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Integration Presentations for April 16th
- 1. Barbara
- 2. Darlene
- 3. Sandy
- 4. Merry
- 5. Sara
- 6. Sue L.
- 7. Kathy D.
Integration Presentations for May 14th
- 1. Laura
- 2. Cory
- 3. Christine
- 4. Jennifer
- 5. Mike
- 6. Lisa
- 7. Laurie
- 8. Deb
More Quotes from Wondrous Words
- Page 214- “…a child who write every day can’t help but develop some sense of himself as a writer. If he is allowed to talk to others about his writing or their writing, he will develop more of his sense of self and also develop as a member of a responsive, literate community. If that student gets to read aloud something he has written, he comes to understand something of audience.”
- Page 242 "One thing that I often do in ways-with-words lessons which I don't usually do in structure lessons is that I use actual texts to show how a crafting technique would look if we tried it."
- Pg. 208 " 'He's messing with what I thought I knew.' Really good learning does that for us-it messes with what we think we know, creating a tension in our lives that can be uncomfortable. When we begin to feel this discomfort our only choice seems to be to quit learning and wait for the "pain" to go away, or to rethink what we know and muck around a bit in stuff that's really hard for us. I'm partial to mucking around a bit myself, and I have in fact made peace with the idea that there will always be some new hard thing for me to think about in my teaching. There will always be some part of my teaching that, when I think about it, causes me discomfort because I don't feel as sure about it."
- Page 248 “Writing conferences are the backbone of the writing workshop. Good conferences move the teaching of writing from the whole-class carpet gathering to the individual writer’s desk. And what a big move it is. Conferencing is probably the hardest part of the workshop teaching. We have all spent years learning to do it better and in more and more theoretical ways, and adding this new knowledge base about the craft of writing into teaching; has only made it more challenging.”
- "students are doing as writers, what they know about what they are doing, and what they need to know to do it even better" (p. 250)
- p.243 "You'll want your students to have drafts and dreams of drafts floating around in their consciousness all the time, and their ability to envision craft in texts is what will make writing these drafts more and more automatic for them as they write throughout their lives."
- Page 229, "Teach your students to learn to write from writers."
- Pg. 235 “Formula writing has gotten a new head of steam because of testing, as many students are forced to write again and again in an artificial formula designed to help them do well on the “The Test.”
- ..."I thought immediately of a good writing technique I could teach him because I had that technique in my repertoire." (p. 248)
Some Favorite Quotes from Wondrous Words
- Pg. 95. "Experienced writers begin moving toward writing projects not because they have great ideas, but because they have good reasons to write. With good reasons to write behind them, experienced writers know that any idea can become a good idea. It is the good reason to write that will propel the experienced writer forward through all the processes necessary to move an idea to publication."
- (p.80) that, "I'm not reading to them because it's good for them; I'm reading to them because it's good for me."
- page 103 and continues onto 104. She writes "When our students envision writers at work, then need to be able to see them doing lots more than just sitting at desks. Active development possibilities like those in the lists above need to be a big part of what our students can envision themselves doing as writers."
- page 126 "It is important to me that students are able to envision using various crafting techniques in their own writing. If they can envision them, then they can have more power as writers because they have more choices about how they will write something."
- page 106 "One of the simplest guiding questions for hypothetical inquiry is, I wonder where the author got the idea for this piece of writing?"
