Personal Narrative: My Experience As A Writer In The Classroom

I am a second grade teacher at Timber Point Elementary School in East Islip. I enrolled in the year-long Suffolk County Reading Council to enhance my literacy expertise in reading and writing topics. There were a plethora of wonderful authors and topics presented, not to mention many activities and ideas I could introduce into my classroom. This experience has already sparked me to work on lessons over the summer that will help my students become better writers this school year.
One presenter gave us a unique approach to teaching writing to K-2 students called, "Rubric Kids." This is a program that aligns authentic assessment with instruction. The rubric includes a visual, tactile face of a child to which one adds on features of the
face. For example, one can stick on a nose, mouth, or ear until the face is complete. As children plan, draft, revise, edit, and publish, the face becomes more complete and the goals are achieved. I have been searching for an assessment such as this to motivate the writers in my classroom, especially the reluctant ones. Another speaker that was of great interest was a bi-lingual, multicultural, literature story teller named Soh Young Lee-Segredo.
She introduced the class to multicultural books, songs, and stories that offer children a chance to appreciate other cultures. She gave us copies of songs and dances that we could use in the classroom with our students to help them appreciate and respect diversity. The, ‘Meet the Author Series,' which is part of the Reading Council program, presented many accomplished authors for us to listen to. One very popular and well known author that spoke was Jean Fritz. Some of her published works such as, "Leonardo's House," "What's the Big Idea, Ben Franklin?" and others are part of the informal historical biographies that she has written for children. I remember reading a few of her pieces to my fourth grade class a couple of years ago. She is a master of her craft and her books provide witty and good-humored looks at historical figures. It was a delight to meet Jean Fritz in person. I enjoyed learning where she gets her ideas from and how she brings them to
life. Jerry Pallotta is also a well known author and I used many of his books while teaching the primary grades. His counting and alphabet books have great content and beautiful, realistic illustrations. Many of my current second-grade students especially like his books and read them over and over again. It was interesting to learn how he begins his writing process and how his story grows in time to final completion. In January we had a speaker from the New York State Department of Education, Susan Magna, who gave us updated information on a program they are using state-wide called, "Reading First: Impact on Reading in NYS." This program is currently being used in many districts on Long Island, especially where state-wide testing was below grade level. With this program, teachers are trained in many sessions to show the students how to utilize "Reading First." "Reading First" requires ninety minutes of uninterrupted reading instruction a day.
That does not include writing as part of that ninety minute block of time. It does, however, include writing in response to reading. At-risk schools should add an additional thirty minutes to that reading block to ensure that the fundamentals are learned. This program is voluntary but the district must be ready to write up a large educational plan. The district, the unions, and the individual teachers of each building must all be on board. There is a progress monitoring three times a year. Teachers need an assortment of staff development on how to assess the students and use the data effectively. A teacher needs to know exactly where the students are in their reading skills so that the teacher can target the right skills to get high student achievement and results. Assessments are also used as a teaching tool if performed correctly. A school district cannot use this program without complete support from the administration and teachers. Teachers need the support of the principal and a large amount of staff
development. Another interesting class that I attended at the Suffolk Reading Council was given by writers and twin sisters, Ms. Sheila Sustrin and Ms. Letty Sustrin. Sheila and Letty Sustrin have taught in the Brentwood, New York school district for thirty-eight years. Together they have written two children's books. The first is a picture book that I found entertaining as well as educational. The goal of the picture book is to teach children about retirement. Many children do not know about retirement so I found this book to be revolutionary. The title of the sisters' first book, "The Teacher Who Would Not Retire" is a humorous story about a teacher, Mrs. Belle, who truly loves her profession and is always sneaking into school to help out in one way or another. Fortunately, due to the great success of their first book, the Sustrins have written a sequel entitled, "The Teacher Who Would Not Retire Goes to Camp."