Thanks for getting your papers in on time. I'm looking forward to reading them. This week we opened with a writing exercise to build confidence in writers and create a positive experience. As our textbooks says, writing is much more complicated than reading and it is important to make all writers feel successful and energized in order to go through the different stages of writing. We also added more activities to our tool kit, this time around teaching writing. Lastly, we had time in groups. The Lesson Presentations start next week. There will be time in between groups to set up any materials and/or arrange the room. Can't wait to see them!
Scott wrote:
ReplyDeleteThe section of the reading that really stood out for me was the writing scale. In 401/402 we learned about rubrics and in practice I see students totally ignore those rubrics. The writing scale seems to be a good way to engage the students in critical thinking about their own work and in addition peer feedback can help students critically think about the work of others.
I also really like self selected writing and think it is crucial, not only in engaging students by letting them focus on topics of interest, but also as a means to really practice coming up with topics and ideas on their own. Students in high school and university are often at a loss when told to pick their own topic (I know I have that problem), so it is important for students to learn to think for themselves.
The idea of the writing rules on the walls really struck me as something cool. This could work for all grade levels, some of the questions listed in the book would be totally appropriate for high school classes (Every sentence should make sense” or “Every sentence should keep to the topic”). This could extend to reminders about critical thinking in a social studies class, or a number of different areas.
One of my favourite things about this class continues to be the great practical teaching ideas that come out each week. All of this class’ ideas and experiences give me more hope for some level of competence when I get in front of the classroom!
Thanks :)
Scott.
Monday’s class was nice. It always feels good to hand in a paper and move on. I honestly needed a shorter lecture time as I was drained from writing the paper, work, and having to present a lesson earlier that day.
ReplyDeleteThe creative writing activity we all did in class in the beginning was very helpful and fun. I can definitely agree with our text when it says writing is a lot more complicated than reading. I myself, not a great writer, but I love to do little activities that allow me to write that have no rules. I do not enjoy writing essays (especially ones that have not a lot of choice), as I feel I can write a 5-10 page paper in 1 page of bullets (that is my style).
In my past practicum I tried to do a lot of free writing (creative) from a whole bunch of topics with my grade 5 class (for example, newspaper articles, likes/dislikes etc). At first I found myself to be militant and have them correct obvious mistakes in their work, but I learnt from other teachers just to let them write and naturally they will get better. I tried this and it was amazing, overtime their work improved. Another reason why I like creative writing is once the kids start to look forward to write they also look forward to read and listen to others. So in one creative writing lesson I am having them read, write, present and listen.
Happy Planning Lessons
The writing exercise was a great way to start the class, accessing prior experience as a tool to open students’ minds to the world of writing was fantastic. I remember doing the same exercise in the class that I took with Sue two years ago. I believe that this exercise is beneficial because teaching the content of the lesson through relevant personal experiences allows students to connect with the content more and understand it. The exercise also brings lively pair discussions and interesting stories to share with the class. In this activity, you are not only teaching for understanding of the content but building the classroom community and a level of trust and respect between students.
ReplyDeleteI found that the chart that listed writing tools was an excellent way of putting a practical touch to the class. I find that at the end of each class there are more great ideas that will be great to use on a day of TOCing and in the classroom. I really enjoyed Sue’s method of incorporating writing into her Grade 8 Science lesson. I think that creativity and learning are two essential parts in a student’s comprehension of the content. If you can put it in your own words, explain it to a peer, and have someone else read your work and understand it then you have a good comprehension of that topic. I think the Sci-Fi slant to learning about energy was great because it would appeal to both genders, gifted students, struggling students, and ESL students. This type of activity leads to instant success for all students in the class and with these feelings of success greater levels of confidence in their abilities and an openness to learning and trying new things.
I agree with Sue that introducing a rubric has to be premeditated; one has to think about the best time to introduce it and how to introduce it. If you introduce a rubric to early you will have students writing to the rubric, but if you introduce it too late will some students get frustrated with you? I think there is a time to introduce rubrics that will not stunt student’s creative process and lead to writer’s block but it depends on the class and the subject.
Leah Pells
ReplyDeleteJune 29th-2009
Blog: Writing.
