Chapter 12 Reflections

Are we making the best use of our students’ time when we teach?  Certainly this is the most important question we need to ask when we plan our daily lessons.  We must deliver deliberate instruction that is meaningful to our students.  There are only so many hours in a school day and, as teachers, we should be certain that we are managing the limited time we have.

Regie Routman suggests that we make our lessons more meaningful by connecting our home and school lives, looking into our students’ eyes, reducing our paper load, being choosy about what we read, and remembering to live our lives outside of the school setting.

 I have done a much better job of connecting my home and school life in my classroom this semester.  Now my students know that I am a busy mother of four children, that I love to attend my sons’ ball games, that I live on a farm with “lots” of cattle just north of Holton.  

They also know that I just lost a very dear friend (Jena Rieschick) last Friday to a heart attack.  In the past I probably would not have shared this last detail with my students, but I did today because many of my children wondered why I wasn’t at school yesterday.  I was honest and told them I was at a funeral and was still feeling very sad.  Many of my students talked about losing a grandparent or some other special person in their life.  My heart almost melted when one little boy told me, “Mrs. Burdiek, it’s okay because she is watching over you and smiling at you.”  Our conversation continued as we connected our hearts, minds, and lives.   I feel that my class is evolving into a close-knit community of learners who really care for each other.

Routman’s last bit of advice in her chapter really hit home with me – “Take time to see the light.”  As I read this I thought about what the pastor said at Jena’s funeral yesterday – “Jena took the time to find the joy in every day.”  Important words for us all to remember . . .

Chapter 11 Reflections

This chapter describes what needs to be happening in our schools in order to provide our students excellent writing instruction.  One qualified, motivated teacher can make a difference in her classroom’s writing program, but what kind of writing are our students doing when they move on to another grade level?  This got me thinking about the writing instruction in my district.  I know my colleagues are excellent teachers, but I feel that as a whole we do not necessarily understand how to best teach writing.  Unfortunately, we tend to be more focused on the traits (voice, sentence fluency, organization, word choice, ideas and content, and conventions) of writing, instead of helping move our writers forward.  Also, it seems that writing is frequently squeezed out of the day in order to prepare our students for state assessments or to complete meaningless activities.

As a staff, I feel that we are not providing our students with effective writing instruction.  Regie Routman notes the key research findings that improve students’ writing.  Some of those findings include the following:  write every day, develop professional knowledge, create predictable writing routines, emphasize writing as a process, provide time for extensive reading and writing, value reading and writing as mutually supportive processes, recognize the value of authentic writing, and understand spelling development.

Routman stresses that this change in philosophy and approach to writing is going to take time (several years), collaboration amongst the teachers, and commitment to improving the writing program. 

 

After much thought, I decided to share this chapter with my principal.  I wanted her to read what makes a successful writing program.  She was eager to peruse it because she wants her teachers to improve their writing instruction.  I am not sure what changes or professional development may take place (especially due to budget cuts), but it is essential that we come together as a team in order to help our students become effective writers.  A good beginning for us would be to complete a book study on the text Writing Essentials.  In the meantime, I intend to continue to reread the book and work toward improving my own writing program.  Believe me, I am already seeing positive changes in my first graders’ writing since I’ve taken this class.

(Image from Amazon.com)

"Progress is impossible without change, and those who cannot change their minds cannot change anything."  (quote by George Bernard Shaw)

Chapter 10 Refections

How do I best assess my first grade students’ writing?  Should I judge their writing based on the six traits – ideas and content, organization, sentence fluency, voice, word choice, and conventions?  After all, this is what the majority of teachers have been taught to be “best practice” for evaluating writing.  I now understand that improving just one of these traits doesn’t necessarily mean that the child will become a better writer.

The use of rubrics was also discussed in this chapter.  Regie Routman contends that teachers use checklists (or rubrics) only when needed because they can cause the teacher to focus on the checklist as opposed to what the writer is trying to do. 

I did like the suggestion of creating a child-friendly rubric with my students.  The following is the rubric my students and I recently completed together:

First Grade Writing Rubric for Mrs. Burdiek’s Class I write about one idea. My introduction makes the reader want to read more. I use interesting words and details. I write like I talk. I do my best with capitalization and punctuation.

Our 1st grade writing rubric

I intend to review this rubric frequently with my students before they go off to their desks to write their stories.  As we are approaching the end of the year my students understand this criteria and the importance of using it to improve their writing.

Additionally, Routman discusses the importance of schools making the commitment to improve the teaching of writing.  I would love for my district’s teachers to receive professional training in writing.  We have put so much emphasis on passing the standardized tests that I feel we often overlook the importance of teaching writing effectively.  Routman states that there is no shortcut to helping students become effective writers, and there is no program you can buy that will do it for you. (pg. 240)  As teachers, it’s time for us to stop looking for that “magical” program; instead, we must invest in the time and energy to develop an effective writing program to help all of our students more forward as writers.

