Friday, July 29, 2016

Assignment Eight: Written Reflection- Sections 4 & 5

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."

16 comments:

  1. Having the best research available to us, and the ability as professionals to have many conversations on the teaching of reading and writing is paramount to the success of our students and our reading and writing programs. It is important the research is up to date. I personally feel that there needs to be more than just one study done to prompt educators to change. It seems like a study will come out, and a whole district will swing in another direction based on that information. When research comes out, a discussion by not only the superintendent, but all staff involved in the actually teaching of reading and writing should be involved.

    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. That is the most important thing we should all being asking as we are working so hard. Not just in writing, but in everything. Will laminating these 200 cards really help my students. I Love the important timesavers. I will also be using them and her Best advice as a guideline to my reading and writing program.

    I loved reading through the different lesson plans. It really brought the whole book to a good conclusion and made it all make sense. As with the rest of the book, I will be rereading this part over and over again. I loved the suggestions to the students, and the way she worked with their writing. Remembering to write everyday is going to be a joy for me. Even if it is a school piece, a note to a parent, or a love letter to my husband. I will make it a point to write everyday. This has been a good book to jump start my writing teaching. This section in particular brought the most help. Excellent section.

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  2. I think Routman’s ideas for adopting a writing program make sense, but the thing is, we (most teachers in a school or school) do not make these decisions, the district admin make those decisions. It’s funny because they are not the ones in the classrooms, they are only the ones looking at the state test score data or the school data, so how would they know what the best practices for writing are? I think these last few chapters should be aimed towards administrators and not teachers. We are doing what they are telling us to do and state test scores matter so of course teachers are going to focus on those ideas and teach to those rubrics we are given. As for professional development, in our district the focus is on reading and math, writing isn’t even a dot on the radar so they are putting the PD money into those two subjects and there is really nothing we teachers can do about that unfortunately. But I can take some of the best practices I’ve learned from this book and put them towards my class, my teams class and maybe even to the school.

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    1. I agree with you 100%! The programs are not selected by teachers. Best case scenario a few teachers get to pick between a few programs for the whole district. Writing is the lost topic in PD. They always rush by it and assume its included in reading and math.

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  3. Hello Patricia and Julie!

    I know, it's very frustrating that people outside of our classrooms have such power in what and how we teach.

    So glad you plan to re-read sections of the book Patricia! I can't say enough how much I take away each time I do.

    Julie, you are right, doing what you know is best for students, taking the pieces you can apply and sharing your thoughts with your team, school and administration are the positive steps you can take when there are mandates placed upon you. And, as is common in education, the pendulum will swing and you will find there will be a great focus on writing in the future. I can guarantee that there will always be change...I just may not be certain what that change will be in our profession. :)

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  4. Chapter 11:
    The summary of key writing research was helpful to review. I joined my district's writing committee last year. It has been helpful to be a part of this conversation and decision making process. I would like to have more conversations about writing as a grade level team. Last year we discussed new ideas about editing and revising and it would be great to continue this conversation.

    Chapter 12:
    I love the “secrets of good writers” list. I especially connected with the last bullet point- write to figure out what they want to say. I think it is important to emphasize that your ideas often develop and become clearer as you write. I also think it is good to remind students that writing is hard work, both kids and adults.


    Section 5:
    The writing lessons plans were helpful, although we only have about 35 minutes a day for our writing time. It is hard to squeeze in a mini-lesson, actual writing, and sharing time. I like how she uses the stickie notes in the narrative writing example.

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    1. Hi Lindsey,
      I'm glad that there is a writing committee in your district and that they are listening to teacher input! Horizontal alignment occurs when you have your grade level conversations and vertical alignment is the next step where you will start looking at the grade above and below you and extending your conversations to include these teachers. I agree, having more conversations around writing would be beneficial. It's time well spent and many insights can come from the discussions.

      YES, writing can be very hard work for adults as well. I think we should def. share this message with students.

      At one of my schools, we were having staff meetings devoted to writing and we realized that even though we all thought we knew what terms meant, many of us had different definitions so it was valuable time. The other point that still sticks with me was hearing a teacher say that the Share could be the mini lesson. It was a big Ah-Ha for many of us, because time is short for most teachers. So do the best you can, even if it isn't ideal. We usually are able to figure out how to make it work. :D

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  5. ASSIGNMENT EIGHT:

    Writing Essentials Chapters 11-12 (Advocacy Is Also Essential)

    The quote at the beginning made me think- teaching really is political action. Unfortunately, politics too often get involved in our day-to-day teaching. District professional development is often tedious and not very useful, yet mandated! I hope to work with administration to help develop useful PD and hopefully they will foster collaborative time for teachers.
    The chart on page 271 was an eye-opener – in the past my classroom looked more like the column on the left (how we used to do things). That will help as a guideline to change to add more conferencing, celebrating/ sharing more, and using modeling and shared writing.

