Written Expression {Chapter EIGHT Synthesis}

What I Do Right...

Writing is such a fun subject to teach! Students get easily excited about topics, and writing can directly link to and flow from into our reading lessons. I have read a lot about teaching writing from Ralph Fletcher, Katie Wood Ray, and Ruth Culham and adopted some favorite strategies in my classroom that I think truly help my students become better writers.

A Special Place to Write...A Writer's Notebook

At the beginning of each year, my students decorate a marble composition notebook with pictures, foamies, and stickers. This becomes their writer's notebook. I am always AMAZED at how they are inspired to write just by having their own special place to record their thoughts. I show them my writers notebook, too, and even read some pieces that I have written. 

 {using the "watermelon/seed" strategy to zoom into details...all in her WRITER'S NOTEBOOK}

 

6+1 Writing Traits 

I use Ruth Culhams' 6+1 Writing Traits method of teaching writing in my classroom. This method teaches writing by looking closely at the 6 traits that good writers use {ideas, organization, voice, sentence fluency, word choice, and conventions...and the plus is for presentation}. The traits are an AMAZING tool to use because so many second graders think that writing is mostly about spelling words, but it's not! Spelling is just one small piece! 

Each trait includes a rubric that students can learn and practice when writing. Once they are familiar with that rubric, the teacher can conduct "The Writing Olympics." Students can go to the Education Northwest website and practice scoring authentic student writing. There is a section where the teacher can type in the comments that students generate, and then click to view the actual score the paper received. 

 

Practice scoring the traits!

Mini-Lessons and Mentor Texts

I am a strong believer that students become better writers when they see and hear good writing in the classroom. When we study a particular trait, we read lots of books. These books exhibit the traits at their best! Students can see what the author does, and then they can become inspired. I also model a lot in the classroom. Students, for whatever reason, love to read my writing...especially when it is in MY writer's notebook. But, I also model writing on chart paper for examples and anchor charts.

Here is a favorite book of mine to read for each trait:

Ideas  

Organization

 Voice

Sentence Fluency

Word Choice

Conventions

Conferencing

I strive to have conferencing time each week with my students. I keep a notebook at my back table to track what we discuss, make notes of student questions, jot about writing issues, and mention concerns that I may have for them as writers. Most students want help with spelling when they request a conference, and I think that is fine. I tell them that second graders SHOULDN'T know how to spell every word. I do want them to try those "big" words, though, so I give LOTS of praise for attempts. I then try to dig deep into the trait that we are studying. What did they pick up from the mini-lesson? What strategy did they use correctly? What is their writing still missing?  

Publishing

I celebrate the writing that my students complete in many different ways. We have an author's chair where they can read stories to the class. We also publish one book during the year {from barebooks.com}, complete art projects to illustrate our writing, hang our writing in the halls, publish across genres, and collect our writing in a growth portfolio. 

 {author's chair}

{art to illustrate his writing}

What I Do Wrong...

As the chapter suggests, writing is such a critical subject. I have found that my students who have disabilities {or ones that perform below grade level} struggle getting their thoughts down on paper. They need extra help and extra support when writing. As a classroom teacher, I often struggle differentiating my instruction due to time constraints and class size. I fear that some of my students that struggle are still making some of the mistakes, and are relying on some of the habits that they used at the beginning of the year. Some students need more guided writing practice because they lack the monitoring, self-regulation, and motivation strategies necessary to revise and edit their written pieces. I need to slow down my instruction so that I can better meet the needs of students who need help with handwriting, word spacing, sight words, and basic sentence formulation. 

How I'm Going to Fix It...

I really want to look back at the notes that I take during conferences. These notes can tell me volumes about what my students still need to work on. I really need to include more time for guided writing groups during our writing time each week. More advanced writers could form a group during this time to revise their work as a team, assess themselves with the rubric, and reflect on how they are using the trait that we are studying in their own writing. Meanwhile, I can pull those students who need remediation so that I can reteach skills that should have been mastered in kindergarten, first grade, or the beginning of second grade. 

Reading Comprehension {Chapter SEVEN Synthesis}

What I Do Right...

I think that the first important thing that I do when teaching comprehension is MODELING STRATEGIES. Students need to see some strategies over-and-over again to see how they really work. We create anchor charts together, investigate different texts, and then I give explicit instruction on how I use the strategy while reading. Once the students see how the strategy is utilized, it it time for them to practice it on their own.

