Digital Essay

Here is my personal literature story.  It was a great project to complete. 

http://khaines.edu.glogster.com/katie-haines-el-801-glog

Final Thought

The title of Regie Routman's "Writing Essentials" last chapter is "Make Every Minute Count."  By just reading the title, I knew this was where I struggled last year teaching writing.  I vividly remember watching the clock as my students were writing.  I would conduct roving conferences, and some small group conferences to help students with difficult parts of writing, but I wasn't confident in what I was saying or teaching the students about writing. 

I feel that I have many more skills to "make every minute count" as I am teaching writing next year because I have more knowledge about how to use conversations, choose writing prompts, and assist students while they are writing. 

A second part of the chapter talked about "making every minute count" in a teacher's personal life.  Routman suggests that just because a teacher works late hours or grades every writing paper the students write, doesn't mean the teacher is the best teacher.  Routman suggests teachers make changes in traditional writing assessments so that teachers are not assessing writing papers all night.  I am slowly learning that teachers do not have to be at school late or grade every paper with a fine-toothed comb, but it is difficult.  I do not think it is bad to be at school working late, but teachers have to have a life too.  I am looking forward to making small changes to my writing classroom that will make a big difference in the quality of my students' writing.

Hopefully I will not be feeling like this during writing ever again.  This clip art was found at this link.

Professional Development

Last year my school moved from a small building with two teachers per grade level to a large building with three or four teachers per grade level.  In that transition, we hired many more staff members, and moved from a one story building to a two story building.  Needless to say, last year was a tough year that included a lot of changes.  

Because of all of the changes we were going through, the amount of staff collaboration and professional development activities seemed to decrease.  We were simply trying to survive the move and learn all of the new procedures.  Now that we are situated in the new building and have procedures and routines mastered in the new building, I am looking forward to more staff collaboration and professional development opportunities next year. 

Classroom teachers also began teaching writing in the classroom last year.  Because of the other changes in the building, we did not have the staff bonding over writing as Regie Routman suggests her in book, Writing Essentials.  I believe this year is the year that we should begin to implement professional development sessions to writing.  This would provide teachers and opportunity to learn from other teachers about the best ways to teach writing.  We could each bring writing samples and learn about where students have come from and where we need to prepare students to go.  I also think that we would be able to bond as a staff better by doing some writing activities where teachers are told to write on a specific topic or given a free write time and then discuss what we noticed.  Some of these ideas were discussed in Writing Essentials.

Rubrics

This week I read about the use of rubrics and the effectiveness in writing lessons.  I usually do not use rubrics in my class for writing unless they are writing their performance assessments as required by the district.  I am starting to wonder if I should be using rubrics more often when I give my students a new task in writing.

I really liked the idea of having "student-friendly" rubrics that the students could use for guidance in producing good quality writing.  I think this would help hold students to higher standards and remind students of how they should be spending their time during writing. 

I wouldn't want to use rubrics on every writing assignment or every week, but using them more often would help prepare students for the district assessments.  The students might do better on these assessments because the standards of excellence would have already been set earlier in the year. 

Some of my students would be able to use the rubrics to self-assess while they are working.  As the book notes, I do not want to lose the voice of my students or train students to write like they think I want them to write, but I did appreciate the structure of what was expected as a student and maybe some of my students would as well. 

I attached a few different writing rubrics that I found at www.teacherspayteachers.com.  I found each of the rubrics above for free on the website.  I really like the website for ideas and sometimes I can use exactly what another teacher has already created. 

Conferencing

This week I learned about conferencing with my students during writing.  In the past I knew that I needed to conference with students, but I didn't know what to say to the students when we were conferencing with me.  I wasn't confident in my abilities as a writing teacher to effectively give students feedback and offer suggestions.  Chapter 9 in Regie Routman's book, "Writing Essentials" was a wonderful resource in conferencing with students. 

