Entry #12

      I have learned a lot about reading, writing and myself this semester and I think that keeping this reading and writing blog was part of it.  This blog has in on away or another helped me meet many of the students learning outcomes.  The blog was  a way that I could reflect on our readings and class discussion.  This met the learning outcomes that address genres, theoretical models or reading and writing, relationship between reading and writing process, meta cognition of writing types of reading and writing assignments.  Many of our readings focused on the outcomes listed above, the blog was a way for me to connect these concepts to own life, and share those connections with with classmates.  I also think that these connections and being able to write abut them made this learning more meaningful which will help me to apply the many different things I learned to my future classroom.  The blog my classmates kept also helped me, by reading their thoughts extended my own thinking.  This made me think of collaboration  that happens in schools when teams of teachers work together on a topic or problem.
       
          I learned something I wasn't expecting to, I learned a slot about myself as a writer and a teacher.  I do actually enjoy writing, In previous posts I expressed a dislike of writing.  I figured out that this dislike grew out of what it was like to hand in a piece of my writing for a grade.  I would go through the writing process, peer edits, and teacher conferences then still not get a good grade.  This frustration eventually grew into dislike.  From this blog/course I can say that I actually do like writing for fun it is the stress of grades that made me dislike it. How this revelation helped me because I don't want my students to feel the same way.  This is where I think that writing workshop and paying attention to student interest comes in.  With a general over arching theme in place students can work on a topic that interests them but still fit into writing instruction.

         I gained a lot from this course because I think the hardest thing to teach are the topics we aren't interested in.  This course has pushed me outside of my comfort zone when it comes to writing, which has forced me to grow as a teacher.  I have also learned many new tools and strategies to use in the future when I am teaching writing in my own classroom.

Entry #11

 When I think about writing I don’t think that I am good at it , and I usually avoid it because I don’t really enjoy it.  So at the beginning of this course I was nervous that my struggles would hinder my ability to learn the genres to best benefit my students.  As we moved through the semester however I gained more confidence in each genre.  I also gained a unique look into each genre that I think will benefit me as I start to form lessons to teach my students so that they don’t have the same struggles I myself have in writing.  I think that I have learned more about genres specifically through this course then I have all my different reading/writing experiences in the past.

          The genres I knew at the beginning of class that I knew well I would list narrative, descriptive and biography.  These genres were the ones that I have used the most and enjoyed the most because they fall into my personal interest of social studies most of the time.  While I had a good grasp of each I also have learned much more about each one.  Narrative is much more than just sitting down and writing in your own voice.  You have to consider all the different aspects of what a narrative is.  Same with biography and descriptive, I had a good grasp of the genre as a reader which net me up to absorb everything given to us to become a good writer as well.

          I struggled with poetry as genre both as a writer and a teacher at the beginning of this course.  I found it to be the most intimidating genre.  There were so many different types of poetry, with so many different forms that it can take, how was I going to be able to teach them all?  I also found poetry to be intimidating because of the creativity behind it,  I don’t find myself creative or artsy how could I expect my students to do what I didn’t think I could?  After watching the presentation on poetry and having Dr. Jones introduce different forms I have many more ideas about how to make poetry much more accessible to students.  The If I ruled the world poem and the I am poems I now see that there are many form poems that can be introduced for the students to use, it will ease them in and allow the students who like me were intimated to still participate. I also pick up something from working in a first grade classroom since September, the teacher introduces a poem a week, they discuss it and students have to illustrate it.  I think that this helps by making poetry they see every day and not so scary. 

          I think that all the other genres make sense to me as a writer which is the first step to teaching it to students.  Then looking into all the packets that the groups created with mentor texts, graphic organizers and different strategies will move onto create the best lessons to engage students.  I think that each presentation has helped to set me up to create a writing workshop that can teach each genre and foster students independence so that they can be writers on their own, and not dread it like I do. My own feeling about writing are what intimidate me about teaching it,  I want my students to enjoy putting their ideas on paper. 

Entry # 10

   " Giving students choice is something that we have talked about in class and a topic I've addressed in previous posts, however, this idea of passion and students having opportunities to write about things that they are interested in exploring connects to a writer's voice." While reading through my classmates blogs I found this quote in Jamie's entry.  It was he response to our other classmate Lindsay addressing students voice in writing.  This quote in particular struck me because every class in literacy that I have had so far has had some focus on student interest.  And the more time that I spend in schools the more I see how students choice can fall to the wayside in the rush to get everything else done. I think that student choice plays a huge rule in student engagement and motivation.  Think about it we have all had to do those assignment that we have not connection to but instead just do for the sake of the grade. I don't know about you guys but for me I didn't take away much from assignments like that, and I didn't put my best effort into my work either.  There was a lack of passion,  which Jamie address in the quote above.  How can we as teachers expect our students to learn as much as possible an engage fully with an assignment when we know full well how we have done in the past in our own educational careers?

