S.

Jillings, 1

Reflection and Self-Evaluation

Overall, the writing workshop week of personal narrative writing went well. This wasnt
just a week of teaching, but a week of learning for me as well as my students. This was the
students first time being exposed to a writers workshop as intensive and encompassing as it
was. At first, I felt frustrated that students writing wasnt where I expected it to be. After
conferencing with my mentor, I soon realized that their writing is, in fact, where it should be.
Yes, some students are not as developed as others, but this is good for planning instruction; it
offers me insight about what needs to be done next. I quickly realized that my opinions about
where students should or should not be, based on no experience with this grade level, can
potentially affect them, negatively. Perhaps, if I kept up with this sort of thinking, it would shine
through in the lessons or feedback I would give. The expectations, thoughts, or opinions I hold as
a teacher directly influencing my students learning and progress. Happy to have learned this
right away, the writing week was fun, explorative, and successful. Wherever students were at
during the pre-assessment, they all made gains and improved their writing in at least one way.
Whether it be stamina, adding detail or dialog, or simply coming up with great topics. As for me,
I have learned patience, positivity, and the importance of making the first writing week engaging
and fun for all students.
The most success students had regarding the learning goals was the second goal: Students
will implement narrative writing techniques such as, craft, language, figurative language, sensory
details, and memory moments. Because this goal is so comprehensive, students had many ways
of reaching this goal. If students met at least one aspect of narrative craft, and showed that they
tried implementing more than one, I consider that success. Another reason I found this successful
is because I made sure to follow the proficiency and progress of the four students who scored
low on the NWEA test in the area of understanding writing craft. In my contextual factors
analysis, four students were below proficiency in this area. The pre-assessment rubric was
specifically created to evaluate students with craft. The CFA data and the pre-assessment data
matched regarding these students. Although these students were slower in developing their skills,
they all had met the goal in some way. For example, these students struggled with sensory
details. They all put in a lot of effort to strengthen this part of their writing. Although not perfect,
these students writing improved in this area of writing craft. When considering my instruction
and assessment, there are some practices that were implemented to specifically help all my
students meet this goal. For example, I implemented a goal-setting section in the first lesson.
After annotating a well-written piece of narrative writing, students then reflected on their
weaknesses and wrote goals that they wanted to focus on. This goal writing was followed up by a
conference. I made sure that if those students, particularly struggling with craft, did not create
goals to help meet the writing craft learning goal, that I would suggest adding goals. By having
students create these personal goals, it made the overall learning goal more achievable,
individualized, and personalized.
The learning goal that I found least successful was the third goal: Students will
effectively use both internal and external dialog and other craft to support narrator point of view
in their stories. Perhaps the lack of success is due to the limited time spent on this teaching point.
I spent one day on the importance of adding dialog and how it supports point of view. Students
understood dialog as a strategy to change point of view. Other than that, students did not learn
much about internal versus external dialog. During conferences, the two most voiced concerns
from students were how to come up with writing topics and dialog. I made sure that students
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understood this is the first time they are learning about dialog, that they do not have to worry
about it too much, so long as they keep trying to implement it. I reassured students that they will
be taught how to navigate dialog more in the future, and that this was just an introduction to
dialog use. Rather than teaching dialog separately, I used dialog as a support for teaching point
of view. I think this made a positive impression on students understanding of perspective in
writing, but left them feeling as though they still hadnt learned the structure of dialog, when to
use it, and how. In the future, I think it would benefit students to have added a lesson to my
instructional design for introduction to dialog specifically. Then, teaching the lesson about how
dialog can support adding perspective and point of view into their writing. Although I received a
lot of concern about dialog through conferencing assessments, I had not implemented a lesson
into the design. After the teacher work sample week, some students still shared their confusion
about point of view. Perhaps, if I would have added an introductory lesson to dialog, I would
have been able to expand the lesson on point of view differently, providing easier access,
connections, and comprehension of the two concepts.
One professional learning goal that has emerged from this week of teaching narrative
writing assessment. Specifically, I would like to strengthen my understanding of how to use
assessments I have implemented and what to do with that information gained in future lessons.
Keeping track of assessments is also a weakness of mine. During conferences, I made notes.
However, with multiple means of assessment being used, I would like to learn an effective and
efficient way to keep all assessment data readily available, organized, and easily able to
implement in further lessons to track students progress and show proof that I am meeting their
concerns. I am a very organized professional, but this is one area where I have not found a useful
strategy that works for me. In the future, I will seek out professional development experiences
that are offered through whichever district I am hired into. I would love to attend a workshop that
