Here is my presentation from the NSW ETA Early Career Teachers - Your Big Day professional learning held on Saturday 14 August 2021. A big thank you to those who came along!
The link to access resources is here.
Showing posts with label reflection. Show all posts
Showing posts with label reflection. Show all posts
Saturday, August 14, 2021
Sunday, May 24, 2020
A Writerly Life - Generating Ideas for the Writer's Notebook 2/4
Writer's Notebook by KB
Fletcher, R. (2001). The Writer’s Notebook. School Talk, 6(4), 1-6.
Grant, S. (2007). Notebook Know-how. https://partnershipforinquirylearning.org/resources/writerly-life/gathering-notebook-entries/
References
Fletcher, R. (2001). The Writer’s Notebook. School Talk, 6(4), 1-6.
Grant, S. (2007). Notebook Know-how. https://partnershipforinquirylearning.org/resources/writerly-life/gathering-notebook-entries/
Saturday, May 23, 2020
A Writerly Life - Developing a Writer's Notebook 1/4
What is a writer’s notebook?
A writer’s notebook is a place for you to collect ideas and thoughts and tiny snippets of inspiration for writing in the future. It is a place to mess about with words, phrases, and record your reactions to and interactions with the world. It is your chance to notice, pay attention, listen, collect, muse, wonder, and play with language. Include significant things in your writer’s notebook. It is not a diary or chronological record of your life but a collection of what is meaningful to you. Aim to add something every single day.
What will go into your writer’s notebook?
Fletcher, R. (2001). The Writer’s Notebook. School Talk, 6(4), 1-6.
Grant, S. (2007). Notebook Know-how. https://partnershipforinquirylearning.org/resources/writerly-life/gathering-notebook-entries/
A writer’s notebook is a place for you to collect ideas and thoughts and tiny snippets of inspiration for writing in the future. It is a place to mess about with words, phrases, and record your reactions to and interactions with the world. It is your chance to notice, pay attention, listen, collect, muse, wonder, and play with language. Include significant things in your writer’s notebook. It is not a diary or chronological record of your life but a collection of what is meaningful to you. Aim to add something every single day.
What will go into your writer’s notebook?
- ideas
- interesting facts
- statistics
- intriguing words/words you haven't heard before/your favourite words
- great lines from poems or novels you’ve read
- sketches – of your lunch, plants, a scene from your favourite game, an important place, your desk
- lists of things you know, things you don’t know, what you like, what you dislike
- think like a detective as you live your everyday life - what happened just before you entered a room Who was there right before you? What were they doing/saying/thinking?
- up close observations of things around you – people, objects, events, experiences
- family recipes/stories/jokes
- timelines (real or fictional)
- interesting quotes from books, poems, television shows, films
- bits of overheard conversations
- an interesting line of dialogue from something you have seen or read
- mind maps to generate ideas about a topic
- research a setting (place or time) or a character you are developing
- sensory description of the world around you – what do you see, hear, touch, taste, smell?
- letters – to your younger self, to your older self, to a family member, or long-lost friend
- found objects – clippings from magazines/newspapers/catalogues, tickets, a handwritten note, shopping list, paint swatches of colours with interesting names, etc.
- observations of your belongings – how is your wallet organised, how are apps sorted on your
- smart device home screen and why they are worth this prime real estate, what books are on your bedside table, do you have a secret chocolate stash and what is worthy enough to be included in aforementioned stash
- lyrics from the songs that move you
- your favourite time of day, season, month, sound, smell
- anything else that comes to mind!
- erasers – there are no mistakes
- perfection
- spell check
Sample Writer's Notebook pages:
A larger version of the pages can be found here: Sample Writer's Notebook pages
References
Fletcher, R. (2001). The Writer’s Notebook. School Talk, 6(4), 1-6.
Grant, S. (2007). Notebook Know-how. https://partnershipforinquirylearning.org/resources/writerly-life/gathering-notebook-entries/
Wednesday, April 29, 2020
Reflections on Week 11, Term 1, 2020
It has been another enormous week, and I guess just like the world over, I am sitting here incredulous about the situation we are all facing.
Going to the grocery store is a strange juxtaposition of a familiar environment with strict rules - hand sanitiser on entry, a security guard passing patrons a trolley after it has been wiped down, tape on the floor everywhere to ensure customers are maintaining social distancing requirements, cordons funnelling shoppers into the store to prevent too many from entering at once, signs everywhere listing product restrictions - toilet paper x 1, baby wipes x 1, hand towel x 1, tissues x 2, canned goods a total of 2, pasta x 2 (if you can get any). There's no limit on fresh fruit and vegetables, eggs are usually in stock, there is more meat lately, dairy has maintained a constant supply. Baby formula keeps me on my toes. Baby became unwell and became lactose intolerant, we tried introducing regular formula three times and three times we switched back to lactose free. We are coming up to the time when we should introduce regular again and I just don't know what to buy - it is often in short supply so I am trying to buy one as we use one, and then I have two cans in the cupboard - two weeks stock just in case. I buy a few packets of pear and prune whenever I see it in the store because we go through that very quickly. It is an unfamiliar way to exist in a land of plenty and relative safety a layer of unease has been added to existence.
