Entry #11 - Genre Reflection

I have learned more about genres in the past 5 weeks in this course than I have my lifetime. During this course specifically, I was able to take the new knowledge I was learning and directly relate it to previous notions and many times misconceptions I had to develop a clearer, deeper understanding of each.

During presentations and through reading Tompkins, I have learned about many text structures that were never explicitly discussed elsewhere in my education career. For example, although I had previous notions regarding the text structure of a letter (whether personal or business), and I understood text structures we find in most narrative writing such as plot, setting, etc, I had no idea that biographical writing included specific text structures as well. I learned that biographical writing contains different structures that each have very specific characteristics. For example, personal narratives, memoirs, and autobiographies all have different characteristics however they are all considered biographical writing. 

Most of the genre’s discussed I had a surface level understanding of, but gained a deeper understanding as I read and participated in presentations. My own presentation, for example, was on persuasive writing. Before research, I knew the basics about persuasive writing, such as persuasive writing has a beginning (stating belief), middle (reasons why you believe it), and end (repeat what you believe). However, I learned that the above example of the structure of a persuasive writing piece can be easily manipulated. For example, a more complex student may choose to include the other side of the argument and why that side is not reasonable. Although I had the baseline understanding of what persuasive writing is, what I failed to realize, is that persuasion is a part of my everyday life. Not a day goes by that I do not try to persuade someone in my life (including myself!) one thing or another. That is the umbrella idea that really hit home while learning about each genre:  We were not just learning about reading and writing genres, we were learning about how they are a part of our everyday lives. 

Letter writing is another genre I assumed I knew what I needed to know about it to teach it, however I was drastically wrong. I knew the basic text structures of a letter, and how they may change slightly to become tailored to the specific audience they are meant. I learned that not a day goes by that I do not write a letter, whether it is a text message, email, etc. I learned that each text structure needs to be explicitly taught and modeled, and no two types of letters should be taught on the very same day. In fact, I think many of my misconceptions came from the fact that when I was introduced to this genre as a child, it was all introduced at once. I learned about personal letters, business letters, post cards, etc in one lesson, which lent me to believe the different types of letters are more similar than they truly are. These presentations not only helped clear up any misconceptions I had to begin with, but they also gave me hands on methods I can use when educating my own children on each specific genre. 

Although I feel much better about each genre specifically, I worry I may be using the wrong educational techniques to teach the genre’s in my own classroom. For example, just this week in clinic I was told that compare and contrast graphic organizers, as well as specific concept maps and KWL charts, should not be used with narrative text. It makes sense now that these organizers require specific information that a student cannot correctly obtain from a narrative writing piece simply because they need concrete details. I student taught, taught my own classroom, and worked with students in clinic over the past years with that misconception that plays a large role in student understanding. My biggest fear is that I am going to teach ‘wrong’, without having the correct knowledge on a specific topic. Therefore, these genre presentations aided in my understanding of writing drastically. I now feel confident I can make decisions in my own classroom regarding teaching these genres accurately and appropriately, and aid in students understandings of each.

Entry #5 - Letter to Dr. Jones

Dear Dr. Jones,

Class is going well! I enjoy every opportunity we have to meet, and all activities planned during class. The technologies we have learned has taught me a great deal I can use in my classroom, and some I already have! Most of the programs we have been introduced to I honestly had no idea existed and they have such benefits to using them in the classroom. I also have been reflecting on the writing process itself. Even more so than with Hicks (2009), I can take Tompkin's (2012) ideas regarding 6 + 1 traits, writing strategies, and writer's craft and directly relate it to my group of 5 year olds!

I have developed a much stronger understanding of the connection between reading and writing. I have seen this first hand in myself. I have been given the opportunity countless times throughout the semester so far to use writing as a bridge between reading and processing or thinking. Every week, as I complete my blog entries or drafts for the blog, I am using the knowledge I got from the text read prior to construct my own understanding and meaning of something new. I have questioned myself and my tactics, as well as new learnings, more in this course than I have my whole college career. Once I think I am on the right path (in any assignment we have done) I think of a reflection or question which leads my mind back to square one, and I end up with my questions than before!! Although this process seems to lack benefits, I know that the art of questioning itself is cyclical. Through this questioning I am in turn discovering new things which leads to clarification... eventually :).

