Connection to Self/ World

After reading the book, "Marvelous Minilessons for Teaching Beginning Writing K-3" by Lori Jamison Rog, I was eager to share the information I have learned with my classmates. I was especially excited to share my thoughts on the different writing levels. 
During my second practicum, I was in a grade 2 classroom. The students were starting to learn about paragraph writing. I found it extremely challenging to teach young children about paragraph writing as it was not content base, but more of something the students needed to continually practice. After the first week I was stuck on how to get the students moving forward and adding more descriptive words to their paragraphs. If I have read this book prior to my practicum, I know that I would have spent less time having anxiety attacks as there were many different lessons that I could have implemented to help my grade 2 students. In addition, I now know more about the different stages of  writing which can help me as a future teacher and during my next practicum.

Many of the teaching strategies that was in this book, I have learned at my Masters of Teaching program at University of Toronto. Our program believes in encouraging the children to become active participants of their learning, providing students with options, and creating a positive learning environment where each child's needs are being met. This book created a solid foundation for a positive, and effective writing workshop program. In addition, the lesson plans reflected on the different learning styles as well as the different writing stages. 

I believe empowering children by guiding them and allowing them to take part of their learning is the most important gift we can give to our students.
In addition, In my literacy class I learned the importance of getting students to enjoy writing. They also need to be writing everyday as it is an important aspect of a literacy program. This book provided many different lesson plans that can be implemented with the students on the daily basis and each chapter focused on a different aspect of a writing program. 

I wonder...

After reading the book, "Marvelous Minilessons for Teaching Beginning Writing K-3" by Lori Jamison Rog, I started to think about the kind of literacy program I want to implement within my classroom. I came up with some questions I think it's important to think about:

1. How can we bring technology into the writing workshop?
2. Is it possible to accommodate the literacy program for special needs students? If so, how?
3. How can we bring real-life examples into the writing workshop?
4. How can I integrate other subjects within the writing workshop instead of only having one block of the day dedicated to it?
5. How can I encourage my students to be proud of their work and want to display their writing, as many students may be shy about displaying their writing.

Please leave a comment if you have any thoughts or answers relating to my questions!

My dream classroom

Lesson Plan 2: Traffic Light Words

Traffic Light Words

Developmental Levels: Early, Developing, Fluent 
Trait: Organization of transitional words

As students begin to develop their writing habits, it is important that they include transitional words within their writing. This lesson plan helps the students become familiar with transitional words and how they can use it in their writing. 

1. Start with a previous lesson plan that included procedural writing. E.g. "How to Blow Out Birthday Candles":

1. Make a wish
2. Take a deep breath
3. Blow out all the candles on your cake

2. Then, together with the class come up with words that can replace number 1,2 and 3. Then re-write using the transitional words.

3. Show the students the "Traffic Light Words" chart and get them talking about traffic light and what each light means (e.g. green go)

4. Complete the chart with the students by adding transitional words to each section.

5. Extend this lesson by :

 a) having the students work in pairs and re-write a "how to" piece using a green light, yellow light, red light word. They are also to circle the words with the matching colour (green, yellow, red).

b) having the students go through their writing folder, circle the words with the corresponding colour and add it to the chart using post-its. This chart is to be displayed in the classroom at a child's eye level.

It is also important to always come back to the chart after reading a book that included a transition word, when students learn a new transitional word and other learning moments. This chart is only effective if the teacher is consistently referring back to it and the students are using it when writing a piece. 

Lesson Plan 1: Tuck a Topic in Your Pocket

Tuck a Topic in Your Pocket 

Level: Emergent, early, adaptable to developing and fluent

Trait: Generating ideas for writing and saving some for another day 

How many times have you heard these sentences: "but I dont know what to write about" , " I can't think of anything to write about", "I already wrote about that" ?

Here is the solution! 

This lesson plan encourages the students to choose one topic a day to write about and save other topics for another day. You will never hear the sentence, "but I have nothing to write about" ever again!

1. Provide each student with an envelope to paste in their writing books; this is their "pocket" to tuck away good topics. It is important to allow students to include pictures, jotted notes, prewriting plans etc. Give the students options!

2. Model, Model, Model! Gather the students on the carpet and demonstrate/talk about what topics you want to write about. Get the students thinking, you can also implement "talk partners" to get the students thinking, talking and sharing. 

3. Get the students thinking by giving each student a piece of paper with four boxes. Then get them to think about a person who is very important to them. After think time, show them how you would draw a picture, with enough details that you will remember what it is about. Then provide time for students to draw their own picture.

4. Continue the same process for:

• a special place they like to go
• particular food they love to eat
• something they like to do

5. After, choose a topic and show the students how you would draw a picture of the topic and add some writing.

6. Get the students to choose a topic,then draw and write about it. The rest of the topics can be "tucked away" for another day! 

