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Since I only have a 45 minute block with my students, i feel that there isn't enough time for me to exercise a thorough activity where I can get to know each and everyone of my students on a personal level. One informal writing technique I love to use are quick writes an journaling. I would definitely use each as a do now or an exit slip in class, these slips I collect. Instead of critiquing each, what I do is I provide positive feedback and at the same time, I learn about my students on a personal level. Teachers can use formative assessment not necessarily at the end of class and venture into that spectrum of "did they get it?" I feel that we constantly have to be assessing our kids DURING the lessons you teach. I admit this is something I have to work on as an educator myself, but these quick writes and formative assessments must be consistent, daily; writing is a space for our students to release not only what they understood about a lesson or topic rather their own reflection of their personal experiences. When something hits home, you appreciate it more and you are more likely to repeat.

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The Two informal writing structures that I selected stem from the Teaching writing in the article "Helping Struggling Students read and "What makes an assessment" from the PowerPoint presentation.
What piqued my interest in the article was based around the activity used to introduce observational and thinking strategies and rhetorical skills that are involved in descriptive writing. I thoroughly enjoyed how the teacher used specific strategies to invoke descriptive writing.  Showing the students a picture and then taking a portion of it away to see if they were paying close attention was a great way to start the process. It was interesting to see the dialogue among the students as the each gave an account of the details they were able and unable to recall. As the assignment progressed and the students the teacher was able to show the work of one of the students post-test narrative assignment was more descriptive than their pre-test assignment. Each step of the lesson made students aware of the importance of being descriptive in narrative writing.
In the PowerPoint the section that explains "What makes an assessment" was very informative. This past week I was asked to make an assessment of my students and I was completely lost. I asked myself what qualifies me to make and accurate formative assessment. After reading this article I now understand that this assessment derives from the test, quiz and classroom activities given. I recognize that I base how well or poorly my students have performed on how I should proceed.  Teachers are allowed to deviate from the plan (within reason) if the assessment determines that needs to happen. I've found great benefit from this weeks reading because it helped me gain a better understanding of the what, why and how of being a teacher. The techniques were sequential and helped me gain perspective on teaching strategies that would help me as a teacher.

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The different types of informal writing techniques hit me because they are excellent to use in the classroom. The ones that stood out to me and that caught my attention was Quick Writes and Brainstorming/Listing/Mapping. The reason why I like Quick writes is because it gave me a flash back of when I was in literacy class in the 8th grade, I remember my teacher letting us do a quick writes as a Do Now. She would give us five minutes to write and I would fill up my whole page quick because that was my skill and I loved to write. She would tell us to write about anything that came to mind or even something that happened in the morning. I feel this technique is a great way to help students with writing because it helps them become strong writers. The second technique is Brainstorming/Listing/Mapping this is also good way to plan out your papers and essays. You would think about any key words or sentences that come to your mind and list them on paper. You would then form the sentences into paragraphs and it helps you out with coming up with what you want to write about instead of just sitting there with a blank piece of paper and biting on your pen or pencil because you do not know what to write about. This would be another technique I would use with my students because it could be also used to engage with students as a class to give them an example of how it looks like.

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The formative assessment technique was a great way of critiquing a students piece of work with a lot of feedback and heavy detail on aspects of their work. In the Video, the presenter spoke about why its important to explain to writers what exactly they did that worked and what they can improve on.  Students work is not just critiqued, but also given a second opportunity to correct their work and learn from any mistakes. I would make this apart of any longer written assignments in my own classroom. I think this is a great way to not only increase your students confidence in themselves, it allows the learner to be critical of their work. i would also incorporate an informal writing assignment at least twice a month. I loved that doing this allows the student to have choice and the ability to writing about something that interest them. Offering to your students different components of writing is a great way for them to appreciate and array of writing styles.

