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.
The power of a community of learning. I don't think I can write without my writing partners, Judy and Rich. They always give honest feedback and suggestions. Without my colleagues my writing would greatly suffer. I need to always remember to give my students response groups.
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