Teaching writing has not always been easy for me.

When I first began teaching, 5 years

ago, writing was considered something to do if and only you had time to fit it in. Because of
this, I never truly learned the importance of teaching writing or incorporating writing into
different content areas. In the past, I felt intimidated with the amount of time expected to give
writers to write and would worry about what students, especially my Kindergarteners, were
actually doing during this 20-30 minute block of writing time. Were students working on an
actual story or were they writing and erasing the same word or letter over again and again?
Because of this, writing had been one of the first subjects in my classroom that I let go or filled
in on my schedule with a different activity or content area. Fast forward a few years to today,
through this writing course and multiple resources, I now have become more familiar with the
common core writing standards and the writing process. I have since changed my outlook on
writing, and have become less intimidated with teaching writing in my own classroom. I am
now excited to teach writing and I look forward to sharing this enjoyment with my students.

Areas of Growth

I have learned through this course many valuable resources that I am able to apply and
use in my own classroom. While reading The Writing Theif by Ruth Culham, there were many
exemplar mentor texts that I would be able to use while teaching my own writing mini-lessons.
These mentor texts are pieces of writing that would be a perfect model for my students to learn
from. I love the idea of finding mentor texts that can be used in multiple writing lessons to teach
the different modes, skills or traits. Ruth Culham (2014) referred to the 4Ws of writing as the
writing process, writing traits, writing workshop, and writing modes to be taught and used
together instead of teaching them in isolation (Culham, 2014, p. 21). While I was working on
creating my lesson plans, I stretched my thinking to find the best mentor texts that were
developmentally appropriate and would accomplish the lesson objective. Focusing on the 4Ws
while planning provided my students with the rich writing instruction they needed in order to
meet the common core standards and succeed as independent writers.

To help my students grow into lifelong writers, I learned the importance of meeting with
students to discuss their writing pieces through writing conferences. According to Carl
Anderson (2010), the point of a writing conference is to help students become better writers. I
learned a great deal of valuable information on what it should look and sound like while
conferring with a student on their piece of writing. Carl Anderson suggests the conference to be
a predictable routine with the teacher giving clear, precise feedback to the student. After the
feedback has been given, the teacher can discuss a new skill or strategy to teach the writer. The
writer is nudged to have-a-go with applying the new teaching point and the conference ends
with a reminder to use what was just taught for their future writings (Anderson, 2010). After
conferencing with students, I use the data I have recorded from my writing conference sheet to
plan my future teaching points or mini-lessons. In a way, this writing conference sheet is like
my running record for student writing. The writing conferences I have held in the past with
students have not always had the best flow, resulting in a loss of valuable teaching and writing
time. Now that I have learned the structure of conferring with student writers, I will be able to
hold more meaningful writing conferences.

Goals for Future Growth

One area that I would like to continue to improve on is finding or making a writing rubric
that works for my Kindergartners. This was definitely a challenge for me while creating and
writing lesson plans because I did not have a specific rubric that I was using to assess my
students writings. If I do not have a rubric in place, how will I be able to assess students in
order to make sure that the writing objective has been met? In place of the rubric I used a
writing checklist. While using the writing checklist I learned to be vigilant of the standards I was
truly assessing- the writing standards or language standards. I look forward to discussing my
concerns of the writing checklist with my grade level team and to work on creating a rubric that
we as a grade level can implement in our classrooms.

After learning about the characteristics of effective feedback, I would like to begin using
better, more specific feedback with my students. Connie Moss and Susan Brookhart (2012) use
the metaphor the mirror and the magnet in the meaningful moment for this feedback process.
The use of this high quality, descriptive and timely feedback can significantly improve student
learning. The mirror provides the student with specific feedback of what they are doing. The
magnet provides the student with what they need to learn and how to take the next step. The
meaningful moment means the feedback will be given right away while the student is actively
engaged in their work to be the most effective so the student can make the necessary changes,
not after the work has been completed and turned in (Moss & Brookhart, 2012). While working
with students or grading papers, it is easy to say Good, Well Done, That is not correct, but
what students really need is to know what they did or did not do in terms of their goal and how
they are able to change and fix it to move forward. Providing this feedback in all content areas,
not just during writing, will help students stay engaged and active in their learning.

Application to your Instruction

I can use what I have learned from this course and directly apply it into my classroom.
While I am preparing and teaching lessons, I will consider the writing modes, traits, process and
workshop structure. To help align my learning targets with my activities, I will refer to Webbs
depth of knowledge levels (DOK) with lesson planning and teaching. The DOK level is not
about the difficulty of the question or task during the lesson, but instead is based upon the
cognitive expectation, or thinking, required to complete the task (Webb, 1997). While reflecting
on my student learning targets, I focused on what DOK level I was expecting from my students
and how it aligned with the common core standards. Using I can statements in my classroom
that align with the DOK level as my student learning goals will keep my students focused on the
daily objectives and help to hold them accountable for their learning. The I can statements
provide motivation and confidence because students will know the exact expectation set for them
with their learning goal. Overall, this course has provided me with the needed information and
resources to successfully teach writing in my own classroom.

Resources

informED: Giving Student Feedback: 20 Tips To Do It Right

http://www.opencolleges.edu.au/informed/features/giving-student-feedback/#comments

Great blog article for tips on providing feedback. This will not only be helpful for providing
feedback to my students, but also to my practicum students after they have taught their lesson in
my classroom.

http://schoolhousedivas.blogspot.com/2015/07/how-to-motivate-your-students-and-kids.html

Stop saying You are so smart and start saying. This blog post contains a list of words you
can use to motivate your students and encourage a growth mindset. Helpful for providing clear,
precise, effective feedback to students.
 References

Anderson, C. (2010). Conferring With Student Writers. NESA Spring Educators Conference.

Culham, R. (2014). The writing thief: Using mentor texts to teach the craft of writing. Newark.

D.E: International Reading Association

Moss, C., & Brookhart, S. (2012). Learning targets helping students aim for understanding in

today's lesson (1st ed.). Alexandria, VA: ASCD.