R/W post #6

Dear Dr. Jones,

    Coming into this course was very nerve racking for me. As an undergraduate student I knew nobody in the class when I started and I was worried that the workload would be hard for me to keep up with. As the weeks progressed I have begun to feel more and more confident in my abilities and my choice in the literacy program. I have really enjoyed the 25-30 minutes we dedicate to the writing workshop each class. This helps me stay on track for both my genre pieces project and my genre workshop project. I also really enjoy the textbook for this course. I am always looking for more mentor text and this textbook does a lovely job of providing multiple texts for specific content areas. And although we have only participated in your journal workshop, I can tell that I will get many more ideas for mentor texts as we begin the other genres. I was not really sure what I was expecting for this class but I love how interactive it is. The strategies we practice for our own writing in class are activities that we can also implement in our classrooms which is super helpful and useful information. 

    One strategy that truly took me out of my comfort zone as a writer was the Card Strategy. As I spoke about in my previous blog, my brainstorming process has been limited in the past. Going through this process allowed me to expand my ideas into certain subtopics and really narrow down my overall thoughts on social emotional learning. I also enjoyed that in this strategy we work with a peer to review our thought process behind the cards and the order in which we put them in. This allowed me to get input on how to tie in ideas in a different way. I have seen myself growing as a writer through activities like this. Another activity that has helped me grow as a writer is guided writing during our writing workshop. These scaffolded activities allow me to just focus on the writing and not on the formalities or brainstorming that is typically needed. The prompts we received on 2/8 during the writing workshop shaped my thinking around my topic and some positive ways to look at the tough times we are living in. 

    Writing is not something that I am not very confident in, I often think that my writing is too simplistic. But, since the beginning of the semester I have truly been growing as a writer which has put my worries about the course to rest. Overall, this class is helping me boost my confidence as a writer and a future educator. I am excited to see how I continue to grow as a writer throughout the remainder of the semester. 

Sincerely, 

McKenzie Hart