Meghan Redmond Implementation Paper Writing Matters: Spring 2011
When I signed up for this class, I wasn’t sure what to expect. It is the first online class I have ever completed, and this intimidated me a bit. However, just having the class online has actually taught me quite a bit about writing and about teaching writing. I have always struggled with how to teach the necessary writing skills when trying to integrate the use of technology into my writing curriculum. This class has given me the skills I need to do this. I have been inspired to use blog in my writing curriculum, something that I will continue to do next year as well. Right now, I am using a blog for daily journaling and silent reading logs. Next, year I will expand my blog to include posting writing assignments for peer editing and publication. I have seen huge improvements in my students writing since implementing the blogs. They are now realizing that their writing is not just for themselves and me, it is for anyone to see. They now take more pride in what they write, how they write, and how much they write. It has developed a greater awareness of that what they write and how they write actually matters. This is something that has truly helped my reluctant writers.
From this class, I have also gathered a huge list of great tips from my fellow teachers. Some of the best ideas didn’t come from the readings, but from teachers sharing what they do in their classrooms. Being in a two teacher school, this sharing is something I have been craving! I came from teaching in a 36 teacher school, to Twin Hills. It was a huge culture shock, and I have found that I miss this collaboration. I especially will use the tip of a check-list for writing assignments. My plan is to create these for each of my writing units and for each of the 6+1 Traits. My students need that structure that these lists will bring.
One last thing I have been able to take away from this class and use in my classroom next year is to see myself as a writer. I need to show my students that I am a writer and that each one of them is a writer. I never thought of myself as that before, and I know my students do not think of themselves as that either.
This class has made me look at my teaching practices and evaluate those that work, those that need tweaking, dropped altogether, and the adding of completely new techniques.
I will continue teaching the writing process but will change or add the following: • begin teaching peer editing at the beginning of the year but in much smaller increments as suggested by Sara Pock • continue to use anchor/mentor text to model good writing and each of the traits I want students to focus on • continue genre writing • give the students time to free write; no focus I don’t do enough of this • make sure students are writing across the curriculum • drop teaching grammar in isolation; use the idea of mini lessons that connect directly with their writing; current practice is the teaching of grammar and expecting it to carry over into their writing and actually know how to use it • continue using a 6 traits writing rubric to evaluate student writing • continue having students use the six traits rubric to evaluate their own writing • use more technology; our District has Gmail set up for all students as well as blogs to be used; I currently use Gmail mainly with my reading students
I found the 11 key elements to be helpful. I will use them as a guide to strengthen or change how I teach the writing process. One idea that I tried and found to be successful was the collaborative writing. I just did a short writing assignment to test it out for the first time and I found that two of my more reluctant writers became more enthusiastic and confident.
I realize I have listed several ideas for change in my classroom but since I do writer’s workshop I don’t think it will be difficult to make some of the changes. I am excited about incorporating some of the ideas from “30 Ideas for Teaching Writing”. Number 6 piqued my interest to do with my readers.
I think the biggest changes in the teaching of writing in my classroom will be the opportunity for students to write without a focus along with giving them a consistent time each day to record their thoughts. I will also be more diligent in monitoring peer editing conferences. I will do extensive modeling with this aspect of the writing process as I believe it is a skill they really need to hone not just for sixth grade but for the future.
This class has raised my confidence as a writing teacher. I have taught at very small schools where I am the only English teacher, and I have often questioned whether I’m doing a good job teaching writing skills. I thought I was, but there’s always that nagging doubt. I have based my teaching on the NWREL website, using it for model papers, having the students practice giving feedback (No, “I liked it” is not helpful feedback!), and using some of their lesson plans. I will continue using that resource.
One thing that I do want to do more of next year is to give the students ample opportunities for informal writing. I get caught up in following the entire writing process from beginning to end. I don’t let them just write for fun enough. I’ve already started. This week we wrote cinquain poems with the kindergarten class and made an art project out of them. They had fun focusing on a project with just a few words in it and selecting their words carefully.
Something that I have emphasized this year that was reinforced in this class is developing a common language of writing for the purposes of discussing and revising papers. Now, I can discuss “word choice” and “sentence fluency” with my students, and they know what I mean. This especially helps during the revision process.
I also want to collaborate with other teachers about teaching and assessing writing skills. I worked with my husband on several writing projects for his science class. The students were surprised when 6-traits rubrics started showing up, “Hey, this isn’t English class.” I also worked with the upper elementary teacher on 6-traits lessons.
I love teaching writing. I’ve been fortunate to teach at schools where reading and writing are taught as separate subjects, and I’ve been able to spend focused time on writing instruction. I have seen improvement in my students’ writing because of the time we spend together. I know we are supposed to teach “writing across the curriculum,” and I try to in my social studies class, BUT nothing beats an uninterrupted time of solid writing instruction. In my other content classes, I’m always focused on getting through the content, and writing assignments that include writing instruction take class time.
•Keep more closely to my goal of conferencing with each student once per week •Increase sharing time and focus more on peer feedback at this time •Incorporate more mini-lessons on writing during Daily 5 •Set up an organized “mail” system in the classroom
One of my main goals for next year is to keep more closely with my goal of conferencing with each student once per week. I created a form this year to track my conferences and have recorded conferences more like once every other week. I do know that I have brief conversations with students about their writing a lot more often than that. I think I need an organized way to track those conversations that I don’t record as a conference. Often a student will bring me a piece of writing, read it to me, and I will give a quick comment but not keep track and I think that I would probably find that there are many students who have a brief conversation nearly every day and some others that only conference with me when I specifically call them up.
I would also like to carve out time to share writing every day. We are often in such a hurry to get started with our next activity that I don’t take the time to let a student or two share their writing. I don’t really want to go to a schedule for sharing because I would like the flexibility of students sharing when they really have something to share. I do, however, need to find a way to keep track of who has had a chance to share so that I am not overlooking some of the students. I also want to make a more conscious effort to model thoughtful feedback early in the school year and give the students more practice in giving their own feedback to their peers.
During my Daily 5 time I try to take 10 minutes when we change activities to give a short whole group lesson. Next year I need to try harder to make at least three of these per week focus on writing. Right now I catch myself trying to squeeze in the HM reading lessons and wind up running out of time for a mini-lesson on writing.
My students this year really got caught up in writing letters during the 3rd quarter. They are becoming very prolific writers because they are so excited about writing to a peer and getting a response. I would like to develop some type of organized classroom mail system. I could add a class job that would allow a student to take care of the mail every day if I set up a mailbox and a place for students to receive mail.
This was my first on-line class! It expanded my knowledge and gave me more digital skills. I had an opportunity to explore what virtual learning is about and I liked it! Missing the human interaction” at first, soon, I was able to see many advantages of using bogging to communicate and collaborate. No I feel confident to start an ESL Teacher and Tutor groups to continue working with the ESL staff using digital tools I have learned.
Reading the book (great book!), having discussions, writing, receiving and giving feedback expanded my perspective on writing today. I will try using many ideas I have learned in this class in my work. The disadvantage of not having my own classroom will not prevent me from implementing what I have learned. I plan to share what I have learned with my colleagues.
One of my goals next year is to bring middle and high school ESL teachers together to discuss the writing teaching issues and to develop the common language in order to support the future freshmen in their transition into high school. I will facilitate the meeting where ESL teachers will share instructional experiences regarding successful approaches in teaching writing (6+1 Traits, the Writing Process, Conferencing, etc) with the emphasis on authentic writing tasks, writing across content areas, using a variety of genre. I will stress the importance of revision (student peer editing), and the possibilities of technology in motivating student creativity and collaboration.
I will definitely share the strategies from the “Writing Matters…” with the emphasis on application in ESL classroom, definitely, focusing on both instructional and assessment rubrics. I will encourage HS ESL teachers to use this book for the professional reading study group and start blogging on the ASD Moodle.
Teaching writing to ELL is not just focusing on the basic literacy and technical skills. The English language learners need rigor and support to be able to express their thinking. Meaningful writing tasks and daily practice will help them learn and improve their writing proficiency.
This class has provided me with the opportunity to reflect on my own personal views of writing: the benefits, the needs, the dilemmas, the parts that make up the whole, etc. The class was delightfully inspiring in the ideas put forth, the articles presented, and the encouragement and commiseration of fellow teachers who struggle to improve writing in their classrooms.
This semester, I re-created a classroom blog I’d started a few years back. My plan is to collaborate with neighboring schools to bring a wider audience for student writing. This also opens us up to critique outside the classroom, which can be a real motivator. I’m excited about the potential offered here for publishing as well as I’ve discovered some blogs that students can post book reviews and receive feedback from all over the country. All in all, I hope to use more technology in my classroom.
Like Shirlie, I took will incorporate the 11 key elements and the 30 Ideas for Teaching Writing. I will also refer to the book Because Writing Matters as I’ve highlighted, bent pages, and *d key ideas and data to remind me. I’ve also organized the articles in a folder that I can easily refer to, and refer others to…
For the personal narrative, I challenged myself to tell story none other could tell---I took that risk I’m always encouraging students to do. This was a story that I felt compelled to just tackle---through the tears, fears, and brow-sweating moments. That I did it, even though it’s only the “first chapter,” I feel both proud and relieved. An emotional purging I needed! I so appreciated my writing group of “cheerleaders.” They taught me I could trust my audience and provided valuable feedback.
Another one of my goals for next year will be to enlist and encourage other secondary teachers to use writing in their classrooms regardless of their content area. I will share some of the research and ideas presented in this class. We will have a change of 2 teachers and a new principal next year, so I am hopeful for a renewed focus and embrace that Writing Does Matter!
