Entry #6 * Midpoint Semester Thoughts

-

 Dear Dr. Jones,

    This semester I have had a difficult time staying organized with my assignments. I have had many moments of frustration on "Am I doing this right?". I think you would be pleased to know that I am working through these moments on my own and realizing, YES, I am doing it right! As for this course, I am very engaged with the material and I really enjoy the course content. Before taking this class, I knew it was going to be about the reading and writing process. However, I was not aware I would actually be engaging in both of these processes at the same time. I am grateful for the opportunity to have a writing group to help me through putting my Genre Pieces Project together. I am also excited for the genre expert presentations to start as they will be a great way for me to add specific resources for my future classroom. 

    Tompkins (2012) book Teaching Writing: Balancing Process and Product is a truly a great resource that I have been introduced to that I can bring with me to the classroom. Understadning the writing process and the stages is really important for me to be able to adapt to my classroom instruction. Being introduced to mentor texts this semester is new to me and something I will use during thematic units. I am very excited to use these as learning activities in my classroom to "inspire and scaffold" my students learning (MacKay. Ricks, & Young, 2017, p. 177).  An instructional strategy I am definitely going to use in my classroom is the focus question card strategy (Kucer & Rhodes, 1986). This is a great way for students to engage in writing and discover multiple ideas that can inspire something amazing. This strategy was a great way for me, as a student, to understand how important brainstorming is and coming up with as many ideas as you can to help the next steps in the writing process. An aspect of our course that I really enjoy is writing these blogs. I am able to connect with the readings in a deeper way when asked to synthesize the information together in just a few questions. 

    I want to thank you for providing the opportunity to address any struggles. This semester has not been easy, however, this course has been great and I am learning so much to take with me as a literacy teacher. I don't have any specific struggles at this time, I would like to set a time outside of class to discuss my Genre Pieces Project in the coming few weeks. 

References

Kucer, S.B. & Rhodes, L.K. (1986). Counterpart strategies: Fine tuning language with language. The Reading Teacher, 40(2), 186-193. 

MacKay, K.L., Ricks, P.H., & Young, T.A. (2017). Supporting young writers with award-winning books. The Reading Teacher, 71(2), 177-187.  

Comments

  1. Dr. JonesMarch 1, 2022 at 3:19 PM

    Makayla, I am so impressed with the way you have been embracing the work this semester. I would be happy to meet with you at any time to discuss your progress with the Genre Pieces project. Moving forward, I also hope to have time during our in-class R/W workshop for 1:1 meetings.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Entry #2 * Digging Deeper On Past Experiences

-
As I read Calkins and Ehrenworth (2016), I couldn't help but agree with all of their essential elements of being a writer and constantly highlighting powerful quotes. I felt so connected with this journal article, yet, I've never been a good writer.  Yep, that's me, well, that's the old me. I learned through Tompkins (2012), Calkins and Ehrenworth (2016) that I AM a good writer. I've been doing the right things this whole time.  Reminiscing on my early primary years, I don't vividly remember writing at all. I remember reading and working with letters, but never much time spent focused on writing. I would like to think I did write in these early years and that these memories are somewhat blocked because of the reading support I was getting that focused more on me "catching up" on my reading skills rather than developing my writing skills.  Moving into my elementary days, I remember writing workshops, especially in third grade. This is the year I was ...
Read more

Entry #13 * Blogging is my kinda fun!

-
Image
Wow, we are at the end LTED 618 friends! Blogging each week has honestly kept me engaged the most throughout this course. I am not someone who sits down and free-writes for long, I have just never gotten into the habit of it. As blogging was a requirement this semester, I was asked to explore my own writing style through the readings each week. I have found it comforting to sit down and just type away. I admit I can be an unorganized writer at times, however, these blogs have allowed me to develop a deeper understanding of the what I read, write, and explore. At the beginning of the semester, I was so excited to blog, I even created a tik tok when starting out with my first post. I intended to make a tik tok for each blog... but the semester got kinda crazy! I am hoping to create a teacher blog as a first year teacher to share with others!  The genre presentations from my colleagues this semester were phenomenal. The first student learning outcome (the variety of modes, genres, a...
Read more