In the book, I learned about the different types of conferences teachers can have with students throughout the writing lessons.  One of the conferences that I hadn't thought about what Whole-Class conferencing where the teacher conferences with a student while the other students are listening and watching.  This is helpful because the other students can see what the teacher expects and may get some ideas for their own writing. This would probably take a lot of time, but it certainly worth it because students need to see exactly what you expect. 

The second type of conference is Roving Conferences. This is the type of conference that I used most often in my classroom.  I would use the time to move throughout the room and stop to talk with a student for a minute or two about their writing.  During these roving conferences, I should take notes about what the students are doing well at and what I could offer support on. With the advice from Regie Routman, I created this table in which I can write notes about my students and their individual needs for writing.  I will put student names in the table next year when I know my complete class list. 

Lastly, I learned more about formal one-on-one conferences.  This was great because I feel that I now have a direction for how to conduct conferences with my students.  I love that Regie Routman gave students a praise about the content of the writing first and then offered suggestions about how to get the piece of writing organized so that the reader knows exactly what the writer is trying to say.  There are many different checklists that I would encourage you to look at and use in your conferences, if you have a chance to get a copy of "Writing Essentials."

Expectations

I set expectations every year for hallway behavior, center behavior, lunch room behavior, and many other routines throughout the day, however, I have never set writing expectations.  While reading for class this week, I had that moment where I thought, "why didn't I think of that?".

One of the first things I am going to do next year is set expectations.  Looking back on last year, I would tell students what they needed to do for each day and give them directions.  I would tell students when it should be independent working time, or when they should have conversations about writing with their partner.  But, I did not have set expectations for writing time hung in the classroom.

With having set expectations, it will be easy for me and my students to know what I expect during the writing time.  I can easily refer to these expectations and, if taught explicitly, students will know what they should be doing during this time.  Because my students had me last year, we can come up with the expectations together.  This could be a great way to help push the students into more complex writing as they would now have set, written rules in the classroom for writing time. Students will also know that they cannot spend the time at writing without doing their very best.  On a lighter note, I would not accept Calvin's behavior below.

http://sirmartin.wordpress.com/2007/09/19/grade-expectations-some-words-of-wisdom-from-calvin-and-buddha/

It will also be good to have more anchor charts in my classroom this year.  After reading in the book about the importance of Word Walls and anchor charts, I know I need to do a better job of getting reference materials up in my classroom.  I did notice students referring the posters that I had up in the room last year, so this expectations anchor chart will probably be good for the classroom as well.

Spelling and Word Walls

This week I read about spelling and word walls in "Writing Essentials" by Regie Routman.  I use Word Walls in my classroom, but the words are chosen from the reading curriculum as "high frequency" words and that the students should know how to spell.  I do agree with the most of the words, however, I did not add these words to the word wall during my writing time.  I had a separate time in my classroom in which we practiced spelling these words orally and then I added them to the word wall.  

One of the ideas in the book was to add words to the word wall during writing lessons.  Because my district relies heavily on the requirements of the book, I would need to use specific words each week and add them to the word wall.  This could be easily done while I am modeling writing. I could think about how I am going to add each word into the piece I am modeling with and then add it to the Word 

Wall.  I think this might be helpful because students wouldn't just practice spelling the words orally but I would be able to hold them even more accountable for the spelling.

By adding more words to the Word Wall during writing time, I would probably add more words that what the district requires because I would notice words that are commonly misspelled during that lesson.  This might help meet the needs of my students and not just what I am required to put on the Word Wall.

