Chapter 4: The Final Frontier

I taught my girls how to edit their writing after they were done with the final draft. It was my hope, through a couple different methods that they would take their sentences and do some major revisions and vastly improve their drafts.

I taught:
* a lesson on lead-in sentences to grab the readers attention.
* a lesson on growing your sentences in the beginning, middle, and end.
* a lesson on basic revising/editing of their writing.

I tried to touch on each lesson in the times that we had together. I took 10-15 each to present the information. I spent 10-15 minutes practicing the lesson in small groups. I worked with them to individually revise their piece of writing.

I gave them generic sentences to practice on to begin. I think in retrospect I should have concentrated more on using their own writing, and not generic sentences. Though, really, when I look at the worksheets, they worked harder on the generic ones than they did their own. I think they really thought they didn't need to fix theirs. Perhaps a little too much ownership.

Doc 1

As a result, I didn't feel like I really had much success with this project. I didn't feel like my objective was met. It could be attributed to the fact that we didn't have a whole lot of time. It could be that I wasn't really their "teacher" and they didn't really feel like they had to work that hard. I'm not sure what happened. I'm not happy with the results though. I did manage to get them published, I think we could have done better. WIth the publishing, perhaps revisiting this would make it easier and they'd be more willing to follow through as they are now "professional" writers. It was just in last week's newletter, so I haven't heard back much feedback from other students, parents, etc. I look forward to continuing this little writing group and possibly expanding it in the future.

I wasn't very effective. I didn't push them to work harder than they were willing. I think maybe I felt like I didn't have the "power" to do that as I wasn't their classroom teacher and we didn't really have a stake in any of it.

After the first lesson in lead ins, I immediately changed up my next lesson to include 'growing' beginnings, middles, and ends of sentences. This is what I took up in the lesson I highlighted in Chapter 3. I discussed my failings in that already.

I didn't see a change in student's writing and I'm going to attribute this to the fact that we didn't really meet for very long and it wasn't a sustained writing project. There really wasn't time to see any vast difference in the writing. A couple of the girls seemed to "get it" and improved their writing, but for the most part they stayed constant. The writing survey I did at the beginning didn't change at the end. Their really wasn't time. In this, I am disappointed. I think their ATTITUDE changed as writers after they saw themselves published in the newsletter, but I haven't had a chance to see most of them since that has happened.

So really, in all, I don't feel like I was really able to garner any real data or findings from this project. I think it was a little too disconnected for true and relevant data to present itself. I tried to make things as normal as I could under the circumstances and feel I definitely learned things from the experience. I have a different view of how to teach fifth graders. They are not a group I have been working with in the past. That was a learning curve for me. I would definitely frame my lessons a little diffently now due to this knowledge.

One on One conferencing

When going over this video, I really was happy that I asked her WHY she added what she did to her sentence. That was specific and made her think about it and have to explain her choice, rather than just add it, me comment, and move on. I wonder if that was innate in me to do that? I don't remember making a conscious effort to think about my questions. It just came out. That's good!!! I still remember how to have conferences with kids!! Yeah Me!!!! (OK, I watch too much Disney Channel)

I liked how I made eye contact with her while she was talking and kept my focus on her and her words. This is important to show students that you really WANT to hear about their work and the choices they made into it. It holds them accountable for their work and makes them think about it rather than just doing it and moving on and never thinking about it again. This was good. I'm proud of this!

Then again, in the other conferences I did that afternoon, the girls hadn't really added a lot to their sentences. I tried to get more out of one girl, but she said she really liked it the way it was and didn't want to change it. I had to respect that and couldn't think fast enough how to turn that around a little and make it a teachable moment. A couple of the girls just added adjectives, like I stated earlier. This wasn't the point of the lesson; it was to expand the work they had to make it more clear. I think in the future, I would address this problem. How is it different to add just adjectives and adverbs, versus adding whole phrases to the sentences? That's a good mini-lesson in itself. I'll put that in my notes for future reference.

Small Group

When I went over this exercise with the girls, I was expecting to have them really dig into it and make some nice comments and additions to the sentences. One girl did a nice job, but, the others just added a couple words. I think I could have handled this better. I tried to excourage them and pull a little more out. I struggle with this age on what is constructive criticism and what will discourage them. I am not trained in Elementary Education. I know high schoolers, or middle schoolers. They've had a little more experience. I don't know at what point it would be too much as I don't want to 'squash' their creativity.

They were supposed to work together to do the sentences, but it seems that when I was with the other group, this group that I taped, did the sentences separately and didn't work together on them. I should have addressed this. I just had them pick sentences they thought they did a nice job on, and we talked about it. I should have found sentences they did together and highlighted how they were different from each other and what they each brought to the sentences. I don't think this lesson worked the way I wanted it to. 2 of the girls only added a couple words to the sentences. And they were mostly adjectives. Those are easy additions and not really the point of the lesson. I was disappointed by this and tried really hard not to let that show. In retrospect, perhaps I should have voiced my concern and tried to redo them with the girls.