Week 11 was a continuing adjustment. Staff worked from home and went to school to collect things and do a bit of work here and there. The focus has been on establishing online learning and supporting senior students. Keeping abreast of social media during this time has been very useful and the sense of camaraderie offered by my online staffroom has been extraordinarily helpful and heartening. In response to a post online my colleague approached me about revisioning our approach to English online and then we met with the 2IC and came up with a plan for Term 2.
As all junior assessment was paused at the end of term. I have been given permission to organise a new due date to collect submissions for all the students who were unable to complete the first task. We will not be assigning another assessment task in Term 2 because it seems a bit silly to put that pressure on staff and students when we have no idea what the future looks like. If we focus on collecting the first task then we will have something and as many students managed to submit the task it will mean their work will still count.
The messaging around the term shifts regularly - a whole term online - maybe? Maybe not. To enact the plan I organised with my colleagues to come up with reading and writing activities. I drew on the 'Children's Writer's Notebook' for the range of activities for Year 7. The activities in the book are terrific and I modified a selected and developed an extension activity for most weeks - just for those who are able to work ahead. Students will be asked to hand in their best piece at the end of each week.
Hopefully this reduces the scores and scores of questions I have been fielding from students who 'don't know what to do' or are confused by a list of instructions and attached documents for the lesson. There have been continuous issues with accessing attached documents and websites - these queries are important, of course, and they must be answered, but I would prefer staff to have the time to give feedback on student writing, provide the teaching through their feedback - kind of like conferencing from a distance
Prior to Covid-19 I was in a great routine with my Year 7 group with Writing Workshop - writing off the page, draft #1, revising, draft #2, edit, teacher edits, and then publishing. I had an area in the classroom where students could collect notepaper and editing check sheets, I bought some staplers from Officeworks (they're pink!) and the writing was coming in. I could get through the scripts quickly, write some feedback, attached a sticker so the students knew everything was checked, and then have a brief conference during our double period. It was really starting to happen.
I really hope I am able to establish some of the same practises next term - a creative outlet is important in dark times.
Going to the grocery store is a strange juxtaposition of a familiar environment with strict rules - hand sanitiser on entry, a security guard passing patrons a trolley after it has been wiped down, tape on the floor everywhere to ensure customers are maintaining social distancing requirements, cordons funnelling shoppers into the store to prevent too many from entering at once, signs everywhere listing product restrictions - toilet paper x 1, baby wipes x 1, hand towel x 1, tissues x 2, canned goods a total of 2, pasta x 2 (if you can get any). There's no limit on fresh fruit and vegetables, eggs are usually in stock, there is more meat lately, dairy has maintained a constant supply. Baby formula keeps me on my toes. Baby became unwell and became lactose intolerant, we tried introducing regular formula three times and three times we switched back to lactose free. We are coming up to the time when we should introduce regular again and I just don't know what to buy - it is often in short supply so I am trying to buy one as we use one, and then I have two cans in the cupboard - two weeks stock just in case. I buy a few packets of pear and prune whenever I see it in the store because we go through that very quickly. It is an unfamiliar way to exist in a land of plenty and relative safety a layer of unease has been added to existence.
Week 11 was a continuing adjustment. Staff worked from home and went to school to collect things and do a bit of work here and there. The focus has been on establishing online learning and supporting senior students. Keeping abreast of social media during this time has been very useful and the sense of camaraderie offered by my online staffroom has been extraordinarily helpful and heartening. In response to a post online my colleague approached me about revisioning our approach to English online and then we met with the 2IC and came up with a plan for Term 2.
As all junior assessment was paused at the end of term. I have been given permission to organise a new due date to collect submissions for all the students who were unable to complete the first task. We will not be assigning another assessment task in Term 2 because it seems a bit silly to put that pressure on staff and students when we have no idea what the future looks like. If we focus on collecting the first task then we will have something and as many students managed to submit the task it will mean their work will still count.
The messaging around the term shifts regularly - a whole term online - maybe? Maybe not. To enact the plan I organised with my colleagues to come up with reading and writing activities. I drew on the 'Children's Writer's Notebook' for the range of activities for Year 7. The activities in the book are terrific and I modified a selected and developed an extension activity for most weeks - just for those who are able to work ahead. Students will be asked to hand in their best piece at the end of each week.
Hopefully this reduces the scores and scores of questions I have been fielding from students who 'don't know what to do' or are confused by a list of instructions and attached documents for the lesson. There have been continuous issues with accessing attached documents and websites - these queries are important, of course, and they must be answered, but I would prefer staff to have the time to give feedback on student writing, provide the teaching through their feedback - kind of like conferencing from a distance
Prior to Covid-19 I was in a great routine with my Year 7 group with Writing Workshop - writing off the page, draft #1, revising, draft #2, edit, teacher edits, and then publishing. I had an area in the classroom where students could collect notepaper and editing check sheets, I bought some staplers from Officeworks (they're pink!) and the writing was coming in. I could get through the scripts quickly, write some feedback, attached a sticker so the students knew everything was checked, and then have a brief conference during our double period. It was really starting to happen.I really hope I am able to establish some of the same practises next term - a creative outlet is important in dark times.
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