This class has given me an opportunity to spend some much-needed time reflecting on how I teach writing, and through the readings and discussion I’ve been given much to consider. Overall, I think the first and most important thing I am going to add into my writing curriculum is the use of peer and self-assessment. These have been two areas I’ve continually struggled with, but this class has given me some good resources to use in these areas and has really gotten me thinking that peer and self-assessment are too valuable as tools to not be using them regularly in my classroom. The “creating effective peer response workshops” webpage is awesome and will be very useful to me as I take on this project.
Secondly, I am definitely going to use many of the National Writing Project ideas. I think that #5 is going to become my beginning of the year “ice-breaker” assignment. I love the idea of having students create ABC books about themselves and then having those lists generate meaningful vocabulary.
I am also going to use my own writing more often in my classroom; in a number of our readings that is mentioned as particularly meaningful. I’ve done this in the past. When I was teaching out in villages I wrote a model paper and/or we did a shared paper as a class for every writing assignment we did. I’ve somehow gotten away from that practice here in Anchorage and I want to get back to it. Not only did I find it enjoyable, but I also think I saw really good results and got better writing from my students when they were able to observe me writing.
Another thing I am going to incorporate is more inquiry-based assignments. I am teaching a Teen Issues elective class next year that I think will be particularly suited to inquiry-based writing, so I am looking forward to that. Along with doing more inquiry-based writing, I also want to develop instructional rubrics. I like the idea of having the students design them, as well; however, that may be for the year after next...
Lastly, I’m looking forward to the continued use of technology, as well as some possible additions. I still really like the idea of a classroom blog, and may try that with my Teen Issues class, as well. I’ll continue using Google Docs, too, which I have had a lot of success with since I started using it just a few weeks ago. Right now I have all my 9th graders doing projects and submitting them electronically. Pretty cool. I find that reading and responding electronically to students is much easier than trying to read and respond to a paper copy. I’m hoping this project will be successful so that I can continue to develop activities for next year using Google Docs.
This class has definitely made me reflect on how I teach writing and has given me practical ideas to improve my instruction. Writing is hard. Teaching writing may be even harder. I feel like I have many good elements in place, but this class has exposed even more layers in the process that I need to address. I’m looking forward to trying some new things out next year, especially on my next batch of unsuspecting 9th graders.
Implementation Paper (400 words) By Linda Thompson
Next year I hope to make my reading and writing classes a little more exciting and fun for my students. This class has opened up my thought to new ideas for use of more technology in class, games, story starters, fill in the blank stories, sharing writing between students, students analyzing others writing, grade free writing, fun writing, praise and editing. As far as use of standards, I have used them for years in setting up my IEP goals and objectives for each of my students. Now I better understand how this fits into the regular education curriculum.
Technology in this class has opened up some new doors for me. The NING group and the bloging in this class made me realized there were several new things I could start to do to enhance my teaching environment. I learned how to do a google-doc assignment, how to down size photos to attach in a google-doc and email a power point assignment. I am at present learning how to set up a blog for my students to write each other. If other high school students have benefited, I am sure my students will want to also write each other. Even though my students are special needs, they would enjoy technology, especially if allowed to communicate with each other.
I have wanted to use story starters, other easy but fun ideas and rubrics ever since other teachers mentioned them in this class. I’m not sure why I didn’t think about it until last week, but I finally googled for ideas, and found a wealth of information was freely available right on the web. I am already using them with success and will continue to use them next year.
As to what I have learned about my own writing, I found I still like to do it. I stopped writing when my last book was published and the economy declined in 2007-8. Why write if the book sales were so minimal? By being required to write again, it made me think about trying a novel. I have already started the outline, character descriptions, and new to be created towns in Alaska. I think I will look into ebook publishing.
Over all, I am glad I took this class. It has helped my outlook as a teacher, and given me direction in my teaching for 2011 and 2012. After I retire in May of 2012, it has given me a purpose and direction for what I will do.
Implementation Plan for Writing Wish list •Incorporate daily writing in the content area •Regularly lead peer editing sessions. Really train the class to be give helpful and meaningful feedback •Complete the Six Traits curriculum by the end of second quarter •Take 3 pieces of writing through the process each quarter •Conference with each student once a week. •Teach each of the forms in HM at least once throughout the year. •Model, model, model •Be consistent with rubrics •Mentor texts
Implementation: I feel a little guilty as I look at my wish list. Shouldn’t I be doing this always? It seems with other curriculum choices that have been implemented recently, writing has been pushed to the side. It is now my health of yesteryear. Good for a Friday afternoon, when I have a sub, or the assembly I was counting on is canceled. I need to make it a priority and I need to be more comfortable and confident in my own writing. I think that this class has given me a number of resources that I can use to work towards my wish list for next year. Sara and I will continue to develop a scope and sequence using familiar routines and scaffolding so the students are not starting over when they get to her. I will also be using the "30 Ideas for Teaching Writing" from the Nation Writing Project so the students will be introduced and then in 5th grade really be able to soar. My main goal will be everyday and consistently. I go through cycles throughout the school year. When I look back in my students’ journals I am always amazed by how much writing we do at the beginning of the year but how it fades out. I need to work on keeping the momentum going. Because having the time to review 50 journals is daunting I am starting a “kidsblog.” During our weekly trips to the lab I will give the students a topic and then be able to respond to them, more readily and quickly then hauling the 50 journals home, not reading them, hauling them back to school. Avoiding writing for days because I haven’t responded. I think the electronic version will be much easier for me to get to. Fourth quarter in fourth grade this year is going to be focused on writing. I want to get going while I am excited about writing and have all the resources fresh in my head. Plus there is so much to write about this time of year, I am excited to get (re)started!
Write more myself. Whether or not I share it with my students, I think that I will try to write more for myself and to discover (or maybe re-discover) my own “voice.” In my personal life, I hope it can be an incomparable resource and record of what are sure to be some fast-paced years. As a tool for reflection, my own writing about teaching can give me insight into how I might change, revise, and keep perspective about my students and my classroom. I think that it will force me to step back from the day-to-day rush and keep track of the things that are priorities, instead of getting sucked into meaningless minutiae. Keeping a written record or journal of my teaching days will also help me to cut through the stacks of sticky note reminders because if I take the time to craft a written reflection, and then come back to it, it will stick in my brain in a way that is far more permanent than if I write it in a “disposable” manner to begin with.
Give students timely feedback. I have spent a little bit of time this year incorporating peer-feedback into my classroom’s writing process. I think that I need to spend more time requiring them to craft a “rough” draft that is meaningful enough to receive some concentrated feedback. At the end, I need to do a better job of providing conference time or at least written comments on students’ final draft work. I find that I read, grade, and enter scores into the grade book, and then stack them in piles under my desk with the best of intentions; where they stay for weeks or months. I need to close that feedback loop in all of my classes.
Combine short and long writing assignments. While I will continue to ask students to produce written works in classic “essay” format, I think that I will try to incorporate more frequent short, concise, high-quality written requirements into my curriculum. Often the short assignments I give are casual, brainstorming-type assignments and then I ask students to work the little pieces into a longer written expression. The effort to really craft a well-written document (in whatever format seems appropriate) should be a part of teaching them to find their voice in world increasingly dominated by technology that does not require a lengthy conversation, but rather expects a brief synopsis or distillation of information in a coherent manner.
1. Continue to use the six traits of writing as a model for instruction starting at the beginning of the year and stay consistent with it. 1. Introduce trait, discuss 2. Read mentor texts, examples of quality children’s literature that exemplifies the trait 3. Discussion of rubrics 4. Practice scoring of peer papers 5. Write
2. Do more fast writes based on meaningful events in student’s life. Beyond the “What I Did for my Summer Vacation” paper. These are ungraded, unpublished, teacher-read only pieces of student writing.
3. I’d like to establish a classroom mail system. In the beginning of my career I used class mailboxes in the primary grades, and for a while, when teaching a 4/5 split, but I haven’t used them in many years with my fifth graders. There is, of course, the note passing and writing, all about who likes who, and who’s “going out” with whom? What does that even mean when you’re ten?
A classroom mail system could give them a venue for expressing their feelings, still knowing the teacher will read it. I think this will cut down on the frivolous silly note writing and give way to real thoughts.
4. I liked the idea in the 30 ideas piece of having students write about themselves using the alphabet. Thanks to my partner of the last two years, we now incorporate a couple of ABC presentations into our science and social studies. We are so fortunate to have ample access to our computer lab and this could be another one of those. Possibly, because it’s more personal, they won’t be so quick to just copy and paste from the web.
5. I don’t know how many times I will have to be shown by experience, either mine or a colleague’s, that you can’t do enough modeling. In real estate it’s location. In teaching, its modeling. I really would like to incorporate a whole lot more modeling into my daily instruction. I do a lot with grammar, math, organizational skills (planner), but never with a subject in which I can actually model process. I would love to record the process of my writings for this class. My revisions, etc. This is what the students need to see. I want to do this with their writing instruction more. Model my own process through a similar assignment. Both as a fifth grader and as an adult.
6. Because I’m going to save this and look back over it throughout next year, I want to include that I need to do my “Silly Sentences” activity. It is a lesson for word choice, alliteration and ideas.
Students write a 6 word sentence using the same beginning sound for all the words. Eventually these are published in a classroom book with an illustration for each sentence. Kids love coming through and seeing their older brother’s or sister’s silly sentence!
7. In our classroom we have the Circle of Power and Respect morning meetings. On the days we have sharing I would like to implement the 3 sentence rule.