Hi everyone:
I really enjoyed the class tonight on writing. I have always loved the creative freedom of writing. I think that for many students it is a welcome form of expression, as they either are not comfortable speaking up in class, or have a hard time orally presenting their ideas. Writing is another venue for expression. It can be private and because of this many students feel that it is a safer way to communicate.
I agree with the free writing, or SSW (Sustained silent writing, p. 235), as it is a very open and creative way for students to write, to learn to get their ideas on paper. If the student is too worried about their spelling or grammar they may lose the creative flow of their ideas. It is a very fun way for them to write about personal interests, fictional stories or thoughts they may have. This is something I will do in my classroom on a regular basis, encourage the flow of thoughts in creative writing.
In my practicum we had the students “free” write a rough copy, then later proof it over, and make it into a book. They picked their favourite poem, story, journal entry or whatever they had written and felt proud of, and made a class book. The students loved the process and the freedom to be the ones to pick what they would have published in the book. It is nice for students to have the opportunity to write what they want and pick what they like best for their book. It makes them proud and they really feel the book is theirs. It was a great project.
The second part of the class tonight was very useful. All the strategies we discussed for writing and getting our students interested in writing. I always appreciate all the great ideas generated in our class, thanks everyone.
As with reading, writing is a tool that gives a student so much freedom in life, it is a great way to express oneself and a nice way to get feelings/thoughts out if a student is not comfortable talking or sharing verbally.
Take care and have a good week.
Cheers,
Leah
Blog 8
ReplyDeleteTonight’s class helped me to sort out what all the differences in writing are. “The Teaching Writing” chart we were handed out was extremely useful, as I have trouble differentiating between the styles of delivery methods to teach writing. All of the ideas we went through and shared were helpful. The part of the class that really made my ears perk up, was when we discussed rubrics. I have a love/hate relationship with rubrics. I love them because they lay out the expectations for the students and help me as a teacher to do assessment. However I dislike rubrics because they make assignments generic and dull.
Rubrics stump creativity and often intimidate students. I enjoyed listening to Sue speak about her thoughts on rubrics, and that if you introduce them early on they stifle a writer’s creativity. I totally agree with this point. I think writing scales are great, even though I had not heard of them until tonight. I did a lot of peer evaluation in my practicum and it helped with critical thinking and taught students how to ask appropriate questions while being fair and respectful. Sue discussed tonight how much we learn though others, and our writing grows though peer evaluations. This strategy is used in many of my courses and I enjoy it. In the future I will continue to asses through peer evaluation and writing scales before bringing on the rubrics. Thanks.
The class was very informative; I really like how the worksheet given by Sue was broken down into different sections for teaching writing. The wide range of strategies is easily adaptable into different grade levels. In my extended practicum my SA continued to teach Writer’s Workshop. I was able to observe her mini lessons that were taught with books. She taught many different kinds of writing, including, “show don’t tell”, persuasive writing, descriptive writing, different voice and many more. Students are taught the writing strategy as a class, and they are sent back to their desks to start their own piece of writing. Students were allowed to continue on an old piece of work, or start another with the newly taught strategy. If students were ever stuck, they can take out their heart maps to find something on there that they can write about. Heart map, is a heart filled with many things the child likes. From the heart map the child can pick an idea and start their writing. Students were always very engaged into their writing and working very quietly. They would often ask for class time to work on their Writer’s workshop. This was amazing; some students were working on their stories rather than playing centres. When I went back to visit the class after my practicum, they had parent volunteers helping students to publish their work. They had typed out the stories with some of the student’s spelling errors. The books also had a cover page and end page with an insert about the author. I can tell that student had placed a lot of effort in their writing and illustrations. Another aspect of writer’s workshop I enjoyed is that the published work is placed in the library, so that everyone can check out the book and read the stories.
ReplyDeleteGiven the ideas mentioned in class today and Writer’s Workshop I feel more confident and excited to teach writing to students. Writing can be easily adaptable to many different subjects while grabbing student’s attentions and willingness to write on their own.
Mable
Tonight’s class was really interesting because it was quite a shift from what we have been learning about. Teaching students to write is one of the things that I feel I need to improve on and some of the ideas that came out of today’s class really helped me see how writing can be a fun and engaging process for students. An idea that I especially liked was asking students to write a story where each group or each student writes a bit and then passes the story on to the next group or student. I did an activity similar to this in my practicum and it worked really well. I taught a unit on fairy tales and as a final project I was going to have the students write their own fairy tales. Before I asked them to write on their own, we wrote a story together. I had taken all of their ideas for a class fairytale and put them in a hat – I then picked out the main character, place, problem etc. Once we had established the main components of the fairy tale, I had each student write a sentence to create the story. The kids loved being able to take the story in another direction, when it was their turn, and the final fairy tale came out great.