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One informal writing I would definitely use in my classroom is Quick Write. This writing structure allows the student writers to learn how to answer short opened-ended questions with critical detail. The answers to quick writes are normally short and to the point which is significant when it comes to critical writing. It is easier for any to  go on and on about a topic but it is more difficult to write a short complete response with critical detail. I would most likely use Quick Writes for "Do Now" activity in my classroom. Another form of informal writing that I pique my interest is Brainstorming. This old fashion technique is still one of the best way to get started on thinking of topic and other ideas that can be used to support your maid topic. I would brainstorming as an writing activity in my classroom to help gather students ideas for whenever they start a new writing assignments.

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Two new informal writing strategies from the powerpoint that piqued my interest were the Exit Slips 3-2-1 Outline and the Interactive Journals. I believe I can integrate this informal writing structure by giving students at the end of class to write on a piece of paper three things they learn during a lesson, stating which aspects of the lesson they feel they did well in, and posing one question relate to their experience in the lesson. This model affords students the chance to see what they learned and what they feel they might have done well. It is a positive outlook on the students’ perspective and the teachers gets a chance to assess whether or not their students are understanding the content presented. I will use this strategy to see if I need to move forward with my lessons because my students are understanding or review a lesson to ensure that students truly master the objective of my lesson. I would use this example for middle school students because it is not too difficult to complete and will provide better flow during transition to the end of class. It is accessible and quick for them.

I also think that Interactive Journals are a great way to gauge what the students learned about a lesson. There are multiple dimensions that are included in this informal writing strategy such as; providing summaries, connections to self, community, world, write any questions they may have and opinions they hold about the content, and way to remember information that can be best suited for them. This strategy also utilizes charts and graphics organizers, which help a lot of students because visual learning styles work really well with them. For example, i might use this strategy particularly on high school students. Mainly because in my opinion this is a lot more complex that the 3-2-1 outline. High school students will have more stamina and endurance to reach most of these elements in a class period more efficiently.

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I loved reading the techniques we as teachers can use to get our students excited about learning, and I think that informal reading is a great way to motivate students. One of the informal writing techniques that especially piqued my interest was the "sample quick write," the idea of asking students open-ended questions that prompt critical inquiry into the content area, with the idea of adding choices into what students can choose to write about and have them explain their writing. I think that when students have a choice as to what they can write in the classroom, they gain confidence in their skills and gain a sense of ownership of their learning, something that I feel may be important to students who may not have had access to a high quality New York City education previously in their lives. I also am a huge fan of the 3-2-1 outline, which helps students summarize what they have learned and helps teachers assess students' level of academic achievement. In sum, having students make connections through activation of prior knowledge is definitely something I hope to utilize in my classroom.

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These were all really great ideas to encourage student writing. One that truly stuck out to me was allowing students to pick their own topic. As a child in school, I remember teachers telling me "write about..." but they never allowed me to write about my own interests. As a result, my writing was always very short because I was disinterested in the subject. If they had allowed me to use my own creativity with picking a topic and writing about it, I certainly would have been more invested in my written assignments.
Additionally, I believe that praising, encouraging, and rewarding, what works much more than criticizing what does not work will be effective as well. While this seems to be very similar a "participation trophy" which is something that I am very against, I believe that encouragement can be very rewarding. Criticism can also be employed, but too much of it will certainly do more harm than good. This will also encourage students to be more detailed in their writing, giving the teacher something of more substance to grade.

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Brainstorming is an informal writing activity which I think is effective and I believe it produces excitement both for teachers and students because it allows for ideas to be explored in preliminary stages. Brainstorming is an informal activity that I believe can be utilized regularly because usually teachers present it to help inspire in-depth analysis. It believe it helps with the begins the cognitive process and oftentimes, it serves as the most feasible way to activate a student's prior knowledge about any given subject. The notion of silent conversations also also piqued my interest. I never heard of this idea before nor have I ever since it practiced before. Hence, this activity would be something I would definitely want to try in my classroom.

