I fulfilled the objective of connecting with others by sharing and responding to video introductions by doing this immediately after I completed the introduction video from the professor. This way I had an understanding of who I would be working with prior to our first meeting. I also took the time to watch more videos than what we were required to do. 

The biggest thing I took out from identifying important aspects of early literacy learning and engaging others in thinking about them was reading aloud to students more than what most teachers do. We talked about this a lot in our group discussions when we went into breakout rooms. This was also brought up in the reading we had to complete. 

I completed the objective of identifying aspects of my literacy learning experiences that fostered or inhibited that learning by completing a Prezi on my literacy history. I got to think back to when I was learning how to read and prior to that to think about what got me to the point where I could read on my own. Some of the learning experiences that helped me included drawing pictures and then sounding out the words of what my picture entailed. The teacher would then write what I was really trying to say. Reading aloud was another big part of my history. 

When we met in small groups to discuss our literacy history, I reflected on the importance of my literacy learning experiences for my future teaching. I got to hear about what others experienced to broaden my ideas on what I can do in my future classroom. Before my literacy history assignment, I never really thought about my experiences in the classroom at the ages when I was learning to read. I got to look back and reflect on how some things teachers did made me enjoying reading and some things made me dread it. 

I wish I learned more about what should be expected of educators when it comes to teaching reading. I believe we will learn more about that as the semester goes on and I am looking forward to that. I am also looking forward to the feedback on my literacy history. Is what I remembered from learning how to read common? What else should I have remembered? These are questions I have been thinking about that I am looking forward to hearing the responses for. 

For the next module, I think I am going to spend more time reflecting on the reading and taking detailed notes to help me. Moving forward, I am just looking forward to your feedback on my work. I know we have not had a chance for you to do that yet, but I find constructive feedback very helpful. 

 

I would say I met objective 3.2 all the way due to discussion between myself and my partner for our group project as well as through the formal discussion post online. When working with my partner on the predictable chart, we took into account some of the pillars such as vocabulary. After discussing, we decided to make our predictable chart include alliteration. The first letter of the student’s name would also be the first letter of the student’s favorite food. When we practiced saying our morning message, we talked about concepts of print. We pointed out punctuation, spaces between words, capital letters and so much more.  I also went more in depth through discussion with my peers while participating in the actual discussion post. Again, many students and I included vocabulary when talking about lessons from the reading and focusing lessons on alliteration as well as other elements. Some of us also talked about concepts of print with ideas such as sharing the pen. Here students would notice there is a space between words for us to fill in. Here we could also talk about reading from left to right as well as writing left to right. From the readings, some people talked about phonics activities teachers could include in their classrooms for students. These are just a few of the 7 pillars that I read and talked about through discussion. 

 

I believe I met objective 3.4 completely due to my work with my partner for our predictable chart. Here, not only did we get to complete a predictable chart with other activists such as a word wall and covering the word, we also got to take turns teaching these concepts as well as acting like a student learning these concepts. For our morning message, we focused on concepts of print mainly through directionality of words and sentences as well as the difference between letters, numbers, symbols, and punctuation. Letter names were practiced in the activity where students would have another student's name on a card and then we would break up the student’s name letter by letter. Here students would see letter names as well as the difference between capital letters and lowercase letters. Phonemic awareness was practiced multiple times. When we completed our word wall, we would have had students sound out the word when adding it to our list. Here students would have to sound out the word letter by letter. Phonics was used in one of our students' names we picked. We had the name Chad as one of our names and this would be a great time to explain to students about CH. When we hear this sound, we know it is ch. These are just a few examples of how we practice instruction with these elements. 

 

I definitely met objective 3.4 in a compelling way because all of my objectives above include examples of how I met them through videos, readings, class discussions, and learning activities. My predictable chart really helped me fully meet the objectives of practicing instruction with some of the pillars. The portfolio of practice helped me really focus on 3 of the 7 pillars and how I can include these pillars in my future class. The discussion post helped me see points of view from my peers and helped me see why certain activities stuck out to them and how they would use those activities in their future classrooms. The readings and videos are what inspired my responses to the learning activities and discussions. 

