Reflective Portfolio

For Read 6252 By Dawn Early

Artifact #1

Reflection on Another Invitation to My Library By Katie Wood Ray My first artifact comes from the week that we learned about revisions. This is from the reading of Another Invitation to My Library by Katie Wood Ray. On this page the author is talking about Gary Paulsen discussing his writing. Paulsen says, Language, really, is a dance for me and Ill do anything with it, including getting fast and loose with grammar, to make a story work right. This quote from Paulsen made me stop and think. First, I looked at his comparing language to a dance. I have always loved language. I think that the ability to express oneself in written language is a powerful thing. I use to write a lot, but as my spare time has become no time, I do not write anymore. That is until this class. I can tell that it has made me rusty. I am not saying that I ever wrote a literary masterpiece, but I could do well for an amateur. I still read and I enjoy the play of words and the beauty of a well-written piece, but I have not even attempted to write. What use to flow out of me, now feels forced. However, when words flow from a writer, it is like the story taking the lead and the writer following as the words go onto the page. The arrangement, when it is right, takes the reader to a place outside of themselves- just as a dance would. Although I love the metaphor of the dance, the thing that hit me the hardest was when he says that he gets fast and loose with grammar. I believe that it is important to teach students to write grammatically correct. Up to that week, I had always looked at editing as a type of revision. I did not separate the two. After reading that week and the lesson for that week, I understood that revision is independent of editing. I now see that it is important to let students become creative and express themselves. I know now that I need to allow students to break grammar rules sometimes in order to give their writing voice. Yes, I still want my students to have proper grammar and proper conventions. But now I look at the editing as the time for this and if they need to break a rule here and there to give their piece a voice, I try not to get so bent out of shape.

Artifact #2 Examining Why We Write~ Dawn Early by Dawn Early - Monday, 2 September 2013, 7:34 PM It is very hard for me to remember a teacher in any era of my academic life that was a positive influence. I know that I always had a hard time writing in school because the teachers always insisted on organizers and planning out a writing project before hand. This always caused me to get writers block. I write better when I just start writing. As far back as third grade, I can remember getting a pen and paper whenever I was happy, sad, or any emotion and I just wrote. My feelings usually came out in poetry. As the pen flowed across the paper, my feelings flowed onto the paper. It was a great release. It was not something that I thought about; I just wrote. So, from that aspect, I guess life was my greatest positive influence. As my family started growing and life got hectic, I gradually stopped writing out my feelings. I am still an avid reader. I just quit taking the time to write. This class has shown me that I really do need to use that creative outlet. Through writing in my Daybook, I am seeing that I cannot wonder where I will find the time to write. I have to ask can I afford to not find time to write.

Reflection on Examining Why We Write~ Dawn Early by Dawn Early - Monday, 2 September 2013, 7:34 PM The forum for this week made me stop to think about how I view writing and how I teach writing. When we had to think back to find a good writing experience, I was shocked that I honestly could not think of one. I look back at some work that I did on my own at an earlier age when I enjoyed writing. However, I could not think of one classroom experience that was enjoyable. Up to the time I have taken this class, writing formally had felt like a stale process that I had to get through. I had forgotten the joy of writing. This made me think about how I teach my students. I began to wonder if I have ever given my students a meaningful writing experience. I have to honestly say that I do not feel like I had, but this is changing as I change the way we do writing in my classroom. Now we look at writing as a fun adventurea way to express. Up to the time of this class, I had not made the connection of how I use to feel about writing on a personal level with classroom writing. Now I have made that connection. Now I know that I must teach my students to express themselves. This was also the week we had our first Centra class and Dr. Kissel said, Students should always write with an audience in mind. That was a powerful statement. I had always had students to write in there journals and we would tediously go through correcting errors. We did not worry so much with letting others read what they had written. I do not know why I had gotten in this rut. When I first started teaching, I taught in a system that used Lucy Caulkins. In Kindergarten, my students learned how to write about small moments. Writing Workshop was fun and promising. When I left that system, I changed to a place that used a different program. This program was technical. I got into that stale place and I had remained there until this class. Now, I want my students to know about different avenues in which their writing can take them. I want them to experience writing and not have it as something that is done to them. I do not want my students to look back and think of writing as just another boring thing that they had to do in school. I want them to look back to it as a seed that started a life of expressing their thoughts, feelings, and plans in writing. I want them to see writing as a way to get their point across and communicate. With this post, I started looking at ways to change the way I teach writing. I looked at ways to create experiences. I looked at ways to let go and allow my student to have choice.

