Writing and Representing in the Classroom

For this blog I decided to take a more focused look into the older elementary grades, namely 6 and 7. In this entry I hope to touch upon the importance of writing and representing, and how I would support it in the classroom for these upper grades. Looking back upon my own ELA experiences in school, I can attribute the entire basis of my individual writing style to these critical years. I can still remember my grade 7 ELA course with Ms. Beck, where we spent the majority of our year focusing on creative writing. While we still worked on the mechanics of the English language and writing, I loved discovering my own writing style. I could see how my style varied from the other students, and it became much more personal for me. My own experiences have helped me understand what is important in the writing and representing classroom, and allow me to reflect upon ways to support it through ELA.

Source: http://alanperry.1hwy.com/photo5.html

What is important in the writing/representing classroom?

I could write for days about every important aspect of the writing and representing classroom, but for the purposes of being succinct I will briefly outline what I consider to be the most important ideas. After taking personal experiences into account, I decided to expand my search across the Internet. After reading a few articles and education blogs, I compiled a list of the top 10 most important factors to include in an ELA classroom.

1.     Variety

2.     Challenges

3.     Ample time

4.     Revisions

5.     Feedback

6.     A safe environment for sharing

7.     Fun

8.     Options

9.     Encouragement

10. Covering important topics

Variety- No two students are alike, and with that in mind you need to be prepared to offer a range of different activities. Some students may excel in written word, while others may find a combination of visual representations and words to be more effective in illustrating their points. Continuously having students write on the same topic would not make for an effective or memorable lesson, so adding new activities makes the learning more enjoyable and unforgettable.

Challenges- Every student needs to be challenged, but not all in the same way. Some students will pick up material quickly, while others need more assistance. Just because a student needs more help learning the lesson, this doesn’t mean that you don’t provide a personal challenge for said child. As Jennifer Savage quoted in her article about the First Steps Writing Program when discussing the pleasure of having an exceptional student in her classroom, “Success is different for each of us…the growth of this student may seem small to most, but…I can tell you the success has been huge” (Savage, 48).

Ample Time- Writing and representing don’t happen in a short period of time, and the amount of time an individual student will take varies. As a teacher we must ensure the students receive enough time to create the best writing and representing possible. There are many revision stages that the child goes through in writing, and as the text book points out, “ the process requires time, thought, and the reworking of multiple drafts” (Bainbridge, 275). As “[The student] loved writing at home because she could give herself the right amount of time: ‘At home I do as many drafts as a I need’” (Casey and Hemenway, 71).

Revisions- One of the most important skills a student will learn in ELA is how to make self-directed revisions on their work. “Am I meaning what I say and saying what I mean?” (Bainbridge, 276). Looking at your own work with a critical eye and reflecting upon your desired meaning is a skill that will be reflected throughout one’s entire life. I find this to personally be the most important factor of ELA’s writing and representing, and has been the most helpful to me throughout my University years.

Feedback- Much like revisions will help students reflect upon their work with a critical eye, feedback from a teacher will help the student improve in places they did not notice themselves. Both positive and constructive feedback are extremely important in the classroom to help students advance their writing and representing skills by outlining strengths for reinforcement and changes that can help improve their work.  “Feedback that supports learning describes strengths upon which further learning can build and areas that need to be improved. It gives learners the information they need to adjust so they can get better.” (IRP, 28) We have to make sure that feedback is individualized, not generalized as well, pertaining to each student as an individual. “Praise by paying attention to the writer. Praise by becoming involved in the writing…Praise by describing the effects of specific techniques on you as the reader” (Atwell, 225).

A safe environment for sharing- One of the most nerve-wracking aspects of writing and representing is having to share your work with your peers. By creating a safe environment in the classroom where students feel safe sharing their work, you open the door to so many possibilities. Viewing other students work helps them to form a greater critical eye and understand differing perspectives and comparisons. It also opens doors for conversations about the students work, and assistance from student feedback for their revisions. This falls wonderfully into the PLO for grade 6 pertaining to C6 “considering and applying feedback to revise ideas, organization, voice, word choice and sentence fluency” (IRP, 378).

Fun- Ideally, every ELA lesson should be fun for the students to ensure it is memorable. Students learn more when their lesson is both informative and fun, and this certainly holds true for writing and representing!  Generating interest can sometimes be a challenge, but with all the resources available to us online it is amazing what you can find! Creativity is the key here, and you can’t be afraid to think outside the box.

