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."
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The last two chapters were a great way to wrap up the book with some important and helpful information.
ReplyDeleteChapter 11 felt like it was the author’s final plea of the direction writing should be headed not just in your own classroom but in all schools. The chapter seemed to be full of guidelines for what is important in writing in general. The author stressed the importance of being knowledgeable about writing research and keeping current about what the research is showing for best practices. The author also stressed the importance of adopting practices of what she feels are highly effective teachers. Some of the important practices of highly effective teachers that I am going to begin practicing right away are: 1. Demonstrating writing by thinking aloud and writing in front of students and 2. Conferencing with all students about their writing.
Chapter 12 was a very useful and needed chapter for me. The author gave some great advice on how to conserve your energy for the important things and limit the work you take home. This is something I’ve been struggling with, time management and being able to “do it all”. So this chapter really spoke to me and I felt very appreciative of the insight that might relieve some of my stress. I loved the list of important timesavers and felt encouraged by this chapter. My first principal as a new teacher told me the best thing I could do as a teacher was to have a wonderful life outside of school. It has always stuck with me and have not heard it sense or have been encouraged to do so by other principals. It’s been quite opposite the last 10 or so years in teaching. Reading the authors last paragraph about taking time to see the light made me remember those wise and important words I heard many years ago.
The 5 day lesson plans were incredible. They were very detailed and well thought out lesson plans with examples of how to implement in the classroom. I get so into my routine because I’ve been teaching so long and often feel intimidated about trying something new. The lesson plans she included looked age appropriate, fun and easy to implement. I will definitely try each one!
I LOVE your plans to start thinking and writing in front of your students and adding conferences!!! YEAH!
ReplyDeleteThat IS the best advice a principal can give to a new teacher! :D