focuses of assessment, how to organize and implement it to better assist my students learning
and proficiency. I will also begin to research on my own different strategies, practicing them in
the classroom, and determining which work well for me. I have been exposed to many resources
that may provide the information I am looking for, such as the i resource library, ASCD
myTeachSource, and other teaching professionals in general. Assessment was one of my goals in
the beginning of the semester. When filling out the goal-setting assignment, I wrote that I wanted
to get better at distinguishing between different types of assessment. After this teacher work
sample, I feel I have met that specific target, but that goal has now developed into another aspect
of assessment.
Another professional goal of mine is to network. This semester, I have learned the
importance of networking and the positive implications it has on finding jobs, developing skills,
and gaining new perspectives. I have never been one to network, or find that it is important. I am
an introvert for the most part and find this idea to be very intimidating. However, I have come to
understand the importance of networking. Some ways I could do this is to go to as many
professional development conferences that I can and that are interesting to me. Even if I feel
intimidated, I know that we all came to the same conference because we are interested in the
same thing. Getting out of my comfort zone and expanding my circle is a valuable lesson I have
learned at Saco Middle School. I was supported by my team, and practiced reaching out to other
collogues to help reach my students needs. Another way I plan to network is to gain as many
diverse experiences as possible. To me, that means teaching in different areas, traveling, trying
different grade levels and schools whether it be public or private. In one of my goal-setting
assignments, I remember mentioning that I want to develop relationships. Reflecting on that
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time, I meant the relationships of my students and their families that part is easy. Now, this
same goal has morphed into something much bigger after teaching these lessons and working in
Saco Middle School. I never really understood what networking meant, but I understand the
importance of it now, from my experiences in the past eight weeks.
Below, I have included an example of student feedback. At the end of the personal
narrative writing week, I asked students to complete an exit slip on google classroom. I
explained to students that their input and honesty is valuable in helping me to become a better
teacher. They took this job seriously, and I received a lot of helpful feedback with specific
details. Getting professional feedback from mentors and supervisors is one thing, but allowing
students to provide feedback those who are directly influenced by the teaching is a powerful
tool in professional development. My performance as a teacher seems to have been positive.
Students felt that I had provided a variety of example and explanations, implemented fun and
engaging lessons, asked good questions, and provided opportunities for student involvement. I
did not receive any negative feedback regarding how I teach or pedagogy. I received additional
feedback by a few students. Additional comments were optional, so I felt that this said a lot
about teacher-student relationships. Even those students who struggled, had learning disabilities,
and gave me a hard time left additional comments about how nice and calm I was in class. These
comments stood out to me the most. I find that the most important and influential part of
teaching is the relationships I build with my students. My performance as a teacher can be
determined by just this aspect alone. In other areas that I felt I performed well were
implementing instructional strategies and creating engaging activities for students. Their
feedback reflects my own opinions about this, too. They specifically mentioned that they
appreciated that I gave many examples before they practiced something themselves, that I made
the information clear the way I explained them, and provided them with lots of tools and
strategies.
Only two students in this group gave feedback on what to do differently in the future.
One student said that they wanted a chance to read the board. I did have students read the
learning targets aloud, but I think this student meant that he wished he could read the read-aloud.
This was an instructional strategy that I thought students would benefit from, hearing me read-
aloud. Another student asked that I slow down when explaining a lot of steps. A few times, I
wrote a list of steps on the board for what students were expected to do. This is something to be
aware of in the future. There is always going to be one student who needs this visual, and staying
with it and making it a part of the lesson will only help me to reach all my students needs. One
student, whom never wrote the full page like he was expected, left a comment asking why he had
to write so much. No one else voiced their concerns about the stamina or length of writing. I
provided voice and choice each day so students were writing about what they wanted to.
Perhaps, I should have addressed his lack of stamina in the beginning. Perhaps, this students has
difficulty with fine motor skills, or just finds writing to be a very difficult thing. I could have had
this student type his responses to see if his stamina increased.
Although the feedback was almost all positive, reflecting on their ideas and opinions has
allowed me to make some connections with my own personal goals moving forward as a teacher.
For example, there were some things that I noticed that I did not necessarily address the student
with a lack of writing stamina, or the fact that I did not stay persistent with providing a visual of
steps for students every day. These small pieces of feedback have helped me see my teaching
performance from a different perspective, the most important perspective, that of my students. I
am excited to address these concerns moving forward, work toward my professional learning
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goals of assessment and networking, and to always develop positive relationships with my
students and ask for their feedback as much as possible.

Example of student feedback: