Blog 12: Growth through the semester

This class has made me think about my experiences in elementary school a lot over the semester. It has made me think about not only how I was taught to write but what we would write. After reading Tompkins and Hicks, it amazes me the experiences or lack of I should say, that I had. I remember that we would do a lot of writing as our end of unit project to show what we have learned however every writing piece would either fall into the narrative genre or the descriptive genre. I was taught about some of the other genres however I never had the chance to write in them.

A poster with some of the genres written on it

Throughout Tompkins book, she mentions multiple different writing genres. She goes on to explain how each genre can be taught and used within elementary classrooms. When I was asked in the beginning of this class what genres I thought I knew pretty well, I immediately wrote down narrative and descriptive because that was all I knew. Even though I knew about the persuasive genre, poetry genre, nonfiction genre, and bibliography genres; I wouldn’t say that I knew them well enough to present on them.  I think that there is a strong focus in schools to teach the narrative genre to students. I felt like while my teachers did teach the other genres, I didn't really learn anything about them because the unit was so fast.

I was assigned the nonfiction genre to do a presentation on as an expert which was very beneficial as it helped me to get a deeper understanding of the genre. At first I thought the nonfiction genre was all about information and being able to recall certain information from the story. The only time that I would read nonfiction was when I needed to do research for a project in school. I was never interested in reading a nonfiction book for fun, but I think it had to do with I never really knew how to read the genre. Through my research, I learned that there are specific text features within the genre that when you take the time to look at them, they will help you to understand the book that you are reading.

One genre that Tompkins talks about that surprised me was the letter genre. I didn’t even know that letter writing was a genre. I thought that letter writing was a type of writing activity that falls in the narrative/persuasive genre.  Even reading the chapter on it, I was surprised to learn that letters can be broken down into three type; friendly letter, business letter and simulated letters (Tompkins, 2019). Even though I feel like letter writing is straight forward I would say that it is still a genre that intimidates me. I just don’t know all the aspects that go into to it. I am excited to hear Michelle’s presentation on it and see how I can use it in my classroom.

Along with talking about the genres in class, we spent a lot of time talking about different aspects of digital media and how one can ‘digitally enhance’ (Hicks, 2013) their writing. I am terrible with technology and so everything was brand new to me however now that I know what to do, I actually find some of the aspects quite simple to use. I learned how to create digital web texts by including pictures and hyperlinks to engage the reader as they are reading. At first I didn’t know how to create a hyperlink within the text but now I do it every blog post. The aspects that still intimidates are creating both video and audio texts. I feel like I don’t know that much about the software’s that would be needed to put a clip together. I would love to learn all the different steps that it takes to create video and audio texts because those are great activities to have my students do in the classroom.

After reading both Tompkins and Hicks, I now know what I teach in my classroom when it comes to writing. I have to make sure that I am giving my students the knowledge that they need in order to and time to write in every genre.  Tompkins says “Students need to experiment with a wide variety of genres and explore the purposes and formats of each. Through reading and writing, students develop a strong sense of these forms and how they’re structured” (Tompkins, 2019, pg. 7).  Since we are in such a digital world, students need to be able to interact with technology while they are writing. The students love when they can write in a different form and incorporate digital media because that is when their creativity shines through.

Hicks, T. (2013).  Crafting digital writing.  Portsmouth, NH:  Heinemann.

  

Tompkins, G. E.  (2019). Teaching writing:  Balancing process and product (7^th ed.).  Upper Saddle River, NJ:  Merrill.

Blog 11: Student Learning Outcomes

When I first saw that I was going to create a blog and write posts throughout the semester, I got a little nervous. I knew nothing about blogging. Even though I would read some occasionally, I had no idea how the authors went about setting theirs up and deciding what they should be writing about. I always thought of writing in college as formal papers that had to be sophisticated and filled of academic language. By having this assignment to create a bog and write these posts, I was able to practice writing in a different way. It took me some time but I finally realized that in order to write these blog posts, I had to change how I write.

