I have come to believe that a great teacher is a great artist and that there are as few as there are any other great artists. Teaching might even be the greatest of the arts since the medium is the human mind and spirit.
For this week, take your writing to the classroom. Many of you have already been talking about your practice, but this is yet another opportunity to write and to reflect on your language arts class at the same time. This may also help you think about the Virtual Tour you will be sharing.
Share some of the great things your do, some of the things you want to do better or some of your favorite lessons. You only have to post once here in the next two week because the posting and response with the collaboration group will take up more of your time.
Something that I would like to do better is teach my students to answer questions. They are continually confused about who, what, where, when, why. Does anyone have suggestions for this in a K1 class?
ReplyDeleteI've always used checklists, and the younger the class the more visuals I add to those checklists. When I go into the kindergarten room to teach a writing lesson I make a poster with numbered steps and pictures: #1 Think (with a thinking bubble sketch), #2 Draw & write (sketch of a pencil or marker), # Read your story to a friend (sketch of two stick figures sitting side by side). Later I add #4 add details, and #5 with an arrow back up to the top to think about a new story.
DeleteI use a lot of picture books to help teach my writing. We do a lot of mapping of the stories I read and during writing workshop we refer back to them quite a bit. Another activity I do frequently with the "Wh" words is we first pick a random item from the room for the "who"(let's say a pencil). Then we add a "what" (was lost inside a desk). Then we keep going as a whole group and before you know it we have answered all the "Wh" questions and created a story. After I model this a couple of times, I break my kids with a partner and they do this themselves.
DeleteOne great thing I do in my classroom is sneak teach :) I teach music (I'm sure most have figured that out by now) and I have a passion within my field to teach across the curriculum and connect things if I can. I just love showing kids how things are connected! I am constantly trying to show them how to find those connections! Math in music... who knew! Reading and writing in music... yes! Science... of course! This year, I dedicated my hallway bulletin board to this very idea! Only problem is that I've not kept up with it... it's starting to look a little empty as I've not had the time to really put into it.
ReplyDeleteMarci.I did Who is this? and What am I? with a first grade class. We used mirrors for Who is this? If you have students who can write sentences. They can make up sentences about themselves.i.e. She has brown eyes and brown hair. She chews all the red jelly beans. She likes to read Curious George. If they need a pattern, you can have them fill in the eye and hair color on a pre written sentence and tell you indiviudally in conference what would be a fun sentence like She eats all the red jelly beans? For what. Have each child pick out their favorite....animal, television show, food, person, toy etc.
ReplyDeleteie. Animal I am black and white. I have a special perfume.
I spray it when I am in danger. There is a 3x5 spot that the picture is glued or drawn. You guessed it a skunk. I have not done where or when like this. Where do we go for lunch? Where do we go to play? Where do we go when school is out? Where do we go to eat? Where do we go to check out books? Where do we go when we are sleepy? When can be done with making a class schedule with pictures and time clock. Why could be a class book of questions and answers with Why and because as the response. Why does the sun shine? because the night went away? Why does a ball fall down? because it can not fall up. The kids can come up with their own questions and answers and illustrate them and have a ball. You will find a great treat with this I am sure.
Beth- what a fountain of ideas you are! I adore the idea of a "class book" of prompts. There are many great resources out here for purchase, but somehow they are never perfect for any one classroom or any one teacher. I often think that, by the end of a career, every language arts teacher has written several unpublished teaching resources! We are all writers, authors in creating our unique fits-our-classroom lesson plans. New teachers are cautioned not to "reinvent the wheel", but I've never seen a wheel I didn't want to at least tweak a bit!
DeleteThank you Fiona. Kids teach you the darndest things!
DeleteDonna Schneiders: Week 4 – My Writing Classroom
ReplyDeleteControlled chaos: that is how I would describe Writing Workshop in my classroom. I have kids going every which way doing all different things. I have students who are writing their own chapter book series and then I have students who are focusing on writing coherent sentences. I have students pre-writing, drafting, revising, editing, keyboarding, and illustrating. It is enough to make me go crazy. However, crazy enough, the kids absolutely love it!
The thing I do great, I suppose, is that I just let my kids write. I know that I don’t give them enough time to write, though. One of the things I would love to do is have “spontaneous” writing at a moment’s notice when we get inspired. For instance, we are reading a chapter book called A Room With a Zoo. The students have made so many connections to this story with the main character and with the relationships she has with her family and pets. Whenever we make a connection, I always say, “We need to be writing about this in our journals”. But because we always run out of time, we never do. I feel bad about this. I feel like these are opportunities that shouldn’t be missed.
Another thing I wish I were better at would be allowing the children time to share. This is such an important aspect of their writing development that I’m almost ashamed that I am admitting that this is the first thing I cut when we run behind.
In spite of my inadequacies, the students love to write and publish their work. I feel successful in that.
Donna, "spontaneous" writing sounds fun! I bet the kids would find it to be very fun and interesting. It's like a surprise. It might really engage your students! Maybe by the end of the year they could take those spontaneous thoughts and ideas and combine them into a story or poem or something.
DeleteI know what you mean about finding time to share, which I agree is important. I remember complimenting a 2nd grader on how much neater his handwriting was, and he replied that he worked on that because his writing partner was having trouble reading his pieces!
DeleteOnce partners are trained in how to really listen to their partner's work, compliment, and give suggestions -- I've settled into have the sharing time while they eat their snacks. It is a nice transition from quiet writing to constructive talking. Usually partners share, and sometimes I mix it up with - I highlight parts of certain papers, author's chair (if we have plenty of time), and often add to any of these "Raise your hand if you...(whatever the introductory mini-lesson was about; i.e. tried different leads, added sensory words). Sharing during snack time saves a chunk of time in our day.
