1) For me, it is essential that children have proper instruction, high expectations from others and for themselves as well as the opportunity to be involved in reading and writing. I believe that through the opportunity and instruction children will be able to gather their thoughts, show skills and ideas on writing and reading. As for having high expectations for children it shows that you care about them and know their potential, thus having high expectations for themselves will motivate them to be the best reader and writing they can be making a literate being.
2. In my K classroom I have viewed writing daily. The children first gather on the carpet and the teacher demonstrates writing. She explains her thoughts clearly while drawing a picture and then writes sentences of explaination with the help of the children. She will then explain how her picture conects to the words and helps readers to understand her writing. We will then call students up one by one to get their writing journal and ask them what they are going to write about. If they are having a hard time deciding what to write about we will help to give them prompts before dismissing them to their seats to write. With this said we know that every child has an idea of what they want to write about before going to their seats. Some children only have scribbles, but can give clear explanation of what they wrote about. Other children have clear pictures and have begun to try and sound out words to write sentences. By walking about the room the teacher and I can see the levels of each individual. There are also multiple other times that students are encouraged to write such as during center time. The writing I have viewed especially during writing time connects to chapter 4 in book club plus. Children are writing into, through and out of their writing. Writing into by working all together, writing through by working individually in their journals and writing out by explaining to the teacher as well as having a chance to share with a partner.
3. A is doing a great job with the writing instruction. To an outsider that looks at her journal they would see only scribbles and notes from the teacher on the bottom of her pages. These notes from the teacher are the sentences that she used to describe her writing. Since working with her daily on this and continuing to explain that trying to draw a picture of an object she is writing about she has begun to do so. Her pictures of scribbles have now turned into a drawing of objects that are identifiable. This past week she even explain that she wrote words, which were just letters, but it shows that she understands letters create words and words will explain her drawing. I believe that the strategies described above from book club plus especially the 'fish bowl' and writing into have really been a help for this child. I believe that walking her through the steps of writing has helped to develop her skill and will only continue to do so.
Tuesday, September 27, 2011
Hayley Johnson
1. For me, it is essential for students to take ownership in what they are writing. I believe that the more opportunity you give students to write about topics that interest them or that they can relate to, they become excited and eager to write. When students enjoy what they are writing about they tend to feel a sense of ownership, rather than simply doing something they have to for the teacher. I also think it is important for students to know that they have an audience when they write. Students should be given the opportunity to praise and share their own writing. Letting students think about who will want to read what they are writing will also help with authorship.
2. Surprisingly have yet to see much writing happen throughout the class day. A majority of our literacy time has been dedicated to MEAP preparation and some of the required programs such as “Making Meaning” which has yet to have them write anything. The students were asked the first week to participate in a writing assessment that asked them to write about a challenge. The students were given a scripted set of instruction and were asked to fill out a graphic organizer before beginning to write their rough draft. They were also given another writing assignment that asked them to use the same organizer. Based on my observations, the students really didn’t seem to know really know what to write about when it came to the topic of a challenge, or really understand how the organizer worked. I definitely do not think that there has been nearly enough of an opportunity for these students to write, nor have they really had much freedom when it comes to what they are writing about; though the students really did seem eager to write about their favorite “special place” (their most recent assignment).
I really did like what they were talking about in Chapter 7 in the Essential Writing book about allowing the students to write first and then go back to talk about the different elements that they could change to organize and edit their paper; rather than breaking the writing up into isolated skills. One example that the book gave discussed how to teach the development of a paragraph, and how you should have them write first, then explain how to organize the sentences that are already written into a paragraph. This immediately took me back to the specific lessons used to prep for the MEAP, along with the graphic organizer that the students were required to fill out first, which broke up their writing into five paragraphs with a topic sentence and three supporting thoughts. Many of the students struggled to fill this out, and even after they did, were unable to transfer the information into five different paragraphs. After seeing how eager they were to write their “special place” stories, I feel like simply letting them get right to letting their ideas flow down on their paper may have been more beneficial, than stopping their thoughts to think about how they can make it fit into this structure (graphic organizer).
3. Since I haven’t seen a whole lot of their writing it is hard to pick out specifics for one student. James is one student who seems to struggle in this area, though it is hard to tell at this point how much of his struggle is due to his ADHD (he is supposed to be on medication for this). Regardless, one of the things that James struggles with is his handwriting; it is very large, and difficult to read since all of the letters seem to be spaced out the same. He also does not seem very motivated to write. We are constantly holding him back from specials and recess to finish the DOL that he is expected to finish every morning, along with anytime we are working on writing assignments. He seems to do ok on his DOL (when he does finish it) but really struggles with developing ideas and getting them down on paper when it comes time to write his own material. I know that this student has ADHD and is currently not taking any medication, so I would guess that this might contribute to some of his struggles, however, I am not sure how much. Since he does struggle with his handwriting and seems to really have to focus to write anything down, I am wondering if this is why his writing isn’t developed as it should be. I feel like if you have to focus that hard on the physical act of writing, along with developing complete sentences and ideas, on top of the ADHD, it’s no wonder.
I think that it would really help to eliminate as many distractions as possible. Once the students leave for specials, he does seem to work a little faster, so it might be beneficial to him to pull him aside to someplace with less going on right from the beginning. One of the teaching tips that I really liked on page 189 in the Writing Essentials book was to conference in a private space with the student in order to at least get him started in an area with less distractions to get his ideas organized. I think that this would definitely help him out, though I am wondering how well he would do once he was placed back into the classroom to finish writing. Mrs. Davis also likes to play music for the kids while they write, and I am wondering if this adds to his distraction, maybe he would prefer for it to be completely silent, this is definitely something I will follow up on.