Each week there would be a different prompt for me to respond to that went along with what we were learning about in class. These blog posts helped me to think critically about the concepts and reflect we were talking about. I was able to take the ideas that Tompkins and Hicks were talking about and connected it with experiences in my own life. I was able to take away the big ideas from the books as well as our class and think about how I would implement them in my future classroom. During one session, we talked about how to incorporate writer’s workshop in our classroom. When I got home, I was able to think about all the ideas that we talked about and write a post talking about which ones I would use in my classroom. I now can use this blog as a reference for when I am ready to implement these ideas in a classroom of my own.

Students blogging in the classroom

When looking out the learning outcomes of this class (LTED 618), I can see how I was able to meet them by keeping up with a blog each week. By writing a blog post each week, I grew as a reader and a writer.   These blog posts helped to show me the relationship between the writing and the reading process. I will admit that I originally thought that the reading process and the writing process were two different processes that never mixed. By learning more about each process and actually working through the process, I can see how they work together and can be mixed. Tompkins adds “Linking reading, writing, and thinking improves students’ literacy learning and their content area learning” (Tompkins, 2019, pg. 119). These blog posts let me connect what I was reading with what I wanted to write.  As I was writing my blog post each week, I would look for outside articles that I could hyper-link into my post. I would in the middle of the writing process but have to stop to switch to the reading process as I wanted to include research that backed what I was writing about.

Another outcome that this blog has really helped me to understand, is knowing how readers and writers can use different genres to communicate. Throughout the semester we spent time learning about the different genres people can write in. After learning about the genres, I realized that I do most of my writing within the narrative genre. I would say that most of my blog posts would fall under the narrative genre as well however there were a few posts that I did write that were in form of a letter and would be in the letter genre. I learned a lot about how writers try to communicate with their reader. A persons blog site might be set up in a certain way depending on the topic that they are taking about and how they want to communicate with their reader.

Going along with different genres and communication, another outcome that the blogs really helped me to understand better is the role of purpose and audience in writing. In order to write these blog posts, I had to switch the way that I normally write. Tompkins always talked about how you always start with thinking about what the purpose of the piece is and who the audience is before deciding what genre it will be. Blogs are more personal since the writer is trying to connect with their audience. When you write a blog, you have to write it in a way that you are having a conversation with you readers. They have to be engaged with the topic and excited to read every word. While looking at the “habits of mind”, I realized that I had to change my writing so that it was more open and creative. I needed to learn how to write in a way that it felt like I was having a conversation with anybody that was reading it. This was a hard thing for me to do since I wasn’t used to it.

Writing these blog posts truly allowed me to make sure that I was reading with importance but that I am also writing with expression. It allowed me to experiment with all the digital features that can be added to text to help make it ‘digitally enhanced’ (Hicks, 2013) since we are now living in a digital world.

Council of Writing Program Administrators, National Council of  Teachers of English, & National Writing Project. (2011).  Framework for success in postsecondary writing.  Retrieved from http://wpacouncil.org/framework/

HelpTeaching.com. (2015, November 10). 5 Benefits of blogging in the ela classroom. [blog] Retrieved from http://blog.whoosreading.org/5-benefits-of-blogging-in-the-ela-classroom

Hicks, T. (2013).  Crafting digital writing.  Portsmouth, NH:  Heinemann.

  

Tompkins, G. E.  (2019). Teaching writing:  Balancing process and product (7^th ed.).  Upper Saddle River, NJ:  Merrill.

Blog 11:Student Learning Outcomes

Blog 10: "Bless, Address, and Press"

As I was reading my peer’s blogs this week, there was one that really jumped out to me. Even by looking at the title, I could tell that I could relate to what was going to be talked about in the post. Anna’s blog on Creating a Supportive and Respectful classroom really jumped out to me because that is what I strive to make my classrooms that I work in. When you have a supportive and respectful classroom, then the students are excited to come to school and are engaged with the different activities that are planned.