Lastly, this photograph shows a picture of a woman interacting with the word wall.  In this coming school year, I need to force myself to be more interactive with the word wall as it suggests in the book.  My Word Wall has always been hard to reach since I add so many words, but I think it might help students to become more familiar with the words and the correct spelling. This photo was from .http://thinkwonderteach.blogspot.com/2012/09/interactive-word-walls.html

Reading and Writing Link

Being new to the process of teaching writing, I am always looking for ways to incorporate writing into my other daily activities.  One of the best ideas that I found while reading for my Masters' classes was to use "Reading Response" journals for students during Guided Reading.  My students will be in third grade next year and I have decided to try using "Guided Reading Response Journals" for each student.  Each student will be required to respond to the work and reading that they did while at Guided Reading.  I will have my students respond for 3-4 minutes while they are at centers and not during the time at Guided Reading so that I am not taking away from the reading work that we are doing.  This will also allow students to process what they read and possibly allow students to share thoughts that they had while reading but were unable to share.  I made this template for the cover of each journal.


This would link reading and writing more than I have time for during Guided Reading.  It would allow students to respond to the discussion or book that we were reading and promote more writing practice in the classroom. Although I do not know much about the new state assessments, I image this deeper, more independent thinking would help students prepare for this test.   Do you already use this type of response journal? I would love to hear ideas and suggestions that teachers have used in the past.

Graphic Organizers

Writing is all around in the world today.  Each day I write grocery lists, "to do" lists, diary entries, posts on social media websites, and checks to pay bills.  Less often, I will respond to literature, write formal papers for continuing education classes, or letters to friends and relatives.  Except for an occasional column chart or t-chart, I do not use graphic organizers before each of these forms of writing.

However, in the classroom I emphasize the use of graphic organizers.  Each week I use a graphic organizer for students to "prewrite" for the writing lesson.  I give students a copy of a graphic organizer and the students fill it out with my assistance.  I think prewriting does give students a way to focus their ideas and begin thinking about exactly what they will write during the week. For those of you that do love graphic organizers, http://www.enchantedlearning.com/graphicorganizers/ has wonderful examples, such as the star below, that can be printed and used in the classroom.

In reading for my Masters' classes this week, I am beginning to wonder if I should limit the variation in the graphic organizers and prepare two or three graphic organizers that will help students in writing fiction and nonfiction.  In this cases, students would not be required to pay close attention to the layout of the graphic organizer but allow this time to serve as a brainstorming session for thoughts on the topic for the week. 

How do you use graphic organizers in the writing classroom? Are graphic organizers helpful for all students or is there another way to help students get excited and organized for the writing of the week?

Oracy and English Language Learners

In the past few years, "oracy" has been a key phrase in USD #457.  Professional Development days and inservices were created to improve the use of oracy in the classroom.  According to Wendy Sparrow, orally is all language skills that produce literate learners.  Wendy Sparrow from Literacy Squared®  Institute shared a wonderful PowerPoint about oracy in the classroom.  Click on Wendy Sparrow's Oracy PowerPoint link to find out more information about oracy. This graphic shows what oracy could and should look like with a group of students found at http://www.flickr.com/photos/hebergersite/3648205233/.

In reading in "Writing Essentials" by Regie Routman I am reminded of the importance of oracy in teaching writing.  Many of the students that I teach are English Language Learners.  The students speak English as a second language to Spanish or another language.  The students are working to blend two different languages that have different grammatical rules.  Some students have difficulties making the transition between their first language and English in daily conversations.  Then, these same students are required to write in English using correct grammatical rules.

Therefore, new emphasis should be put on having conversations about writing before the students actually write during a writing class period.  If students are given the chance to speak about what they are going to write, they can first think about what the sentence sounds like and discuss those sentences with other students. Kagan® activities, such as think-pair-share or mix-pair-share, would be helpful in opening up the conversations in writing.  I use Kagan® activities in my classroom on a daily basis.  Here is a link to the Kagan website.  It has great materials to buy and use to increase oracy in the classroom.

Sometimes it is hard to spend time during writing class speaking because it doesn't seem "right," but it is important to have dialogues with students before the students start to write. 

Shared Writing

Shared Writing is essential in developing competent writers in the elementary setting.  Although I had not used the term "shared writing," I have used many of the concepts.  Shared Writing allows students and teacher to be active in writing together.  For more information about ways to teach writing in the classroom and the image shown below you can click here.

