July 16th Reflection

I gained a few pieces of information to incorporate into my classroom from the Peer-Conferencing group. The first idea I found useful was the graphic organizer used to facilitate peer discussion about writing. I liked the language used to aid students reflect appropriately about writing. If we want students to be writers, we all have to get them to think and talk like writers.

I also found use in the idea of extending the conversation beyond the classroom. It is a nice feeling when we as teachers are able to connect to students in a way that they find meaningful. I believe using technology to provide young writers with a second chance to continue the conversation about writing is valuable. As Mariam mentioned in her presentation, many students would rather comment online as opposed to in class.

The Reluctant Writers group gave great suggestions to help students generate ideas for writing.  I think that the comic strip lends it self nicely to my content. I see using political cartoons from past and present as a means to compare history with present day. Students could also make a statement about a historical event in the style of a particular comic strip. There are many possibilities for this one. I also saw a practical application for the cube activity as a precursor to writing in my classroom. All in all, there were many great ideas passed on.


Thanks Brenda and Rich for your understanding and flexibility!

July 15th Reflection

The first group helped me put  together a few ideas that we have discussed throughout the institute. I liked the idea of using "Shrinklits" as alternative way to teach summarizing. I would share a few Shrinklits with students as examples, and then ask them to create their own Shrinklits given the content we were learning. Mentor texts help inform student writing! They also made me think about the place of writing workshops in my classroom. What would they look like in a Social Studies classroom? Should I go all in, or use some hybrid form of the writing workshop?

I also got a great take away from the last group to present today. The article my group read on Writing to Learn and Meta-Analysis convinced me that I need to stress student reflection after giving writing to learn strategies. The article goes into great detail about the importance of focusing on the process students use to write rather than focusing on the writing itself. Learners are then free to focus on why they made choices about there writing, and how to improve based on those choices.

July 12th Reflection

The first presentation made me think deeply about voice, and its place in my room. The idea that voice is present in other forms besides writing was one that I was aware of on some level, but it was helpful to see it used in context with writing. I think this will make for a good conversation/ tie in, in the classroom.

I also found a use for the 25 word story in my history class. I can see using a contextual picture as the motivation for writing, a subject related to history or a current event. I now have yet another writing to learn strategy for my toolbox! 

July 11th Reaction

I enjoyed todays presentation on poetry. It opened my eyes to a few new possibilities for uses of poetry in my classroom. For example, the catalog or list poetry lends itself well to my classroom. It allows students to focus on the content of the poem rather then worrying about sounding poetic - as Don mentioned.  I can also see exploring other poetic forms after using the list poems as a launching pad. Not to sure that I will be going the 180 days of poetry route though!

I also appreciated the free write using the contents of the bag. That was a great way to get our creative juices flowing. I could see possibly using a bag with history related "artifacts" for my students to write about.

July 10th Reflection

Today was about progress. My Inquiry group made substantial gains in preparation for our demonstration lesson on Friday. We were able to finalize our roles in the lesson, as well as our content and method of presenting. Tomorrow we will be practicing to work out any potential problems. I was also able to finalize my topic for my argumentative piece, which I will be working on tonight. My narrative is a few clicks away from being submitted! Once again, the time today proved to be helpful, as I was able to get constructive feedback on some of my issues, while having enough time to address them.

July 9th Reflection

Today I appreciated the extra time to catch up on writing and group collaboration time. I am feeling stressful about our upcoming demonstration lesson as well as the assignments we have to complete in the upcoming week. It has been a personal challenge to keep on track with all of the work in addition to life at home. I think things should be less stressful for me as my group gets closer to completion of our preparation for Friday, and a few missing pieces fall into place.

July 8th Reaction

We started the day by writing an open letter. I liked the idea of writing to some person or group that you know won't respond. There are so many applications for the classroom. The first two examples of application of the open letter include writing: a letter to John Adams stating your feelings about his policies during his time in office, or writing a letter to congress stating your position about the electoral college, and whether or not it should be used to continue electing the president of the United States. The open letter works for three main reasons. The first being that students have yet another opportunity to write. Also, it allows students to demonstrate what they have learned about a topic. Lastly, it gives students the chance to "sound off" on a topic in which they have some interest.

We also discussed the elements of the argumentative piece of writing. To this end, we broke down the important elements of an argument which included the us of statistics, facts, and evidence to support a position. If I remember correctly, we looked at argument writing through the lens of common core standards. We took parts of the persuasive writing common core, and organized them from high school down to elementary. After doing that, we had some time to identify nouns, adjectives and verbs throughout the standards to get familiar with them. I thought this was a nice way to get us to see the interconnectedness of the standards from elementary to high school.

Even though we were down one person, our group continued to fine tune ideas we had about our demonstration lesson that is quickly approaching. I was also able to come to terms with the fact that the  lesson is a starting point for our inquiry project. Prior to me arriving at this conclusion, was stressing about the demonstration, thinking that we had to have a completed, polished product. (I know that we were told that this was not the case, but I still envisioned otherwise.)

I thought the presentation of the terms "Overwriter" and "Underwriter" to proved to be a powerful way to get students to think about their own writing, as well to help them begin thinking about what they need to develop into better writers.

July 3rd Reflection

Today we discussed organization by looking at various passages. We also had meaningful discussion about various degrees of organization. I felt comfortable with my assessment of the sample passages we used. We also talked about style by looking at pieces of writing in the mode of well known writers. I liked the idea of asking students to write on a topic using the style of another writer or well known figure.

