Virginia Educator- Practice Scoring
I thought this SOL exercise was extremely helpful for me as a future educator. I scored some of the papers higher than the assigned score and I also scored some lower than the assigned score. I rarely score the paper the same score as the child received on the SOL test. This really opened my eyes to see how different people scoring different papers could result in a very different grade for the student writer. I think that every future (and current) educator should be required to go through this tutorial and practice scoring papers in order to see how their scores compare to the SOL scoring system. I have learned that I am not very consistent in scoring papers; I scored papers both above and below what the SOL score was. Some of the papers shown online could be used in a classroom setting by allowing the students to edit them. They will be able to see mistakes and practice editing their own papers in preparation fro the SOL test as well as to improve their writing overall.
Chapter 5: Preparing for High-Stakes Writing Assessments
Main Points of Chapter:
- Historical Perspective
- Writing Assessment Methods
- Objective Methods of Writing Assessment
- Direct Methods of Writing Assessment
- Focused Holistic Scoring
- Primary Trait Scoring
- Multiple/Analytic Trait Scoring
- Portfolio Assessments
- Writing Assessment Tasks
- Divergent Writing Assignments
- Ideas/Focus/Content
- Design/Organization
- Language/Style/Voice
- Sentence Fluency/Syntax/Sentence Structure
- Standard Conventions
- Trait Bookmarks
- Convergent Writing Assignments
- Checklists
- Webs
- Venn Diagram
- Tree Diagram
- Product Versus Process
Response to Chapter:
I thought it was interesting that there were so many different types of scoring a child’s writing. In the direct methods of writing assessment there four different ways to score a particular piece of writing. This could potentially be a problem because depending on how you score the writing, a child could get a variety of different scores on the same piece of writing. Writing samples could be graded for grammar, spelling, how well the prompt is answered, organization, handwriting, spelling, etc. I feel that this would be more of a problem in a collaborative classroom with two teachers who split the grading responsibility. One teacher could grade a different way than the other, causing the children in the class to have unfairly represented grades. To solve this problem, teachers should have a conference to set a rubric for grading student’s writing. This will eliminate the differences in grading and allow the teachers to focus on specific aspects of the writing as they grade.
Chapter 6: Connecting Writing and Classroom Conversation
Main Points of the Chapter:
- Academic Conversations
- Informal Oral and Written Conversations
- Formal Oral and Written Conversations
Response to Chapter:
I found this chapter interesting because I never realized how many opportunities there are for informal oral and written conversations about writing and language. The kindergarten classroom discussion of how many languages there should be in the world was more than I thought that a kindergarten class could be capable of. I liked how they all had their different reasons for their answers and they were very insightful when realizing that it would be hard for kids who speak a different language to learn how to speak English. I think it is important for teachers to bring up language and writing in everyday conversations with students in order to keep in fresh in their minds and always embrace the opportunity to stress its importance.
I also like in the formal oral and written conversations how the teacher offered the students advise on correcting their papers. The teacher made it more like a conversation rather than writing the comments or just crossing through things. While this is not realistic for every teacher to have the time to go through one-on-one with a students paper, I feel that this technique would be very helpful for students.
Chapter 4: Writing With Purpose for Real Audiences
Cinquain:
Writing
Student Writing
Real Audiences Reading
Writing Is Problem Solving
Learn
Chapter 3: Writing Narrative
Main Points of the Chapter:
- Narrative writing in classrooms covers the writing process and the writing workshop to edit text once it has been written
- Writing development
- Early writing development is when students first learn the difference between writing and drawing
- Beginning writing development is when students start to connect sounds to letters and represent words with initial consonant sounds
- Developing writing development is when all sounds of a word are represented but the word is missing some letters and is not spelled right
- Proficient writing development is when students start to become more purposeful in their writing and short and long vowels are mastered
- Gender and Writing
- Young boys write about super-hero type characters while girls write more about friendship
- Girls tend to develop writing skills earlier on than boys
- Informal Narrative Writing
- Focused on sharing ideas rather than making connections
- Personal journals and reader response journals are an example of these
- Formal Narrative Writing
- Examples include letter writing, poetry, stories, and multi-genre writing
Response to Chapter:
This chapter had many interesting points about writing narratives that I will take into account when I teach in the future. One part that stuck out to me in particular was the section on gender and writing. It is important for teachers to know that boys and girls have different developmental stages, even when it comes to writing. According to Barone (2006), if a teacher did not know that girls tend to write “more complex, longer texts in early grades” and use “a wider range of verbs and adjectives and included more elaboration” they would conclude that a boy in their class may be in need of special education (p. 55). I have seen this happen more often than one would think. Teachers need to be patient and nurture each individual student’s writing needs. Also, boy’s writing tends to be more violent and therefore unacceptable to some teachers. They may even refer the student to a guidance counselor for violent images portrayed in writing. All a teacher needs to do is simply steer the child in the right direction of an appropriate topic to write about in school. The bottom line to remember is to encourage students to write many different forms of writing in the classroom and to never punish a child for writing on an inappropriate topic; this may further discourage them from writing in the future.