Week 3- Kaitlinn DeRosier (Rutkowski)
1. First off, I really like this quote by Lucy Calkins. My favorite part is where she says “It is essential that children…. perceive themselves as authors.” I like this part because I think it is one of the hardest things to show students that they are in fact authors, but yet one of the most important ones. Students need to realize that they all have something to say and through writing they all can do it.
“For me, it is essential that all students are given chances everyday to write about what ever they want in addition to writing about school topics such as a book they are reading, Math, Science, and/or Social Studies. This is important not only because it helps children expand their writing abilities, but it also gives them a channel in which they can write what they are thinking or feeling. Children then need to be given the opportunity to publish their work for others to read and critique. This makes writing meaningful for students and gives them a sense of accomplishment. This allows them to be proud of what they wrote and shows them that they can be an author of their own words. Writing should not be something that is seen as work to children, but rather should be seen as fun and a way to express themselves in many different forms, such as poetry, narratives, essays, etc. It is also necessary that children realize there is a definite process that goes along with writing that can not be done all at once.”
2. My CT and school for that matter feel very strongly that Literacy is an essential part of every day. Therefore, each classroom does a Writer’s Workshop daily. My class has it for one hour no matter what. This aligns with Regie Routman’s ideas of how teachers need to set aside time every day only for writing in his book, “Writing Essentials” (Routman, 175). Within Writer’s Workshop, my students have done a variety of writing exercises. They have written letters, like those discussed by Routman, to the author of the Wayside School books they we read for read aloud and lists of objects and a list of the students' best and worst experiences to give them ideas for future writing (Routman, 200). They have also written two narratives completely by going through the draft, edit, revise, and publish process. The first one was a narrative about a day that they spent with a special friend. The students were able to write about anything they wanted as long as it was about a special friend. The second was a “snap-shot” writing piece. Here, the students had to bring in a picture of them doing something that they liked to do. They then had to write a narrative about what they were doing in the picture and how they were feeling. They added detail by changing boring words into descriptive Tier II words by using the Tier II word poster in the classroom. This is much like Routman’s idea of how teachers should use word walls and other word lists made by both the students and the teacher to help students reference words that are meaningful to them (Routman, 165). My teacher always models for the students by writing her own narratives and letters along with the students and shows them using her work the process that they are going through. She does this under the document camera by showing the students what a beginning, middle, and end of a story look like and/or how to pick and change boring sentences into descriptive, detailed sentences. She also always tells the students why she is doing what she is doing to make sure that the students understood the techniques she was using so that they could use them in their own writing, which Routman also discussed in his book (Routman, 148 and 180). Not only are there opportunities for writing during Writer’s Workshop every day, but there are also opportunities to write in just about every other subject. During Reader’s Workshop every day, the students read silently for about twenty minutes and then fill in their reading logs with a comment and then they do a Reader’s Response that consists of writing a few sentences about their favorite part, the characters, the setting, a conflict, new sentences using Tier II words found in their books, etc. This allows them to make meaningful text-to-text, text-to-self connections. They also fill out scientific process worksheets for every experiment they do in Science. In addition to this, they fill out their assignment notebooks, add words to their Tier II word journal, and write in their Math journals every day. I feel that the writing that my students do in the Writer’s and Reader’s Workshops is definitely quality. They are engaging with writing at a very deep level interaction by brainstorming ideas, drafting, editing, revising, publishing, and soon-to-be critiquing. They are involved and responsible for every part of the writing. However, I feel that the writing that they do in Science, Math, and in their assignment books is more of a surface level interaction because they are not coming up with the ideas; they are just copying down what my CT writes down. They have no involvement in the actual writing process besides the actual physical act of writing. I feel that my CT and I could create better writing experiences for my students by having the students talk to one another about what they want to write about instead of just brainstorming on paper and in their heads (Routman, 183). I also think my CT and I should start having conferences with our students about their writing. Sometimes some of my students writing is never seen by anyone but themselves. Routman says it is important for teachers to conference with the students to get an idea of how they are doing and whether or not they are grasping the correct ideas, so that the teacher can help guide the student in the right direction (Routman, 206). The students share their writing with the entire class due to time sake, but I do not feel that we are getting an accurate account of the students’ writing (Routman, 210).
3. My focus student, CP, tells me all the time that he LOVES writing and cannot wait to finish with one thing, like reading, so that he can write. However, when we write, he does not do anything. It is like pulling teeth to get him to write. He does not pay attention and wants my CT and me to form all of the sentences for him and spell everything out letter by letter for him. The only writing we get out of him is either copied or spoon fed to him from one of us. He does not even formulate his own ideas for his writing without prompting from one of us. He is definitely struggling. I think he is struggling partially because he has ADHD and has a very low IQ, but also because he hates reading. I think he associates writing in our class to reading only because we always do reading responses and does not realize that Writer’s Workshop is supposed to be his time to write more freely. I feel that if we tried to explain this to him then he might improve. I also feel that another strategy we could use is if my CT allowed him or even every student to freewrite in a journal about whatever they wanted for about three to five minutes every day like Regie Routman discussed in his book, “Writing Essentials” (Routman, 179). If he started to get excited to do that every day, then maybe he would get excited to write during Writer’s Workshop. I also feel if in general my CT and I just talked to the students more about writing and the importance behind it, then all of the students, including CP, would have more intrinsic motivation to write (Routman, 181).