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I love all of these examples of informal writing. I feel like I already have used many of them in my lesson plans already, I just never knew that they had specific titles. I would definitely like to use Brainstorming/Listing
Clustering/Mapping as often as possible. I think this is a great way to get students thinking outside the box and in a way they can comprehend and understand well. Lists are something that always worked well for me and I feel my students would benefit from learning this skill as well. When starting a new topic, especially in a history class, having the students share out either independently or in groups about what they already know about the topic is a great way to get started. I would have them share out with the class the clusters and ideas that their groups came up with and we would work together as a class to organize these lists into different themes for the upcoming lesson. This is a great way to get them thinking and make connections before, during, and after a lesson. Another technique that I like is writing to learn - silent conversations. This is a great way to have students independently respond to a question or write their thoughts on a topic freely and in a non-judgemental way. However, it will still be a way to keep them accountable because they know one student will be reading their work. Sometimes when students know that the teacher is going to read their work, or they will have to share out to a large group, this can be intimidating. The other end is when students do not have to share their writing with anyone, this leaves the student to hold no accountability. I love this technique, as it is a perfect fix to both of these obstacles. I would use this in any topic when student need to write a short informal paragraph, response, answer to a question, etc.

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Informal writing, in my opinion, gets rid of many of the institutionalized learning/literacy barriers which has been unveiled to exist for students of color. This technique of writing takes away many of the standards and difficulties students face while writing and allows them to explore their ideas, their thoughts, and beliefs without limits. The two informal writing techniques that would be more beneficial to my classroom are: (1) quick-writes which prompts students with an image, quotation, video or question and allows them to write freely about how they can relate to the prompt, what they find interesting etc. and (2) the exit-slip, which encourages students to explain what they have done for the day, what they enjoyed etc. and, more significantly, provides a way of tracking and assessing student learning. Both of the informal writing strategies would best measure whether the students are adequately grasping the content of what they have been provided, without factoring any language or cultural barriers.

I would use the quick-write strategy during do now assignments to see what connections students make prior to beginning a unit or significant issue and at the end of a unit to assess whether their connections or understanding of the prompt has broadened/developed.

I would use the exit-slip as a daily assessment, again, not factoring in any grammatical, spelling or formatting errors and, instead, evaluation content understanding.

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Two of the techniques in regards to informal writing that piqued my interest was the use of graphic organizers and journals. In my opinion, graphic organizers and writing in the margins is an important part of a good writing structure. By having students take notes using a graphic organizer or writing in the margins, students can write the most important parts of a text. This can be used as a guide for students when writing a summary or response.  Graphic organizers help to organize thoughts and see information that is missing. I would integrate this writing structure into my classroom regularly by having students use graphic organizers for all texts we read in class. I would have a stack of print outs available for students to use. By having students use these on a regular basis, they will get used organizing their thoughts while reading. I also really liked the idea of using a journal. By providing students with a task to write back and forth with one another, it can support continued growth.  Using writing prompts to guide students focus on the specific task at hand while using their own perspective. This will help educator check for understanding of content. I would use this regularly in my classroom by doing a Journal assignment every Friday, which could carry on through units.

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One of the informal writing styles that piqued my interest was the 3-2-1 outline described in the slide. This reminded me of an assignment we had to do for class. The 3-2-1 outline helps students understand and summarize what they learned. It also helps teachers identify where students need help and what interests them. I would integrate this an as exit ticket, which should be used daily. Maybe not the same format, but this can be used as one example. I could have my students read an article (this can be applied to any article) that relates to the lesson and then give them the 3-2-1 outline. They would have to answer the following questions: 3 things I learned, 2 things I found interesting and 1 question I have.

