My goal this year is to fully implement a writing workshop. The central features include:
• a 10-15 minute mini-lesson about topics, principles, genres, or conventions
• 30 minutes of student writing time
• 1-2 minute conferences with students during writing time to keep them moving forward in their pieces
• 4 days a week (Monday-Thursday)
Our 90-minute LA block breaks down like this:
1. Independent reading (15mins)
2. Poem of the day (15mins)
3. Writing mini-lesson (15mins)
4. Student writing (30mins)
5. Shared reading (15mins)
As you can see, every minute is accounted for with no time allotted for transitions. Therefore, the biggest challenge I'm dealing with now is TIME, or, more precisely, lack of it. In order for this to work, I need to squeeze every second out of every minute. Either that, or something's gotta give!
The first issue is that the poetry piece has been too successful. Students have so much to say about the poems that we’ve consistently gone over 15 minutes. We spend 20-25 minutes talking about some of them. So where has that additional time been taken from? Shared reading.
The second issue is that I talk too much and my mini-lessons run about 20-25 minutes. Where do I make up the time? Shared reading.
You see the pattern. Shared reading has gotten the short end of the LA stick. After NECAP, I’m going to start using a kitchen timer to keep myself on track. When the timer goes off, poem-of-the-day time is over. Even if it means cutting off a student mid-comment ☺
Perhaps my biggest challenge has been getting to every student at least every other day during their writing time. Beginning sixth graders are still so needy. They ask, "Does this sound okay?" and don't have the confidence to move forward in pieces without input. I sit down with a student and 5 minutes later I'm still there with the same kid. I know I have to sit, ask how things are going, give a suggestion to move him forward, and go on to the next student. This is going to be a huge shift for me, because I have much to say about student writing. I could easily spend 30 minutes with one student on one piece, but that's not fair to the other 17 students.
The good news is that I’m enjoying the Language Arts block even more than I did last year. I’m learning to appreciate all that poetry has to offer, and I’m energized by students’ enthusiasm for the selections we’ve shared. I’d hate to see this fall by the wayside, but I know I have to limit students’ responses to keep this chunk at the 15-minute mark. I know the workshop will pick up momentum as students get used to the procedure and learn how to become the first responders to their own writing. 15 minutes will be tough when it comes to shared reading, but one possible solution is to invest in more book copies so students can do the reading at home (Although that brings up a whole new set of issues, like what to do when a student doesn’t read at home).
There are a lot of kinks to work out, but reflecting on the first month of school, I’m pleased with the direction my students and I are moving.
Thursday, October 7, 2010
Monday, October 4, 2010
First Writing Assessment
This weekend I had the pleasure of reading my students' first major writing piece -- The Giver endings. They are really pretty good! (Nice work, Anita!) Since my goal is still to explore the most effective ways of giving writing feedback, I thought I'd blog about this first batch.
First, a summary of the assignment and process:
The kids always hate the ending of The Giver, so I give them the assignment of writing their own ending, using one of two jumping-off points in the book. They have to emulate Lois Lowry's narrative style (third person limited), genre (science fiction), and tone. We started by having a fish bowl discussion about the ending as Lowry wrote it. Then kids brainstormed, drafted, had peer conferences, and wrote a revision plan before revising. We had a mini lesson on revising, and I gave them a list of revision suggestions (make the beginning more exciting, change words, add description, add tension - arguments, challenges, problems - add dialogue, clarify confusing parts, remove boring parts, make ending more interesting). I was amazed with the time they took on revision. In my experience, kids usually race through this step, but they really got into it. Before editing, we had a mini lesson on punctuating dialogue (which was review from last year). I had to work one-on-one with a few kids who were having trouble, but most got it. We went into depth about dialogue that is interrupted by tags, and talked about varying the structure of dialogue. Kids edited, using a check list that I gave them (which included all of the conventions we've focused on so far this year), and then they peer-edited (but they weren't allowed to actually change anyone's writing -- just to make suggestions). Then we printed, stapled, and I went home to read.