My reading and writing habits in general have already changed drastically. Prior to the first day of class, I viewed the writing process as a one direction process where you continually move towards a final product. I now know that it is the process of writing that should be stressed! Whether the process is digital or written, it lends to a variety of higher level thinking skills one does not develop without involving the writing task. As an example, the stressed collaboration process has made such an impact on me and on my classroom. Being able to collaborate and discuss, regardless of the distance or time between the collaborators, has changed the way we write. I have learned more from my group members in the past 5 weeks than I ever would've learned myself in any course. Being able to see things from a new perspective is key in this understanding, and it is a entirely new view on writing. I also love the 6 + 1 idea introduced in Tompkins (2012). Habitually, when thinking about writing specifically, I was not able to separate the goals into traits to be used. As previously stated, the product was in mind versus what was done in the process.

Specifically, I have learned more about many writing strategies I can use in my classroom. When reading, my focus went to the elaborating strategy Tompkins (2012) discusses on page 34 and 36. The reason this stood out is because in the past, I always found myself having a hard time teaching students how to elaborate. Especially working with younger students, it is difficult to ask them to expand their ideas into more complex thoughts and details. When reading, I found that it is easier to think about if students brainstorm and explore the idea they are writing about. During the exploration phase, I thought back to the RSS discussion. If students had a safe environment to explore and get more information, it would not only solidify their motivation but also allow them to elaborate without feeling the need to add 'fluff'. I also focused on the narrowing strategy discussed in Tompkin's (2012) work for the same reason as elaborating. I found it is difficult to 'teach' students how to narrow and specify information when writing, which is why I enjoyed this section of the chapter as much as I did.

I also appreciated Tompkin's (2012) discussed regarding the 6 + 1 traits. Prior to this course, I did not even know I was incorporating many of these themes into my classroom. For example, when reading about the ideas trait, I instantly thought of my classroom. Since I am working with such young students, I need to be creative in how I introduce and use the writing process. I have used wordless picture books in many classrooms to discuss author's craft and the development of ideas in a story. With the use of those, as well as read alouds, I have been able to teach and implement specific aspects of the 6 + 1 trait with even the youngest of students. That is what I love about Tompkin's text. When reading Hick's (2009), I have a hard time thinking of ways to implement the wonderful ideas in my own classroom. Tompkin's (2012) helps me to adapt all of her insight and manipulate it to fit my own room!

In general, this course so far has been an eye opening experience. I honestly look forward to what is to come.

Sincerely,

Shawna Wright

Entry #3 - Open Entry

I received a variety of responses to my discussion question for Chapter 2 of Hick's (2009) text. During this question, I wanted to focus on student choice. My question read as follows:

"While some elements of our curriculum require us to engage all students in similar topics... research and writing can also be self-directed based on students' own inquiry and choice in topics" (Hicks, 2009, p. 17).

What opportunities do you have as the teacher when you offer your students choices in reading and writing? What challenges are you faced with when you offer student choice in your classroom?

Before receiving responses, and when reflecting on this question, my mind went to my current classroom. I am teaching in an ideal (in my opinion) teaching environment. I am working for a childcare facility teaching Kindergarten both half and full day. When I started the program, I was given nothing to work with. I designed the curriculum, the curriculum map, the standards, etc. During the design process, feeling overwhelmed was quite an understatement, however looking back I am realizing what an opportunity it has been to have my own choices as a first year educator. I was able to pull from everything I have learned in graduate school as well as under grad and make choices based on those learnings.

As I made choices for myself and my students, I quickly realized what was going to work and what was not. Unfortunately, since I had no one to tell me these things ahead of time, it was all a trial and error experience. Although, that may not have been such a bad thing. I was forced to learn quickly from my own mistakes and reflect every second of every day. These reflections helped me to become a stronger, more purposeful educator and help my students grow as well.

I think student choice can be related to my first year teaching experience. It is the hardest thing for me to do as a teacher is let students choose something that may not work out as they planned. For this reason, I think choice needs to be limited for students to learn the most from it! For example, my kindergartners get 15 minutes of D.E.A.R. time everyday, to choose texts that they want to. However, I limit their choices by giving them a shelf of books I know they will be successful in 'reading'. 

To be perfectly honest, I have noticed that giving students choice almost makes more 'work' (and I use that term loosely) for the educator. What I mean by this is it takes more preparation, anticipation, and reflecting to allow students to make their own decisions in the classroom rather than making those decisions for them. It takes a purposeful, well organized teacher to be able to anticipate student choices and decisions and use those to work in the classroom. 

Overall, the Hick's (2009) text as well as the technological tools we have learned about in this class have given me such a different outlook on student choice in my classroom. I now have the ability to give my 4 and 5 year olds choices that I did not know how to do before. This has increased motivation tremendously in one of the most important grades of their school career!!

