This class has helped me think, practice and reflect on the art of writing and my role as a writer/writing instructor. After rereading my first attempt at a writing philosophy, I realize I still agree with some of the ideas I presented in September, but that because of this writing course, my philosophy has evolved.
One important piece that I left out of my first draft was the simple fact that the only way we improve our writing is to write. We need constant and consistent writing practice in order to improve. This means that relying on worksheets to practice grammar, usage, mechanics and style should not be a constant classroom routine - meaningful writing instruction asks writers to analyze and revise their own work, not a textbook model.
Another feature of writing that I didn't consider in September is the importance of an audience for one's writing. Student and adult writers write to express their thoughts and feelings. This should not remain a solitary act. Including an audience for one's writing is an essential aspect of the writing experience.
Finally and more conclusively, after this course I came to realize how important it is to thoughtfully design writing curriculum on the school level. Too often teachers repeat lessons from grade to grade and lead students through units heavy in textbook practice and light on individual writing practice. These inconsistencies in curriculum set students years back in their writing development. In order to strengthen student writing, we need to ensure that the school's approach to writing instruction is based in research and meaningfully implemented.
Sunday, December 18, 2011
Saturday, December 17, 2011
Writing with and for an audience
It's funny that this reflection is about writing with and for an audience because my scholarly project topic was on writing for an authentic audience. After reviewing my research and reflecting on the project, I began to feel that all writing should have the opportunity to be shared with an authentic audience. Blogging this semester allowed me to explore my perspective on writing with and for audience and personally, I think writing with the awareness of your audience and having the weekly feedback from my think tank is a valuable experience. This process also inspired me to reflect on my experiences with writing for/with an audience online.
Writing for a select audience on the internet has been a practice of my for the last 15 years. Prior to the advent of blogs, during my high school days in the late 90s, a group of friends and I started to share our thoughts on an email group we called the "hello there" list. ("hello there" was always the subject line) It was just a list of 30-50 people (depending on the year) that we "replied all" to constantly. We discussed school drama, our home lives, music, TV... you name it. I remember how exciting it was to read through my email at the end of the weekend and see that I had 35 messages. A friend of mine still has all of the "hello there" emails saved in a file. I wonder if there's evidence of digitalk on those... I bet the beginning of digital language is there. I know most of us chose not use any capital letters when sharing those emails.
After "hello there" began to dissolve as most of us went to college, I began to keep a livejournal. This was a blogging site that allowed writers to "friend" other writers and to see all of their livejournal posts on a "friends" page. I kept my livejournal page up until the fateful day when I signed up for facebook. :)
Because of my experience with writing for/with an audience online has spanned over 15 years, I some times wonder where I fall on the continuum of digital native/immigrant. I'm comfortable writing in public forms and have been posting my thoughts online for years, but I did adapt to this practice as a young adult. I was not working online when I was 10... does that make me a digital immigrant? I'm grateful I didn't post my 7th grade thoughts online, but if I was in the 7th grade now, I wouldn't have that choice. Is that what makes me a digital immigrant, the fact that I still consider my online filter? My enthusiasm to share online is accompanied by a hint of caution and concern for my future reputation. I'm very interested in the experience of writing digitally and how it continues to evolve. This blogged helped me explore that topic and many more throughout the semester. :)
Writing for a select audience on the internet has been a practice of my for the last 15 years. Prior to the advent of blogs, during my high school days in the late 90s, a group of friends and I started to share our thoughts on an email group we called the "hello there" list. ("hello there" was always the subject line) It was just a list of 30-50 people (depending on the year) that we "replied all" to constantly. We discussed school drama, our home lives, music, TV... you name it. I remember how exciting it was to read through my email at the end of the weekend and see that I had 35 messages. A friend of mine still has all of the "hello there" emails saved in a file. I wonder if there's evidence of digitalk on those... I bet the beginning of digital language is there. I know most of us chose not use any capital letters when sharing those emails.
