A professional dilemma that I might encounter if I try to
use Routman’s advice on making students’ writing assignments purposeful to them
is that I would not be following the curriculum plans. From what I have seen so far in my placement,
my teacher is required to teach certain materials that are given to her by the
district. She has to teach specific
lessons from her phonics book (even the ones that flop every year) and must use
other specific teaching materials too. I
know that we will be starting writer’s workshop soon, but I understand that the
mini lessons seem to be already planned out.
When I asked her about using the lessons that she knows are not
successful year after year, she said that she has to be very careful about
skipping over them because at any minute the principal could come and ask to
see her lesson plans or could stop in to observe. Sometimes these curriculum materials are
great and the children seem to learn a lot from them, but I think it could
limit students to writing about things that may not be as engaging as something
a teacher could create on their own.
My teacher has done a bit of hybridization to try and cover
the curriculum while also sticking to what she knows works with her
students. Today, she taught a horrible
phonics lesson that seemed very pointless (to her too) and the students were
not interested at all. It was a lesson
that was required for the day, so she sped through it real quick, and then went
on to something she knew the children would enjoy much more. This way she could still say and prove that
she taught the required curriculum, but she also felt that she was staying true
to her teaching identity. I would also
like to use this strategy when trying to use Routman’s writing advice and also
pleasing the principal. I also think
that if the lesson supplied by the district is a good one, I could teach that
and then change the writing assignment or topic that the students do. This way I am still covering some of the
required material, while choosing meaningful writing pieces.
Another piece of advice that Routman gives that I think is
great is adding more writing to the day.
I agree that the more writing students do, they better they get at
it. I think that this advice is
difficult, because as we said in the last blog post, there just is not enough
time in the day for everything. We are
already barely squeezing in any science or social studies, and I think trying
to put more writing in can pose a challenge.
I think especially in kindergarten when writing just a word or two can
take such a long time, trying to fit even more writing in is just cutting out
time for everything else. I understand
that writing can be added in during other subjects, but when it takes so long
and so much energy for these young children to do, it makes everything take
longer.
We are beginning writer’s and reader’s workshop next week so
I will have more opportunities to see students starting to communicate with
their writing (or drawing). Right now we
have been putting a lot of time into forming letters, so writer’s workshop will
allow me to learn so much more about each student. I can’t wait to see my students begin writing
more!
I also enjoyed reading Routman’s advice but not solely because it was good, interesting ideas. I enjoyed it more because it was easy to read and understand. While reading I could tell that she used her own advice and strategies on writing. This made me want to keep reading even more because she was giving me proof of the strategies while explaining them. Besides thinking about Routman’s writing I was also thinking about the writing I have seen so far in my class and figuring out what strategies are being taught.
ReplyDeleteI also caught onto the main idea that writing needs purpose. She talked a lot about how students’ writing will improve when they know why they are doing something. I really like the idea of starting writing as a whole and then breaking it into strategies. I remember feeling just like your fourth graders did, learning a skill to learn it and move on. I think it is very important to explain the purpose of each skill as it is taught. I think it is hard for teachers to remember to always give a purpose for things. I started thinking about the different things done in my classroom and the purposes behind them. I started to wonder if the students understood the purposes of each thing. To teach this idea from Routman’s advice I am going to have to make sure and slow myself down when beginning a lesson. I will need to make sure to state the purpose of the lesson instead of just jumping right into it. Especially in kindergarten, if the students do not know the purpose of the lesson and what they are supposed to get out of it, they will not take anything away from the lesson.
My kindergarten class has started writing daily in journals. So far my teacher has let them write about anything they want.. Since they are in kindergarten they do not know how to write all letters, but we encourage them to write a sentence below their picture each day. My teacher just wants to get them started with the idea of writing/drawing. I connected this with Routman’s idea of teaching writing as a whole and then breaking it apart. Each day we are working on printing new letters, learning letter sounds, and spelling simple words.
Your professional dilemma seems like a dilemma that many teachers are forced to face. I am not in a school where specific curriculum is required to be taught so I do not know specifically what this is like, but I can imagine. I would not like to be told that I need to teach this, this, and this, these ways, and in this order. While those lessons might have an overall purpose I think that they would take the fun and enjoyment out of learning. It’s even worse when the material does not help the students learn! I think it is horrible that your teacher has to rush through a lesson just so she can say she did it. Teachers should be able to teach their students what they need to learn in a way that is most beneficial for the students. I do not believe that a board of administrators, or whomever creates curriculum for schools, has the ability to know what a set of students needs to learn and how they need to learn it. I do think however that having standards such as the GLCE’s and Common Core Standards are a good thing. These give the baseline of what every student should learn in every subject area each year. The standards also allow teachers to teach curriculum in whichever way they choose.