Another informal writing style that piqued my interest was descriptive feedback. According to the video it is an important part of formative assessments, where students can revise their efforts and then be reassessed. I can and should integrate this writing structure daily because it will help me understand what my students have/have not learned and how to help them get to the level they should be at. I could have my students use this in class by having them give themselves feedback. For example, when working with a student who was trying to structure a paragraph, but has not done so properly, I would ask them: What is the structure of a paragraph? What aspects of this structure have you used in this paragraph? Which one/s have you forgotten? What do you need to do to improve your work? This will encourage the students to take ownership of their work by evaluating their own work and using their insights to improve it.

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Information writing techniques provide teachers insight on student's understanding of content as well as their areas of growth. Informational writing helps students see writing as a generative process that constantly needs work, rather than a final or formal test. These techniques create a safe a productive classroom because students are not intimidated or defeated by a writing task that restricts their creativity and ideas. However, informal writing techniques are should not be implemented in the classroom as a way to simply curriculum. These techniques must include and partner with rigorous text and curriculum. The article "Helping "struggling" students achieve success" explains how simplifying curriculum does not help teach or prepare students adequately. In order to learn literacy students must be exposed to high level text and rigorous curriculum and reinforces writing, through writing as a continuous task. Two strategies I look forward to implementing in my classroom are quick writes and clustering/mapping.Quick writes were not something I was exposed to in schooling. By promoting students with images and mixed media to simply, just write makes perfect sense. If students are able to get something on the page we can figure out ways to challenge them and strengthen their skills. This also challenges their critical thinking skills in conjunction with their creativity. Cluster mapping sees like a great way to appeal to visual and kinesthetic learners. Writing can be a very independent or isolated activity however, creating cluster maps as a class seems like a useful strategy to have students engage with words, concepts and ideas.

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Out of the informal writing examples, quick write and graphic organizers were the two that interested me the most.  Informal writing, was interesting to me because this is a skill that is used on a lot of test that I have taken. For example, I took the police officer exam and there was a section where you had to look at a picture for a certain amount of time and then answer questions about it. This is a helpful skill to learn because looking at a picture and writing ideas about the picture down can help you remember a lot about a picture. I would use this in my classroom in a lesson plan where, I would put up picture and have the students write down what came to their mind when they saw the picture.
The second example is graphic organizers, writing notes in the margin and annotating text is a very good skill that can prepare students for longer readings and also get them college ready. I would integrate this into my daily lesson plans because I would be setting my students up for success. And this is a great way to be an effective teacher for my students and just preparing them to be model citizens and just ready for the world.

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Two informal writing structures that piqued my interest are academic journals and the brain storming and listing writing structure. Academic journals serve the purpose of keeping track of student learning. Students are able to reflect on class activities (questions, concerns, problems) and set goals for themselves while tracking steps in achieving their goals. Typical language of an academic journal are "I noticed," "I thought," "I wonder" which all reflect on student thinking. Academic journals' non mechanical structure allow students a free space to focus on their feelings about the content. Because academic journals are recommended as a daily activity, they serve as a good tool for documenting student learning/ growth. The brain storming and listing writing structure is a great strategy for fostering critical thinking and writing. Brain storming allows students to think, list their ideas/ thoughts and connect them to bigger categories; all essential skills to become a fluent writer. I would integrate both writing structures into my practice by implementing them in my daily lesson plans. I would use academic journals as a daily homework assignment. Completing an academic journal entry will give students the opportunity to reflect on class content and express their true thoughts, questions and concerns. Their thoughts will help me identify their strengths and their difficulties. I would use the brain storming/ listing technique as a collaborative class assignment. It allows students the opportunity to work with their peers to critically think, list their thoughts and ideas and connect them to bigger groups/ clusters.

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Two examples that caught my interest were: 1. the example of looking at a photograph for a few minutes and then trying to write out as many details as possible and 2. explain the material that we learned to a child. Example 1 interests me because it is a skill that I positively know is needed in the real world. As a former Federal Officer, this was one of the skills that I needed to hone in on and master in order to be sufficient at my job. This is helpful for other citizens as well in cases of being a witness to a crime, or just remembering details for everyday life. It also inflicts a healthy debate in the classroom which I feel is always helpful to promote student engagement. I liked example 2 from the powerpoint because it calls for students to tap into whatever knowledge they gained from the lesson and put it into their own words and simpler terms. Being able to do that shows that they completely understood the lesson, so kudos to the teacher.