Students have to tell their stories in three concise sentences.
I tell the story of how, when I was a young child 7-8 years old, my widowed father would make me wait to share my events of the day at the family dinner, until I could do so in three concise sentences. He was a busy man, worked hard all day, and just didn’t want to listen to the endless ramblings of an eight year old. When I tell people this, frequently they are appalled by the oppressive nature of that, etc. As I grow older and my life experiences broaden, I find I am served quite well by having developed this skill. I think it’s a great idea to introduce it during our morning sharing, when almost everyone is anxious to share with the group at that point. The activity would have a more direct impact in this setting and everyone would be involved.
8. Last in this list but certainly not the least important, is peer editing. I will admit I’ve tried this unsuccessfully and therefore have dropped it in the past. Through this class I have had some input and gained some materials that will assist me in improving the success of peer editing in my classroom. I want to incorporate this into my writing instruction, starting early in the year so routines can be established. I do very well with individual conferences and use them to the best of my ability. Given the time restraints we are asked to accommodate in elementary school, it is impossible to do as much one on one with your students as you would like. I think that a working routine of peer editing would shorten the time I have to conference with students because of obvious errors, making it possible for me to see each student more often.
This seems like a long list, full of high aspirations, but it’s a guide and something to motivate me in the coming year. I am fortunate to have a wonderful school, with a fabulous principal. We have made writing one of our goals for improvement, and I am glad that I have taken this class so I have new ideas and skills to bring to our school-wide endeavor to improve our students’ writing.
This is my first online/virtual class, and I readily enjoyed it! Although I missed going into a classroom to discuss writing, it was also exciting to picture Alaskans in various places around the state, all sharing writing ideas, concerns, realizations… Next year, I plan to do some things differently as a result of this class. First and foremost, I will write more myself. I forgot to look at myself as a writer! How ridiculous. The more I wrote, the more I was able to identify things in my own writing (or lack of things) that I expect my students to do. How easy it is to say, “Use stronger verbs,” but when completing my own writing, I often neglect to use my best writing skills. This class helped me see myself as a writer, not just a writing teacher. Another change I will make is to assign more “casual” writing. In week two or three, I wrote, “What is the point of assigning writing if you cannot provide rich feedback to students?” Sondra replied that the point was to practice being writers. It made me realize I’ve been trying to provide my students with an abundance of feedback, and that I was not having them write as much as a result of that pressure. Since that week, I have had my students write a haiku, and a brief descriptive paragraph that I knew I was not going to grade. Wow! I had some read their poems aloud to the class, and then the paragraph was exchanged with a peer at their table group. And then they simply put them into their two-pocket folders. Not graded! What a feeling of freedom to be okay with that. And they enjoyed the practice. Lastly, another change I would like to implement would be to have a more open mind in regard to mandated curriculum. The articles we read helped me look at myself a little more in depth, and consider whether I’m one of those entrenched, bitter, my-way-or-the-highway teachers. Thankfully, I don’t think I am. (Whew!) But even if I’m not on that end of the spectrum, I must admit that I do find myself looking with skepticism at curriculums presented by others. I would like to work harder next year to listen and learn from others. Overall, this class has helped me in more ways than I would have guessed. It has also helped me remember why I love to teach writing --- because I love to write.
One of the main things that I struggled with before starting the Virtual Writing Consortium was getting my students interested in writing and helping them to improve their own views of writing. Many of my students would often times refuse to write or would have a hard time beginning to write about a specified topic. What I didn’t realize was that my students didn’t have a background in writing. They grew up in a culture that valued other forms of communication and in a school setting where writing was kind of put on the back burner in curriculum development. As the year went on I just became more and more frustrated with this lack of background knowledge and I started to wonder how I could better develop my students into writers.
Through the Virtual Consortium I was able to gather different techniques and strategies to help my students become writers and also to help myself, as their teacher become a better resource for them. Something that I found most helpful were the individual groups that we became a part of. The strategies that the fellow members of my groups were able to provide were most helpful. I found that having this collaborative group allowed for expansion of ideas that were mentioned in the virtual readings. I really enjoyed implementing some of the ideas in my classroom. One idea that was very helpful was using guided story outlines. My students‘ struggles with sequencing story events is very hard for me to come up with a solution to. Through keeping them on track by giving them transition sentences and a better idea of story mapping at work I was able to get stories that made sense.
I will also begin using more of the 6+1 Writing Traits. I have tried to use this model during the school year. I didn’t understanding how to best use the 6+1 Writing Traits. I am now able to better grasp how to use them. Another strategy that I would like to implement would be using peer editing in my class. My students are very hesitant and beginning to get them more comfortable with editing their own work as well as other’s work has been a struggle. I like the idea of using rubrics to assist them in this process. I look forward to helping my students become better writers.
Implementation Paper I feel fortunate to have taken this class this particular semester because I have reached a point in my teaching career where I need to reexamine a lot of the ways I do things. Both to refresh my own motivation and to keep up with new research that has revealed better ways to teach kids, this is the year I am changing just about everything. I really liked the ning experience and am already thinking of many applications for classes. I am considering putting my Language Arts 11 kids into ning groups of 4-5 from the beginning of the year and requiring them to run their drafts of major papers through their peer editing groups online. My hope would be that would cut down on the hours one could spend correcting minor grammatical and spelling errors in work that is supposed to be junior level.
I found lots of good ideas in “Because Writing Matters”. Many of these ideas we already know but often forget in the hectic day to day of teaching. A good example of this is found on p. 41. “Some content needs to come from home and community realities. When content is grounded in this way, we can expect high-quality product.” I know I tend to fall so in love with literature that I forget to return to reality and have the kids write about their own experience. The wonderful memoirs that you all wrote reminded me of the rich experiences and stories we all have. I may do a memoir project with my own classes next year.
I also found the checklist for administrators interesting and useful. It was designed to help administrators determine whether a teacher is “assigning writing” or “teaching writing”, but it will help me determine the answer to this important question for myself. One technique I have been meaning to do for years is editing for a specific kind of error instead of trying to correct every mechanical error. When writing is “taught”, according to the book, “Some errors are corrected for a specific assignment.” I plan on implementing this idea starting in the fall, focusing on fragments one assignment, spelling the next, etc.
Also, I must get serious about scheduling writing conferences with every kid every week. You can get so much more feedback to the writer in a 5 minute face to face than any amount of written comments, circles and question marks on an essay.
This class has been an opportunity to reexamine WHY we teach writing and what we hope to accomplish coaching writing with our students. It’s easy in the day-to-day rhythms of teaching to lose sight of the objective of giving our students the tools to communicate. Although I’ve always had the sense that developing student writers shouldn’t be left solely to English teachers, the course really validated the concept of writing across the curriculum.
I also found that the class has broken me out of a comfort zone and reinvigorated my enthusiasm for coaching writing. I love making grammar exciting for my students, and I try hard to integrate grammatical concepts into simple terms ( I wish that I had had two pieces of wire to demonstrate the wire splicing analogy from “30 Ideas for Teaching Writing” when discussing coordinating conjunctions during our sentence correction start-up activity this morning). However, an insight this class has given me is to try to weave the various elements of writing into our overall school day. For example, when we read as a group, I’ve sometimes broken in to make an observation about the writer’s technique. Although we discuss and apply the writing process, I think it’s valuable for students to see how other writers ply their craft. When we read, we can analyze the work in writing terms, not just in traditional thematic and literary terms.
I’ve never been comfortable with students as peer reviewers of other student writers. However, the articles in the Week Seven readings provided some concrete tips, procedures, and honest discussion of the potential as well as the pitfalls of peer evaluation. Further, I really appreciated the feedback that members of my Ning group provided to my narrative paper. All of this inspires me to try peer evaluation with my students. We often have low functioning students and sometimes have personality dynamics that call for very careful group assignments, but I think this is a process that can help our students to become better writers. It reminds of a technique that the substitute instructor used in a college calculus I once took. About fifteen minutes before the end of the period he would say, “I’ve taught you all that I can at this point in the evening. You’ll teach each other better than I can teach you.” Then, we’d all head to the white boards and practice that day’s problems and concepts in groups of three or four. Peer review is similar process that can help students to construct writing process knowledge. I’m now a believer.
Lastly, I think people, including students, have more opportunities write and do write more than ever before. The Internet, texting, social network sites, blogging, and email produce more writing than stationery and typewriters ever did. We’ve tended to teach writing in a pure form that mostly exists in classrooms and that most students will probably not use much after they leave the education arena. However, writing is dynamic, it’s part of life, and it’s vital to human communication. I always try to make what I teach relevant to life beyond the classroom, but this class has solidified the insight that writing is exploding across the lives of teens and young adults. We, as teachers, can show students how to effectively communicate in the writing genres that they use every day. Writing is thinking we can touch...
