Entry #11: Keeping Up With The Blogs

Throughout the course of this semester, I was required to write blogs as a way to document what I had learned about written expression and the ways to keep my students engaged in a writer's workshop. Before this course, I had no experience with creating my own blog. It was very much a trial and error process. I was required to learn how to navigate this website, Blogger. I was able to write about the thoughts, questions and ideas I had about the weekly readings I was assigned to read. Through this writing process, I was also able to add images to support my thinking and create labels that would connect the previous blogs I wrote that discussed similar themes and ideas. I was able to change the roll-over font colors to make reading my blogs more meaningful and an exciting experience for my readers. Lastly, I was able to add hyperlinks to websites that would provide my viewers with additional information and resources about a specific educational topic. 

https://holmessp19writing.blogspot.com/

Keeping a blog was a new way to organize my learning. I was able to put my personal input on the information I was acquiring. I was able to examine a wide variety of genres that readers and writers can use to communicate for a specific audience and purpose through a digital forum. Through this forum, I was able to view my classmates' posts and give critical feedback about what I enjoyed about their posts. This peer feedback experience was difficult for me because it is hard to pinpoint what you enjoyed, critiques, and thoughts I was still wondering about on posts that were written by individuals I know. Learning to provide feedback is also a wonderful tool that is necessary for me as an educator to present for my students. Giving students purposeful feedback is crucial so that my students know what kind of changes or improvements must be made to led to more successful learning experiences. 

In each of my posts, I had to consider who my audience was and the purpose of my blog. My audience was specifically my fellow classmates, my professor and anyone else who was interested in reading my blog, in order to learn about my writing journey to becoming a stronger reader and writer. This process also helped me to become a well-rounded educator because the various strategies and techniques I acquired throughout this course can be used in my classroom as a way to improve the reading and writing experiences I can provide for my students. For example, the use of revising centers as a way to differentiate my writing instruction (Tompkins, 2019, p. 12). These centers can help students become more consciously aware of changes they can make to improve their writing pieces.

Author's craft is a multi-faceted concept that I used in every experience I had within this course. For example, while creating these blogs I was able to practice using a number of elements found within an author's craft. I began my coming up with the ideas and I had to determine how to organize these thoughts to make them sequential and understood by all of my readers. This organization was improved by my word choice, sentence fluency and conventions that I chose to use for each piece. Because these blogs are to meant to be used to display personal thoughts, my personal voice was often found in each of my written posts. Lastly, the presentation is especially important for these blogs. It is crucial that my blogs are digitally enhanced to make each post accessible and entertaining for all of my viewers. 

My habits of mind towards writing have developed throughout these blogs. Curiosity and creativity were especially present while writing these posts. The purpose of most of my posts were developed based upon my desire to know more about a particular topic. I also had to be creative in the way I presented the information within my blogs. I had to find images that would enhance one's understanding of what I was trying to present.  Metacognition plays a big role in the process of creating these blog posts (Council of Writing Program Administrators, National Council of Teachers of English, & National Writing Project, 2011). Sometimes, I have a hard time brainstorming what to write for each of these posts because I struggled to compose my thoughts and think critically about what I have just read. During this course, I have become more conscious to the process of thinking about what I read in a way that will be memorable and can be applicable to my future teaching career. 

References 

Council of Writing Program Administrators, National Council of Teachers of English, & National Writing Project (2011). Framework for success in postsecondary writing.Retrieved from http://wpacouncil.org/framework/

Tompkins, G. E.  (2019).  Teaching writing:  Balancing process and product (7^th ed.).  Upper Saddle River, NJ:  Merrill.

Entry #10: Something Worth 'Blessing, Addressing, or Pressing'

Thinking back to Hicks (2009) model for peer response, I have found another post that I found would be worth blessing, addressing and pressing. Peer feedback has always been difficult for me to provide to my classmates. This process can be extremely helpful and something I need to get used to because of my chosen teaching profession. As a teacher, you are always required to give feedback whether it be to myself, my coworkers or my students. This concept is always something I could work on improving as a way to become the best educator I can possibly be. In this post, I have chosen to give feedback on 'Entry #9: How can teachers promote biographical writing in the classroom setting?' written by my peer, Catherine Tighe (https://catherinetighe-lted618-spring2019.blogspot.com ). I think Catherine did a wonderful job discussing the power of teaching the genre of biographies to improve students' reading and writing skills. In this Written Expression course, each class member was required to teach a workshop on a specific genre. The genre I was required to teach about was biographies. Because I consider myself an 'expert' on this genre, it was so interesting to see how others viewed this particular genre. 

