Teaching of Writing
FINAL REFLECTION
In one of my daybook entries I mentioned the one question I have been focused on the entire semester: What counts as writing? It seems as though this one question has turned many of my previous ideas about writing upside down. But I am okay with that! I have learned that writing is not limited to the traditional format most English classrooms concentrate on which is the black ink on white paper format. One entry I chose for my daybook page, #7, illustrates this idea in my opinion. I was working in the Writing Center one day and I wanted to make a collage in my daybook. At first I began on the inside cover because I did not want anyone to see it. I saw it as “unprofessional” to make a collage on the front of my daybook. Then I realized, I don’t care what other people say about my daybook. It is MY daybook and it should express my thinking in any format I choose. This is exactly how I feel about writing. There are students who are not comfortable with alphabetic communication and they should be allowed to express their thinking in whatever way they are most comfortable with. It is my job to help them become comfortable in the other modes of communication and I feel I can do this through the multimodal classroom. Every student will be able to experience language in all forms and work together to grow in their writing.
I also realize that through this process, I will grow as a writer as well. I feel as though my writing has changed since beginning college, and since the beginning of the class. I used to censor what I say through my writing and I was never happy with the products. Today, I am still not satisfied with everything I write because I always see room for improvement but I do not censor my thoughts as I am writing. When I begin drafts of assignments, I start typing and do not stop. I have to write down everything I am thinking because I do not want to forget. When I am ready to begin the next draft, I copy and paste the first into a new document and begin writing again. The process is extremely important to writing. How would you know where you came from if you were not able to go back and analyze what you have written before? How could you understand your growth if you cannot go back to the very beginning? You can’t; this is why giving your students many opportunities to draft, collaborate, and gain feedback is so important. They can see what they have done over the course of the semester, and see their hard work and growth as writers. Not only would you be able to see this process in the daybook but by using online portfolios, students will have a place they can always return to to see their work.
The daybook has been the major writing tool I have used in this class. Before beginning any of the assignments I would plan in my daybook. I have four consecutive pages where I did my own “writing sprint” about the Writing Assignment Design. Any idea I thought of was recorded and I have more than one assignment idea I could one day use in the classroom. If I had not written those ideas down I probably would have forgotten them but now I will always have them. It is moments like these where I realize how important daybooks have been for my learning. I also wrote reflections in my daybook for each chapter of TOL and UWA. It was helpful when writing my responses on Ning and gave me ideas to pull from when I was writing my philosophy. There are many sentences I have taken from those entries to add to my current philosophy of teaching writing. Looking back at the objectives for this course, this reminds me of recognizing “the interrelatedness of speaking, listening, reading, thinking, and writing.” Everything is connected; it is important to express this idea through teaching because students are confronted with all five on a daily basis, and not in just one format.
My philosophy has changed drastically since the first draft and now I feel as though the current draft truly expresses my voice and opinions about the teaching of writing. I also know that my philosophy will continue to change, especially when I enter the classroom for the first time. This will be a lifelong project because language and communication constantly change causing me to reevaluate what it means to be a teacher of writing. It will challenge me to think about writing my students see and do every day of their lives. My instruction will have to change according to the changing definition of literacy.
The Writing Assignment Design was difficult in the beginning because I had no idea where to start. As I began to focus in on a specific grade level, it became easier to figure out what I wanted to do and develop the assignment. Then I was faced with the worst part of designing an assignment: assessment. I was dreading this part of the assignment because I did not want to attach a grade to my “student’s” work. I didn’t realize then that assessment doesn’t always mean giving the student a numerical or letter grade. Assessment can simply be responding to the students writing with positive feedback and having a conversation with them about their process. I struggled with trying to create a rubric for my final draft and I decided to do something different from my original plan. I wrote a reflection letter that focuses on the assessment and my decisions, and posted it under the refection page. You should read that before you go to the final WAD page.
Throughout this semester, I feel as though I have grown as a writer but I think the most important aspect of my learning in this class is what I have learned about teaching. In my daybook I am the audience; I as teacher, not I as student. I wanted everything to focus on myself as a future teacher. All of my other work is focused on an audience of colleagues and future students. I tried to put myself into the mind of a teacher, which was hard, and think about what I would do in certain situations. It was very important to relate everything I was thinking and learning to my “teacher-self.”
