Teaching+of+Writing+Reflections

====//**Context:** This page houses the reflective work that was completed for multiple assignments during the Teaching of Writing class. The first reflection below was our midterm reflection that asked us to discuss how our view of writing evolved over the first half of the semester and what we hoped to accomplish or learn over the last half of the semester while referencing evidence from our daybook, posts to Ning, or any other applicable work that had been completed in class. The other reflections are part of the writing process work that we were asked to complete for several of our assignments throughout the semester. These were turned in with working drafts of assignments in order to give Dr. Hartman a "status report" of our composition's movement as well as an opportunity to ask questions about specific parts of our work that we felt needed more feedback. //====

**Midterm Reflection **
Dear Dr. Hartman,

As I sit down and write this letter, I cannot help but think about how much impact this class has already had on my perspectives about writing in general and the teaching of writing. I leave class with a new strategy to use in my classroom every week, even something as simple as weekly “surveys” about what is working/what is not or using some of the ideas that people have discussed on Ning. My AP students would probably tell you that they are kind of tired of me using them as guinea pigs, but deep down inside, I think they probably enjoy it. There is much to be said about a teacher of writing that has many tools in her toolbox that help students not only become effective writers but that can also reach as many students as possible because of her “training” and practice. I believe that this class has not only given me the training, but also the practice – something that I know I need a great deal of in order to get better because I know myself as a writer.

As I wrote my writing autobiography, I realized that much of my beliefs about writing in general were seeping through to how I taught writing, but I wasn’t able to ever name it. Like we’ve said in classes past, it’s a very powerful and gratifying feeling being able to name and classify something that couldn’t be done before. As I was able to do this, I found myself becoming more comfortable with the idea of pushing my students to think about writing in some of the same ways that I do – not necessarily writing with an end in mind, but simply seeing where it ends up. On Ash Wednesday, one of my students asked if she could work on her “project” for Lent – I asked her what it was. Her Lenten devotion was to write a letter to someone every day (except Sundays) that has made a difference in her life. I told her she was more than allowed to write her letters for Lent on Thursdays. In turn, I challenged my students to do the same – now we devote Thursdays to writing letters. Almost every one of my students has done this, and they have seen the joy and beauty in this kind of writing. I realized that when I gave my students the freedom and choice to do things like this – as simple as letting them write a letter – that empowers them. And because they feel empowered, they are more open to learning more about being a writer instead of just a student who writes. I’ve also been writing Lenten Letters – some that may never get sent. But I believe that sometimes writing in this manner is what helps us become comfortable writing and allows us to stretch our muscles.

I have always done writing groups – I believe they are an essential part of the writing process. However, I really struggled before this class to find a way to focus their responses to create a conducive, feedback-filled session where students come together to discuss writing in a constructive manner. Then lo and behold, enter your handout on Peter Elbow’s group response ideas. Since then, these have helped me so much, especially with my AP students who crave feedback any time they enter into their writing groups. Just last week (and yes, I have this recorded for 691) one of the writing groups in 2nd period was discussing an essay and I was walking around just listening in on conversations, and I heard some of the best collaborative work being done. The students were talking like writers - discussing the student’s perception of audience, fulfillment of purpose and expressive syntax. I almost stopped dead in the middle of the classroom because I was nearly in shock. But looking back, I really shouldn’t have been. I talk to them this way all the time, so why wouldn’t they start picking up on the language and jargon? Perhaps it’s because they were “on their own” and working things out in their groups. I did tell them at the end of class that they sounded like a group of writers – they all beamed (and so did I).

The one thing that I have always struggled with – that I am continually working on – is how to assess student writing. I believe this is part of the reason why I decided to redesign the assignment that I wrote for RWC over the summer. I implemented it for my classes in the fall, and the assignment was not exactly what I wanted it to be, nor was the assessment. The writing process was unclear and muddled to students, mostly because I was not being transparent with them about some of my expectations, specifically how they would be assessed. I believe much of this came from starting to move away from the “traditional” thought of how to assess essays toward a rubric-style that allows students to see their strengths and weaknesses. I’m still trying to work the kinks out of my rubric for the WAD that I’ll be assigning to Brianna so that she can help me be reflective so this next go-round works a little better than the first time. I believe this has helped me reaffirm my beliefs that if something doesn’t work the first time, don’t abandon, just fix. Sometimes it is the “first time curse” and it just doesn’t fly. But like one of my AP student shared with me last spring, “Ever tried? Ever failed? No matter. Try again. Fail again. Fail better.” – Samuel Beckett

