This article describes some common issues teachers experience in trying to use writing workshop time to effectively converse with students in a way that promotes progress in their writing ability. The article acknowledges the fact that there really is not a fool proof template or script to be used in writing workshops which puts a lot more responsibility on the already busy teacher to make the conversation worthwhile. Many suggestions are offered in the article, including but not limited to; respond first as a reader, find specific things to praise, learn to listen and take a reflective stance.
I definitely think the ideas presented in this article could be applicable at my grade level. We have already been doing writing workshop for about three weeks and I have found myself struggling at times to figure out the best way to give feedback to students that leaves them wanting to write more, rather than disappointed or feeling like they messed up. One suggestion in here that I already found myself using was finding specific things to praise. I think that although it’s easy to point out forgotten periods or capital letters in the wrong place, it’s important to take the time to dwell on the positive aspects of the students writing. This allows the student to take some pride in their work and it also encourages them to do more of whatever it is that worked in their writing, which is exactly what we would hope for our students.
I feel that I have a lot to learn as a professional in order to maximize the potential of writing workshop. For example, I can generally find some positives in a students piece of writing, however, I would prefer to be a bit more well informed on how the writing process develops in students so I could have a better idea of what traits to be looking for and encouraging in students. The ideas in this module have taught me a lot about the range of options for assessing students writing. I have learned that assessing writing may be a lot more subjective and thus a bit more difficult for the teacher. However, the open context in which this possible is beneficial to the student as long as the teacher is able to realistically determine where the students strengths are and use those strengths to encourage the writer to continue writing as it is really a continuous process.
Sunday, October 10, 2010
Thursday, October 7, 2010
Helping Struggling Writers Succeed by: Helsel & Greenberg (Alison DiStefano)
Summary:
This article focused on a key writing strategy called Self Regulating Strategy Development (SRSD) which is composed of 6 stages or steps that a teacher can use to help a struggling writer. Self regulating is so important for students to learn. Some examples are self regulating are outlining, setting goals when writing, mimicking other author's writing styles, etc... Struggling writers don't use strategies. They do little revisions without teacher/peer support. What teachers need to do is introduce and model how to write a summary. The student would then use the observed strategy to write their own. Then they use their own knowledge to self monitor and make their own strategy (rather than relying on peer or teacher feedback). Summary writing is enhanced 3 ways: indirectly through experience, directly through instruction, and elicited through practice. Here are the stages involved in SRSD:
Stage 1: Background knowledge
Stage 2: Strategy is described & discussed
Stage 3: Model strategy
Stage 4: Memorize it
Stage 5: Support it. Teacher scaffolds while students write
Stage 6: Independent performance
Helsel was impressed with the changes she saw in her struggling writers (6th grade) after 5 sessions of using SRSD. She recommends using SRSD with upper elementary or middle school students. It is however, very time consuming with a limited amount of time to work individually with students.
This would be a hard approach to use with my 3rd graders. Especially because the author recommends only using this approach with upper elementary. My students have enough trouble working independently I don't see them being able to self monitor without looking for teacher feedback. However, this would be an interesting experiment. Perhaps I could introduce this activity during my literacy unit in order to teach students to be more independent writers. Self monitoring/regulation is very important when writing and they are learning right now how to write summaries. This could be a great time to introduce how to write a summary and expand on that using SRSD.
As a professional, I would need to first learn how my students learn. I need to see who struggles with writing and WHY. How do they learn? What strategies do I need to teach them in order for them to not only grasp them but be able to use them on their own. I need to also learn more about this SRSD model in order to teach it and encourage the students to use it.
I struggle a lot with figuring out how to assess students based on their writing. It is so easy to assess students in other areas such as math and science because there is (usually) one write answer and they either get it right or wrong. With writing, how do you successfully assess a student and how do you keep that assessment consistent across the entire class? What might be C work for one student is A work for another. I think for my unit it will be assessing students on whether or not they grasp the instructional focus for that week. Can they explain what the focus is and how it helps us with reading/writing. I also will assess them on how much they write. Can they expand on certain parts to make the reader to not only remain interested and focused on their writing but engaged and feel a part of that story? The videos in task one helped me see a teacher help students 'stretch' out and expand their writing to make it more interesting to read and more detailed.