I was really happy to see that she started off her blog post by talking about what she would do in her future classroom to make it more supportive and respectful. She gives the example of how she would post student work around the room so that the students can see their accomplishments. I think that this a great idea! I know that the they students I work with love to share the work that they have been doing and so they would absolutely love having a space in the room that was just devoted for their work. Not only would students fell pride for their own work but then they would be able to celebrate the work that their peers did by offering nice and positive affirmations. Along with sharing pieces of work, I think that a key component to creating a supportive classroom is having the student be able to work with each other. Tompkins adds “the layout of furniture, equipment, and supplies should facilitate collaborative workshop activities” (Tompkins, 2019, pg. 33). By having everything in one place so that it is easy to grab, students will be encouraged to work together and help each other.

Students are sitting in groups and collaborating as they are working on the task at hand

One thing that really stood out to me in her blog is when she talked about her role as a teacher. She said “My role as an educator will be to teach all students to the best of my ability as well as encourage high expectations of learning, to help shape both academic and social aspects within a classroom” (Jackson, 2019). Later on in the post she adds “As a teacher, I will grow by accepting my student's cultures and languages that could affect their reading or writing” (Jackson, 2019). Both of these quotes stood out to me as they really showed how Anna is devoted to her students. I definitely agree with her about accepting our student’s culture and language because it can affect how they read or write. As a teacher, we want to make sure that every student in our classroom is successful and sometimes that means we have to modify the work that they are doing. I loved how she found a statement from Tompkins that supported her thinking but then she made sure to include examples of how she might differentiate in her classroom.

Overall, I loved reading her blog and connected with a lot of the information she said. I really loved how she gave so many examples of what she would do in her classroom. It gave me some good ideas of what I can do in my classroom.  I did have a few questions about how she might set up her differentiated instruction or how to implement having students have the choice of what they want to write about? Where do they write? Do they have to check with you about their topic beforehand? How do you assess their writing/ Do you assess their writing? How do you introduce giving differentiated instruction in reading and writing?

One thing I would change was that her font for the first paragraph did not match the front for the rest of her blog. When reading it, the first paragraph felt very open and fun while the rest of the post wasn’t as open. I loved reading the first paragraph because I could almost her saying those words to me. I would recommend her to keep using ‘I’ statements while writing her blog and to strive for the open and fun voice. I know that it can be hard to write it that type of voice (I struggle with it) but it makes the text so much more exciting for the reader.

Tompkins, G. E.  (2019). Teaching writing:  Balancing process and product (7^th ed.).  Upper Saddle River, NJ:  Merrill.

Jackson, A. (2019, April, 3). Entry 9 [blog post]. Retrieved from https://jacksonsp18writing.blogspot.com/2019/04/blog-9-creating-supportive-respectful.html

Blog 9: Non-fiction in the classroom

An example of a non-fiction graphic organizer

I never realized what went into teaching how to read and write in the informational genre. After doing a lot of research for my genre expert project, I realized that there is a lot that teachers have to do in order to make sure that their students are able to read and understand all the information that is being presented in non-fiction books. I know for me, when I first started thinking about the genre, I thought it was about being able to pull facts out about the topic. In fact, in elementary school we used to read non-fiction books and then fill out a graphic organizer with all the facts that we learned while reading. We were taught to read the book like it was like every other genre we have been reading.

One activity that I do remember is an activity that Tompkins (2019) mentions within the informational chapter of her book. This activity has the students comparing how nonfiction books are similar/ different than fiction books.  We would use this activity as an intro into the unit since it helped us to understand that fiction was a story and nonfiction was facts. I now know that is not true! Non-fiction books can still have a setting, characters and tell a story while still giving you facts about a topic.  