This lesson creates the foundation for generating ideas, picking one topic to write about and tucking away the rest for another day. It will also get the students excited to think about possible topics. By choosing topics that they are interested in, students will become more engaged with their writing.  

The Developmental Stages of Writing

  To create an effective writing workshop within a rich literacy program, as teachers it is vital  to know the needs of our students. I was interested in learning more about the developmental stages of writing.  The book "Marvelous Minilesson for Teaching Begining Writing , K-3"  by Lori Jamison Rog opened up my eyes to a whole new perspective of how to implement a writing workshop. Through this new information, I was able to understand how young children develop and how as a primary teacher I can meet their literacy needs.

Yay for this amazing book! 

So here is the secret ingredient to a rich writing workshop: 

DEVELOPMENTAL STAGES OF WRITING

By using this developmental chart, you can see at what stage your students are and how you can plan accordingly to meet their needs. Lets take a look at the stages:

1. Emergent Writers

•  know that symbols on a page conveys a message
• have no grasped of the relationship between alphabet letters and sounds
• most children draw a picture and symbols and label it as "writing"

This chart shows the characteristics and areas of instructional focus. This is important as we want to know what we need to reinforce with these students.

2. Early Writers 

• put letters together to form words that they are able to read
• like to use picture to stimulate the writing
• begun to make connection between letters and sounds 

This chart demonstrates the areas teachers should focus on with these students.

3. Developing Writers

• compose extended text
• pay close attention to spelling and grammar
• plan before writing 

This chart demonstrates the characteristics and areas of focus for developing writers. 

4. Fluent Writers 

• extends from about second grade through adulthood
• organized and well-crafted writing
• fluency refers to the flow and rhythm of writing

This chart demonstrates the next steps for fluent writers.

By using these stages we can analyze our students and understand  how we can help them improve. Now that you know about these stages, you are probably wondering how you can create a writing workshop that would benefit all of your students, DO NOT PANIC! Next I am going to show you how you can create lesson plans that will meet the needs of all your students. 

The Research Behind the Book

So you're probably thinking, where is all this developmental  writing stages coming from. Well it is actually based on research from Piaget's early work and also Vygostky's "zone of proximal development". Instead of going on and on, I have two videos to explain the research that is behind the book!

Writing Stages
This video is made by a Kindergarten teacher examining her students' writing and goes through the different stages that relate to Piaget's developmental theory.


Zone of Proximal Development
This is a video explaining Vygotsky's "zone of proximal development". Short and sweet!

In addition, the author of "Marvelous Minilessons for Teaching Beggning writing K-3", Lori Jamison Rog is a curriculum consultant, teacher, and staff developer. Therefore her book is based on her past experience, knowledge and expertise. It is important to know that this book is written from the perspective of a teacher, who wants to share her knowledge with other teachers.

Here is a link to her website: Lori Jamison Rog

Book Review

I came across a fantastic resource book called, "Marvelous Minilessons for Teaching Beginning Writing, K-3" by Lori Jamison Rog.  It focused on the different strategies teachers can implement to create an effective writing workshop that benefits students within the primary grades. The book provided background knowledge about young children's writing stages and their cognitive development and how as teachers we can enhance their learning. The information within this book created a new vision for my writing workshop classes. 

The first chapter of the book introduced the different writing stages and how teachers can help their students enhance their writing skills. Then the additional chapters focused on other aspects of writing:

Chapter 2: Getting Started with Writing
Chapter 3: Substance and Style
Chapter 4: Conventions
Chapter 5: Revision, Making Good Writing Even Better

This is a fantastic book for primary grade teachers as it explain the lesson plans very well and in detail. It also includes what to say  to your students! This is great because sometimes explaining a concept to younger students can rather be challenging. 
I  also love how within the first chapter it talks about the different stages of writing and throughout the book it always refers back to them. I highly recommend this book to primary grade teachers as it has valuable lesson plans, and vital information about young children and how we can foster their writing habits. 

As part of my book review, I have also made a list about the strengths of the book and the limitations of it. Although the pros of the book are more than the cons.

Strengths:

• Lesson plans very detailed with pictures to help the visual learners (me)
• Language easy to read and understand
• The information for each chapter was very educational
• Written from a teacher's perspective, therefore it was easy to see myself implementing the lessons within my classroom
• The stages of writing allowed me to understand young children's development on a higher level
• Provided great ideas about how to create/implement a writing workshop
• The lesson plans related to the different writing stages
• Each chapter analyzed the lesson plans and how/when/why they should be used within the classroom and how they fit within a literacy program 
• The book flows nicely as each chapter focuses on a different aspect of writing

Limitation:

• Does not include the use of technology
• At the beginning of chapter 2 it analyzes the different lesson plans, but the lesson plans are located at the end of the chapter. This made me confused because as I was reading, I did not understand what it was talking about until I read over the lesson plans. 
• Although the book includes what writing stage is best for each lesson plan, it does not include a grade which I believe it is also important as what we teach needs to be grade appropriate.