I did think I encouraged them and gave them feedback on the sentences that they did do. I'm not sure it was specific enough and clearly it didn't get them to the point that I was hoping for. In this I'm disappointed and will definitely rethink this plan in the future. I didn't ask them the right questions to get the answers I was looking for. I accepted the answer, gave feedback and let it go and moved on to the next person. THis is something I'm definitely going to have to look at in the future and be mindful of for future lessons.

Whole group teaching video - Chapter 3

Watching this video of myself, I had to first laugh that I was still wearing my substitute tag on my shirt. :)

I was able to utilize a classroom and have a couple of the girls stay after school with me in order to videotape our lesson together. I wish I had been able to use the smart board system to teach the lesson. I think it would have been a lot more effective and helpful to the girls if they had been able to see better, and have things appear a little bigger and more clearly. This is a definite disadvantage I have had trying to do this assignment, and think had I been a regular classroom teacher, things definitely would have worked differently. But, I worked with the resources I had and the girls were amazing and the "chaos" as I saw it, didn't seem to faze them.

This has been a fun experience for me to get back into my 'teacher shoes' so to speak. I have been out of a classroom for 11 years and the thought of having to teach again after so many years, was, quite frankly, daunting to me. Would I remember what to do? Would I still have a connection to the students? Would I still have the ability to have effective classroom management? I am happy to say that it was like the old adage, 'it's like riding a bicycle.' Things just fell into line for me. I had spent a little time last year substituting, but for the most part, this fall has been my step back into teaching. I had forgotten how much I enjoyed it. Being in this class has energized me for the future, and for that I'm really grateful and excited!

Looking back on the tape, there are things I think I did well. I introduced our lesson with a tie in from the previous lesson we had. I told them what we were going to be doing, what would follow and what I expected. I think this is important as it helps the students have a 'purpose' for what we are doing and not just because we 'have' to do it. I provided sentences and gave examples and provided them an opportunity to give their answers. I also thought it was nice I thought to have a couple different ones to the same question and pointed out that they were different and that's what made it so great. Same sentence..... totally different context or meaning when you add different words or phrases. I remember the girls smiling at this. They all seemed eager to give their answers, but that might have been because they knew it was on video, but for the most part, in the past, they had been eager too. I think perhaps it might have been helpful to have had some boys in the group. I did find myself making an effort throughout my sub day that day, to think back over class discussions to notice if I called on more girls than boys. I think I did a good job of getting to both. I didn't favor one over the other. And I don't think I've ever had a problem with this in the past.

Things I didn't do well: I thought I was too fast. I think I moved to quickly through the examples and perhaps didn't explain them well enough. I thought they knew the point and the extended examples I was giving were what I was looking for. Perhaps I needed more examples to start and more sentences for us to work on as a whole group. As we get into the small group lesson, I noticed that were adding only 1 or 2 words, and not phrases like we had discussed in this lesson. That is definitely something I would add in future lessons. But, that might be more able to happen had I used a different method of presentation rather than the overhead machine which was available to me. Perhaps with my follow-ups I could have garnered more information from them or pulled more out of them to get the responses to be a little longer. But again, that goes back to I should have had more examples for us to work on together. I was thinking in my mind that I would be doing that in the small groups, and this was just an introduction. Perhaps THIS critique better belongs in my small group discussion.

Chapter 2

I have a hodge podge group of 5th grade girls. I worry that my group is not very "diverse" in the fact that they are all good writers. I see them being able to strengthen their writing by rereading and editing on their own as they write. That I found interesting. Most of them wrote their story, and as they stopped and reread, they "fixed" it and then thought their end product was the "final draft" and it was then finished. I hadn't expected this and decided that perhaps this was the "weakness" I could focus on and plan my lessons around that.

I plan to meet with them for only a couple more hours in a week or two. We are having a hard time getting together based on everyone's schedules and the current round of "flu-like symptoms" that are racing through Westside Elementary where all of the girls attend.

For the assessment I had them write a narrative of one of their favorite memories. I am going to take up having them write articles for the school newsletter as their assignment for this project. I also gave them the Garfield Assessment as other than my own daughter, I had no idea what each girl's attitude about writing was. I can't say I found any surprises. The girls are all interested in writing and enjoy trying different types of writing. My own daughter chooses to write in her "story notebook" at night rather than read a book on some nights. I certainly don't have to overcome any bad reactions/feelings to the writing process.