ReplyDeleteMy second thought actually has to do with the reading (Chapter 8). I really liked how the book outlined the four elements of a good prompt – audience, role, topic and type of writing. This is so simple to outline for your students and is such a great way to get them to do different types of writing. I found that sometimes in my practicum I was asking the students to write on a topic without giving them further instructions except the actual topic and guidelines such as length. I assumed that because we had been discussing the given topic the students would have things to write about it. I often got back writing that was no where near the level I expected it to be. I think that outlining specifically why they are writing something, who they are writing to etc is really important in focusing students’ writing.
Finally, the intro activity was a great way to show us how much easier it is to write about something when you can connect to it in some way.
It's really educational to read all your posts guys... It is interesting to see how alike and different some of our thinking can be... very cool.. Anyway, here is my magnificent post for this week... I even added a hook to start...
ReplyDelete“They Told Him Don't You Ever Come Around Here
Don't Wanna See Your Face, You Better Disappear
The Fire's In Their Eyes And Their Words Are Really Clear
So Beat It, Just Beat It”
No matter what they say MJ you are the King of POP!
As educators we should provide ample opportunities for students to write across the curriculum. I know a very good PE teacher that incorporates journal writing into his classrooms. The students write their goals, their strengths and weaknesses, areas they want to improve on in physical education and even other subject areas during physical education blocks. Usually, he would provide time for students to reflect and cool down with some writing.
Recently it’s been hard finding the time to do my own “enjoyable” reading. I like reading about bollywood, sports, news around the world, and I love reading religious books. But I am trying to discipline myself to complete all the required readings for all my classes first. With assignments due it becomes quite the juggling act. It just so happens at the beginning of this semester my readings were first on my list but now writing (assignments, essays, lessons, etc…) has become the area which consumes most of my time. I like the pressure and working against deadlines but finding the time for “fun” and recreational reading is something I need to make the time for.
I am finding the time for my personal blog which is really fun… From this class I am learning a lot and I am always realizing how much fun reading and writing can be if you allow the learner the freedom to make some of their own choices. I think having fun with reading is easy but having fun with writing is harder for people. I think this is because with reading it can really become private and no one can see the errors you make if you silently read. Writing is so much less private and its visible for all to see and it can’t remain hidden like our thoughts can when we read.
A book I would recommend and really helped me in teaching a Gr. 5 class is called “6+1 Traits of Writing: The Complete Guide Grades 3 and Up” – Everything you need to know to teach and assess student writing with this power model.
p.s. God Bless & Drive Safe :)
– Ashok K. (good looking dude with new haircut)
I found today’s class like all others very useful and practical. I feel that I am getting a lot of out this class and the textbook which is great. The opening writing activity was a fun and strategic way to engage students into writing. I think that self-selected writing is always fun for children because they have the opportunity to w rite about what they want. There is also no pressure on children to write about something that they are unfamiliar with; this is where I have seen many students struggle simply because they can’t think of anything to write about. I just thought that it was good how we first had to brainstorm and organize our ideas in point-form and then write out what we were sharing with our partner in a small paragraph. Telling someone else your story involves other components such as making sure that your audience is really understand what you are trying to say. This is something that I would definitely use one day when I have my own classroom. This really showed that we are all writers and it was a great ice-breaker (it gives children confidence). Also, the one part from our textbook that I really liked was about journals, and when teachers give feedback to students about their journal entry, the students can take that question or idea and then write their next journal entry answering your question. In my grade 1 practicum my SA always did this, and the children really enjoyed it because it gave them something to think about. However, in my long practicum with the grade fours, they still did journaling once a week but she just made a comment like ‘nice work, or good job,’ nothing that students really think further about. When I took over the class, I actually made comments and asked them questions, and I was so surprised about how many of them actually answered my question in their next entry or just came up to me and discussed with me their answer. Lastly, I find it great how many different writing activities we came up with today. It is always interesting to me to see how many activities I have not heard about and seen before. I feel that I always come out of this class with a few activities that I would definitely use. It’s good how we all share our ideas with each other.
