Ahh..summer: my BFF - UPDATED 7/8/11

I <3 summer. Who doesn't? Even though I love having the time to pretend to be a stay at home mom with my daughter, I can't get myself out of the teaching groove fully. I am always thinking about next year and of course, shopping for next year. I went to another Target today and walked out with a nice little stash from their dollar section, obvs. Blogging outside = love.

This summer I have set a couple teaching goals for myself. First of all, I need to get my head wrapped around some sort of consistent writing program. My school doesn't really have a program that everyone uses, although I see Lucy Calkins' Units of Study in a lot of classrooms. Honestly, I don't really like that program. I tried it with my kids and I found it to be way too abstract for them. My kids need extremely explicit, clear instruction, more than the typical classroom. I have found myself to be a walking dictionary in my classroom as well and I want to make my kids more independent in their writing. So many of them are reluctant to write, and this is disheartening to me. I found some success using Guided Writing in my guided reading groups, based on The Next Step in Guided Reading by Jan Richardson. I want to build on that this year.

So in order to do so, I purchased two books from Amazon.com, recommended from friendly folks on Proteacher.

I read through No More I'm Done in one sitting basically, and like what she has to say. I tried setting up a writing center in my room previously but thought the kids would actually write at it. Ha. So I'm going to try again and set it up the way she recommends, as just a place to keep supplies. I have begun pulling together some materials for my writing folders as well. I am going to use them instead of journals. I will use the marble notebooks I ordered at the end of the year for math journals instead! :) Like Jennifer Jacobsen, I am going to assemble them with word walls and alphabet charts so the kids have their resources right at their fingertips rather than looking up around the room, and forgetting what they were doing when they look back down!


I am also going to use this alphabet chart that I found on Busy Teacher's Cafe. It was adorable!

Alphabet Chart

I am going to continue reading my lovely books, and start planning the rest of my writing instruction!!! Then, it's on to organizing my science and social studies units. Let me tell you, teaching 3 grade levels in one class is a LOT of work!!!I'm going into my 3rd year of it and am still getting my head on straight. Phew!

How do you teach writing in your classroom??