My lessons include:
1. Choosing a topic relevent to current events in school
2. Fact finding
3. Lead in/Hook sentences
4. Editing/Revising AFTER the article is finished
5. Peer conferencing
6. Final draft to be published in the "Westsider"

I plan to use the internet to help them fact check for their articles. I will provide copies of newletters from the past as well as use actual newspapers to show format and length of articles.
We'll discuss what the students might want to read about. How as students they'd like to make a difference in their school.

As I only have 6 girls, I'll most likely only have 2 conferencing groups, and will make sure they all have the ability to help each other.

Chapter 1

Well, here I go. My first official blog entry. Somehow I thought it would be scarier. Jumping into the 21st century wasn't so hard.

My journey as a reader and writer started at a young age. From as early as I can remember, I've been reading books. I can picture myself being surrounded by them on the floor. In fact, even if I hadn't remembered for myself all the books I owned, my mom saved them all and "blessed" me with them when I got my first house. Now, I have been able to share all my favorites with my own children. It's been so fun walking down memory lane with them!! I have such fond memories of each of them. Some are so worn, it's obvious I loved them dearly and practically wore them out! It's been important for me to pass on that love of reading to my kids. Thankfully, all three of them devour books, just like I do. I still love to read. I get obsessive about certain books to the point that I neglect certain elements of my household. I'd MUCH rather read, than say, do laundry, clean bathrooms, etc. You get my drift. :) I read "fluff" books, historical fiction, biographies, nonfiction, poetry, popular fiction, mysteries; I'm an all inclusive obsessive. I think my love of reading was one of the reasons I decided to become a teacher; more specifically, an English teacher.

I can't really comment well on the subject of my classroom. I don't currently have a classroom. I was a Jr. High English teacher for 6 years after graduating from college. During that time, I taught 7th and 8th graders in a small school in rural MN. I used a form of writing workshop that I developed after learning about Nancie Atwell in my Middle School Block in college. She inspired me to start a new way of writing instruction. I didn't actually implement it until my second year of teaching, though. I had a hard time just keeping my head above water that first year. I followed the direction I was given by the seasoned English teacher in the building. I needed all the help I could get. Once I felt a little more comfortable, I found a kindred spirit in another English teacher and we formed Writing Workshop. That first year was a total experiment. I let the students write what they wanted and really tried to keep it "real." I didn't like the results I got. They either didn't "get" it, or I wasn't presenting it well. I don't think I really tapped their potential. They were doing the bare minimum to get by. The next year, I added some direction and gave wide open "prompts" to get them going. I also came up with an end game project for the last quarter. During the year, we practiced different types of writing; we had mini lessons formed from problems I saw in their writing and everyone seemed to really be enjoying their writing time. For the last quarter, they looked over all their stories they had written so far, chose one, and we worked on expanding it, revising it and publishing it. I had them make their own book. It was 16 pages. They worked on breaking their text to fit it on 16 pgs. They illustrated. They made the book jacket, which I had laminated. They sewed the pages together, we put cardboard on the front and back and wrapped it with their jacket. That was most of their English grade for the last quarter. We then spent a few days sharing them with in our classes. I had them prominently displayed in the school library for their other classmates to see and read. They were all so proud. That remains one of the favorite activities I've ever done with a class. I still am in contact with some of those students, and they've admitted to me that they still have their book from 7th grade.

I feel it's essential for the students to own their writing. They need to have a purpose for it; they need to see that it's important. But, they also needed to know that sometimes, you just have to write something because a teacher told you to, but to really take advantage of those times you get to write what you love. It makes you a better writer. Reading and writing are so closely tied. I would read them parts of books to show different styles of writing. Sometimes they would try to emulate that style. The more you read, the better writer you become. You can't help but internalize that which you read. If you SEE good writing, you will know what you should strive for. Good writers aren't born. It's a craft you have to practice. Just like baseball, just like piano, just like fishing.

My classroom for this class project is going to be the conference room in the public library. It's going to consist of 7-8 5th grade girls. At the moment, it just has tables and chairs. I'm going to have to think harder about how I can make this environment condusive to writing. My old classroom had desks which students could move around to face each other, or move away to have some privacy or quiet time. Each student worked differently. I had pictures, books, posters, all around the room to act as inspiration if they needed it. I let them have the freedom to write. I didn't enforce "quiet"; the room had a little hum going on all the time. At that age, hum is the norm. Quiet is not. I think the class itself has to dictate how the atmosphere should be. Seems counterproductive to what we learn as teachers..... always have control, always have quiet. Quiet was boring. Maybe that's why I preferred jr. high. I liked the drama. If kids came in talking about a problem with a friend...... what did I do? Tell them to write about it!!!

So, that's me. The end of my first blog. To be continued..................