TE 802 Althea Davis

11/28/16

Part B: Literacy Teaching and Learning Narrative

Moving from Interpretation to Insights
______________________________________________________________________
While planning, instructing, and reflecting during my Guided Lead Teaching for

literacy, I learned myriad things about not only my students, but about literacy learning

in general. The most prominent issue I noted, specifically about my students

independent writing, is their struggle with connecting what is in their head to what they

draw as well as connecting both to what they write. Many students were able to tell

ideas verbally to myself and their peers. This is evidenced by the notations of their

comments that I wrote on the sticky notes attached to their papers. Each one of them

was able to state an idea and tell three parts of a story, showing their comprehension in

how a personal narrative is composed. However, connecting their knowledge about the

process and their ideas with what they put on the paper seems to be difficult. I am

curious where the disconnect is happening and how I can close this gap.

From personal experience as well as professional research, I have gathered that

speaking and listening are very important parts of the process of writing. Particularly in

early education when students are just beginning to document ideas, teachers expect

lots of talk to surround writing, since children are figuring out how to get speech onto

paper (National Council of Teachers of English,2016). In order to properly engage them

as well as give them what they need to make a stronger connection, they need more

time for self-regulated writing and conferencing with peers. By verbalizing their ideas,

they may begin to make a plan and clarify what they want to see on their papers and

what they want their readers to take from their piece.

Using the cycle I employ for all lessons, particularly literacy instruction, I was able

to note the lack of connection between their pieces and their ideas as a large issue to
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address (Appendix A). I began my guided lead teaching with the introduction to

narrative writing as a whole-group lesson. After that, they had independent writing time

to practice what they learned as a whole group. During this time, I went around and

conferenced with as many students as possible so they could tell me their ideas as I

notated them to a sticky note. After conferencing, I reviewed the notes on all of their

work. I noted a trend. Many of the students were telling me developed ideas, but were

not able to connect those ideas to what they wrote on paper (Appendix B). Through

analysis, I was able to discern that they needed more instruction on matching their

ideas to their papers. Therefore, I adjusted the next days conferences to focus stronger

on making sure the students had a clear statement of what they wanted to write and

draw before attempting to put it on paper.

This proved to be more difficult than expected. This was the main issue for the

students. It turned up as a trend every day as I looked through the days assessment.

Even at the end, while improvements were made (Appendix B), student still struggled to

match their ideas, their picture, and their words. Therefore, in moving forward in their

instruction as well as my teaching practice, I needed to look further into possible

reasons for the disconnect.

It is possible that another reason for the disconnect is their lack of engagement

during whole group lessons. During whole group lessons, they are exposed to mentor

texts that demonstrate the narrative genre. The ratio of teacher reading time or direct,

whole-group instruction to independent discussion of ideas was improperly skewed

toward the former. They were losing focus during the whole-group lessons because they

were not being engaged or challenged in any way. By having them talk to one another
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and spending more time writing by themselves, they will be actively engaged in their

learning. Having more time to write as well as conference with the teacher, more

students will be able to edit and connect the ideas we learned directly to their own

writing in front of them. These are some goals I will reach for going forward in writing

instruction.

In reading, I have discerned a few goals to incorporate that will support growth in

the area of connecting students verbal and written ideas. I have learned some

adjustments such as, ways of setting up and managing student talk in partnerships and

groups; Ways of establishing a balance between talk and writing in classroom

management; Ways of organizing the classroom and/or schedule to permit individual

teacher-student conferences; Strategies for deliberate insertions of opportunities for talk

into the writing process: knowing when and how students should talk about their writing

(National Council of Teachers of English,2016). I plan to incorporate more time where

they are able to discuss their ideas peer-to-peer. They will be assigned partners for

writing workshop. In the writing workshop routine, between the mini-lesson and

independent writing, students will speak with their partners about their idea and what

they will do first when they open up the paper. In addition to this, I will begin to set a

silent vibrating timer on my watch to let me know when it is time to switch from a mentor

text read aloud or other whole-group instruction to partner talk and independent writing.

Over this process of observing, analyzing, and adjusting, the core principle of talk

being complexly related to writing has and will continue to drive this specific instruction.

The main issue of connecting ideas, pictures, and words has changed over the lessons,
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but still remains a main goal for the writing instruction in our classroom. We will continue

to work toward reaching our goal of making these match.

Appendix A
Adjust/
Whole
plan
group
future
instructio
instructio
n
n

Conferencing
during
Analyze independent
what is writing
needed (Telling and
dicatation of
Compile ideas)
data/ review
observations
(Note
trends)

Appendix B
Student work during initial lesson:
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Professional Knowledge for the Teaching of Writing." NCTE Comprehensive

News. National Council of Teachers of English, Feb. 2016. Web. 28 Nov. 2016.