Jamie’s Weblog

Here is the poetry unit posted. My found poem is about the secrets of life. The Acrostic Poem is a look into my life and the Concrete Poem is about my son. I hope you enjoy.

P.S. Be sure to read the small print at the bottom of the Concrete Poem.

Found Poem

Invitation Final Draft

Acrostic Poem

Concrete Poem

Kucan’s article gave me some great ideas to use with our Sarah Plain and Tall unit that we do in mid to late spring.  However, with all these new great ideas and February is poetry month, my students are going to do the unit a little sooner.  I had seen the “I Poem” outline before and have used that exact one before.  However, I had never thought of taking the view of someone or something else.  I am excited to try the ideas given in the article.

Chapter six had lots of useful information in it, however, I felt that the chapter was a bit repetitive. In previous chapters we were told one of the greatest things we can do for our class is model. This chapter was no different.

I enjoyed the quote from page 119, “Writing is not trouble, just jot down ideas as they occur to you. The jotting is simplicity itself-it is the occuring which is difficult.” I introduced the idea of journal writing to my class yesterday. They were very excited. However, I told them that first they had to learn how to write a journal entry. We are reading Stone Fox and the character, Little Willy does a lot of thinking out loud. We are going to use the thoughts of this character to write our first journals, learn and model how they should be done.

Some of the models they discussed were; writing plans, recognizing what good writers do and look like, prewriting, inquiry and strategy instruction. One school they observed that included all this in a package deal for their students was a school that had implemented a “Writers Workshop”. Writers workshops are wonderful when used appropirately. They allow instruction to be on an individual level and students to feel comfortable with what they are writing. If we as teachers model planning and all steps of writing until all students are comfortable with the process, writing will not be such a hard task for students.

Quotable Quotes:

“Writing is no trouble, just jot down ideas as they occur to you. The jotting is simplicity itself-it is the occuring which is difficult.”

“Somedays I feel like I am writing uphill.”

“A writer’s brain is like a magician’s hat. If you’re going to get anything out of it, you have to put something in first.”

“Set and type for as long as you can hold your breath without getting blue in the face, then put in a comma, when you yawn put in a semicolon ans when you want to sneeze, that’s time for a paragraph.”

Apart from classroom management, classroom motivation on my list can be the next most difficult and finicky to pin point. Every class you have is different and each student within that class is also different. After reading this chapter in the book, there seems to me to be a lot to learn about your students before you are able to jump into the writing process. Or, you can assume they are intrinsically motivated and encourage them to write. I agree with the statement quoted from Graves, “Children want to write”. However the want and the know how are very different. As a third grade teacher, how much my students are able to write is highly dependent upon their experiences with writing in past grades and if the writing was formulated, painful, coached, made personal or was treated as just another topic to teach. For me, writing is the hardest to teach. I love to write. I am an intrinsic person. (I still enjoy the extrinsic motivation every once in awhile.) But, teaching and transfering that love to thirty students is difficult.

Chapter ten gave several good ideas and practices that effective teachers will use in their classroom to get effective motivation. As a teacher, I need to to several things in my classroom to make my students successful: 1. promote motivation, 2. chose a writing instruction my students see as “worthy” not just another assignment, 3. keep in touch with each student on an individual level. Too many times we see our students as cookie cutters we need to roll out the kinks, mold, cut, bake and decorate. Effective motivation in an effective classroom will not do this. As professionals, I believe we must work hard and do the best for our students. However, as stated in chapter one of Notebook Know-How, when we are working harder than our students to get them to write, something is wrong. It is time to change. For me, the time to change has come.

Why the writers notebook? I asked myself the same question. Thinking about the instruction of writing, often times, we model what we want the writing/story to look like. However, I think that due to the writing test in NC, we have given our kids formulas to writing. We tell them what their writing should look like, sound like and look like. We have take away the creativity in creative writing. I liked the quote from Fletcher on page 3, “Don’t be afraid to live like a writer. Writers explore. There are two whole universes for you to explore-the one on the inside, and the physical one on the outside. Take your choice; inner or outer. Or best: both.” Break this quote apart to your children and make them excited about writing and you may have a start. Students must feel comfortable to write about who they are inside and out.

The other idea that Aimee began to discuss was writing fluency. All through college you are taught ways to build reading fluency, writing fluency and how the two are connected. However, writing fluency was never pushed and I had never thought about fluency in writing. It makes sense. But writing has become so processed even when I was in school. I am very interested in reading more in this book to find out more and learn how she implements this notebook into her class. It may not be something to so this year, but possibly next!

I love this girl. This journal meant for young girls is awesome! Having this journal as an example is wonderful. Girls that love to write and express themselves see her write paragraph after paragraph about things going on in her life. Girls that don’t, see Amelia make list, draw pictures and put comics in her writing. It is overwhelming at first to see, but as you get to know Amelia, the “organized chaos” makes sense. Her journal can be encouraging to young writers to try. Put yourself and your skills out there and step out of the box. I believe that in our classrooms today we are consistently encouraging our students to step outside the box and their comfort zone. What better way to get students out of their shell, than allowing them to be themselves through their writing.

Many times the struggle for a first year teacher like me is the classroom management aspect. Knowing how to keep sixteen to twenty students actively involved for seven hours can get complicated. Many teachers young and old resort to paper babysitters, aka worksheets. They keep the students busy. However, busy and actively engaged are two different things. Studies have shown that students should be engaged in interactive learning 90% of their time at school. Less and less instruction will equal less and less results.

After reading chapter one, there was one “best practice” that was mentioned repeatedly, model. Students, especially young ones, will model what the expectations of their teacher. Teachers that set high expectations for their students and hold their students to those expectations will get results. However, effective teachers take in to account not only the lesson that they are teaching but the environment their students are learning in. The text discussed effective classrooms contained student work displayed on the walls. However, I also feel that the emotion and attitude felt throughout the classroom is important. If students feel they are important, they are cared for and respected, they are more apt to preform and “try”. One of my best students is one of my lowest. He will try anything and keep working through it until he gets it. (or he thinks he does)

Writing in our class, to be honest, after reading this chapter is lacking in a few areas. However, I am still learning better practices to use in my class. I hope that when this class is over, I will have learned even more to take to my students this year and in years to come.

I am very new at the idea of blogging and putting myself “out there” for other people to see. I am interested to see how this semester will go and if I enjoy this. You can go to this link to see more about my famliy.  In short, I am a full time teacher, student wife and mother.  I have been married to my wonderful husband for four years.  My son, Ayden, is two going on 21 and will be three in May.  (Need I say more )  I have a two year old Shih-Tzu who is either the sweetest dog in the world, or in trouble every time she turns around. (kind of like Ayden)  I have been blessed in my life with a great family.  I hope that someday, I will be able to impact students the way my family has blessed me.