(Tompkins, 2019, p. 235)

I feel like teachers don’t spend enough time teaching students how text features help them read and understand the text. Tompkins says that non-fiction books tend to have unique text features in them such as table of contents, headings, subheadings, margin notes, photos, and charts.  She says that “their purpose is to make the text easier to read and understand” (Tompkins, 2019, p. 223). I will be the first to admit that when I was reading a non-fiction book, I would skim over the page and not read half the text that was there. I never learned how important it was to look at all the features as you are reading.  I didn’t take the time to read the heading, sub headings and margin noted to know what the page was going to be about instead I just read the text that was on the page.

There can be a lot of information within these books that it is hard to know where to start. While researching the non-fiction genre, I found an article that gives teachers strategies on how they can teach their students to read this genre.  Courtney Shimek (2019) gives us 5 different strategies to help teach students to read and understand non-fiction picture books. They are; “ 

• Strategy 1:Read the Pictures
• Strategy 2: Track the Words
• Strategy 3: Focus on the Medium
• Strategy 4: Analyze the Back Matter and Peritextual features
•  Strategy 5: Highlight the Text in Visual Elements                                          “(Shimek, 2019, p. 520-521).

By reading the same book 5 different times, you are paying attention to a different detail each time. This helps for the students to see why it is so important for them to stop and read the headings and subheadings before they read the actual text on the page.  Depending on the age of the students in the class, you might want to split the strategies up so that you are modeling a different one each day.

In elementary school and even now days, I will choose to read a fiction book before choosing a nonfiction book. I feel like there is a stigma around non-fiction books that keeps students from not wanting to read them. Students tend to think that they are only supposed to read non-fiction when they are in the classroom and when they are doing research. They feel like they should be taking notes on every page rather than just enjoying just reading the book. When I look in a classroom library, I tend to see more fiction books on display for the students to see while the small selection of non-fiction books are tucked in a basket in the back. It is time that we change how we teach and use non-fiction books. Students need to see that they can read a non-fiction book whenever they want to and that there is no assignment that goes along with it. When I have my classroom, I’m going to make sure that I am displaying and reading both fiction and non-fiction books. I want to see students being excited to read non-fiction stories.

Shimek, C. (2019).  Sites of synergy: Strategies for readers navigating nonfiction picture books. The Reading Teacher, 72(4), 519-522.

Tompkins, G. E.  (2019). Teaching writing:  Balancing process and product (7^th ed.).  Upper Saddle River, NJ:  Merrill.

Blog 8: "To Bless, To Address, To Press"

One of my favorite parts in writing is when it can be shared.  I think that it is important that we as teachers give our students time that they are able to share the work that they are doing. Tompkins states that sharing is an important part of writer’s workshop. She adds “After the reading, classmates clap and offer compliments. They may also make other comments and suggestions, but the focus is on celebrating completed work writing projects…” (Tompkins, 2019, p.27).   In fact, Hicks encourages peers to respond to each other by saying “To bless is to simply offer praise.   To address means to ask specific questions about the ideas.  To press is to ask critical questions in order to help the writer move toward a stronger version or the writing or a clearer explanation of his/her opinion. (Hicks, 2009, p. 83).

There is a classroom that I will spend a lot of time in so to help out and I’m always so impressed by the amount of people that want to share their writing. They have ELA centers every day and one of the centers is usually a free write where they can choose what they want to write about. There’s always usually two or three people that want to share their writing at the end of the day because they are so proud of the work that they did. Not only am I taken back by the students wanting to share but also the way that the rest of the class reacts. At first they will all clap and say something that they really liked (To bless), then they ask specific questions about what they wrote (to address) and then they will add some suggestions of small things that they could change (to press).  I love seeing how great their classroom community is and that they all support each other along with wanting to help them grow.

As I was reading through all my peers’ blog posts, there was one that really stood out to me. I really Kristina’s blog entry about providing feedback.  She talks about how by proving feedback to the writer, the reader and the writer are communicating. They are talking about the piece by saying what they like and what questions they might have. One thing that she said that stood out to me was “The reader is a fresh pair of eyes for the writer, they are able to provide an unbiased opinion of the writing piece and give critical feedback that will help the writer make improvements to their writing” (Wells, 2019). I couldn’t help but think back to one of my blogs that I have written where I talk about feedback. I love when I get another set of eyes to look over something that I have written and give me feedback on how to make it stronger.