Donna,Your writing workshop must be producing agreat variety of pieces. I accidentally discovered what a treat kids think it is to have lunch with their teacher. Maybe, just maybe that might be a possibility for you and your students. Brown bags and brainy writers once a month luncheon. Students whose pieces were complete meaning they have gone through all the processes and edits and the final copy is in their hands get a chance to share. I went into another teacher's class and she had made creating a writing chair an illustration project with puff paints and picked or had two students volunteer to take a lawn chair and turn it into an author's chair. It was so darling.
DeleteJeanne, what a great story for a writer to learn that other people need to read what is written. Wow.
The prompt mentions “language arts classroom.” Looking at this phrase, I wondered if, in fact, I had a language arts classroom. What happens in my class? I teach a second (third sometimes) language to high school students in standard world language classes; I teach a social studies course solely in Spanish; I teach literature and writing solely in Spanish. All to native English speakers. My class is more than just one class, one language arts classroom.
ReplyDeleteMy class is one where you won’t find an assigned textbook at any level. My class is one where I find a lot of laughter, answer a lot of questions, and usually enjoy my time with the students.
In the lower levels, we create a lot of stories through storytelling. Sometimes they make sense, sometimes not, but they are always engaging. These stories become drawings, skits and still life. Often, my students tell me that they don’t feel as if they are “working” at learning a language—they just realize that all of a sudden they understand what I say and what they read. What happens in these classes? Acquisition.
In these classes we create a lot of stories so naturally we discuss what “makes” a story. Over the years, the students are getting better and better at creating characters, conflict and resolution. These students can write stories in Spanish I and II. What does this storytelling and creating look like? Sometimes I see engaged listeners and avid participants. Sometimes I see the students run with a thread of a story and trip into English. Sometimes they get so excited about what will happen next that they can’t keep from blurting out in class. On these days, class seems to last a mere ten minutes.
Of course, there are days when 52 minutes feel like two hours. These are the days when students aren’t creating new material, but rather, summarizing, editing or rehearsing material not their own. This was my day today. We read a short novel in Spanish II and I had assigned chapters to groups to summarize and act out. The first 30 minutes were productive, but the last 22 I fought to keep students on task. I suppose this is a lesson in not only time-management, but in the value of students working with their own creation.
My upper-level immersion classes are a different story. My sophomores in “Perspectivas literarias” (literary perspectives) have been together since kindergarten. Oftentimes they act as if they were still in kindergarten. They are a curious bunch and I negotiate finding the balance between energizing their desire for writing and reading and introducing new grammatical forms. Since reading is the number one way for language acquisition, I’ve incorporated FVR into the curriculum and they students really enjoy being able to read anything from “People en Español “to Captain Underpants to The Hunger Games or The Hobbit in Spanish. We do a fair amount of writing, but it is still a challenge when their Spanish grammar skills and lack of vocabulary get in the way of communicating their explicit thoughts.
First hour I share with my senior immersion students in “Estudios latinoamericanos,” my social studies class. Writing is involved in all aspects of this class and most of the students have the skills to successfully communicate their thoughts and ideas on paper. Tomorrow I get the chance to watch them debate public policy issues relating to gold mining and coca production in Peru. I also get to read their policy position papers on the issue. Still, I believe we could work more on the process of writing in this class. Once a paper is written, we don’t revisit its words again. How can I better do this once I’ve moved on to a different country or area?
My language class is as varied as the four preps I teach. It is calm, it is chaos, it is quiet, engaged, and loud. Is it a language arts classroom? Language, any language is an art form. We communicate through our use of words. The way we choose to put those words together is our own individual art. So, yes, for the first time, I admit that it is.
Don't be so hard yourself. It sounds like you're doing a wonderful job. We all get that weird "time-management" voice, sometimes it's even suggested by administrators or in teacher pre-service programs. Looking at it from a kids point of view, these children go through six hours of six different classes, they are expected, mostly, to listen obediently to a teacher in each class, take notes, be ready for tests, track homework, organize for each teachers expectations, hurdle through social drama in the hallways, deal with divorced parents, juggle a concurrent expectation from a corporate culture that shoves cell phones, apps, computer games, movies, TV, entertainment, infotainment, ads, commercials, buy this, get this, into their faces throughout their waking day.
DeleteAnd we expect them all to be fully attuned everyday, following instructions.
Jeez... when do they get to just be kids?
Such a good reminder for us all. If I, as an adult, had all of that going on plus more for some, such as abuse, physical /sexual , it’s miraculous they learn anything. I have one little boy who was around pot smoking every night for several years. He was always tired never remembering anything. This year the source of the smoking is currently out of the house and has been for several months. Now the progress the student is making is astounding. He remembers, writes, reads, and has tons of energy (sometimes too much, but I’d rather have that). What a difference! Now that he isn’t exposed to the second hand smoke and being stoned from it he is learning and seems to be enjoying it. I dread when the offending person returns.
DeleteYou are right for reminding us all of the outside intrusions the kids have on them.
I have started to get writing to work better for my class of 5th graders. I was having a hard time getting them to write, and then I let the students spread out into “office space”. Students get to move their desk around the classroom and then have to have at least a foot of space between them and any other desk in the room. Students need to write for a set amount of time and then share with a partner. It is working and the kids are excited. It is a great start to changing things in my writing class. I just have to work more mini-lessons into my lessons. The most important thing is, my students are writing!
