Alyssa+Lucadamo

= Daily Reflections: =

__ Tuesday, June 25th __

I'm really excited to begin learning new ways to bring nonfiction writing (and technology!) into my classroom! One of the questions I had written down for the Socratic Seminar but did not get to ask was, "Why are so many in-school writing assignments not based on real-world writing already?" I think that teachers are doing a better job of crafting real-world writing assignments, but it's easy to fall back on the old five-paragraph essay model especially when students are struggling. They're easy to write and easy to grade, but I hate feeling like I've read the same essay 100 times. I hope that throughout the institute we will see lots of examples of great real-world writing activities and topics that my students will be eager to write about (and that I will be interested in reading about). Another problem I've noticed is that students don't always come in with the background knowledge of what a newspaper article should look like, or what a blog post looks like, or even what a letter looks like, so we end up teaching formatting alongside purpose, even though purpose is more probably more important in the big picture. The idea from the Gallagher text about using a single newspaper as a model for different purposes for writing is a really clever one, and it helps students to build background knowledge on different forms such as letters, articles, and advertisements. Another one of my hopes for the institute is that we will be able to find some great mentor texts to use to model strong, vibrant nonfiction writing.

-Alyssa

__Wednesday, June 26th __

When I told a friend that Delaware Writing Project was giving us free iPads, she said, “Teachers are so easy to please.” Even though we take a lot of flack from the public and the media for things like wanting reasonable contracts, I do think that teachers are pretty easy to please. Perhaps it’s because we’re used to doing a difficult job with a few bright moments, those times when someone does reward us or show appreciation can be really meaningful. I think that what a lot of people don’t understand about teachers is that it’s not the SmartBoards or iPads that motivate us to come to school every day and do our jobs. It’s the occasional note from a parent thanking us for turning her child into a writer or helping his child pass the DCAS. It’s the moment when a student realizes we’ve taught her a different way of seeing the world or thanks us for being hard on him when he needed it. With some school districts experimenting with merit-based pay scales, I have to question whether more personal forms of teacher appreciation would be more effective incentives. (They’d certainly be less expensive.)

I don’t mean to sound ungrateful. I can already appreciate the convenience of the iPad and of having everything from the Common Core Standards to word games literally in the palm of my hand. I wish my school were able to give each teacher (or at least each team) a class set. I can picture my students using Safari to do internet research, creating book trailers using iMovie, and storing pictures of things that inspire them on the Camera Roll. They’d be a lot less unwieldy than the bulky laptops we currently use, and possibly less likely to malfunction. There are a lot of possibilities for how this technology can be rolled out in schools, and it’s been interesting to hear from teachers in other districts about the kinds of technology that are available in their buildings. -Alyssa

__Thursday, June 27th __

It’s hard to believe that the first week of the writing project has, as Robyn would say, come to an end (not a close). Each session goes by so quickly. Thursday’s session focused on two chapters from the book about teaching students to “Express and Reflect” and to “Inform and Explain” in their writing. Before the start of class, some of the other teachers and I were talking about the activities presented in these chapters. We all agreed that they would be engaging for students because they offer lots of opportunities for students to write about themselves, a topic students always seem to enjoy. I was also impressed with how simple many of the ideas were. I kept saying to myself, “Wow, why didn’t I think of that?” as I read. I flagged lots of ideas with stickynotes to use throughout the year.

I’m glad we got the chance to start a little bit of the planning for our units. I find the checklist really helpful. Earlier this summer I met with some of the other ELA teachers in my building to select some informational texts to pair with the short stories we read in the first marking period. I am going to try to craft my writing unit around those texts. The biggest challenge will be teaching and assessing the unit so close to the beginning of the year. I’m going to have to make sure to align the writing assignment with the first two or three stories we read. Still, I’m optimistic about trying something new and being able to report and reflect on the results. -Alyssa

__Monday, July 1st __

Again, I'm impressed by how simple yet relevant the prompts and writing activities from chapters 4 and 5 are. I also really like the graphic organizer for "I'd Like to Know More About ..." because it has a space for students to cite their source. Citing sources is a BIG issue for my students, especially when they enter 8th grade in the fall. That is one of the reasons why I decided to incorporate that skill into the unit I am planning. I'm hoping that if I introduce the process of citing a source early in the year and keep reinforcing it with small research projects throughout the year, my students' ninth grade research papers will look much more scholarly. The activities suggested in the chapter seem like great research topics that will not take too long to accomplish, such as researching the origins of idioms and urban legends. I think the length of time and access to technology is the biggest thing that prevents teachers from doing research with students. If we can get our mindset away from the Big Research Paper and make our projects smaller and more manageable, I think we'll have a lot more success at teaching specific skills, like how to cite a source. One thing that I felt was missing from the chapter is an activity that helps students narrow down a topic. In several of the activities, the teacher has students brainstorm a list of possible topics and then choose one. I find that this part of writing is often a struggle with my students. Some cannot come up with a list, others come up with huge lists and can't decide on the best one, and some start on one topic and then want to change topics halfway through. I would like to see a lesson that helps students generate a good list of topics and weed out dead-end topics before they begin researching. Any ideas? -Alyssa

