Entry #6: Dear Dr. Jones

Dear Dr. Jones,

      So far, I think this course is going fairly well for me. I am enjoying engaging in Writing Workshop as it allows me to envision how I could structure Writing Workshop for my future students. When I first enrolled in this class, I did not predict that we would be doing Writing Workshop ourselves. Like many college classes, I assumed we would do more reading about Writing Workshop than actually putting it into practice. The application of this model has certainly made the learning process more powerful.

      While engaging in Writing Workshop, I have learned some instructional strategies that I am excited to try with students in the future. I hope to utilize the structure of Writing Workshop, including a "Status of the Class" organizational system (Tompkins, 2012, p. 29). I really love how this provides an opportunity for teachers to observe students' progress while also allowing students to take charge of their own writing process. 

       Overall, I am LOVING reading Tompkins' (2012) text. She provides so many practical instructional activities and strategies. I particularly like the "Step By Step" boxes that outline the main points of a mini-lesson or strategy. Additionally, I appreciate the "How to Solve Struggling Writers' Problems" boxes as she provides both a "quick fix" and a "long term solution." As I read, I am able to visualize how each strategy may be used with students (which makes me really eager to put my learning into practice)!

        I find the most useful tool that Tompkins (2012) provides is her mentor text suggestion boxes. Thinking of our annotated bibliography, these suggestions are useful, but they are also helpful as a future teacher who may need to quickly find a mentor text for a lesson. I find that as I read through the mentor text suggestions, sometimes I end up researching the texts because I am so curious! 

       In relation to improving my own reading and writing strategies, freewriting has helped me improve my ability to get ideas down on a page. Sometimes I get so caught up in planning and outlining that I cannot seem to decide on my topic and/or organization, and then I end up procrastinating. Freewriting is a low stakes way for me to explore ideas and structures without being tied to anything. It has given me the push to simply get SOMETHING down on the page. Not every piece will be published, and certainly not every piece has to be final copy worthy! Writing for personal thinking and learning is just as important as writing for other purposes.

        With regard to struggles, I am having a hard time with the open-ended nature of the Genre Pieces and Genre Expert project. I appreciate the choice in topic and in genre, audience, and purpose, but I am struggling to decide what genre/form to use for each piece. My Genre Expert group is also finding it difficult to narrow the broad topic of biographies. In both of these instances, I think continued brainstorming and thinking will help. 

        Finally, the last challenge I am experiencing is the word count with the blog posts. Each of my entries is just at the 600 word limit. How strict is the word limit? I am understanding the readings and making connections to my own life, and blogging helps me express this. However, I sometimes find that I am more worried about the word limit than the content. I hope that thus far, my ideas are expressed fully enough, even within the 600 words. I think your feedback at this blog "checkpoint" will put my mind at ease. 

       I look forward to learning more strategies and continuing to develop my craft throughout the rest of the semester!

Sincerely,

Maddie

Entry #5: Brainstorming - More Than an Outline

The Card Strategy was an engaging way for me to further develop my ability to think through the medium of writing (Kucer & Rhodes, 1986). When I brainstormed in the past, I would simply write a list or create a web of potential ideas. Both of these methods involved a single piece of typical 8.5 x 11 inch paper. Boring, right?

The Card Strategy was helpful as it expanded my ability to think flexibly while writing, particularly during the prewriting stage. With the lists and webs that I used to create, I would develop an outline and stick closely to that outline. I felt that if I strayed from my plan, my writing would lose its focus. I appreciated that the Card Strategy involved physical cards that could be moved around right in front of my eyes. I was not glued to any sort of order or structure, rather I could try out different orders before landing on one. Even when I began freewriting after deciding on an order, I found that the order changed as I continued to freewrite. This made me a bit uncomfortable at first because I felt that my writing was not organized. The little voice in my head reminded me, "It's a freewrite - it doesn't have to be super organized yet!" Sometimes I forget that writing is a process and a piece does not have to be completely perfect on the first try. In this moment I am led to wonder, is there even such a thing as a perfect writing piece? Isn't there always room to improve?

I find that having other eyes on my writing piece reminds me that none of my pieces are ever perfect. When peers or teachers read my writing, they always have suggestions as everyone interprets a text slightly differently based on their background knowledge, identities, and stance. With that said, it is not surprising that my absolute FAVORITE part of the Card Strategy was the peer involvement portion. When I am writing, I sometimes find that I get stuck in a one-track mindset. Hearing from peers pushes me to think flexibly and consider my writing in new ways. My peer created an entirely different order for my cards than I how the order may change for difference genres. We both concluded that the order of one another's cards would be dependent on the genre, audience, and purpose of our piece. Again, this demonstrated how my thinking became more flexible, and input from a peer was a big part of this.

