During last weeks' meeting, we learned about pen-portrait. This is a descriptive piece of writing that tells someone who you are. However, this piece is to be written in the 3rd person, meaning the writer addresses themself as she, her, by name, etc. and, a professional picture is to be included in the said portrait. It also highlights your skills, attributes, and competencies. 

Below is a sample of what a pen-portrait is like:

Tamia Martin is a bubbly, sociable, warm-hearted individual. It has been one of her dreams to become a primary school teacher. And now, being enrolled in the Clarence Fitzroy Bryant College - Teacher Education Division, that dream is well on its way to being in full effect. Through training for the past year, Tamia has acquired the skill of multitasking. An act that is very important for a primary teacher to have. Also, she has now become more competent than in previous times, catering to students through differentiation. One may say that she is ambitious, dependable, and confident. As she is an extrovert, this quality puts her at an advantage when engaging with her colleagues and students.

Additionally, we looked at effective writing instructions. This involves: students writing for authentic audience and purposes, ensures collaboration of students throughout the writing process, includes small group, whole group, and individual instruction, etc.

I hope this post has been informative. Until next time.

                                        xxxx,

                                        Teacher Martin

 This week we learned about Pen portrait. A pen portrait is an informal description of me, it allows me to evaluate and sell myself also allow me to review my areas of strength and weaknesses. This was very interesting new and insightful.  We also learned about being an effective writing teacher. The we also looked at the many ways in which we as teachers should be creative and resourceful.

As educators we she should be able to stick to the subject of the matter and be writers ourselves when teaching learners to become efficient writers. Teachers should engage in the writing process along with students

 The week of 16th-20th November

This week's session was a very interesting one. A discussion was held about effective writing instruction. Effective writing in the classroom involves: 

• students in focused and scaffold writing experiences using principled approaches to the teaching of writing such as the teaching and learning cycle or the writing workshop.
• dedicated, uninterrupted blocks of time for daily writing.
• the use of rich authentic texts as mentor or model texts.
• teachers modeling writing and making their own processes visible.
• whole group, small group and individual instruction.

I also learned about the Pen Portrait. A Pen Portrait is a mind picture constructed with the help of words. It creates a vivid description of a person.

Below is an example of my Pen Portrait. The Pen Portrait outlines my skills , competencies and attributes.

Abigail Williams is a confident, caring, enthusiastic and reserved individual who has the heart and passion for educating others. Abigail has acquired her experience from being in the classroom for five years. Abigail is currently enrolled in the Teacher Education Program where she is developing her skills needed to become an effective teacher. Abigail continues to grow, in particular her communication, patience, teamwork and her time management based on the challenge that has been set in her enrollment in the Primary Division.

As a teacher of writing, Abigail is called to be very patient, understanding and creative. Abigail is very committed to the cause as she seeks to use strategies and best practices that would help to develop her students writing skills.

Abigail can be described as an introvert, one who is able to to adapt to changes and challenges that may arise as a teacher in the classroom.

 This week 16th - 20th November there were some interesting information.

First, we learned about a Pen Portrait. In a pen portrait you are to write a description and be as descriptive as possible. IN a pen portrait one is to list their skills, competencies and attributes. 

    Here is my pen portrait. 

    Robvecia Hazel is a profound teacher. There’s where she shows her creativity, intellect and humour.

    Robvecia has taught for two years then she went to college to learn the necessary skills to take back into the modern classroom. Robvecia has the skills of great communication, organization, patience committed, teamwork and adaptation. She is able to communicate effectively with her peers and the staff at the school. Robvecia is a team player and a very organized individual. She is able to adapt to the norm of teacher that is upon us due to the Covid-19 impact. Robvecia is very patient when it comes to student’s writing and committed to seeing g her students develop their writing skills effectively to become strategic writers.

Additionally Robvecia has offered help to children within the community who may need help with homework or projects. Robvecia loves to take part in community activities that would help to build and transform the community into a child friendly place.

Secondly, we learned about effective writing instruction. Here are a few ways that the teacher can engage students in effective writing. 