ReplyDeleteI thought last nights opening activity was great. It was interesting to see how different writing can be after you have told the story to someone prior to writing it down. I found that I added a lot more emotion to my writing than I probably would have if we hadn’t been asked to share with our partner first. I think this would be a great activity to use at almost any grade level. It made me think of the journal writing in my Gr. 2 practicum class. Before journal each week we would have community circle where everyone shared with the class what they had done on the weekend. This helped the students to think of ideas before they sat down with their journals.
ReplyDeleteI really appreciated the worksheet we filled out in groups about ideas for teaching writing. I find it especially interesting to hear about my classmates experiences and ideas that they tried or saw during their practicum’s. I find that I usually leave class with a few more tricks up my sleeves! The ideas for letters to Santa were fantastic, not just for learning about writing but also for community building.
I am looking forward to the presentations starting next week. I feel that there will be a lot of great ideas shared over the next couple of classes!
July 1, 2009
ReplyDeleteI found it very interesting to see how perfectly writing accompanies both reading and storytelling. No wonder writing so often evolved out of storytelling. We saw how it worked in the exercise at the start of class. Coupled with a desire to pass on information to future generations… it is no wonder that so many societies found a way to incorporate writing into their lives. I enjoyed the exercise in “how to get students writing” because it reminded me of the steps I take in order to write, which have no become so much a part of what I do that they are somewhat invisible.
It was wonderful to hear the class share their enthusiasm for writing and responding to letters to Santa. I know that my children have always been thrilled to get a response from the man in red, or one of his many helpers, but it was nice to see that the older students (and their teachers) also enjoyed the process. It is wonderful to see how we can engage one another and influence each others lives in such a profound way through reading and writing.
June 29th, 2009
ReplyDeleteToday we learned about teaching writing. I especially like the ideas of creative writing such as students writing an alternative ending, descriptive writing about a particular scene, students writing about the ending after a teacher has read a beginning part of a book, etc. I believe that writing should be fun for all students. I think choosing an interesting book may be a key factor when students are instructed to write about creating an ending or writing an alternative ending of a book they have read.
During my short practicum, I used Sustained Silent Writing for a grade 4 class. I had students write about the presentation they had watched in the gym. I brainstormed with all students for five minutes about the presentation they had attended. Then, I wrote a few headings on the board. Students took out their journal writing notebooks on their desks along with pencils. They needed to show they were ready to write by grabbing their pencils. When I said “go”, they began to write for 5 minutes without stopping. After they finished their writing, I had them read their writing in front of the class. The lesson was fun for both students and me. I think that Silent Sustained Writing strategy is very useful for students who are reluctant to write or for students who takes a long time to write something.
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteSomething that really stuck with me from this class was the technical vs. creative writing, which ties in with the Writer's Workshop. During my 401/402 experience, I was lucky enough to be in a school that participated in a school wide Writer's Workshop twice a week. Students of all grade levels participated and I saw my grade one students develop beautiful stories about princesses and their best friends. I think the creative part of writing is important for children and should be dealt with first. Let students free write, regardless of grammar errors or spelling errors, just so students can get their ideas out. When I was on practicum, I found that even in the early grades, students were already very focused on spelling things correctly. The problem I find with this, is that the focus on spelling takes away from the work that children could produce because they could forget part way what their idea originally was.
ReplyDeleteLike Scott, I really appreciated the writing rules on the wall and think that it would be great in helping students with editing work or peer editing. Asking children to make sure that they kept in mind the questions on the wall while editing would help them develop better writing, that is ... after the creative part =)
I think by letting students write in their journals about whatever they want, in their own creative ways will help them to develop a passion for writing. Just as we let students choose what they want during SSR (self selected reading) to build passion for reading, the same should be done for writing.
Looking forward to the lesson Monday =)
Like many of you have already mentioned I thought that tonight was a great class and am feeling really reflective (oh, there’s that word again) about how nice it is to have a course where I am learning how to best teach reading and writing! So far, everything we are learning has been both innovative and really practical and this is really refreshing. I don’t know about my classmates but in some of my classes right now, topics are so heavily based on theory and I struggle to turn them into ideas for the classroom. Yet with this class, the text provides theory and practice, and then the class illustrates some really great ideas that we as beginning teachers could go out tomorrow and use. All I can say is “thank you”!