Chapter 2: Writing About Information
Main Points of the Chapter:
- Informal Writing
- Writing about mathematics
- Writing about science
- Writing about social studies
- Writing about vocabulary
- Formal Writing
- Report Writing
- Concept-Oriented
- Organization of Informal Text
- Description
- Sequence
- Cause-effect
- Problem-solution
- Compare-contrast
- There a leveled books, picture books and chapter books
Response to Chapter:
I really liked the section on concept-oriented reading instruction (CORI). In this program, it allows students to decide what they want to write about rather than having the teacher assign a topic that may not be of interest to a child. When a child is presented with a high-interest topic to write about they will want to research. As Barone and Taylor state (2006), This four step program allows students to pick a topic, use the library and resources to research their topic, take notes and summarize their information, and “present their discoveries to others through journal entries, reports, class books or informational stories” (p. 41). I believe that by letting the students take a more independent approach to learning they will have significant gains over those students who are just handed an assignment. It is important for teachers to help guide the students through the process as well, correcting mistakes when they first appear. Teachers can filter these topics by suggesting a broad topic from a required list and have the students create their own focus. I can see this being useful in a classroom setting because when students present their topics they may have looked at it in a completely different manner than some other students have. It will not only help the students comprehension by explaining their findings but it will also benefit other students in the class by hearing a topic they might not have studied as in-depth as others.
Evaluating Blogs
I read the article about turning in late homework. I think that in my classroom I will accept late homework (to an extent) without penalty in order to encourage the students to complete the assignment. When teachers don’t accept late homework the child ends up losing what they would have gained through doing the project. He/she will also fall behind because all of their peers will have had the deepened knowledge of the topic due to having completed the assignment. Also, it would depend on my students. Being a SPED teacher, I would have to adjust certain assignments for some students regardless. By giving a child an extension on a project it would simply ensure that the project could be done to the best of that child’s ability.
Writing Now
There is no one correct way to teach writing, especially to Special Education students. Writing is primarily used to learn; students are asked to write about a certain topic to evaluate their understanding. It was surprising reading all of the different myths that we see in a school setting daily. Many teachers are using what they think are good practices but they are actually harming our students by not teaching them the proper ways of writing.
Writing being holistic means that it incorporates many skills in order to produce a final product. Some of these skills children need to master include: syntax, morphology, semantics, spelling, grammar, and mechanics. A problem in one of these areas can cause even greater problems to a student’s writing. Writing being authentic requires the writer to address multiple audiences in multiple situations. This could include a formal letter to an organization or a persuasive essay. A varied approach recognizes that there are many different types of writing and many different scenarios that writing is necessary. This approach celebrates the different types of writing and encourages students to gain experience in all of the multiple forms of writing.
Chapter 10: Getting Practical
Main Points of the Chapter:
- There are many web resources that can help teachers effectively implement their literacy program in the classroom
- Material needs to be reviewed by the teacher before presenting to children
- Some search engines might not be acceptable for children; use kid specific search engines to avoid exposure to unwanted material
Response to Chapter:
Although this chapter did very little explaining, I found it the most informative. I liked that it not only gave you a large list of websites that can help, they also described each website and what it could be helpful to use for. It also breaks down the websites in terms of categories such as search engines for students, literacy organizations, reading out loud and reader’s theater. I know I will use these websites in my future teaching career to help make my classroom instruction as effective as possible.
Chapter 9: Issues in Early Literacy
Main Points of the Chapter:
- There are four main approaches discussed to help at-risk readers:
- Predictive Approach
- Descriptive Approach
- Unilateral Approach
- Ecological Approach
- The Anna Plan is grounded on the ecological approach and is one of the International Reading Associations exemplary reading programs
- The No Child Left Behind act has changed many teaching practices in schools and required state testing in grades 3 through 8
Response to the Chapter:
I enjoyed the 5-day plan for teachers under the Anna Plan. It was very helpful to me to have the way to teach a new book laid out in perfect sequence. The plan was easy to follow and I believe it incorporated many key aspects when teaching any new material. First, it is important to prime student’s background knowledge. Teachers can do this by having a general discussion about what the book will be about and have students make predictions based on pictures of what will happen; this will also increase a child’s motivation to read the story to see if their predictions are correct. I also like that it plans out for a teacher to solve words while reading the story. If a word comes up in a story that many of the students don’t know, a teacher can stop and ask what they think it means according to context clues within the story. This will help with comprehension of the new word by directly connecting it to a story they are reading. The word will make more sense if it is relevant to the student. Overall, this chapter had a lot of interesting approaches that sounded really effective for teaching students early literacy.