This article focused on a key writing strategy called Self Regulating Strategy Development (SRSD) which is composed of 6 stages or steps that a teacher can use to help a struggling writer. Self regulating is so important for students to learn. Some examples are self regulating are outlining, setting goals when writing, mimicking other author's writing styles, etc... Struggling writers don't use strategies. They do little revisions without teacher/peer support. What teachers need to do is introduce and model how to write a summary. The student would then use the observed strategy to write their own. Then they use their own knowledge to self monitor and make their own strategy (rather than relying on peer or teacher feedback). Summary writing is enhanced 3 ways: indirectly through experience, directly through instruction, and elicited through practice. Here are the stages involved in SRSD:
Stage 1: Background knowledge
Stage 2: Strategy is described & discussed
Stage 3: Model strategy
Stage 4: Memorize it
Stage 5: Support it. Teacher scaffolds while students write
Stage 6: Independent performance
Helsel was impressed with the changes she saw in her struggling writers (6th grade) after 5 sessions of using SRSD. She recommends using SRSD with upper elementary or middle school students. It is however, very time consuming with a limited amount of time to work individually with students.
This would be a hard approach to use with my 3rd graders. Especially because the author recommends only using this approach with upper elementary. My students have enough trouble working independently I don't see them being able to self monitor without looking for teacher feedback. However, this would be an interesting experiment. Perhaps I could introduce this activity during my literacy unit in order to teach students to be more independent writers. Self monitoring/regulation is very important when writing and they are learning right now how to write summaries. This could be a great time to introduce how to write a summary and expand on that using SRSD.
As a professional, I would need to first learn how my students learn. I need to see who struggles with writing and WHY. How do they learn? What strategies do I need to teach them in order for them to not only grasp them but be able to use them on their own. I need to also learn more about this SRSD model in order to teach it and encourage the students to use it.
I struggle a lot with figuring out how to assess students based on their writing. It is so easy to assess students in other areas such as math and science because there is (usually) one write answer and they either get it right or wrong. With writing, how do you successfully assess a student and how do you keep that assessment consistent across the entire class? What might be C work for one student is A work for another. I think for my unit it will be assessing students on whether or not they grasp the instructional focus for that week. Can they explain what the focus is and how it helps us with reading/writing. I also will assess them on how much they write. Can they expand on certain parts to make the reader to not only remain interested and focused on their writing but engaged and feel a part of that story? The videos in task one helped me see a teacher help students 'stretch' out and expand their writing to make it more interesting to read and more detailed.
Wednesday, October 6, 2010
Learning the Write Way - Written By: Deidra M. Gammill
- Write a short summary of your piece, featuring the 'big idea' or 'take-home message' you gained from reading it (about 100-200 words)
Writing connects reading and comprehension no matter the length of their writing – they make connections leading to better understanding and stronger skills. “Writing to learn” is a process or skill that uses language to get the students thinking across. This is similar to the thinking, speaking, and learning process. If students learn through writing they gain many other skills such as reading – this improves test scores. For example, my third grade class is required to take the ISAT test this year and it requires the students to read long passages. If they already know how to write they will have a much easier time reading the passages fluently and will be able to comprehend the story. Students also learn through “writing to learn” questioning strategies, using prior knowledge, inferring, and using their imaginations or own ideas which leads to authentic work. Strategies to implement and use the “writing to learn” technique is using KWL charts and reading journals. Students are able to record and see what they already know, what they want to learn, and what they learned – they can monitor their progress along the way. In addition bringing the students’ personal experiences into their writing helps to retain information and to make connections – lessons are then more meaningful and more powerful to the students.
- Discuss whether and how you would use this approach at your grade level, where it could fit within the language arts curriculum in your classroom, and what it offers for enriching writing instruction beyond what you thought about as you completed Task 1 of this module.
I would use the “writing to learn” approach in my third grade classroom. It would fit in with guided reading/ reader’s notebook – which is similar. Students write about their readings for the week in letter form to the teacher (me). It helps them with reading strategies (such as predicting and visualizing). Students are able to write about things that interest them since they are the ones picking out the book. They can ask themselves questions in their writing and answer these questions at a later time in their writing. Also, as stated above this would help as they are taking the ISAT test this year and have a difficult time reading long passages. If they first learn to read long passages that is of interest to them and they have a connection with it because it is their writing they will get better at reading longer passages that are of a different authors work – they may in a sense begin to appreciate the work more.
- Also identify what you think you need to learn to do as a professional in order to use this approach well with your students.
I would need to learn the most and least successful ways to teach this approach and whether or not it is useful to have whole group lessons/small group lessons/ or one-on-one “mini lessons”. I would also need to learn other ways to implement this into the classroom especially with other subjects (math, science, social studies). Finally ways to assess their work that would be beneficial to the students.