 


There are many different reasons why Shared Writing is important.  For many of the English Language Learners, the students are learning about written language from the teachers and peers while being actively engaged in the lesson.  English Language Learners and students who need additional scaffolding in sentence structure benefit from Shared Writing because the teacher can allow students to come up with sentences for the story and then assist with the grammatical correct way to write it. 


This can then transfer to cloze activities where students are working to find the correct word that fits into the sentence.  This is important because students in USD #457 in third and fourth grade take the Maze Aimsweb test.  This test asks students to fit words into sentences in a cloze activity.


Lastly, Regie Routman provides a list of Shared Writing topics in her book on pages 112-118.  This was extremely helpful as I think about implementing Share Writing more into my classroom next year.  In case you do not have access to think book, you could use the random prompt generator from Corbett Harrison.  You may have to change the prompts a bit to meet the needs of your students, but it is a great start. 

Journal Writing

After reading today for my Masters classes, I began thinking about journal writing.  I have my students write in journals in the morning with a specific sentence starter written on the board.  I started thinking about why exactly I use this procedure.  I came to the conclusion that I need my students to have a task while they are doing their morning jobs. The students need to be able to settle down as they get started for the day and prepare for their job as a student.  Lastly, I do want my students to practice writing skills even when they are not required to write during writing class.

However, after learning more about teaching writing and journal writing, I may want to change my morning procedure.  In my current writing program, the students are required to write on a specific topic or in a specific way each week.  When I give the students a required sentence starter during journal writing, I am not allowing creative writing that many of my students would probably prefer. With that being said, I am not sure what I should do for my morning procedure.  Would students get bored of having a "free write" prompt to begin each day?  We are not allowed to run Writers' Workshop as it is intended during our writing time in my district, so maybe some of my students would excel in free writing during this time. 

The beginning of the day can be a vital time in how the day will go, so how do you start your day? Do you believe students should journal write in the morning? As always, I love to learn about writing and teaching writing, so I cannot wait to hear your ideas.

Writing Background and Chapter 1

The summer has just started and here I am blogging about thoughts for next year, but that is what teachers do, I suppose. Last year was the first year that classroom teachers taught writing in the classroom in my district.  In the past, students went to writing as a daily special.  The writing teacher was the teacher that focused on the correct use of grammar, handwriting, and creating stories with a beginning, middle, and end.  However, last year this changed and classroom teachers were now in charge of conducting a writing class and teaching students all of the essentials for writing stories and informative pieces.  Needless to say, I felt clueless in teaching students writing.  So, last year was a trial-and-error year for teaching writing.  I felt like I tried new techniques and ideas constantly in order to find something that hooked students into writing.

Along with posting about school and ideas for next year during the summer, I have started a class for my Masters with an emphasis on writing, so hopefully I'll feel much more confident in my abilities for teaching writing this coming school year. 

For my class, I am reading "Writing Essentials"by Regie Routman. I began reading the book and immediately connected with many of the questions and thoughts about teaching writing. In my trial-and-error writing class last year, I can confidently say I tried or thought about many of the ideas in chapter 1 at some point in the year. 

One of the important elements that I found in my classroom last year and in the book was the link between reading and writing.  The students need to see the connection between reading and writing stories.  I tried to talk about elements in writing during reading block and vice versa, but I need to do this on a more consistent basis next year.  One of the books that I used at the beginning of the year last year was "Author: A True Story" by Helen Lester.  I wanted students to see that even published authors have many steps to complete in order to publish books.  I think this was a great book to start the year off with, but I will need to come back to it at the beginning of next year. (picture found at www.amazon.com keyword "Author: A True Story")

One last thought as I finished reading my first chapter for class: What do the authors of the book and you all think about the use of writing workshop? Do you use it? Do you teach writing in a different way? I am always looking for new ideas to teach writing!