    Chapter 12 –
    Make Every Minute Count

    “Breathe, relax and enjoy writing and your life!” We may say this to kids but I’m so glad that it is also her advice to teachers. I bet no one will believe that I plan to have my kids write more, but I plan to read less of it. Such a contradiction for LA teachers! It’s so great to reduce the paper load and only assess what is needed. I’ve watched so many teachers burn out just under the sheer weight of grading. Easing up the pressure and increasing the joy of writing – I’m hopeful that my grading will become much more manageable. I agree that we should limit homework for kids as well; if we’re all working hard during the day, none of deserve to put in two more hours at home! “Short, simple, slow” – that’s my new mantra, along with “Is this the best use of my time?”



    Teaching in Action: Lesson Essentials
    5 Day Lesson Plans & Appendices


    I love the beliefs checklist; it really helped my codify what I truly think is important (not just what I’ve been told). I plan to go through it with my student teacher, and hopefully my new colleagues. I may even use an abbreviated version with kids, to keep transparency and the “why” we do things. It will also let them know what I think is important about writing (and it’s okay if they disagree!).
    The lessons for poetry and persuasive writing were useful; there were definitely some ideas in there I plan to use in my classroom. I also plan to adapt some of the appendix rubrics and editing expectations for 6th grade.

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    1. Shelley,

      That is awesome that you feel inspired to take action and try to promote change with more meaningful PD. I think this is a HUGE issue at many schools. And even though we may have sympathetic principals, sometimes it's very difficult to get administration to change. Good Luck!!!!! I hope you have success! My motto is, You never know unless you ask. And many times I've been pleasantly surprised with a YES even while expecting a No. :D

      Yes, it is not an excuse to do less work...it makes sense! If we compare it to when students learn to read, they need TONS of time and practice to learn to read. We as teachers do not correct every single error when they are learning to read or sit with them all the time they are reading. They have time to practice and enjoy. The same should be said about learning to write. Yes, we need to confer and assess some pieces, but the students should have many opportunities to practice writing and enjoy the process. So yes, read less of the writing and assess what is needed. And ask the students, "Flag the part you want my feedback on." Or, "Please flag an example in your writing that shows descriptive language, etc..."

      I'm actually working on a new class this summer --well with summer over, I guess I'm heading into Fall now ;) , with a focus of rethinking homework... It is one of my soapbox issues. :D I think we need to think of our purpose in assigning the work, consider modern family makeup, and the other obligations students have after school. It's a hot-button topic for sure, but def. a conversation worth having in my opinion. :D As you said in the last paragraph, "It's ok to disagree." I think this applies to everything, but I know that many people have a new understanding or appreciation for other perspectives after having respectful conversations about topics that they may disagree about. And I think it is so important to teach students how to respectfully disagree, challenge and offer evidence when making a point. It's lessons that many adults could use as well. :D

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  6. Chapter 11

    I so appreciate Regie saying “Accountability requires professional autonomy to do what’s right. The best teachers are “not followers” and have an “independent streak.” I have been fortunate to work with principals who feel the exact same way. After 18 years of teaching, it still saddens me that the focus on writing and the research behind it gets pushed aside. Writing everyday throughout the curriculum is a must and Regie includes helpful ways to do that. I think as teachers, many of us think of “writing” time as a specific block during the day, instead of the entire day in small bits and pieces. That’s a take away I will use, including incorporating the traits I am required to teach. “We were not told how to teach writing” is so so true. It’s funny that just hearing Regie say that in the book, made me feel empowered to not worry anymore and just be the writing teacher I know I am.

    The professional talk section of the chapter is great and I’d love for my entire staff to read it. We talk a lot about reading, but not writing with it and the connection. I would love to do that, and would hope other teachers would be part of it, but where to find the time? I think it’ll need to start at lunch or recess and move on from there. Our time is so limited in so many ways I think as a profession we are looking for “one-day, quick fix seminars to attend.”


    Chapter 12

    Meaningful instruction requires connections to the our and the student’s lives. We can’t write about what we don’t know, but if we right about what we know and skills are embedded within that it’s a win-win. My students always love hearing what “good writers” do. To save time and focus more on meaningful instruction, Regie suggests to be picky about how we use our time. She also suggests asking “is this the best use of my time?” Less grading/ paperwork = less stress and more time to do things we love. so easily we teachers can get bogged down with working in and out of school and have no time for things we enjoy. I have found that I have to be deliberate about “me” time. page 286 and 287 are takeaways that’ll be glued into my planbook.