Integration Experimentations
- Debbie...Antiquing
- Mike...Sacraments and their history
- Jen...Dancing
- Kathy...Joshua Tree National Park
- Cory...photography and meditation
- Sue...Digital Movie
- Laura...photography
- Lisa...exploring Mother's Family Tree
- Sara...cooking...Tuscan?...Children's Book
- Merry...Ireland's Mystery
- Christine...History of Beadwork and Seed Beads
- Barb...Red Sox and the Curse of the Bambino
- Laurie...Children's Books
- Sandy...Hawaii...language
- Darlene...Gardening...movie maker
- Tomasen...Blogging
18 comments:
Wow! The first to comment! That is a definite first for me!! Oh, did I forget to mention that I am home with a sleeping, sick daughter? No need to be overly impressed. I've realized that I have many children in my class who love drawing. As a doodler at every teachers' meeting and workshop, I can certainly relate to my students' passion for expressing themselves artistically. I decided to create a lesson that could begin with the creation of a main character through drawing. First, to give the kids a purpose for writing and to begin the thinking process, I informed them that they would be creating their own character. They have the power to make their character whomever or whatever they want. I chose several picture and chapter books with various characters (realistic, animals, fantasy creatures, robots, etc) and we compared and contrasted the characters. I also allowed kids to share ideas that were rolling around in their heads with classmates. The power of sharing ideas is HUGE! One idea grows from another, kids gain confidence, and excitement for the writing project begins to peak.
Once at their desks, students enthusiastically began drawing their characters. We discussed how thoughts about our characters were coming into our minds as we drew. I encouraged kids to write their thoughts around the border of the character as they were drawing. They have continued to work on these projects throughout the week. At this point, this is where I begin to waver. How do I maintain the level of excitement and involvement with this lesson? Do I have them create a descriptive paragraph or two about their character? Develop the setting, plot, etc.? Allow them the freedom to move in the direction they would like to follow? Consider it a skill to be integrated with others and quietly sneak away? I welcome all input.
Having parents in for my Writing Workshop sessions this year has definitely increased both the amount and quality of my writing assignments. My most successful lessons have been led by mentor texts. We recently read several versions of "There was an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Fly". Using them as models, we created our own cause/effect stories that were of high interest and hysterical! Topics ranged from sports players to pencils. I believe the enthusiasm this year in writing has to do with relying on great models for inspiration and always finding time to share with peers. We share whole pieces, single lines or favorite craft. I feel that I fall short in the area of individual conferencing due to an unclear purpose on my part and lack of time. I have often used small peer group discussions for revising ideas in its place. As I flip through a few students' writing journals today, I do notice that we are rich in generating ideas, leads, and rough drafts but weak in the "polished" pieces. How important is that process (which is painful to students and takes time I don't seem to find)?
I have an interesting perspective on writing as I see kids in small, pull out groups to work on writing, and then I see them again in class. It always amazes me that things I think that I have taught, and that I swore were solidified, do not generalize to their daily life. I guess it is part of the population that I work with, and it just reinforces to me how we need to teach children in so many different ways. What works for one, will not necessarily work for another but we will find a way to break through. On the other hand it is heartening when I see one of my students do something that I have taught independently in class (One of my students used a simile in their writing the other day, and even remembered the term!)Sara and I are trying to help our kids bring their writing to life. As most of them have language impairments, that is difficult at times, but reading different texts to them and having them listen for different types of writing seems to be helping. I love to see the look on their faces as they are being read to. Again it shows the importance of modeling, modeling, modeling. Let's keep pushing the read aloud. It is working!
I, too, have a writer's workshop with parents and staff that help to round out my group of experts. I have been using mentor text in my classroom to spearhead some exciting and creative ideas. Recently we read some fables that the children learned were told generation after generation. We noted the morals and then tried to come up with some ideas or morals of our own. then the children used animals to help them tell their tales. The freedom to choose their animal and the opportunity to them later bring them to life in a sketch or illustration has been amazing.
I have children that are now branching off on their own and drawing sketches and coming up with cartoons that they are working on collaboratively. I am always allowing them time to share these ideas in the Star Bookworm forum that we have in class. This gives the students the chance to showcase their stories or illustrations with the rest of the class.
I struggle with inspiring the slow writers and the children that have trouble coming up with ideas. I always take time to help them get jump started after our classroom brainstorming, but worry that in the end I spend a lot of time with them and want to hear their ideas not my own!!!
So many exciting things happening...so many questions that accompany that excitement. THAT, in a nutshell, is exactly why I love working with all of you!
Laurie, you truly have come full circle when you talk about your procrastination and the ideas that are trickling over into your classroom, but still you wonder, how do I do all of this? How can I give them the time they need while covering all of the curricular demands? I leave you with one question. What is essential in your teaching...the one thing that you are not willing to give up no matter what?