Questions & Thoughts:


I love the idea of conducting the quickwrites (using the same prompt) at the beginning and ending of every school year at all grade levels to document improvement, note strengths and weaknesses, and provide information to teachers and children to improve instruction and learning.  Our students have writing portfolios that contain a beginning and end of the year sample (different prompts) that is passed from one grade level to the next at the beginning of the school year.  Unfortunately, there is no discussion amongst the teachers about the students’ writing and this data is not used to help improve writing instruction.  We definitely need to do more with these writing samples than to just pass them on to next year’s teachers!

Teachers, have any of your districts participated in professional training to improve your writing program?  If so, what has or hasn't worked?  I would love for all the teachers in my building to read Writing Essentials by Regie Routman.  I think a book study on this book would be a great beginning as we work together in becoming a staff of effective writing teachers . . . 

Chapter 9 Reflections

Where does one begin to find the time to conference with 19 first graders about their writing?  Fortunately, I can answer that question a little more easily now that I have read the chapter on conferences.  The text helped me better understand the different kinds of conferences there are, and it helped me develop a clearer idea of the many purposes of a writing conference.  In my mind I had always thought that a writing conference must be a one-on-one formal conference with each student.  You can only imagine how difficult that is to do with a 19 to 1 student-teacher ratio.  I pretty much abandoned that impossible feat and decided, instead, that it would work best for me to walk around the room and try to assist as many kids as possible while my students were writing.  Realistically, I believe that this is what I need to be doing with my young (sometimes reluctant) writers. 

With this being said, I know that I must conference with my students in order to help them move forward in their writing.  I love the idea of having whole-class shares and conferences.  This set-up seems to be very doable and effective.  Regie Routman notes that one of the greatest advantages of whole-class share is the amount of teaching that occurs in a short period. 

I am listing the steps of whole-class share/conferences because this is one of the main structures that I want to begin using with my class.

1.     A student reads her story aloud while the class listens for the overall sense of the piece, the whole of what the writer is trying to say.   

2.     The student reads the piece aloud again as the class listens for specific language, things the writer has done well, and things that are confusing.

3.     Teacher and the other students celebrate what the writer has done well.

4.     Teacher makes one or two teaching points that will help move the writer forward.

5.     Teacher keeps track of students who share.

(pgs. 211, 212 from Writing Essentials)

Routman maintains that this type of conference is especially effective because they make the classroom easier to manage, more ideas are generated, and the status of students is raised because all the children are involved in the celebration and affirmation of the writer.

Example of Jack’s Journal Entry and Whole-Class Share and Conference:

Jack's writing before he shared and we conferenced. Jack:  “Saturday is my real birthday.  My birthday is going to have EMAW.”  (Jack read this from his journal just a few days ago.) Mrs. Burdiek:  I like how you started your story.  I bet you are really excited that you will celebrate your birthday next Saturday.  I think I know what EMAW stands for, but could you let your friends know what it means? Jack: “EMAW stands for Every Man a Wildcat.” Mrs. Burdiek:  I’m a K-State fan, too, and I just love that saying.  I went to K-State many years ago, but no one said EMAW way back then.  Tell me more about your birthday cake.  Who is going to make it? Jack:  I think that Donna Wege  is going to make it.  She is Kendon’s mom.  (Kendon is a student in my class.) Mrs. Burdiek:  Donna makes great cakes.  I’m sure it will be delicious.  Why do you like K-State so much? (I probably should had done a better job of having Jack narrow his topic by focusing on his cake instead of what he likes best about K-State.) Jack:  I like K-State because Jacob Pullen plays for them.  He is my favorite player. Mrs. Burdiek:  He has been a fantastic player for K-State this year. Mrs. Burdiek:  I can’t wait to hear your story after you have added more to it.  Jack heads off to his desk to work on his story.  I have written his ideas on post-it notes to help him remember his thoughts.  (I explained to the class what I was doing with the post-it notes before I wrote his ideas down.) Jack's writing after he share and we had our whole-class conference.  Notice how he used the caret to insert the word Pullen.

Other kinds of writing conferences that are described in this chapter include the following:

1.   Quickshares

2.   Roving, on-the-run conferences (I like the term “on the run” because that's what I feel like I am doing - zipping from one end of the classroom to the other – constant motion!  Who needs Mrs. Burdiek the most???)

3.  One-on-one formal conferences

4.  Peer conferences

Two additional points that I gained from this chapter are as follows:

1.     I really need to do a better job of not looking at my child’s paper when they read their story to me the first time because immediately I want to help “fix-up” their writing before we talk about the content.  I know now that I am showing my students that the mechanics/conventions of their writing are more important than the ideas they write.  (I am thinking I need to sit on my hands and have the students hold up their papers while they read.  This would definitely help me focus on their message.)

2.     It is important for kindergarten and first grade students to share their writing everyday.  I need to allow time for this. 

Questions:

1.     Is it okay to have students share their writing in small groups at their tables?  I still plan to do whole-class shares, as well.

2.     What does a teacher do when they have an especially reluctant writer(s) that seems to demand most of your time?  Any suggestions from anyone?  Thanks!