Brenna's 618 Blog

Dear Dr. Jones, So far this semester, I have enjoyed reading, writing, and discussing the connections between reading and writing and how they can be incorporated effectively in the classroom. Although we have engaged with the learning in many ways, I think the blog posts have been the most helpful for me. I like the blog posts because they allow me to reflect on my learning for the week in an informal way. They also allow me to highlight the key takeaways from each week, that I can go back to to “refresh” myself on my learning. I also enjoy working in our writing groups during our Reading/Writing workshop each class. I like this because I like having classmates to hold me accountable, as well as having other people to share ideas with and critique my writing.  I have found much of what we have covered so far to be helpful since I have been able to reflect on my own teaching practices. One of the biggest takeaways that I have had so far is that I need to incorporate writing more in...

This week in class, we utilized Kucer and Rhodes’ (1986) Card Strategy Lesson to begin drafting our first Genre Piece. While reading about this strategy, I thought it would be very helpful in brainstorming different key points related to an overall topic. When it came time to write those key points related to my overarching topic of “changes in teaching since the pandemic began,” it was actually more challenging than I thought it would be. I felt that I was repeating myself on the cards and struggled to come up with new ideas. However, after coming up with “feeling” words such as “stressed” or “overwhelmed”, I had more cards to work with. After coming up with 20 cards to describe my overall topic, I selected 7 of them to help me draft my first genre piece, relating specifically to teacher burnout. I then organized my cards in such a way that made sense to me and numbered them. Without revealing the order I put the cards in, I gave my cards to my partner, Holly, and had her organize the...

This past week, I have explored the genre of journal writing in more depth and how it can be incorporated into the classroom. Personally, I enjoy engaging with journal writing, as it usually has more voice and personality. It is easy to read and put yourself in the shoes of the character(s), as well as have a better understanding of how much time has passed over the course of the plot since journals are typically dated. Journal writing is also easy to write, as the voice is usually informal and slang can often be used. One aspect of journal writing that stood out to me was the importance of formatting and presentation. The format of journal writing is unique because it should look like a journal or diary entry. I noticed that many primary and middle level mentor texts for journal writing also had engaging pictures that went along with the plot of the story. This also helped make the overall genre more interesting.  While in class, I engaged with a book called The Owl Diaries: Eva’s...

This week, I have thought more about my role as a teacher when it comes to the writing process and writers craft. When thinking about the writing lessons I have done throughout my first year of teaching, there are a few things I would have done differently. As a first grade teacher, I spend a lot of time modeling writing skills and strategies, and often create collaborative writing pieces. After completing a few writing pieces of a particular genre as a class, the students then write their own independently. However, one aspect of our writing time that I would like to change moving forward is spending more time on mini-lessons. Oftentimes, I brush over that step and go right into modeling. After reading Chapter 3 of Tompkins, I now know how important that mini-lesson step is, even if there is limited time. I am wondering if I had spent more time on doing specific mini-lessons, and substituting a day of collaborative writing for a specific mini-lesson, then maybe my students' indepe...

Throughout this past week, I have had the opportunity to reflect on my past and present practices in writing, both as a teacher and a learner. Much of what we read about in Tompkins (2012) and Caulkins and Ehrenworth (2016) I have experienced either as a learner in elementary school or today as a teacher. I can vividly recall being in 2nd grade and having a writing journal. We would work in this journal during our writers workshop. My teacher, Mrs. Fortner, would let us write about whatever we wanted. I usually chose to write about something happening in my life at the time, such as what I did the past weekend, what I was looking forward to in the weekends to come, or fun trip or event in the past. There was one story in particular that stands out to me, which was about a sleepover I had with my cousin. I remember being especially proud of this writing piece because I had worked on it for weeks, and it was almost 5 pages long (very long for a 2nd grader)! I think it goes to show how in...