I’m so happy you’re here (and welcome to the new friends we’ve gained over the summer!)
It’s time for our September community chat. Below, feel free to share:
What are you thinking about in your classroom right now? What are the “pebbles in your shoes”, instructionally speaking? What’s occupying your thoughts?
Questions you’d love to have answered (One of these will be our September Q+A!)
Resources you’d like to share
Chime in below! I hope you’ve had a wonderful break!
AS we start school, I'm thinking more and more about how we combine reading and writing workshop -- doing MORE with less instead of having to squeeze everything into steadily less time. How can we transfer learning and skills between the reading and writing workshops? How can we create space to breathe and think and ENJOY in the ELA classroom? I'm tired of everything feeling so frenetic.
I am interested in practical reading skill mini-lessons that students can apply to their independent reading. I also want to know what read alouds look/sound like in other teacher’s classrooms.
This is my first time here, and I'm excited about this community!
The pebble in my shoe, a question I'd love to have answered, is this: When I look for exemplar texts, especially for non-fiction, they rarely follow any formula we might give. I DO want students' persuasive writing (for example) to sound more like a newspaper editorial, but when I think of middle school and below, I feel like they need the suggested 5-paragraph structure with the hamburger paragraph (well done, of course.)
How do you take off the training wheels? What do you do when the bike flies all over the road and you have limited time to get to your destination? I'm excited to make writing less formulaic and more based on what the writer really wants to say, and I'd love thoughts from folks further on this journey than I am.
I’m always interested in learning about how others are creating summative assessments for reading that are NOT tests and NOT traditional literary analysis essays. I have done the reading responses with a self reflection after reading about that in this group. One marking period I do a mock trial, which is fun. But, I’m sure there are other great ideas that I’m not thinking of. What are you doing in your classroom to let your students showcase their reading skills?
Over the summer I read Sarah Zerwin's book Point-less, and it was LIFE CHANGING! I've been thinking a lot about rubrics and how to best assess student writing in a point-less way, while still holding them to a high standard. I'd love to see some examples of how other teachers assess student writing and give feedback!
Happy September!! I am thinking about the shift mandated by our state to an "approved" curriculum. We are starting Amplify very soon. Hoping I can somehow hold onto the joy of reading and writing workshop even in a fixed curriculum.
I tried to tackle the research paper last January in my 9H classes and it was...not successful. There are SO many skills and so much to teach. How do I do it justice in under 4-8 weeks?! I'm really re-evaluating whether we NEED to do the whole thing with freshmen, and if I wouldn't be better off focusing on a few key skills within the research paper process to help them master so that they're ready to take another step forward next year. We're lacking in vertical planning in our department in this respect, and aside from "a formal research paper" being a senior year requirement, we don't have other requirements or directives.
AS we start school, I'm thinking more and more about how we combine reading and writing workshop -- doing MORE with less instead of having to squeeze everything into steadily less time. How can we transfer learning and skills between the reading and writing workshops? How can we create space to breathe and think and ENJOY in the ELA classroom? I'm tired of everything feeling so frenetic.
I am interested in practical reading skill mini-lessons that students can apply to their independent reading. I also want to know what read alouds look/sound like in other teacher’s classrooms.
This is my first time here, and I'm excited about this community!
The pebble in my shoe, a question I'd love to have answered, is this: When I look for exemplar texts, especially for non-fiction, they rarely follow any formula we might give. I DO want students' persuasive writing (for example) to sound more like a newspaper editorial, but when I think of middle school and below, I feel like they need the suggested 5-paragraph structure with the hamburger paragraph (well done, of course.)
How do you take off the training wheels? What do you do when the bike flies all over the road and you have limited time to get to your destination? I'm excited to make writing less formulaic and more based on what the writer really wants to say, and I'd love thoughts from folks further on this journey than I am.
I’m always interested in learning about how others are creating summative assessments for reading that are NOT tests and NOT traditional literary analysis essays. I have done the reading responses with a self reflection after reading about that in this group. One marking period I do a mock trial, which is fun. But, I’m sure there are other great ideas that I’m not thinking of. What are you doing in your classroom to let your students showcase their reading skills?
Over the summer I read Sarah Zerwin's book Point-less, and it was LIFE CHANGING! I've been thinking a lot about rubrics and how to best assess student writing in a point-less way, while still holding them to a high standard. I'd love to see some examples of how other teachers assess student writing and give feedback!
Happy September!! I am thinking about the shift mandated by our state to an "approved" curriculum. We are starting Amplify very soon. Hoping I can somehow hold onto the joy of reading and writing workshop even in a fixed curriculum.
I am thinking how are these procedures I am trying to establish, ever going to stick?!
I tried to tackle the research paper last January in my 9H classes and it was...not successful. There are SO many skills and so much to teach. How do I do it justice in under 4-8 weeks?! I'm really re-evaluating whether we NEED to do the whole thing with freshmen, and if I wouldn't be better off focusing on a few key skills within the research paper process to help them master so that they're ready to take another step forward next year. We're lacking in vertical planning in our department in this respect, and aside from "a formal research paper" being a senior year requirement, we don't have other requirements or directives.