“For me, it is essential that all students are given chances everyday to write about what ever they want in addition to writing about school topics such as a book they are reading, Math, Science, and/or Social Studies. This is important not only because it helps children expand their writing abilities, but it also gives them a channel in which they can write what they are thinking or feeling. Children then need to be given the opportunity to publish their work for others to read and critique. This makes writing meaningful for students and gives them a sense of accomplishment. This allows them to be proud of what they wrote and shows them that they can be an author of their own words. Writing should not be something that is seen as work to children, but rather should be seen as fun and a way to express themselves in many different forms, such as poetry, narratives, essays, etc. It is also necessary that children realize there is a definite process that goes along with writing that can not be done all at once.”
2. My CT and school for that matter feel very strongly that Literacy is an essential part of every day. Therefore, each classroom does a Writer’s Workshop daily. My class has it for one hour no matter what. This aligns with Regie Routman’s ideas of how teachers need to set aside time every day only for writing in his book, “Writing Essentials” (Routman, 175). Within Writer’s Workshop, my students have done a variety of writing exercises. They have written letters, like those discussed by Routman, to the author of the Wayside School books they we read for read aloud and lists of objects and a list of the students' best and worst experiences to give them ideas for future writing (Routman, 200). They have also written two narratives completely by going through the draft, edit, revise, and publish process. The first one was a narrative about a day that they spent with a special friend. The students were able to write about anything they wanted as long as it was about a special friend. The second was a “snap-shot” writing piece. Here, the students had to bring in a picture of them doing something that they liked to do. They then had to write a narrative about what they were doing in the picture and how they were feeling. They added detail by changing boring words into descriptive Tier II words by using the Tier II word poster in the classroom. This is much like Routman’s idea of how teachers should use word walls and other word lists made by both the students and the teacher to help students reference words that are meaningful to them (Routman, 165). My teacher always models for the students by writing her own narratives and letters along with the students and shows them using her work the process that they are going through. She does this under the document camera by showing the students what a beginning, middle, and end of a story look like and/or how to pick and change boring sentences into descriptive, detailed sentences. She also always tells the students why she is doing what she is doing to make sure that the students understood the techniques she was using so that they could use them in their own writing, which Routman also discussed in his book (Routman, 148 and 180). Not only are there opportunities for writing during Writer’s Workshop every day, but there are also opportunities to write in just about every other subject. During Reader’s Workshop every day, the students read silently for about twenty minutes and then fill in their reading logs with a comment and then they do a Reader’s Response that consists of writing a few sentences about their favorite part, the characters, the setting, a conflict, new sentences using Tier II words found in their books, etc. This allows them to make meaningful text-to-text, text-to-self connections. They also fill out scientific process worksheets for every experiment they do in Science. In addition to this, they fill out their assignment notebooks, add words to their Tier II word journal, and write in their Math journals every day. I feel that the writing that my students do in the Writer’s and Reader’s Workshops is definitely quality. They are engaging with writing at a very deep level interaction by brainstorming ideas, drafting, editing, revising, publishing, and soon-to-be critiquing. They are involved and responsible for every part of the writing. However, I feel that the writing that they do in Science, Math, and in their assignment books is more of a surface level interaction because they are not coming up with the ideas; they are just copying down what my CT writes down. They have no involvement in the actual writing process besides the actual physical act of writing. I feel that my CT and I could create better writing experiences for my students by having the students talk to one another about what they want to write about instead of just brainstorming on paper and in their heads (Routman, 183). I also think my CT and I should start having conferences with our students about their writing. Sometimes some of my students writing is never seen by anyone but themselves. Routman says it is important for teachers to conference with the students to get an idea of how they are doing and whether or not they are grasping the correct ideas, so that the teacher can help guide the student in the right direction (Routman, 206). The students share their writing with the entire class due to time sake, but I do not feel that we are getting an accurate account of the students’ writing (Routman, 210).
3. My focus student, CP, tells me all the time that he LOVES writing and cannot wait to finish with one thing, like reading, so that he can write. However, when we write, he does not do anything. It is like pulling teeth to get him to write. He does not pay attention and wants my CT and me to form all of the sentences for him and spell everything out letter by letter for him. The only writing we get out of him is either copied or spoon fed to him from one of us. He does not even formulate his own ideas for his writing without prompting from one of us. He is definitely struggling. I think he is struggling partially because he has ADHD and has a very low IQ, but also because he hates reading. I think he associates writing in our class to reading only because we always do reading responses and does not realize that Writer’s Workshop is supposed to be his time to write more freely. I feel that if we tried to explain this to him then he might improve. I also feel that another strategy we could use is if my CT allowed him or even every student to freewrite in a journal about whatever they wanted for about three to five minutes every day like Regie Routman discussed in his book, “Writing Essentials” (Routman, 179). If he started to get excited to do that every day, then maybe he would get excited to write during Writer’s Workshop. I also feel if in general my CT and I just talked to the students more about writing and the importance behind it, then all of the students, including CP, would have more intrinsic motivation to write (Routman, 181).
Week 3: Liz Adams
1. For me, it is essential to expose students to writing in every subject. Not only should their be time spent on writer’s workshop during the day, but I think it is equally important to take the opportunity to talk about writing in science and socials studies as well. It seems to me that when students are focused on writing only during writing time, they forget about it for the rest of the day and avoid it during other subjects. It is crucial to add writing to other lessons, such as writing a science report, or writing about historical facts, etc. I also think it is equally important to focus on conventions and grammar in writing, just as closely as style, voice and form. From my time in classrooms, I have noticed that the increasing prevalence of technology in the classroom and in the students’ lives in general has caused them to focus less on grammar and spelling. There should be more time spent on cleaning up the writing work with proper grammar and conventions, as grammar is something the students will even use in everyday conversations.