- Lastly, how have any of the ideas in this module (writer's workshop, assessment, analysis of student work, jigsaw articles) helped you to think about the types of assessment necessary for informing your unit development? Even if your unit is not focused squarely on writing, what might you need to consider about your students as WRITERS, as you plan for instruction?
This module has shown me the many different types of assessments available to teachers. Some of which I hope to use and implement for my unit lesson(s). I have learned that reading and writing work together to make the students become more successful – they shouldn’t (always) be two different ideas, instead they should work together. As a teacher it could be difficult to use writing as your primary source for instruction however if the students don’t enjoy writing or feel ashamed that they can’t spell. So many students (in my class) feel they can’t write “well” because they can’t spell accurately. As a teacher this should be addressed to the students that it is ok to spell what you hear as long as the students are sounding the words out phonetically. Lastly, making the lessons interactive and enabling the students to make connections with their work is the most important.
Writing connects reading and comprehension no matter the length of their writing – they make connections leading to better understanding and stronger skills. “Writing to learn” is a process or skill that uses language to get the students thinking across. This is similar to the thinking, speaking, and learning process. If students learn through writing they gain many other skills such as reading – this improves test scores. For example, my third grade class is required to take the ISAT test this year and it requires the students to read long passages. If they already know how to write they will have a much easier time reading the passages fluently and will be able to comprehend the story. Students also learn through “writing to learn” questioning strategies, using prior knowledge, inferring, and using their imaginations or own ideas which leads to authentic work. Strategies to implement and use the “writing to learn” technique is using KWL charts and reading journals. Students are able to record and see what they already know, what they want to learn, and what they learned – they can monitor their progress along the way. In addition bringing the students’ personal experiences into their writing helps to retain information and to make connections – lessons are then more meaningful and more powerful to the students.
- Discuss whether and how you would use this approach at your grade level, where it could fit within the language arts curriculum in your classroom, and what it offers for enriching writing instruction beyond what you thought about as you completed Task 1 of this module.
I would use the “writing to learn” approach in my third grade classroom. It would fit in with guided reading/ reader’s notebook – which is similar. Students write about their readings for the week in letter form to the teacher (me). It helps them with reading strategies (such as predicting and visualizing). Students are able to write about things that interest them since they are the ones picking out the book. They can ask themselves questions in their writing and answer these questions at a later time in their writing. Also, as stated above this would help as they are taking the ISAT test this year and have a difficult time reading long passages. If they first learn to read long passages that is of interest to them and they have a connection with it because it is their writing they will get better at reading longer passages that are of a different authors work – they may in a sense begin to appreciate the work more.
- Also identify what you think you need to learn to do as a professional in order to use this approach well with your students.
I would need to learn the most and least successful ways to teach this approach and whether or not it is useful to have whole group lessons/small group lessons/ or one-on-one “mini lessons”. I would also need to learn other ways to implement this into the classroom especially with other subjects (math, science, social studies). Finally ways to assess their work that would be beneficial to the students.
- Lastly, how have any of the ideas in this module (writer's workshop, assessment, analysis of student work, jigsaw articles) helped you to think about the types of assessment necessary for informing your unit development? Even if your unit is not focused squarely on writing, what might you need to consider about your students as WRITERS, as you plan for instruction?
This module has shown me the many different types of assessments available to teachers. Some of which I hope to use and implement for my unit lesson(s). I have learned that reading and writing work together to make the students become more successful – they shouldn’t (always) be two different ideas, instead they should work together. As a teacher it could be difficult to use writing as your primary source for instruction however if the students don’t enjoy writing or feel ashamed that they can’t spell. So many students (in my class) feel they can’t write “well” because they can’t spell accurately. As a teacher this should be addressed to the students that it is ok to spell what you hear as long as the students are sounding the words out phonetically. Lastly, making the lessons interactive and enabling the students to make connections with their work is the most important.
Tuesday, October 5, 2010
The Forgotten Genre of Children’s Poetry - Sharon Ruth Gill
- Write a short summary of your piece, featuring the 'big idea' or 'take-home message' you gained from reading it (about 100-200 words)
Sharon Gill’s article The Forgotten Genre of Children’s Poetry provides a detailed description of appropriate and beneficial poetic authors and compositions necessary to instructing children through poetry. Sharon’s main concern is that modern poetry is being lost in a previous allusion that children’s poetry is limited to authors such as Shel Silverstein. She goes on to add that although poets such as Silverstein are highly recognized for their craft, their poems often have little appeal to children. “While there are certainly many poems written for adults that are appropriate for children...”(622). Nevertheless, as educators in poetry we shouldn’t be afraid to use poems that may appear to be limited for adult use only. It is important to model to our students poems that use correct formatting, a variety of styles, and that introduce topics and ideas encountered in real, everyday life.
