I've been home from the NIWP for a week now and I still miss my routine of reading, reflecting, writing, and gathering! But it is nice to be home and slipping back into my reality! My husband missed me, yet my dogs and cats missed me more, I think! I love to journal write and I've made two hand-written entires at home, but I need to get in a better routine of always writing, so I am more centered and happy, too! Funny how the two go hand-in-hand! I have loved my naps w/Ewi and Sophie, and the cats, too! Plus I've finished and started two other books! If the Mariners would win, and L&I would come through, life would be perfect!!!
More later -
My Blog List
Friday, August 6, 2010
Friday, July 30, 2010
Reflection
NIWP
Final Reflection
What a wonderful four weeks I have had! While I think this should be a required class as an undergraduate, I don't think I would have been ready for until the last year or two! I have thoroughly enjoyed most every minute - especially the last couple of weeks when ideas and thoughts started coming together!
I'll reflect more later.
Final Reflection
What a wonderful four weeks I have had! While I think this should be a required class as an undergraduate, I don't think I would have been ready for until the last year or two! I have thoroughly enjoyed most every minute - especially the last couple of weeks when ideas and thoughts started coming together!
I'll reflect more later.
Wednesday, July 28, 2010
Reflection
NIWP
What I Learned From Our SI Workshops
Audrey's Workshop: A Potpourri of Ideas for Beginning Writers
Virginia Elliott's Workshop: A Few Survival Strategies for Teaching and /or Using Writing: with Children with Aspergers
Megan Cuellar's Workshop: 6-Trait Writing for the Younger Learner
Lupe Sims Workshop: What is a Writer's Notebook Anyway?
Cheryl Kintner's Workshop: Lots of Writing Ideas to Use With Molly's Pilgrim
What I Learned From Our SI Workshops
Audrey's Workshop: A Potpourri of Ideas for Beginning Writers
- Ideas for working with younger students using the Writer's Workshop
- Using the senses and to write about them after examining a slice of lemon - such a simple but amazing way for students, and the teacher, to recognize our senses. This also brought back memories of wearing the popular lemon perfume in the early 70s. Thank you, Audrey, for that flashback to 8th grade in the local drugstore at Kingman, Arizona!
- I love the ideas of recreating funny words to old rhymes that was fun and a great way to get all students involved in the recreation of old favorites.
- I want to try using music as a prompt to journal writing or as a freewrite. Thank you, Cheryl, for the ideas of using music into the classroom as another way to connect with students who may not get that variety or experience at home!
Virginia Elliott's Workshop: A Few Survival Strategies for Teaching and /or Using Writing: with Children with Aspergers
- I will be more aware of the special needs of a child with Aspergers. The story frame explanation is a wonderful way to explain a change in routine to the student.
- I will be able to help a student learn how to hold their pencil because of the diagrammed document geared to both right and left-handed students! Thank you, Virginia for bringing this "simple" process to the forefront of my mind - something that I take for granted can actually be a great challenge to someone else!
Megan Cuellar's Workshop: 6-Trait Writing for the Younger Learner
- I will be able to reteach (or remind) my students the beauty and depth of a picture book, and how they can use it as a jumping off point to write from one of the six traits.
- I am more aware and appreciative to how far my 6th graders have come from kindergarten! Thank you, Megan, for reminding me! I can only imagine how hard you work!!!
Lupe Sims Workshop: What is a Writer's Notebook Anyway?
- Using Writer's Notebooks in my classes will give students a place to jot their notes during class, keep record of special events or experiences.
- Lupe demonstrated how the notebooks can be an extension of the student's thoughts; their reflections on lessons, books, and classroom presentations. I'm excited to get started with this! Thank you, Lupe, for the composition notebook, pen, and bookmark, as well as your great presentation!
Cheryl Kintner's Workshop: Lots of Writing Ideas to Use With Molly's Pilgrim
- I will be able to expand my student's perception on what being a 'pilgrim' actually is, not just the stereotype of someone who stepped off the Mayflower. This is important for our current citizens to understand and appreciate about the people immigrating to the United States.
