Class Notes: 2/22/11

To share or not to share?

• Start small, some students are not comfortable
• It means putting yourself out there and being proud of your work
• Some subjects are difficult to talk about
• If students are sharing, so should we
• Give students choice about what they share
• Could be judged for wanting to share, for not being a good writer, for it being unoriginal etc.
• Should go over proper behavior for listening to other students before a student ever shares. Go over how to be good listeners, how to ask appropriate questions and give constructive comments.
• Helps build confidence
• Stepping stone approach, share with partner, teacher, small group, then larger group
• Helps with reading and speaking in front of people
• Whats the point of writing something if nobody ever reads it? Can be a sense of motivation for some
• What is submit anonymously and have teacher read to class? Could help w anxiety and build confidence

 

 

Editing Ideas:

• Use color coded dots to signify spelling, grammar, punctuation errors etc. so they know where their error is but they fix it on their own.
• 3 star writing: check list. can be any 3 things. Examples: Are these the best ideas I could put together? Did I edit all the way through?
• Look at paper for just punctuation, then just spelling, going line by line. Could use Popsicle sticks to stay on task.

 

Writing Formula:
40 % Ideas
20% Conventions
20% Style (word choice, voice, etc)
20% Organization

*Do we teach with the same emphasis?

Chapters 7, 8 and 19 Reflections

I love what chapter 7 says about being "present" and "out among the workers" while your students are participating in writing workshop. So many times you see teachers who use writing workshop as an extended planning period or (a less-horrifying scenario) as a time to pull students for random individual instruction. Yes, it is a time to work individually on students, but about their writing.

It is humorous to look at the sense of control teachers fear losing with writing workshop. We don't know what to do with ourselves when students are all working individually on slightly different things and are at different places in their work. We have to learn to roll with it and stay with the students as much as possible.

I really like the idea of the 2 specific places in the room for writing workshop- one where everyone comes together and another where students know they can go to spread out. In my classroom, the students meet at their "smartboard" spots when they meet as a class, and they have assigned seats. When they spread out to take tests or work on something as complete individuals (aka: no help from neighbors) they go to their assigned area. Some are at tables, some at desks, and some on the floor. While they are assigned, I'm sure they could switch if need be.

In chapter 8 I like how they do not shy away from admitting creating a writing workshop in the classroom can be a daunting task that is both difficult and time consuming, but as I read this I am brought back to one of the first chapters in which they stressed that writing workshop will be nowhere near perfect the first, second or even tenth time you try, but all you have to do is put in the effort and keep trying and you will see results. Students will be at many different points in their writing, on different topics, in different genres etc and it is not our job at teachers to have a complete handle on it- that would be insane. We just have to give them guidance and be there when they need us. (Kind of sounds like parenting)

Moral of chapter 8: Relax. Writing is messy.

Publish or Perish! haha love this, especially because I realize how easy it is to start something and how incredibly difficult it can be to finish it, writing especially. It is very difficult to put ourselves out there and say "okay, look at this, I made this, it is all me, and its done, complete, ready to be critiqued!" ahh that's so scary! At least with a draft you can always say "well I'm still in the process of fixing it, editing it." But a final draft is final... or so it seems. But I love the idea of giving students a deadline and have them work towards it. OF course their writing will never be perfect, but get it as close as you possibly can to perfect, or what you want it to be, by that date. I like the idea that this is very similar to an author-publisher relationship.

And I could go on forever, this book is so insightful! Ill call it a night right there though :)

Persuasive Writing

Many persuasive peices have...

A clear position
Could have humor to appeal to audience
Anticipate opponents arguments and counteract them
Analogies or Metaphores
Unexpected positions
Buzz words
Appeal to Emotion
Tone & Diction- presents things in black and white, postition people different ways


Evidence: carefully selected and framed to support a point of view
- Facts
- Examples: personal stories woven in
- Statistics
- Quotes

Recipe for Cullinary Conferencing

Recipe for Culinary Conferencing:

Cook time:  2-7 minutes

Temperature: Cool and comfortable classroom

Serves: Approximately 22 hungry minds

Ingredients:

1 Teacher

1 Student

1 Piece of Writing

2 Somewhere’s to Sit

A fistful of knowledge (pg 164)

Record Keeping Materials

Directions:

Preparation time: At least one class period for writing for child. Teacher should sift one fistful of knowledge down to deliberate teaching idea, use only freshest ingredients

Combine teacher and student with one piece of writing at 2 somewhere’s to sit. Allow to simmer to low boil (ideas).

Increase heat to direct instruction mode, stir occasionally with open ended questions for student and record keeping.

Occasionally monitor reason for teaching objective.

