Katrina's+Daily+Reflections


 * Day 1: Tues - 6/25 **

Class - Intro I came into this workshop with the hope that I will leave with new strategies and lessons for teaching writing; leaving with a brand new iPad was a totally unexpected bonus and now I am anxious to see how I will use this new technology to facilitate my lessons. I feel very excited yet also overwhelmed by what is ahead of me. I am very eager about using technology in ways that will make writing lessons more engaging, but I am nervous that I will slack or simply forget all of the possible ways to use the technology. I am still trying to figure out SmartBoards! One of the first things I realized about this workshop is that I will need to develop a writing unit that includes multiple lessons and a writing assessment piece involving non-fiction. I started to feel anxious about this mainly because I just finished another DWP workshop (Putting Writing Back in the Curriculum K-5). This workshop required me to develop a writing lesson as well, only I chose narrative since that is the unit we started with earlier in the fall. I felt anxious because I started worrying about having to teach the narrative unit in addition to this non-fiction writing unit. Then after speaking with a couple of my colleagues, I concluded that I might just combine the two so that in the end I can kill two birds with one stone. I plan on looking for non-fiction narrative mentor texts that I can use as a basis for the unit that I will develop in this workshop so that I don't have to worry about teaching the two units separately. The Socratic Seminar that was modeled in class is one of the first things I want to try out next year. I know if I start out the year with a few trial runs, then it will become an integral part of my ELA class and students will get a lot out of it.


 * Day 2: Wed 6/26 **

Today was spent learning how to use an iPad and installing apps that would be useful for the classroom. It was an exciting, yet overwhelming, session. I am most excited for the apps because it is apparent that there are hundreds out there that serve classroom/educational purposes. I can't wait to start using them in my lessons. It is also surprising to hear about all of the local school districts that are rapidly bringing in this new technology into the schools, even for 1 to 1 usage. That is really exciting news to me, and I hope that the district I am working in will pick up on the trend very soon. Just the thought of using iPads as a class is exciting--I know students would immediately be drawn to that idea. Some things I still wonder is how will these schools who are going to utilize iPads in the classroom very soon planning on monitoring students' use of iPads? In what ways are different subject areas and different grade levels utilizing iPads? What are the most frequent apps that teachers use to make their lessons engaging--what are those "go-to" apps?


 * Day 3: Thurs 6/27 **

A family photo (writing activity) - This was one of my favorites from Chapter 2: Express & Reflect, mainly because it would be very easy to modify this activity for any grade level. I also really enjoy classes/workshops, such as this one, that require us teachers to actually DO the activities that we’d want our students to do. This hands on experience is not only going to help me see how a student would be thinking in the process of a given activity, but it is also going to help me remember to do these creative activities in the first place. Chapter 2 offered a great deal of ideas that I think will go well with what I plan to teach in the first month of school. The photo activity is an example of something that seems so simple but provides a base to branch off into more elaborate reflection, which is what we want our students to do.

“I Believe” lesson - Again, this also is going into my list of things to do this upcoming year. I’ve gotten used to standard formulas for writing prompts in my first year, and I feel like this class has really opened my eyes to more creativity.It’s like Robyn said... “non-fiction doesn’t mean non-creative.” I can’t wait to bring these ideas to my fellow ELA teachers in the middle school. I know that they see the evolving curriculum as daunting, I think we all do. But this course has honestly made me more optimistic and that has plenty to do with the ideas offered by the book “Write Like This” and Robyn/Heidi’s demonstrations.

Today we discussed and practiced exploratory and inquisitive writing. We touched on the struggle of getting students to be more intrinsically motivated to write and to feel more curious about learning. Robyn mentioned that one approach to this is by encouraging them to wonder about things that are relevant to them at the start of the year so that you launch your school year with a sense of curiosity. It'll also be motivating to keep a working class list of things that they wonder. We also practiced some of the activities that Gallagher goes into depth with, such as evaluating reviews and advertisements. These are activities I want to try with 8th graders. The skills that they could develop from these activities are applicable to real world, which I feel will help me as a teacher in building my students intrinsic interest for learning.
 * Day 4: Mon 7/1 **
 * Writing reviews/ using amazon.com/ comparing reviews
 * Discussion of the activities and resources of chap. 4
 * Use commercials more!!!
 * Advertisement evaluation activity

