Common Core Reflection

This semester has been a learning curve when it came to teaching writing. I came into this semester apprehensive about teaching writing. But after all my experiences, I feel like I much educated teacher and more knowledgeable about writing. I became more knowledgeable about the standards required for writing, what common core wants to achieve, how to properly assess a student’s writing and how to teach language and writing conventions Throughout this semester one of the big themes we learned is what makes writing instruction effective. I got a first glimpse at how I wanted to teach writing when I worked on my case study. I came into my case study thinking here’s what I want to teach my student: he needs to learn that I have high expectations

Common Core aims to achieve that. Common Core’s purpose is to give students the skills necessary to achieve in a varied text world. Reading Pathways to Common Core and presenting on it taught me more about what common core wants to achieve. They set their standards in progression so they just increase their depth not relearning different skills. I also learned that their standards are set to justify what students should learn for various types of genres. Throughout the semester, I learned that expository writing is the hardest for students because they get the least amount of experience with that. I was lucky enough to learn about what common core states for informational texts. Common core wants teachers to teach students through things such as lab reports, summaries on reading, and nonfiction book. This is achievable through implementing writing throughout all content areas, or creating a Thematic Unit. Creating a thematic unit allowed me to really understand that you can implement writing in any content area, whether it be the entire lesson, or even a short 5 to 10 mini lesson. I created my thematic unit on 19th century advancements which allowed me to express writing in various ways. We thought about having students create their own working song, having students experiment with solving written word problems and creating their own, and lastly having a science writing journal. Common core

This semester I learned about assessment through my practicum experience. I came into this semester not knowing how to assess a student in writing because writing isn’t a subject that has a rubric. Writing focuses on how well you convey your ideas to your reader. Assessing a student should not be focused entirely on correct conventions, excellent vocabulary, correct grammar, etc. It should also take in to account how well you conveyed your ideas to your readers as well as the structural conventions. I also learned that assessment doesn’t have to be done just through assessing a paper. Assessment can be done through informal or formal conferences, interviews, gaining periodic writing samples, or even student self-assessment. I gained experience this year assessing students’ writing in my practicum classroom. I graded their FSA writing and I absolutely hated it. I was given a rubric and still felt pressured to make sure that each grade was an accurate reflection of their writing skills even with skewed factors to grade them on. Students were graded more so on their structure, style, conventions, etc. and it made me felt like it was only showing students their weaknesses not their strengths. I want students to be able to realize their own strengths and weaknesses and reflect on those to make them a stronger writer. This can be done through setting expectations and beliefs that they are talented writers and that while they may have