to learning!
Hello Patricia, Theresa and Lindsey! Welcome to our class! As I mentioned to Cindy, above, I believe you all will really enjoy this text and come away with many new ideas to incorporate into your writing program!
ReplyDeleteOne of the benefits of a course blog is that it allows participants to have discourse with one another. While we do not require students to make any number of comments to others in the class, it really does make the class much richer for everyone. My role is a facilitator and while I will respond to your posts, if no one else does it's just like a public viewing of emailing your assignments to me. So my hope this summer is that you all feel comfortable to comment, disagree, ask for clarification or offer suggestions to one another. I look forward to working with all of you this term. :) Mary
Hello everyone! I am Sarah Lewis and I teach 5th grade in the Hillsboro School District. This coming year will be my third year teaching 5th grade. Previously, I taught at a private early childhood program for 4 years. As of right now, my principal is estimating that I will have 32 students in my class next year. I am hopeful the number will either go down, or up so much that we have to get another teacher. I have limited instruction support. The support is a push in model for specific students with learning goals. My literacy program is completely teacher directed and created, which can be a blessing and a curse. We used to use HM, but once the CCSS came the HM materials don’t meet the standards. I have been using a variety of skill based lessons along with novel studies. I then weave writing into either our reading unit or our content material.
ReplyDeleteI have my Reading Endorsement for the state of Oregon. I have a lot of work done related to reading and writing. I am also a huge fan of Regie Routman. I feel confident in teaching writing and advancing student progress, especially when reaching 5th grade standards. There is a lot of writing in 5th grade and I love pushing my students and making them grow to write a three page essay by the end of the year. However, I am currently struggling teaching writing when I have students who are very behind in their writing ability. I struggle with how to give them the basics of writing when we often are writing about abstract topics and complex thought processes. This is why I am taking this course. I want to get a better understanding on how to teach a high level of writing to students and how to help those students who struggle.
My district provides a lot of training in GLAD and Systematic ELD. I have taken all of these trainings. The writing pieces of these programs are either very constructed (sentence frames, etc in ELD) or very abstract, that usually requires a lot of teacher prep. I struggle with the formatted writing and how to get my students past that point and onto creating their own ideas. The abstract writing works great for my students who know how to write. Of course, there is a strong focus on getting students to write the way the SBAC wants them to. This usually entails citing a lot of evidence, which is great! There has also been a focus on bringing more practice on quick writes and also writing or rewriting parts of an already constructed essay. I have not spent much time on either of these in my classroom instruction.
I love teaching! I just wish I had more materials that were provided by my district. I spend way too much time creating literacy units or too much money buying them. They say it’s still a few more years out before they adopt a new curriculum. One thing I hate about my job is the focus on testing. I spend so much time of the school year testing it drives me crazy!! There is just so much pressure on the districts, teachers, and students in regards to SBAC that they want to do everything they can to prepare. I can understand the desire to prepare, however, I still need time to actually teach the skills before we test. One of my goals next year is to avoid as many tests as I possibly can for my students so I can salvage more class time. Overall, I guess I am happy, stressed and tired at work. It just depends on the moment and the day.
On a personal note, my husband and I just welcomed our first child in March of this year. His name is Bixby and we are head over heels in love. Adjusting to being a mom has been quite the adventure. I was able to take the rest of the year off after spring break, which has been such a blessing. We live in Beaverton and we have two “fur-children” as well. We love to cook and spend time working on projects around the house. I also love to run, but I am still trying to find where to fit it in while adjusting to my new world.
Hello Sarah,
ReplyDeleteWe're happy to have you join our class this term. Congratulations on your new son! What an exciting time for you and your husband. Parenthood does require some extra juggling and adjustment but it's an amazing process! :)
That's wonderful that you have had so much training. One of the things we love about Regie's text is that even if you are comfortable with instructing writing, you'll still take away new ideas from her book.
Jackie was just at my house yesterday, which doesn't happen often anymore since she's in Connecticut and I'm in Vermont, but we were saying how much we really still love this text and Regie's Reading Essentials. Even though Regie wrote these a while ago, they are still amazing resources for teachers.
