I decided to combine yesterdays and todays focus into one entry since I wrote and introduction yesterday. The two topics blur together in my mind anyway. The first was on procedures and the second on expectations.
My writing is set up in a writer's workshop format. At least that is my goal. The general structure is for me to read a mentor text, do a mini-lesson on a skill or strategy from that text, and then send students off to work independently. My goal is to end the workshop with a whole group share but that seems to be the part that usually gets cheated out. I often find I have my students turn to share with someone rather than do a whole group and for that reason I think they lose some of the accountability piece or engagement that sharing brings. But I will get to that in a moment.
My general procedures is for students to work at their desks or somewhere comfortable around the room. They are to write in the writing spiral which I have separated from their other spirals with read tape on the spiral. I expect students to date each day and to fill the pages of the journal from page to page (no skipping pages). At times, I give a writing assignment that I collect and they have to write on a separate piece of paper. I consider the writing notebook a practice book. A place to journal and sketch and try out the strategies from our lessons. My goal is to collect 6 students spirals a day to review their work and plan for instruction.
My non-negotiables are that students write every day, that they self select topics, and that they try new things with their writing. I am planning on having my students create a list of expectations tomorrow for our lesson.
My greatest concern for my students right now is that they do not write. I am amazed that they can sit for an entire 20 minutes and merely get two or three sentences down. I have focused a lot in the beginning of the school year on how to develop topics but I think at this point they do not understand the expectations. I am hoping that focusing on expectations will help them to put pencil to paper more readily.
Monday, December 8, 2014
Sunday, December 7, 2014
Day by Day- Reflective Practice
I've started reading Day by Day: Refining Writing Workshop Through 180 Days of Reflective Practice". I've always been a reflective practitioner. I love to reflect on my practice and go over all of the possibilities. My mother always tells me that I think too much and I need to do more. She is right. I am the type of person that enjoys the process more than the product. When I am nearing the completion of a project, I start to get antsy and looking for the next thing. Not really a product person which is something I have had to learn that my students actually need more of, even though it is out of my comfort zone.
I have always been focusing on writing instruction. I am a huge fan of writing and the importance of thinking and communicating through the written words. When I was little I dreamed of being an author and wrote stories about my stuffed animals. In high school, I created sketches of characters and retold soap operas to my friends, recreating the story lines. In college, I graduated with a English Major with a writing concentration. My first job after college was freelance writing for the local paper. While my masters degree was in teaching, my paper was on the concepts of first graders writing. I loved learning about Lucy Calkins and Donald Graves. When I started teaching I followed Katie Wood Ray like a super fan (even took an online course by her through Heinemann). I loved having my kids create books and felt like I really knew writing. But I slowly started focusing on other things, math, reading, science, and technology.
When I worked on National Boards, I didn't put as much effort into the Writing Entry because I thought I had that one down. Turns out that was the entry that I scored lowest on. I continued to work on other curriculum focuses and slowly the thing I loved the most became on the back burner.
So, that brings me to today. I am now facilitator for our school's writing committee and on a new focus on writing. I love writing with my kids and want to spend more time focusing on becoming better at the area that was my original love. I am looking forward to using the Day by Day to reinvent and rekindle the writing environment in my classroom. I hope you join me.
Friday, July 11, 2014
Avoidance and lack of focus
So I'd rather be doing anything but writing.
That is the struggle I am going through every day. I LOVE to write. I understand that when I write I am creating. Creating something completely new and something than did not exist until I wrote it. I give birth with my words. However, it is a very painful task. Well, that isn't exactly write. I don't really find it painful once I start writing. Usually the words start to flow right out. I don't actually stare at a blank page for too long. And when I am writing, I don't really think about time. It all just seems to melt away and I go into that zone where what is in my head comes rushing out on paper. However, I avoid writing.
Since I have been participating in Teachers Write this summer, I have been trying to focus on writing. I started this blog and have written a couple of posts and have a few more in the drafting and pre-writing stage. I have also worked on the exercises and been very satisified with my writing thus far. I enjoy it. I wake up and check the Teachers Write page first thing. I get excited about the task for that day. I have even commented twice now and I have enjoyed the feedback. But every day I avoid writing.
It is 10:00 pm now. I put off writing until I am laying in bed, ready to go to bed. Why do I do that? I have had multiple opportunities today to write. I could have wrote in between the cleaning cycles. 10 min clean. 10 min write. But instead I perused the internet: facebook, twitter, instagram, gmail, and pinterest. I took a short nap- I could have wrote then. I had a hundred minutes in the day that I could have chosen to write and yet I didn't. I avoided writing.
So, what does this tell me about my students when they sit down during writer's workshop to write. I think I can understand the sudden need to use the restroom, to work with a buddy, to draw pictures, to escape to the counselors or the nurses, and oh, didn't I leave something in the cafeteria early that I need to get now? They avoid writing every day.
One of my big take aways is how important it is to have a project in mind. I read a lot of the other teachers participating and they seem to have a story to write. I am just writing for the sake of writing. I enjoy the exercises but they are not taking my writing into a direction where I feel like I am accomplishing something. So rather than just write today, I am working on my blogging articles. I have purpose in the blogging articles. Rather than spend all our beginning time working on how to come up with an idea, I think maybe I need to spend more time with my students coming up with a writing project. What do they want to write each day? There will be time enough to work with them on exercises that will help them add more sensory details or voice to their characters. To start, we need to have an end goal in mind. Even something as simple as the Nanowrimo challenge to write 50,000 word novel has given me motivation in the past because I had a clear goal. I need to start with identifying writing projects with my students. They need a reason to want to write and not put it off. I need to want to write every day.