I do love playing with words: speaking them, reading them, writing them, and hearing them. It has been fun watching our words multiply during this class, from all of our well-versed fingertips. While I’ve appreciated the convenience of my laptop, I think I would have enjoyed pairing your words with your faces and your voices, in a face-to-face classroom setting. With such “virtual” flexibility, however, I admit that without the structure of school, the looks of disappointment or approval, I have not felt the same pressure I’m used to helping me get my work done on time. Above all, the biggest difference between this class and the classes that I took in college is that we are professionals at work, reflecting together about our practice. Instead of taking our speculation and optimism straight from research we read, we have had the opportunity to share our comparisons of experience and application in our respective classrooms. I have really valued the perspectives of the members of the class, who are from such a variety of places and points of view. Unlike “regular” classrooms, in which usually only the professor reads the work of the students, I have enjoyed the sharing between everyone. I have enjoyed being published. Maybe I will consider creating a blog. Actually, please note- I will be submitting my Virtual Tour tonight. Check out my classroom, and maybe I’ll keep up the online writing henceforth. The most valuable piece of experience I am taking with me to my practice is the wonderful world of knowledge, know-how, and advice out there for anyone to dig out- gems that are not as buried as they seemed before. In the hectic daily grind, I forget sometimes that I’m not the first person to do this. There is such a wealth of ideas on the internet, with so many resources at my hard-working hands. I think this class has shown me some great sources for further exploration and professional advancement. It has been an enriching experience in many ways. I have read the texts and the posts. I have evaluated my writing. I have considered what I am currently doing as I teach writing and what I need to try to do better. I have enjoyed writing as an art form and as an exercise in thinking and expressing myself clearly. I have practiced being credible and approachable, disagreeable and respectful, extroverted and introspective, and I have found it to be a beneficial way to build those skills that will help me be a better colleague.
Taking this class has been an eye opening experience, which made me realize how ignorant I had been about teaching to write in my classroom. My repertoire before this class exclusively included all of the things that were said as “ineffective” in the book, “Because Writing Matters.” I was shocked, but at the same time, I learned that my students weren’t really “writing.”
This class also put me in the position of being a struggling student in writing. It was difficult for me to see my writing piece worth sharing with others (I still don’t feel fully comfortable with this). Though I learned that I had to just do it by trying to keep writing a bit longer or more as the time went by. When our teacher, Sondra, gave us positive messages and open-ended ideas on the blog or on e-mails, it was very encouraging. This was a valuable lesson, especially when I think about the students who are not writing much in our program.
My over-all-goal from now on will be to instill the idea in students that writing is a process and anyone can be a writer. I am considering restructuring my lessons so that there is at least one 30 minutes and one 15 minutes blocks weekly when students engage in journaling. I am also I will also continue to have dialogues with intermediate ELL teachers to collect ideas for authentic real-world journaling in second language. I am hoping this will eliminate just doing fill-in-the blanks and drills for the sake of “skill practice” ---if they are to do those type of work, I will make sure they have connections to students interests AND are extended to different work which involves more authentic writing process.
In addition, for a short-term goal, I would like to rearrange my classroom environment so that it encourages students to revise their writing pieces over time. I would like to focus on creating a supportive atmosphere of peer revising in small groups, as well as individual conference (at first once a month, though I know weekly would serve the purpose better). For a start, I will use the literature circle for a place to share writing works.
Finally, I want to become a writer myself by doing the work I am requiring for students each time I assign a work. When I expect my students to be writers, I must first be a writer.
After switching to fifth grade (after just two years of teaching, and those two years spent in 3rd grade) this year, I have been rather overwhelmed this year getting used to a different curriculum as well as adjusting to the capabilities of my students. I suppose I was also rather preoccupied with things going on in my own life, such as being excitedly pregnant for the first time ever... Needless to say, I have not accomplished nearly as much as what I wanted to this year, but through taking this class I have narrowed my focus a bit on what is important to me in my teaching of writing next year - which summed up very concisely is to write!
I need to make more time for writing in my teaching. I need to integrate it wherever I can, and because good writing can be accomplished across the content areas, so no matter what I do - I plan to do just that: incorporate it into whatever we are learning about in Reading & Social Studies! In addition to that, I would like to write more with my students, make writing more of a priority, share more writing, talk about writing more, and I think part of the key to all of this is to make time for writing in my own life. I honestly believe that until I make more time for writing in my personal life, I cannot and likely will not make the time that writing needs in my classroom. One motivation I have is that while I know I will be sleep deprived and exhausted in a few short weeks (when my daughter is born), I also will never forgive myself if I do not somehow find the time to write about the experiences she will bring to our family’s life. So I will find the time, somehow, someway, to begin writing more so that I can document all the experiences we will have - and that will help me become more of a writer, which will enable me to become a better teacher of writing...I hope!
Here are just a few goals that I have come up with for next year, but I am sure I will come up with more just in the next few days and/or weeks!
Goals for next year:
* Use all of the "30 Ideas for Teaching Writing" from the Nation Writing Project! (Not really, but there are so many that I found motivating! Like #11 - use casual talk about students' lives (in the form of weekend headlines! to generate writing, or #13 - practice and play with revision techniques...doesn't that just make revision sound so much more interesting and fun?!) Realistically - implement a sort of "Writer's Notebook" (concept borrowed from Notebook Know-How by Aimee Buckner) from the beginning of the year wherein students will write frequently - and be used as a starting point for writing mini/focus lessons throughout the year as well as a reference for writing tools we learn about all year. * Use modeling more effectively from the beginning of the year through the end of the year. Many of our readings have focused on how we need to model writing for our students as well as be an example of a writer - I love writing, I just need to do it more with/in front of students (as well as at home)! Perhaps I can make a time each night before I go to sleep where I WRITE instead of read... * Another thing I would like to do is plan more with my colleague that has the students below me, so that we are using more familiar structures that students will see year after year and benefit from. * I would also like to use each of the writing genres that are embedded/presented in each of the six themes of the Houghton Mifflin curriculum my district uses, because while they are not the best writing components that were ever created - they are a good start that is unified both across the district and throughout the grade levels at the school level - and I think that it would be a great way to begin using familiar language and structures that would better benefit the students over the course of a few years. It would also guarantee that they are at least exposed to the different basic types of genres of descriptive writing, a personal essay, a story, a personal narrative, a research report, and a persuasive essay.
I’ve learned so much from these past few months. This was my first on-line class, and my first class with the ASWC. During this time, I created a virtual tour of my classroom, started a personal blog AND a classroom blog, published my own writing and that of students, reconnected with “old” colleagues, delved into the latest best practices and writing research, got to read and critique some amazing pieces from my fellow classmates, and benefited from the critiques of those same classmates. Wow!
I have mentioned a few times, to my partner, that I’ve become a better teacher this year. It’s my 11th year, but I was definitely in a bit of a rut. I feel energized by this whole process, and am surprised the class is almost done.
One goal I have is creating a writing workshop with my students. I have small groups of students, so it would be fairly easy to implement. I feel like they’re already getting the idea behind it, with the blogs, so I would just need to use some of the resources I’ve gotten during the class and organize it. I will continue to use the technology as a tool because it is so motivating to students to share their writing in this way. I’d like to model it after this class, having a reading response section, and a personal writing section as well. The possibilities are vast.
Another goal I have is to re-think the “grading” on the students’ writing. I might experiment with having the workshop on a “non-grade” basis, and simply give them a participation grade for the gradebook. I agree that giving their writing a final grade neither encourages them to revise, nor offers them any ideas on HOW to revise.
A third goal I have is continuing my own writing. I’ve taken a few unfinished pieces this year and worked with them, even overcame fear of publishing and put them on line. I even created a few new pieces. I feel fortunate to live in a time when self-publishing is so easy. I’m not completely over the fear of truly personal writing, but I’ve come a long way this year. One thing I’ll take from this forum is the blogspot sharing of writing among colleagues. It is important for my students to see that I’m participating in these kinds of exchanges with my own writing.
This has been an amazing learning experience for me, and one that will continue to motivate my and my students’ writing in years to come.
Recently a colleague from a different school asked about this on-line course from the Alaska State Writing Consortium and I replied that “I wrote a poem”. That is my big take-away and I feel proud of myself. Proud that I experimented with a different medium and one that I typically resist. Not only did I experiment with poetry during this course, my high school students did as well. Some students even entered their poems in the Anchorage Daily News creative writing contest. Next year I will write more with the students. There is a connection between writer and writer that is inspirational for the students – or seems to be with my students. The difficulty for me is getting the writing finished. I’ve started numerous writings with the students, but get caught up in working with them and don’t get mine finished. One successful experiment that I plan to continue next year is a blog. I had no idea how I could use blogs in my classroom, until this course. I liked reading what other students had to say and interacting with them electronically. Sondra, the instructor’s role, was more fluid than an all-knowing sage and very participatory. I liked reading her comments and contributions. I just finished a blog with my high school students. We read The Great Gatsby and instead of doing the usual pencil / paper question and answer – they blogged. I wrote an introductory paragraph and then asked them to answer questions, interact with each other, and pose questions. For higher order thinking tasks, they worked in small groups and posted as one. It was dynamic and very motivating. Next year, I hope to take the blog idea and apply it to independent reading. I’ve looked at shelfari.com as a possible medium. I’m also thinking about small group feedback on a current piece of writing. There’s lots of ways to go with blogs. The biggest joy of experimenting with the blog this year was reading the positive student interactions. They were just getting the idea of pushing or challenging each other. Next year, I’d also like to do more assessment and more follow-up with assessment. I plan to re-read Nancy Atwell’s In the Middle this summer with one of my PLC colleagues. I think the workshop approach will be effective on getting the assessment piece to my language arts instruction. Whew, next year is so next year! Writing has typically been an area of weakness on standardized tests with my students. I think I learned a lot in this course and have a lot to chew on and apply to next year.
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ReplyDeleteMeghan Redmond
ReplyDeleteImplementation Paper
Writing Matters: Spring 2011
When I signed up for this class, I wasn’t sure what to expect. It is the first online class I have ever completed, and this intimidated me a bit. However, just having the class online has actually taught me quite a bit about writing and about teaching writing. I have always struggled with how to teach the necessary writing skills when trying to integrate the use of technology into my writing curriculum. This class has given me the skills I need to do this. I have been inspired to use blog in my writing curriculum, something that I will continue to do next year as well. Right now, I am using a blog for daily journaling and silent reading logs. Next, year I will expand my blog to include posting writing assignments for peer editing and publication. I have seen huge improvements in my students writing since implementing the blogs. They are now realizing that their writing is not just for themselves and me, it is for anyone to see. They now take more pride in what they write, how they write, and how much they write. It has developed a greater awareness of that what they write and how they write actually matters. This is something that has truly helped my reluctant writers.
