Tuesday, April 19, 2011
Monday, April 18, 2011
Final Blog???
During my four day unit plan, I taught a writing lesson. I probably would not have decided to do so had it not been for this class. The main topic of my unit was Dinosaurs (fossils and evidence). I used their StoryTown book as the basis for my lesson and decided that it might be fun to take what they're learning about in their book and extend it into other parts of the day. So my original plan was to integrate reading and science, but then I decided that I thought it could be a great chance for the kids to take something they were interested in and write about it.
I had them make inferences about a dinosaur print worksheet. This is what my focus lesson was based off of, but it was a simplified version. They had to use the evidence that they had in front of them to make inferences about what was going on in the picture. A lot of the students got really creative, and I was really excited to see what all they had to say. They had two pictures to choose from and in both pictures, there was a picture that led to a particular idea. I thought a lot of the students might write pretty similar stories, but it turned out that they really went all out and added in a lot of details that I didn't expect, making each story quite different from their neighbors. Many of the students worked in pairs, which I thought worked out really well because it allowed them to work together and to feed off of each other's ideas and creativity. I borrowed one story that two of my students worked on together. Both of these students speak English as a second language and are in the lower level groups in the class. I was very impressed by their story, though, and I wanted to scan it and upload it, but I don't know how. So I'm just going to type it.
Roar.....!!
Ounce a pon of time in the dessert, a Ty-Rex was finding it's prey, on a hot summer day. Then he found a Dino Bird with the colors of Navy Blue and Black stripes. Then he ran...... and he ATTACKLED It!!
And he ate all his meaty bones. Then his parents tried to find Dino Bird when they saw his bones.
Next his friends were trying to find Dino Bird. Then he found him dead with his meaty bones on the ground.
The End!!
I was really excited about this story. The point of what they were doing wasn't for them to write an incredible grammatically correct story, but to use what they saw in the picture to make inferences about a possible story that might have taken place and add details that were not present in the picture. They definitely did just that. They were also really good about using transitions and using words that showed chronology in their story. There was a such a wide variety of writing in the classroom... it was really great to read them all. I even have one student who is writing a four part story about the childhood through the adulthood of the two dinosaurs he believes were in the picture and their many encounters and conflicts. He's still working on it. It makes me happy. YAY.
Monday, April 11, 2011
Cursive.
I was just thinking about this every day for the past few weeks as I watch my class work on their morning work. Every single day they do a few pages in their handwriting practice book. Each page gives practice with one cursive letter, upper or lower case. I have never seen them actually write anything else in cursive throughout the entire rest of the school day, nor have I ever seen the teacher do anything with the cursive workbook. I've never seen her use cursive either. I don't know that the workbook will ever be taken up or checked or anything at all. I've also been practicing my cursive for no real reason and realizing that I don't even remember most of the capital letters, and that I really don't like it at all. Why do we learn cursive? Is it something we really need to know? From third grade on, every single year, our teachers told us we had to practice it now because the next year we would have to write EVERYTHING in cursive. But that year never came and now I really don't know why we bothered. I was just thinking about that lately for some reason....
Sunday, April 10, 2011
Tuesday, March 22, 2011
Oh No!!
I apologize!
The week in the field showed me a lot about writing. I got to have writing conferences with a few children based on their persuasive pieces about whether our not they believe their school should get school uniforms. Reading them all was very interesting to see different ideas that children have about why this may or may not be a good thing. I was very surprised at the number of students who were in favor of school uniforms, but this is probably a good thing because the number of parents who voted in favor of it was apparently extremely high. Several children proposed the idea that school uniforms would be good on Monday-Thursday, but that they wanted to be given free choice for their clothes on Fridays. It was great to read the students' personal work and it allowed me to see how creative they were and how good they were at putting voice into their writing. I was actually extremely surprised at how many of them used interesting hooks and inserted questions or did other things to make their writing unique and interesting.