Even though all of these things that have helped me become a better teacher, writer and thinker, I believe the most important thing – my “ah ha” moment – is when I realized very early on in the semester that what I’m doing with my students (ie – daybooks, writing groups, writing conferences, reading to learn, writing to learn, etc) is exactly what I should be doing and that I should continue to do so. After having to navigate some pretty murky water between myself and the administration I worked for, I realized that if I sacrificed everything I learned in this class, in classes past, and from Dr. Price, I would be betraying everything that I know is good for my students, regardless of what a test might assess. Since this “ah ha” moment, I have begun a “back to basics” unit in my AP classes. Before this, we were practicing AP style essays (I know – slapping my own hand here) and working on how to make these types of essays more effective. Now, my students are allowed to choose the subject, purpose and audience of their writing – I simply give them the type of writing (based on the four aims) I want them to work on. I’m about to receive the first go-round of this and I have already been more pleased and excited to read these essays. There is a sense of interest and desire that comes through in their writing now that wasn’t there before – and now that I know what that looks like and feels like as a teacher, I will probably never turn back.

I’ve always been a proponent that in order to be the best teacher I can be, I need to constantly be reflective and cognizant of the choices that I’m making in my classroom. One thing that I’d like to accomplish before the end of this semester is have a more complete understanding – and be able to name – why I do certain things in my classroom the way I do, specifically when it comes to writing. Christy’s research conversation tonight really got me thinking about the role that “conventions” and “standards” play in writing. I want to know how to combat the type of thinking that an essay has to be pages or _ paragraphs and cannot have more than errors. Rather, I want to find a way to help students see that it’s about effectiveness – not “right” vs “wrong”. I’m still struggling with how to do this – how to approach this – because it’s something that I know is going to be difficult. And I am going to have to be reflective about the conversations and expectations I have not only for my students as writers but also for myself. I hope to be able to have a better understanding of how to make this happen before the semester’s end (perhaps my WAD is a place to work on this???).

It’s hard for me to think that this semester is already half over – it seems like we just started working and learning. I feel a little melancholy writing this, as this means my journey as a student, at least for now, is almost more than half over. I’m not quite sure how I feel about this – it didn’t really hit me until this week. But because of the work I’ve done in this class, I know that if something happened and I had to end it all today, I would walk away with more tools to write, teach and reflect better on what happens when I put my writing teacher hat on. If someone had told me 10 years ago, when I was a senior in high school, that I would be an English teacher and going to graduate school, I probably would have asked if she was talking to the right person. But now I can’t imagine doing anything else but this, so I am going to do everything in my power to learn as much as I can. I hope that I can inspire just one of my students to continue to be a writer because of what they have experienced in my classroom.

Thanks for reading – I’m looking forward to the rest of this semester!

Sincerely, Lorelei

WAD Working Draft #2 Reflection
Dr. Hartman,

As you can probably see, I’ve done quite a bit of work on this since my first draft from last week. I got some great feedback and help from Elizabeth and Hannah – it’s always nice to get a fresh perspective – they both helped me see I was on the right track and I just needed to flesh out some more ideas and see where it was going from here before I could really start making any drastic changes.

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">One of the largest parts of this piece that is different from my first draft is the “appendices” of daybook handouts (there are a BUNCH of pages…). Since I do utilize daybooks, I feel it’s important for me to be transparent with my students and give them a copy of everything I expect out of them. It gives them the opportunity to hold themselves accountable and they have a record of everything they’ve done in class. Plus, it makes it great for putting the work for the week up on Ning. Will you make sure these are too verbose and are clear with what you think I’m asking from my students? This is one thing I’m a little panicky about…

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">The one thing I do want to make sure of is that I am contextualizing the writing assignment enough with the reading/brainstorming/writing section. Since this is the unit I start out with at the beginning of the semester, there is a TON of “administrative” stuff for me to take care of, and I wanted to make sure I mentioned that in the “pre-writing assignment” section of the context. I also wanted to be sure that the objectives I have listed not only match the assignment but also the assessment (rubric) I want to use for this assignment. I have discovered that assessment transparency is so extremely important, and that is something I want to work on even now in my classroom, so any guidance/help/affirmation you can give me there would be greatly appreciated.

