I feel like I’m at a point where anytime I read about teaching writing I am going to immediately feel that “WOW! Yes! Amazing!” feeling. Our teaching writing class of Spring 2018 feels light years away, and I feel like I lost a lot of focus and “joy of writing” and replaced that with reading in my student teaching experience. Last year, even while I was teaching, it felt like writing was a product we were simply expected to create and not something we were building toward and trying to improve. I tried a few different ideas that Kittle and Gallagher mention (multi-genre project, collage, digital writing), but there was not a cohesion to those pieces. That to say, I really love the idea of having a sequence of writing you want to accomplish and selecting that sequence purposefully. Drawing students in to writing, much like reading, is essential to the future of the work they produce.
What I’m wondering now is if in my next teaching experience I will be able to fully decide the sequence I want students to write in. I, again, really admire and appreciate the way Kittle ad Gallagher approach their plan, and even acknowledge that their plan is always met with students who do not seem to want to follow the same timeline as them. However, in my last experience, there were certain writing assignments that had to be accomplished at a certain time. Maybe in situations like that, that is where you turn to digital media. I’m interested to see your possible thoughts on this.
The way I have planned the writing my students do was fairly simple. I wanted them to write everyday (or almost every day), and we did that through journals and group activities. Now, I am thinking about ways to be more intentional with that writing. I think that first will require me to get a sample of student writing and see where they are at, what goals we can set for ourselves as writers, and then what the best sequence to follow is to get to those end goals.
Emily's Blog 
Hey Emily!
I can totally relate to what you’re saying about how writing became more of a product than anything else. I felt the same way when I was student teaching. It was really hard not to just assign these pieces that went alongside reading. Hopefully we can all find more of a balance in our writing assignments this year.
I love the idea you have of just seeing where students are at the beginning of the year and meeting them there by assigning personal goals. You should have students write down their goals and keep track of them in their journals too, so they take that responsibility upon themselves. You could even have them do periodic checks and refine the goals for themselves.
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Hey, Emily! I really enjoyed reading your post about this week’s reading. One thing you mentioned that really stuck out to me was when you discussed how in your student teaching there was sometimes writing that had to be done at a certain time. In my placement, I didn’t really experience this, but I know that right after I left, my students had their milestone tests coming up, and they did a lot of writing prep work with my MT. I think that in every teacher’s ideal classroom they wouldn’t have to do or teach this standardized writing, but the reality is that most of us do. So I would be really interested to see where Kittle and Gallagher would fit this sort of thing into their plans. Additionally, I really liked when you mentioned that you did and want to continue doing daily writing tasks, but you want to be more intentional about them. As someone who just wants to start doing some fun, low steaks daily writing in general, I really appreciate you reminding me to give them a clear purpose and be intentional with them. Thanks for sharing your thoughts!
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Hey Emily,
I can relate to be drowned with reading during student teaching. My placement was a lot heavier on reading than writing. Luckily, when I started my first, it completely flipped. Now all I do is write and prepare my students for writing. We still read, but they are mostly supplemental to the writing.
You are right to be a little worried about our ability to implement this plan. Most schools seem to co-plan now, so if your entire team does not agree to it, it may be difficult to implement. It is also a tight schedule that does not take into consideration your school’s schedule. I did learn in my professional development about UOS that they add in a few buffer days every few weeks for those mandatory assignments and tests you have. It is also not the end of the word if you get a little off schedule. I am not sure where you are teaching, but Gwinnett County has all of the Units of Study Info and calendars on their eClass pages, if not, I am sure you can find a lot on line.
Maat
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Hey Emily!
I really appreciated reading your take on the readings. I also felt that Kittle and Gallagher’s unit planning felt mildly idealistic to me. It can be difficult to have a cohesive unit planning with writing assignments that clearly build off one another throughout the year. I would like to aspire to this, and thankfully the 10th grade World Literature team at my school want to as well and have already begun planning such, but my 9th-grade team is a bit of a different story. I think having your PLC working together to plan the overall themes for the upcoming year during the summer is really helpful here, or at least having a PLC support you in this endeavor. I am not sure how specific those writings that you mentioned had to be, but I encountered something similar while attending a county-wide Professional Development workshop this past week. The county tried to force some prescribed units for the year that central office had already outlined. Not only was this demeaning and limiting, but the units also did not work together in any way and instead just felt random. Thankfully our school was not required to do these, but what if we were one of the lower-performing schools that are? You’re right in bringing up how our plans for the year are undermined when constraints are placed upon your teaching. In those moments, I suppose we just have to find a reasonable way around them.
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