     This idea of interest, passion and engagement all come back to the idea of authentic experiences with text.  Something that I had never thought about in depth before I got to graduate school. We as teacher have to create a classroom that allows students to interact with text in an authentic manner, meaning that it fits into the real world and their real lives.  This also comes down to writing that matches up with how they write and fits into the real world.  I think that this is where writing workshop really comes into play.  The way writing workshop and digital writing workshop are discussed in Hicks(2009) and Tompkins(2012).  Both want students to choose what they are writing about and work through the writing process at their on pace.  This will allow students to work on a piece and become truly involved with thier project not just do it to get it done.

   After listening to all the differnet genre presentions and seeing all the different ways that we can help kids to interact with and create text of all different types.  The more I think about it the more I think that the only way to achieve this is to create a writing workshop enviornment where kids want to work together and feel comfortable.  If students feel comfortable and understand that everyone is different and everyone is in different places in their writing process.  I have always known that for me creating the most comfrotable and safe enviornment for my students was my main goal when I start teaching and I think that is what sets the foundation for successful writing workshop as well as everything in the classroom.

   

Entry #9

       For class last week we had to read Tompkins (2009) chapter on expository texts to prepare. As part of this preparation we also had to bring in examples to use during class, this was when I realized how many different types of expository texts students encounter every day. There are so many difference in them and there are so many topics that they could cover. I think that this variety is what makes the task of teaching expository texts so overwhelming. During the lesson Dr. Jones brought to our attention that we need to stop and focus on modeling and explanation of how to read expository texts. This step is a most when exploring expository texts before we can expect students to pull information out of the text and fill in the graphic organizer like we used to explore our books during class.


       I have been observing a working with a first grade class since the beginning of the year and i have seen firsthand how important this modeling step is. The teacher of this group has modeled everything and anything you can think of that impact their day in the classroom. She has created an environment that after 2 months that an outsider would see as full of independent workers that function well as a group. Now, to apply that to expository texts, I have seen the students pull information out of their read aloud books without any issue, but when it came to reading an expository text on their own they have much more difficulty. To help address this the teacher was meeting with guided reading groups and mini lessons, where she goes through nonfiction texts structures as they read. I had the opportunity to lead one on these groups; we worked on the different structures that appeared in their text. We covered captions, labels, glossary, heading, and bold words. We discussed what each thing was and what it was used for in the text and how it helps you to understand what information is important. We practiced identifying them in the text and explaining what they do in our own words. There were able to pick up the features easily but it was harder for them to understand how they were useful during reading. To help with understanding we talked about nonfiction texts and why they were important and then the specifically important information from the text we were currently reading. I still don't think that these students would be able to fill out a graphic organizer on their own yet; they would need much more modeling. These experiences of mine support the point that Dr. Jones raise about how complexity of the text is the first that we have to tackle before we get to content.
          I have also considered this as I plan my genre presentation with my partner because writing new types of pieces can be quiet the challenge and the first step we really need to focus on is modeling and scaffolding. Once that has been established the form of writing can be addressed and students can start to write with in that genre. I think that my experiences in the younger grades so far this year has truly emphasized that importance of quality modeling so students have the best example possible when learning new things.

Entry #8

             We are over half way through the semester and I have to say I didn’t really know what I was getting myself into taking so many classes at the same time.  At points the work for the courses has been overwhelming but at the same time it has been really interesting because the concepts of every course are really intertwined.  With that being said I have been reading through my classmates blogs for today’s entry and I found this quote from Kelly P.’s blog, “It is imperative for teachers to break down the reading process at an early age and then teach whole language as the students grow older. As learners, it is more beneficial for us to learn from part to whole; similarly, the writing process is taught in the same way. First students learn their letters and sounds and then acquire the ability to write words, sentences and paragraphs. The more literacy events a student encounters the more proficient he/she will become as a reader and writer.”   Kelly’s statement sums up my feelings on what I have learned over the course of the semester. Everything is connected and that learning to read is a process, and so is writing.  This also connects to my literacy in the content areas course, we can practice the same skills and strategies that are taught during ELA and writing workshop in the content areas to continue literacy education.

The quote from Kelly’s blog also brought to light how much I have learned this semester about literacy as a whole.  At first literacy to me was just being able to read and make meaning from what is being read.  I now understand that it is truly so much more.  Dr. Jones has made it especially clear throughout our class that the writing process is also an important part of being a literate person.  The ability to communicate comes from being able to make meaning from the text we read on a page as well as how we help to make meaning for others as they read from a page.     