From this class, I have also gathered a huge list of great tips from my fellow teachers. Some of the best ideas didn’t come from the readings, but from teachers sharing what they do in their classrooms. Being in a two teacher school, this sharing is something I have been craving! I came from teaching in a 36 teacher school, to Twin Hills. It was a huge culture shock, and I have found that I miss this collaboration. I especially will use the tip of a check-list for writing assignments. My plan is to create these for each of my writing units and for each of the 6+1 Traits. My students need that structure that these lists will bring.
One last thing I have been able to take away from this class and use in my classroom next year is to see myself as a writer. I need to show my students that I am a writer and that each one of them is a writer. I never thought of myself as that before, and I know my students do not think of themselves as that either.
Implementation Paper
ReplyDeleteThis class has made me look at my teaching practices and evaluate those that work, those that need tweaking, dropped altogether, and the adding of completely new techniques.
I will continue teaching the writing process but will change or add the following:
• begin teaching peer editing at the beginning of the year but in much smaller increments as suggested by Sara Pock
• continue to use anchor/mentor text to model good writing and each of the traits I want students to focus on
• continue genre writing
• give the students time to free write; no focus I don’t do enough of this
• make sure students are writing across the curriculum
• drop teaching grammar in isolation; use the idea of mini lessons that connect directly with their writing; current practice is the teaching of grammar and expecting it to carry over into their writing and actually know how to use it
• continue using a 6 traits writing rubric to evaluate student writing
• continue having students use the six traits rubric to evaluate their own writing
• use more technology; our District has Gmail set up for all students as well as blogs to be used; I currently use Gmail mainly with my reading students
I found the 11 key elements to be helpful. I will use them as a guide to strengthen or change how I teach the writing process. One idea that I tried and found to be successful was the collaborative writing. I just did a short writing assignment to test it out for the first time and I found that two of my more reluctant writers became more enthusiastic and confident.
I realize I have listed several ideas for change in my classroom but since I do writer’s workshop I don’t think it will be difficult to make some of the changes. I am excited about incorporating some of the ideas from “30 Ideas for Teaching Writing”. Number 6 piqued my interest to do with my readers.
I think the biggest changes in the teaching of writing in my classroom will be the opportunity for students to write without a focus along with giving them a consistent time each day to record their thoughts. I will also be more diligent in monitoring peer editing conferences. I will do extensive modeling with this aspect of the writing process as I believe it is a skill they really need to hone not just for sixth grade but for the future.
My Ideas for Next Year
ReplyDeleteThis class has raised my confidence as a writing teacher. I have taught at very small schools where I am the only English teacher, and I have often questioned whether I’m doing a good job teaching writing skills. I thought I was, but there’s always that nagging doubt. I have based my teaching on the NWREL website, using it for model papers, having the students practice giving feedback (No, “I liked it” is not helpful feedback!), and using some of their lesson plans. I will continue using that resource.
One thing that I do want to do more of next year is to give the students ample opportunities for informal writing. I get caught up in following the entire writing process from beginning to end. I don’t let them just write for fun enough. I’ve already started. This week we wrote cinquain poems with the kindergarten class and made an art project out of them. They had fun focusing on a project with just a few words in it and selecting their words carefully.
Something that I have emphasized this year that was reinforced in this class is developing a common language of writing for the purposes of discussing and revising papers. Now, I can discuss “word choice” and “sentence fluency” with my students, and they know what I mean. This especially helps during the revision process.
I also want to collaborate with other teachers about teaching and assessing writing skills. I worked with my husband on several writing projects for his science class. The students were surprised when 6-traits rubrics started showing up, “Hey, this isn’t English class.” I also worked with the upper elementary teacher on 6-traits lessons.
I love teaching writing. I’ve been fortunate to teach at schools where reading and writing are taught as separate subjects, and I’ve been able to spend focused time on writing instruction. I have seen improvement in my students’ writing because of the time we spend together. I know we are supposed to teach “writing across the curriculum,” and I try to in my social studies class, BUT nothing beats an uninterrupted time of solid writing instruction. In my other content classes, I’m always focused on getting through the content, and writing assignments that include writing instruction take class time.
Next year I will try to :
ReplyDelete•Keep more closely to my goal of conferencing with each student once per week
•Increase sharing time and focus more on peer feedback at this time
•Incorporate more mini-lessons on writing during Daily 5
•Set up an organized “mail” system in the classroom
One of my main goals for next year is to keep more closely with my goal of conferencing with each student once per week. I created a form this year to track my conferences and have recorded conferences more like once every other week. I do know that I have brief conversations with students about their writing a lot more often than that. I think I need an organized way to track those conversations that I don’t record as a conference. Often a student will bring me a piece of writing, read it to me, and I will give a quick comment but not keep track and I think that I would probably find that there are many students who have a brief conversation nearly every day and some others that only conference with me when I specifically call them up.
I would also like to carve out time to share writing every day. We are often in such a hurry to get started with our next activity that I don’t take the time to let a student or two share their writing. I don’t really want to go to a schedule for sharing because I would like the flexibility of students sharing when they really have something to share. I do, however, need to find a way to keep track of who has had a chance to share so that I am not overlooking some of the students. I also want to make a more conscious effort to model thoughtful feedback early in the school year and give the students more practice in giving their own feedback to their peers.
During my Daily 5 time I try to take 10 minutes when we change activities to give a short whole group lesson. Next year I need to try harder to make at least three of these per week focus on writing. Right now I catch myself trying to squeeze in the HM reading lessons and wind up running out of time for a mini-lesson on writing.
My students this year really got caught up in writing letters during the 3rd quarter. They are becoming very prolific writers because they are so excited about writing to a peer and getting a response. I would like to develop some type of organized classroom mail system. I could add a class job that would allow a student to take care of the mail every day if I set up a mailbox and a place for students to receive mail.
This was my first on-line class! It expanded my knowledge and gave me more digital skills. I had an opportunity to explore what virtual learning is about and I liked it! Missing the human interaction” at first, soon, I was able to see many advantages of using bogging to communicate and collaborate. No I feel confident to start an ESL Teacher and Tutor groups to continue working with the ESL staff using digital tools I have learned.
ReplyDeleteReading the book (great book!), having discussions, writing, receiving and giving feedback expanded my perspective on writing today. I will try using many ideas I have learned in this class in my work. The disadvantage of not having my own classroom will not prevent me from implementing what I have learned. I plan to share what I have learned with my colleagues.
One of my goals next year is to bring middle and high school ESL teachers together to discuss the writing teaching issues and to develop the common language in order to support the future freshmen in their transition into high school. I will facilitate the meeting where ESL teachers will share instructional experiences regarding successful approaches in teaching writing (6+1 Traits, the Writing Process, Conferencing, etc) with the emphasis on authentic writing tasks, writing across content areas, using a variety of genre. I will stress the importance of revision (student peer editing), and the possibilities of technology in motivating student creativity and collaboration.
I will definitely share the strategies from the “Writing Matters…” with the emphasis on application in ESL classroom, definitely, focusing on both instructional and assessment rubrics. I will encourage HS ESL teachers to use this book for the professional reading study group and start blogging on the ASD Moodle.
Teaching writing to ELL is not just focusing on the basic literacy and technical skills. The English language learners need rigor and support to be able to express their thinking. Meaningful writing tasks and daily practice will help them learn and improve their writing proficiency.
Implementation Paper
ReplyDeleteThis class has provided me with the opportunity to reflect on my own personal views of writing: the benefits, the needs, the dilemmas, the parts that make up the whole, etc. The class was delightfully inspiring in the ideas put forth, the articles presented, and the encouragement and commiseration of fellow teachers who struggle to improve writing in their classrooms.
This semester, I re-created a classroom blog I’d started a few years back. My plan is to collaborate with neighboring schools to bring a wider audience for student writing. This also opens us up to critique outside the classroom, which can be a real motivator. I’m excited about the potential offered here for publishing as well as I’ve discovered some blogs that students can post book reviews and receive feedback from all over the country. All in all, I hope to use more technology in my classroom.
Like Shirlie, I took will incorporate the 11 key elements and the 30 Ideas for Teaching Writing. I will also refer to the book Because Writing Matters as I’ve highlighted, bent pages, and *d key ideas and data to remind me. I’ve also organized the articles in a folder that I can easily refer to, and refer others to…
For the personal narrative, I challenged myself to tell story none other could tell---I took that risk I’m always encouraging students to do. This was a story that I felt compelled to just tackle---through the tears, fears, and brow-sweating moments. That I did it, even though it’s only the “first chapter,” I feel both proud and relieved. An emotional purging I needed! I so appreciated my writing group of “cheerleaders.” They taught me I could trust my audience and provided valuable feedback.
Another one of my goals for next year will be to enlist and encourage other secondary teachers to use writing in their classrooms regardless of their content area. I will share some of the research and ideas presented in this class. We will have a change of 2 teachers and a new principal next year, so I am hopeful for a renewed focus and embrace that Writing Does Matter!