I also got to participate in the grading of their writing prompts. They had to write a persuasive piece about where the class should go on the next field trip. Again, I was very impressed at the style with which many of these 4th graders wrote their essays. I was also very impressed with the creativity they showed in selecting a location and coming up with reasons. My mentor teacher said the same thing. She had expected to get a large number of papers suggesting Disney World or Six Flags. Instead, many students had us traveling to other countries or other much more exotic locations. Not only did these students come up with a very unique field trip location, but they were able to back it up with reasons why they thought their location would be a beneficial field trip for the class. It was pretty eye opening to see how well these kids are able to write. This was the first time I had seen them do writing where the focus was actually the writing itself, not writing about some other subject, so the quality of writing was much higher than I had ever seen from them before. They were definitely tough to grade though. It's a much different type of grading scale than I'm used to using, and it seemed difficult to make sure that you were being fair and avoiding comparing one child's paper with the next. It made me nervous, but it was a good experience! And I'm glad to have finally seen the students' writing!
The week in the field showed me a lot about writing. I got to have writing conferences with a few children based on their persuasive pieces about whether our not they believe their school should get school uniforms. Reading them all was very interesting to see different ideas that children have about why this may or may not be a good thing. I was very surprised at the number of students who were in favor of school uniforms, but this is probably a good thing because the number of parents who voted in favor of it was apparently extremely high. Several children proposed the idea that school uniforms would be good on Monday-Thursday, but that they wanted to be given free choice for their clothes on Fridays. It was great to read the students' personal work and it allowed me to see how creative they were and how good they were at putting voice into their writing. I was actually extremely surprised at how many of them used interesting hooks and inserted questions or did other things to make their writing unique and interesting.
I also got to participate in the grading of their writing prompts. They had to write a persuasive piece about where the class should go on the next field trip. Again, I was very impressed at the style with which many of these 4th graders wrote their essays. I was also very impressed with the creativity they showed in selecting a location and coming up with reasons. My mentor teacher said the same thing. She had expected to get a large number of papers suggesting Disney World or Six Flags. Instead, many students had us traveling to other countries or other much more exotic locations. Not only did these students come up with a very unique field trip location, but they were able to back it up with reasons why they thought their location would be a beneficial field trip for the class. It was pretty eye opening to see how well these kids are able to write. This was the first time I had seen them do writing where the focus was actually the writing itself, not writing about some other subject, so the quality of writing was much higher than I had ever seen from them before. They were definitely tough to grade though. It's a much different type of grading scale than I'm used to using, and it seemed difficult to make sure that you were being fair and avoiding comparing one child's paper with the next. It made me nervous, but it was a good experience! And I'm glad to have finally seen the students' writing!
Sunday, February 20, 2011
7 ate 19!!! hahahahah
I was interested in the idea that students could have different jobs that applied to the writing workshop time, such as having some students who could be in charge of regulating who gets to sit in special spaces, or managing the time during the workshop. I really like letting students have jobs in the classroom and giving them the feeling that they are important enough to have the power over some aspect of the school day (because they are!). But these were jobs that I hadn't thought of as possibilities, so that was interesting to me. And besides making the kids feel good, it would also be very helpful to the teacher...
I also really like the idea of the "presence" that the teacher must have in order to keep the order in a writing workshop. When the students are doing individual work, it may seem like an opportunity for a teacher to get his/her own stuff done while the kids have something to occupy their attention, but this could lead to chaos or a general lack of engagement among the students. If the teacher doesn't seem to care what you're doing, then you probably won't care either. The teacher having a presence will make a huge difference for the students, in terms of engagement and behavior.
I wasn't sure at first how I felt about the idea that the Writer's Workshop would always be a little bit messy and just a little bit beyond our control so that no matter how long we do it, we can never quite get a handle on it. That doesn't sound particularly pleasant at first thought. But in any subject, there is always room to grow. Just because something is working doesn't mean you won't find a way to do it even better later. And that's not that scary - that's a good thing. So that idea doesn't sound so bad after all.
Publishing and setting deadlines... it's a good regulating tool. It will keep the kids writing and working hard because they have a deadline approaching. I can see how this might have some negative effects on student motivation too though, turning their writing into just some other assignment that they are doing just because they have to. As long as there is some leniency to it, it should be ok though...
