We’ve read, we’ve researched, we’ve written, we’ve presented, we’ve participated, we’ve witnessed others’ presentations–all with the underlying assumption that these activities would help us in our teaching of writing.
Now is the time to get some of your ideas about implementing changes in your curriculum written down. These may be simple notes, or elaborate plans; it depends on where you are in your thinking at the moment. You may be thinking about introducing brand new practices, or adapting new aspects into curriculum that you already have found to be successful. Whatever your approach, think of this as an opportunity to reflect on what you’ve read, discussed, presented, and witnessed, and capture the ways that you imagine employing these in your own practice.
Write your own post that collects your current thinking.
4 users commented in " Planning for Upcoming School Year "
Follow-up comment rss or Leave a TrackbackMy head is swimming with ideas, but what I want to focus on most is developing my Writers’ workshop. I’m excited to incorporate the list of mini lessons from Wondrous Words. Viewing revision in a new light is also thrilling because it gives me a new focus for conferring with my students. I’m nervous, but I’m taking Kathy’s advice and jumping in.
I’ve heard so many good ideas in the institute. I’ll be borrowing from so many people. I’ll use the method that Janeen showed to help my students remember key elements that they will need for certain types of writing. It’s such a great kinisthetic organizer. And I’ll definitely be adapting Michael’s ideas about teaching figurative language. And I have other ideas floating around my fried brain about ideas that I’ve received from others in the group. The institute has really helped me to understand–and believe–that my instincts about how to teach writing are sound, that I should teach many of the practices that I use as a writer to my little writers. I will also finish reading Wondrous Words and then will reread certain chapters, especially the ones Janeen talked about in our presentation and Chapter Nine. I am excited about teaching my students to learn to read like writers. And like Alicia, I’m looking forward to doing Writer’s Workshop.
Kyra and I are going to create a blog where both of our students collaborate and respond to quotes placed on the blog. We want to incorporate a multi-model document about a social injustice that we can share with each others class. We have a lot of planning to do but I am excited to see the results.
I want to focus on making my English 119 (pre-college writing focusing on paragraph and short essay development) less formulaic and more relevant to students. This fall however, I am not teaching a section of English 119. So it will all be theoretical until at least spring. (This is the new piece I am most excited about, though).
In English 2 (college composition and critical thinking) I am scrapping the TWO argument papers in favor of one research paper that’s actually, um, readable. I want to introduce a unit on doing primary research in the form of interviews of “credible” people in the subject matter. Then, I’m going to encourage students to produce a short film on their research as a capstone project.