This class has given me an opportunity to spend some much-needed time reflecting on how I teach writing, and through the readings and discussion I’ve been given much to consider. Overall, I think the first and most important thing I am going to add into my writing curriculum is the use of peer and self-assessment. These have been two areas I’ve continually struggled with, but this class has given me some good resources to use in these areas and has really gotten me thinking that peer and self-assessment are too valuable as tools to not be using them regularly in my classroom. The “creating effective peer response workshops” webpage is awesome and will be very useful to me as I take on this project.
ReplyDeleteSecondly, I am definitely going to use many of the National Writing Project ideas. I think that #5 is going to become my beginning of the year “ice-breaker” assignment. I love the idea of having students create ABC books about themselves and then having those lists generate meaningful vocabulary.
I am also going to use my own writing more often in my classroom; in a number of our readings that is mentioned as particularly meaningful. I’ve done this in the past. When I was teaching out in villages I wrote a model paper and/or we did a shared paper as a class for every writing assignment we did. I’ve somehow gotten away from that practice here in Anchorage and I want to get back to it. Not only did I find it enjoyable, but I also think I saw really good results and got better writing from my students when they were able to observe me writing.
Another thing I am going to incorporate is more inquiry-based assignments. I am teaching a Teen Issues elective class next year that I think will be particularly suited to inquiry-based writing, so I am looking forward to that. Along with doing more inquiry-based writing, I also want to develop instructional rubrics. I like the idea of having the students design them, as well; however, that may be for the year after next...
Lastly, I’m looking forward to the continued use of technology, as well as some possible additions. I still really like the idea of a classroom blog, and may try that with my Teen Issues class, as well. I’ll continue using Google Docs, too, which I have had a lot of success with since I started using it just a few weeks ago. Right now I have all my 9th graders doing projects and submitting them electronically. Pretty cool. I find that reading and responding electronically to students is much easier than trying to read and respond to a paper copy. I’m hoping this project will be successful so that I can continue to develop activities for next year using Google Docs.
This class has definitely made me reflect on how I teach writing and has given me practical ideas to improve my instruction. Writing is hard. Teaching writing may be even harder. I feel like I have many good elements in place, but this class has exposed even more layers in the process that I need to address. I’m looking forward to trying some new things out next year, especially on my next batch of unsuspecting 9th graders.
Implementation Paper (400 words)
ReplyDeleteBy Linda Thompson
Next year I hope to make my reading and writing classes a little more exciting and fun for my students. This class has opened up my thought to new ideas for use of more technology in class, games, story starters, fill in the blank stories, sharing writing between students, students analyzing others writing, grade free writing, fun writing, praise and editing. As far as use of standards, I have used them for years in setting up my IEP goals and objectives for each of my students. Now I better understand how this fits into the regular education curriculum.
Technology in this class has opened up some new doors for me. The NING group and the bloging in this class made me realized there were several new things I could start to do to enhance my teaching environment. I learned how to do a google-doc assignment, how to down size photos to attach in a google-doc and email a power point assignment. I am at present learning how to set up a blog for my students to write each other. If other high school students have benefited, I am sure my students will want to also write each other. Even though my students are special needs, they would enjoy technology, especially if allowed to communicate with each other.
I have wanted to use story starters, other easy but fun ideas and rubrics ever since other teachers mentioned them in this class. I’m not sure why I didn’t think about it until last week, but I finally googled for ideas, and found a wealth of information was freely available right on the web. I am already using them with success and will continue to use them next year.
As to what I have learned about my own writing, I found I still like to do it. I stopped writing when my last book was published and the economy declined in 2007-8. Why write if the book sales were so minimal? By being required to write again, it made me think about trying a novel. I have already started the outline, character descriptions, and new to be created towns in Alaska. I think I will look into ebook publishing.
Over all, I am glad I took this class. It has helped my outlook as a teacher, and given me direction in my teaching for 2011 and 2012. After I retire in May of 2012, it has given me a purpose and direction for what I will do.
Implementation Plan for Writing
ReplyDeleteWish list
•Incorporate daily writing in the content area
•Regularly lead peer editing sessions. Really train the class to be give helpful and meaningful feedback
•Complete the Six Traits curriculum by the end of second quarter
•Take 3 pieces of writing through the process each quarter
•Conference with each student once a week.
•Teach each of the forms in HM at least once throughout the year.
•Model, model, model
•Be consistent with rubrics
•Mentor texts
Implementation:
I feel a little guilty as I look at my wish list. Shouldn’t I be doing this always? It seems with other curriculum choices that have been implemented recently, writing has been pushed to the side. It is now my health of yesteryear. Good for a Friday afternoon, when I have a sub, or the assembly I was counting on is canceled.
I need to make it a priority and I need to be more comfortable and confident in my own writing.
I think that this class has given me a number of resources that I can use to work towards my wish list for next year. Sara and I will continue to develop a scope and sequence using familiar routines and scaffolding so the students are not starting over when they get to her. I will also be using the "30 Ideas for Teaching Writing" from the Nation Writing Project so the students will be introduced and then in 5th grade really be able to soar.
My main goal will be everyday and consistently. I go through cycles throughout the school year. When I look back in my students’ journals I am always amazed by how much writing we do at the beginning of the year but how it fades out. I need to work on keeping the momentum going.
Because having the time to review 50 journals is daunting I am starting a “kidsblog.” During our weekly trips to the lab I will give the students a topic and then be able to respond to them, more readily and quickly then hauling the 50 journals home, not reading them, hauling them back to school. Avoiding writing for days because I haven’t responded. I think the electronic version will be much easier for me to get to.
Fourth quarter in fourth grade this year is going to be focused on writing. I want to get going while I am excited about writing and have all the resources fresh in my head. Plus there is so much to write about this time of year, I am excited to get (re)started!
Next year I will. . .
ReplyDeleteWrite more myself. Whether or not I share it with my students, I think that I will try to write more for myself and to discover (or maybe re-discover) my own “voice.” In my personal life, I hope it can be an incomparable resource and record of what are sure to be some fast-paced years. As a tool for reflection, my own writing about teaching can give me insight into how I might change, revise, and keep perspective about my students and my classroom. I think that it will force me to step back from the day-to-day rush and keep track of the things that are priorities, instead of getting sucked into meaningless minutiae. Keeping a written record or journal of my teaching days will also help me to cut through the stacks of sticky note reminders because if I take the time to craft a written reflection, and then come back to it, it will stick in my brain in a way that is far more permanent than if I write it in a “disposable” manner to begin with.
Give students timely feedback. I have spent a little bit of time this year incorporating peer-feedback into my classroom’s writing process. I think that I need to spend more time requiring them to craft a “rough” draft that is meaningful enough to receive some concentrated feedback. At the end, I need to do a better job of providing conference time or at least written comments on students’ final draft work. I find that I read, grade, and enter scores into the grade book, and then stack them in piles under my desk with the best of intentions; where they stay for weeks or months. I need to close that feedback loop in all of my classes.
Combine short and long writing assignments. While I will continue to ask students to produce written works in classic “essay” format, I think that I will try to incorporate more frequent short, concise, high-quality written requirements into my curriculum. Often the short assignments I give are casual, brainstorming-type assignments and then I ask students to work the little pieces into a longer written expression. The effort to really craft a well-written document (in whatever format seems appropriate) should be a part of teaching them to find their voice in world increasingly dominated by technology that does not require a lengthy conversation, but rather expects a brief synopsis or distillation of information in a coherent manner.
Here's my implementation paper in two parts.
ReplyDeleteIMPLEMENTATION PAPER
Next year in writing I will:
1. Continue to use the six traits of writing as a model for instruction starting at the beginning of the year and stay consistent with it.
1. Introduce trait, discuss
2. Read mentor texts, examples of quality children’s literature that exemplifies the trait
3. Discussion of rubrics
4. Practice scoring of peer papers
5. Write
2. Do more fast writes based on meaningful events in student’s life. Beyond the “What I Did for my Summer Vacation” paper. These are ungraded, unpublished, teacher-read only pieces of student writing.
3. I’d like to establish a classroom mail system. In the beginning of my career I used class mailboxes in the primary grades, and for a while, when teaching a 4/5 split, but I haven’t used them in many years with my fifth graders. There is, of course, the note passing and writing, all about who likes who, and who’s “going out” with whom? What does that even mean when you’re ten?
A classroom mail system could give them a venue for expressing their feelings, still knowing the teacher will read it. I think this will cut down on the frivolous silly note writing and give way to real thoughts.
4. I liked the idea in the 30 ideas piece of having students write about themselves using the alphabet.
Thanks to my partner of the last two years, we now incorporate a couple of ABC presentations into our science and social studies. We are so fortunate to have ample access to our computer lab and this could be another one of those. Possibly, because it’s more personal, they won’t be so quick to just copy and paste from the web.
Implementation paper part two.
ReplyDelete5. I don’t know how many times I will have to be shown by experience, either mine or a colleague’s, that you can’t do enough modeling. In real estate it’s location. In teaching, its modeling. I really would like to incorporate a whole lot more modeling into my daily instruction. I do a lot with grammar, math, organizational skills (planner), but never with a subject in which I can actually model process. I would love to record the process of my writings for this class. My revisions, etc. This is what the students need to see. I want to do this with their writing instruction more. Model my own process through a similar assignment. Both as a fifth grader and as an adult.
6. Because I’m going to save this and look back over it throughout next year, I want to include that I need to do my “Silly Sentences” activity. It is a lesson for word choice, alliteration and ideas.
Students write a 6 word sentence using the same beginning sound for all the words. Eventually these are published in a classroom book with an illustration for each sentence. Kids love coming through and seeing their older brother’s or sister’s silly sentence!