Since changing my writing grade scale to M/N/S/O, I realized I no longer had to use a rubric that enumerated point value for everything. Still, I wanted to make sure that I gave feedback in a number of areas, so I made myself a template:
Writer:
Assignment: The Giver Ending
Ms. Paull’s feedback
Three things I liked:
One main suggestion:
Conventions to work on:
Grade (N/S/O): S
I put the template on my computer, and did not allow myself to hold a pen while reading. This kept me from marking up the kids' stories. Instead, I created a list for each kid of the conventions (mechanics) that they need to work on. I really liked doing this. It felt more useful that finding and marking each of their mistakes, but also addressed the goal of showing them what they need to work on. I also liked forcing myself to find 3 positive things to say, and to have the same number for each kid, regardless of the quality of their work. For the "one main suggestion," I limited myself to content and style, and left out mechanics (since that was already included elsewhere). When it came to deciding between N, S and O, it was still a bit difficult. I tended to give most kids S, with a few exceptional O's, and a few N's. I struggled with N's... There were definitely some pieces that "need improvement," but most of them also had some really positive things going on that I wanted to focus on. I'm still a bit torn about this... I think the more I use this grading scale, the more I'll feel comfortable distinguishing between an N and an S, and an S and an O.
If you're still reading, thanks! And happy new school year!
First, a summary of the assignment and process:
The kids always hate the ending of The Giver, so I give them the assignment of writing their own ending, using one of two jumping-off points in the book. They have to emulate Lois Lowry's narrative style (third person limited), genre (science fiction), and tone. We started by having a fish bowl discussion about the ending as Lowry wrote it. Then kids brainstormed, drafted, had peer conferences, and wrote a revision plan before revising. We had a mini lesson on revising, and I gave them a list of revision suggestions (make the beginning more exciting, change words, add description, add tension - arguments, challenges, problems - add dialogue, clarify confusing parts, remove boring parts, make ending more interesting). I was amazed with the time they took on revision. In my experience, kids usually race through this step, but they really got into it. Before editing, we had a mini lesson on punctuating dialogue (which was review from last year). I had to work one-on-one with a few kids who were having trouble, but most got it. We went into depth about dialogue that is interrupted by tags, and talked about varying the structure of dialogue. Kids edited, using a check list that I gave them (which included all of the conventions we've focused on so far this year), and then they peer-edited (but they weren't allowed to actually change anyone's writing -- just to make suggestions). Then we printed, stapled, and I went home to read.
Since changing my writing grade scale to M/N/S/O, I realized I no longer had to use a rubric that enumerated point value for everything. Still, I wanted to make sure that I gave feedback in a number of areas, so I made myself a template:
Writer:
Assignment: The Giver Ending
Ms. Paull’s feedback
Three things I liked:
One main suggestion:
Conventions to work on:
Grade (N/S/O): S
I put the template on my computer, and did not allow myself to hold a pen while reading. This kept me from marking up the kids' stories. Instead, I created a list for each kid of the conventions (mechanics) that they need to work on. I really liked doing this. It felt more useful that finding and marking each of their mistakes, but also addressed the goal of showing them what they need to work on. I also liked forcing myself to find 3 positive things to say, and to have the same number for each kid, regardless of the quality of their work. For the "one main suggestion," I limited myself to content and style, and left out mechanics (since that was already included elsewhere). When it came to deciding between N, S and O, it was still a bit difficult. I tended to give most kids S, with a few exceptional O's, and a few N's. I struggled with N's... There were definitely some pieces that "need improvement," but most of them also had some really positive things going on that I wanted to focus on. I'm still a bit torn about this... I think the more I use this grading scale, the more I'll feel comfortable distinguishing between an N and an S, and an S and an O.
If you're still reading, thanks! And happy new school year!
Sunday, May 16, 2010
Problem Solving
I, like others will continue working on my goal of helping students become better problem solvers. Now my main thrust is to find more of those questions that make a good Exemplar type question. I have been disappointed with many of the questions I've tried or maybe in my choosing of the questions ("What was I thinking?") With such varying abilities in class, it's like I'm Goldilocks, where some questions are too easy, some are too hard, and only a few are just right (challenging enough for many students). I really love listening to their ideas when I hit on a good question. After sharing ideas and thinking, I've had them continue/rewrite/extend their own thinking/explanations, so each student can have some success and practice with the problem.
I will continue to use the Math Exemplars and a few other sources I've tried, but if people have good sources I could look through during the summer, I would love to see them.
Any interest in buying the Science Exemplars?