Given the positive experience described above with the Card Strategy, I would definitely use this brainstorming strategy again. I hope that when I use this strategy again, I have another individual nearby who would be willing to look at the order of my ideas. I would even consider showing a peer all of my cards and see how they would group the subtopics. I imagine that there would be differences in the grouping of subtopics too. The collective sharing of knowledge and ideas during this activity led me to think of Muhammad's (2020) HRL Framework and her suggestion to incorporate more collaborative learning experiences rather than competitive, individualistic tasks. After completing this activity, I was more motivated to write, and I strongly feel that working with a peer and hearing her ideas played a large role. Needless to say, I will certainly use the Card Strategy in the future, and I aim to use it with students in the future too.

References

Kucer, S. B. & Rhodes, L. K (1986). Counterpart strategies: Fine tuning language with language. The Reading Teacher, 40(2), 186-193.

Muhammad, G. (2020). Cultivating genius: An equity framework for culturally and historically responsive literacy. Scholastic.

Entry #4: Get Connected!

In their article, Rickards and Hawes (2006) argue that teachers should make explicit connections between reading and writing regarding author's craft. The authors write that "the same strategy or concept is reinforced in the reading, writing, and letter word parts of the lesson" which reminds me of thematic units (p. 370). In other words, Rickards and Hawes (2006) believe that when educators are teaching an element of author's craft, let's say word choice, that element should be integrated in activities conducted across ALL areas of balanced literacy. With this model, strong mentor texts are a must.

I agree with Rickards and Hawes (2006) in the sense that connecting topics or themes across multiple areas allows students to build background knowledge and dive deeper into a topic. This past summer, I taught an enrichment group that studied endangered animals. During our read aloud time, I read a Magic Treehouse fiction text about endangered animals as well as the complimentary nonfiction text on the same topic. During shared reading, we read songs that I created about endangered animals so students could develop content specific vocabulary. During guided reading, I included books (primarily nonfiction) pertaining to animals. Students also had access to texts on this topic to explore during their independent reading time. By the end of the summer, every student had increased their knowledge of endangered animals and related content vocabulary. This experience was more like a thematic unit than what Rickards and Hawes (2006) discussed, but it illustrates how including the same focus across multiple areas of balanced literacy deepens students' understanding of a particular topic.

Reflecting on this experience, I wish I had known of Rickards and Hawes' (2006) model as I would have made more explicit connections to writing. After researching their endangered animal, students created informational posters and a video to share what they learned. These students were going into first and second grade, so we talked about nonfiction features such as photographs, captions, headings, and so on. I wish I would have taken the time to find a strong mentor text, even in the form of an informational poster, so students could focus on specific elements of nonfiction writing. With Rickards and Hawes (2006) in mind, in the future I will definitely choose stronger mentor texts that show specific elements of author's craft so connections can be made to students' own writing pieces. 

One aspect of Rickards and Hawes' (2006) article that I am still pondering is that it was written in 2006 when balanced literacy was big. Many schools still utilize this structure, but I am aware that some schools are moving more toward the Science of Reading. I have not been in a school that has entirely shifted to Science of Reading, so I don't know exactly what this looks like. I know there is a focus on skill-based learning with the Science of Reading, which I support to a degree, but I worry that some educators may forget to focus on author's craft and simply reading for pleasure. I think the balanced literacy model has a nice way of incorporating both skill-based learning and reading for understanding. I am slightly concerned that connections of author's craft across reading and writing may not exist in some schools that are shifting away from the balanced literacy model. Can Rickards and Hawes' (2006) suggestions be used in schools that do not use balanced literacy? What exactly might this look like? Although I am left with some unanswered questions, I will certainly aim to help my students make as many connections across reading and writing as possible.

References

Rickards, D. & Hawes, S. (2006). Connecting reading and writing through author's craft. The Reading Teacher, 60(4), 370-373.

Entry #3: Where I've Been and Where I'm Going

As mentioned in my previous entry, last year I taught kindergarten and first grade virtually. I recognize that teaching writing at the primary level is challenging in person, yet I had no idea how difficult it would be to teach over Google Meet. Nevertheless, I did my best and focused mini-lessons on ideas, organization, and conventions. Honestly, I was ecstatic if students wrote a sentence (sometimes even an unrelated sentence) with punctuation! Unfortunately, students simply were not writing enough. Writing fluency was an area of need on top of the specific genre pieces students were expected to write. 

Gloria Gaynor's song "I Will Survive" played in my head as I taught writing virtually. Fortunately, we survived. However, when reflecting on my teaching of writing during an in-person enrichment program with primary students, I found that I still focused on the same traits of writing. I failed to think about voice, word choice, and sentence fluency. When I (hopefully) teach at the primary level (K-2) in the future, I plan to take more time to focus on these neglected writing traits.