Bless 
I enjoyed that Catherine began her post by bringing in her own personal insights on the biographical genre. She discusses how young children are egocentric as they explore the world around them. She goes on to state how teachers can use this to their advantage to teach their students about creating their own autobiographies pieces. Also, I agree with Catherine on her stance that early writers should spend lots of time writing about themselves to create an authentic and developmentally appropriate experience. I liked the connection that Catherine made between Autobiographical Life Boxes and Show and Tell experiences. Both of these activities are a great way for students to become more comfortable with learning how to share their ideas and their writing pieces to others appropriately. I thought it was beneficial that Catherine took the time to pinpoint which elements of Author's Craft (ex. presentation and organization) could be developed or strengthen throughout Tompkins (2019) concept of creating Biography posters. Lastly, I loved how Catherine added a link within her post to an outline that could be used to create 'Me' quilts, another instructional activity students could use to support their understanding of autobiographies. Overall, I think Catherine's post was well-thought out and organized as she continued to integrate Tompkins ideas with her own opinions. 

https://www.scholastic.com/teachers/unit-plans/teaching-content/unit-plan-writing-autobiography/

Address
It would be interesting to find out the ways the Catherine might use these biographical instructional strategies/activities in her own classroom. In what ways might you implement these learning experiences? Are there any strategies that Tompkins offered that you believe would not be beneficial for helping your students farther their understanding of this specific genre? Catherine's post talks a lot about autobiographies. I wonder if Catherine would spend time teaching her students about the 3 other types of life stories including: biographies, memoirs or personal narratives or just autobiographies? Would it depend on the grade level and/or students interests and strengths? When considering author's craft, like Catherine did for the Tompkins biographical activities, could you make an argument that most of these instructional methods offered in the biographical writing chapter could touch upon developing all of the different elements found in an author's craft? 

Press 
I thought Catherine did a fantastic job being a critical thinker while she wrote about the importance of learning about the biographical genre. It was hard for me to brainstorm possible critical questions to help Catherine move toward a stronger version of her opinion because I feel like she already stated it very well. One thought I had for Catherine would be to compare and contrast the biographical genre to the other genres she has previously learned about. What strengths or weaknesses does this genre provide that others do/do not provide for diverse readers and writers? 

References 

Tompkins, G. E.  (2019).  Teaching writing:  Balancing process and product (7^th ed.).  Upper Saddle River, NJ:  Merrill. 

Entry 8: 'Address' That Feedback

Over the past couple of days, I have spent some time looking at my peers' blog posts. It has been a wonderful experience to see how my classmates react and respond to different educational research and readings. I have found a number of similarities and differences within the professional opinions shared my peers. This is what is so great about the field of teaching, I am always being exposed to opportunities where I am able to collaborate, receive feedback and acquire new skills/strategies that can be applied to my own classroom. On the other hand, it is also important to know how to appropriately provide feedback to others. Hicks (2009) provides his audience with the National Writing Project's model for giving peer feedback. Within this feedback, it important: to bless, to address, and to press a given text you would like to respond to. 

www.ssgt.nsw.edu.au/documents/2practices_feedback.pdf

To Bless: While these keeping these feedback points in mind, I would like to dedicate this post to respond and expand upon one of my classmates specific posts. Anna Jackson's 'Blog 4: Instructional Strategies' entry really stuck out to me (https://jacksonsp18writing.blogspot.com/ ). Anna offers a number of great ideas and insight on the importance of instructional strategies to help improve own learning experiences. Within this post, she discusses how she uses the headings, subtitles and explanations to inform and organize her thinking for a given text. She also turns the headings into questions to reflect on later in the reading. This is a reading strategy that I had never considered before but I am definitely going to try this to see if it helps me get more out of the texts I am reading. I agree that this strategy would help me to become a more active reader. I love how Anna discussed the importance of making connections while engaging in reading or writing activity. In my own personal experiences, I am also making different types of connections to clarify my understanding of a particular text. Lastly, I really enjoyed Anna's discussion on the importance of reflecting on her work (NCT, 2011). I am still learning how to appropriately critique my own work through the process of writing lesson reflections and evaluations. Especially in the world of teaching, it is critical to reflect in order to improve my daily lessons and instructional experiences for my students.    

To Address: As I was reading this blog entry, I also had some questions I would like to ask Anna. When you were discussing your habits of mind, you said you wanted to become more sensitive to the texts you are reading. Can you define what you mean by that? In what ways, do you plan on becoming more sensitive while engaging in reading and writing tasks? You also stated that you wanted to 'take risks by exploring questions that are unfamiliar to you'. What would be an example of a risk taking question? 

To Press: Overall, I really enjoyed reading Anna's post blog! She offered a lot of wonderful ways that has learned to improve her reading and writing skills. There is just one critical question I would offer Anna as a way to 'move toward a stronger version or a clearer explanation of her opinion' (Hicks, 2013, p. 83). This question would be: How do all of these instructional strategies you offered in your blog post #4 inform your classroom instruction? In what ways can you make these strategies accessible for all of your students? 

https://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/peer-feedback-tips

References

Hicks, T. (2013).  Crafting digital writing.  Portsmouth, NH:  Heinemann.

Council of Writing Program Administrators, National Council of Teachers of English, & National Writing Project. (2011). Framework for success in postsecondary writing.  Retrieved from http://wpacouncil.org/framework/