ReplyDeleteFor me, a professional dilemma will be assessing the Common Core Standards on report cards. During a staff meeting we took a look at the report cards for this year. We have new report cards because of the use of the Common Core Standards as well as the fact that my school is switching to electronic report cards. One thing that is nice about the electronic report cards is that teachers can pin specific Common Core Standards to assignments. When looking at the report cards, I thought the changes were good but not for lower grades. For kindergarten letter grades are not given, just number ratings 1-4. We do not grade individual assignments but rather overall concepts based on whether they understand them or not. I think it will be a challenge to communicate to parents through the report card what their child is learning and how well they are learning it.
The hybridization that you mentioned your teacher using sounds like a great idea to counteract the negatives of the planned curriculum. Since I do not have required curriculum I cannot relate much to this hybridization but I hope it works for both you/your teacher and your students! I will try and use hybridization to include more writing across different subject areas. You touched on this idea and also expressed how there seems to be no time in the day to try to get more things done. I completely agree! My students write in their journals everyday but only during that specific writing time. I have yet to see my students do any other writing. I would like to try and use more writing throughout the day. I know that this is a challenge since I am in kindergarten and most of my students are so focused on spelling words and writing them correctly that they do not try and simply draw pictures. I need to find a way to use Routman’s advice of telling the students that there is no “right” way to write to encourage my students to write more and more. Too many of them are worried about writing letters or spelling words instead of focusing on getting their thoughts on paper in some way. I am excited to see my students become more confident writers as they become more confident in printing their letters.
I think you bring up a really good point, that writing is difficult for kindergartners, especially because they are just learning letter sounds. I am in a first grade classroom and I find it difficult for some of my students to actually formulate words to make sense. After reading the chapters in the Writing Essentials textbook by Regie Routman, I was beginning to understand that even those students who are not writing actual words yet but are writing letters are still developing a sense of writing. I was so frustrated at the beginning of the year because I knew these students were able to give me letter sounds but when they were trying to ?stretch and spell? as we call it in our classroom, a few students consistently just had letters on their paper. After reading these chapters, I learned that that is okay. They have not yet made the connection, but they are able to identify that writing has meaning and they are able to verbally tell me what they want to say. What?s really interesting is that they use the resources around the room like the number chart and ABC line to write words and letters in their journal.
ReplyDeleteI agree with you and Routman also that every classroom should have more writing. I understand where you are coming from when you say there just isn?t enough time when there is so much other content areas that we need to get to in a day, but what I think is important to remember is that you can incorporate writing into all subject areas. For instance, writing is becoming more popular in using writing to clearly state one?s thinking. Even with my first graders right now, at the end of every math page, they either solve a story problem, rewrite a problem, or have to explain using sentences. It seems like a lot, but in math they want more than the solution, they want to know how you got there. I think this is quite interesting because there can be various ways to solve math problems, and this is where the ?meaningful and purposeful? writing comes into play. When a child is to explain their answer, it is meaningful in the fact that they need to explain how they got the answer, and the purpose is to back up their answer. This is just one way writing can be incorporated into other content areas. I think if we just took a little more time to really sit down and think, ?How can we incorporate writing into the majority of my school day?? we could come up with endless opportunities where we could incorporate writing which in turn would help to make our students better writers.
Lastly, I love in Chapter 7 of the Writing Essentials book, where Routman states, ?Yet writing for a real audience (not just the teacher) is one of the best ways to get quality writing.? I find this to be so true. Even if students are writing to make a class book, writing a letter to their mom or dad, or writing an announcement for the school, students tend to focus more on their writing and strive to have zero imperfections simply because they have an audience. I can?t wait to make class books with my students so that they can write for an audience. I also like the idea of explaining why you are asking the students to write something. I have found that students don?t comply with things until they are told why they are doing it. I think this is extremely important to remember because it can be a huge motivator in getting students to write.
ReplyDeleteAlso in my classroom right now, we are doing the Daily 5, and one of our Focus Lessons is Writing Workshop. We give students the opportunity to free write, or write about whatever they want. Each day they are then able to choose to continue with their writing from a previous day or start a new writing. It is amazing to see the progress that the students have already made. During this time, we do not offer assistance to help the students spell words but as I walk around the classroom I can see the students sounding out words, writing them down, rereading what they wrote and moving on. It is incredible to see their progress and I am very excited to see how much they grow throughout the year!
What are some things that your MT has the students do for writing? How much time is allotted for writing each day? Do you incorporate writing into other core subjects throughout the day?