7. In our classroom we have the Circle of Power and Respect morning meetings. On the days we have sharing I would like to implement the 3 sentence rule.
Students have to tell their stories in three concise sentences.
I tell the story of how, when I was a young child 7-8 years old, my widowed father would make me wait to share my events of the day at the family dinner, until I could do so in three concise sentences. He was a busy man, worked hard all day, and just didn’t want to listen to the endless ramblings of an eight year old. When I tell people this, frequently they are appalled by the oppressive nature of that, etc. As I grow older and my life experiences broaden, I find I am served quite well by having developed this skill. I think it’s a great idea to introduce it during our morning sharing, when almost everyone is anxious to share with the group at that point. The activity would have a more direct impact in this setting and everyone would be involved.
8. Last in this list but certainly not the least important, is peer editing. I will admit I’ve tried this unsuccessfully and therefore have dropped it in the past. Through this class I have had some input and gained some materials that will assist me in improving the success of peer editing in my classroom. I want to incorporate this into my writing instruction, starting early in the year so routines can be established. I do very well with individual conferences and use them to the best of my ability. Given the time restraints we are asked to accommodate in elementary school, it is impossible to do as much one on one with your students as you would like. I think that a working routine of peer editing would shorten the time I have to conference with students because of obvious errors, making it possible for me to see each student more often.
This seems like a long list, full of high aspirations, but it’s a guide and something to motivate me in the coming year. I am fortunate to have a wonderful school, with a fabulous principal. We have made writing one of our goals for improvement, and I am glad that I have taken this class so I have new ideas and skills to bring to our school-wide endeavor to improve our students’ writing.
Implementation Paper
ReplyDelete~ Amy Lloyd
This is my first online/virtual class, and I readily enjoyed it! Although I missed going into a classroom to discuss writing, it was also exciting to picture Alaskans in various places around the state, all sharing writing ideas, concerns, realizations…
Next year, I plan to do some things differently as a result of this class. First and foremost, I will write more myself. I forgot to look at myself as a writer! How ridiculous. The more I wrote, the more I was able to identify things in my own writing (or lack of things) that I expect my students to do. How easy it is to say, “Use stronger verbs,” but when completing my own writing, I often neglect to use my best writing skills. This class helped me see myself as a writer, not just a writing teacher.
Another change I will make is to assign more “casual” writing. In week two or three, I wrote, “What is the point of assigning writing if you cannot provide rich feedback to students?” Sondra replied that the point was to practice being writers. It made me realize I’ve been trying to provide my students with an abundance of feedback, and that I was not having them write as much as a result of that pressure. Since that week, I have had my students write a haiku, and a brief descriptive paragraph that I knew I was not going to grade. Wow! I had some read their poems aloud to the class, and then the paragraph was exchanged with a peer at their table group. And then they simply put them into their two-pocket folders. Not graded! What a feeling of freedom to be okay with that. And they enjoyed the practice.
Lastly, another change I would like to implement would be to have a more open mind in regard to mandated curriculum. The articles we read helped me look at myself a little more in depth, and consider whether I’m one of those entrenched, bitter, my-way-or-the-highway teachers. Thankfully, I don’t think I am. (Whew!) But even if I’m not on that end of the spectrum, I must admit that I do find myself looking with skepticism at curriculums presented by others. I would like to work harder next year to listen and learn from others.
Overall, this class has helped me in more ways than I would have guessed. It has also helped me remember why I love to teach writing --- because I love to write.
Implementation Paper:
ReplyDeleteOne of the main things that I struggled with before starting the Virtual Writing Consortium was getting my students interested in writing and helping them to improve their own views of writing. Many of my students would often times refuse to write or would have a hard time beginning to write about a specified topic. What I didn’t realize was that my students didn’t have a background in writing. They grew up in a culture that valued other forms of communication and in a school setting where writing was kind of put on the back burner in curriculum development. As the year went on I just became more and more frustrated with this lack of background knowledge and I started to wonder how I could better develop my students into writers.
Through the Virtual Consortium I was able to gather different techniques and strategies to help my students become writers and also to help myself, as their teacher become a better resource for them. Something that I found most helpful were the individual groups that we became a part of. The strategies that the fellow members of my groups were able to provide were most helpful. I found that having this collaborative group allowed for expansion of ideas that were mentioned in the virtual readings. I really enjoyed implementing some of the ideas in my classroom. One idea that was very helpful was using guided story outlines. My students‘ struggles with sequencing story events is very hard for me to come up with a solution to. Through keeping them on track by giving them transition sentences and a better idea of story mapping at work I was able to get stories that made sense.
I will also begin using more of the 6+1 Writing Traits. I have tried to use this model during the school year. I didn’t understanding how to best use the 6+1 Writing Traits. I am now able to better grasp how to use them. Another strategy that I would like to implement would be using peer editing in my class. My students are very hesitant and beginning to get them more comfortable with editing their own work as well as other’s work has been a struggle. I like the idea of using rubrics to assist them in this process. I look forward to helping my students become better writers.
Implementation Paper
ReplyDeleteI feel fortunate to have taken this class this particular semester because I have reached a point in my teaching career where I need to reexamine a lot of the ways I do things. Both to refresh my own motivation and to keep up with new research that has revealed better ways to teach kids, this is the year I am changing just about everything. I really liked the ning experience and am already thinking of many applications for classes. I am considering putting my Language Arts 11 kids into ning groups of 4-5 from the beginning of the year and requiring them to run their drafts of major papers through their peer editing groups online. My hope would be that would cut down on the hours one could spend correcting minor grammatical and spelling errors in work that is supposed to be junior level.
I found lots of good ideas in “Because Writing Matters”. Many of these ideas we already know but often forget in the hectic day to day of teaching. A good example of this is found on p. 41. “Some content needs to come from home and community realities. When content is grounded in this way, we can expect high-quality product.” I know I tend to fall so in love with literature that I forget to return to reality and have the kids write about their own experience. The wonderful memoirs that you all wrote reminded me of the rich experiences and stories we all have. I may do a memoir project with my own classes next year.
I also found the checklist for administrators interesting and useful. It was designed to help administrators determine whether a teacher is “assigning writing” or “teaching writing”, but it will help me determine the answer to this important question for myself. One technique I have been meaning to do for years is editing for a specific kind of error instead of trying to correct every mechanical error. When writing is “taught”, according to the book, “Some errors are corrected for a specific assignment.” I plan on implementing this idea starting in the fall, focusing on fragments one assignment, spelling the next, etc.
Also, I must get serious about scheduling writing conferences with every kid every week. You can get so much more feedback to the writer in a 5 minute face to face than any amount of written comments, circles and question marks on an essay.
This class has been an opportunity to reexamine WHY we teach writing and what we hope to accomplish coaching writing with our students. It’s easy in the day-to-day rhythms of teaching to lose sight of the objective of giving our students the tools to communicate. Although I’ve always had the sense that developing student writers shouldn’t be left solely to English teachers, the course really validated the concept of writing across the curriculum.
ReplyDeleteI also found that the class has broken me out of a comfort zone and reinvigorated my enthusiasm for coaching writing. I love making grammar exciting for my students, and I try hard to integrate grammatical concepts into simple terms ( I wish that I had had two pieces of wire to demonstrate the wire splicing analogy from “30 Ideas for Teaching Writing” when discussing coordinating conjunctions during our sentence correction start-up activity this morning). However, an insight this class has given me is to try to weave the various elements of writing into our overall school day. For example, when we read as a group, I’ve sometimes broken in to make an observation about the writer’s technique. Although we discuss and apply the writing process, I think it’s valuable for students to see how other writers ply their craft. When we read, we can analyze the work in writing terms, not just in traditional thematic and literary terms.
I’ve never been comfortable with students as peer reviewers of other student writers. However, the articles in the Week Seven readings provided some concrete tips, procedures, and honest discussion of the potential as well as the pitfalls of peer evaluation. Further, I really appreciated the feedback that members of my Ning group provided to my narrative paper. All of this inspires me to try peer evaluation with my students. We often have low functioning students and sometimes have personality dynamics that call for very careful group assignments, but I think this is a process that can help our students to become better writers. It reminds of a technique that the substitute instructor used in a college calculus I once took. About fifteen minutes before the end of the period he would say, “I’ve taught you all that I can at this point in the evening. You’ll teach each other better than I can teach you.” Then, we’d all head to the white boards and practice that day’s problems and concepts in groups of three or four. Peer review is similar process that can help students to construct writing process knowledge. I’m now a believer.
Lastly, I think people, including students, have more opportunities write and do write more than ever before. The Internet, texting, social network sites, blogging, and email produce more writing than stationery and typewriters ever did. We’ve tended to teach writing in a pure form that mostly exists in classrooms and that most students will probably not use much after they leave the education arena. However, writing is dynamic, it’s part of life, and it’s vital to human communication. I always try to make what I teach relevant to life beyond the classroom, but this class has solidified the insight that writing is exploding across the lives of teens and young adults. We, as teachers, can show students how to effectively communicate in the writing genres that they use every day. Writing is thinking we can touch...