• Effective writing instruction helps students to write for authentic purposes and audiences
• make clear connections between meaning making in reading and writing
• supports students to understand the difference between spoken and written language as they progress through the primary years.
• provides scaffolding and feedback to students at all stages of the writing process.
• encompasses a range of teaching practices such as modelled writing, shared writing, interactive writing and independent writing where varying levels of support can be provided at different points of need. 

 The focus for the week 9th - 13th November was geared towards the importance of spelling in the writing process and how writing develops.

    Spelling is important because it aids in reading. It helps cement the connection that is shared between sounds and letters. A teacher who is aware of students spelling development can use this knowledge to plan for instruction. Having students write frequently and freely can aid in their growth in spelling. Teaching young spellers the strategies, rules and concepts to grow their spelling and vocabulary knowledge benefits them in all aspects of their learning, as well as in their everyday life. Students who feel confident with letters and word patterns are able to read and comprehend more complex texts. They also have the necessary language tools to better convey their own ideas through both written and verbal communication. The relationship between written words and sounds can seem difficult for many students. But building a strong foundational knowledge of the links between forms, letters, sounds and meaning is essential for students to become confident communicators.

    After reading the article I am now aware of the stages that one must undergo to develop their writing skills. The first stage is the scribbling/drawing stage. This is the stage where students use their scribbles and drawings to start their writing process. When a child grasps the pencil or crayon to scribble he or she is exploring their ideas and thoughts. The next stage involves letter-like forms and shapes. Children's writing begins to develop at this stage .Students begin to understand that symbols are used in writing to convey meaning. The next stage is called letters. At this stage students begin to recognize random letters. The next stage involves letters and spaces. When a child is able to point to individual words on a page when reading, and works to match their speech to a printed word their concept of word is developing. The final stage is called the conventional writing and spelling. At this stage children spell most words correctly, with a reliance on phonics knowledge to spell longer words. Writers use punctuation marks correctly and use capital and lower case letters in the correct places. 

It is important to remember that children will go through these stages of writing at different periods.

Below are the links for further details on what was discuss throughout the blog

https://www.readingrockets.org/article/how-writing-develops

https://www.readingrockets.org/article/invented-spelling-and-spelling-development

The focus for the week 9th - 13th November was place on the importance of spelling in writing and how writing develops.

    Spelling is important because it allows children to use their phonemic awareness to build their words. Spelling helps to have good communication in the writing. The reader would be able to read the piece without any distractions. Spelling also helps with comprehension skills. If words are spelt correctly the readers would be able to understand the piece. Also, in everything you write you use words and one must know how to spell the words correctly. As a teacher in training I would take to my classroom “The stages of Spelling Development.” This would help to develop students spelling in the classroom to transform them into good writers. Utilizing the stages into the classroom will help students to reach the correct stage of spelling and allow them to be strategic writers. Spelling should be taught for students who are at the different stages of spelling. For example Teachers may teach alphabet knowledge, letter-sound correspondences, the concept of "wordiness," and left-to-right directionality. Students might be introduced in the context of writing, to word families, spelling patterns, phonics, and word structures Teachers can encourage purposeful writing.

        Writing is the basis of anything. It is used to judge one’s knowledge and work throughout any stage of their life. If one cannot write they would not be assessed properly. After reading the article I can put how writing develops in my classroom. By assessing what students are able to do and incorporate activities that would help to improve their writing. As the child develops their literacy skills they are developing their writing skills. The article suggests that writing should that the different stages that children go through to learn to write should be taught differently. For instance in the scribble stage students are learning how to hold the crayons and pencils, they would not be holding them correctly, but they would be scribbling. Letter-like forms and shapes, shapes are used to convey meaning using markers, pencils etc. Upon reentering the classroom I would be able to identify where students are with their writing and gradually incorporate this knowledge for students to effectively move through the development. Through each stage the teacher would use other activities or tools to have students master writing skills. It is important to know the stages of writing development as it would help the teacher to move students effectively through each stage.

https://www.readingrockets.org/article/how-writing-develops

https://www.readingrockets.org/article/invented-spelling-and-spelling-development