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The first approach I chose was “problem-solving learning tasks”, as a cognitive approach, described in Helping “Struggling” Students Achieve Success, by Larry R. Johannessen.

Problem-solving learning tasks are activities that require students to think cognitively, by connecting their outside knowledge, experiences, and culture to complex questions, by a mixture of class discussions, worksheets, and independent writing.  I really like this approach because it is student-centered, provides scaffolds, while still engaging the students in complex thought processes.

I intend to use the activity described in the reading (Page 640), which involves the students studying a drawing for details, and then having them answer questions about the details without the drawing in front of them.  There is then a class discussion about the details of the drawing, followed by a review of the drawing to see how accurate the students were.  It ends with a short writing assignment, where the students are asked to describe on part of the drawing in detail.  I am teaching my students about narrative writing next week, and think this activity would be perfect to teach the students how to write descriptively.

The second approach I chose was “quick writes”, which was described in the Informal Writing Lecture Power Point (Slides 8-12).   This approach has students writing short and informal writings, which can be based off of various prompts, including questions, scenarios, and images.  I liked this approach because it can be utilized daily, can give students an opportunity to be creative, and can provide options for students to differentiate the assignment as needed. I intend to utilize this in my class by having short writing assignments in my Do Now, and by giving students options in their writing.

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The two informal writing techniques that piqued my interest were the Three Column Notes and Dialogue Journaling.

As a teacher, I want to make sure I reach all of my students. A common problem that I noticed for good students as well as struggling students is that oftentimes they don’t know how to take good notes. Notetaking doesn’t come easily for a lot of students, as many times they get confused when it comes to what portion of information being covered in the lesson is important for them to refer to at a later time. The Three Column Notes graphic organizer was super simple and great for helping a student hone in on what pertinent information they need to retain from the class. The example that I saw via the Three Column Notes link showed it being used for a math class. I think it would help my struggling math students by having them focus on the most important aspects of the lesson by breaking it down to concept, example, explanation. I would hand the Three Column Notes out at the beginning of my math class and have students fill them out as we go along in the lesson with me, the first few times, verbalizing which portion of the lesson we are covering. For instance, I would state the concept for them, give an example, and then state the portion of the lesson that goes over the explanation. By me showing them initially what information would go in which box they will be able to fill out the organizer on their own after about a week. Overall, this technique will help students retain the information learned during the lesson and quickly recall the steps necessary to solve math problems involving this concept in the future.

The Dialogue Journaling technique would be a great way for me as a teacher to assess my students understanding of a text and their formulation of an opinion. I like the idea of having students write to one another on a reading. I see this technique as reinforcing learning while helping students form bonds with one another. Dialogue Journaling also encourages independent thinking and allows for students to hear another perspective on the same material. It can also serve as a springboard for students to form an essay based on what was journaled. As I read the description of this technique, I also came to the conclusion that many students would enjoy doing this activity with their classmate as it is so similar to what they already do on social media! Students may not make that connection between Dialogue Journaling and social media, but as a teacher that wants to always connect content to my students, I would show them the parallels. Then, I would show a mock one on the board, so they will understand how to fill out their entries. After we have read our class text, I would have students pair up and journal with their partner. Each person would get 2mins to express their opinion or respond and express their opinion. Students would also be instructed to use different color pens, which would be provided for them to use. Students would also have the opportunity to share with the class their dialogues. They can explain if they agreed or disagreed with one another or came across any other interesting talking points. I think once they see the similarities and how they already engage with their peers in a similar manner via social media, they will enjoy this technique.