- I will also be able to create a writing/investigation piece about student's heritage - many aren't aware of their roots! this will help to better connect their families! Thank you, Cheryl for this insight!
Monday, July 26, 2010
Reflection
NIWP
Leaving a Trace
by Alexandra Johnson
Transforming a Life - Patterns and Meanings
Leaving a Trace
by Alexandra Johnson
Transforming a Life - Patterns and Meanings
- Journals are narratives, life stories told in Expressive writing with deep and often hidden patterns of meaning.
Gaining access to the interior life is a kind of ...archaeology: on the basis of some information and a little bit of guesswork, you journey to a site to see what remains were left behind and you reconstruct the world.
Toni Morrison
- A journal is a self-portrait, its narrative still evolving. It gives you, the writer, the time to tell and reframe your life's story.
Dr. Perri Klass
Journals tend to contain 10 categories of life patterns:
Past, Present, Future
Revisions:
To see again
A person's work is nothing but a long journey to recover, through the detours of art, the two or three simple and great images which first gained access to their hearts.
- longing
- fear
- mastery
- intentional silences
- key influences
- hidden lessons
- secret gifts
- challenges
- unfinished business
- untapped potential
Past, Present, Future
Revisions:
To see again
A person's work is nothing but a long journey to recover, through the detours of art, the two or three simple and great images which first gained access to their hearts.
Albert Camus
Reflection
NIWP
Rubrics
I first learned of Rubrics when I was getting my Ed. degree at Eastern. I had never even heard of them before - granted I had been out of school for 25 years - but I had three kids in and this was still new and insightful information to me. On various assignments at Eastern we would be partnered up w/another adult student, and I lucked out with being paired up w/Sarah Franko. Sarah, who I've known since 2000, was/is such a go-getter, let's get this done, partner! And the best thing she taught me was to write to the rubric - just answering each question! It was so simple so I had always thought this was kind-of cheating --- it was just too easy! But in reality, this is just what the instructor wanted! A whole new world of responding to assignments was opened up to me, and my grades improved, and my time spent on responding to assignments decreased!
Since I've been in the classroom, I've used rubrics but they work best when I have them coordinated with the students. Thus, I have to be "on the ball" before I hand out the assignment, otherwise I'm continually playing catch-up and I don'thave the best answers for the students when they ask about grading on a particular assignment. This is my third year to teach 6th grade, and I'm finally getting a better scope of what I want and need to do in the classroom, what has worked for me, and what hasn't. It's starting to become easier!
In the article, Teaching with Rubrics - The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly, by Heidi Goodrich Andrade, I have noticed there are still a number of ways that I can improve my use of rubrics. Andrade says, "I use rubrics before, during, and after I deliver instruction, and the benefits are numerous." While I think this is great for her instruction, and she admits this as well, I would think the impact on the student's comprehension would be amazing! As a student at Eastern, the rubric began to make the assignment so clear and purposeful!
A negative in rubric assessement for me is when the numbers don't add up to the grade that I think the student has earned. Do all rubrics have a 5-4-3-2-1 grading system? I need a half-way point in there somewhere - like a 3.5 type of grade. I was having to create that this past year in order for me to give a better reflection of the grade I thought the student deserved. I need to improve this in my teaching practice, or at least figure out a compromise.
Andrade emphasises that, "Rubrics improve when we compare them to published standards, show them to another teacher, or ask a colleague to coscore some student work." This makes sense, and we actually did discuss our rubrics in our classrooms during a couple of our Wednesday morning meetings this past year. It was helpful and look to other teachers for back-up opinions, experiences, and advice. in particular, I look to Debbie Barry, our 7th grade LA teacher, which is where my kids move after me. I want to do my part to have the kids prepared for 7th grade. Debbie knows her stuff inside and out, and she is a great role model for me to bring my students up to her 7th grade level by June.
I will really need to stay forcused in August as I prep my classroom and planning using all of this info that I have gained this month! I could actually continue taking this class on a weekly basis to keep training my brain and not to get into a rut. I need to make lists and more lists about what to do, how to do it, and, just as importantly, the why of what I'm doing!!! Need to get to class!