__Tuesday, July 2nd__

We are halfway through the writing project already! Now that I am really starting to delve into the unit plan, I'm forcing myself to resist that stressed, overwhelmed feeling. It helps that I participated in the summer institute last year. I was able to plan the unit with a partner then, which was beneficial in some ways but a bit of a hindrance in others. It's good to have a sounding board to bounce ideas off of, someone to approach a question or a learning objective in a different way that I might not have considered. At the same time, though, it can be difficult to get two perfectionists with very different personalities and styles of teaching to settle on compromises. Thinking about the process of collaborating on writing a unit also makes me consider the implications for my students as they collaborate in class. I usually let students brainstorm collaboratively, but when it comes to the actual writing, I expect them to fly solo. I definitely don't do enough peer editing and peer feedback, which is something I hope to rectify this year. Using some of the strategies we discussed in the course, such as daily writers' notebooks and PQP, I think I will be able to train my students to give one another useful feedback on their writing. As I continue to build my unit, I want to keep the idea of peer collaboration in mind. -Alyssa

__Wednesday, July 3rd__

This is very late! I am sorry. After Wednesday's session I drove up to Pennsylvania for the holiday weekend and some family time. Everyone was very impressed with the new iPad. I was grateful that we had another training session to help us find some more apps to use in the classroom. I was most excited about Inspiration and am debating about buying the full version--maybe I will test it out in school before I decide. So many of my students struggle with organization in their writing. They have plenty of great ideas, but no structure. I love the outline feature on Inspiration because it takes the brainstorming information from the graphic organizer and places it in an outline, clearly showing the relationships between ideas in two different formats. Outlining is a skill that I typically teach my students, and I will still have to do so, but it's exciting to see a program that can make the process easier for them. <span style="background-color: #fbf9f7; color: #404040; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue',Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">-Alyssa

__Tuesday, July 9th through Thursday, July 11th__

The Summer Institute is coming to a bittersweet close! We have all completed a tremendous amount of work through participating in readings and discussions, planning our units, and composing our portfolios. I will not miss the commute from Dover to Newark! I feel like the rewards of the Institute outweighed the sacrifices, though. The new iPad is an incredible and unexpected gift that motivated me to find new ways of incorporating technology into my teaching to make writing more interactive and engaging for my students. Beyond the tangible reward, the course also afforded me the opportunity to meet with other teachers, reflect on my practice, and plan writing instruction and assessments about which I feel confident. Before this Institute, I knew that informational writing was important because of the Common Core, but I struggled to find good mentor texts and authentic tasks. The Gallagher text provides so many great ideas which I am eager to take back to school and share with my colleagues. This book is definitely going to be sitting on my desk for handy use all year long! All-in-all, I'm grateful for the opportunity to learn from experienced, passionate teachers like Robyn and Heidi and to think critically about my practice as a writer and a teacher of writing. -Alyssa

= Writing Assignments: =















= Letter to Principal: =



= Lesson Plans: =













= Resources: =

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 9pt;">Gallagher, K. (2011). //Write Like This: Teaching Real-World Writing Through Modeling and Mentor Texts.// Portland, ME: Stenhouse. [|Amazon.com]

[|Time Magazine for Kids]

[|Tween Tribune]

[|University of Delaware Library Search - Middle School Databases]

= Student Work Samples: =

Pre-Test Samples (Low)




Pre-Test Samples (middle)










Post-Test Samples (low)






Post-Test Samples (middle)






Post-Test Samples (high)








= Data: =


 * || **Pre-Test** || **Post-Test** ||
 * **Total students completing test** || 30 || 31 ||
 * **Students scoring 4 (Advanced)** || 0 || 2 ||
 * **Students scoring 3 (Proficient)** || 5 || 14 ||
 * **Students scoring 2 (Basic)** || 16 || 11 ||
 * **Students scoring 1 (Below Basic)** || 9 || 4 ||