 

I know next week we are going to focus on the rest of the pillars. I believe this is what I still need to spend more time on. If I had to pick something from this lesson to spend more time on, it would be the thoughts from Dr. L on the reading from Phonics they Use. What do you think we’re the most useful activities from reading? Have you used any of these in your own classroom? What seems to work well and what seems to not go as planned? Overall, maybe just some advice on how these lessons typically go. I really enjoyed this lesson getting some helpful tips, activities, and teaching references for my future classroom. 

            I met objective 6.2 in a compelling way through the learning activity for the week. I first had to watch the teaching videos to gain knowledge about what each one of these learning activities were. I then used what I noticed to come up with main ideas for each of these. For the portfolio of practice, I listed what the purposes for interactive and shared writing are. I talked about what students and teachers do in this type of activity. I then went on the talk about their similarities and differences. This was included in the chart for my portfolio of practice. 

            Objective 6.3 was met in a compelling way on Thursday in my learning team. We spent the majority of our class time in our learning team practicing teaching interactive writing and shared writing. Here I got to gain insight from one of my peers on how to make my work better. I also got to collaborate with her on how to make this assignments run as smoothly as possible. After discussing the assignment, one of us acted as the teacher while the other was the student and then flipped roles. It was challenging to come up with kid appropriate answers to each activity and we found ourselves working together on some of them. I also gained great ideas for how to improve my methods of teaching for shared writing when Dr. L worked with us one on one. Here I learned that it is okay to stretch out our shared writing assignments out over a couple of days. Let students do research on the topic and really be able to contribute to the class discussion when it is time. 

            Objective 6.4 was definitely met in a compelling way due to my responses above. Every objective includes proof of how I met it by either the readings, videos, discussions, in person class, or learning activities. I did find the learning team activity challenging to do by teaching since we do not have a group of students. Assuming is the only thing we can do and in reality, we all know what we assume to happen is not always the case for what actually happens. My learning team partner and I did have a nice discussion on these activities, and we collaborated really well for this assignments. I loved having feedback from Dr. L during our leaning team meeting. This was very helpful, and I definitely took the most information out of this lesson due to that conversation we had. The readings were super easy to comprehend this lesson and the videos were extremely helpful as well!

 

Thinking back to the beginning of the semester, I remember we thought and or wrote about what we believe reading and writing development were to us. Prior to this module, I did not know reading had different stages that we classify students under. I knew there were different books for better readers, and we had higher expectations for them. I would have never thought about the meaning behind scribbles. Thinking back to this I believe I met objective 7.2 in a compelling way. After reading the assigned readings for this week, I now have such a better understanding of what reading and writing development is. I learned about how reading development comes in stages and how you can have students at every stage in the same classroom. I learned that with writing, scribbles can have so much meaning behind them. 

 

I met objective 7.3 in a compelling way. The learning team activity for the week as well as the readings allowed me to meet this objective. Before I did any assignments and read the readings for the week, I learned so much from observing children’s written artifacts and then reading the true explanation of their piece. Then, with my learning team partner, we dove deep into two specific written artifacts and learn even more. Overall, the main point I took out from this part of the module was to ask your students questions about their work, because either behind those drawings or behind those words, there is a deeper story they do not know how to represent on paper. Finally, I got to listen to my peer’s presentations on the written artifacts they chose to interpret which gave me so many more new insights as well. 

 

Due to the readings and learning team activity, I met objective 7.4 in a compelling way. Through the readings, I learned that behind every students either writings or drawings there is a deeper meaning. Dr. L emphasized the point of pointing out things in students work and trying to get them to explain more about it either to you verbally or to even write it. You do not want to assume what a child is drawing about or writing about, you want to talk to them about it based on observations you can come to from what they have already done. The readings did a fabulous job of providing examples of this and how teachers go about making these observations in the classroom.  