In the future, I will incorporate writing into our daily routine - perhaps journal writing - so students develop writing fluency. Tompkins (2012) also noted that lots of writing allows opportunities for students to develop their voice in their writing (p. 72). Because these are K-2 students, the journal writing may include drawing or a mix of drawing and writing. I would also like to study mentor texts and find "strong verbs" as Rickards and Hawes (2006) described in a word choice mini-lesson (p. 370). In other word choice mini-lessons, I would invite students to answer questions as we read mentor texts such as, "What words or phrases grab your attention? What words or phrases tug at your heart?" to draw students' attention to the ways in which authors use words to engage readers (Rickards & Hawes, 2006, p. 371). To help students develop sentence fluency, I would LOVE to involve them in sentence unscrambling activities as well as sentence imitation activities (Tompkins, 2012, pp. 73-74). At the primary level, these would involve simpler sentences, but it is still a fun way for students to write like their favorite authors.

During virtual teaching, I tried to use mentor texts when introducing different genres of writing, but I was never entirely confident in my ability to do this well. Within these first four weeks of LTED 618, I am already feeling more confident and I am actually excited to use them in the future! Before each genre unit, I would like to immerse students in the genre by reading different mentor texts, just for enjoyment first. Then, after reading a text for pleasure, we would dissect the author's craft (MacKay, Ricks, & Young, 2017, p. 177). I appreciate that dissecting mentor texts allows students to "read with writers' eyes" so they can use similar elements in their own writing (p. 178). I also have a greater appreciation for the support that mentor texts provide for students who are English Language Learners (Tompkins, 2012, p. 80). Tompkins (2012) provides strategies for supporting ELL students, but I am left wondering what this may look like in practice. I should research some videos of exemplary teachers using mentor texts with ELL students and use the resources as mentor texts to develop my craft of teaching!

REMINDER TO FUTURE ME: Be mindful of representation in the mentor texts you choose, both representation of cultures, individuals, and thought. Include multiple perspectives, and allow students to be involved in choosing the mentor texts (Muhammad, 2020, p. 139). Make Dr. Ghouldy Muhammad proud!

References

MacKay, K.L., Ricks, P.H., & Young, T.A. (2017). Supporting young writers with award-winning books. The Reading Teacher, 71(2), 177-187. 

Muhammad, G. (2020). Cultivating genius: An equity framework for culturally and historically responsive literacy. Scholastic. 

Rickards, D. & Hawes, S. (2006). Connecting reading and writing through author's craft. The Reading Teacher, 60(4), 370-373.

Entry #2: A Trip Down Memory Lane

I may not have the greatest memory, but I clearly remember time spent writing in elementary school. Marion Elementary used a Writing Workshop structure, and at the time I had no idea how beneficial this was for me as a developing writer.  Each day, a significant portion of time was set aside just for writing so I wrote a lot, just like Calkins and Ehrenworth (2016) described as an essential component of a successful writing program (p. 8). 

Many of the other essential components of successful writing programs described by Calkins and Ehrenworth (2016) and Tompkins (2012) were implemented at my school. I was taught the stages of the writing process so I could monitor my progress. Although I do not remember these vividly, I believe my teachers conducted mini lessons with mentor texts when we engaged in our genre studies (see, my memory failed me here). Often, I was able to choose my topic within each genre unit and choose my graphic organizer so I took ownership of the writing process. Both my teacher and peers provided feedback throughout the writing process so I knew what was going well and where to go next.

Another great part about Writing Workshop was that I felt comfortable experimenting with my writing. Like Tompkins (2012) described, I always felt that I had a "secure classroom community with honesty and trust" (p. 24). Now, the coolest part about Writing Workshop was, (drum roll please...), THE PUBLISHING CENTER! Once I brainstormed, drafted, revised, and edited, I was able to take my piece to the Publishing Center where my final copy turned into a hardcover book. Even better was sharing my creation with my classmates and family. I still have all of my books saved because they made me feel like a real-life author and motivated me to continue to write.

Writing in the Jr./Sr. High School was not as exciting. Writing Workshop was not utilized and I was expected to carry out all of the stages independently. During this time, I found that I was not nearly as motivated to write as I was in elementary school. However, that changed in my College English class where the teacher brought back Writing Workshop. Naturally, my writing blossomed again.

As a teacher myself, I have not yet implemented Writing Workshop. Last year, I taught kindergarten and first grade virtually and did not have room in the schedule for writing every day. I had one 20 minute block for reading and writing during which I tried to incorporate mini lessons using mentor texts. As one may imagine, writing did not go well virtually. I could not incorporate some of the essential components such as collaboration, peer conferencing, and protected writing time (Calkins & Ehrenworth, 2016, pp. 8). This leads me to wonder: Can Writing Workshop effectively take place virtually with young students? If so, does it lose some of its power because it is not in-person?

If I were to have an in-person class, I would definitely implement the following essential components: protected writing time, choice, feedback, explicit strategy instruction, goal setting, and a safe writing environment (Calkins & Ehrenworth, 2016; Tompkins, 2012). Like I experienced myself, when students take ownership of the writing process and have scaffolding along the way, they are motivated to write and improve their craft.

References

Calkins, L. & Ehrenworth, M. (2016). Growing extraordinary writers: Leadership decisions to raise the level of writing across a school and a district. The Reading Teacher, 70(1), 7-18.