2. The students in my classroom are given a lot of opportunities to write and practice writing. Each day, we spent about forty-five minutes on writer’s workshop. The students just finished their DWA assignment which will give us an idea of where they are with their writing skills. We’re going to look at style, voice, form, and conventions. They also write a lot in the other subjects. The other day, they were observing terrariums they had made, and were writing down new observations and ideas. Yet, we get a lot of whining and complaining about writing. I hear, “do we have to write that much?” quite a bit. I think the writing is very quality writing they’re doing and during writing time, we try to have them write about things they might be interested in, or might have fun telling us about, such as the assignment they just completed about writing about their favorite place. During this assignment, they were able to write about any place, ranging from a city, to just simply their room. Our textbook, Writing Essentials by Regie Routman points out the importance of this idea. They tell us it is best to have “choice within structure” (Routman, 177) which means that the students are given some structure, such as a broad topic, and are able to decide where they are going to go with that topic. They also note that this means the students are given a “temporary scaffold... to write competently and confidently” (Routman, 177).
3. I chose to focus on one student who really struggles with their writing. This student is our lowest achieving writing student so far. The student’s writing lacks detail and every idea is very simple. One thing that is probably contributing to it is the lack of engagement. When we start writing, this student just simply looks around and is distracted very easily. The other day, I noticed that some of our students are at very high levels, while others are very, very low. I asked my teacher, “What went wrong, that one of these students is so very high while the other is so low?” I was wondering what happened in their education that makes them so different in their skill levels. She told me that she really thinks it is the parental involvement. She told me that this student has very little parental involvement, which causes him to lose interest and not take education/writing seriously. I was reading about strategies to help students like this in the textbook, Writing Essentials, and they strongly suggest showing the students examples, and say, “”Don’t expect high-quality writing from your kids unless you’re modeling what high-quality writing looks and sounds like” (Routman, 180). We definitely do this modeling in my classroom. Before each writing lesson, my teacher shows them an example that she has written, and reads it aloud to them. She then goes over what she did well, and what she could improve on. This is what the textbook calls, “Conducting scaffolded conversations before writing” (Routman, 181). We are providing this student with a lot of examples, so maybe what they need is just one-on-one conferences with us to explain what they are having trouble with.
Week 3 Michelle Gasparotto
1.) For me, it is essential that students are confident in their writing and the writing process. I feel that if students have confidence in their writing, which could come from having confidence in the writing process, then they will see themselves as authors. Students need to write everyday so they are able to become comfortable with writing and it becomes habit for them. If they are writing everyday, they will become stronger writers through practice and from having mini lessons about writing taught to them on a consistent basis. Through being taught mini lessons about writing they can become confident in how they are writing and enjoy it. I also feel that students should be able write about what they want. If they are able to write everyday about something they want they will enjoy writing much more and feel better about their finished product.
2.) In my classroom, I have witnessed many opportunities throughout the day for students to write. First, the students have writing workshop everyday for an hour, which is talked about in chapter 8 of Writing Essentials, as being necessary for writing to be a daily commitment. During writers’ workshop, the students start out as a class where my mentor teacher will teach them a mini lesson about writing for about ten minutes. I notice my teacher demonstrating what is discussed in chapter seven of Writing Essentials, where she does not teach isolated skills, but instead will teach a mini lesson on the process of writing or how they should work during writers’ workshop. I notice that she is much more focused on the quality of their writing rather than the quantity. She has taught the students that, “When I’m done I’ve just begun”, which means when the student has finished a story, they should go back through and work to edit, add details, or pictures. After the mini lesson, she has the students write for about 40-50 minutes, then calls them together for sharing, which is also talked about in Writing Essentials as being very important. Other than writers’ workshop, the students will also write during social studies. I have seen them write about the topic that they talked about in social studies for the day. They do a similar process after some read alouds. The students will be given a sheet of paper and they will have to write about something pertaining to the book, such as their favorite part. Overall, my students engage in a lot of writing during the day, not just in writers’ workshop.
3.) There is one student in my class that struggles a lot when it comes to spelling during writing. This student has good ideas about what to write about and seems to enjoy writing, but has very low confidence when it comes to spelling. This student consistently asks how to spell words, which he expects for people to spell for him. My mentor teacher has taught the students what to do when you come to a word you do not know. The students should use their writing tools that are given to them to help with their spelling or stretch the word out, spell it as best as you can then move on. This student will still always ask how to spell words and needs someone to sit with him and stretch out every word. I have seen the student try to spell on his own and many times he is able to get the correct spelling or comes very close, but still gives up and asks for someone to spell it for him. Since he has this problem, it slows him down when he is writing and seems to frustrate him at times. As discussed in chapter 7 of Writing Essentials, I think a personal word wall would work well for this student. If he had a word wall that was on the inside of his writing folder of common words that he uses I think it would help him keep his flow of writing and not slow him down with always trying to get the correct spelling of words. Another strategy I would consider is having a one on one conference with him to try to teach him further about how to stretch out words. Although their was class lesson about this, I think it would benefit him to have more personal instruction on what to do when he comes to a word he does not know how to spell.