ReplyDeleteI too, enjoyed this weeks opening activity as it was a nice transition between what we have been learning about in terms of reading, and our new focus of writing. I also thought that the photocopies we were given (of ideas for guiding the writing of prompts, middles, and ending) were excellent and I have added them to my reading resources.
What I found most interesting in today’s class was the discussion about self-selected writing, explicit writing, and all of the ways that writing can be brought into other academic subjects. As a child, I definitely loved self-selected reading. I enjoyed choosing my topic, and able to take total control over my work, and most of all I think there was great comfort in knowing that I could write about anything and not be judged or marked for content, grammar or spelling. This is the same type of freedom that I would love to give the children I teach! I completely agree that writing should be broken up, and that creativity phase should be allowed to be creative. My only question is: at what stage do you start to correct things like grammar and spelling? I find this to be a tricky question to answer because I obviously want to encourage and accept the writing of all students, but will eventually want to encourage technical improvement and I am not sure of how, or more importantly when, to do this.
As a last point, I just thought that the discussion on how to incorporate reading into other subject areas was really cool. I just finished my PDP Math class and we had to complete a journal where we talked about our ideas, thoughts, feelings, and any Aha moments. My teacher also gave us a list of different ways that you could use writing in math including asking students to write stories about how they solved a particular problem. This not only would help with writing but would help to understand a student’s thought process while attempting to solve math problems. I thought that this was a pretty good idea. See you all on Monday!
Thanks,
Blog #8 July 5, 2009
ReplyDeleteHi Everyone
Two of the writing activities that I have added to my tool kit were the letters to Santa (to be answered by high school students), and the topic cards that students write at the beginning of the year so that they can choose a card when they are having difficulty thinking of something to write about. I appreciate all of these great ideas from this class and others-now I need to figure out a way to organize them all- file folders for each grade? Each subject? Each sub topic such as fluency, or vocabulary building? If anyone has any fabulous organization ideas I would be happy to hear them.
One question I have about writing is how to handle technology based short hand when it is used in our students’ writing. I see my own kids write words such as “because” as “b/c” in their assignments and I wonder if most teachers allow this kind of lingo in hand written work. I guess I am a bit old fashioned (and I am out of the lingo loop! lol) but I think I would rather that students did not get into the habit of using it.
Thanks for listening,
Sharon
A few people had mentioned rubrics in their comments after class 8. Something I have learned through trial and error and with the help of many students, is how to make a rubric that suits the purpose you’re trying to teach and at the same time be valid for every student in the class. When creating rubrics, I include the objective that I am trying to teach and leave the rest up to the students. Either individually or in small groups we all come together and decide the most important skills that need to be worked on. The students will also decide the value of each skill. I.E, the proper use of transition words could be worth 1, 5 or 10 marks depending on what they decide. Letting the students be accountable for their marks tends to eliminate confusion and also gives them clear criteria in their own words. This was solely directed for Secondary students but maybe Elementary school teachers could do something similar on a lower scale?
ReplyDeleteWow, it sure feels great to be typing July now! I want to start by saying just how much I enjoy the community atmosphere that we have in our class. There are so many great ideas that are always being shared, and I am often frantically writing them all down, especially since I’m secondary! I especially loved the Santa letters being written and answered by elementary and high school students respectively – what a fabulous idea!
ReplyDeleteSharon mentioned that she is unsure what to do when students use short hand in their school assignments, and this is something I struggled with too. My sa would often say that it is the content that we’re looking for, and not to get caught up in the mechanics of a student’s writing. As a reader and evaluator, if you’re finding that your eyes are tripping and stumbling over the words more often than not, then it may be time to bring it up with the student. One fun activity that a fellow teacher told me about but I didn’t get the chance to use was to encourage students during a free write to write only in short hand and texting symbols. She mentioned that her students were surprised when she gave them that assignment, but they quickly jumped into it, and really enjoyed it. She then collected them and tried reading them in front of the class, which the students loved, as she had a hard time reading their writing! It’s a great way to acknowledge that language is changing and to value the fact that students are using a different form in their lives. However, she was quick to note that she still required students to write in formal English unless otherwise specified.