After "hello there" began to dissolve as most of us went to college, I began to keep a livejournal. This was a blogging site that allowed writers to "friend" other writers and to see all of their livejournal posts on a "friends" page. I kept my livejournal page up until the fateful day when I signed up for facebook. :)
Because of my experience with writing for/with an audience online has spanned over 15 years, I some times wonder where I fall on the continuum of digital native/immigrant. I'm comfortable writing in public forms and have been posting my thoughts online for years, but I did adapt to this practice as a young adult. I was not working online when I was 10... does that make me a digital immigrant? I'm grateful I didn't post my 7th grade thoughts online, but if I was in the 7th grade now, I wouldn't have that choice. Is that what makes me a digital immigrant, the fact that I still consider my online filter? My enthusiasm to share online is accompanied by a hint of caution and concern for my future reputation. I'm very interested in the experience of writing digitally and how it continues to evolve. This blogged helped me explore that topic and many more throughout the semester. :)
Monday, December 5, 2011
Reflection
This course has helped me meaningfully reflect on the way I approach the teaching of writing. Overall, my three take-aways at this point of the class is that the only way you get better at writing is to write, that when assessing writing mechanics less is more and that the act of composing includes more than just typing. All of the reflections I mentioned also apply to the forum of digital writing. Although students may use "digitalk" when they write in online formats, they are still getting writing practice. It's so important to encourage students to explore various forms of self- expression and collaboration. Discouraging students from writing online would be doing everyone a disservice. However, I do believe that students need to pay attention to audience as they're writing- this allows students to naturally code switch and to remind students that writing is a social act. I'm also considering using the word "composing" more often. When we discussed multimodal writing, I realized that I believe multimodal composition can include images, videos and other digital elements. At the start of the class I began to think that writing was more complex than I realized, but now my view of writing is actually more simplistic. Writing is a social act and the act of composition is a form of self expression that should be supported in the classroom, online and everywhere inbetween.
In the next three weeks I hope to complete my scholarly project, update my annotated bibliography, make sure I'm up to date on all of my Learning Log posts and comments, complete my last Sociolinguistics reflection, complete my comprehension presentation and paper, submit IRB for my research apprenticeship... and a partridge in a pear tree... oops, that reminds me... I reeeeealllly need to go shopping as soon as possible!
In the next three weeks I hope to complete my scholarly project, update my annotated bibliography, make sure I'm up to date on all of my Learning Log posts and comments, complete my last Sociolinguistics reflection, complete my comprehension presentation and paper, submit IRB for my research apprenticeship... and a partridge in a pear tree... oops, that reminds me... I reeeeealllly need to go shopping as soon as possible!
Saturday, November 26, 2011
Data Collection Practice #4 Survey
(Warning: I was a little confused about this assignment. I wrote "Video Reflection" in the log entry portion of my syllabus, but after looking through a few other blogs it appears that we were supposed to choose a fourth data collection process. Also, I noticed that a few students posted about the Google+ hangout and the grammar presentation- I have not, but please let me know if I should! Sorry, this semester has been a little confusing for me.)
The fourth data collection process I attempted this semester was to create and administer a survey. At my school, all teachers participate in quarter one meetings where the teacher, department chair and school director come together to discuss student progress, data and to reflect on the first quarter. Because the teachers are subject to quarter one reviews, the department chairs (including myself) decided to administer surveys to our respective departments about our progress.
This is where I faced the first hurdle. Because I've conducted survey research before (last Spring in Dr. Turner's class), I volunteered to create the survey document and then upload it to surveymonkey.com. However, because the five department chairs decided to send an identical survey, I had to create several drafts to narrow down what questions should remain on the survey.
My first attempt was:
1.On a scale of 1-10, how positive do you feel about the direction of your department?
2.Do you receive consistent feedback on your lesson plans each week?
3.On a scale of 1-10, how effective do you feel the lesson plan rubric is?
4.On a scale of 1-10, how effective do you feel the Walk-Through Observation form is?
5.Reflecting on the formal observation and quarter 1 meeting procedure, do you have any questions or concerns?
6.Does your department share best practices and lessons with each other?
