Mary+Shaffer

By Mary Shaffer 7th and 8th grade English & History teacher Mead Middle School
 * Mead Middle, Young Writers’ Blog **

I have been teaching at Mead Middle School for the past eight years. I have a Masters degree in English Education, and I am highly qualified in history. Mead is a small school with a population of around 350 students. We teach in a block system, with English and math every day and history and science on a rotating, day 1/day 2 schedule. I team-teach in an open classroom with approximately 60 students per class. We do not have leveled English or history classes, so we work hard to differentiate within our heterogeneous classroom. It is important to us that we continue to have students of all ability levels in our classroom, however we realize that there is a need for advanced enrichment opportunities as well as additional support needs for struggling learners. In the fall, Mead will become a focus school. We are proud of our 95% participation rate, so our staff decided to focus our attention on the “whole child” aspect of our school. In order to provide enrichment opportunities for advanced students as well as additional support for struggling students, teachers at Mead will be offering after school clubs to support literacy and numeracy, as well as to introduce students to new hobbies and activities. I am designing a Young Writers’ Club to be implemented in the fall and a Shakespeare Club to be implemented in the spring. I believe that both of these clubs will enhance the educational opportunities for all students who wish to participate and I am excited to get started. How I Think I’ll Reach My Goal: ** I have decided to create a blog for my Young Writers’ Club, which is my WiP for my Cyber Camp project. Students from all three grade levels and of all abilities will be welcome to join the Young Writers’ Club, so I need to be sure that I have a support system in place to accommodate all of my students’ needs.
 * Where I Am Now and Where I Want to Go:**
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Young Writers’ Club will be focused on all aspects of writing. We will write in writing notebooks to begin each meeting, share our writing in small and large groups, work on creative pieces, learn to write for public audiences, learn to interview people and record their thoughts, learn to see writing as a dynamic medium that takes many forms, etc. To accomplish some of my goals, students will put pencil/pen to paper and write in the “old fashioned” way. Other tasks will be accomplished via computer in the form of a student blog. My project for Cyber Camp is to create a blog that students in the Young Writers’ Club can use to publish their work and highlight their learning experiences. It is my hope that the blog will both support and enrich my students’ literacy needs and add a layer of fun that will enhance their experiences in Young Writers’ Club.

The Young Writers’ Blog will allow students to: · Learn to blog and navigate in a blogging environment · Learn to differentiate between public and private writing · Learn to write appropriately for a specific audience · Improve word choice, enhance organization of writing, increase sentence fluency, improve conventions, develop ideas and content appropriate to the needs of the audience, develop a writer’s voice that enhances tone · Learn to respond to others’ writing in appropriate and valuable ways Things I Need to Do to Accomplish My Goals: ** · <span style="color: black; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA;">Continue to define and design my club – what is important, what activities should I include, what activities should I avoid, where should we work, etc. <span style="color: black; font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; msofareastfontfamily: Symbol; msobidifontfamily: Symbol; msobidilanguage: AR-SA; msolist: Ignore;">·  <span style="color: black; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA;">Create a blog that my students can access and quickly learn to manage - [|Mead Middle, Young Writers' Blog] <span style="color: black; font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; msofareastfontfamily: Symbol; msobidifontfamily: Symbol; msobidilanguage: AR-SA; msolist: Ignore;">· <span style="color: black; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA;">Create a club flyer to let students know when Young Writers’ will meet and why they should join <span style="color: black; font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; msofareastfontfamily: Symbol; msobidifontfamily: Symbol; msobidilanguage: AR-SA; msolist: Ignore;">· <span style="color: black; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA;">Create/gather a good set of writing prompts that I can use for Daily Pages writing activities <span style="color: black; font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; msofareastfontfamily: Symbol; msobidifontfamily: Symbol; msobidilanguage: AR-SA; msolist: Ignore;">· <span style="color: black; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA;">Find community members who would be willing to talk to students about the role of writing in their everyday lives <span style="color: black; font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; msofareastfontfamily: Symbol; msobidifontfamily: Symbol; msobidilanguage: AR-SA; msolist: Ignore;">· <span style="color: black; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA;">Create a flip chart that students can use to record group norms that will create and enhance a writing community in our club
 * <span style="color: black; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA;">Essential Learnings: **<span style="color: black; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA;">
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