Options- As mentioned above, no two students are alike, and some students thrive in writing while others may excel in representing. For this reason, and reasons of personal enjoyment, options should be offered in ELA. While structure and rules are important, it is critical to include options in many of your lessons. It is a great way to get students more involved in the lesson and they are more likely to enjoy it. This is a crucial point in Casey and Hemenway’s writing program (Casey and Hemenway, 68), and is reflected in many writing programs across the world.

Encouragement- Much like offering feedback and maintaining a safe classroom environment, encouragement is important to help students want to continue writing and representing. So many children seek validation, especially in the younger years where we see them “crave ‘adult resonance’ for their work. They need to know that someone is ready to respond patiently, appreciatively and knowledgably” (Thompson, 10).

Covering Important Topics- This may seem like a very obvious thing to remember in the classroom, however it needs to be mentioned! Thankfully the IRP outlines what the students should be learning through the PLOs. In the upper elementary years we can see a clear definition of what to teach through the Features, Purposes, Strategies, and Thinking sections (IRP, PLOs).

These 10 factors are by no means the only important things in the writing and representing classroom, but act as a quick guide of factors to remember when teaching an ELA class. Writing and representing are so critical and are used so often in our daily lives that its critical that we don’t neglect any aspect. 

Source: http://cdn.sheknows.com/articles

How would you support student writing/representing in the ELA classroom?

So now that I’ve discussed a few important things to remember when teaching and supporting writing/representing in the ELA classroom, one question still remains: “How should I support effective writing and representing?” This question can be answered in hundreds of different ways, but I am going to be focusing on supporting writing and representing in the upper elementary classroom. It varies quite drastically from Kindergarten to grade 6, and writing and representing become more structured as the students grow older. I’ve decided to answer this question by offering up some strategies I will be using in my teaching future, and different ways to include writing and representing throughout the later elementary years.

Following the PLOs- I bet you’re thinking “well no kidding Madison!” However, this is step number one for the proper fostering of writing and representing! In grade 6 I find that ELA is becoming much more specific. Focuses on organization of writing, reflecting upon writing, and providing evidence to connect work are becoming prevalent. If you look at the grade 6 and 7 PLOs, you will find that the majority of them refer to call for connections and understanding of the text—A8, A10, B1, B2, B4, B5, B7, B8, B10—which we see has become so much more important than the earlier grades (IRP, 79-90). By including all aspects of the PLOs (Purposes, Strategies, Thinking and Features), we can create a well rounded year that helps children not only in writing and representing, but all aspects of ELA. Writing and representing can truly be covered within all PLOs in some form or another, and that’s what makes ELA so broad but inclusive.

Teach with choice, help them develop a voice- I’m not sure if this is a real saying, but I believe I made it up to help illustrate my point. Students shouldn’t feel beat down by essays and “boring” writing and representing. By offering choice in writing throughout lessons, you can keep students motivated and interested. Not every lesson needs to have creative options, but it still a large consideration! I know in my personal writing experiences, when I got to choose what I wrote about, I found myself becoming more creative and developing my own unique style of representation. In the article Structure and Freedom, the authors discuss why we are seeing a decline in motivation for writing at such a young age starting at the grade 6 level: “Why were students losing their motivation for writing at such a young age?...according to Page, narrative and expressive writing were largely prohibited because the five paragraph essay dominated the sixth grade writing curriculum” (Casey and Hemenway, 70). While we do need to teach the necessities to students, beating them down with them in boring ways doesn’t help anyone! When given a mix of fun activities to learn the lessons, with choices available to satisfy different learning styles, you have a recipe for the perfect lesson! For example, learning the essay style can be done in a fun way about a topic of the student’s choosing. You could even incorporate a fictional story into the same model! Being creative is key here because you want the students to be able to develop their literary voices.

Include writing and representing across other subjects- One of the greatest things about the upper elementary years is the advanced material and skills the students now have. Writing and representing are used so effectively across all subjects at this age. As a teacher, writing and representing can be used in every subject from Math to Science to Social Studies—and they should be! I like to use ELA in every subject, so I know I would be using journals in less traditional ways including in Science and Math. I love the idea of crossover lessons that improve writing and representing while gaining knowledge in other subjects. A simple science experiment can be turned into a report, detailed visual representations of the experiment, then further research into something that interests the students.