Thank you,
Julianne
In one of my daybook entries I mentioned the one question I have been focused on the entire semester: What counts as writing? It seems as though this one question has turned many of my previous ideas about writing upside down. But I am okay with that! I have learned that writing is not limited to the traditional format most English classrooms concentrate on which is the black ink on white paper format. One entry I chose for my daybook page, #7, illustrates this idea in my opinion. I was working in the Writing Center one day and I wanted to make a collage in my daybook. At first I began on the inside cover because I did not want anyone to see it. I saw it as “unprofessional” to make a collage on the front of my daybook. Then I realized, I don’t care what other people say about my daybook. It is MY daybook and it should express my thinking in any format I choose. This is exactly how I feel about writing. There are students who are not comfortable with alphabetic communication and they should be allowed to express their thinking in whatever way they are most comfortable with. It is my job to help them become comfortable in the other modes of communication and I feel I can do this through the multimodal classroom. Every student will be able to experience language in all forms and work together to grow in their writing.
I also realize that through this process, I will grow as a writer as well. I feel as though my writing has changed since beginning college, and since the beginning of the class. I used to censor what I say through my writing and I was never happy with the products. Today, I am still not satisfied with everything I write because I always see room for improvement but I do not censor my thoughts as I am writing. When I begin drafts of assignments, I start typing and do not stop. I have to write down everything I am thinking because I do not want to forget. When I am ready to begin the next draft, I copy and paste the first into a new document and begin writing again. The process is extremely important to writing. How would you know where you came from if you were not able to go back and analyze what you have written before? How could you understand your growth if you cannot go back to the very beginning? You can’t; this is why giving your students many opportunities to draft, collaborate, and gain feedback is so important. They can see what they have done over the course of the semester, and see their hard work and growth as writers. Not only would you be able to see this process in the daybook but by using online portfolios, students will have a place they can always return to to see their work.
The daybook has been the major writing tool I have used in this class. Before beginning any of the assignments I would plan in my daybook. I have four consecutive pages where I did my own “writing sprint” about the Writing Assignment Design. Any idea I thought of was recorded and I have more than one assignment idea I could one day use in the classroom. If I had not written those ideas down I probably would have forgotten them but now I will always have them. It is moments like these where I realize how important daybooks have been for my learning. I also wrote reflections in my daybook for each chapter of TOL and UWA. It was helpful when writing my responses on Ning and gave me ideas to pull from when I was writing my philosophy. There are many sentences I have taken from those entries to add to my current philosophy of teaching writing. Looking back at the objectives for this course, this reminds me of recognizing “the interrelatedness of speaking, listening, reading, thinking, and writing.” Everything is connected; it is important to express this idea through teaching because students are confronted with all five on a daily basis, and not in just one format.
My philosophy has changed drastically since the first draft and now I feel as though the current draft truly expresses my voice and opinions about the teaching of writing. I also know that my philosophy will continue to change, especially when I enter the classroom for the first time. This will be a lifelong project because language and communication constantly change causing me to reevaluate what it means to be a teacher of writing. It will challenge me to think about writing my students see and do every day of their lives. My instruction will have to change according to the changing definition of literacy.
The Writing Assignment Design was difficult in the beginning because I had no idea where to start. As I began to focus in on a specific grade level, it became easier to figure out what I wanted to do and develop the assignment. Then I was faced with the worst part of designing an assignment: assessment. I was dreading this part of the assignment because I did not want to attach a grade to my “student’s” work. I didn’t realize then that assessment doesn’t always mean giving the student a numerical or letter grade. Assessment can simply be responding to the students writing with positive feedback and having a conversation with them about their process. I struggled with trying to create a rubric for my final draft and I decided to do something different from my original plan. I wrote a reflection letter that focuses on the assessment and my decisions, and posted it under the refection page. You should read that before you go to the final WAD page.
Throughout this semester, I feel as though I have grown as a writer but I think the most important aspect of my learning in this class is what I have learned about teaching. In my daybook I am the audience; I as teacher, not I as student. I wanted everything to focus on myself as a future teacher. All of my other work is focused on an audience of colleagues and future students. I tried to put myself into the mind of a teacher, which was hard, and think about what I would do in certain situations. It was very important to relate everything I was thinking and learning to my “teacher-self.”
Thank you,
Julianne