ReplyDeleteI like this idea. This year We have 2 u-shaped tables so the students can't pull their desks away, but I would like to try this next year. I also like the idea of writing for a set period of time. This makes me think of our 10-minute free writes. I really surprised myself at how freely I could start writing knowing it didn't matter what I wrote, and that I would only be writing for ten minutes. Are your students reluctant to share their writing? Do they get to pick their own partner or do you assign one?
DeleteGreat idea Valerie. I liked that in the youtube video from week one how the teacher would allow them to work in whatever space they wanted and get "comfy" as long as they got their work done. It seems like some are more motivated when allowed to do so.
DeleteMini-lessons are a challenge in my classroom also. I find that I take too much time on them and then there isn't enough time for actual writing with the students. I also feel stifled by our curriculum. I have always felt the goal of writing was to get the students to enjoy and love writing. It seems like you are doing a great job in this!
DeleteI am also working with a student teacher. So today I was the fly on the wall. The students shared with a partner of their choice. I think they are comfortable with that, I may have them mix-pair-share soon! Friday is often Free-Write Friday, students get to choose a topic, genre of choice. Today the class with my student teacher wrote a story on the Smart-Board. Each student added a sentence to the story. It was exciting to see them jumping up and down, helping each other and cheering for each other!
DeleteThe next step will be to review and add more details on Monday! So exciting!
Donna, I had the similar challenge of a mini lesson and tried to do it at home with one of my own chldren who was the same age as my students. Boy did that help me whip my lesson in shape when I got some very personal feed back! When I tried it in class I used a timer that I had used in math and it came out better than I had anticipated.
DeleteThis is my first year teaching 2nd grade and my second year teaching ever. I became the teacher of my class in mid-October and really didn't know where to start. I started with my Houghton Mifflin and Every Day Math and went from there. As December came around I was doing some reflection and decided I was missing a huge chunk of writing that HM wasn't covering. In January I re-introduced "Writer's Workshop." We made our "own, new" notebooks and decorated them. We share our stories and they love it. We introduce a new topic or strategy each week and focus on it that. My students have really shown great improvement on their writings and in their notebooks in the last month and a half. I am so impressed. Giving them ownership really helped. Now we have "Writer's Notebook" 3-4x a week for 20-25 minutes and all that is allowed, is writing. No talking, no getting up, spelling isn't graded and so on. It has been working amazingly and it transfers over to all of their other subjects.
ReplyDeleteJessica, great thinking! It's so hard when you come into a classroom after another teacher has "established" it. It can be tricky to get the kids to follow a new routine. What a great time though in January, when they've had a break and gotten comfortable with you! Way to step out! Sounds like it's working for you! I remember "Writer's Workshop" when I was in school. I loved that time to just write whatever I wanted! I have always enjoyed the emotional aspect of writing and this was my venue!
DeleteJessica, what a great idea! Our school did a curriculum review for our Language Arts Program two years ago. It seems like all of the Language Arts programs that we had reviewed were all lacking in the writing area. Even the program that we went with still needs some tweaking by teachers to make it fit our school and students. Way to go on giving your students what they really needed!
DeleteI truly enjoy reading and writing workshops using Lucy Calkins' Units of Study. Her general format is a mini-lesson (try to keep it to 10-15 minutes) which gives students a connection, teaching point, active engagement, and link to their own work. Then the majority of the workshop time is for individual and small group conferencing, ending with time to share. It's very productive! Readers have so much more "eyes on print" time than they ever did when I did leveled book groups with them. As Lucy Calkins says, they are authors of their own reading lives now. They are choosing their own books, whereas if I did I would be the author of their reading lives. The same philosophy holds for the writing workshops. These workshops empower students to have choice and voice in their learning, which motivates them to be self-directed.
ReplyDeleteThe teacher in me wanted more small group discussions so I've just started Lucy Calkins' suggestions for book clubs. Each group governs themselves with a protocol they all agree to, choose their books, decide on their strategy focus and meeting days. Certainly some groups are more successful than others, but they don't meet every day and learn by their own mistakes and uncooperative work.
Another great resource for literacy lessons is Literacyhead.com. It's an on-line resource with lessons and professional art prints that relate reading/writing strategies with visual art.
Hi Jeanne
DeleteI like the idea of mini lessons with little kids as their attention span is so short. I haven’t heard of Lucy Calkins, but I looked her up after reading your post and I can see it is well worth looking into it more. Did you take a class with her teachings or just study on your on with her CD’s? I plan on investigating her method more thoroughly this summer for using next year.
Regina, Lucy Calkins is coming out with a new edition of units of study aligned to the Common Core standards soon. Check out her materials developed with the Teachers College Reading & Writing Project, a research and staff development organization housed at Teachers College, Columbia University: http://readingandwritingproject.com/resources/common-core-standards/CCSS-aligned-Units-of-Study.html
DeleteI'm confident you'll find great summer reading with lots of resources for teaching writing with the Common Core, through Units of Study.
Thanks for the reminder of Lucy Calkins! When my son was in first grade I was a homeroom mom and would come into his classroom to volunteer during his writing workshop time. They had 40 minutes at the end of everyday for writing workshop. The teacher started with the mini-lesson and then students had the remainder of the time to write. Students would conference with myself, or the teacher during this time. It was really wonderful!