I give each student a READING IS THINKING sheet each week. It has a box for each day of the week. In the box, the students have to practice the strategy independently that they learned during the mini-lesson. They might have to make a prediction, share their schema, write a connection, ask a "thick" question, or make an inference. I take these sheets up and grade them at the end of the week.

I try to give a variety of assessments so that I can see how students are comprehending the texts that they read. For example, this past week we studied the genre BIOGRAPHY. Each student read a biography of an African American during independent reading and then recorded important information from that person's life. The purpose was twofold: 

• to find the main idea of that person's life
• make connections from that person's life to our own

The students then wrote a paper about their famous person, and then presented what they learned to the class. They had to dress up or make a puppet. {This picture was being so stubborn and would NOT turn...but it was too cute not to include!! Sorry for the head tilting!}

What I Do Wrong...

I think that I need to work more on class-wide peer tutoring and cooperative learning models. I think that my students could help each other more with comprehension if they were placed within small groups. This way they are forced to share ideas, understand content, and internalize information. I know that, when I am teaching, I tend to talk too much. I really need to OBSERVE more. Observation would give me much more information so that I can truly gain a clear picture as to how my students are comprehending what they read. If students were forced to take a leadership role, then they would be able to implement strategies together, and I would serve as their facilitator. 

How I'm Going to Fix It...

I plan to grant more opportunities for collaborative groups during reading instruction. I do a lot of independent practice and small group instruction, but I very rarely let the students work together on the stories that they are reading. It would be very interesting for me to see what kinds of thinking would go on during their discussions. I would love to have groups of students complete an activity such as the Cooperative Story Map on page 177 in the text. This way, they can work together on understanding the stories they have read. They can then present their story maps to the class as an different way to retell what they have learned. 

 

Reading Instruction {Chapter SIX Synthesis}

What I Do Right...
I have always loved to read, and I LOVE to teach reading. I love it when my students get excited about books, and I love to help them find authors and genres that they can get excited about! Every year, I have such an incredible mix of kids. My second graders range anywhere from a 4th grade to kindergarten reading level. It can be challenging to keep up with such a diverse group, but I have found strategies that have really helped me!


I attended a conference last year at Furman by Dr. Richard Allington on What Really Matters for Struggling Readers. I learned 3 points that have really shaped my whole outlook on teaching reading:

• Struggling readers need to read MORE.
• Struggling readers need access to books that are on their independent reading level. This means they can read them with 99% accuracy.
• Struggling readers need more one-on-one time with a highly trained reading teacher.

{Read More}
In order to get my students to read more, I did away with centers during reading time. I felt that my advanced readers got really bored doing them and my struggling readers never really knew what was going on. Allington stated that the average struggling reader only reads for about 5 to 10 minutes a day. This fact was SHOCKING to me. Now, my students have a bucket full of books that they can read, and they read for over an hour every day. 

{Books They Can Read INDEPENDENTLY}
At the beginning of the year, I teach my students how to find a "just right book." We typically read Goldilocks and the Three Bears to illustrate this point. Goldilocks needs to find a book that is just right. Some are too hard, some are too soft {easy}, and others are JUST RIGHT! I use Beth Newingham's idea with t-shirts, too, and create a poster that illustrates this point for my students. 


This strategy works really well because it teaches all the students to find a book that they can read with success.


{More One-on-One Instruction}
This, or course was the hardest to implement! I just can't devote my whole day to teaching just a handful of students how to read. I have tried my best, however, to find ways to help those kids who are below grade level. Jan Richardson's book The Next Step in Guided Reading really helped me to find ways to meet with students and provide more meaningful lessons for them based on their needs. She has lesson plan templates for each level that truly changed the approach that I take with each guided reading group. 

What I Do Wrong...

After reading the chapter, I realized that I still need to work more on culturally responsive reading instruction. I loved the quote from the book that "the construct of culture is so much more that foods, holidays, and customs." As an educator, I need to dig deeper to learn how our diverse students see the world. I need to learn more about what my CLDE students value, how they learn, and how they interact with their family. 

How I'm Going to Fix It...
I think that I could design a survey to send out at the beginning of the year. This survey would help me see how culturally diverse students see the world, and what they value most. I could also research more into the culture of the students that I teach so that I have more background knowledge concerning students who are culturally different that I am. I loved the ideas from the chapter on how teachers could become more culturally and linguistically responsive. Some ideas that I would like to try are:

• more learning opportunities designed for students to make connections between what we are learning and their own lives
• more time to build background knowledge {maybe through read alouds or guided reading groups}
• more personal links established with parents to see how literacy is utilized at home
• more participation with the members of the community 
• more high expectations set for ALL students to achieve