Last week, I went away once again with many wonderful lesson ideas. I thought the opening activity was great. In the first step, I was not able to write very many details about when I felt successful. However, after sharing my story with a partner, I could think of many more fine points to add to my writing. Similarly, in my practicum, before I had students write in their journals, I first gave them time to talk about what they were going to write with AB partners, and then I also chose a few students to share the headline of their topic with the rest of the class. This allowed students to access prior knowledge and remember some of the details so they could make their writing more descriptive.
ReplyDeleteWriter’s block is something that came up quite often during my practicum, and is something that always happens to me as well. There were many great ideas that were shared in the class to avoid writer’s block. One of my favorites was the idea to have students write their favourite things on small strips of paper at the beginning of the year. During journal time, if they didn’t know what to write about, they could quickly pick a topic from their envelope and write about it. I also really liked the idea of putting student work on an overhead to outline the use of good strategies or good writing skills. This is a great way to positively reinforce students and make them feel proud that their writing is being shared with the rest of the class, remembering to use every students work in the classroom at one time or another so not to leave anyone out.
Week 8 Post
ReplyDeleteI think that it is interesting that while we all recognize and talk of “Writers Block”, none of us seem to suffer from it in this blogging forum. I wonder if it is the lack of pen in hand, or is it the location where we are blogging from that is so familiar/comfortable, etc? If we try to correlate that idea into making “free writing” a part of classroom culture, perhaps the mood or atmosphere needs to support and foster such an endeavour? Sitting in desks, in rows, with either too much direction or not enough to free the student to write does not seem a model for success. Maybe the idea of capturing and recording thoughts or ideas gets confounded by the assumption that the writing will be graded – if removing that constraint in its’ purest form (summative assessment) to be more of an ongoing cumulative (formative assessment) “checking in” by the teacher at random times, students would not feel so hemmed in.
Sharon’s concern over shorthand prompted a post by Jacqueline regarding text language. I did much the same thing in my practicum – the kids loved it! Any writing is good practice, and building a love (or at least an acceptance or willingness) of writing is a very good practice! Some of the least written output students were the most engaged and enthusiastic! I also read “The Giving Tree” & “The Animal School” and then did a follow up write to them. This too worked well – the kids had enough direction to keep them on track but not confine their creativity. Having them illustrate their work also inspired a number to add more to the written piece once they “thought” they were done. The illustration process opened up even more creativity. It is all about knowing your students, and then providing them with avenues to learning.
I am looking forward to the presentations as I have compiled some great TOC/classroom ideas thus far. Good luck to everyone!
Jennifer
Writing was a key part of my practicum experience as my SA had already established a love of writing for many of the students. When I arrived my SA informed me they watched the movie freedom writers and after watching the movie she gave each of them a journal. She called these Journals freedom journals, and the information they wrote in these could be anything they wanted. I never read these journals, as this was something the students and her had organized; a lot of the information the students would write about was personal, and many wrote about home life.
ReplyDeleteCunningham discusses the importance for “writing across the curriculum” (pg.255). I think this strategy is important and will ultimately assist students with their writing abilities. When engaging in my practicum I used writing in math, science, career and health, reading, and of course writing. Most of the cross curriculum writing I did with my class was in the form of tell me what you learnt today. One lesson that really stands out for me was doing a creative writing character development story. I wrote a story about a young boy who was the star of the football team, had a girlfriend, and just won the last game for his team. After a night of partying and drinking the football player jumped in his car and ended up racing someone. This is where the story stopped for the day and the students had a great time trying to guess what was going to happen. There creative juices were flowing and they were extremely engaged, especially all the grade 5/6 boys. The next day we read the end of the story, where the football player became paralyzed and in a wheelchair. This story was a great hook and ended up sparking great stories from the students. One story was about a man with a friend duck that only he could see, but the premise behind the story was the old man had Alzheimer’s. Another story was about a president and a body guard; one child wrote from the president’s point of view where the other wrote from the body guard’s point of view. All the stories were fabulous but these were definitely the ones that stood out in my mind.
Cheers, Alanna
I liked the writing exercise we did today! It reminded me a lot of some exercises we did with my PDP module, where we “workshopped” different pieces of writing over the course of a few weeks, so that we were continually reshaping and polishing what we were saying. Although it was tedious and difficult at times, I have to admit that my finished products were always better than they were in the first place!
