Chapter 12 Write Your Own Ending

I agree with Reggie that writing empowers us as teachers, as students, as learners. Writing is the doing part. When we write we are organizing, clarifying and refining our thinking. It is a very powerful thing with no end. This book has given me many useful ideas and I plan to reread it over the summer and take time to make more connections with writing and the first grade curriculum. I also hope the Obee staff will work to make all of our students better writers. Think of the possibilities!!

Chapter 11 Build on Best Practice and Research

I liked Reggie's plan of starting with modeling and then moving on to shared teaching, hand-holding, coaching, and independent practice. She states raised expectations must go hand in hand with excellent teaching and advocacy. What I need to know is how to do an excellent job of teaching writing. This is not going to happen just by reading the book. Page 263 starts a list of key research findings. It is important to read and reread these findings. This will help me to become an excellent teacher of writing. The books states we cannot go wrong by using key research findings to guide our thinking, planning, and teaching practice. I was happy to see the chart on page 270 with changes other first grade teachers have made in their teaching writing practices. This is helpful to me.

I think more professional development is needed to improve writing instruction for our students. Perhaps our district needs to focus more time on this, at least at the first grade level. I also think Obee School could use more time to discuss writing practices.

The section on English language learners was helpful. I have had ELL students the pass three years. I struggle to see transfer from discrete skills to fluent reading and writing. I will try to do more modeling, thinking aloud, and hand holding. These students need soooo much support.

Capter 10 Make Assessment Count

Assessment of writing in first grade looks different than writing assessment in the intermediate grades. This chapter had many good ideas and thoughts about assessment. I did some reflection on the current assessment of first grade writing in our district and I feel some changes are needed. We do use a writing continuum, but it is not used to guide instruction. It is more of a benchmark of where the students are performing. I need to use this continuum to guide conferencing and teaching throughout the school year. The child friendly rubrics on page 241 were great. I will try this. Of course I heard about collecting sample papers to use, but I plan to do this now.

Page 245 Research shows that high achievement and high test scores result when what is tested is woven into daily teaching and challenging curriculum in a relevant manner.

Of course the refrain for this book could be do more reading and do more writing. Students will not become great writers without this input.

The section on grading was important. I especially liked the comment - recognize effort and improvement

Chapter 9 Conference with Students

I was very interested in this chapter. I know this is an area where I need to do more. I have read other books on conferencing and have tried various way, but I have not been happy with my results. Reggie gives some very helpful information on conferencing. Page 207 offers some varied ways to conference. I had felt it had to be one on one. She presents the concepts of quickshares and on the run conferences. I highlighted the sentence that says "I never skip whole class share in kindergarten and grade one." Her constant reminder that writing is about communication, content is critical and should always be a focus is very important. As a teacher you may focus on more that content, but remember to keep content as a focus.

There were many great ideas for conferencing, especially the tips on page 215. I liked the form for anecdotal notes from roving conferences and plan to try this after spring break. Also the form on page 219 noting strengths and setting writing goals for first graders. I have tried some goal setting before and now see the need to expand my goal setting.

I do not see first graders doing peer conferencing. It would take much front loading to make this effective. The notes on making a productive conference and language of helpful response will be helpful.

Chapter 8 Organize for Daily Writing

This is the best chapter so far. I found lots of helpful ideas to use with my first graders. Reggie's definition of writer's workshop and her comments about daily writing were what I had been searching for in a writing program. The schedule on page 185 of a first grade classroom was very helpful. The time frame for daily writing on page 187 gave me a goal for my class writing time. I want to try some of the short writing projects especially the snapshot on page 199. I plan to treat with last nine weeks as a trial of many of the components mentioned in this chapter.

Chapter 8

Chapter 7 Be Efficient and Integrate Basic Skills

The cover page to section three outlines a successful writing program. "A successful writing program requires a knowledgeable, organized teacher with excellent classroom management skills. Mostly, students need lots of time in which to write, a say in what they write about, strategies that allow them to problem solve independently (plan, revise, edit), and helpful response."

I can relate to her introduction about starting with a whole then part then back to whole. Students need to have a picture (jigsaw puzzle metaphor) before their writing will improve. During the beginning of this chapter I saw lots of comparisons to the k-first grade teachers struggle to find a phonics program.

The four major changes in a writing program listed on page 144 make sense. Through Reggie's work in a school district a group of teachers came up with this list. I feel the most critical is deciding who the audience would be for each piece of writing. Real audiences make for real writing.

The focus on revision and the ways to teach revisions is important. This is an area where I feel inadequate. I like the idea of doing minilessons for small groups or even one student. Along with revisions, the comments on spelling are helpful. With my students I use a 8x11 paper with lists of common words on one side and categories of words on the flip side. These categories include color words, number words, months, days of the week, food words, school words, etc. I also teach students how to use this spell checker when they are writing. This starts about January and my student use this support almost daily. I am going to try some of the other revision ideas in this chapter.