DeleteThis year we are participating in a postcard exchange. My students do not clearly grasp the geography of the Earth, or know how far away New York really is, but they love getting postcards in the mail from classes all over the country. Each time we get a postcard I read it aloud to the students. Then we color in that state on our large US map. You will be able to see this in my classroom tour. After receiving a few postcards we were ready to create our own. My mentor brought us 50 blank postcards because they are not available here. Then we brainstormed interesting information about our village. This was very fun for the kids. There were able to come up with many ideas on their own. I had to prompt them a few times to keep the ideas coming. After we had a great list of ideas, each students composed a draft letter by choosing four ideas and writing them on their paper. Then we read the letters together. Many of the students chose the same ideas so that made it easier to choose the ideas we would use for our class postcard. The dictated it to me and I wrote it up on the board. Then we read over it and had others read it for accuracy. Then I typed it up and printed it out on labels. Out postcards will be going out as soon as we have stamps. This project has been exciting for the students. There has been so much profit (incoming postcards) for so little effort, and the excitement it still carrying on months after we started working on it.
ReplyDeleteVery great activity Marci! I can see how they kids would love this. So much is being learned in this activity. Social letter writing, geography, group work, culture, writing and art. Wow. Very nice! One never knows but they could make ongoing pen pals.
DeleteI love this idea. Send me one in AZ! I am sure they will get great responses.
DeleteI have a few extras Sondra, send me your address.
DeleteMarci, I LOVE this idea! A great way to mix writing with geography!
DeleteWhat is my LA class like? That really will take some thinking as I don’t have a LA class per say. Since I am a SPED teacher, I see most of my kids for different reasons. My goal is helping them develop strategies in their areas of need that will help bridge the gap in their studies.
ReplyDeleteI am very blessed where I teach, I do what is referred to as reverse inclusion. That is where I have non SPED students with SPED students in the resource room for a specific subject. This is one way we, as a school, are helping our kids learn and bring up their test score on the AYP. If you have read nay of my post you know you know I am not fond of test, so bringing up their test scores isn’t my agenda. The perk for me is I have the opportunity to teach regular courses. So, I teach math and reading to second graders. It is reading where on occasion (rare) we do some writing. So, I won’t be addressing writing since we are limited. We are doing some for the purpose of this class and for improvement of me as a teacher of writing.
What I have found for our village is that vocabulary is what hinders our students the most in all areas. So, we work on learning new words and defining the words they hear but don’t understand.
We have several things we do. Fun stories, really cool spelling units, drawing, drama, and sentences. We have 3 different stories in a 2 week period. All of which have new words. We talk bout the words, and if possible we dramatize the words in different ways. We read stories where the words are incorporated and if needed we seek pictures of certain activities that the words are used in that would help with the definition. We are exposed to 20 words in 2 weeks with my desire of the kids remembering about ¾ of them. This is a good target goal for most of the kids, but we have to do repetitive things around the words. Our focus is not spelling, although we do things to help remember how they are spelled, but I do not test them on that. If I do, then our test is choosing the word that is correctly spelled from a group of 3-4 words.
With younger kids I sometimes use puppets. They are very attentive to this. Since I am a kid at heart it serves to keep me young.
I have "acted" out word meanings in the past! You brought up something I need to work back into my routine! Thanks for the reminder. Vocabulary words in Storytown are difficult for some of my students to grasp also. Maybe sometime in the near future a short story involving vocabulary words and publishing it will be in order!
DeleteNormally my poetry unit is the highpoint of my school year. I love teaching poetry: old stuff, new stuff, analysis, composition, performance, you name it. This year the calendar got away from me and I only have a few weeks to "cram it in." I hate that.
ReplyDeleteIn any case, yesterday I taught my students the difference between free and blank verse using Whitman and excepts from Macbeth. Then I pushed into Ode. I had them read Sandburg's "Chicago" and then Jay-Z "Empire State of Mind" to look at Ode to cities. We pushed a little further by comparing the song and the poem and the means by which the veneration of the two cities was constructed. Then we turned our sites on North Pole, Alaska. We collaborated on the facets and attributes that make this town our own and what we can both take pride in as well as call out for work. Tomorrow, Thursday, we are gong to begin drafting these odes to North Pole. Should be a good day. Happy Spring Break!!!!
It would be great to see a few North Pole odes if you get a chance to put them online!
DeleteI, too, find poetry to be the most popular form of writing with my sophomores. I use lots of lessons from Linda Christensen's "Reading, Writing, and Rising Up," and "Teaching for Joy and Justice." She has a sort of formula that seems effective with teenagers: read lots of samples; have a conversation about the idea (usually social justice in nature, or a theme they identify with, like clothes, consumerism, race, etc.); build lists; brainstorm with class about the lists; write poem using the hook, repeating a verse, or building from the original poem's structure.
Delete"I am from.." always generates wonderful poems. I begin the year with "what's in a name" that allows kids to tell stories or write poem about their names.
Sondra, your Steinbeck quote reminds me of an oft-quoted excerpt from an article, Like Captured Fireflies, written by John Steinbeck, published in the California Teachers Association Journal, November 1955, 51,7.
ReplyDeleteIn her classroom our speculations ranged the world.
She aroused us to book waving discussions.
Every morning we came to her carrying new truths, new facts, new ideas
Cupped and sheltered in our hands like captured fireflies.
When she went away a sadness came over us,
But the light did not go out.
She left her signature upon us
The literature of the teacher who writes on children's minds.
I've had many teachers who taught us soon forgotten things,
But only a few like her who created in me a new thing a new attitude, a new hunger.
I suppose that to a large extent I am the unsigned manuscript of that teacher.
What deathless power lies in the hands of such a person.