Help students develop critical reflection skills- This is something I touched upon in the section above briefly, but it is the most important skill gained in grades 6 and 7 (in my opinion). Being able to look at one’s work and reflect upon how it can be improved is a skill that will never become outdated or unnecessary. It is also one of the main PLOs and has representation across all categories of outcomes. School truly began with teacher feedback, then moved into limited self reflection, then onto peer feedback, and now we see a culmination of all three. Being able to take all types of feeback and reflection and combining it into a final product is what will help support writing and representing the most in the ELA classroom.

Offer lots of writing/representing time- The best way to learn a skill is through practice, and writing and representing are no exception to this rule! By creating a classroom environment where writing is encouraged, and encouraged often, I believe we will see a greater understanding of ELA. Growing up my teachers offered so much time for writing, and it was honestly my favorite part of school each day. I looked forward to working on a story or paper, and never felt as though I didn’t have enough time. As I pointed out earlier, the article Structure and Freedom pointed out that the students enjoyed writing at home so much because they didn’t feel pressured for time and could enjoy the entire process. (Casey and Hemenway, 71). There are 5 major stages in the writing process: planning, rough draft, conference, and editing, and these stages take time to complete successfully (Savage, 42).

Follow my top 10 writing/representing importances- The list of 10 important things to include in the writing/representing ELA classroom that I created above must be included as much as possible. Nothing can be neglected because they are the building blocks for successful ELA—especially in the older years. I went into reasonable depth on these, so I won’t repost what I said, but they are just as important as the suggestions I made above!

Podcasts in the Elementary Classroom

When thinking about podcasts, their use in the classroom was not one that instinctively came to mind. However, upon further research into the topic it has become clear to me that their use in the classroom can be both fun and educational. With society shifting towards a technology-based age it is important to immerse children in a wide variety of means of expressing information. Podcasts also offer a great way to share information to a broader audience while maintaining safety. Videos are not an appropriate means of doing so, as children's safety is at risk, so podcasts become a way for students to share information without jeopardizing themselves.

Podcasts can also act as a great means of storytelling. A number of authors have turned to podcasts for readings of their work, which offers a personalized experience of a book.

http://soundcloud.com/penguin-books/the-penguin-podcast-rob



As well, student directed podcasts act as a great lesson in both subject matter and technology

For example, this website by the Smithsonian Art Museum offers podcasts about artwork created by students

http://americanart.si.edu/education/activities/podcasts/


Overall, I would include podcasting at some point in my teaching career and can see the major benefits of the medium! I always enjoy learning new things and this offers a creative way to both share and learn.

IRP: Help or Hinderance?

Source: http://blog.bekahbrunstetter.com

When starting to think about this assignment “How does the IRP help and/or hinder you as a beginning teacher?”, I was reminded of my concerns and fears before starting the education program. While having experience with children, my experience with classroom instruction and planning was lacking. I was excited to start my education, but nervous at the same time. Will I be a good teacher? How will I know what to teach? How will I know if what I’m teaching is relevant to their futures? Will my lessons all have a greater purpose beyond being a fun activity? ELA is one of the most challenging, yet creative subjects. When I thought about lessons I could teach, my ideas were basic and under-developed. Now that I’ve started the program, my insights have changed dramatically.

How does the IRP help and/or hinder you as a beginning teacher?

Since my introduction to the IRP (Integrated Resource Package), I have noticed the most important influence it has on a beginning teacher—it allows us as teachers to formulate lessons with a deeper meaning. The IRP acts as a guide to help us create the most effective lessons possible. By using the PLOs (Prescribed Learning Outcomes), I can now create lessons I never thought of myself. Last week in class we were asked to bring a book or item to create a lesson plan around. I chose the book “Jacob Two-Two Meets the Hooded Fang”, a novel geared towards the 4^th grade level. Prior to class I brainstormed a few ideas for lessons, but upon looking at the PLOs, my lessons drastically improved. I started thinking of ideas I would never have before, and I noticed my lesson becoming more and more relevant.

This idea directly feeds into another benefit of the IRP. The IRP creates an environment for creativity. By working backwards on a lesson (first deciding what the learning outcome will be), I was able to take one book and fit it into a variety of PLOs. I now had the option of taking the lesson in a number of directions, and my ideas started to flow a lot easier. When you’re not concerned with worrying “is my lesson objective important?” (because the PLO helps you decide that), you can focus on making the lesson memorable for the students and ensure it is the best lesson possible.

