Entry #8- Applauding My Peers Blog

I really enjoyed being able to look through my peers' blogs for this week's post, I found myself particularly drawn to Brenna's blog post #7. I would first like to applaud, or “bless”, Brenna for her honesty surrounding her challenges as a first-year teacher. I am currently in full time graduate school and will be entering my first year of teaching very soon. The other day my mentor teacher in my clinical assistant placement was telling me that NO ONE ever feels ready or prepared in their first few years of teaching. As much as this still terrifies me, I found some peace in knowing that many of us will face these same challenges, you are not alone! 

Brenna, as you raise some of your concerns surrounding what is on grade-level and developmentally appropriate, I wonder, do you have a teacher mentor in school? Do your grade-level peers meet? Conferencing is a valuable strategy for the writing process (Tompkins, 2012), and I think this could be a strategy for you to adopt with your fellow teachers. You could look at samples of their students' writing, bring your student samples, etc. As I revisited Tompkins (2012), I also found chapter 4 valuable in outlining some of the grade-level expectations for writing. I have attached figure 4.9, found on p. 95. I find this rubric really helpful in outlining writing expectations. Tomkins (2012) did not include 1st grade in this chapter specifically, but I find the kindergarten expectations helpful, especially when considering the impact of online learning from the pandemic, as you recognized. Do you feel that your school has altered student expectations due to the pandemic? Or are students' writing abilities held to the same standard? 

As we know, students have unique strengths and needs. Brenna recognizes this in her own students. I would love to draw our attention to Tompkins (2012), where primary trait scoring is discussed, “The focus in primary trait scoring is on whether students have incorporated specific traits in their compositions” (p. 94). I think that this is a valuable approach that can be embedded in all writing tasks. Specific traits that are grade-appropriate can be modeled, such as capitalizing the beginning of sentences, writing complete sentences, using punctuation etc. Students can receive support in including these traits, and students can also apply these traits/skills independently. I would also utilize a checklist for students, this way they can refer to it to guide and check their writing. This can be a tool for your assessment of their final product, as well as a support throughout the entire writing process, that can be altered based on specific student needs. I applaud Brenna’s recognition of the writing process, or process assessment. As a student, I have always appreciated when credit is not only given for the final product, but for all of the work leading up to that. That applies to my experiences in college, but more specifically in my earlier schooling experiences. I think that primary trait score and checklists could support Brenna in her writing instruction and scoring. Thank you for opening your blog to me, I applaud your honesty and know your students are lucky to have you, Brenna! :)

Entry 7- Exploring the Narrative Genre

For this open entry, I feel intrigued to write about an article I recently read for my Genre Expert Project, titled Comprehension Strategy Instruction: Teaching Narrative Text Structure Awareness by Susan Dymock (2007). A concept that I keep finding myself coming back to is the parallel processes of reading and writing. I found that this article ties reading comprehension and the construction of narrative writing together very nicely, emphasizing the importance of text structure awareness. This may seem obvious, but sometimes reading and writing can seem like different, isolated tasks and until this semester, I have not examined the parallels between the two in such depth. This makes me want to highlight the similarities between these processes in my future classrooms. I wonder how early that can be expressed to students through instruction? I anticipate I will begin teaching 1st or 2nd grade, where students are just beginning to engage in the writing process and start reading more advanced books. I am curious how they would react to reading and writing highlighted as similar processes.

From Tompkins (2012) and Dymock (2007), I have developed an understanding that explicit instruction of text structure, more specifically, the elements of specific genres, can support students across their reading, writing, and their comprehension. Through my exploration of the narrative genre thus far, there has been an emphasis on the story elements, or story grammars as Dymock (2007) calls them. These are the setting, theme, characters, plot, and resolution that are “an attempt to construct a set of rules that can generate a structure for any story” (p. 161) and provide “an overall structure for teaching narrative text structure awareness” (p. 162). These are key elements that students should be able to identify and construct while reading and writing the narrative genre. 

Not only does this article delve into the significance of explicit instruction of the narrative text structure, but it introduces the visual representations of the narrative structure analysis. For example, the story graph. This reminds me of what I learned in school, that the hill is the rising action, leading to the peak of the mountain, which is the climax of the story, and following that is the falling action. Dymock (2007) describes that “story graph[s] visually represent how plot develops, showing the high and low action points of the story as it progresses over time” (p. 163).

Below is an image from this article, which shows one example of a story graph. This visual is a bit different from what I remember from school, so I think it is interesting to include. 

I think that a visual representation is a great way to scaffold narrative text structure instruction and would support visual learners. I can also see how this map could be simplified based on the grade level, for example using a different visual, like a story web. “A story web is like a word web where the terms defining the structure of a story surround the title” (p. 164). Below I will include an example of a story web, using the mentor text The Lorax (Seuss, 1971).

Further reflecting on the connections between our course textbook and the article I selected for my Genre Expert Project was a valuable experience. It further solidified what I consider are the most significant takeaways from this article, that I may very well include in my presentation.

References

Dymock, S. (2007). Comprehension strategy instruction: Teaching narrative text structure awareness. The Reading Teacher, 61(2), 161–167. https://doi.org/10.1598/rt.61.2.6

Seuss, G. T. (1979). The Lorax, by dr. Seuss. Random House.