- John Steinbeck
http://blogs.edweek.org/teachers/place_at_the_table/2010/10/she_watched_as_i_studied.html
This is a quote that has lived in me for 25 years. It is part of my larger goal as an educator – to ignite a passion for wondering and knowing. Writing can be the spark. Through writing we not only communicate with others, we come to know ourselves, the greater world and the experience of being human.
We breathe in the world through our culture, emotions, intellect and senses - including listening and reading. We use language to know, to make sense for ourselves and of ourselves. Language, a vehicle for thinking and expressing our thinking, our wonderings and our heart, is what we breathe out, through speaking and writing (and the other arts).
Oh that I could be like Steinbeck’s teacher! With a keyboard or pen in hand, my students too would be enthralled with knowing and coming to know about themselves, the world and what it means to be alive.
I attended an ASLA convention that featured Ralph Fletcher (author of books on writing). He had a very simple formula that I've repeated dozens of time in my classroom. It can take a few minutes or the entire class hour. Ralph asked us all to write (he generally asks his audience to write on any topic), then pair-share the writing piece (either reading it or talking about the topic of your writing), then share with the class and stimulate feedback.
ReplyDeleteMy goal is to have everyone read their writing at some point in the year. But, as I watched a roomful of reluctant readers--teachers!--hesitant to make the step of courage during Ralph's workshop, I am always more sensitive to shy students. I'd rather have them write authentically for themselves, or, at least, me as a reader, than write with the expectation they have to read everything for a class.
I DO have the challenge of building writing stamina. Some students quickly sprint through a few sentences then get back to talking. Some students talk more about what they're going to write about than actually write it. Yet, I also know that writing takes time and, for many students, unlearning misconceptions about writing and the writing process.
This is from John who is still unable to access the blog..
ReplyDeleteMy favorite writing thing I do in my class is the way I have the students write my tests in essay form. About three days before the test I pass out an outline to all students. The outline is a skeleton that kids use to plot the most important aspects of the unit.
I slightly enable them because I keep all of their work and hand it out for them to construct their outlines. As they get done with their outlines I collect them and handout all of their completed outlines on the day of the test to use as open notes.
Many students have told me later that they learned how to organize their writing and that this helped them down the line in school. It also helped them pass the HSGQE. The outline is worth 25 points and the test is worth 50. If they don't do the outline they screw up the test. But, in class I'm a wildcat about getting the outline. Because the test is worth only 50 points, the edge is taken off the writing. They can basically write without the pressure due to the outline and open notes.
This is the way I have been getting writing done in my class my whole career. I feel strongly writing and the ability to do so is very important in the world of work.
One aspect in their outline is that I don't allow any simple sentences. I then start talking in simple sentences and they laugh. The students are expected to write long expressive and descriptive sentences. As I check their outline I'll say, good, good........okay fix this and this. I put dots on their paper in pen. I do not write in red, so I feel this appears not threatening and authoritative.
Just wanted to share this with you. I work in a difficult school and many students come to me struggling in writing.
John, I really like this idea! I wish my high school teachers had done this! I always excelled on essay tests versus multiple choice. I would have loved putting together and outline and then using it to complete an essay form test. Nice job!
DeleteThere are actually some studies that show that people who have high scores on standardized tests (SAT, HSGQE, etc.) are actually more shallow thinkers than those perform poorly.
DeleteNo wonder so many politicians and school boards want to use these tests to measure achievement. We need the most capable shallow thinkers to run our society.
[Incidentally, there is a report in The New York Times this week which puts to rest the assumption that swanky "competitive" colleges (Harvard, etc.) enroll working class students who are in the top academic percentage of their high schools. Seems these kids are taking their excellent scores and, possibly (who knows) writing skills to local public universities: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/03/17/education/scholarly-poor-often-overlook-better-colleges.html?ref=education&_r=0.
What this means, of course, is it not the "gifted" working class that has much say in public and private policy (including education policy!) in America, but that we are increasingly becoming a nation ruled by an oligarchy of the privileged.)
What does my writing class look like? I hate to admit that it varies on a daily basis, which I realize may not be the best, in terms of structure, for my students. I will say though that there are routines that I do daily without fail. One of those being our morning "Bell Work". I know many teachers use that term and it may look different from classroom to classroom. I use mine as a daily spelling and grammar review. I put a sentence up on the board that has something to do with what we're learning or often even what's happening at the school or in the community. I riddle it with mistakes and they are tasked with fixing said mistakes in their "Bell Work Books". We use proper editing marks to correct, and with every mistake I have them explain what was wrong and why it needed to be fixed. The kids actually enjoy "correcting the teacher".
ReplyDeleteSomething else that I've recently started doing on a daily basis is having them write in their Reading Response Journals. This was something I'd used before, but much more inconsistently. In their journal I glued in a series of prompts that they can use to get their ideas flowing. They may summarize what they just read, they can write about their favorite part, or how they connected it to something else they've read, etc. This has built in a lot of extra writing time beyond the "writing block".
We often use writing centers to reinforce concepts we've already learned, and some designed for simply writing creatively.
My current writing assignment has been soooo much fun for all of us!!! We're in the process of writing our own versions of "Golidie Locks and the Three Bears." They have really amazed me with not only the amount of writing they've produced, but their creative ideas as well. We began the unit talking about story elements in depth, moved on to writing tableaus, then finally to drafting our stories. We are now in the editing phase. This course has had me rethinking the way I'll grade these, what I'll grade them for (grammar, spelling, ideas, etc.) I'll keep you posted, but I'm just so pleased with the progress they've made on these, and surely that counts for something!
But my FAVORITE writing lessons to teach are poetry, particularly haikus and the preposition poems I have them create (I'll have samples in my classroom tour). This is something I've done with my previous middle schoolers as well as my third graders. These have always produced pieces that amaze and delight me!!! This section will come about here in a few weeks with my current kiddos...I can hardly wait to see what wonderful things this bunch will come up with!
Stephney, I'm looking forward to seeing your poems in your tour. I too am continuously amazed with what my kids write. I think some of them are geniuses :) This has become some of my favorite activities as well and I'm looking forward to doing them again next year. I would love to hear more about other types of poetry you've used with your students. Thanks!
DeleteGreat reminders Stephney of some fun activities. I am so curious about your preposition poems. If there is a website for that, hope you include it.
DeleteThanks ladies! The Preposition Poems are really easy and produce some really unique outcomes! There's no real "Recipe" for writing these...I don't set any ground rules as to what they write about, but I do have 2 stipulations. The poems need to be at least (no limit otherwise) 5 lines, and every line must start with a preposition. Pretty simple, and we always have a lot of fun with these!
DeleteFor over a decade, I have been perfecting the writing process as it’s practiced in my classroom. After we finish a major piece, I block out about eight days to craft an essay. These eight days are sacred: we don’t move on, we don’t begin to study anything else; we focus on what the students want to explore in reference to the piece studied and how they put it on paper.
ReplyDeleteFirst, I hand out a list of prompts: all open-ended questions that demand a specific response from the student (and there is always room for them to write their own prompts, as well). Once they have chosen a prompt, they must write a thesis—which I check before they begin on anything else. After that, they work their way through the following steps in this order: an outline (complete with quotes), workshop #1 (done individually, focused on ideas and organization), workshop #2 (done with a partner, focused on proofreading), and an outside edit (done by a certified English Nerd—I can explain this later—or editor from outside of the classroom). (The workshops and outside edit have evolved a lot from the beginning of my teaching career, too, and I’m pretty proud of them.) Then, for the eight days that we’re focusing on the paper, I make sure that I’m available during class, lunch, and after school to provide help when they ask for it (or, if a student hasn’t approached me for help in over a day, I make sure to make contact with that particular individual). In this way, they have outlets for self-reflection, peer editing, and—most importantly—each student also has access to an incredible amount of one-on-one guidance from me. They create their own timelines (for the most part) and don’t all have to be on the same step each day, and when they approach me for help, the only thing they have to be able to do is vocalize a specific aspect of their essays that they’d like to discuss; “Can you read this and tell me what you think?” will not get them anywhere, but questions like: “Am I analyzing all of the detail I provide?” or “Do my transitions create fluency between my ideas?” are fantastic! The student and I then sit down for his or her individualized mini-session, and when it’s over, there’s always someone else waiting. They can meet with me as many times as they’d like over the eight days we’re working.
My brain is pretty zapped each day, but, when I read their final drafts, it’s totally worth it. Oh, that’s the other awesome part of this writing process: I front-load all of my editing and feedback, so a final draft is a final draft—we don’t do rewrites. That way, we can delve into the next piece without worrying about tying up loose ends from the previous one.
A typical day in my classroom during the language arts block seems to be the craziest. I feel like I have to cover so much information in 60-90 minutes (depending on the day). Three days of the week I have a solid 90 minutes; however I am fortunate enough to have an interventionist who takes 7 of my kids for 25 minutes. This is great, but it does mess up my direst instruction. I need all of my kiddos there for my direct instruction time. We start with doing our spelling words on white boards, doing tap and spell. My kids love this and usually I have 100% participation. If they are not participating they don't get two minutes to doodle at the end. Then we go into the phonics, a powerpoint of vocabulary, read a story related to the topic or in Houghton Mifflin and then move into our sentence writing. Most of the time this brings us to centers where we are working on different tasks. I have a listening center, a spelling and vocab (practice book pages), reading to self, computer, and writing center. Then I lead a guided reading with a few kids at a time. After spring break we are enhancing our writing center with some tools I have picked up from Lucy Calkins. Though the students only write for about 20 minutes 3 times a week during this block, they are writing throughout the day in other content areas. I have just implemented a new "Writer's Notebook" that we do after lunch 4 days a week. This is 20-30 minutes of ZERO voices and they have to write the entire time. I don't grade any part of it. I do read their journals 1x a week and make comments. I like the way things are going now and cannot wait to start fresh next year. Since becoming their teacher in October I felt I couldn't jump into all of the things I wanted to do until recently.
ReplyDeleteIn my classroom, we have our language arts block in the morning. I follow the Houghton Mifflin Reading series pretty closely. It is our district adopted curriculum, but I feel it is really weak in writing. I supplement my writing lessons with a writers workshop. In first grade I usually start this after winter break, as before that we are writing in journals practicing handwriting, working on capital letters, punctuation, and sound spelling. I have spent quite a bit of time pre-teaching my expectations and the process of writers workshop. By the time it was time to actually write, my class was so excited to get started! We have been working on our writing stamina, last week we were up to 32 minutes, which I feel is great for first grade! I haven't started on conferencing with students yet. I think that will be my goal to start after we return from spring break. I do walk around and answer questions and help students come up with ideas, but I want to have a more formal routine where I can sit down and conference with students. Writers Workshop has become by favorite part of the day, it is great to see such excitement with writing in my students!
ReplyDeleteMy room is somewhat eclectic. It changes as we, as a group, change. On my blog there will be the kids bulletin boards that they built at the beginning of the year. Some will add on as the year progresses and they see something they like ore they get interested in other things. The boards are covered with things they like from school, home and magazines. They are pretty typical of 2nd graders as they consist of various animals. My one boy has lions and bears and eagles. The girls have mostly cuddly animals and some things they have called “fooff”. That is the best rendering of they word they say.