Week 3: Krystal Tucker
#1
For me, it is essential that students are deeply involved and are invested in their writing. As a teacher it is my job to give my students the opportunity to have a real purpose, a real audience, and a real investment in their writing. While there will be struggles in writing, these three components will hopefully allow students to feel a sense of authorship. It is important that students begin with the end goal in mind and are thinking of quality first over quantity. I want my students to realize that writing is a form of personal expression and is an extremely personal activity.
#2
In my classroom there is not a lot of writing happening presently. We are focused on MEAP prep, and since writing is not on the fifth grade MEAP we are not focusing on it. We have given the students an assessment on writing. Sadly, since this was an assessment my teacher did not give explicit instruction as to how to complete the writing because we want to have a starting level of their writing skills. The students have just started their first writing piece. Before the students were given the assignment my teacher demonstrated the writing (Writing Essentials, p. 180) to the students. She used the Elmo and showed the students how to use the graphic organizer to gather their thoughts for a specific purpose and audience (Writing Essentials, p. 176). The students are now drafting their stories of their “special place”, but the students do not seem to be invested in the writing. We have also done “MEAP writings”, which I would classify as short answer test responses. Sadly, these writing responses are verbally discussed and the students do not write them out.
The class’s first experience (assessment) with writing only focused on the quantity of the writing. This was the only extremely explicit instruction that she gave the students. In their first real writing assignment, my teacher focused both on quantity and quality. She heavily focused on the “lead” of the story, the student’s introduction paragraph.
I have not seen much writing in the classroom because we have not fully started the school curriculum yet. I have only seen writing in the form of a writing assessment, MEAP-prep, and the first writing assignment about the students’ “special place”.
Jay is a poor reader and is pulled from our classroom for two hours a day for extra help in ELA. Although I have not seen much writing, he definitely seems to struggle with writing. I think most of this stems from his difficulties with reading. He is a huge procrastinator in his writing. I think this could be because my teacher has not given any deadlines or timelines for the writing assignments, therefore Jay will then goof off until it is due. He told me he does not write well unless he is invested in the writing, therefore he recognizes the importance of understanding and getting interested in a topic (Writing Essentials, p. 178). Yet, he does not seem to know how to make himself invested in a writing.
Some strategies that I would use: I would have him write about cars. He said he wants to be a car designer when he grows up. I would have him read information about a topic (cars) then have him summarize it in his own words. This activity does not require him to “create” a whole writing by himself, but only rephrase. This would hopefully give him confidence in his writing abilities. I would also have him start to freewrite (Writing Essentials, p. 179). I would also have him start to do short writing assignments this would also help with his low reading ability when revising and editing. I would hope these strategies would give Jay the confidence in his writing and get him more comfortable in writing longer pieces.
Week 3: Faida Williams
1. 1. Forr me, it is essential that student see writing as a meaningful way of expressing their thoughts, ideas and themselves. It is my desire that students are excited about getting their thoughts and ideas on paper and not overwhelmingly concerned with making sure every word is spelled correctly or that their paper is grammatically correct. I want my students to build writing endurance and learn to write until a complete thought or idea has been communicated. However, it is also important to me that my students learn that part of communicating is expressing themselves clearly. It is my hope that my students learn to use grammar and spelling as tools to better communicate themselves. I would like them to see writing as a process for which they can always learn, improve and grow. I would also like my students to see how writing can be used in their daily lives and not just for those who want to write books.
2. 2. I have witnessed writing in my classroom in three ways. I have seen my students do free writing, practice constructive responses for the MEAP and writing explanations for math.
Every morning my students write for five minutes about a particular topic. The topics are broad enough that all of the students are able to write about them and they change everyday. For example, the first time that we did a free write, the topic was Socks. Students are able to write about the topic any way would like – e.g., narrative, fictional piece, etc. Students are given a few minutes to think about the topic and some ideas are throw out by the class. My teacher begins the timer and when she says go, everyone writes – including the teacher. At five minutes, the timer goes off and everyone has to put down their pencils. Students then count the number of words they wrote. After the figure out the amount, they set a goal for how many words they want to write down next time. My CT has given examples of what appropriate goals would look like. The Goal of the free write, is that the students would gain writing endurance. The students are really excited when they see how much they can write in five minutes and how much they have increased from the last time. At the end of the week we plot everyone’s amount for each day on a graph so that they can visually see how much they have improved.
Constructive responses have been one the more painful writing assignments. Students have to read a passage and respond to a writing prompt. Usually the prompt asks the students to write three things from the piece. We are teaching our students how to begin their writing with an opening sentence and ending their writing with a closing statement. We have been doing constructive response everyday and my CT says we will continue to do them everyday until everyone gets the formula for what they are looking for on the MEAP right. In this way, doing a constructive response everyday is more like a punishment than something from which students can learn. The CT tried explaining everything that the students need to write – i.e. the opening sentence, three things, and closing statement – but it was clear the students couldn’t do all those things at once. So each day, my CT has worked on a particular part of their response they will need. So we spent an entire instructional period on what an opening sentence is. Then we talking about including three things. Finally, we focused on what a closing sentence should look like.
Writing explanations for mathematical answers is the only place I have seen writing used outside of a set literacy time. On almost every math worksheet the students have to complete, students are asked to explain how they would solve a particular problem. This is often difficult for the students because they are unsure about many of the mathematical vocabulary.
3. OC loves to write. When other students sometimes moan when they find out they have to write, OC is practically bouncing in his chair. During the first couple times we did free writing, OC wrote an impressive amount. Although OC was writing a lot, his writings were missing voice. Most of his writings sounded like he was making lists – e.g., I did this, then this, then this. However, ever since my teacher introduced the concept of voice, his writing has gotten much better. My teacher told the class to think about the reader and how do you want to reader to feel when he or she reads your piece. Now, I really enjoy reading his work because he asks all sorts of questions in his writing – e.g., have you ever . . . ? I can see how writing for a particular audience has improved his writing and given it more life (Writing Essentials, 145).