 

In order to meet all of these objectives, I used a combination of the readings, my peer’s responses, discussions, my learning team partner, and insight from Dr. L. I had the readings done first so I could have a full understanding of the module. I talked with my learning team partner prior to class so we could be prepared. The readings their self-had so many helpful topics to consider as a future teacher, but I feel like everything fell under one of the objectives. For the next module, I am going to try and read more of my peers’ responses to gain more insights. After hearing everyone share their presentations, I really enjoyed hearing certain things from different perspectives.  The only thing I need your help with might be to make sure everything is posted at the beginning of the week. I did not know we had a portfolio of practice for this week until Thursday or Friday. Also, the discussion posts were not uploaded when I checked the module the first time after completing the prerequisites. Thank you for the helpful videos!

I believe I met objective 8.2 in a compelling way, again, because of the readings and because of the learning team activity for the week. To prepare myself, I first read the 6 traits of writing article and then looked over the rubric for the 6 traits. With my learning team partner, I then assessed a first graders work on how well he applied these 6 traits to his own writing. Again, I got to talk with my learning team partner to come up with the best possible assessment for the first graders work. 

Objective 8.3 was met in a compelling way due to the learning team activity for the week. The first section of the guide we used for the parent teacher conference was all about concepts of print. Using my knowledge, as well as my learning team partners knowledge, we assessed a first graders writing by looking at his directionality of print, left to right, up to down, spaces in between words, etc., his use of punctuation, and commas. My partner and I talked through each of these concepts and explained why or why not the student met the concept of print. For the most part, he did a great job. His work was super neat, he used spaces between his words, he went from left to right and up to down. He just needs a little bit more practice on his capitalization as well as the proper use of punctuation. 

Again, I met objective 8.4 in a compelling way this week in my learning team. Here I completed the learning team activity which was to fill out an assessment guide for a student’s writing. We did this together and then I got to practice having a parent teacher conference with my learning team partner. First, I was the teacher and then I explained how or how not “her student” was meeting expectations for writing. I used the guide provided by Dr. L during my conference to make sure I hit all the key points. I answered any questions the “parent” had about her son. We then flipped places so she could practice being the teacher. This was a great experience. 

Overall, I really enjoyed this module. While the parent teacher conference was not exactly how it is going to be in the future, it was still nice to know I was spending my time this week on something that is going to be important as a future teacher. I am not sure if it would need more time, but it would be interesting to see an actual parent teacher on this content. What types of things did a teacher actually bring up with a parent and how did the teacher go about expressing his or her concerns with parents? As I approach the next module, I am going to try and get everything done prior to the due date. I am really looking forward to the reading day and I want to treat it as an actual day off for my own mental health. We are halfway through the semester, but it just keeps feeling like everything is building up and I cannot catch a break. I hope this strategy will help me keep pushing through. 

Due to the readings, videos, and discussion posts for this week, I was able to meet objective 9.2 in a compelling way. The readings and the videos especially provided me with the resources I needed to understand what a classroom should look like during Writer’s Workshop. I then got to take some of my favorite aspects from both of these to talk about what I see myself having in my future classroom. For example, I loved the inclusive rug used in both the videos and in the readings. Here students have a place to gather when doing min lessons. I also read about great ideas from my peers. One of my peers talked about having free write paper around the room for students to use when they complete other assignments. I thought this was a great idea and I am going to use this in my future classroom as well. All of these ideas are applying to the physical environment needed to create a good workplace for students during Writer’s Workshop. 

Objective 9.3 was met in a compelling way because of the readings as well as the learning team activity for the week. The readings provided me with background information that allowed me to complete the learning team activity for the week. For the learning team activity, I used the three expectations provided for us as well as choose two more between myself and my learning team partner. Then using the expectations, we talked about how we would best manage our space in our classroom to implement the expectation, what students would need material wise to complete the activity, as well as any materials we would need as the teachers, and then we explained the teaching practices being used. The learning team activity is the main tool I used to meet this objective; the Writer’s Workshop book just provided me with background knowledge.  

Objective 9.4 was met in a compelling way due to the fact that I completed all of the necessary items in this module. I used the readings and the videos to complete the discussion posts as well as the leaning team activity for this week. I talked about how I used the readings, videos, activities, and discussions to meet the objectives. This module taught me a lot about how a Writer’s Workshop should be running in an elementary classroom. One of the biggest things I gained from this module is that even though we can have an idea of how a Writer’s Workshop should be ran, it is going to be different in every classroom depending on your students. Your students are what a Writer’s Workshop revolve around from mini lessons, time spent on activities, and how far along students are. 