ReplyDeleteThen we have a bright red kidney table where we gather for our work. I like it as it keeps us together and my attention can be split evenly during our lesson. It is also where our smartboard is with which we do a lot of interacting with.
Today our story was about the elephants of Kenya that are being hunted to extinction for the ivory tusks. We looked up Kenya and the elephants and came across David Sheldrick’s haven for orphaned and injured animals, primarily elephants. It matched their spelling and reading unit to a tee as we had just read about Daphne Sheldrick and how she cares for the baby elephants after their mothers have been killed by poachers. They saw pictures of various elephants and were amazed at the sizes. (It is always so GREAT to watch their faces and “WoW’s” they scream at sights they have never seen.) Our story talked about how the elephants hug their care provider and there was even a picture of that. We aren’t always lucky to find things that we just read, but today was a jewel.
The kids have their laptop computers in their carry bag that is also suited to their likes in one corner which add to the colorful design of the classroom.
They set them up in various parts of the room when they do their computer course or when we type out lessons, such as we did today.
Unfortunately, our windows are covered or are to high to see out but we have decorated them with pictures flowers and plants.
In the morning it is full of life, but in the afternoon it becomes much quieter as the little ones leave and the high schoolers come in and they tend to be much more sullen. Their reason is they don’t like to come as my room is considered the place where you go for “help” and as teens, that isn’t cool. When they relax or do some “fun” things it becomes a little more livelily, but over all it is much more serene. Although today we looked at an Aardvark on Youtube. This stirred some interaction, “OHHHHH, how ugly, that ‘s gross”. I guess that is better than no reaction. I have decided that we have to become adults in order to act like children and have fun. I was the same as a teen.
So, most of my joy is in the morning with the kids who still think learning is cool and exciting. Don’t get me wrong I love my teens as well, but not much excites them.
A typical day in my language arts classroom......well, in the morning we start with a quick journal write most days. This journal write is usually tied to the story we are reading for that week, a current event, or an event/holiday for that day or week. I have a language arts block in the morning from 9:20 a.m. until 11:15 during which time we work on vocabulary terms, grammar, word structure, reading, writing, and inquiry projects/questions from our reading.
ReplyDeleteSince beginning this class I have been putting more focus on my writing time by giving my students more time to write and by adding some quick writes every other day. These quick writes have encouraged a few of my reluctant writers to actually write! Yeah! I am hoping for my students to be able to get some topics for future writing out of these quick writes that we have been doing. Each day I typically spend about 15-30 minutes on having my students write.
We go through the whole process of writing a piece of work-which typically takes us two weeks. We start with a graphic organizer or a list, move onto a rough draft, peer reviewing (with special colored pens), revisions, and final draft. Most projects are then hung out in the hallway, or read to the class.
Our class came up with rules for peer-reviews at the beginning of the year and it is posted on our wall as a reminder for all of us when we are reviewing each others work.
I addition to our language arts time, my class also spends time writing in science notebooks throughout our week, and during our social studies classes we also write short answers and notes.
One of the reasons I wanted to take this class is because I've made it a goal for myself to incorporate more writing across the curriculum. It became a classroom goal early in the year when I purchased my new ipad. I've always enjoyed altering photographs and wanted to find a way to incorporate this into my everyday teaching. So with that idea in mind, I decided to incorporate technology, writing, and art all together. I started the year with doing a portrait/value project and that was the beginning of many new and exciting projects. When I got my ipad and found the Zombie Me! App, it happened....... we morphed ourselves, colored them using highlighters, and gel pens, and created Diamante poems that described how we changed from humans to zombies. We ended up winning the door contest and recored our poems using the Puppet Pals App. The kids were begging to do more....... We then did an animal morph using the Genesplicing App. This was even better! I will be sharing these photos in my video that we have to produce. They wrote a form poem to go along with these pictures. Over break I had the pleasure of reading 22 stories that we wrote using the aging app. I morphed the kids into older versions of themselves and provided them with a story starter. One of my kids saw my pile of papers and said, "Ms. Grogan you have a novel with short stories!" Who knew they could write so much!!! I've done a few other activities as well and the kids can't seem to get enough. I'm saving all their photos/art and writing pieces and we are going to make books at the end of the year so they can bring them home to share with their parents. I'm always looking for new and exciting ways to get the kids involved and excited about what they are working on. I've found that when they get to use technology, and then add the images of themselves that have been printed, it makes it even more meaningful. I've even had the kids ask about what they get to write about next...... this to me is what it's all about. When they are asking me on a day to day basis what they get to do next, it certainly keeps me on my toes, and keeps me excited about teaching as well. When we get back after spring break, they will continue their work on the quote. "If your eyes were mirrors...." project. This has given me great insight to how the students see themselves and I'm looking forward to finding out how the other students view them. I'm always surprised by how very honest kids are when they are asked to write. I also did an amazing project where I used their silhouettes and we used a masking technique to block out lines. We then did a color study and they colored in the negative spaces with colors that represented them individually. After the paint dried, they peeled off the tape and wrote in favorite quotes, facts, and general information about themselves. They turned out beautifully and the students were always very excited about what they learned about the meaning of different colors. We even did our names in colors instead of letters. Very fun! I'm already looking for my next project....... :)
ReplyDeleteYour post aptly points out that writing is only one way of communicating, and that technology can be applied in many ways to enhance communication. At the core of a good language arts class is finding creative and interesting ways to help students improve their communication skills and express them in multiple mediums. Good writing skills enhance the ideas in any form of communication.