Beyond its assistance in creating creative and effective lesson plans, the IRP also provides things to think about. Most notable of these surrounds diversity in the classroom. While we all see diversity and experience it, more often than not we don’t really consider certain differences between students. I will discuss more about who modern ELA students are later in my post, however I can appreciate the less obvious things the IRP makes me think about. The document urges teachers to ensure the topics and lessons support “inclusion, equity, and accessibility for all students. In particular, teachers should ensure that classroom instruction, assessment, and resources reflect sensitivity to diversity and incorporate positive role portrayals, relevant issues, and themes such as inclusion, respect, and acceptance.” (IRP, 12) It may seem obvious to many people that we have to be sensitive, but having the reminder within the IRP will help new teachers like me really sit back and ensure their lesson meets the needs of differing students.

The benefits of the IRP are obviously numerous, but what about hindrances? To be honest, those I’ve found for myself are quite negligible. My only concern about the IRP is the vast magnitude of the document. While this can both help and hinder, it certainly has intimidated me. This is a personal issue, so I don’t believe this problem would carry over into other teachers necessarily. Is this an actual hindrance? No, not really. More of an attempt to see any negative aspect in such a positive document.

“In addition to these principles, this document recognizes that British Columbia’s schools include young people of varied backgrounds, interests, abilities, and needs. Wherever appropriate for the curriculum, ways to meet these needs and to ensure equity and access for all learners have been integrated” (IRP, 3). This statement is what makes the IRP so relevant to teachers today. With a society constantly moving towards acceptance of diversity, it is nice to see these differences embraced in the educational system as a whole. Children of a variety of physical, mental and environmental differences are all an equal part of our classroom, and it is wonderful that the IRP makes a point to recognize this. Which leads me into my next topic of discussion!

Source: http://www.globalchildrensartprogramme.org/

A description of who today’s ELA students are and how they learn. 

While reading through the beginning of the IRP, I came across a commonly used quote. “One size does not fit all” (IRP, 25). We hear this analogy quite often in our daily lives, but the IRP used it in a new way. “Today’s classrooms are enriched by diverse groups of students. As teachers teach the curriculum, they aim to include all students, working toward common expectations with different amounts of support, different texts, different strategies, and a variety of class organizational patterns. One size does not fit all.” (IRP, 25) I found this short little phrase summed up exactly how I view today’s ELA students and how they learn. No two students are alike, whether it be through academics or background.

Within the Canadian classroom of today, the students emerge from a wide variety of cultural and linguistic backgrounds. If teachers fail to understand the differences between cultures and languages, then both misunderstanding and frustration negatively impacts the classroom. (Constructing Meaning, 43) With our students being so vastly different, the role of a teacher is to understand, assess, and adapt to fulfill each student’s needs. Our students will be from all over the world, and understanding their cultural differences in critical. Classrooms are not homogenous! Even language may differ between students as we see an increase in ESL instruction. Beyond cultural diversity, learning diversity is also prevalent.

Source: http://www.justkiddingcartoons.com

In the past, ELA was limited to reading and writing. With all the new technological and educational advances we are seeing a shift towards multi-modal literacy. Multi-modal literacy incorporates a variety of modes of expression within ELA, including print, image, speech, music etc. (Constructing Meaning, 4) We are beginning to see the diversity of the classroom being reflected in the diversity of the lesson. Not every student is the same type of learner. One may thrive with visual representations, others may learn best through listening, while others may relate to writing. The six dimensions of Language Arts—Speaking, Writing, Representing, Listening, Reading and Viewing (Constructing Meaning, 3)—need to all be addressed in today’s classroom. Some students may be visual learners, some may be auditory. Some students may love ELA, while others would rather be working on Math. Much like Robert E. Probst touched upon in his article Tom Sawyer, Teaching and Talking, not all students may be equally enthusiastic about learning Language Arts. All of these small factors comprise the differences in students learning preferences. Going back to "one size does not fit all", these students all view ELA in a different way (whether positively or negatively). 