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">I haven’t really “commented” on the draft much because I feel really good about it – and I feel like some of the “redesigning” I’m doing from the initial plan I created over the summer really help improve the idea of writing as a process as well as the utilization of writing groups. I’m looking forward to trying out this new and improved one in the fall if it works out. If it doesn’t, I’ll retool again. Thanks for your help in advance.

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">With appreciation, <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">Lorelei

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 16px;">WAD Final Draft Reflection
<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">Dear Dr. Hartman,

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">Redesigning this assignment has been one of the most beneficial things for me so far this semester. I really enjoyed creating this unit over the summer, but when I implemented it, I was sorely disappointed with how some of it came together. But, since I’ve taken this class, I’ve figured out some new tricks and tools I could use to help make everything about the assignment beneficial and compatible with what I want my students to accomplish through a variety of writing purposes.

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">One thing I really enjoyed, and I’m glad that Brianna and I chose to do, was to utilize Google Documents. We were presented with an interesting and unexpected series of events right before spring break, and we were able to get our work done effectively and timely because of the ability for us to simply share our work with each other, even if it wasn’t completely finished. This is one thing that I am going to continue to use with my students because of the ease and the effectiveness of the comment tool.

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">This was Brianna’s first time writing a memoir, and for the first time, she did a fantastic job. For her actual assignment, I gave her the 3rd daybook sheet so she knew my expectations for the assignment and some of the parameters of the memoir. Luckily, she had read Tuesdays with Morrie before, so this worked out perfectly. During her first drafts (this is her final draft), I made it a point to talk about the things I liked about her memoir as it was and what she was doing well so she could emulate those things in other parts of her essay. I greatly enjoyed reading it, and I’ve found that when I take a vested interest in a writer’s enjoyment about the writing and the experience, it’s overall a much better experience for everyone involved.

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">The one thing we did have to modify about the experience was the writing group workshop elements. Because there were not enough people for us to have a writing group, we utilized one-on-one conferences, reflections, and the comment tool on Google Docs to make up for that lost interaction with others. Obviously this isn’t the ideal situation I would want – having other people read my writing is one of my favorite parts of writing groups – but I think considering the circumstances, it went really well.

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">I do have one question about my rationale – I was thinking about using the 2nd daybook sheet (What is a memoir?) as the rationale for the students –it outlines exactly why we’re writing this type of essay. Should I include that in the rationale section directly below or is what I have sufficient? I understand the rationale is supposed to be why I’m implementing this unit, so I feel like I need more but I’m not really sure…

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">I’m looking forward to getting your feedback. Thanks for all of the help so far!

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">Sincerely, <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">Lorelei

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 22px;">Philosophy of Teaching Writing WD #2 Reflection
<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">Dear Dr. Hartman,

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">I’m going to “southern biscuit” myself as a fair warning. I worked on this a little bit over the week, but didn’t get as much as I wanted done. I just found out that one of my students I had in 9th grade died at some point last night – his dad found him in his bedroom this morning. So, I apologize in advance if my thoughts in my 2nd draft are a little scatter-brained in some places. I plan to go back through it sometime later this week once I’ve had a chance to get a little bit of a grip on the situation. With that said, let me get into my real reflection.

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">First, I really enjoy working with Billy and Andy. They are “straight shooters” and not afraid to point the weak spots in any of my work, and that I am grateful for. I haven’t had any truly horrific group work experiences in school, so I’m glad that this is continuing in that common trend.

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">My first draft had quite a few “holes” and notes to myself that I tried to fill in - I still need to work on the Atwell/Olson quotes – my books are at school – I’ll put those in sometime this week. Billy and Andy gave me some great advice on my two “holes” – make sure that I continue to explain what things look like and to continue showing how things happen in my classroom and continue making sure I’m being heard. For this, what I’ve done is made the wording a little more concise – gotten down to the heart of the matter. I’ve added in one-on-one conferences in that section as well as discussing what writing groups look like and what strategies we might use during that time. I need some help with its organization, though. (I left you a comment in that section.)

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">My last section is obviously the one that is going to need the most attention after this draft. Since this is my most recent “brain vomit” section, I know it’s going to need some fine tuning and work. However, I did want to get some resemblance of that section down so I can get some feedback with it, also.

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">When I first started this, I felt like I had no idea where to start – I haven’t really sat down and thought about how my idea of teaching writing is reflected in my classroom, but I’m glad that this is being required of me. It’s been a great chance for me to sit down and make sure everything I’m doing in my classroom has a purpose and is reflective of my beliefs and ideas about writing, and the classroom in general.

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">Hope you enjoy it!

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">Lorelei