Marymcb’s Weblog

2008 January « Marymcb’s Weblog

Children Really Can Write Authentically

Wow!  What a powerful article! The topics of death and war seem so far from elementary school. However, they are the topics of some very powerful and authentic writing.

I know I have patted myself of the back for giving students choices to write about the monster or the haunted house. When I read this article I realized that it is important not only for them to have choices, but to generate some meaningful choices themselves. The more they can develop their own ideas, the more engaged and authentic their voices. We are all like that. It is vitally important to disaggregate test data to see student and teacher trends in order to plan for instruction. I really do not care to know how to do that. I am far more interested in what to do with the data. I could write about the process of disaggregation, but I would rather write and be more involved with instructional efforts that result. Students are the same way.

I struggled between getting my EDS and my master’s in reading. On my mentor’s advice, I took the EDS courses and learned all I need to know about construction and law etc. While these are interesting and necessary aspects of my job, I am much more interested at this point in my career in instructional leadership. That is why I am taking these classes. I enjoyed getting the EDS degree. It was a very valuable experience. I knew however, that I was not ready for a doctorate program until I satisfied my need to understand more about reading instruction. I have a lot of intuitive knowledge, but I need to share the expertise and experiences of others to help me become a better administrator. Now I’ve gone on a tangent to justify my efforts in reading instruction.

Mary Brown « Marymcb’s Weblog

Chapter 10

This was a hard chapter to read because I can see us snuffing the very fire out of writing for a lot of students. The reason is that I think we are really teaching to that fourth grade narrative writing test. Narrative writing is a great thing, but we seem to do it to the exclusion of any other type of writing in elementary school. That may be an overstatement, but I don’t think it is far from the truth. We have these prompts about make-believe objects or places. Students have to write some fantasy and wrap it up with a  bow in three paragraphs. Many of them could care less about a magic tree or a golden egg. My son failed the fourth grade writing test two year ago. This does not make a lot of sense as he is AIG reading and math. His teacher had no explanation to comfort me when I found his scores. I know that he just was not at all interested in a magical golden egg under his bed, the subject of the prompt. Now if it had been about soccer or skateboarding, he may have stood a chance. That is not to say that we should only ask children to write about what interest them. We should not limit our conception of their writing to three or so paragraphs on one March morning. The authors discuss that student’s conceptions of themselves as writers affects their writing. How much more devastating can it be to a student than to find out that he or she scored a one or a two? How demoralizing for the student and the teacher!

I have my AIG enrichment group once a week and I think I will use them to experiment with some of the writing ideas we come across in this class. It will be interesting to me to see if we can figure out together what motivates them? If they enjoy writing?

Marymcb’s Weblog « Marymcb’s Weblog

Chapter 1 – Best Practices in Writing Instruction

I agree with this chapter that the best teachers are the ones who students are most engaged. The best teachers are also the most engaged with their instruction. When I was working with writing at another school, the three teachers who followed the timeline we developed did the best on the fourth grade writing test. “Effective teachers, even the most experienced ones, always believe they have much more to learn and want to learn more. Ineffective teachers are much more likely to believe that they are already good teachers and have already learned how to teach.”

From my experiences, the best teachers keep working to become better whether it be on National Boards or advanced degrees. Even if these are not an option, they are eager to observe other teachers and go to conferences and staff development to improve their instruction. It does not matter to them if they are veterans and the teacher they are observing has only been teaching a couple of years. They want to share their ideas and get other peoples’ ideas. One of the best parts of my job is sharing things I have observed.

Marymcb’s Weblog feel a little self-conscious blogging. I am not sure it’s really working and that stresses me out because I want to do well in this course.

I enjoyed reading Amelia’s 5th Grade Notebook. I wish I had students I could try it with. I just might be able to figure out a way to incorporate it. Once a week, I get 8 or 9 5th graders for about 40 minutes for enrichment time. I think I may hae them keep a notebook and work on the notebook while their with me. First, before I start that, we need to finish reading Hatchet. They really enjoy that story and so do I. Now wait a minute, I could incorporate their notebooks into the study of Hatcher via a response journal or something along those lines. Maybe we could start with the writing about their first experiences in the woods or a time they were in real danger.

My husband and I used to mountain bike and rock climb before kids. On one camping trip near Linville Gorge, he and a friend decided to hike down and climb out by placing gear. This can be tricky and while I enjoyed climbing, I was not a dare devil. I decided I’d do the easy climb down and then the easy climb out and wait for them to finish their rock climb at the campsite. Well, it was relatively easy going down with two grown men to help me. It was an entirely different event on my own. I did okay until I had to climb up a boulder on th side of a mountain in the middle of nowhere by myself and then jump a chasm from that boulder to another one. I got up there and immediately knew it was the end of the line for me. There was nothing I could do. If I missed the jump, I would hurtle down a least a hundred feet. If I climbed back down, I’d have to climb out again and I had no idea where they had finaly ended up. I just sat there in the cold forever. After the panic subsided, I considered the possibilities. If I did not jump and remained where I was I would freeze to death, miss my job as a waitress and not get anywhere. If I jumped, there was the slight but real possibility I could make it and get out of there. The worst that would happen is that I would fall. It didn’t seem far enough to kill me, just give me broken bone or two. Broken bones eventually became preferable to sitting on that rock forever. I psyched myself up and flung my body across the great divide with every atom of my being. I brifged the gap easily. I don’t know if I had really made a mountatin out of a molehill or if the panic gave me more strength. Whatever, I worked my way out and was out of the woods in time to serve up some pizza at the Rose and Thistle in Winston-Salem. The only effect was that I smelled like a campfire the entire evening.
There is a part in Hatchet when the main character realizes there is nothing to be gained from feeling sorry for himself. I understand that on an experiential level. It would be interesting to see what my students could make of it. I’d love to hear their adventures.