R.Hazel

 During the week of November 11th, we focused on invented spelling and spelling development, stages of spelling development, and how writing develops. Simply put, the spelling aspects are a guide as to how students learn to spell words. They use their judgment and knowledge of letter sounds to spell words until they understand the real connection of sounds to letters. This is a good indicator that your students have grasped the concept of letter-sound association and can incorporate it into spelling. Likewise, the development of writing is the same. Children scribble unrecognizable "letters" to us, which has meaning to them. Then, as their psychomotor skills progress, they form their letters better. Also, they begin to understand the use of capital and common letters, spaces, and punctuation in sentences. 

I hope that you have learned at least one new thing from this blog, until next time.

                                                                                                          xxx,
                                                                                                          Teacher Martin

 This week's session concluded with a discussion on writing, the different writing strategies and some activities associated with each strategy 

Writing is seen as a constructive process where students make deliberate choices as they construct meaning. As teachers, we want our students to become not just good writers but strategic writers as well. For students to become strategic writers they must use various writing strategies which can help them to plan, revise and edit their writing compositions. There are twelve writing strategies that can be used in writing, and they are elaborating, evaluating, formatting, generating ideas, monitoring, narrowing, organizing, proofreading, questioning, rereading, revising and setting goals. Each strategy entails different activities that can be done. When evaluating, students can write self reflections and evaluate themselves. When generating ideas students can draw pictures, create graphic organizers or discuss with their peers about different ideas. When monitoring, students can reread their first draft written, ask self questions or get feedback from peers and the teacher. When using questioning students can engage in question and answer think aloud. In elaborating, students can brainstorm their ideas, research information in another text, use the ''explode the moment activity'' which involves choosing a scene or moment from a narrative piece and add specific descriptive details. 

This week's session was very informative and it has caused me to adjust my thinking and approach when it comes writing.

 This week in class we focused on poetry writing, the key features of the writing process, and strategic writers. There are numerous amounts of poetry types that we as teachers aren’t aware of. Three categories of such are free verse or unrhymed, syllable, and word count and, rhymed verse. Free verse poetry is poetry that lacks a consistent rhyme scheme and an example of such is acrostic poetry. In this type of poetry, the first or last letter of every verse forms a word, for example, a poem about HOLIDAY. This type of poetry can be identified by the capitalized initial letter of each line. Secondly, another poetry form is syllable and word count. As it states, the poetry has a syllabic pattern and an example of such is cinquain (sin-qwain). The root word "cinq", which in French means 5, indicates that the poetry has five stanzas. The formatting for such a poem is the first line (one word) - noun, the second line (two words) - adjectives for the noun, third line (three words) - verbs associated with the noun, fourth line (fourth line) - impression of the noun and fifth line (one word) - a synonym for the noun. Lastly, the rhymed verse. This is when you can hear rhyming vowel sounds at a particular time in the poem. An example of the rhyming verse is a lymeric. This too is a five stanza poem but with an AABBCC rhyming pattern.

Below are three links with examples of

acrostic poetry: https://literarydevices.net/acrostic/

cinquain poetry: https://wordsrum.com/2020/09/cinquain-poems/#:~:text=The%20term%20cinquain%20means%20a%20stanza%20of%20five,But%20the%20original%20cinquain%20has%20a%20distinct%20pattern.

lymeric poetry : https://www.masterclass.com/articles/poetry-101-what-is-a-limerick-in-poetry-limerick-definition-with-examples#examples-of-limericks-in-poetry

In addition to poetry this week, key features of the writing process were discussed and ways to develop strategic writers. For each writing process, I will list two features that are useful for students’ development.