- Discuss whether and how you would use this approach at your grade level, where it could fit within the language arts curriculum in your classroom, and what it offers for enriching writing instruction beyond what you thought about as you completed Task 1 of this module.
Although, Gill’s article did not discuss a direct approach to teaching/integrating poetry, many suggestions were provided as well as insightful resources for future reference. I think poetry is a great form of composition that can be included in the language arts curriculum as a form of expressive writing. As I teach third grade, I have observed the students become increasingly frustrated as the day goes on due to minimal time allotted to share personal stories. Providing the students an opportunity to engage in a free write, centered around the format of poems, students would be able to take an experience and transfer their thoughts/actions to paper in the form of a visual and expressive poem.
- Also identify what you think you need to learn to do as a professional in order to use this approach well with your students.
In order to instruct my students on poetry topics and concepts, I need to first become a “master”, or at least somewhat successful, at composing comprehensive poetic pieces.
- Lastly, how have any of the ideas in this module (writer's workshop, assessment, analysis of student work, jigsaw articles) helped you to think about the types of assessment necessary for informing your unit development? Even if your unit is not focused squarely on writing, what might you need to consider about your students as WRITERS, as you plan for instruction? (To review an example of how writing assessment informs a 3rd grade teacher's instruction more broadly, review pp. 82-3 in Book Club Plus!)
Many of the ideas in this module have helped me to think about the types of assessment necessary for informing my unit development. I have been reintroduced to the idea that the information presented to the students should come from credible and diverse resources. It is important to not just teach children about famous people and events but to provide them with relevant content that they are able to connect to their everyday lives. Additionally, writing instruction allows a teacher to grasp the ways in which their students interpret events that that are writing about. The students strategies and though process are displayed as you are able to follow their flow of comprehensive and cohesive writing based on a previous text, experience, or scenario.
Sunday, October 3, 2010
Joanne Hindley Salch and Marianne Marino
The focus of this reading was conferring with your students about their writings. The author discussed the difficulties most teachers have with going about conferences. The article listed important steps to a successful conference: respond first as a reader, find specific things to praise, keep conferences short, get students involved, tell the student the story of your reading, teach the writer strategies,… The article discussed the importance of the conference being a conversation not a lecture. It is meant to be the mid-ground between uniformly praising students and the harsh criticism of red pen marks. The article broke the conference into two parts. The first is focused on what the student is working on and the second it focused on a discussion on how to make the student a better writer.
In my classroom, our reading and writing work is through a basil program. I would use this hand in hand with that program. I have not seen conferences like this take place in my classroom. But I believe it could be utilized during writing time when students are independently working. This makes a personal connection between the writer and the teacher (the reader). It allows the teacher to understand the writer’s writings, thoughts, plans… better. It also gives the teacher a way to make a more personalized plan, objectives, and assessment for that writer. As a professional, it would be helpful to see more conferences taking place in order to focus in on what works and what does not work well. Personally, As a professional teacher, I need to learn to listen and analyze better what the students wants the reader to get out of the writing, rather than what I want the student to write.
This module allowed me to familiarize my self with different types of assessments to analyze students works. Through this module, my wheels started turning when thinking about how I want to assess my students writing especially during my guided lead teach. One thing I will definitely walk way from for my own instruction is making that connection between reading and writing.
Friday, October 1, 2010
I really enjoy the perspective I gain when reading Book Club Plus, however, I also feel challenged to find ways I can effectively incorporate some of these ideas into my classroom dynamic. I do realize that anything is possible as long as I am willing to put in the effort and accept successes where I can find them. Thus far in my own classroom, there has been little to no opportunity for students to engage in authentic discussions related to literature or text they are being exposed to in class. Obviously literacy happens all day long in school, regardless of how engaged students may be. In the morning, bell work consists of 2-3 pages of assigned reading from the Social Science book, followed by a few questions for students to answer. Unfortunately, I feel that the time given for bell work is not appropriate for what is being asked of them. I think my teacher realizes this so she tries to supplement by giving “easy” questions following the reading, ie. “what word is highlighted on page 26?”. Surprisingly (or maybe not) students often get these kinds of questions wrong, and sometimes don’t even attempt to answer them. In reflecting on ideas and suggestions provided in Book Club Plus, I am wondering if this might be a good place to implement a more individualized approach. For example, students could be instructed to read a page or two,and then write about something they found interesting, important, or relevant from those pages. This would allow students to have some ownership over their work and might motivate them to put more effort into the task.
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