After just finding out this weekend that 8th grade ELA will actually begin the year with Argument, not narrative, I started to shift my focus toward everything that relates to argument. I noticed that almost everything that Gallagher describes and a lot of the activities we’ve done in the workshop can be integrated into an argument unit. A new piece that we are including this year in every unit is “close reading.” I think the analysis of a painting (such as the Dali painting we analyzed in class) would be a perfect activating strategy for the close reading concept in our Argument unit. Moving further into that concept, I might have students analyze poetry (probably song lyrics), or use the SMELL chart to analyze a speech. I definitely will look into it further, but I am pleased that the materials we used today fit in so nicely with Argument close reading. It is a pleasant coincidence that we reviewed the activities/lessons for analytic writing today when I just recently found out that close reading will be a new part of the reading/writing curriculum. I remember the phrase “close reading” from college literature courses, but never hearing it being used in grade schools. I am anxious to see how my ELA colleagues plan on tackling this new concept, but I am also excited to bring in the resources that I’ve gained from this workshop.
 * Day 5: Tues 7/2 **
 * Analysis
 * Analyze visuals (Dali painting) - can be used for argument unit
 * Analyze poetry - see WS
 * SMELL chart
 * Analyze speeches
 * Will I Am's Hall of Fame (lyrics)
 * Persuasive Writing (opinion)
 * Oreo
 * Philosophical chairs
 * Engaging / collaborative
 * Small group --> switch by dividing students between two students --> debate
 * Kids play roles of different people (elementary example)


 * Day 6: Wed 7/3 **
 * IPad course
 * “Found Poem” - a neat variation of a summary that extends students thinking; forces them to narrow down the important ideas of a text and put them together creatively to create a poem
 * Editing/Revising in the classroom - How do students effectively revise?
 * Tabitha (10th grade) does the same thing that I do with my 8th graders--peer revision process; students trade papers and are given a packet of a step by step process of what to look for (like a scavenger hunt)
 * MUG sentences (Heidi did in high school)
 * sentence of the day
 * how to motivate students to revise -- show them examples of their favorite authors discussing the importance of revision in their own work
 * online publishing (e.g. teenink.com, figment.com)
 * share work on class website
 * “Meet the Authors” Night
 * fresh ideas for leads/closings
 * circuluar (bring it back)
 * extended metaphor
 * cave writing (sufficient imagery so that you could draw a picture based on the description)
 * rhetorical devices
 * see Heidi’s ppt on Wiki resources
 * see her work cited page in her research paper for more useful resources


 * Final week: Tues 7/9 - Lesson planning **
 * Think about: What are my core beliefs?
 * Positives: I didn’t think this was difficult at all. A bit time consuming yes, but I think that reviewing the ALPs that were already created last year and integrating the writing lessons/strategies/resources that I’ve gained from this workshop will be worth all of the time I put in. I also would rather do this now during the summer than during the school year. Just thinking about how much time went into this workshop, that tells a lot about why the writing curriculum is so weak in many ELA classrooms. It takes time to research good lessons/strategies and it takes time to figure out ways to modify and integrate them in your lesson. I am excited about bringing them to my own classroom and sharing what I’ve learned to my fellow teachers.
 * Negatives (that I tried to handle optimistically):: I had some frustrations during the lesson planning that might only be unique to me. For one, I was on a temporary contract this year, so I am pretty uncertain of what school/district/grade I will be teaching in next year. This is still a bit of a stressor that is daunting me because I can only wonder what exactly I will do with the material I’m creating now when fall actually arrives. I know that everything can always be modified... but I’m very nervous about the possiblity of going from 8 th grade to say, 2nd grade. Over these past few weeks, I decided it would be easiest for me to go off of the 8th grade curriculum that I used this year to plan for next year. Obviously--it was all I had to work with anyway! Fortunately, I have am close with the literacy coach, instructional coach, and an 8th grade ELA teacher at GB, so I was able to get access to the updated student learning maps that they worked on in mid-June.