That is the struggle I am going through every day. I LOVE to write. I understand that when I write I am creating. Creating something completely new and something than did not exist until I wrote it. I give birth with my words. However, it is a very painful task. Well, that isn't exactly write. I don't really find it painful once I start writing. Usually the words start to flow right out. I don't actually stare at a blank page for too long. And when I am writing, I don't really think about time. It all just seems to melt away and I go into that zone where what is in my head comes rushing out on paper. However, I avoid writing.
Since I have been participating in Teachers Write this summer, I have been trying to focus on writing. I started this blog and have written a couple of posts and have a few more in the drafting and pre-writing stage. I have also worked on the exercises and been very satisified with my writing thus far. I enjoy it. I wake up and check the Teachers Write page first thing. I get excited about the task for that day. I have even commented twice now and I have enjoyed the feedback. But every day I avoid writing.
It is 10:00 pm now. I put off writing until I am laying in bed, ready to go to bed. Why do I do that? I have had multiple opportunities today to write. I could have wrote in between the cleaning cycles. 10 min clean. 10 min write. But instead I perused the internet: facebook, twitter, instagram, gmail, and pinterest. I took a short nap- I could have wrote then. I had a hundred minutes in the day that I could have chosen to write and yet I didn't. I avoided writing.
So, what does this tell me about my students when they sit down during writer's workshop to write. I think I can understand the sudden need to use the restroom, to work with a buddy, to draw pictures, to escape to the counselors or the nurses, and oh, didn't I leave something in the cafeteria early that I need to get now? They avoid writing every day.
One of my big take aways is how important it is to have a project in mind. I read a lot of the other teachers participating and they seem to have a story to write. I am just writing for the sake of writing. I enjoy the exercises but they are not taking my writing into a direction where I feel like I am accomplishing something. So rather than just write today, I am working on my blogging articles. I have purpose in the blogging articles. Rather than spend all our beginning time working on how to come up with an idea, I think maybe I need to spend more time with my students coming up with a writing project. What do they want to write each day? There will be time enough to work with them on exercises that will help them add more sensory details or voice to their characters. To start, we need to have an end goal in mind. Even something as simple as the Nanowrimo challenge to write 50,000 word novel has given me motivation in the past because I had a clear goal. I need to start with identifying writing projects with my students. They need a reason to want to write and not put it off. I need to want to write every day.
Tuesday, July 8, 2014
Teachers Write Reflections
Rather be reading... but I am writing this summer.
For the last three years, Kate Messner and a group of amazing authors have organized a free summer writing support group for teachers. Every day they post mini-lessons, prompts, and provide support through comments and feedback. For the last couple of years, I have lurked and made feeble attempts to participate. This year I dive in. I believe that to teach you have to do. While the greats, Lucy, Donald, Regie, influenced my belief in the importance of living the writing life, Katie Wood Ray inspired me to attempt to use my writing experiences for curriculum. In What You Know By Heart, Katie says. "Because we are teachers of writing, writing for us is more than just the experience of getting it done. We have to have that experience, but because we teach, we also have to be able to explain that experience. We have to be able to make sense of it, to see what it means so that the experience becomes something larger than the moment. The experience becomes something we understand about writing. It becomes curriculum. You see, the students who wait for us in our workshops need us to help them understand how this writing thing happens" (7). To that effect, I am planning on writing a series of posts on my reflections of my writing experiences during Teachers Write. My hope is to not only experience writing but to make sense of it for my students.
For the last three years, Kate Messner and a group of amazing authors have organized a free summer writing support group for teachers. Every day they post mini-lessons, prompts, and provide support through comments and feedback. For the last couple of years, I have lurked and made feeble attempts to participate. This year I dive in. I believe that to teach you have to do. While the greats, Lucy, Donald, Regie, influenced my belief in the importance of living the writing life, Katie Wood Ray inspired me to attempt to use my writing experiences for curriculum. In What You Know By Heart, Katie says. "Because we are teachers of writing, writing for us is more than just the experience of getting it done. We have to have that experience, but because we teach, we also have to be able to explain that experience. We have to be able to make sense of it, to see what it means so that the experience becomes something larger than the moment. The experience becomes something we understand about writing. It becomes curriculum. You see, the students who wait for us in our workshops need us to help them understand how this writing thing happens" (7). To that effect, I am planning on writing a series of posts on my reflections of my writing experiences during Teachers Write. My hope is to not only experience writing but to make sense of it for my students.
Monday, July 7, 2014
Common Core Implementation
While I'd rather be reading.... I need to spend some time understanding the common core state standards. In the past year, my district has spent quite a bit of professional development time focusing on the common core. I feel I have a pretty good understanding of the standards. I want my focus this coming year to be on implementation, particularly in regards to Literacy. I was listening to a podcast on Choice Literacy where the speaker recommended looking collaboratively at each standard and create a dialogue on what that standard looks like in the classroom. To that effect, I am going to begin a series of posts on each standard. My hope is to make that post an ongoing post in which through the comments, I can continue to shape and develop my understanding of implementation of the standard in my classroom. I am not necessarily looking to develop lessons for the standards but rather develop ways to implement and integrate the standard into daily practice. I am going to be focusing on the third grade standards because next year I will be teaching third grade again after a two year hiatus in fifth grade, third grade is also the first testing year, and third grade is the middle of elementary school (the beginning of intermediate).
So, to get things started.... A short video:
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)