So I found this post in my draft, with all of these questions just waiting for me to answer them. Since it’s closer to the middle of the year than the end of the year, I thought I would reflect on the year so far.
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Name three successes from your half-year of teaching writing.
- I have one fifth grade student who genuinely wants to write and share with me. This student did not want to write at all at the beginning of the year.
- I have one sixth grade student who went from not knowing how to analyze her text evidence to being able to do it for a whole paragraph on her own.
- All of my fifth graders are able to write for more than 25 minutes without needing a break. Most of the class couldn’t even write for 10 minutes at the beginning of the year.
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List three things you want to change about your writing instruction for the rest of the year.
- I want to do more small group minilessons with my fifth graders. They don’t thrive in whole group lessons, and frankly, there aren’t very many lessons that they all need.
- I want to give my sixth graders new vocabulary words to take their writing to a new level linguistically. They are generally pretty good writers already, but there is so much power in good word choice.
- I want to offer all of my students more choice in the format of their final published piece.
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How often did you teach writing? (Daily, 3 times a week, etc.) Did you feel this was enough time?
- I teach writing 2-3x a week. It is definitely not enough time, but I give as much time to writing as I can.
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Where could you add more writing time for the rest of the year? (Beginning of day, transitions, content areas, etc.)
- I have already brainstormed some ways to get more writing into their science and social classes, and that will help.
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How would you describe the level of student engagement in your writing classroom?
- I would say over 90% of my students are engaged with their writing at any given time. Some days it is actually 100%.
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What writing activities did your students find most engaging?
- Free writing, but there does come a time when they get bored with it
- Sharing their work with a partner
- Writing together
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What writing activities failed to engage your student-writers?
- Whole class lessons
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What were some of the most important writing lessons you taught?
- Just write
- Keep writing
- The more you write, the better writer you will be
- Just get something on the page; we can fix it later
- How to analyze evidence
- How to use advanced punctuation and formatting
- Writing a good introduction/conclusion
- How to take prose and turn it into a poem
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What writing lessons needed more time?
- I actually feel that I have been able to give enough time to all of my lessons. I just wish I had more time to give them to just write.
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What writing lessons did you not teach yet this year, but want to include later this year?
- Sixth grade: poetry, fantasy, narrative
- Fifth grade: nonfiction, persuasive, journalism
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What writing lessons/activities/projects do you want to be sure to include again next year?
- So far all of my projects have been keepers. 🙂
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What were the major genres you taught this year?
- Fifth grade: poetry, narrative
- Sixth grade: nonfiction, persuasive
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What is a current writing project you want to change for next year? How do you want to change it?
- I would change the fifth grade narrative unit to include writing more stories and not focusing on just one story too earlier on in the process.
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How did your students write for an authentic audience (someone beyond just you, the teacher)?
- I haven’t done that yet this year, other than with each other.
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What skills did you see your student-writers struggle with the most this half-year?
- Fifth grade: paragraphing, length, explanation, topic sentences
- Sixth grade: repetition, run-on sentences, not explaining evidence
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Describe the pace of a typical writing unit. In general, were the units long enough? Too long?
- My units are generally 8ish weeks in length, but we only work on a writing project for about 6 of those weeks (with about two weeks for independent writing projects).
- I would say that those seem about right.
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How did you see students living the life of a writer?
- I have a few students this year who have started a writing practice at home.
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How did you celebrate the efforts of your student writers?
- My fifth graders really like private feedback from me. They can turn in their notebooks after writing time, and I will give them a piece of praise and a piece of feedback to help them grow.
- My sixth graders like writing conferences, where I meet with them while they are writing.
I would say that it’s been a good half-year of writing!
Teaching With Mrs. Clark 