Darlene is wondering about those polished pieces. Truly, in our own writing lives how many "polished pieces" do each of us posess? Again, Darlene, is this a part of what is "essential" for you and your students? What matters the most? As teachers we make a million different on the spot decisions each and every day. What are the choices you want to make in terms of polished pieces? What are your students opinions about polished pieces? You are struggling with the age old dilemma of process versus product. How can we all find the balance we are seeking?
Go Sandy!! I agree, the modelling and the reading aloud are priceless! Keep up the great cheerleading! We need as many positive voices like yours as we can get!!
Debbie wonders about those who are slow to get started. I hear you! In our efforts to make the world go as fast as possible and to cover everything that we can I wonder how much we miss along the way? I am as guilty of this as anyone. I was teaching in Salem last week and in the interest of time I just skipped the intro part and got right into the "meat" of the workshop. I mean really!! This goes against EVERYTHING I believe in as a thoughtful educator!! This week, I let time be my friend instead of my enemy and I took the time to look each person in the eye and find out something about each of them first. This personal connection, and all of the 10 minutes...okay...maybe 15 minutes it took changed the way the whole day went. We all feel the pressure and when we think of those who need more time...then we need to do just that...give them more time to talk or think or draw it through or even to just "envision" and imagine what they might like to write. I KNOW it is hard, but I am also convinced that every single one of us has a voice that needs to be heard and for some they need the chance for it to be recongnized by themselves first! It takes TIME!! Have you all noticed how much of what we are all struggling with revolves around time? Sometimes I wish I could take all of the clocks in the world and just stow them away and then see what would happen to us all!! Maybe we would each live so much more in the moment.
Just thinking....
11
Very interesting comments class! We are truly a talented bunch in this school. I am deep into our first research paper teaching the students about the "process" of writing a good research based piece. I am amazed with their progress and I am ahead of schedule which is a good feeling. I will write with them their introductory paragraph this afternoon. I am going to put a bit of a twist on that paragraph. We shall see what happens. The goal will be to HOOK the reader into continuing to read the rest of the report with high interest. I tried a cool quick write yesterday and again I am proud of the students and the overall results. Too bad that isn't on a state wide test. We would have been off the charts!!!!!!!!!!!!
12
I recently just tried a lesson I observed in Darlene's room and it went really well! I gave each student a picture of a landscape(like from a calendar). On the back of the picture, each student attached 6 post-it notes;one for each sensory word and one for words/phrases/comments from their classmates. Then I had each student fill in as many sensory words as they could on their own. After that, students went around the room and looked at each other's papers. Students wrote down words/phrases/comments they were given by their classmates. Using all the information on the post-it notes, student then wrote a paragaph or more describing their landscape. We shared many of the pieces and some of the descriptions were amazing! They remind me of the writing pieces that Laura L. shared in our class this week. I liked this whole lesson because it included all the elements of what I consider a good writing lesson: prewriting activities, conferencing, writing a draft, and sharing. Most importantly, students really enjoyed and it and were excited about writing. Now comes the difficult part, how to grade them! And like Darlene mentioned above, should I now bring the pieces to published form, or is it worth spending the time to do that? I constantly feel anxiety over these questions about writing. I'm glad to read that I am not the only one!
I recently just tried a lesson I observed in Darlene's room and it went really well! I gave each student a picture of a landscape(like from a calendar). On the back of the picture, each student attached 6 post-it notes;one for each sensory word and one for words/phrases/comments from their classmates. Then I had each student fill in as many sensory words as they could on their own. After that, students went around the room and looked at each other's papers. Students wrote down words/phrases/comments they were given by their classmates. Using all the information on the post-it notes, student then wrote a paragaph or more describing their landscape. We shared many of the pieces and some of the descriptions were amazing! They remind me of the writing pieces that Laura L. shared in our class this week. I liked this whole lesson because it included all the elements of what I consider a good writing lesson: prewriting activities, conferencing, writing a draft, and sharing. Most importantly, students really enjoyed and it and were excited about writing. Now comes the difficult part, how to grade them! And like Darlene mentioned above, should I now bring the pieces to published form, or is it worth spending the time to do that? I constantly feel anxiety over these questions about writing. I'm glad to read that I am not the only one!
