What I've learned Evaluation Portfolio
I've learned so much in this class that not only will I be a better teacher of writing, but I will be a totally different teacher all around. Below are 5 of the many reasons why.
1. Table of Contents
This is the table of contents at the beginning of my daybook. I chose this piece because I've always used and loved daybooks in my class. In the past I've always had mine organized into sections: reading responses, vocabulary, notes, and writing. Writing was the catch all. Some days I would give them like a one sentence note about a grammar term, so that would go in the notes section, and then we would practice that concept by writing sentences, on that same page. It felt weird because we should be writing in the writing section. Also sometimes they took notes on vocabulary and would write stories using vocabulary words. I originally created the sections to help teach organization, a skill that seventh graders need badly. In hindsight, I don’t think they learned much about organization because I told them each decision to make. For some students the sections were too much and for others (and myself) they weren’t organized enough because some things logically belonged in 2 sections.
Overall I enjoyed the section-free daybook this summer, it freed me up to do writing on my own outside of class, something I really encourage my students to do as well. I’m now looking at the Table of Contents as the place to organize in your own style. I will show my students my method which you see here, color coding. I tried to put class stuff in black and personal stuff in color and then underline the class/personal stuff in color. I will also suggest to students to have different pages in their table of contents based on those old sections, so a vocab page where you record the page number of each vocab list or exercise, a notes page where they can record things I hand out or they copy from me, and a reading response page. I’ll invite them to come up with their own way of organizing their T.O.C. that makes sense to them.
Overall I enjoyed the section-free daybook this summer, it freed me up to do writing on my own outside of class, something I really encourage my students to do as well. I’m now looking at the Table of Contents as the place to organize in your own style. I will show my students my method which you see here, color coding. I tried to put class stuff in black and personal stuff in color and then underline the class/personal stuff in color. I will also suggest to students to have different pages in their table of contents based on those old sections, so a vocab page where you record the page number of each vocab list or exercise, a notes page where they can record things I hand out or they copy from me, and a reading response page. I’ll invite them to come up with their own way of organizing their T.O.C. that makes sense to them.
2. Envelope/ Dear Brian Letter
I’m including the envelope glued into the back of the daybook because I had never thought of this simple fix for loose papers falling out of the daybook before. This will help my students a lot. I’m showcasing one of the “Dear Brian” letters I have stuck in my envelope because I liked this version of an exit ticket. I’ve done the 3-2-1 exit slips before but didn’t like keeping up with it. I am going to try out this letter to teacher method to serve 2 purposes. One, I’m often bombarded with students wanting to chat with me at the end of class about everything from questions about the book I’m reading to the fight they had with their boyfriend last night. This letter will give them an outlet to get those thoughts out to someone who’s “listening” without me being bombarded. And two, it will be a safe zone for asking questions that for whatever reason they did not feel comfortable asking in class. I may even give the slip of paper for the letter to them at the beginning of class in case their thoughts can’t wait. I think that this is a beautifully simple method for teacher-student communication. I want to make sure all of my students have something to say every day that I do these letters so in addition, I will make a poster of possible things that they might say like "Tell me something that you learned today and why it's important. Tell me a question you have. Tell me about your independent book you're reading. Tell me what you're working on as far as writing right now." This will help me out when I have that inevitable "I don't know what to say" student.
Murray Cards
The Murray cards were actually the first thing that came to mind that I needed to choose for this portfolio. This is an activity that we did where we generated ideas, drafted, revised and shared. All the writing was done on notecards which made it really easy for me to write, since a blank card is much less intimidating than a blank page. This activity stuck out the most to me because I had already heard about it from Leslie S. and was interested in learning more. I enjoyed going through the process myself. I came out with a good story and ideas for many others. The activity packed a lot of good writing into a short amount of time, an essential quality for a lesson I might use in my middle school classroom. I will definitely use this exact lesson with my students because they will learn a lot about generating ideas, drafting, revising and sharing in one class.
Multigenre Project
One of the things I loved learning about the multi-genre projects where a writer creates many pieces about the same topic. They use a variety of genres and cover various aspects and viewpoints on the topic. I liked the idea of matching genre to a certain aspect of the topic and I loved reading these across various grade levels. I am including a picture from the multi-genre project that I made around the event in my life of how my husband and I started dating. You’re seeing the letter and comic strip. It was fun thinking about and getting that story down on paper and my husband had fun reading it and laughing at my bad drawings. I also like the fact that this shows that I did a little planning before I stated my drawings (you can see that below the letter), a key step if you don't want to draw for a long period of time.
I plan on trying the multi-genre project with my students in the second half of the year. I always review genres at that time and this is an excellent review of the purpose and features for all genres they are considering including in their individual projects. It will be an authentic review, yet they'll have it still in their mind for the E.O.G.'s! They will have already done a research project in SS, so I may do it as a personal piece or a research piece or let them choose. Either way I know I will have a great time reading their final products.
I plan on trying the multi-genre project with my students in the second half of the year. I always review genres at that time and this is an excellent review of the purpose and features for all genres they are considering including in their individual projects. It will be an authentic review, yet they'll have it still in their mind for the E.O.G.'s! They will have already done a research project in SS, so I may do it as a personal piece or a research piece or let them choose. Either way I know I will have a great time reading their final products.
Writing into the Day
Writing into the day is taking 10 or so minutes at the beginning of each class to get some words on paper. It can be similar to a journal entry, a first draft of something you need to do, a poem, a to do list, revising a piece you want to publish, it can be anything as long as you’re writing. I love the freedom that this brings and I chose to include a picture of the writing into the day after my house caught on fire because honestly I’m so busy I would have already forgotten about this and it’s an overwhelming story that I should never forget, and now it’s recorded!
One thing I learned from writing into the day is that writing definitely makes you think. I want to do this as often as possible as my class’s “focus” to get their brains turned on for the class. It is especially important for first period, but throughout the day I think it will get them in that Language Arts state of mind. I also really like that it’s a focus that does not really require directions. I usually get nothing done during focus time because of people asking me questions that are clearly answered in the directions.
One thing I learned from writing into the day is that writing definitely makes you think. I want to do this as often as possible as my class’s “focus” to get their brains turned on for the class. It is especially important for first period, but throughout the day I think it will get them in that Language Arts state of mind. I also really like that it’s a focus that does not really require directions. I usually get nothing done during focus time because of people asking me questions that are clearly answered in the directions.