The demonstration lesson on character was helpful, because it gave me a sense of what to do, and what not to do for our demonstration lesson. I thought the presenter was energetic, patient, and creative. I did think however, that he could have focused on using fewer strategies to convey his message about character.

During my response group time, I had an opportunity to continue working on my narrative, and decided upon the direction I needed to go next.

My inquiry group continued to pick up steam, as we were able to hone in on the important message to convey during our lesson.

July 2nd Reflection

The lesson on focus today proved to be extremely helpful. I liked the idea of using one domain at a time to assess writing. I felt a sense of freedom being able to focus solely on the domain at hand. I imagine that this method gives you a more accurate picture of each student's writing abilities in the long term.

I cannot say enough about my response group. They have been extremely supportive of my efforts as a writer with their comments of encouragement and suggestions on ways I can improve. It's great to feel like a part of a team with the same goal of improving one another's writing. Thanks Amanda and Valerie!

My inquiry group has been just as awesome so far. We are all on the same page in terms of what we would like to know to support our teaching of writing in classrooms where history and writing meet. We also got some great feedback from our coach, who helped us to think about creating more tools for our collective toolboxes. She proposed the idea of framing the writing assignments done for the purpose of learning through writing, and those assignments that are for publishing. We also discussed the importance of addressing the PA common core standards as we create/share our tools. We discussed various ways in which we can introduce writing in meaningful ways in our classrooms as well. All in all, I think we had a good start to the inquiry process.

July 1st Reflection

I have many thoughts about how much my writing and teaching of writing needs to improve as a result of today's class and the recent assigned readings. I felt overwhelmed just thinking about how much work I need to do.
First, on the subject of my writing, I learned that I have to focus on getting my thoughts down once I have chosen a topic, or else run the risk of perseverating on what direction to take my writing. I have to allow my writing to take shape as I go along. Fletcher describes this occurrence as "allowing your writing to be influenced by discoveries made by the process of writing." This method seems to be working for me so far! I have been resisting my usual temptation for order by writing what I want to tell about my story. (Feedback from my response group proved to be validating as well as constructive!) I also learned that I enjoy writing, although it can be an exhausting, time consuming task. Writers have to practice patience, as Fletcher demonstrated in his story about slowing down to "stalk" his inner voice.
I learned that I have to try and implement new approaches in my teaching of writing. Based on the article I read today by Mem Fox, I now know that I have to allow more opportunities for my students to showcase work in which they are invested. (This is something I've always known, but I have taken the wrong approach to make it a reality.) I brainstormed some possibilities to give the students a chance to "ache with caring over what they have written."  These possibilities include changing the audience, writing to people of authority about relevant concerns as they relate to current events, opportunities to debate an issue of choice and justify a position, and allowing more experiences for peer evaluation. Fox reported experiencing success once she gave her students and audience and a purpose. Hopefully, I can experience some level of success in my teaching of writing by making the before stated changes.

PAWLP Narrative - How to put it together?

I have a lot of great ideas about the subject of my narrative, but I am not so sure about how to put it all together. I've just been putting together a string of thoughts and hoping that I can gain some clarity about where to take my writing.

As I continue to think about and write my narrative, I remembered being told in one of our first PAWLP sessions to chose a story as the subject of our writing. This helped me narrow down the possibilities of directions I could have taken my narrative. My writing is now beginning to take shape!

Reaction to  Chapter 2 of "Pedagogy of the Oppressed" by Paulo Friere

I am guilty. I am guilty of being a depositor of information into the bank that we call students. Therefore, it stands to reason why I felt a bit defensive while reading Paulo Friere's explanation of what he described as the "banking" theory. Based on this theory, teachers, also known as "oppressors," pour information into learners, who are referred to as the "oppressed." Banking education also assumes that students have no knowledge, and the teacher possess all knowledge.
While I am willing to admit that I can play the role of narrator, I do not feel comfortable with the assertion that I believe my students are without knowledge and that I cannot gain anything valuable from them. I feel that I do not fit into Friere's mold of a traditional teacher. However, I am willing to take a look at my teaching practices to allow for more student input, and problem based lessons. This brings me to the subject of my last article reaction. What Friere proposes is directly related to Harste and Leland's article about inquiry based learning. This is evident when Friere states that (we-teachers) "must abandon the educational goal of deposit making and replace it with the posing of the of the problems of human beings in their relations with the world."

Reaction to "On getting Lost, Finding One's Direction, and Teacher Research by Harste and Leland

I found that the Harste & Leland article validates many of the things I learned to be best practices in teaching. For example, the idea that students benefit from choice is something I recall learning during my undergrad days at Temple University. Since that time, I have witnessed first hand how powerful student choice can be. I recently assigned a project where my students chose from a list of historical figures and ideas (from the time period we were studying) on which to base a poem. They also chose which of the provided literary elements they would include in the poem. I am convinced that by offering my students options, it was easier for them to generate the effort needed to create their literary pieces. This is one personal example I witnessed that demonstrates how choice often motivates students to work harder, and to go more in depth with their level of effort and understanding, since they are given some ownership over their learning. Harste and Leland also go on to explain that in addition to choice being "central to student learning," providing students with relevant experiences is a necessary part of an effective curriculum. Once again, providing choice and creating authentic learning experiences for students are things we all learn as teachers, and strive to do, but they are not always simple to put into action. I often find myself mulling over the curriculum to find new ways to make learning an experience for students that is relatable. Lack of time, as well as an occasional lack of resources can make it especially difficult to incorporate relevant experiences into the curriculum. I can only hope that I will find my way, with the help of further readings and my PAWLP classes, and gain some direction (in the same way as Harste and Leland)  in delivering a curriculum that is relevant to my students.