ReplyDeleteSome of the principles that we talked about in class would have been very valuable to have during my long practicum. When I write, I often proofread my work as I go, because it gives me a chance to pick up where my thoughts left off as I continue to write. However, I am realizing that this kind of multitasking is difficult, if not impossible for a child. I am therefore going to make it my goal, when I get a class of my own again, to make sure that I focus on the joy of writing instead of its technicalities.
-Kelly
I love that we've made the connection between reading and writing. Writing can be such a great tool for making connections or gaining comprehension of reading-I've seen so many kids that I don't think "get it" after we've read something and then they go and blow my mind with their writing. It's also an area where I've felt my most creative as a teacher and I think part of that is that I am also letting students be creative. It shows students that you really want to know what they think. Often times we can't sit and hear every comment a student has about a subject, but we can invite them to write it down for us.
ReplyDeleteThe activities generated were so great during class. I was really excited to hear all of the things people were suggesting. For my novel study in my grade 4/5 practicum, my final projects were writing projects. I gave the kids lists and they had to decide what project they wanted to do and I tried to recognise as many different strengths as I could. They could write diaries from character's points of view, they could write a series of poems, sequels to the story or reports on the real life events from the story. It worked really well and all the students completed great projects that were beyond my expectations. They also showed greater understanding of the story than I had assumed some of them had.
The ideas provided by everyone about writing were great. I especially liked the letter writing to other classes. It really helps the student with different types of writing and gives them a purpose with real life applicability. I remember having pen pals in school and it was one of the most memorable things that we did in grade 3, it was very exciting and I put in a lot more effort for my pen pal than I would for my teacher’s writing assignments.
ReplyDeleteThe textbook mentions that children or students should write in all subjects. “Writing is the best means to get students to think about whatever they are learning” (p.255) I am discovering the value of writing in all subjects in my math class, we journal about our process and what we are thinking during our class and throughout the week. It really helps to value other opinion and solidify what I am thinking.
Great class tonight! It was great to get some ideas and thoughts down for writing tonight. Often, such a huge emphasis is put on reading that we don’t allow for ample amount of time for writing. One thing that stood out tonight was the importance of letting our students focus on their ideas first and THEN looking at the grammatical aspects. I can see the benefit of separating the technical side of writing from the creative side. Even as an adult, if I just want to get my thoughts out, I don’t even think about spelling and grammar. We should allow our students the same freedom and create a safe environment for expressing themselves before we get out our red pens!
ReplyDeleteI also appreciated Sue’s insight into rubrics. There has been such an emphasis on assessment and rubrics and these are great things. But it’s important to remember the importance of timing. Bringing a rubric in too soon can stifle creativity and have students catering their writing to “fit” the rubric. That’s such an important thought that I hadn’t considered until tonight.
In class, on June 22 we discussed comprehension. We talked about how word identification and comprehension go hand-in-hand. As well, we discussed how reading strategies and engagement in the text had an impact on comprehension. Recently I have been working with a child in going into Grade 4 who has allowed me to see how these issues influence reading. After my assessment of her reading for my Learning Disabilities Lab, I feel she reads at a grade 1 level. I witnessed her struggling so much as she read and saw how the struggling affected her comprehension. If the pictures were taken away and she read only the text, she was not able to re-tell the story except for the main character. When the pictures accompanied the text, she used visual cues as a strategy for reading comprehension, she was them able to retell, in great detail, and the story she had just read. There was a stark difference between the two types of reading. The child spent so much energy reading each phoneme she could not follow the story. This is when you realize how much fluency matters. If reading is all work and there is no joy from the text the child may give up. The vicious cycle then builds; they read, they are frustrated, they stop reading, they get behind, and it gets harder to catch up as the class moves on. As teachers, we need to be attentive to these struggling readers and intervene as soon as possible.
ReplyDeleteThis child’s writing skills are also very weak. This obviously goes hand in hand given without reading skills, a child cannot write. The statement was made “Good thinking is connected to good writing”. For this child her energy for thinking is used up in processing the information for basic reading, therefore, she was reliant on visual cues to do any writing. In my practicum grade 1 class, the writing techniques were ignored to encourage the thinking and engaging in the story. This is the separation of the technical from the creative.