I'll keep it short and sweet this week (that't a first!) as it is 4:00 Friday PM. We are currently working on a piece that I've done over the years with fifth graders. In an effort to work on characterization both as readers as well as writers, I have the students write a character sketch of a pet. I have something like this that one of my daughters wrote years ago and I use that as a "mentor text." They get a kick out of hearing about my two crazy cats, and are usually exploding with tales of their own pets. Choosing "someone" that they have so much experience with and such strong feelings for allows for great detail and many funny stories. Inevitably there will be a student or two who does not have and has never had a pet. In conferencing with them, I reference the many great animal characters that have joined our class over our two years together ... Shiloh, Edward Tulane, Old Yeller to name a few ... and often a student will chose to write about one of them. I will also ask them to think about what their "dream pet" would be and to create a character sketch around that animal. In the past, however, as much as the students have loved this assignment, it has not always produced their best writing. My goal this year is to raise the standard, insist on better than their best, demand revision, and "go for the gold" so to speak. We are focusing on the strong lines, revising weaker spots, and really working as critics of our own writing. Things look good so far, but "we have miles to go before we sleep" with this one! After this, I am anxious to try some "I remember..." or "I am from..." poems. I have loved doing these as a writer and the one time I did try them on a class they were quite successful. Like others mentioned in class, these are nice assignments to begin with drawing...i.e. "Draw me a map of your neighborhood that is unique to you and your experiences. Include all those special places that no one else knows about or where memorable things have happened. It should be a map of your childhood as much as a map of your neighborhood." This becomes the brainstorming for their writing and may very well be added to in the course of the project.
I loved hearing about the writing projects being done in other classrooms. What a wonderful portfolio of ideas we can help one another compile!
I had to hook my writing group with something different. We did passion posters and they had a wonderful time with that. But, then something happened when doing the posters. Several kids found some pictures advertising the Ice Hotel in Quebec, Canada. They were fascinated with the pictures. I went with it, even though it wasn't what we're "supposed" to be doing with our teaching time. On the computer the kids researched Ice Hotels, got information, and found images. I read to them stories/poems about snow, living in igloos, and I made up some of my own stories that they read and drew pictures to. We had been talking about "reading as writers," "craft" and sharing ideas the way authors do. I showed the kids examples of good writers, and they, in turn, were able to find aspects of writing craft, such as great lead sentences, description, similes, metaphors, rhyme, etc. in what they were reading and what I was reading to them. We had a blast! Then with an image/picture that they each chose, they listed, on Post-Its, sensory words,and/or descriptive words, all with the idea of eventually writing a post-card to a friend about the Ice Hotel they were pretending to stay at. The post cards (I modeled a post card) came out great, and incorporated a lot of what we've been talking about in class. After that, we decided to build our own Ice Hotels. Using sugar cubes and white frosting, each child (or some in teams of two) built their own hotel (some are still building). They actually look forward to writing, and keep a journal of what they are doing. When done with all of this, the kids have to write a piece (brochure, poem, song, etc.) convincing Mr. Desrosiers and Mrs. Armfield to visit their hotel (ice hotels are known to have magnificent bars) during February vacation. Just by focusing on Ice Hotels, we have been able to do different types of writing, such as descriptive, persuasive, compare/contrast. The kids are having fun and so am I! Come see what we've done. You'll love it.
