Writer's Notebook Post #10

We're in the home stretch! This is the last Writer's Notebook Post (tear) for EDT 646: Reading & Writing in the Content Areas. This class has absolutely flown by, but it has been overall a very enjoyable experience for me.

I'd like to document some of the highlights from this course (including some things that I've learned and some things I've enjoyed).

One activity I greatly enjoyed occurred at last Thursday's class. We performed in group book clubs in small groups of four and five teachers, and we were mixed in heterogeneously (regardless of subject and grade level taught). This exposed us to a variety of genres and age levels in the books that were presented, and it was a joy to see some great teachers "brag" about some of their favorite teaching books and instructional methods. The ladies I was grouped with had a variety of texts to share, from a children's novel about money and economics (entitled Lunch Money) to a couple of nonfiction children's texts about sea turtles. This reaffirmed to me that, even though I teach middle school students, picture books and children's books can be powerful resources for the middle school classroom. Students benefit from the illustrations, the graphic organizers, and the simplified information. Although I would certainly not use children's and/or picture books for every classroom project/activity, I definitely think these texts have merit in my Language Arts classroom.

In general, I have learned that I can gain a lot of knowledge and insight from primary grade teachers. When I first started attending this course, I wasn't really sure how much relevance it had for me (since I teach middle level students and already teaching reading and writing as my content area). I am glad, however, that I was terribly mistaken. The crop of women in this class are top-notch; they are intelligent, passionate, creative, and above all, they love their students. It has been so refreshing and motivating to see so many women excited about trying to incorporate reading and writing into their classrooms.

And although I was already familiar with several of the techniques and methodologies in class, I definitely learned some new ones AND was refreshed on teaching methods that I learned in my undergraduate studies.

Perhaps my favorite part of this class was reading William Strong's Write for Insight. Thanks, Dr. Frye, for the recommendation! :) This text, even though it is geared towards OTHER content area teachers (like math, science, Social Studies, etc.) created in me a rejuvenated and energized attitude towards my instruction. It made me want to jump into the classroom the very next day and implement some of his strategies! One strategy that I am determined to utilize more next year is the concept of Exit Slips. This would consist of having the students write down a couple of questions, comments, or concepts learned during the lesson on an index card and then having the students turn these in at the end of class. This would allow me to cater my instruction better for the next day and anticipate which questions I need to answer, which concepts need to be explained further, and which ideas I may not have considered during my instruction.

Overall, this has been a very enjoyable class experience, and I am sad that it's drawing to a close. I hope to keep in contact with many of the ladies from this course, and I am mostly excited to work further with my Professional Text and ILU partner (Erin White, a seventh grade Social Studies teacher).