Week 3 Lindsey Zito
1. 1. For me it is essential that writing is an enjoyable part of the school day every single day. Too often writing is seen as something that is strictly structured. I believe that children have immensely imaginative and creative minds and can be incredible authors if they are given the opportunity to explore and venture beyond boundaries. Students should feel as if their writing is important and matters. It is essential to me that my students believe that they are authors, have ownership of their writing, and have the power to reach out to their readers. Students should be able to share their writing not only with their classmates and peers but with the community as well both orally and printed. I believe that students should be exposed to writing of all types and should be given the opportunity to try each kind. Students should not only be given time to write during one subject of the day, but writing should also be a part of all subjects across the curriculum. Written words are powerful and writing can be something that enriches student’s lives and allows for opportunities everyday.
2. 2. Throughout the first three weeks of school I have seen a great amount of writing on a daily basis. As an intern in a fourth grade classroom, a great focus at this time is preparing for the MEAP. Because of this, written responses are being practiced frequently. There are six main informational types of writing that are found on the fourth grade MEAP. These types include: compare/contrast, persuasion, descriptive, cause/effect, problem/solution, and sequencing. My mentor teacher is stressing to the students that they will be given a specific prompt and will have to choose a type of writing based on the prompt given. To start off the school year, we have done mini lessons for each type of writing. The mini lessons are similar to the lessons explained in Writing Essentials (155) such as narrowing the topic, using interesting words, writing a beginning that grabs the reader, backing up statements with examples, etc… Our exercises with the students include coming up with important elements of each type and questioning what a good example would look like. Students were to write down what good writers do as found in an example on page 191 of Writing Essentials. This gives the students a chance to voice their own opinion as to what is important in their writing as well as create a tool they can use in the future. The students are then guided to writing a different type everyday. They are given a prompt and told specifically which type to write about as well as a checklist of what their response should include. The next step of this preparation is to give the students different prompts and have them choose which type would best fit the prompt and complete the response on their own. We have also explored peer response. Students are given examples of other students responses and are to answer questions such as did this student complete the prompt correctly and why. Before giving them peer responses, we did mini lessons that involved looking at their own writing, editing it, and deciding if they fulfilled the writing requirements and why/why not. Seminole Academy as a school has come up with the goal of writing fluency for the school year. Every grade is required to have their students write for 5 minutes on a daily basis. The students are given a topic such as socks, and together as a class come up with details/information about socks. After this, students and teachers write for 5 minutes without stopping. The students are not allowed to erase mistakes and are to just write until the time is up. Each class has tracking records and the students count how many words they wrote during each POP (pencil on paper) session. We have already seen improvements in writing fluency since the start of the school year.
3. My focus student SB is a very strong writer and is also a high performing student in all subjects. SB is constantly considered a model student as he always follows directions and completes assignments efficiently and accurately. SB enjoys POP writing and frequently asks when we will be writing next. SB is a new student to Seminole this year, but has no problem connecting with his peers on a social basis. One struggle I see with him however is he writes strictly by the framework he was told to and does not go “beyond the formula” (Writing Essentials 147). I know that the majority of this is due to the fact that we are practicing strict MEAP writing that looks for calls for completing specific parts in a structured manner. This causes SB to constantly come up to one of his teachers during prompt writing and say is this good enough, can I stop writing. It seems as if he is not writing for meaning. He doesn’t see himself as an author or show voice in his writing. There are a few strategies I could use in my unit lessons to help SB as well as other students. The first lesson would be to “engage students in writing about topics they care about for a reader “ like I read about in Writing Essentials (149). As I discussed in my philosophy I have read how important it is for students to see themselves as authors and take proud ownership of their writing. By allowing students to write about a subject that matters to them, they are beginning to see how to write for meaning. I would also like to see SB take voice, and I could start to do this by demonstrating my writing and thinking aloud. After this, I will stress that students can show parts of their personality through their writing by using things such as humor. My goal of my writing unit is for my students to write for meaning.
Week 3 Amber LaPerriere
1. “For me it is essential that children are deeply involved in writing, that they share their text with others and they perceive themselves as authors. I believe these three things are interconnected. A sense of authorship come from the struggle to put something big and vital into print and from seeing ones own printed words reach the art and minds of readers.
For me it is essential to show the importance of writing. This statement seems very broad and basic but for me it says a lot when it comes to writing. Writing is a part of everything we do and is a huge part of literacy. In order to show students the importance of writing you have to always say “The reason I am doing this is….” Just as Chapter 7 of Writing Essentials stated. Then in order to do this I looked at the quote of the day as a great source that describes it just as our readings did. In order for children to see the importance of writing they need to be deeply involved in writing, they should want to (and be able to) share their text with others, and perceive themselves as authors.