Hope everyone had a wonderful 4th of July. I know I did! My sister and her family were here visiting and Jackie and her family and sister also came by. :D
Hi there! My name is Marisa Ortloff and I just finished my first year of teaching in the Centennial School District in Gresham Oregon. I taught first grade, and will be teaching first next year as well. We average 25-30 students per class, and I do not have instructional support. My current literacy program is a reading and writing workshop model, and we incorporate some aspects of Daily 5 into our literacy block as well. I had some literacy training in my education program, and we have access to district literacy coaches who provide support when needed. I had on of the coaches observe my writing block and give me some feedback in that area. She then helped me to refine my writing block, and helped me to plan some lessons to increase student engagement and classroom management this past year. That is about the extent of my formal training. I felt a lot of pressure for students to perform well in writing this year, especially because one of my student growth goals was centered around writing. I had a bit of a rough first year, but had really great support from colleagues, coaches, and my principal. It has been great to have this summer to relax, rejuvenate, and reflect. I am looking forward to having another year in first grade. I am really excited to learn some new strategies for teaching writing and to improve student engagement during our writing block. Outside of the classroom, I love to hike, go camping, spend time with my niece and nephews, and try out new coffee shops.
ReplyDeleteHello Marisa,
ReplyDeleteWe're happy to have you join us this summer! Welcome!!! You'll def. come away with new ideas to infuse into your writing program. That's excellent that you get to be at the same grade level next year! It will help a lot!
My name is Julie Foteff and I teach 2nd grade at Spring Mountain Elementary School in the North Clackamas School District. This is my second year as a 2nd grade teacher and I’m loving every minute of it! I graduated with a Masters in Education 6 years ago and unfortunately jobs were scarce during that time so I was unable to land a full time teaching position until 2 years ago. After the time I graduated and got the position I have now I subbed in the school district in elementary schools and also took a job working as an IA in a 2nd grade classroom, I learned a lot during that time. It really helped me to transition into my own classroom and I’m thankful for those couple years even though I would have given anything to have my own classroom. Our school district doesn’t have an exact Writing Curriculum they use Lucy Caulkins as a resource but we do not have a district wide or even school wide curriculum. I think Lucy has some great ideas and resources but I would like to learn more or different ideas then hers. Our districts goals are set around Math and equity right now so since I have been teaching we have not had any writing training or PD. The classes that I have taught have been very successful in Math and Reading and seem to struggle a little in writing so that is why I am taking this class so that I can become a better writing teacher. I am also taking this class because writing has been a subject that I have struggled with personally in elementary school all the way through graduate school, so sometimes I feel as though I’m a horrible writing teacher because I was never outstanding at writing myself. Outside of the classroom I enjoy cooking, being outdoors and everything Oregon has to offer including: camping, beaches, lakes, rivers, mountains, desert and of course great restaurants to frequent. I’m excited to learn new things to incorporate next year in my classroom.
ReplyDeleteHello Julie!
ReplyDeleteWelcome to the class! You have great reasons for taking this class and will definitely come away with new ideas and strategies to implement into your writing program next year!
Hi!
ReplyDeleteMy name is Shelley Tate and I am a seventh grade Language Arts, Social Studies, and Drama teacher. I’ve been at West Sylvan Middle School in Portland Public Schools, but I will be transferring this year to Ockley Green Middle School. I became a teacher eight years ago, after getting my MAT from the University of Portland (at the same time as my husband, who is now a middle school math teacher!). I’ve been very fortunate in my teaching career; I enjoy the kids and my coworkers, usually including administration! Teaching is, of course, a stressful profession, but my family and I try to find balance where we can. Outside of the classroom, I love to read, dance, and spend time with my husband Jamie and our five-year-old daughter Savannah.
I teach two block classes of Language Arts and Social Studies, as well as one elective. There are usually between 30-34 students per class. There is usually a wide range of IEP students, TAG students, and English Language Learners. There are no instructional assistants; however, I usually mentor student teachers using a co-teaching method, so there are often two teachers in the classroom.
I integrate reading, writing, and social studies in my classroom literacy program, using a variety of ways. In terms of training, I had a three day seminar in essay grading (for state writing assessments) my first year of teaching. Since then, the district has offered very little in the way of writing training. Since the adoption of CCSS, there has been a push for more writing in all classes. This has been helpful, in that literacy is no longer considered only in the realm of the Language Arts teacher! However, I agree that the focus has become student performance on standardized tests, especially since the new Smarter Balanced assessment has more writing.
While I have taken classes on literacy and writing, I do struggle with a consistent writing curriculum. I would love ideas on how to create a more cohesive program, rather than jumping around from grammar to organization and so on! I would also love to learn how other teachers deal with the wide range of writing skills, abilities, and interests in the classroom. Thanks!
Hi Shelley,
ReplyDeleteHappy to have you join us! :)