Artifact #3

Angela Herds Multigenre Project

Reflection on Angela Herds Multigenre Project I chose Angela Herds Multigenre Project because her honesty and story really touched me. From the music to the message of her movie, I was profoundly touched. I did not grow up in a trailer park, but I did grow up with a daddy that would do anything for you and everyone liked him. But he had a flawhe drank to excess. Countless times I remember having to go get him in the middle of the night because he got intoxicate somewhere. I was always embarrassed and I was looked on as the poor person in the neighborhood. I grew up with that shame. I decided that when I had children, they would never have to know what it is like to be scared of a parent getting drunk and embarrassing them. To this day I feel like it affects me and I will not let my children live with that wound. I do not usually open up so much, but this is how much Angelas story touched me. When she said, Poverty is not a disease, but a temporary condition, I could not help but think about a family that came to my school. Her family moved from place to place. When the family could not get rid of lice, they shaved the two third grade girls heads. Often they came to school dirty, but I could see something special in them. I often think about them because I tried to let them know that they had choices in life, but the oldest one, she had failed a grade, said that she was going to be like her father and lay around on the couch eating ice cream. She said that if she did not get a check, she would steal what she needed. It broke my heart. This girl has so much potential. I just hope that she remembers all our talks and that she has found someone that will make a profound difference in her life so that she wants change. Angelas project showed me how powerful a message can be made with the right song and message. It showed me that I do need to be able to expose emotions that are deep. Those emotions and experiences could help others. I am not saying that I am ready to be a complete open book, but I can see how visiting a place of truth and pain can be healing to the writer and all that reads it. I need to teach my students to go to that place of choosing an audience and then finding the right way to relay their message. I want to teach my students how to find their voice. When we think about the audience and the message we can marry them to create something beautiful. Thank you Angela for sharing your story. It is more powerful than you know.

Artifact #4 Power Point from Topic 13 on Assessment and Evaluation (Portfolios)

Reflection on Assessments and Evaluations (Portfolios) For artifact #4 I chose the PowerPoint from Topic 13 on Assessments and Evaluations. The part that was profound to me was about portfolios. I have heard of people creating portfolios in a professional manner to showcase their work. I had never really given it much consideration for fifth grade. After reading about them and doing one in this class, I am going to start working with my students in creating a portfolio. We have digital portfolios through Google Docs and the middle school has already started using them. I want to help my fifth graders create one. I think that it will cause them to be more aware of each assignment if they are looking for work to showcase. I think that portfolios will help the students to see what they have learned. It will also be helpful for them to reflect on their learning. Reflection will cause the students to take responsibility for their learning. I also think that it is another way for them to see the importance of writing. I also have started having my students to give themselves a grade on a rubric. I have always used rubrics and I have allowed students to evaluate themselves, but I have not been consistent with self-evaluations. I think that this is a power way of reflection. It causes the student to have to think about what they did and not just complete an assignment and then it is history. I have seen a difference with students giving a self-evaluation. Students are very honest for the most part. I have told them that I will give the final grade, but their evaluation will play a part in it.

Artifact #5

A page from Nancie Atwells In the Middle

Reflection on Nancie Atwells In the Middle I chose this page from Nancie Atwells, In the Middle, because it helped me to refine an idea that I had gotten elsewhere. I have wanted my students to interact with the Just Right books, which they have been reading, but I was not sure what to do. I saw this idea about having the students to write letters about their books. I liked the idea, but I was not sure how to implement it effectively in class. While reading In the Middle during our professional book club, I saw this idea in greater detail. I like the way that Atwell told about writing letters back and forth about the books that they had been reading. The students write to the teacher and then the teacher writes back. In the letters, the teachers discuss, guides, and challenges the students to think deeper in the book. Atwell also explains that the teacher has to be careful to not talk personal with the student in these letters. She shows several examples of how to correspond with the students. She even has an example of a student that kept saying personal things in the letter, but Atwells reply guided the student into book talk. I like this idea because it not only teaches students about writing, but it also causes them to think more deeply while they read. I also like the fact that Atwell says that this correspondence is not a test for students. She says, If you bombard students with a lot of questions, it will be like a test. So I will be careful how I respond to my students. I know that I will refer back to this book many times as I work to strengthen Readers Workshop in the classroom.