DeleteTimona and Mark, your work with your high school students certainly looks wonderful!
DeleteWritten on my classroom’s board are the two rules for success in my English classes grades 7-12.
ReplyDelete1. Follow directions.
2. Turn your work in on time.
If students follow these rules, they will do fine in class. Those that do not follow these rules don’t do so well. I am really flexible about writing topics and essay content. I want students to have maximum flexibility to explore and develop their ideas. I am really rigid about structure. If a piece of writing is going to communicate well, it must be organized and follow a specified form. All essays need introductions and thesis statements, a developed body, and a conclusion that doesn’t regurgitate what was just read. All of my writing assignments are issued with detailed instructions about the writing topic and what is expected throughout the essay’s paragraphs. By supplying the essay structure and content specifications, students understand what is expected of them as writers in the assignment.
As a teacher, I tend to be laid back and have a sharp sense of humor that most of the kids appreciate. I excel at helping stuck writers getting unstuck. I ask questions that get them to think their way out of writing rather than simply handing out an answer or solution. This past quarter the high school students were required to write a 5-page research paper with a title page and a works cited page. Of course a few freaked out about the length because they had never written anything that long before. “Like OMG! How am I gonna fill 5 pages?!” I broke the assignment into stages that were graded along the way and broke down the structure for them in a way they could understand. If the introduction and conclusion were a half page each, that left 4 pages for 3 subtopics. When I said it was like writing a one and a third page paper for each subtopic, they suddenly got it.
Due to the serious lack of writing for many years before I arrived, it took me a year and a half to build them into writers who could handle the challenges of a 5-page paper. Most succeeded, but some didn’t try. I also busted 2 plagiarizers who copied and pasted their entire paper. I have no idea why they try to pull that nonsense with me because there are always sentences or words in the plagiarized text that jump out at me and scream fraud.
Marc, I like the way your classroom sounds. I like that you seem to keep it simple yet fun. 2 quick and easy rules, but an enjoyable atmosphere. I also love that you are able to get stuck writers unstuck. A great tool! Thanks for sharing!
DeleteYour kids sound like mine when I tell them that they are going to write a 3-5 research paper with MLA formatting. They freak. Yet, we break it up into manageable pieces and before they know it, they have it done. In Spanish. Your comment about a lack of serious writing also struck a cord with me. I'm often the first teacher to bring up MLA or APA in class and I teach Spanish.
DeleteMY ESL class
ReplyDeleteMy classroom is ‘mine’ for three hours a week. My students are eager adults wanting to learn to speak English. The content of first grade writing is in my class, and much of the content is their adult life. There are struggles on the job, and in their families trying to work out a whole new life in a whole new country, in a whole new parish. I have learned that they value living in the United States because of freedom and safety. Without exception, these two dimensions of our country are prized.
The board is blank when I arrive, then quickly filled with words, a sentence pattern from which we work to change subjects, verbs, or add or subtract adjectives and adverbs.
I tried a writing component a few weeks ago. Essentially I tried to think of working with adults who want to learn and need to express themselves and they don’t want to sound like idiots. I looked very closely at my first grade content and tried to figure out how to make it palatable for adults. I found I needed to create a simple pattern. My name is________________. I am from__________________. I have been in Anchorage, Alaska for _____________ days (dias), weeks, (semannas) years (anos). From this simple beginning we learned the first and last name of all of us. They learned how long each other had been in Alaska. They learned the names for day, week, and year in English. I taught that the word ‘ my’ belongs with something that belongs to me and gave examples of the body parts of the face. I wrote the examples on the board. I taught that ‘I’ is the word to use when I speak. We found out that two of the students were from Peru, so I wrote on the board We are from Peru and had the students come up to the front of the room and say that sentence together. Then O and S are from Peru. The other two students got up and said “We are not from Peru.”That taught connections, speaker in the plural and positive and negative sentence use. Many things can be introduced. I have to be attentive to the logic of introductions, load and overload, and the teaching moments that come spontaneously. I keep a Spanish English dictionary alongside my markers, and I am in business teaching.
The next step is to use the sentence: My favorite___________ is_____________. I have had classes that have named the words to put in as favorite and other classes in which I need to decide the category and have the student make a selection. For example, I wrote My favorite drink is__________. I had anticipated every other possibility other than tecquilla. By the end of that class we were in hysterics ready to adjourn to a bar together.
I have what I call ‘a creative project’ in mind. I will give each student an 8x10 piece of paper with a tail on it and ask them to draw something with a tail. I am going to call one of the people who speak Spanish to make sure I can give this direction in writing on my board. Then they will write a story in Spanish and I will try to decipher what they wrote with the help of a bilingual parish friend.
My writing class is that of a neophyte bi lingual teacher with a lot of experience in teaching. All the writing tracs for me are new. I am making them up as I teach and evaluating. I am in translation mode with the tapes and beginning sentences and patterns, present, past and future tenses. They are copying words and patterns and speaking. That is huge. Writing is more natural and comfortable than speaking, which has been an interesting discovery. They have been taught to read and write and speak in their native language. Those skills transfer. Onward to new experiences with English!
Opps! I forgot to copy my response here. Here it is, along with the link to my virtual tour:
ReplyDeleteDescription: http://mamashutts.wordpress.com/2013/04/13/whats-it-like-in-my-classroom/
Pictures: http://mamashutts.wordpress.com/2013/04/02/virtual-classroom-tour/