2. So fair in my placement writing has been seen but is in the developing stages for my grade level (first). Some writing that is done every day but only for select students is when we do centers. Students do centers every day and they rotate to a new center everyday. One of these centers is the writing center. So far one week the students had a ready sketch that they could trace letters and letter sounds. Another week they were aloud to write whatever they wanted on a larger ready sketch. This week the writing center has them matching beginning letter sounds in a puzzle form. We also have done two packets for the subject areas of literacy and social students that have allowed them to trace letters and once in a while write a word or finish a sentence the best they can do. When it comes to writing on their own we have no program set up where they can write about whatever they want which is something that chapter 8 of Writing Essentials touched on. As this chapter talked about it is important to for a teacher to fit writing into all subject areas so it is constantly being practiced. This ties into what I was saying about my philosophy on writing. Students need to know the importance of writing and they will see more of that when they are doing it all day. In my class I believe it is more of a surface level quality and quantity of writing. We have given one writing assessment that asked the students to write “My favorite place to go is”. The students had a very hard time writing this. What they struggled with most was the fact that we were not allowed to help them spell any of the words in their sentence.
3. Many students, in my classroom struggle with their writing skills everyday. I could choose a number of them so I will classify just one as student x. During writing instruction the student is struggling and I believe there a number of things influencing this struggle. The student often asks how to spell a word instead of attempting to sound it out on their own. Once writing a word or two they often become very distracted and uninterested in the material they are being asked to do. I believe the student is struggling because they do not have the resources and examples they need to be a good writer. This student is disinterested in the writing they are doing and shows no interest to want to complete it. Some strategies that I remember reading that would help this student greatly would be to set an example for them. What I mean is they have no model to look at to see writing done or how it is done. The Writing Essentials book talks about showing good model writing behavior. Another helpful tool would be to show a writing procedure. Many things often distract the student so if the students had a writing workshop where they had rules or procedures this in return might carry into daily writing.
Week 3: Lindsey Little
1. For me, it is essential that children see themselves as authors and are excited about the writing process. It is important that students are writing daily about topics that are interesting and thought provoking to them. The children should be able to see their writing around the classroom and are able to share their work with others. Because I am in kindergarten, I want my students to know that writing does not necessarily mean only text, but can incorporate pictures and single letters as well. Overall, I want to establish a writing community within the classroom where the children feel comfortable their work and find enjoyment in writing.
2. Over the past few weeks, my CT has begun to introduce the children to Writer’s Workshop. The first week, no writing occurred. My CT introduced the concept of Writer’s Workshop and what would happen during this time. Then she began doing mini lessons with the children and had them explore writing. Some of the mini lessons have included what a writer looks like and how to stretch out words. I think it was a good idea for my CT to begin doing writing mini lessons before actually starting Writer’s Workshop. Because they are kindergartners, this is one of their first experiences with writing and the mini lessons helped scaffold the students to be prepared to start a three page book on the first day of Writer’s Workshop. We have now begun to do an actual Writer’s Workshop everyday where the children work with three page booklets. One thing that was discussed in Chapter 8 of Writing Essentials was to allow the children to write about topics that interest them. Right now the children are allowed to write about anything they would like. We want to make sure that the children are excited about writing and when they get to talk about their own experiences we have seen that they draw more detailed pictures and are beginning to write some words. At the beginning of every Writer’s Workshop, my CT does a mini lesson where she demonstrates what the children could do during the writing period. Then she sends them off for approximately twenty minutes where they can work their writing. During this time, my CT and I walk around the classroom and conference with the children. We make sure to conference with the students who struggle first to help them get started. Overall, I think the children are very engaged during Writer’s Workshop. We also incorporate writing during the morning message. Together my CT and children sound out the words to write the day’s message. This type of writing seems to be more surface level, but it helps demonstrate how to stretch out words and identify letter sounds.
3. One student in my class, B, struggles in all subjects, but has an especially hard time with writing. B is one of our lowest students and can’t identify most of the letters in the alphabet, which I feel influences his participation during writing. During Writer’s Workshop, he will draw pictures in his booklet, but they have very little detail and are mostly in one color. Normally during Writer’s Workshop, if we encourage B to trying writing some letters in his booklet he will announce that he doesn’t know how to write. Because B doesn’t know his letters he feels that he is unable to make a book at all. What we have been doing is conferencing with him on writing a book without words (we have done this during one-on-one conferencing and during a whole group mini lesson). We have talked about drawing detailed pictures so that others can understand the story. Other times we have him tell us what his pictures are about and we write the words under the picture. I feel that B has just not had enough expose to writing and isn’t comfortable with it. Only after two weeks of Writer’s Workshop we have seen some improvement.
Week 3 Katie Krinsky
1) For me it is essential that children feel as though they themselves are writers. Many students in my classroom become discouraged when they cannot spell a word, or think about a topic to write about. Students must know that their best is good enough and that writers encounter many of the same issues as they do during writing. I feel that writing instruction should be engaging and fun, and that student’s should feel motivated to write their ideas down on paper. One of the readings from this week addressed an issue I feel is especially important, that is that students write for an audience. Writing for a target audience can motivate students to produce their finest work, and engage them in a given writing activity.
2) Students have the opportunity to write for about 30 minutes each day during writer’s workshop. During this time, students gather for a brief mini-lesson and then go off and write independently for a given length of time. Our principal put an emphasis on writing instruction this summer at our staff meeting, therefore my CT is stressing writing in our classroom. My CT is always sure to include the purpose of the lesson so that students know why they are learning the skill being addressed. This was also something Reggie Routman addressed by emphasizing the fact that teachers should make sure your demonstrations include why (Routman, 148). During independent writing time my CT and I walk around the classroom and conference with students. We try and probe student thinking and get them to re-read their stories to correct errors, go back and add details, or decide that they are finished with their story. We never correct misspelled words or assist students with spelling, instead we have students stretch the words out in their mouths and iterate the sounds they hear on paper. We have an anchor chart for students to reference which is titled “I know I’m finished when…” which we encourage students who believe they are finished to use. After writers workshop students come down to the carpet to share what they tried during writers workshop. “Having students share their writing regularly as a basis for celebration and great teaching moments” was an issue which was highlighted in Writing Essentials (Routman, 144). Most other subjects include writing as well. For instance in math, students not only practice writing their numbers, but also practiced spelling the numbers as well.