Rubrics
I first learned of Rubrics when I was getting my Ed. degree at Eastern. I had never even heard of them before - granted I had been out of school for 25 years - but I had three kids in and this was still new and insightful information to me. On various assignments at Eastern we would be partnered up w/another adult student, and I lucked out with being paired up w/Sarah Franko. Sarah, who I've known since 2000, was/is such a go-getter, let's get this done, partner! And the best thing she taught me was to write to the rubric - just answering each question! It was so simple so I had always thought this was kind-of cheating --- it was just too easy! But in reality, this is just what the instructor wanted! A whole new world of responding to assignments was opened up to me, and my grades improved, and my time spent on responding to assignments decreased!
Since I've been in the classroom, I've used rubrics but they work best when I have them coordinated with the students. Thus, I have to be "on the ball" before I hand out the assignment, otherwise I'm continually playing catch-up and I don'thave the best answers for the students when they ask about grading on a particular assignment. This is my third year to teach 6th grade, and I'm finally getting a better scope of what I want and need to do in the classroom, what has worked for me, and what hasn't. It's starting to become easier!
In the article, Teaching with Rubrics - The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly, by Heidi Goodrich Andrade, I have noticed there are still a number of ways that I can improve my use of rubrics. Andrade says, "I use rubrics before, during, and after I deliver instruction, and the benefits are numerous." While I think this is great for her instruction, and she admits this as well, I would think the impact on the student's comprehension would be amazing! As a student at Eastern, the rubric began to make the assignment so clear and purposeful!
A negative in rubric assessement for me is when the numbers don't add up to the grade that I think the student has earned. Do all rubrics have a 5-4-3-2-1 grading system? I need a half-way point in there somewhere - like a 3.5 type of grade. I was having to create that this past year in order for me to give a better reflection of the grade I thought the student deserved. I need to improve this in my teaching practice, or at least figure out a compromise.
Andrade emphasises that, "Rubrics improve when we compare them to published standards, show them to another teacher, or ask a colleague to coscore some student work." This makes sense, and we actually did discuss our rubrics in our classrooms during a couple of our Wednesday morning meetings this past year. It was helpful and look to other teachers for back-up opinions, experiences, and advice. in particular, I look to Debbie Barry, our 7th grade LA teacher, which is where my kids move after me. I want to do my part to have the kids prepared for 7th grade. Debbie knows her stuff inside and out, and she is a great role model for me to bring my students up to her 7th grade level by June.
I will really need to stay forcused in August as I prep my classroom and planning using all of this info that I have gained this month! I could actually continue taking this class on a weekly basis to keep training my brain and not to get into a rut. I need to make lists and more lists about what to do, how to do it, and, just as importantly, the why of what I'm doing!!! Need to get to class!
Reflection
NIWP
Emily Duvall
Thriving as Writers in a Writing Test Culture
I loved what Emily had to say about writing and high-stakes test taking:
In the handout that Duvall gave us, Teaching to the test...not!, there are a number of resources to further investigate about test taking and the writing process. As the authors, Betty Higgins, Melinda Miller, and Susan Wegmann, of the article state, "...through excellent instruction that prepares students to be full, literate members of our society, and not just people who can pass a test." We need to have authentic instruction and learning, not just regergitateable information that has no meaning or relevance to our students!
Emily Duvall
Thriving as Writers in a Writing Test Culture
I loved what Emily had to say about writing and high-stakes test taking:
- Writing-Test writing is different than regular writing
- Find humor in the test prompt
- Don't bare one's soul in response to the prompt
- Keep stickies around for brainstorming notes
- Test wiseness of students by giving them lots of writing-test writing practice
- Self-mediation: what are the choices for the test
- Reading-test reading
- Giving students power over the test
In the handout that Duvall gave us, Teaching to the test...not!, there are a number of resources to further investigate about test taking and the writing process. As the authors, Betty Higgins, Melinda Miller, and Susan Wegmann, of the article state, "...through excellent instruction that prepares students to be full, literate members of our society, and not just people who can pass a test." We need to have authentic instruction and learning, not just regergitateable information that has no meaning or relevance to our students!
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