Another idea that I loved as I read the blog post, was the idea of having student- student conferences to talk about their writing. I know that the kids I work with would much rather meet with another student to talk about their writing rather than meet with me.  However, I always run into the issue of making sure that they are staying on task.  I would love to ask Kristina how she would implement these conferences in her classroom. What do you do to model them and how do you make sure the students are focused on what they are supposed to be doing? I definitely want to make sure that my students have the time to share their work with their peers and receive feedback on how they can make their pieces stronger.

Hicks, T. (2013).  Crafting digital writing.  Portsmouth, NH:  Heinemann.

Tompkins, G. E.  (2019). Teaching writing:  Balancing process and product (7^th ed.).  Upper Saddle River, NJ:  Merrill.

Wells, K. (2019, February 22). Entry 5 [blog post]. Retrieved from https://kristinawells-lted618-spring2019.blogspot.com/2019/02/entry-5.html

Blog 7: Similarities between writing genres

I wasn’t a huge fan or writing in elementary school. Along with not being a great speller, I had a hard time with organizing my ideas and choosing the right words to express those ideas. I saw writing as a fun thing to do or something to look forward to. Throughout elementary school, all of the writing pieces that we would do, would fall under the same genre.  They would all fall into the narrative genre. I felt like I was doing the same writing assignment over and over again. We would talk about the other genres very briefly but would never have any time to practice writing in them.

While reading for this week’s class and for my genre project, I couldn’t help but notice that there are some similarities throughout all of the genres when you look at the text features within the text. I first started by reading Tompkins’s chapter on poetry (chapter 7).  Tompkins (2019) lists 6 different poetic devices that can be added to poems (alliteration, comparison, onomatopoeia, personification, repetition and rhyme. Tompkins says “They create strong images when they repeat sounds within a line or stanza, imitating sounds, use the unexpected comparison, repeat words and phrases, and choose rhyming words” (Tompkins, 2019, pg. 159).  I remember spending a lot of time learning about rhyming. I learned that poetry is when the lines are short and that all the ending words in the lines rhyme. Even though rhyming does help to create an image in your head, some of the most beautiful poems I have read have a lot of personification in it.  Personification not only helps to create an image but I also get a sense of the feeling that the poet is putting into their poem

I then went on to read Tompkins’s chapter on narrative writing (chapter 8). As I was reading the narrative devices explained in the chapter I couldn’t help but think how they relate to the poetic devices I just read. The 6 narrative devices that Tompkins (2019) list are; comparison, hyperbole, imagery, personification, symbolism, and tone.  She adds “authors use narrative devices to make their writing more vivid and memorable; without these devices, writing can be lifeless and dull” (Tompkins, 2019, pg. 179). Right off the bat, I noticed that comparison and personification were repeated, they both are listed as poetic and narrative devices. I thought that it was cool how the two devices are used the same way when writing in different genres. Comparison is by comparing two things to create an image while personification is used to give human characteristics to an animal as a way to connect the reader to the text.  

All of the devices that Tompkins mentions in the poetry chapter and narrative chapter, are devices that help to give energy and excitement to the reader. Both writing genres play around with the way that words are written to help create an image for the reader as they ae reading the text. I think that the two writing genres are very similar because they are both focused on engaging the reader with the story that is being told. After seeing how similar the genres are and how they share some features, I wish that my teachers took the time to let us write in the poetry genre. I truly think that the best way to learn about each genre, is to write in each genre. That way, you can truly see how similar the different genres are. When I have my own classroom, I plan on having my student write a little in each genre so that they can personally see all the ways they are similar and different.

