Sharmayne Lopez's Portfolio for Teaching Writing

For this writing lesson, I had the opportunity to help my 2nd grade practicum class write their own narrative about trying or learning something new for the first time. During the lesson, we were able to practice the Prewriting, Drafting, and Publishing/Presenting steps of the writing process.     Here is a link to my Teaching Writing lesson.

This was such an exciting lesson to teach. My students not only practiced their listening and speaking skills, but they also had the opportunity to practice their writing skills by completing their very own Money Saving Plan. The students were able to make real-world connections and understand the importance of saving money through reading and writing. Here is a link to my Writing to Learn lesson.

This artifact provided examples on how teachers can create different objectives and tasks that students can complete for a specific standard. For each standard, I was able to quickly come up with tasks that could easily be implemented into a lesson with thorough planning. 

During this activity, our class worked with our writers groups, selected one of the writing traits, and a book that better helped explain said trait. This is a great activity to do with students at any age. I am a huge fan of using children's literature to teach and love how it can be used at any grade level.    

Although my students will already have an understanding of the writing process, I believe it is a good idea to have the writing process displayed nicely on the wall in my writing center as well. The students can refer to this poster during writing workshop sessions. They will also have a copy of the writing process in their writer's notebooks, so it is accessible to them outside of the classroom. 

After reading the articles  Literacy-rich Environments and  Reading Across Content Classes, we were asked to create a classroom design with a focus on literacy. For the theme of my future classroom, I chose to go with "Oh the Places You'll Go" by Dr. Seuss to inspire my students. My classroom will be complete with motivational Dr. Seuss posters, as well as instructional posters that include but are not limited to the the writing process, 6 + 1 writing traits, and literacy elements. My room will have a technology center where students can publish their work, a writing center, as well as a reading center. There will even be a student work wall behind a stage that students can use when presenting their work. 

​"Teachers who love teaching, teach children to love learning!"  -  Robert John Meehan The purpose of this portfolio is to showcase my growth as a teacher and as a writer. Within this portfolio, I will share artifacts that I have created over the course of the semester. This portfolio is also going to be used as a reflection of myself, not only as a teacher, but as a writer as well.  Through writing, I am able to learn more about myself as a person. Through teaching writing, I am able to ignite life-long learners.