TO BE EDITED :)

Entry #2 - Hicks' Elements

When reading about the three elements of the framework Hicks (2009) describes in Chapter 7, I reflected upon a lot of things I would like to change about my current classroom and school. The students I am currently working with are Kindergartners, ranging from 4 to 5 years old. I am working in a private daycare setting, teaching Kindergarten to students in the morning, and in the afternoon, based on their school district schedule. I would view my students as capable of digital writing in some aspects, but not yet having the chance to pursue the task digitally. In some aspects of the digital world, I find they are more advanced then me! Many of my students have iPods, iPads, tablets, cell phones, etc at home that they are able to manipulate effortlessly and do so on a daily basis.

Since my students are so young, they are not yet involved with social media websites, blogs, or wikis, but they are familiar with writing digitally, and games or applications played digitally. Because of this, they are very capable of collaborating, drafting, and publishing digital writing pieces with teacher scaffolding. There are many things limiting my students from being able to experiment with these writing tasks, which consists of the space I am given both in my classroom and in the school building itself.

The building I work in is a day care center, with 15+ classrooms starting at the infant age group going up to my Kindergarten classroom. We also provide care for school age students in the morning and afternoon, however, this is not in a classroom setting but rather a day care or camp environment. My classroom has one ‘teacher’ computer with limited resources, and no computers set up for children. Furthermore, there is no setting for student sized desks and computers to allow my students to manipulate digital spaces freely. I have used my computer before in conjunction with specific topics or subjects to aid in student understanding in the room, but it is not easily manipulated by students because of the size and position of the desk and computer itself. Ideally, without budget, resources, and building space in mind, I would incorporate a ‘classroom’ of computers for students of all ages. The desks would be lower to the ground, with 4-6 year old sized chairs, for students to sit comfortably and use for longer periods of time. I would incorporate collaborative desks on the side of the classroom for students to reflect and discuss what they are working on, as well as for teacher communication and small group work.  When rereading this paragraph, I am thinking how silly it seems for my request for a computer lab for 5 year olds, but I have experienced their capability for learning electronically and when lessons are tailored of scaffolded for them, they would benefit tremendously from these changes. So no, I am not saying my classroom of 5 year olds is going to hop on a computer and type me an essay, but yes they can draft rhyming words or blends containing –op on a word processor or use programs such as a-z learning to read leveled text books.

“As noted throughout this book and simply summarized here, digital writing changes the contexts and purposes for writing” in the classroom (Hicks, 2009, p. 130). Reflecting on Chapter 7, specifically the ‘subject’ section of the chapter, I was able to construct many elaborate (maybe not realistic) ways in which my students can engage in digital writing in the classroom.  Realistically, I would love for videos, audio, and images to reinforce topics or subjects we are discussing in class. For example, last week I introduced rhyming words to my students. We used that as a jump off point to discuss word families and blends. While trying to solidify the concept of rhyming, my students and I brainstormed as large list of words on chart paper that rhymed with the given word I drafted. Wanting to push this concept to a new level, I set up rhyming stations throughout the classroom for students to experience rhyming in different contexts. I printed off rhyming texts from a-z learning, I created rhyming puzzles, and I used Reggie the Rhyming Rhino from the scholastic learning website. This rhino changed my classroom as a whole. A week later I still have students wanting him back J As a summary of the website, students are able to choose what environment they want to rhyme in (at home, at the grocery store, at the zoo, etc) and when they are given a word within that context, they must look at the 3 options given (in picture and word form) to produce a rhyme to the word given. This element of student choice was a huge motivator! So although my students were not opening Google Docs to draft a research paper with colleagues, they truly were collaborating with the program to read and write rhyming words digitally. Although this was only one subject and only a small part of my curriculum, I hope to find new digital programs that allow my students to collaborate, draft, and create digital work throughout the school day.

Because my students are so young, and still learning how to print letters, and letter sound correspondence, I think a digital writing workshop in my classroom will reflect the scenario I used above. I need to create and develop other means of digital writing in a more comfortable, collaborative setting. My students need a place of their own to draft and work, and more diverse programs to work with. My goal for this school year is to incorporate one digital aspect a week in my lesson plans. Throwing that number out seems like an easy goal, but a lot of planning and preparation needs to go into it since my room and environment is not set up for enabling this type of learning. Next week, I am introducing 2 more blends during reading, as well as introducing a plant study in science. My goal is to find or create a program that allows my students to work digitally in one of those units, and enable all students to use it!

Just incase any blog readers want to Visit Reggie!