Tuesday, May 11, 2010
Differentiated Assessments
It's been just as long since I've posted about my goal, so here's an update on my progress toward developing differentiated assessments in social studies. I've spoken about our Egypt projects which were differentiated by content and product. I fell off the wagon when it came time for our study of ancient India. I gave a standard test for that unit: matching, multiple choice, and essay question.
I tried to get back on track with China. Every student wrote an expository essay, but it was differentiated based on interest. Students chose a topic, such as The Great Wall, Confucius, or gunpowder. Using books from the public library and Internet sources, students formulated a main idea about that topic and selected three supporting details to expand on it. This was difficult for several kids, and I helped those students formulate main and write the introductions of their papers.
You can probably see that I've taken the easiest path to differentiation. It's simple to differentiate content based on student interest. All I had to do was contact the public library, get all the books they had on ancient China, and let the kids go! I provided note taking forms, outlining sheets, and an overall structure for the paper. Students did what I wanted- read nonfiction texts about China and wrote an expository essay. The key was that they went through the process of writing an essay on something they enjoyed reading about. I didn't have to fight with kids during the research sessions in class. They were into their topics and the finished products reflect that.
For ancient Greece, the kids are all working on creating a new kind of cereal based on a character from Greek mythology. Again, the content is differentiated based on student interest. Each student chose a god, goddess, hero, or monster. They are taking a myth containing that character and retelling it on the back of the cereal box. Then they get to have fun coming up with a name for the cereal and a cover design. Students will share their retellings in class to add an oral speaking component. These are due in class on Friday, so we'll see how they turn out. The kids seemed pretty psyched about the idea when I introduced it last week.
This is a goal that I definitely need to continue to develop each year. Differentiating by tapping into students' interests is a low-level form of differentiation because it requires the least amount of teacher preparation. I know their are high-prep ways of differentiating content, processes, and products. I'd like to incorporate some of those high-prep strategies in my social studies curriculum next year.
I tried to get back on track with China. Every student wrote an expository essay, but it was differentiated based on interest. Students chose a topic, such as The Great Wall, Confucius, or gunpowder. Using books from the public library and Internet sources, students formulated a main idea about that topic and selected three supporting details to expand on it. This was difficult for several kids, and I helped those students formulate main and write the introductions of their papers.
You can probably see that I've taken the easiest path to differentiation. It's simple to differentiate content based on student interest. All I had to do was contact the public library, get all the books they had on ancient China, and let the kids go! I provided note taking forms, outlining sheets, and an overall structure for the paper. Students did what I wanted- read nonfiction texts about China and wrote an expository essay. The key was that they went through the process of writing an essay on something they enjoyed reading about. I didn't have to fight with kids during the research sessions in class. They were into their topics and the finished products reflect that.
For ancient Greece, the kids are all working on creating a new kind of cereal based on a character from Greek mythology. Again, the content is differentiated based on student interest. Each student chose a god, goddess, hero, or monster. They are taking a myth containing that character and retelling it on the back of the cereal box. Then they get to have fun coming up with a name for the cereal and a cover design. Students will share their retellings in class to add an oral speaking component. These are due in class on Friday, so we'll see how they turn out. The kids seemed pretty psyched about the idea when I introduced it last week.
This is a goal that I definitely need to continue to develop each year. Differentiating by tapping into students' interests is a low-level form of differentiation because it requires the least amount of teacher preparation. I know their are high-prep ways of differentiating content, processes, and products. I'd like to incorporate some of those high-prep strategies in my social studies curriculum next year.
Checking In
Forgive me, bloggers. It has been over 6 months since my last post! It's not that I haven't thought about posting... It's not that I haven't been working on my goal (looking critically at different ways I can give feedback on student writing)... It's just that I've been feeling rather disheartened all year, and haven't really had the gumption to write. But it's been 6 months, so I figured I'd better write something!
When I last wrote, I had been experimenting with giving students written responses in bullet points, focusing on what is working. Since then, I have gone to a checklist with three columns: "Excellent," "You're on the right track," and "Needs improvement," and I modify the specifics of the criterion depending on the assignment. (I have also used a similar checklist with questions like "does the writer..." and "yes" or "not yet" as the possibilities.) This lets me focus on issues of content, organization, style, mechanics, etc. At the bottom of the checklist, I try to write a few sentences that respond to what the student has said, and not how they have said it. (For example, on their "This I Believe" essays, I wrote a few sentences in response to the belief itself, or the personal anecdote they told to illustrate the belief. Instead of assessing their writing, I reacted as a reader.)