1.     Prewriting: consider potential audience and choose an appropriate genre (type of writing)

2.     Drafting: write rough drafts and focus on content rather than convention (what is written, not how)

3.     Revising: share drafts in revising groups and make changes to reflect comments from peers and teacher

4.     Editing: set draft aside for one or two days and correct spelling, grammar errors, punctuation, and capitalization

5.     Publishing: publish writing in appropriate form and share completed work with the appropriate audience

And, strategic writers are students who use their cognitive advancements to solve problems faced when writing. There are twelve strategies that they can use which are:

·         Elaborating – expanding ideas

·         Evaluating – reviewing and judging their work

·         Formatting – designing the layout to ensure illegibility of writing and enhancements of text

·         Generating – collecting information from resources that will help their writing process

·         Monitoring – monitor the writing process

·         Narrowing – use limited topics to make writing specific and manageable  

·         Organizing – grouping, sequencing and prioritizing ideas for writing

·         Proofreading – rereading writing to make corrects where necessary

·         Questioning – asking self-questions along the writing process

·         Rereading – reviewing writing ideas to ensure goals are being met

·         Revising – make necessary changes to writing

·         Setting goals  - set goals that should be achieved at the end of writing

 

 This week 2nd November to 6th November the focused was placed on poetry writing , developing strategic writers and key features of the writing process. 

    The presentation on poetry writing was very informative. It was deemed informative because you learned what poetry is all about and what it entailed. Poetry is very unique for students, because they are able to express their emotions through the use of poetry. Their poems can be about anything that they are interested or what they wish to explore. Also, it made reference to poetic devices, such as alliteration, rhyme, assonance, figurative language, onomatopoeia, personification etc. These devices would help the readers to create mental images while reading the poems. There are many forms of poems that we usually see being one interesting one is the free versed poems. These poems do not rhyme so word choice and visual images are very important. Examples of free verse poems are acrostic poems, bilingual poems, concrete poems, found poems. list poems, odes and poems for two voices

Example of an ode poem: 

https://www.pinterest.com/pin/80150068352671030/

Example of acrostic poem

Example of concrete poem:

https://greenteasandchickpeas.com/christmas-concrete-poetry-lesson/

Example of bilingual poem

http://blinklanglit.blogspot.com/2015/09/how-am-i-bilingual-speaker.html

Example of found poems

Example of list poems

Example of poems for two voices

  

 In helping students become strategic writers we are helping them to learn cognitive strategies that include reading, mathematical and scientific investigation strategies and the acquisition of the writing strategies  helps with the cognitive development. These strategies helps students to organize their ideas, monitor and evaluate their work, revise their work and identify spelling errors and any other problems. There are twelve strategies that can be used. They are elaborating, evaluating, formatting, generating, monitoring, narrowing, organizing, proofreading, questioning, rereading, revising and setting goals. These strategies have specific activities that can be done for them to bring out the strategy. In elaborating one can do the "Explode the moment activity or the Complete the snapshots activity." Explode the moment is where the writers choose a moment and expand it by adding vivid details to describe the sights, sounds, thoughts and feelings related to the moment, Complete the snapshots activity is when students use descriptive language to create a written picture of a moment in time. 

The key features outlined in the writing process would help the teachers to guide their students thoroughly through the writing process. It suggests what students should do at each stage of their writing. 

Stage 1: Prewriting - Choose a topic; Gather and organize ideas; Consider the audience; Identify the purpose of the writing; Choose an appropriate genre.

Stage 2: Drafting - Write a rough draft; Craft leads to grad reader's attention; Emphasize content rather than conventions. 

Stage 3: Revising - Share drafts in revising groups; Participate constructively in discussions about classmates' draft; Make changes to reflect the comments of classmates and the teacher; Make substantive rather than only minor changes between the first and final drafts. 

Stage 4: Editing - Set drafts aside for a few days; Proofread compositions to locate errors; Correct spelling, capitalization; punctuation and grammar errors. 

Stage 5: Publishing - Publish writing in an appropriate form; Share completed writing with an appropriate audience

R.Hazel

 This week the focus was placed on two styles of writing. I find that the sessions this week were very interesting and formative. They gave you a very interesting insight as to what is expected to be involved in this writing. I liked both forms of writing that was displayed. They were Narration and Expository writing. I like narration, because it is well formatted and it flows generally with ideas while still having the readers attention. Whereas when I am reading an expository I am trying to learn something.   

R.Hazel