I really enjoyed this module as I plan to teach lower elementary. Writer’s Workshops are going to be so essential for these students to succeed. I think I did a great job understanding this module on my own and I have no further questions or concerns. Next module I plan to take just as much out of the module, if not more since I know it is going to be relating to Writer’s Workshop again. 

 

Objective 10.2 was met in a compelling by completing the readings for the week as well as by completing the discussion board, topic 1. During this discussion post, I talked about how Writer’s Workshop can be established in the classroom. I got all of my information out of the Writer’s Workshop textbook. I then read my peers responses as well and gained more insight on this topic. Many of us had different ideas as to what would make us a good teacher of writing which is always so interesting to me. There is not a right or wrong answer here either. Discussion posts always allow me to further my learning first by completing the original post then by getting to read what everyone else has to say. 

 

I believe I met objective 10.3 in a compelling way by giving good feedback on one of my peers’ discussion posts. This discussion post was topic one where we were talking about establishing a Writer’s Workshop in our future classroom. I included what I thought was a good point they brought up. Then I included classroom examples of how I personally have struggled with writing as that is what one of my peers was referencing. I also recognized that the point they had brought up often goes unnoticed by teachers, so she is already one step ahead of the game. 

 

Objective 10.4 was met in a compelling way when I created my lesson plan with my learning team partner. While this document is meant for a teacher to use, it can be shared with other teachers to give them ideas as well. I also used both of the discussion posts to help me meet this objective as well. After talking about some of the tips I found to be most helpful for teaching writing as well as talking about establishing a Writer’s Workshop in my classroom, I then read what some of my peers had to say about these ideas and learned even more. 

 

Overall, I think this lesson went fairly well. The sample lesson plan really gave me an idea of what was expected. I learned a lot of tips from the reading and shared those in my discussion post topic 2 and that was not a straight objective to be met. I do think a document that can be shared with teachers that talks about workshop routines would be helpful as we did not have a portfolio of practice for the week. Next week, I am going to try and communicate with my learning team partner more before class as the past two weeks have been a little bit of a struggle and we have been getting a late start to the learning team activities. 

            I believe I met objective 11.2 in a compelling way because of the learning team activity for the week. After reading all the chapters for this week as well as watching at the videos for this week, I worked with my learning team partner to come up with three crafts we can teach in our future classroom during Writer’s Workshop. We then came up with a few different lessons we can do to help teach these crafts to our students. We found multiple books that represent the craft being used so students will have a model to go off of. At the end of class on Thursday, we all came together and talked about some of the things we learned from our learning team activities this week and I shared how I learned that one book can be an example of multiple different crafts, but it is important to try and only teach one craft at a time, so students do not get confused. 

            I met objective 11.3 in a compelling way. I used the discussion posts as well as a couple of videos to meet the objective of demonstrating knowledge of the writing conference. In my discussion posts, I talked about some of the main ideas that stuck out to me in the writing conference video. One of the main things I pulled out from the video was how you should try and let your students talk through their writing with you so you can get the full message because it is hard for students to get all of their ideas down when they are new to writing. Also, it is important to just not tell your students what they did wrong. It is a conference, and you are supposed to talk through their writing together. 

            Because of the discussion post, learning team activity, readings, and videos for the week, I was able to meet objective 11.4 in a compelling way. Using information from the readings and the videos, I talked about how a mini lesson, independent writing, and shared writing can all be assessed in my discussion posts. In my learning team activity for the week, I also came up with an informal checklist I can use as a future teacher during each of these phases of Writer’s Workshop. We came up with the major items we should be looking for during each of these times. The reading chapters for the week really helped us with the learning team activity for the week. 

            Overall, each week I am getting a deeper understanding of why Writer’s Workshop is so important and what I should be doing when I am teaching. I appreciate you having us do assignments that I will actually use as a future teacher. I did think I could use more time on the revision and skills section. I found this challenging to complete on the learning team activity for the week. For module 12, I plan to continue checking in with my partner prior to class. I also plan to maybe try and start the learning team activity prior to class that way if I have any questions I can be prepared to ask them.