As far as teacher-friendliness, this system is working pretty well. It's efficient, and helps me focus on the elements of an assignment for which I most want to hold students accountable. I like that the categories are consistent and on a continuum, and that I can change the specific criterion. What I am still struggling with, as I have been all year, is how to assign a number (or letter) grade to their writing. Actually, that's not true... I have no problem giving a point value to each category ("Excellent" = 3, "Needs improvement" = 1, etc.) The problem is that the kids only notice the grade and ignore the written comments and the checklist. No matter how hard I try to stress the content of the feedback, they are only interested in the grade. I have, at times, left the grade off, and just recorded it in teacherease. This only serves to postpone their grade-focused response until the end of the day when they jump on a computer to see their "real" grade.
I have also had a few unpleasant instances of students who are so mad about their grade that they don't/can't pay attention to the actual feedback I have given them. This feels like a missed educational opportunity. Instead of being a writing teacher, I become the enemy who has failed them. That's incredibly frustrating.
So perhaps you can see why I haven't posted too much this year... I haven't seen the progress that I had hoped for when I set this goal. I still think it's a worthy goal, and maybe one I can continue to work on next year. When I have the answer, I will be very happy to share it!
Tamar
When I last wrote, I had been experimenting with giving students written responses in bullet points, focusing on what is working. Since then, I have gone to a checklist with three columns: "Excellent," "You're on the right track," and "Needs improvement," and I modify the specifics of the criterion depending on the assignment. (I have also used a similar checklist with questions like "does the writer..." and "yes" or "not yet" as the possibilities.) This lets me focus on issues of content, organization, style, mechanics, etc. At the bottom of the checklist, I try to write a few sentences that respond to what the student has said, and not how they have said it. (For example, on their "This I Believe" essays, I wrote a few sentences in response to the belief itself, or the personal anecdote they told to illustrate the belief. Instead of assessing their writing, I reacted as a reader.)
As far as teacher-friendliness, this system is working pretty well. It's efficient, and helps me focus on the elements of an assignment for which I most want to hold students accountable. I like that the categories are consistent and on a continuum, and that I can change the specific criterion. What I am still struggling with, as I have been all year, is how to assign a number (or letter) grade to their writing. Actually, that's not true... I have no problem giving a point value to each category ("Excellent" = 3, "Needs improvement" = 1, etc.) The problem is that the kids only notice the grade and ignore the written comments and the checklist. No matter how hard I try to stress the content of the feedback, they are only interested in the grade. I have, at times, left the grade off, and just recorded it in teacherease. This only serves to postpone their grade-focused response until the end of the day when they jump on a computer to see their "real" grade.
I have also had a few unpleasant instances of students who are so mad about their grade that they don't/can't pay attention to the actual feedback I have given them. This feels like a missed educational opportunity. Instead of being a writing teacher, I become the enemy who has failed them. That's incredibly frustrating.
So perhaps you can see why I haven't posted too much this year... I haven't seen the progress that I had hoped for when I set this goal. I still think it's a worthy goal, and maybe one I can continue to work on next year. When I have the answer, I will be very happy to share it!
Tamar
Friday, December 11, 2009
Goal Update- Failure!
Well, there's no sense lying- I've already fallen short of my professional goal this year. (My goal is to develop a differentiated assessment for each unit in social studies.) We just finished Mesopotamia and I didn't create a differentiated assessment- I failed!
Now here's the part where I make up an excuse. Here goes: Part of it has to do with the fact that I've never taught ancient civilizations, so much of my time and preparation is in day-to-day lesson planning and background reading to increase my own knowledge of the subject. I know where I want the course to go conceptually speaking- the themes I want to focus on within each unit of study and the materials I want to use to get there. I had my differentiation book out, open to the chapter on differentiation by product, but there was a large obstruction blocking the creative juices in my brain. I couldn't think of a project for this unit! (What do you think of my excuse? Post comments!)
