My Wordle of My Blog

http://www.wordle.net/show/wrdl/3487793/writers_workshop

Spelling Article

Spelling Article

I can see what this article is trying to convey, that spelling cannot be learned by simply memorizing one word at a time like most spelling programs ask. Students have to continuously experience words and see them in writing to slowly learn spelling. I was definitely not aware that there were so many different strategies that children use to sound out words. While I agree with not grading spelling too harshly in children’s writing, especially when that is not something you are testing for, I do see the benefits of spelling tests. Spelling tests go against what this article is saying because they are the memorization of a set of words. However, in my mentor teacher’s classroom, the spelling words the children get are helping to build their vocabulary. Some of them are not reading grade level books and are therefore seeing the same 100 sight words over and over. With these lists they are getting more experience with different words that they might not be seeing in books until middle school.

I thought next I would reflect on this whole process of blogging this semester. This is my first ever blog and it has been a highly beneficial experience. I need a place to get my thoughts out and I’m way too lazy to write them all out in a journal. This provides such an easy tool for my thoughts to flow right out of my mind and into print. After this semester is over I will continue this blogging experience and get more involved in reading the blogs of others. I might encounter one day a blog that changes my life, or at least my philosophy on teaching. This class has taught me so much on how to conduct a writing workshop (which before this class I knew basically nothing about) and also how to use technology to encourage my students to write and be creative. I will definitely take things from this class to incorporate into my future teaching.

My Comments to Child Writers

http://kidblog.org/MrsGoerendsClass/collinv2017/how-to-be-a-super-hero/#comment-770
I was the comment "Mary"



http://kidblog.org/MrsRippsClass/nkripp/what-are-we-missing/#comment-2237




http://kidblog.org/MrWirthsClass/jorwlo954/my-saddest-and-happiest-moment/#comment-471

Future 4th Grade Teacher

Throughout much of college and this program I have known I wanted to teach elementary school, but not until this semester have I truly seen the grade I wanted to teach. I worked in a 1^st grade classroom last semester, and while I fell in love with my sweet 1^st graders, I wasn’t 100% happy with the content taught, the levels of dependence and the repetitive practice with simple rules and procedures.

So this semester I decided to give 4^th grade a try, and I love it! I love it that my children can carry on adult conversations with me and also understand sarcasm and humor. I also love their level of independence, even thought I am working with the lower class with many special education students they still are competent little mini adults that can micro manage their own areas and don’t have to constantly be redirected and reminded of everything. I love the content also because in 4^th grade they can do a lot more hands on things and have more challenging material to learn. Overall, I think I am lucky to have such a wonderful and sweet class, but I honestly feel like I can relate and get through more to the older groups of elementary age children. Obviously I will take any job I can get with this economy and lack of jobs, but I am still crossing my fingers to get a chance to teach the upper grades!

Chapter 12 and Field Experience

I found Chapter 12 interesting because it gave more of a focused look on what a year can look like in a writing workshop. I have always been stressed about how I am going to plan for each individual day for every subject, but this chapter focuses more on units and explains that the writing workshop should be lenient with time and vary according to student’s needs. The questions to ask yourself about planning a unit were also very beneficial to me. Knowing what the students have done in the past is extremely important because it can be built on, and if they have learned nothing then you know to start with the basics of writing workshop.

        I have been seeing more writing in my field experience lately. The other day my teacher read “My Name is Yoon” to the children and they wrote a response to reading about it. She provided sentence starters and discussed what the children should write about and I think this greatly helped them focus. They got to share today and I was amazed at some of the vocabulary and thought that some of the students put into their work. They have also been working on persuasive writing on a prompt asking whether they think Whitehead should have school uniforms. Some of the children thought of very imaginative reasons, but most of the students seemed to enjoy it because it was a topic they felt strongly about one way or the other. I look forward to continuing to see my students grow as writers and hope sometime in the future I can teach a lesson on writing with this class. They are very enthusiastic and want to share their writing which I think is so great!

The Writing Workshop, Chapters 7, 8, 19

Simply reading the section about the kinds of supplies a teacher should provide for students in writing workshop made me so excited to one day teach writing. I know even to this day I LOVE getting to create things using different mediums and different styles of papers. I feel like this alone will encourage and get many students excited about writing. I also thought it was interesting to note the way the book encourages you to arrange your classroom. In the current classroom I’m in, there is no extra room for a specific class meeting area and no extra tables for students to spread out all of their work. The book describes the ideal situation, but as a teacher if you really put your mind to it you could utilize space inside and outside your classroom for writing.

I really loved the last paragraph at the end of Chapter 8 where the author describes many of the rewards of having a writing workshop. This really gives you optimism that even when days may appear crazy and unbearable to simply look at the big picture and know that your students are benefiting and they are the ones you are letting go of control for.

I thought it was interesting that the author went into so much detail on publishing and how it should not be a “party” every time where students’ parents are encouraged to come in and snacks and refreshments are provided. Publishing should be a common thing that happens often throughout the year and not all published works have to be made into a big commotion. I loved the part about the deadlines and providing students with a calendar of expectations at the beginning. I thrive on things like this and would honestly not survive in this early childhood program without syllabus’s and calendars with deadlines. So often we think elementary children can’t handle deadlines and are more lenient but they are actually a great way to show expectations and keep children on track with their writing.

The Writing Workshop Chapters 14, 15, 17

The section on conferencing really made me feel a lot more comfortable about individual conferences with students after I read it. I liked how it provided all of those essential questions to think about when deciding what to teach such as “what would help most at this time?” and “what is not likely to come up in whole-class instruction?” I felt the section on making a record of your conference with a student was very important. I will make sure to always write everything down because that makes it so easy to go back and see a child’s progress and what you have individually discussed.

I really found the section on survey sharing interesting. I like the fact that each student is expected to share, but not a whole piece, just a small segment. I know growing up and even now I am hesitant to share my work in front of the whole class, but if everyone else is sharing a small portion too it makes it less intimidating. These surveys can be very flexible and the teacher can choose them to go in any direction based on what she asks students to share. I also believe, as the book states that over time students can begin to notice patterns about the discussions and share and learn a lot from the discussion of that.

When questioning our students about their writing, it really is beneficial to treat them as adults and ask them questions that make them feel like experts of their own writing. I think it’s interesting to use these questions as a form of self assessment that a student can use for their writing. Writing is one of those subjects that is in the eye of the beholder, there is not one right answer or one right thing to do things. I think as long as students give logical reasons for why they did something or what effort they put in then they should be allowed to self assess their work.