    Section 5

    The lessons and information here is invaluable. I like having step by step instructions and her added tips and language she uses. The entire book is such a great resource. I have stickies all over the book to get back to sections quickly :).


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    1. Theresa,
      I know, I also read something and it can make a huge impact on my perspective and attitude. And often it takes a lot of stress off my shoulders. I'm glad you are feeling some relief to trust yourself to be the best teacher you know you are without worrying about it. A great consideration as we start a new school year!

      Yes, time is often in short supply. Great idea to start with lunch or recess. I know food is always appreciated and enticing to teachers. :D

      I know!!!! I agree that this text is an amazing resource. Even though the copyright date is older...it still is incredible information! So glad you feel the same! (My text looks ridiculous, with highlights, sticky notes, notes, etc... :D)

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  7. This chapter was daunting and uplifting all at the same time. I know that some serious changes need to be made in the topic of teaching writing, however, at times it seems impossible. I do like how Regie encourages taking small steps, especially in professional development meetings. This small change would be helpful to get the discussion started. I would like to get involved more this coming school year in planning some professional development opportunities. I am planning on starting with my grade level team first. We meet bi-weekly for about an hour in a PLC. The past years we have used that time for planning and organizing for the next few weeks, but we never really dived into our teaching and shared where the students were and how to make them grow. I want to change that this year. I think one way I will do this is by creating another meeting time to plan and organize that is separate from our PLC. I want to also encourage my colleagues to read this book so we can discuss it.
    Thankfully we have a very supportive principal at our school who trusts us as teachers. As long as we can show progress in our students, he is good with our methods. This goes to a point, but then he is also pressured by the district. He fights them back as much as possible, but they can still interfere. Especially with all the testing. Not only do we have the SBAC at the end of the year, but they also require huge district interim tests that are supposed to help students prepare. However, these tests take FOREVER. Last year, I lost almost 6 full teaching days to them, for (in my opinion) nothing. I then had to spend hours grading them and reporting the scores to the district. There are a lot of teachers pushing against these, so hopefully they will slowly go away.
    It is hard sometimes to fight against the major push towards programs and packaged systems. Districts can get so wrapped up in the “next and newest thing” that they forget that they have highly trained teachers who can make progress if they are given time and resources. When I see a new program I always think about how much money it cost and how could we have used those funds for something else (like a non-fiction library collection).
    I have to admit I was the teacher who worked 12+ hours each day. I got to work before anyone else, always took a large bag of papers home each night and went in every weekend. This is going to change this year. I have a son now who I want to spend as much time with as possible. I have already committed to myself that I am only going to be at school for my contract hours and I am only going to take things home that are absolutely necessary. This will require me to make things simpler and just focus on what we really need to accomplish. I also find that when I spent so many hours at school I was burned out. I had less patience with my students and I lost the joy of teaching. The best days I have had with my students was when I relaxed, didn’t worry about specific standards and just taught and enjoyed the lesson. My students seemed to have the best days then too. I also love sharing my life with my students and I find that’s what they remember the most, not the science worksheet I had them complete.

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    1. Sarah,

      Wonderful ideas!!! Having a writing focus with your team and time to share ideas is a great way to start. You might want to make up a tentative schedule. Often when we write things down and make an agenda, that helps the meeting time to happen AND be productive. If you don't mind assuming the responsibility, I think creating the schedule (which could be flexible or a general outline open to adjustments as needed) and sending an agenda and reminder emails as to when, where and what may be needed (Like examples of student work) would make the likelihood of meeting as a group more successful. You can then build upon the success of these meetings and discussions, share them with your principal and/or curriculum coach or reading specialist and then hopefully help move towards a more school-wide plan. Don't forget to eventually include your SPED, Librarians, Coaches or other specialists that might benefit or add to these conversations. Having a supportive principal really makes all the difference!!! It's important to be trusted as the professionals and experts we have been trained to be and have become from years of experience. :D

      I hope they go away also! If enough teachers respectfully share their thoughts and data and evidence with the district hopefully in a year or so things will let up a bit.

      Or what I think when I see the latest and greatest adoption is, "How many TEACHERS could that million dollars hire to lower our class sizes?" And of course, I'm a big fan of supplying up-to-date enticing libraries for classrooms and schools. There's so much we could do with that money if we were able to voice our opinion.

      YEAH!!!! Just because you aren't at school 25 extra hours a week does not mean you aren't a good teacher! Be easy on yourself, because there may be times you do have to work a little longer or take something home, but plan to limit it as much as you can. I tried one year to track how many extra hours I worked beyond contract just to see...I got to October and gave up. :D But I do really try to focus on keeping as much of school at school and being present when I'm home.