7.What area of professional development (Lesson Planning, Sharing Resources, Classroom Management etc) do you feel should be addressed more? Please explain.
My final draft, which was approved by the school's executive director was:
1. What is going well with our department?
2. If you could change one thing about our department, what would you change, why would you change it, and how would you change it?
3. What do you find most helpful about the feedback you receive?
4. If you could change one thing about the feedback you receive, what would you change, why would you change it, and how would you change it?
5. What do you find most supportive in our coaching relationship?
6. If you could change one thing about our coaching relationship, what would you change, why would you change it, and how would you change it?
The notable differences between the drafts include the omission of the Likert scale type questions and the clear pattern of questions in the final draft from What is happening to what would you (the teacher) change.
This survey is still in progress. Teachers have until December 9th to complete it, but the data I'm currently receiving has been helpful. Until I receive all the responses, it's difficult to begin coding answers, but I have noticed that the three teachers who have responded have been overwhelmingly positive and are all returning staff members. I'm predicting that the teachers who are short on time and a bit overwhelmed will be the last few to complete the survey, but we'll see. I will add on to this post as soon as all of my responses come in!
The fourth data collection process I attempted this semester was to create and administer a survey. At my school, all teachers participate in quarter one meetings where the teacher, department chair and school director come together to discuss student progress, data and to reflect on the first quarter. Because the teachers are subject to quarter one reviews, the department chairs (including myself) decided to administer surveys to our respective departments about our progress.
This is where I faced the first hurdle. Because I've conducted survey research before (last Spring in Dr. Turner's class), I volunteered to create the survey document and then upload it to surveymonkey.com. However, because the five department chairs decided to send an identical survey, I had to create several drafts to narrow down what questions should remain on the survey.
My first attempt was:
1.On a scale of 1-10, how positive do you feel about the direction of your department?
2.Do you receive consistent feedback on your lesson plans each week?
3.On a scale of 1-10, how effective do you feel the lesson plan rubric is?
4.On a scale of 1-10, how effective do you feel the Walk-Through Observation form is?
5.Reflecting on the formal observation and quarter 1 meeting procedure, do you have any questions or concerns?
6.Does your department share best practices and lessons with each other?
7.What area of professional development (Lesson Planning, Sharing Resources, Classroom Management etc) do you feel should be addressed more? Please explain.
My final draft, which was approved by the school's executive director was:
1. What is going well with our department?
2. If you could change one thing about our department, what would you change, why would you change it, and how would you change it?
3. What do you find most helpful about the feedback you receive?
4. If you could change one thing about the feedback you receive, what would you change, why would you change it, and how would you change it?
5. What do you find most supportive in our coaching relationship?
6. If you could change one thing about our coaching relationship, what would you change, why would you change it, and how would you change it?
The notable differences between the drafts include the omission of the Likert scale type questions and the clear pattern of questions in the final draft from What is happening to what would you (the teacher) change.
This survey is still in progress. Teachers have until December 9th to complete it, but the data I'm currently receiving has been helpful. Until I receive all the responses, it's difficult to begin coding answers, but I have noticed that the three teachers who have responded have been overwhelmingly positive and are all returning staff members. I'm predicting that the teachers who are short on time and a bit overwhelmed will be the last few to complete the survey, but we'll see. I will add on to this post as soon as all of my responses come in!
Tuesday, November 1, 2011
Document Analysis
I was excited to attempt the process of Document Analysis this week. I constantly work with the writing of my students and now I work with the lesson plans of my department, so the opportunity to analyze the documents I receive weekly was an interesting and time consuming experience. Altheide says, “In general, data analysis consists of extensive reading, sorting, and searching through your materials, comparing within categories, coding, and adding key words and concepts; and then writing minisummaries of categories” and I have to agree. I already have a checklist that I use weekly to provide feedback for my teachers and I figured this checklist would be a good starting point for developing the categories of my document analysis.