Writer’s Workshop is the most sought after part of our day and week by all of my third graders. Since most kids enter third grade with a natural interest in writing, it is important for me to foster artistic expression and to stimulate each child’s imagination. Presently, my class is working on their first book which was inspired by the text, Home is Where You Build Your Nest by Joan Smith. After reading the story (a blue jay that searches for the perfect place to call its home), the children began to organize and develop their thoughts. They selected an animal and determined all of the locations their main character would visit before finding the perfect spot to call home. I modeled a story for them that I had written a few years ago, which allowed them to see my personal connection. With the support of parents, Sandy, Holly, and Erin during our scheduled Writers Workshop the students revise, edit, add more detail, clarify parts that are confusing, and choose more descriptive language for their writing. It is my goal to develop an emotionally and intellectually stimulating creative writing program for each child to feel successful as a writer. I never did until I was in college! Now I see the kids writing when they have a free minute and not asking, “What should I do now?”
I have brought back for instruction most of the ideas that we get in class. The emotion replacement strategy worked well in my class. Most students were successful with the "first" essay. We shared the before and after pieces, and they were amazed at how much better their writings sounded. My sped students did very well, while a top student just didn't know what an emotion word was.
Last year I used the calendar pictures to create poetry. Since I have the same class, they wanted to do it again. This time their poetry had to have figurative language used in it. This was successful because they would take their picture to get 10 other students ideas of what their picture looked like. They would then create a free verse poem using everyone's ideas and putting them in some sensible order.
The last piece of writing the students enjoyed was a fantasy piece. We watched a documentary on "What if a dragon was real?. The film was about how he survived the big bang, who his ancestors, and what his everyday life was from birth to death. The writing piece was to take a mythological creature and "what if" their life. They then got to draw what their creature looked like and they're hanging for display now.
I agree with Laurie that students like awriting project when there's art involved.
Well, the computers and our server are back in working order and I no longer have an excuse to procrastinate. I guess it's time to do my homework for class.
...It's BLOG TIME!!!!!
Learning is a daily life-long process for teachers and students alike. We try things and discover what works and what doesn't work for us. Trying to fit everything I want to teach/learn into my schedule has truly been a challenge and frustration for me. Especially this year.
I've taught long enough to know what works and how good lessons feel. Our new reading series with its multitude of skill oriented lessons combined with the updated "New and Improved" EveryDay Math edition is overwhelming for me and students alike. When I take the time to slow down, shoot from the hip and teach using my instincts, I see a difference in the reactions of my students. Their enthusiasm and grasping of concepts becomes obvious. Similarly, my own stress level goes down. I leave at the end of the day with a sense of accomplishment and pride.
My integration project,"meditation", means taking the time to slow down, let go, reflect and not force things to happen. It's working in my personal life. Now I just have to learn to balance it all at school.
Writing....it means something different to every person. Do I do writing in my "classroom?" It depends on what your definition of writing is. In my opinion No, I do not do writing every day. We have very little time for writing. Do I want to have more time for writing, YES!
One thing this class does for me,is remind me of the value and importance of real/authentic reading and writing.
So, I will set a goal of getting more reading and writing in to my days.
I ditto what Sandy said (not that I will not do my own entry)!! It is so hard when you think you have not only taught something, but taught it well, only to find out that it does not always generalize to their daily writing. I do see some glimmer of hope when I am able to prep a child before they write. It I am in the classroom I will often cue a child to try and remind them of the skills we have worked on in my room. One of my goals this year has been to teach the kids the difference between revising and editing. They think that they are both editing. It is so hard to get them to see a piece of work they have struggled to write be seen as "not done". Having them go back and revise is a hard concept. They seem so ready for criticism, but when I am able to sit with them and work through a piece of writing with them, they are always so excited when we add even just a few adjectives to their writing. All in all, I am doing a little bit of everything. I often start in one direction and change gears to best meet the kids needs for the day!
I need a break from teaching only the things that will be tested, so I am teaching some skills I learned from Picture Writing. We have “Painted the Sky” and are writing poems that we have used the paintings to generate poetry. My students are loving this and they are writing some pretty interesting poems. The best part is that they are loving their poetry. I feel that they are gaining so much from these lessons, and teaching is so much more enjoyable. We have lost the time needed to use creativity in the classroom that many students need to learn. Testing is driving the education process these days and it is too bad. I believe that testing can be a good tool to use, however not the way NCLB has mutated it. Yes, our students test scores are improving, but are students better learners for it?
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