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  8. I know I’ve felt overwhelmed, since I started teaching last year, with how much information is out there on writing. Every time I go online I see another Facebook or blog post about how this writing program is great, or that writing program is the best. It makes it really difficult to decide where to put my efforts. Especially in light of testing, where the gamble to choose the right way to teach affects more than just your classroom but potentially affects the school’s report card. But I appreciate Regie’s stance that we have to stop focusing on test results and put our efforts into quality teaching, and the scores will follow.

    Looking over the research findings, one thing that really stood out was, “Predictable routines make it easier for students to write.” That one scares me a little because I don’t have my routines nailed down in my head, and even if I did, I would likely need to adjust, once I learn my students’ abilities. But I just need to make it my goal to establish a set routine as early on in the year as possible. I’m fortunate to be in a district where we have a lot of freedom to decide how we teach, and we don’t have a writing program we’re required to use. I’m convinced, after reading this book, that I need to integrate great writing practices into our daily curriculum and that’s the best way I can help students become great writers.

    I really want to help make improvements in student writing school-wide. One way I hope to do that is to work toward grade level writing rubrics. As mentioned in your question, Regie has seen whole school cultures changed during her residencies, and I would love to see that happen in our school. Anything we can do to bring about a united culture would be so beneficial, both for our student’s emotional health and academic ability. I’m going to see if I can find funding to purchase Regie’s residency program for staff development.
    I really like Regie’s ideas about giving feedback on writing. Last year I didn’t know what to do with grading student writing because I didn’t want to mark all their errors, but I wasn’t sure how else to let them see the mistakes they’d made. I noticed that when I did make corrections or comments, they really didn’t learn from them, or even read them. This year I plan to provide correction and direction through conferences. I’ll call on the student to find the errors rather than just point them out for them. I think that will be helpful as they’ll become more mindful of mistakes as they make them. Last year I did a daily writing sentence with mistakes that they had to find and correct. I would tell them how many mistakes they should find, and they loved the challenge of figuring out which words were misspelled, or needed to be capitalized, etc. I’m thinking of using a similar approach with the writing conferences – after discussing the content, maybe just putting a number at the top of the page of how many misspelled words they need to try to find, and let them work with a writing buddy to find and make those corrections.

    The lists on pages 286-87 will be really helpful to keep me focused on the bigger goals – to inspire students to write, and to provide them with feedback that will encourage and strengthen their writing. I will print those and put them in the front of my writing notebook. I liked Regie’s comments about taking care of ourselves; making sure we refuel and not just spend countless hours doing work that doesn’t really help ours students. If we’re drained, and therefore frustrated with our teaching, the students will feel it. One of the ways I’m learning to “work smarter, not harder” is through a teacher group I’m in called the 40 Hour Teacher Work Week, headed by Instructional Coach Angela Watson. That group has been such a help as Angela provides tips and tricks weekly, and we have a private Facebook group that is a sounding board for sharing ideas and getting answers to questions we have. I think every teacher needs to find a group like that for support and encouragement.

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    1. Hello Cindy,

      I LOVE that you want to look for funding to possibly get Regie to your district. I would love to be in a school where she was working. Another idea is if you can't get her to you, to see if she has a workshop that you could go to. I'm sure her website would list if she does.

      I like the idea of the number and having the student work with a buddy if needed. Kids do love a challenge. :D

      YES, I agree, and think that is awesome that you are in a network with other teachers. I love the concept of this group and the name!

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  9. I appreciated the section of practices of highly effective teachers. It’s a good reminder heading back into a new school year. I am lucky enough to have an amazing grade level team where we focus on writing often. Last year one of my student learning growth goals was in writing, so it was constantly on my mind, and at the center of my team’s discussions. I am excited to bring back some new ideas on how to improve writing instruction, and how to foster a joy for writing in my students’. It was really helpful to read through the different lesson plans that she included and to have a better idea of what a whole writing block looks like for her. I especially enjoyed reading through the narrative lesson plans because that is our first unit at the beginning of the year. I am definitely going to be using some of the strategies and Ideas she layed out in these lessons.

    I appreciated what Routman had to say about resting, and fighting against getting burnt out. I think it’s easy to think that the more hours we work, the better the teacher you are, but I think that’s really just not true. I want to make it a goal this year to bring home much less work in the evenings and on weekends.

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    1. That is wonderful, Marisa, that your team focuses on writing often! Yes, we need to always keep in mind to foster joy in writing for our students.

      GREAT! Focusing more on what's important, letting go of what's not and enjoying our work and students more is what we all need to do! Good luck with less work on the weekends and in the evenings. You could pick maybe one day a week to be your late night. This way you can plan on it and know that's your one day to stay a little later and get things done. It's just as stressful to feel unprepared as it is to be burnt out. :D

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