ASSIGNMENT TWO: WRITTEN REFLECTION–Section One- The Essential Writing Life Chapters 1-3
BRIEFLY reflect on the following comments written below from Chapters 1-3 and any additional thoughts that you have after reading these chapters.
Chapter 1: Simplify the Teaching of Writing• Simplify our teaching
• Becoming more knowledgeable about teaching writing
• Examine your beliefs
Regie gets to the heart of her book Writing Essentials with this quote on the final page of Chapter One: “By reducing the clutter in our teaching lives-the over-planning, the unnecessary activities, the paper load, all the ‘stuff’ that takes our time and energy and does little to improve teaching and learning-we bring joy back into our work and the world of our students.” Many of us work very hard and spend many hours complicating our teaching lives. In this book Regie will help you simplify your teaching life for your benefit and that of your students.
One of the frustrations that teachers encounter regularly is the ever changing “latest and best” writing programs that districts or states force on them and their students. With this revolving cycle of programs, teachers are spending too much time learning how to use the program rather than becoming better writing teachers. Regie explains that in the districts where students are the best writers, they are writing for real purposes and audiences and publishing their writing; teachers are not using prescribed writing programs.
Look at Appendix A (page A-2.) Examine your beliefs about writing by reading the statements about the writing process and marking true or false in your book. (Go ahead and write in your book, it’s OK! You can even use a pencil and mark very lightly if you want to.) We found this activity very enlightening. Let us know what you think after you complete the activity.
In your reflection for Section One, please include your thoughts about the following questions or statements:
• Regie demonstrates how to use the Optimal Learning Model (shown on the front cover and page 11) throughout the book. Consider how the Optimal Learning Model fits into your own instruction.
• As you think about how to teach writing so that all students can become successful, effective and joyful writers, reflect on how you presently teach the “12 Writing Essentials” (as described on pages 13-14 in the text) during your daily writing instruction. As we continue to read through Regie’s book, hopefully you will begin to see how you might make changes in your instruction to better incorporate these “12 Writing Essentials.”
Chapter 2: Start With Celebration
• Make sure writing is meaningful not just correct
• Use stories as springboards and ensure that ALL students hear stories
• Write in front of your students and connect home and school
The title of Chapter Two simply states, “Start with Celebration,” and that’s exactly what we need to do for our students. The celebration of all students’ writing needs to be put into the forefront and be made our first teaching goal. Celebrations should happen school-wide, within our classrooms and with students individually. As children begin to see themselves as successful writers, they will take more risks in their writing and in turn will become better writers who enjoy the writing process.
Another key point that Regie highlights in this chapter is to “make sure writing is meaningful, not just correct!” Students need to understand that writing is “enjoyable and for a real purpose and audience.” She also reminds us “that teaching skills in isolation does not make student writers; neither does teaching to the test. And breaking writing into bits and pieces robs children of the joy of writing.”
Regie suggests using stories as a springboard for teaching and learning. Hearing and telling stories builds our students’ oral language skills and these stories are “an entryway into reading and writing.” Only when students are reading and writing real stories can they connect the “skills” based learning to their reading and writing!
Please include your thoughts about the following questions or statements in your written reflection of Section One:
• Regie explains how important celebrating student writing is. How do you celebrate student writing in your classroom? How might you add more celebration of student writing to your day/year?
• Consider what changes you could make in your writing instruction to make writing more meaningful and purposeful for your students.
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My thoughts about Appendix A: I can definitely see how these statements could engender a lively conversation amongst educators because they challenge a lot of notions we grew up with or were led to believe about writing. These include teachers must read everything, and ideas about spelling, the writing process, and assessing. Additionally, some of the wording allows for debate. For example, “Once a piece is published, conventions and spelling must be perfect.” There is plenty of fodder to feed a lively conversation and cause educators to reflect on their teaching. To me, it hammers home the idea that education is as much a science as it is an art because there is much to interpret and react to as we go about teaching.
ReplyDeleteUpon looking at the Optimal Learning Model, my first impression was to examine and evaluate how I teach. I do recognize aspects of the OLM in my teaching, just not as well defined or linear as Regie describes. This led my thinking to, “What do I need to do to improve my instruction via the Optimal Learning Model?” A couple thoughts popped into my brain. First, I need to take a more deliberate approach to it: skipping steps or abbreviating them for the sake of efficiency does not really help improve efficiency. Next, I thought students should know what was going on. Thus, I thought I should simplify it a little, make it into a poster, and display it somewhere in my classroom as a reference for my students and myself. This is what I am doing. This is what you are doing and this is where we are going. My final thought was I wish I had known this earlier.
When I read the “12 Writing Essentials” I found myself in full agreement with the skills, strategies, and writing principles advocated. However, I also realized I could do a much better job of incorporating them in my teaching. Too often I have noticed my students looked at writing as a chore. They were not really inspired to write especially near the end of the school year. Consequently some of the students did not put much effort or thought into their writing. I can see how the “12 Writing Essentials” could help change that.
How do I celebrate writing in my classroom? I am afraid to say not very well. Furthermore after reading chapter 2, I am embarrassed to say the clues were there for me to decipher that sharing what they wrote was important and fun to my students. The first clue: when students handed in stories in the inbox, without fail they always would sneak a look at the stories on top or dig through looking for a friend’s to see what they wrote. The second clue: Students often felt compelled to tell me about what they wrote before they submitted it. The third clue: The student who handed back the stories would almost without fail be reading the story as they walked around the classroom commenting on other student’s writing. To improve, I can immediately think of two things: display more writing on classroom walls and bulletin board and make time for the presentation of writing.
After reading chapter 2, I realize there are lots of changes I could make that would improve my writing instruction. Here are a few. First, I would write with them. I would force myself to get away from my classroom administration duties on my computer and write. Modeling the behavior and quality I expected from them. My third graders would really love to see my drawings, too. Personally, I think it would be good for them to see not everyone can draw like Rembrandt. Next, I would give them more choices or say in what we would write about. Instead of just my prompt, I would create broader assignment prompts such as those found on page 27 with their input. Finally, I realize now that I could have used the stories in our reading book as a springboard for writing assignments. I could have discovered the students’ personal connections to the stories and create multiple prompts with their input for them to choose from. Finally, make sure they have an audience in mind when they write.
I love your idea about the poster to explicitly let students know the expectations and steps. Yes, def. write and draw for your students! They will love it. :D Introducing more choice and celebration will absolutely be a positive addition to your classroom. We will talk more about this later in the course, but connecting reading and writing and teaching (and writing) across the curriculum is the only way to fit "everything" in. And you will find when students are clear who their audience is and what their purpose of writing is the quality of the writing will improve.
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