Serve hot to friends and family, no holding back

Chapters 14, 15 & 17 Reflection

I will never forget when I was a junior in high school and I was in some writing/literature class. I honestly cannot remember the name of the class or the teacher, but I vividly remember one event that occurred in her class. The class, myself included, had completed a paper assigned to us. She returned them all without grades saying we all failed and she was going to give us an "opportunity" to redo them. I was appalled that every single person in the class had gotten an F on a paper, especially me (haha I considered myself a decent enough writer to at least pass a paper I worked hard on). I went up to her in class and asked if we could talk about what I needed to do to fix my paper. She literally said I had a weak thesis statement and needed to fix a few passive verbs (because those are absolutely never allowed in writing according to this teacher). I sat there thinking "you have GOT to be kidding me. She could not give me any more guidance than THAT on a FAILING paper?!?" It was ridiculous. The paper was not F material, she was just either lazy or incompetent, I think maybe both. I literally changed my thesis statement and a few passive verbs to active and "magically" got an A.

This horrifying display of "lack-of-conference" or any productive criticism for that matter is in direct contrast to chapter 14 on conferences. I think if you are a teacher (especially a high school literature and writing teacher) and you will be grading students' papers, you need to know why you are giving them the grade they are receiving and what exactly they can do to improve the paper. My freshmen (in college) literature professor understood this well and would meet with each students over coffee at least once in the middle of the semester to talk about our papers and what we could do to improve. I am sure this took a lot of her time, but it was far more productive to us students as developing writers, even at the college level. Like the book said, it not only helps us (or our students) grow as writers when we confer, it shows them that we care about them and take their work seriously.

In chapter 15 I love what is says about why we need to talk about our writing. It shows the students that their writing is valuable and it is encouraging to hear student responses as we develop a piece of writing. It is so true that the students have so much to learn from each other. So many times I will think I am hitting the nail on the head with a writing assignment (or any assignment for that matter) and as soon as I share with others and hear about their work, I realize I need to tweak something, or am inspired to change something of mine. I have to admit that even when I am slightly timid to share what I write sometimes, I also tend to get excited at the prospect of getting feedback and support from my classmates.

I cannot tell you how many times I am in the classroom during writing time and a student will raise their hand, I will come over and they will just look up at me, then at their paper and sit there. At first I was confused but now I realize they just want me to read what they have written and tell them what I think. They are even open for corrections. I love this because it shows they are not afraid of their mistakes and are proud of their work.

In chapter 17 I love the idea of asking our students questions we don’t necessarily already know the answer to in order to show them that they have the answers and we take them seriously as writers and as students. I love this quote from page 213, "You have questioned the student into believing he has an answer to this, and when you get behind the answer, the student is able to build an identity for himself around this answer". Haha so cool, I never thought about it this way!

As a last note, I agree that it is important to have the teacher, classmates and the writer him or herself evaluate the writing of each individual. While students do know their writing the best, as instructors it is our job to keep them in the right direction and we know where their writing should be. As for the peers, it is good for them to see other writing at their level and learn to give positive criticism.

Informational Texts Can Include:

Headings, charts, diagrams
Timelines
Table of Contents
Maps and Digagrams
Letters and excerpts
Quotes
Question and Answer Format
Shape and Arrangement of text
Captions
List of Sources or Further Reading
Index
Photgraphs and Illustrations

Awesome Informational Texts:

At Ellis Island by Louise Peacock- Montage of quotes and facts about immigration into the US in the early 1900's paired with a historical fiction letter from a girl to her mother documenting her journey of her immigration to America

Mini/Focus Lesson Plan

Here is my first go at a Focus Lesson Plan for Writing:

Mini / Focus Lesson Plan- Details/ Descriptive Words

Name: Marissa Croft, 2/9/11

Rationale: The students in my first grade class are learning “Big Dog Words” from different books they read like “amusing”, “adorable” and “delicious”. Most of them are adjectives and they are learning how to use them in everyday language which is great. I think it would be a good activity to have them learn to incorporate not only “Big Dog Words” but even small, short, but very important and descriptive words, into their writing.

Standard:
ELA1W2 The student writes in a variety of genres, including narrative, informational, persuasive and response to literature. The student will write a narrative that:

c. Adds details to expand a story.

Mentor Text:

An Extraordinary Egg by Leo Lionni

Excerpt: “’I wonder what Marilyn and August will say when they see this!’ she thought as she rolled the beautiful stone to the small inlet where the three of them lived.”

Lesson Description: (5-10 minutes)

-First review the big dog words they have learned and why they are important.

- Talk about adjectives and what they are: descriptive words that add detail and enrich our writing!

- Read the excerpt and talk about what it would sound like without the adjectives.  (…as she rolled the stone to the inlet where they lived = boring!)

-Have students look at other excerpts and cross off all the adjectives and see what it sounds like. Look at other excerpts and add in adjectives to make it more interesting. (Great with a haunted house)



Independent writing:

As they work on their independent writing, no matter what genre, but especially narratives, they are encouraged to include adjectives wherever possible AND comfortable. You don’t want to string a laundry list of adjectives before every noun. They need to make sense and be selective.