Despite the fact that I didn't meet my goal for the first unit, I still think it was pretty successful overall. We studied the geography, culture (tools/technology, writing, language, religion), economy, government, and social structure of Ancient Mesopotamia and we read Gilgamesh the Hero in Language Arts (which the kids loved). The librarian from the public library gathered about thirty books on Mesopotamia for me, and students used those throughout the unit in addition to the textbook. We watched a series of short Discovery Education videos which were very engaging and provided some excellent visuals for the kids. Students worked in cooperative groups, each group became experts on a specific technology and taught the class. I have a book with awesome simulations for each ancient civilization and the kids really got into that. They made their own clay tablets and wrote their names in cuneiform (messy, but fun- definitely got across how difficult being a scribe was). Hammurabi's Court was a fun class period, but it wasn't until I read their essays that I realized they thought people who broke the law really went to a place called "Hammurabi's Court." Didn't make that point clear enough:) A lot of reading and double-column notes of course.
My assessment for this unit was a seven paragraph essay: introduction, geography, religion, culture, economy, political/social systems, and conclusion. Students wrote this over the course of one week. Day One: Reviewed some steps for expository writing. Students used a graphic organizer I provided to organize information for their essays. Day Two: drafting. Day Three: typing. Day Four: peer revising and publishing. Of course the students wanted to know how much they had to write, so we worked off of a general framework: 3 details per paragraph- okay (C), 4 details- better (B), 5 details- best (A).
The best part of having students write is it really shows you what they know. They knew a lot about the geography, religion, economy, and culture, but much less about the political and social systems so I need to spend more time and rework that section of the unit. The other thing I noticed is that students recalled and organized information effectively, but I would like to see them move beyond restating- only a handful of students explained or drew conclusions. This is something we will address, practice, and reinforce in the remaining units. The assessment for each unit will always be an essay, because students need to write as much as possible, but I definitely want a differentiated piece so students have an opportunity to showcase their strengths.
I will not give up on my goal. My next post will be about my differentiated Egypt project!
Now here's the part where I make up an excuse. Here goes: Part of it has to do with the fact that I've never taught ancient civilizations, so much of my time and preparation is in day-to-day lesson planning and background reading to increase my own knowledge of the subject. I know where I want the course to go conceptually speaking- the themes I want to focus on within each unit of study and the materials I want to use to get there. I had my differentiation book out, open to the chapter on differentiation by product, but there was a large obstruction blocking the creative juices in my brain. I couldn't think of a project for this unit! (What do you think of my excuse? Post comments!)
Despite the fact that I didn't meet my goal for the first unit, I still think it was pretty successful overall. We studied the geography, culture (tools/technology, writing, language, religion), economy, government, and social structure of Ancient Mesopotamia and we read Gilgamesh the Hero in Language Arts (which the kids loved). The librarian from the public library gathered about thirty books on Mesopotamia for me, and students used those throughout the unit in addition to the textbook. We watched a series of short Discovery Education videos which were very engaging and provided some excellent visuals for the kids. Students worked in cooperative groups, each group became experts on a specific technology and taught the class. I have a book with awesome simulations for each ancient civilization and the kids really got into that. They made their own clay tablets and wrote their names in cuneiform (messy, but fun- definitely got across how difficult being a scribe was). Hammurabi's Court was a fun class period, but it wasn't until I read their essays that I realized they thought people who broke the law really went to a place called "Hammurabi's Court." Didn't make that point clear enough:) A lot of reading and double-column notes of course.
My assessment for this unit was a seven paragraph essay: introduction, geography, religion, culture, economy, political/social systems, and conclusion. Students wrote this over the course of one week. Day One: Reviewed some steps for expository writing. Students used a graphic organizer I provided to organize information for their essays. Day Two: drafting. Day Three: typing. Day Four: peer revising and publishing. Of course the students wanted to know how much they had to write, so we worked off of a general framework: 3 details per paragraph- okay (C), 4 details- better (B), 5 details- best (A).
The best part of having students write is it really shows you what they know. They knew a lot about the geography, religion, economy, and culture, but much less about the political and social systems so I need to spend more time and rework that section of the unit. The other thing I noticed is that students recalled and organized information effectively, but I would like to see them move beyond restating- only a handful of students explained or drew conclusions. This is something we will address, practice, and reinforce in the remaining units. The assessment for each unit will always be an essay, because students need to write as much as possible, but I definitely want a differentiated piece so students have an opportunity to showcase their strengths.
I will not give up on my goal. My next post will be about my differentiated Egypt project!
Monday, December 7, 2009
Test
I just tried to set this up as Angie suggested so that everyone who has been contributing or reading the blog will get an email notice when someone posts something new. Did it work?
-Tamar
-Tamar
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