Eleanor Stoltz
ReplyDeleteImplementation Paper
April 4, 2011
I do love playing with words: speaking them, reading them, writing them, and hearing them. It has been fun watching our words multiply during this class, from all of our well-versed fingertips. While I’ve appreciated the convenience of my laptop, I think I would have enjoyed pairing your words with your faces and your voices, in a face-to-face classroom setting. With such “virtual” flexibility, however, I admit that without the structure of school, the looks of disappointment or approval, I have not felt the same pressure I’m used to helping me get my work done on time. Above all, the biggest difference between this class and the classes that I took in college is that we are professionals at work, reflecting together about our practice. Instead of taking our speculation and optimism straight from research we read, we have had the opportunity to share our comparisons of experience and application in our respective classrooms. I have really valued the perspectives of the members of the class, who are from such a variety of places and points of view. Unlike “regular” classrooms, in which usually only the professor reads the work of the students, I have enjoyed the sharing between everyone. I have enjoyed being published. Maybe I will consider creating a blog. Actually, please note- I will be submitting my Virtual Tour tonight. Check out my classroom, and maybe I’ll keep up the online writing henceforth.
The most valuable piece of experience I am taking with me to my practice is the wonderful world of knowledge, know-how, and advice out there for anyone to dig out- gems that are not as buried as they seemed before. In the hectic daily grind, I forget sometimes that I’m not the first person to do this. There is such a wealth of ideas on the internet, with so many resources at my hard-working hands. I think this class has shown me some great sources for further exploration and professional advancement.
It has been an enriching experience in many ways. I have read the texts and the posts. I have evaluated my writing. I have considered what I am currently doing as I teach writing and what I need to try to do better. I have enjoyed writing as an art form and as an exercise in thinking and expressing myself clearly. I have practiced being credible and approachable, disagreeable and respectful, extroverted and introspective, and I have found it to be a beneficial way to build those skills that will help me be a better colleague.
Taking this class has been an eye opening experience, which made me realize how ignorant I had been about teaching to write in my classroom. My repertoire before this class exclusively included all of the things that were said as “ineffective” in the book, “Because Writing Matters.” I was shocked, but at the same time, I learned that my students weren’t really “writing.”
ReplyDeleteThis class also put me in the position of being a struggling student in writing. It was difficult for me to see my writing piece worth sharing with others (I still don’t feel fully comfortable with this). Though I learned that I had to just do it by trying to keep writing a bit longer or more as the time went by. When our teacher, Sondra, gave us positive messages and open-ended ideas on the blog or on e-mails, it was very encouraging. This was a valuable lesson, especially when I think about the students who are not writing much in our program.
My over-all-goal from now on will be to instill the idea in students that writing is a process and anyone can be a writer. I am considering restructuring my lessons so that there is at least one 30 minutes and one 15 minutes blocks weekly when students engage in journaling. I am also I will also continue to have dialogues with intermediate ELL teachers to collect ideas for authentic real-world journaling in second language. I am hoping this will eliminate just doing fill-in-the blanks and drills for the sake of “skill practice” ---if they are to do those type of work, I will make sure they have connections to students interests AND are extended to different work which involves more authentic writing process.
In addition, for a short-term goal, I would like to rearrange my classroom environment so that it encourages students to revise their writing pieces over time. I would like to focus on creating a supportive atmosphere of peer revising in small groups, as well as individual conference (at first once a month, though I know weekly would serve the purpose better). For a start, I will use the literature circle for a place to share writing works.
Finally, I want to become a writer myself by doing the work I am requiring for students each time I assign a work. When I expect my students to be writers, I must first be a writer.
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ReplyDeleteAfter switching to fifth grade (after just two years of teaching, and those two years spent in 3rd grade) this year, I have been rather overwhelmed this year getting used to a different curriculum as well as adjusting to the capabilities of my students. I suppose I was also rather preoccupied with things going on in my own life, such as being excitedly pregnant for the first time ever... Needless to say, I have not accomplished nearly as much as what I wanted to this year, but through taking this class I have narrowed my focus a bit on what is important to me in my teaching of writing next year - which summed up very concisely is to write!
ReplyDeleteI need to make more time for writing in my teaching. I need to integrate it wherever I can, and because good writing can be accomplished across the content areas, so no matter what I do - I plan to do just that: incorporate it into whatever we are learning about in Reading & Social Studies! In addition to that, I would like to write more with my students, make writing more of a priority, share more writing, talk about writing more, and I think part of the key to all of this is to make time for writing in my own life. I honestly believe that until I make more time for writing in my personal life, I cannot and likely will not make the time that writing needs in my classroom. One motivation I have is that while I know I will be sleep deprived and exhausted in a few short weeks (when my daughter is born), I also will never forgive myself if I do not somehow find the time to write about the experiences she will bring to our family’s life. So I will find the time, somehow, someway, to begin writing more so that I can document all the experiences we will have - and that will help me become more of a writer, which will enable me to become a better teacher of writing...I hope!
Here are just a few goals that I have come up with for next year, but I am sure I will come up with more just in the next few days and/or weeks!
Goals for next year:
* Use all of the "30 Ideas for Teaching Writing" from the Nation Writing Project! (Not really, but there are so many that I found motivating! Like #11 - use casual talk about students' lives (in the form of weekend headlines! to generate writing, or #13 - practice and play with revision techniques...doesn't that just make revision sound so much more interesting and fun?!)
Realistically - implement a sort of "Writer's Notebook" (concept borrowed from Notebook Know-How by Aimee Buckner) from the beginning of the year wherein students will write frequently - and be used as a starting point for writing mini/focus lessons throughout the year as well as a reference for writing tools we learn about all year.
* Use modeling more effectively from the beginning of the year through the end of the year. Many of our readings have focused on how we need to model writing for our students as well as be an example of a writer - I love writing, I just need to do it more with/in front of students (as well as at home)! Perhaps I can make a time each night before I go to sleep where I WRITE instead of read...
* Another thing I would like to do is plan more with my colleague that has the students below me, so that we are using more familiar structures that students will see year after year and benefit from.
* I would also like to use each of the writing genres that are embedded/presented in each of the six themes of the Houghton Mifflin curriculum my district uses, because while they are not the best writing components that were ever created - they are a good start that is unified both across the district and throughout the grade levels at the school level - and I think that it would be a great way to begin using familiar language and structures that would better benefit the students over the course of a few years. It would also guarantee that they are at least exposed to the different basic types of genres of descriptive writing, a personal essay, a story, a personal narrative, a research report, and a persuasive essay.
Implementation Paper
ReplyDeleteI’ve learned so much from these past few months. This was my first on-line class, and my first class with the ASWC. During this time, I created a virtual tour of my classroom, started a personal blog AND a classroom blog, published my own writing and that of students, reconnected with “old” colleagues, delved into the latest best practices and writing research, got to read and critique some amazing pieces from my fellow classmates, and benefited from the critiques of those same classmates. Wow!
I have mentioned a few times, to my partner, that I’ve become a better teacher this year. It’s my 11th year, but I was definitely in a bit of a rut. I feel energized by this whole process, and am surprised the class is almost done.
One goal I have is creating a writing workshop with my students. I have small groups of students, so it would be fairly easy to implement. I feel like they’re already getting the idea behind it, with the blogs, so I would just need to use some of the resources I’ve gotten during the class and organize it. I will continue to use the technology as a tool because it is so motivating to students to share their writing in this way. I’d like to model it after this class, having a reading response section, and a personal writing section as well. The possibilities are vast.
Another goal I have is to re-think the “grading” on the students’ writing. I might experiment with having the workshop on a “non-grade” basis, and simply give them a participation grade for the gradebook. I agree that giving their writing a final grade neither encourages them to revise, nor offers them any ideas on HOW to revise.
A third goal I have is continuing my own writing. I’ve taken a few unfinished pieces this year and worked with them, even overcame fear of publishing and put them on line. I even created a few new pieces. I feel fortunate to live in a time when self-publishing is so easy. I’m not completely over the fear of truly personal writing, but I’ve come a long way this year. One thing I’ll take from this forum is the blogspot sharing of writing among colleagues. It is important for my students to see that I’m participating in these kinds of exchanges with my own writing.
This has been an amazing learning experience for me, and one that will continue to motivate my and my students’ writing in years to come.
Recently a colleague from a different school asked about this on-line course from the Alaska State Writing Consortium and I replied that “I wrote a poem”. That is my big take-away and I feel proud of myself. Proud that I experimented with a different medium and one that I typically resist. Not only did I experiment with poetry during this course, my high school students did as well. Some students even entered their poems in the Anchorage Daily News creative writing contest.
ReplyDeleteNext year I will write more with the students. There is a connection between writer and writer that is inspirational for the students – or seems to be with my students. The difficulty for me is getting the writing finished. I’ve started numerous writings with the students, but get caught up in working with them and don’t get mine finished.
One successful experiment that I plan to continue next year is a blog. I had no idea how I could use blogs in my classroom, until this course. I liked reading what other students had to say and interacting with them electronically. Sondra, the instructor’s role, was more fluid than an all-knowing sage and very participatory. I liked reading her comments and contributions. I just finished a blog with my high school students. We read The Great Gatsby and instead of doing the usual pencil / paper question and answer – they blogged. I wrote an introductory paragraph and then asked them to answer questions, interact with each other, and pose questions. For higher order thinking tasks, they worked in small groups and posted as one. It was dynamic and very motivating.
Next year, I hope to take the blog idea and apply it to independent reading. I’ve looked at shelfari.com as a possible medium. I’m also thinking about small group feedback on a current piece of writing. There’s lots of ways to go with blogs. The biggest joy of experimenting with the blog this year was reading the positive student interactions. They were just getting the idea of pushing or challenging each other.
Next year, I’d also like to do more assessment and more follow-up with assessment. I plan to re-read Nancy Atwell’s In the Middle this summer with one of my PLC colleagues. I think the workshop approach will be effective on getting the assessment piece to my language arts instruction.
Whew, next year is so next year! Writing has typically been an area of weakness on standardized tests with my students. I think I learned a lot in this course and have a lot to chew on and apply to next year.