This changed view of literacy has helped to understand what role I play as an educator in helping students to reach their potential when it comes to reading and writing.  I think how Kelly summed it up in blog that each is a process is the perfect way to look at learning to read and write, and we as educators are the facilitators of this learning when kids hit a snag.  I know that this is something that I will take away from my graduate program.  This has also helped me understand that while I think I would enjoy being a literacy specialist in a schools I would really like to apply all of these concepts into a whole classroom.  If I can do that then all my students struggling or gifted can benefit from learning the steps to becoming a proficient and talented reader or writer.  I would also like my students to view themselves as reader and writers no matter their skill level because I didn’t feel that way when struggled with writing and I think that is why I don’t really enjoy writing as an adult.  I want to prevent my future students from feeling the way I do about writing and I think that the strategy that this courses has given me combined with my other courses will help me to do that in both reading and writing.

Entry #7

Throughout the semester we have been working with all different types of technology that can be used as part of a digital writing workshop in the classroom.  The first thing introduced was this blog, I had never used a blog before this class and I am finding it to be an interesting way to reflect on what we are learning in class. Next Hicks (2008) introduces RSS feeders for doing research on the internet.  Again I have never used this before but I like how it can keep kinds considerate on the topic they are looking for and help them the narrow down information.   We were also introduced last class to the google sites.  This is something that was completely new to me.  I didn’t even know that google was capable of this.  Creating my own site was easy and the interface was very easy to work with allowing for me to upload files and include different hyperlinks.  This is something that I will definitely be using in the future whether it is a way to communicate with parents about the classroom or just to communicate with my family. 

            All of these technologies will be very helpful for me to create a strong knowledge base of a way to bring technology into my classroom when appropriate but I am still struggling with the idea of being able to use these things on an everyday basis like suggested in our class readings.  I also like the idea of having a digital writing workshop but I’m not sure how plausible I think that is. 

            While I see all of these different technologies as valuable things to know about and valuable skills to have I am having trouble figuring out how I would apply them in a primary grade classroom.  I know that students are very tech savvy and may already know how to use some of this stuff how can we use it with the younger students? Younger classrooms I have been in only have a few computers and getting time in the computer lab is hard because it is monopolized by the older grades.  I guess I am struggling with how all of this can be applied for students who are still learning the very basics of writing and don’t have the skill set yet to create published work in the form of blogs or websites. 

            I know that all of this makes me seem like a bit of a skeptic especially if you look back at how I feel about using RSS feeders and the issues that it raises in the classroom.  The use of internet changes how we teach and what we need to monitor to make sure the information is appropriate and relevant for our students. So I guess I am still having the same issue I was having with RSS feeders and online interaction as I think about how I would incorporate google sites as something my students would use.

Entry #6

          For class we had to read Tompkins (2012) chapter 4, which is all about assessing writing.  I have found that assessing writing can vary depending on the topic and the purpose of the assignment.  My cooperating teacher during my second student teaching placement, he explained to me that he finds it best to create the rubric as you are creating the assignment.   This way you can gives the students clear guidelines of what you are expecting and they know what they are focusing on as they complete the assignment.  For a content piece I was focusing on the ideas on the paper with a small emphasis on grammar and mechanics, while for a ELA piece the rubric focuses on the conventions more than what is being written about. 

            After reading chapter 4 I think that Tompkins (2012) would agree with my cooperating teacher,  in the chapter they gave the students checklists to follow as they were completing and assignment which is also something he did.  I found this to be a very useful tip for myself.  In undergrad I we are taught how to make a quality rubric for a hypothetical assignment but being able to use on in student teaching with his suggestions made it clear to me helpful a good rubric can be for myself as well as for my students.  How we used the rubistar in class also helped to solidify my belief in quality rubrics make everything clearer for students as they work on assignments and they will know what is expected of them in their piece.  

            Rubrics are only one way to assess writing,  I like how Tompkins (2012) presents writing conferences as a way to check in with students as well as self-assessment through checklists.  These assessments seem to give students scaffold lesson while also giving them as much independence as possible where they can grow and be creative on whatever piece they are working on.  As I have said in previous posts I have never seen writing workshop as presents in Tompkins (2012) or Hicks (2008) and I would really like to use it in my future classroom.  With that being said, I was struggling with the idea of giving students the freedom of writers workshop and fit it into the new common core standards and teacher evaluations.  Once I read chapter 4 however, I have a few more ideas on how writing workshop can be used to really show student growth over the course of the year.  Within that growth I would hope that students would perform better on standardized tests because they have developed their own thinking skills, their own writing process and know how to apply it without the teacher holding their hand throughout the whole assignment.  I wish that I had been a part of this type of writing workshop when I was in school, I really didn’t enjoy writing at all and maybe if I had some freedom I would have enjoyed writing more as child.