Mark Twain said, “Write what you know about.” All of my life I have held onto his words about writing. I have always loved to write. Even as a young child, I can remember using colored pencils, pens, markers, and paints my mother would set up for me as I played school. It was at a young age, I grew interested in America’s favorite pastime, baseball.
As a four-year-old girl I fell in love with the book Baseball Ballerina. In the story there was a little girl who loved baseball as much as she did ballet. She played for a baseball team and at the same time she was very skilled at ballet. I identified with her in the story, not so much with the ballet, but with how much she loved baseball. I wanted to know everything about the sport. I wanted to read books, look at magazines, and write about it. I remember asking my Dad about how to keep the scorebook when I was in Little League. My love for baseball, and that book, allowed me to do things like create, examine, explore, synthesize, and share my new knowledge with others. At the time, I did not even realize it. My love of baseball turned into a love for softball. As I practiced, read, and spoke to people who knew a lot about softball, I became a better player. Later I went on and received an academic and softball scholarship to college. I cannot help but recognize that all of this passion for something I loved fueled my success later in life.
My love of playing school influenced me adulthood. It was in college I decided to become a teacher. I have now taught for ten years. I always have taught and rooted my philosophy of teaching reading in writing in Twain’s quote. However, until asked to be a member of CTEPS, I was able to raise my intentionality in four domains of writing: (1.) Writing to Publish, (2.) Writing to Demonstrate Learning, (3.) Writing to Learn, (4.) Writing to Reflect.
In the book Disrupting Thinking: Why How We Read Matters, Kylene Beers wrote, “No one reads a good book and wants to do a Venn Diagram. Good readers want to talk and write about it.” When I read this, it opened my eyes that I had been teaching writing in a way that was conducive to my Teacher’s Edition-not the the students in which I teach. It was at this time I also had an epiphany- “if I fell in love with reading and writing about things I enjoy- would my students not feel the same way?”
This year I was able to work with the CTEPS team, and my principal, to create writing rubrics for Pre-k through 1st grade. These rubrics totally align with each of the four domains of writing, (1.) Writing to Publish, (2.) Writing to Demonstrate Learning, (3.) Writing to Learn, (4.) Writing to Reflect - all reflective of writing of young children. As I have grown more intentional in my own instructional, my students writing has improved drastically. Even as five-year-olds, my students consider audience and purpose. They and are going back to edit their work after feedback from a friend or myself. They are adding detail, using evidence from texts, writing responses to classmates’ pieces. As they are engaging in this process, they are also learning the Kentucky Core Standards- and growing in knowledge of things they are actually interested in. Their love for learning about specific things becomes conceptual knowledge as they learn about the math, science, social studies, of an idea of their choosing. This type of thinking and writing also allows students to make inquiries on other wonderings as they explore one topic. One student loved learning about pirates, which became a love of ships, which become a love of physics as he studied buoyancy and wind patterns of the ocean.
This project has revolutionized my thinking as a veteran teacher. I have learned and grown so much throughout this process. I have been able to read research behind others who are successful at teaching writing. I have grown to be more passionate, and my calling into the teaching profession, is as evident now as it was a four-year-old girl reading Baseball Ballerina.
As a four-year-old girl I fell in love with the book Baseball Ballerina. In the story there was a little girl who loved baseball as much as she did ballet. She played for a baseball team and at the same time she was very skilled at ballet. I identified with her in the story, not so much with the ballet, but with how much she loved baseball. I wanted to know everything about the sport. I wanted to read books, look at magazines, and write about it. I remember asking my Dad about how to keep the scorebook when I was in Little League. My love for baseball, and that book, allowed me to do things like create, examine, explore, synthesize, and share my new knowledge with others. At the time, I did not even realize it. My love of baseball turned into a love for softball. As I practiced, read, and spoke to people who knew a lot about softball, I became a better player. Later I went on and received an academic and softball scholarship to college. I cannot help but recognize that all of this passion for something I loved fueled my success later in life.
My love of playing school influenced me adulthood. It was in college I decided to become a teacher. I have now taught for ten years. I always have taught and rooted my philosophy of teaching reading in writing in Twain’s quote. However, until asked to be a member of CTEPS, I was able to raise my intentionality in four domains of writing: (1.) Writing to Publish, (2.) Writing to Demonstrate Learning, (3.) Writing to Learn, (4.) Writing to Reflect.
In the book Disrupting Thinking: Why How We Read Matters, Kylene Beers wrote, “No one reads a good book and wants to do a Venn Diagram. Good readers want to talk and write about it.” When I read this, it opened my eyes that I had been teaching writing in a way that was conducive to my Teacher’s Edition-not the the students in which I teach. It was at this time I also had an epiphany- “if I fell in love with reading and writing about things I enjoy- would my students not feel the same way?”
This year I was able to work with the CTEPS team, and my principal, to create writing rubrics for Pre-k through 1st grade. These rubrics totally align with each of the four domains of writing, (1.) Writing to Publish, (2.) Writing to Demonstrate Learning, (3.) Writing to Learn, (4.) Writing to Reflect - all reflective of writing of young children. As I have grown more intentional in my own instructional, my students writing has improved drastically. Even as five-year-olds, my students consider audience and purpose. They and are going back to edit their work after feedback from a friend or myself. They are adding detail, using evidence from texts, writing responses to classmates’ pieces. As they are engaging in this process, they are also learning the Kentucky Core Standards- and growing in knowledge of things they are actually interested in. Their love for learning about specific things becomes conceptual knowledge as they learn about the math, science, social studies, of an idea of their choosing. This type of thinking and writing also allows students to make inquiries on other wonderings as they explore one topic. One student loved learning about pirates, which became a love of ships, which become a love of physics as he studied buoyancy and wind patterns of the ocean.
This project has revolutionized my thinking as a veteran teacher. I have learned and grown so much throughout this process. I have been able to read research behind others who are successful at teaching writing. I have grown to be more passionate, and my calling into the teaching profession, is as evident now as it was a four-year-old girl reading Baseball Ballerina.
Writing Rubrics for Pre-K Students
Meka has been an educator since 2006. She has worked for the Tennessee Department of Education, America Achieves, TeachPlus DC, State Collaborative of Reforming Education (SCORE), Senate Education Committee Education Consultant, LearnZillion Consultant, District 2 District Consultant, & Kentucky Department of Education.