Some of the categories I use weekly are:
-Essential Questions and Standards inform the lesson
-Coherent Structure
-Differentiation
-Checks for Understanding/Assessment
-Learning Activities are appropriate, meaningful and valid
Through this protocol (and the use of my weekly lesson plan rubric), I was able to analyze each teacher's lesson plan document and how succesfully the plans met the school lesson plan goals. However, because the process did not prompt me to change the categories I wasn't sure if I had successfully implemented the process.
Some of the categories I use weekly are:
-Essential Questions and Standards inform the lesson
-Coherent Structure
-Differentiation
-Checks for Understanding/Assessment
-Learning Activities are appropriate, meaningful and valid
Through this protocol (and the use of my weekly lesson plan rubric), I was able to analyze each teacher's lesson plan document and how succesfully the plans met the school lesson plan goals. However, because the process did not prompt me to change the categories I wasn't sure if I had successfully implemented the process.
Tuesday, October 18, 2011
Stimulated Recall
My experience with Stimulated Recall was much more effective than my use of the Think Aloud protocol last week. Although I wish I used Stimulated Recall directly after my Think Aloud, I reintroduced the material and the recording before I asked my student to recall his reasoning during the writing process. My "data" was much more detailed and revealing than the Think Aloud.
For example, when I asked my student how he found the words to explain "his dreams" (the class writing assignment based on Cisnero's The House on Mango Street). He told me, "well I spoke them in my mind, but sometimes when I typed them... I didn't like them so I edited them until I liked them". This appeared to evidence of what Flower and Hayes referred to as goal setting and translation. My student appeared to set a goal for his assignment and then translate his ideas into words.
My second question about the assignment was about my student's use of similes throughout the paper. I was impressed by the use of similes, but I had to ask when he incorporated the literary devices into the paper. He told me that, "after my first draft I thought it looked sweet and good, but then, I wanted to make it amazing and I tried to add the similes. So I read it and thought about where I could add them and the I typed them and and...um... keep the one's I liked the most." This reflection made me think of the revision and discovery part of Flower and Hayes writing process.
Overall, I found this process more effective than the Think Aloud, but I was glad that I had the original recording to refer to during the recall procedure.
For example, when I asked my student how he found the words to explain "his dreams" (the class writing assignment based on Cisnero's The House on Mango Street). He told me, "well I spoke them in my mind, but sometimes when I typed them... I didn't like them so I edited them until I liked them". This appeared to evidence of what Flower and Hayes referred to as goal setting and translation. My student appeared to set a goal for his assignment and then translate his ideas into words.
My second question about the assignment was about my student's use of similes throughout the paper. I was impressed by the use of similes, but I had to ask when he incorporated the literary devices into the paper. He told me that, "after my first draft I thought it looked sweet and good, but then, I wanted to make it amazing and I tried to add the similes. So I read it and thought about where I could add them and the I typed them and and...um... keep the one's I liked the most." This reflection made me think of the revision and discovery part of Flower and Hayes writing process.
Overall, I found this process more effective than the Think Aloud, but I was glad that I had the original recording to refer to during the recall procedure.
Tuesday, October 4, 2011
Think Aloud Reflection
This week I attempted to gather a useful Think-Aloud recording of a student working through a piece of writing. I was able to get 7 minutes of reflection and speaking from my selected student, but instead of thinking through the editing process, my student really focused on reading aloud his draft and only paused a few times to think about what he was writing and why. After the first read aloud, I asked him to go back and edit and share the similes he included in the piece in an effort to get more details about his writing process. This activity helped me gain insight into his thought process and actually served as a strong understanding check for the student, but it wasn't as authentic as I was hoping the recording would be.
At least I was able to gather such gems as:
"I put a lot of similes because I'm, I'm like nasty at them"
and
"But, I really want to be a wrestler. A hard core, high flyin', sensational hall of famer, like Hulk Hogan, Stone Cold Steve Austin, the Rock and all of those good people."
At least I was able to gather such gems as:
"I put a lot of similes because I'm, I'm like nasty at them"
and
"But, I really want to be a wrestler. A hard core, high flyin', sensational hall of famer, like Hulk Hogan, Stone Cold Steve Austin, the Rock and all of those good people."
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