3) One student in my class is someone I am particularly concerned about. She has a difficult time identifying letter names, and her writing reflects a string of letters which do not correlate to the word she is attempting to spell. After working with her one-on-one, she discussed her desire to become better with letter-sound identification as well as a desire for her mom to help her at home. Because it appears that she does not receive the needed support at home, I intend to work one-on-one with her on a daily basis if possible and potentially offer tutoring to her after school in the future. This student does well with visuals such as an alphabet line, therefore I intend on using many visuals during my differentiated instruction time with her. As her confidence and writing abilities progress, I might also like to pair her with another capable writer, and have them collaborate on a piece together (Routman, 171).
2) Students have the opportunity to write for about 30 minutes each day during writer’s workshop. During this time, students gather for a brief mini-lesson and then go off and write independently for a given length of time. Our principal put an emphasis on writing instruction this summer at our staff meeting, therefore my CT is stressing writing in our classroom. My CT is always sure to include the purpose of the lesson so that students know why they are learning the skill being addressed. This was also something Reggie Routman addressed by emphasizing the fact that teachers should make sure your demonstrations include why (Routman, 148). During independent writing time my CT and I walk around the classroom and conference with students. We try and probe student thinking and get them to re-read their stories to correct errors, go back and add details, or decide that they are finished with their story. We never correct misspelled words or assist students with spelling, instead we have students stretch the words out in their mouths and iterate the sounds they hear on paper. We have an anchor chart for students to reference which is titled “I know I’m finished when…” which we encourage students who believe they are finished to use. After writers workshop students come down to the carpet to share what they tried during writers workshop. “Having students share their writing regularly as a basis for celebration and great teaching moments” was an issue which was highlighted in Writing Essentials (Routman, 144). Most other subjects include writing as well. For instance in math, students not only practice writing their numbers, but also practiced spelling the numbers as well.
3) One student in my class is someone I am particularly concerned about. She has a difficult time identifying letter names, and her writing reflects a string of letters which do not correlate to the word she is attempting to spell. After working with her one-on-one, she discussed her desire to become better with letter-sound identification as well as a desire for her mom to help her at home. Because it appears that she does not receive the needed support at home, I intend to work one-on-one with her on a daily basis if possible and potentially offer tutoring to her after school in the future. This student does well with visuals such as an alphabet line, therefore I intend on using many visuals during my differentiated instruction time with her. As her confidence and writing abilities progress, I might also like to pair her with another capable writer, and have them collaborate on a piece together (Routman, 171).
Week 3 Jessica Thimm
1. For me, it is essential that students have the opportunity to write their own thoughts and feelings and not just respond to questions. While it is important for students to be able to write appropriate responses to readings and question it is also very important that students have the opportunity to write what ever they would like. Allowing students to write their own thoughts makes writing meaningful to the students. They feel comfortable writing in other subjects and writing down ideas in their own words. Writing is a way for students to express their thoughts to others so that they may develop into a better writer. Writing is a way for a student to look back at their own thoughts and see how they have grown as a writer. I want students to think writing is more then just something you have to do but something they want to do. I would like students to be inspired to write whether it be about their own life or a story that they have created.
2. In my classroom, I feel that we do a good amount of writing. Every day the students write responses to social studies and science questions. My teacher stresses that students have to write ideas in their own words. We also stress that students have to explain their thoughts more than saying “it did this,” or “it looked like this.” They are expected to explain their ideas in words instead using words like ‘it.’ I think it is important for students to have writing practice across all subject areas. Every day my students do reading responses. I think this is a great way for students to take what they are reading and relate it to themselves, other texts, and the world. My teacher takes these writing tasks one-step further and looks for students to use examples from the text in their own writing. By doing this she is having the students write a more complex piece then “I like this story because…” Like the chapters in Writing Essentials, we focus more on the content of the writing than the spelling of words. Students are expected to sound out the words to the best of the ability but they should be more focused on writing down their thoughts and ideas. When the students in my class write an actual story they start with an idea and they develop the idea using main points. They then put their story in a sequence from beginning, middle, to end using a chart. Students write they story down into a draft and they can refer back to the chart if they get lost or are having problems writing down their thoughts. Students are expected to do their own editing based on what they know about capitalization and punctuation. I believe that the students complete quality-writing responses throughout the school day.
3. My focus student struggles a lot with just paying attention. He struggles even to correctly copy words off the Elmo. He constantly is spelling words wrong that are up and available for him to see. This student is extremely interested in reading especially Diary of a Wimpy Kid however he does seem to be interested in any other school subject. We have to constantly pull his focus back into his work. He flies through work so that he can be done and work on something he is interested in. One thing I think may help with his writing responses is allowing him to write about Diary of a Wimpy Kid. He is only allowed to use the books for free read and not for reading responses because they are not considered independent chapter books. The only time I have seen him interested in writing is when he was allowed to write whatever he wanted to and he wrote about how he disliked school. I feel that he has a very negative attitude towards school and I would like to focus his attention more on the positive parts of school. I think he will work better and be more motivated when we encourage him and focus on the positive of what he is doing. He does not respond well to being told he has to re-do something or that he has to focus on the task we are working on. The more positive attitude and behavior we reinforce I think the better this student will respond.
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