Not only do our students need to learn from their teachers, they need to take charge of their own learning. Students cannot fully thrive in their education without understanding how they are learning, and therefore learning ways to facilitate their own cognition.  “Students who can monitor their learning, assess their strengths and weaknesses, and set goals for improvement become independent, lifelong learners.” (IRP, 17) ELA students today are gaining more methods of individual learning, which is critical to their success later in life. The IRP focuses on this idea in greater detail due to its importance in the way modern students learn. 

Beyond cultural and learning style diversity, learners also vary in the rate in which they learn.  No longer are students divided based on mental, physical or academic disabilities. This is probably the greatest advance I have witnessed in my short life. Going through school myself, students with differences were separated. There are certainly circumstances where said student would benefit from different instruction, however I look forward to the challenges and rewards that face me in this field when it will benefit the student. 

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Despite how the IRP has helped me, and understanding the variety of learning styles and student difference, I still worry about becoming a teacher. As time goes on and I gain more experience I expect to become more confident within myself, but I have already grown more excited and less nervous. With only a few weeks in the education program I already feel like I have learned a lifetime of knowledge in such a short time, and the IRP and classroom lessons have helped me achieve this. I'm sure with more time and a deeper look into the IRP I will see even more benefits and understand the ELA student today with greater clarity.



Sources: 

Bainbridge, Joyce, Rachel Heydon and Grace Malicky. Constructing Meaning: Balancing Elementary Language Arts, Fourth Edition. Nelson Education: Toronto, 2009.

British Columbia Ministry of Education. "English Language Arts, Kindergarten to Grade 7: Integrated Resource Package 2006". http://www.bced.gov.bc.ca/irp/irp_ela.htm

Probst, Robert E. "Tom Sawyer, Teaching and Talking" in Adolescent Literacy. 43-59.

English Language Arts Today: An Introduction

English Language Arts (ELA) has always played an important role in my life. Throughout my childhood I was an avid reader, writer, and communicator—and I can attribute my successes in these areas to the foundations laid by my teachers. As I grew older, perfecting my skills in ELA became more intensive and I found myself forming an individual Language Arts style. Its this transitional age that I am most interested in studying, so for the purposes of my blog I am focusing on the later elementary grades while still maintaining a general elementary approach.

Growing up I attended 6 different schools prior to university, with each school offering more inspiration towards my teaching goals. My father's career made moving a common occurrence, but I consider myself very lucky to have experienced a wide variety of schools. Each new school allowed me to better understand the successes and shortcomings in differing classrooms, and have inspired me to become an effective teacher. Having experienced so many different classrooms, I really started to understand what I did and did not like at a young age. It was this fact that helped inspire me to become a teacher. I always loved school—from the learning, to my friends, to just having fun, I knew it was something I wanted to do for the rest of my life.

Halloween in Grade 1 !

Halloween in Grade 6 (I'm the angel)
I really loved Halloween haha

For our first blog entry we have been asked to comment on the question: “What do you expect English Language Arts to look like/ sound like/ be like in the Elementary School classroom?” It is a common misconception that Language Arts is simply based in reading and writing. In modern times, ELA is so much more, and includes much broader means of communication.

My description of ELA in the upper elementary classroom vs the lower elementary classrooms are quite different. I remember the wonderful, visual representations of language arts that were hung on the classroom walls. Wonderful pictures and colors always drew me in as a child, and made me excited to learn. As I grew older, I found that visual representations of language arts were less common. By the time I reached grades 6 and 7 they were nearly non-existent. I hope to maintain a variety of visual ELA in my future classroom, not only for the atmosphere but to help accommodate other learning styles. 

With the changing dimensions and means available for ELA, I expect the classroom to be making a transition towards modern variety. From grades 6 through 12 I was required to have a laptop in school, which was definitely a blessing because it opened so many doors for new teaching methods. I feel as though ELA and education as a whole are taking a drastic shift towards including the new technologies available to us. When used properly, all the new means of technology become new means of communication. I hope that as I start teaching I’ll be seeing a wider variety of technologies in the classroom.

While technology can be helpful, it is not the most important aspect of ELA. I expect to see other methods of teaching, primarily in the realms of representing and viewing. I also hope to see the freedoms that come along with modern interpretations of ELA. Education has progressed enormously over the years, and this has resulted in so many opportunities to test new methodologies. I really look forward to becoming a part of it!

One of my old school's elementary buildings
(each classroom had its own house-like entrance, how cute is that)