I also really like the idea of the "presence" that the teacher must have in order to keep the order in a writing workshop. When the students are doing individual work, it may seem like an opportunity for a teacher to get his/her own stuff done while the kids have something to occupy their attention, but this could lead to chaos or a general lack of engagement among the students. If the teacher doesn't seem to care what you're doing, then you probably won't care either. The teacher having a presence will make a huge difference for the students, in terms of engagement and behavior.
I wasn't sure at first how I felt about the idea that the Writer's Workshop would always be a little bit messy and just a little bit beyond our control so that no matter how long we do it, we can never quite get a handle on it. That doesn't sound particularly pleasant at first thought. But in any subject, there is always room to grow. Just because something is working doesn't mean you won't find a way to do it even better later. And that's not that scary - that's a good thing. So that idea doesn't sound so bad after all.
Publishing and setting deadlines... it's a good regulating tool. It will keep the kids writing and working hard because they have a deadline approaching. I can see how this might have some negative effects on student motivation too though, turning their writing into just some other assignment that they are doing just because they have to. As long as there is some leniency to it, it should be ok though...
Monday, February 14, 2011
Conferencing
Conferencing is such a great way to help the students realize that their writing is going somewhere without making that thought seem intimidating. It is always helpful to know that the first person who reads your writing is going to be someone who wants to help you with it and give you feedback on it, not to judge you for it. It's also an extremely great way to connect to the students and to help them to feel connected to the teacher. It can be unnerving to have to share something you've written with your peers, especially in a large group setting, but having the attention and approval of the teacher first can put a student's mind at ease as they come to value their writing and themselves as writers.
Also, the feedback that is given at conferences can be a great jumping off point for a new idea to come forth from a student's piece. If they are stuck or just don't know where to go with their writing, having someone else's input can tell them where they might need some clarification, what points seem most interesting and could be elaborated on, or what questions a reader might still have. Also, this can be a time when a teacher might point out conventional issues, but as we discussed in class, these are primarily to help the reader know how to read your writing. I really like that idea for children. When they are learning these rules that might seem annoying or unimportant, putting that spin on it definitely makes it seem important and necessary to learn and use proper conventions. It's like making sure you're writing in the same language as your reader - you want them to understand what you mean. I just liked that idea a lot...
Sharing is so important with writing and I think that if we get children to share and get comfortable with sharing with small groups, but especially with the whole class (as described in the book - even if it is only a small section of their entire piece), they will be more likely to continue to do so in the future. If they want to share, they have to have something to share... so they have to write! I think that inspiring children to feel appreciated when they share with others will encourage them to continue to do so as they go through their schooling. If they enjoy the feelings of sharing, then they will put more effort into their work so that when they do share, it will be the best thing they could have done. The sooner this starts in the elementary school, the better.
Also, the feedback that is given at conferences can be a great jumping off point for a new idea to come forth from a student's piece. If they are stuck or just don't know where to go with their writing, having someone else's input can tell them where they might need some clarification, what points seem most interesting and could be elaborated on, or what questions a reader might still have. Also, this can be a time when a teacher might point out conventional issues, but as we discussed in class, these are primarily to help the reader know how to read your writing. I really like that idea for children. When they are learning these rules that might seem annoying or unimportant, putting that spin on it definitely makes it seem important and necessary to learn and use proper conventions. It's like making sure you're writing in the same language as your reader - you want them to understand what you mean. I just liked that idea a lot...
Sharing is so important with writing and I think that if we get children to share and get comfortable with sharing with small groups, but especially with the whole class (as described in the book - even if it is only a small section of their entire piece), they will be more likely to continue to do so in the future. If they want to share, they have to have something to share... so they have to write! I think that inspiring children to feel appreciated when they share with others will encourage them to continue to do so as they go through their schooling. If they enjoy the feelings of sharing, then they will put more effort into their work so that when they do share, it will be the best thing they could have done. The sooner this starts in the elementary school, the better.
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