Tompkins, G. E.  (2019). Teaching writing:  Balancing process and product (7^th ed.).  Upper Saddle River, NJ:  Merrill.

Blog 6: Dear Dr. Jones

Dear Dr. Jones,

I can’t believe that we are already half way through the semester. It feels like the weeks are flying by. I’m even surprised at how fast the actual class goes by each week.

I was a little nervous for this class at the beginning of the semester. I’ve never been really good at writing and always get nervous when I see that a class has a bunch of writing assignments. Having writers workshop incorporated in class each week has helped me to be less nervous. It gives me time to work on all the different writing assignments and to think about all the ideas that we discussed in class. I expected that the class would be about writing in the different genres but I didn’t think that I would be writing little pieces in each of those genres. I love the fact that I am able to learn how to write in all these different genres because I never really knew how.  I tend to write the same way for every piece of writing. I now know that you need to shift how you are writing based on what the purpose of your writing is and who the given audience is.

In elementary school, I was taught that writing was always just responding to a given prompt. My teachers always told me that writing had to be written in a formal manner. While reading The Framework for success, I was able to see that there are multiple habits of mind that affect the way students approach. The article identifies eight features “Curiosity, Openness, Engagement, Creativity, Persistence, Responsibility, Flexibility, Metacognition” (Council of Writing Program Administrators, National Council of  Teachers of English, & National Writing Project, 2011, p. 1). By writing theses blog entries every week, I have had to work on my openness and engagement mindset. Writing a blog entry is different than writing a formal paper because you are writing to a different audience in a different style. With writing theses entries, I have to make sure that I’m writing my ideas in a way that is engaging for the readers and open enough for the readers to see what my thoughts are.  I have developed a stronger rhetorical knowledge and now understand that who you are writing to and why you are writing, should drive determine how you write.

One thing that I absolutely love, is the idea of journaling and free writing. While reading Tompkins, I was able to see that there are so many benefits to having students write in journals. Journals can be used as a way for students to record their thinking as they are learning a new subject or they can be used as a safe space for students to write what they are feeling. I definitely want to make sure that I give my students the chance to journal and free write during the day so they can write creatively.  I can definitely see how my writing is benefitting from having writers workshop as the second half of class every week so I plan on using writing workshop within my own classroom.  One instructional strategy that I would want to use is having a chart of the all the writing stages with clips that the students can move to show what strategy they are on. I think it is important to give the students the time that they need for each stage but also remind them that they go through each one as well. Another activity that I think is very beneficial is giving the students the time to share their writing with their peers. Tomkins says “After the reading, classmates clap and offer compliments. They may also make other comments and suggestions, but the focus is on celebrating completed writing projects, not on revising the compositions to make them better” (Tompkins, 2019, p. 27). It’s important to give the students a space where they can celebrate all the hard work that they put into their writing.

Ways to be motivated to write

One struggle that I am having with our genre writing project, is thinking of what I want to write. I’m struggling to determine who I want the audiences to be for my three pieces and what genre I want to them write in. When it comes to writing, I struggle with finding the motivation to write. Ever since I was younger, I never liked writing and I struggle with figuring out the perfect word order. I need to keep reminding myself that it is okay if my writing is not perfect in the prewriting stage, since that is the stage I’m just starting to get my ideas down

 

Council of Writing Program Administrators, National Council of  Teachers of English, & National Writing Project. (2011).  Framework for success in postsecondary writing.  Retrieved from http://wpacouncil.org/framework/

Hompkins, G. (2017). Journal writing every day: Teacher says it really works! [Web page]. https://www.educationworld.com/a_curr/curr144.shtml

Sun, T. (2017). 30 little ways to motivate yourself to write, right now. The writing cooperative [blog page] https://writingcooperative.com/30-little-ways-to-motivate-yourself-to-write-right-now-9982e80c408d

Tompkins, G. E.  (2019). Teaching writing:  Balancing process and product (7^th ed.).  Upper Saddle River, NJ:  Merrill.