Friday, August 28, 2009
Group B Ch. 7 & 8 Blog
View AND Read the first sample chapters (available on line) (Chapters 7 & 8) Using the Writer's Notebook in Grades 3-8: A Teacher's Guide at (http://www1.ncte.org/library/files/Store/Books/Sample/35006chap1-2_x.pdf) and begin your writers notebook then post entries on Class Blog( Keep your own notebook and share your response to it AND try out an idea in your class)Engage in an online discussion group on our class blog. Please read designated chapters and 1)propose “meaty” fat questions to discuss,2) make connections to your teaching and work with students, and 3) make connections to your work as a writer ). 4)Please respond to two of your classmates’s entries in your study group.4) Consider how what you have learned from this book might support the work of your integrated language arts unit
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I agree with the author's suggestion to expose writers to multiple approaches so students can find what works for them in writing. However, in my classroom I find offering too many different approaches is overwhelming to the students.
ReplyDeleteHave you ladies found this?
How do you expose students to different writing techniques and styles?
As I seek ways to encourage my students to become more creative I liked a lot of the suggestions in chapter 7. The letters and recipes were interesting ideas. My students enjoyed creating the recipes but I believe they needed more exposure to it in other ways to become more comfortable and creative with it. In the anthology and other books they have recipes, I feel I will point theses out as appropriate so they can see real life examples of recipes.
ReplyDeleteThis chapter also got me thinking that perhaps in my integrated unit the students could respond in a different way other than a journal entry. Maybe they could write as if they were a fraction - from another perspective.
I did have one problem with this chapter and that was the "have-a-go" example. Perhaps this is more appropriate for older students. When I teach a mini-lesson I feel all students need to try it that day. The mini-lessons I currently teach are basic and will help their foundation of writing. Simply 'crossing my fingers and hoping' the students would apply the mini-lesson at some point is something I can't do. If the students tried it once in their journals at least it would be in there for later reference.
ReplyDeleteHow did you girls feel about it?
Molly,
ReplyDeleteWe had similar reactions to chapters 7 and 8. In regards to chapter 7, I also try to expose my students to various ways and techniques, in this case, to plan out their stories. I find that usually students gravitate towards a particular technique that they like. If it works for them, then its fine. If it doesn't improve their writing, then I would suggest another method to plan during an individual writing conference. You could also pull a group of students to work on planning strategies. I think I may do this for the "list" story writers-I think we all have those in our classes!
The variety of genres and formats was interesting, however, I feel that our students have a hard time with the genres that we teach (personal narrative, fictional narrative, poetry, expository)and often these other formats get neglected. I'm not sure if letter writing is worth our time. Here's a question for you ladies: Are there any genres that you teach and have success with that our outside of our scope and sequence? I just thought that scary scories might have been a good genre around Halloween...there's an empowering writers "magic of three" that would have gone with this.
ReplyDeleteI liked the idea of recording memorable language from mentor texts. I think it is valuable to show students how writers borrow from other writers. I think I need to be more diligent in collecting memorable language in my writer's notebook. Maybe I can keep it next to my read alouds and stop to record it. Then maybe students will do the same during independent reading time. It would also be beneficial to relate reading and writing or "reading as a writer."
ReplyDeleteKathleen:
ReplyDeleteI did experiment with scary stories for two days near Halloween. The students really responded well to them and enjoyed the change in genre. This is the reason why I thought it would help to experiment with other genres. I know I get board with two months of personal narratives, so I can imagine the students will. However, I do share the concern with following the scope and sequence we were given.
Kathleen:
ReplyDeleteI like your idea about collecting memorable language. This also reminds me of the found poetry workshop we went to during the Connecticut Writing Project. How easy it is to forget all the good ideas we learn about!!
What idea have you tried out? Have you shared any of your own writing with your students?
ReplyDeleteDr. Kurkjian,
ReplyDeleteI have tried using graphic organizers for writing especially story maps for fiction. I plan on trying out a pie chart because I think it will help my students focus on a slice (we call this seed story) instead of the whole pie (we call this a watermelon story). Our next unit is on expository writing and I use a main idea/detail graphic organizer for that. I plan on incorporating the letter writing as well as the interview writing in my writing work station. That way the students will still be exposed to it while they are recieving the third grade curriculum.
Dr. Kurkjian,
ReplyDeleteIn other blogs I have focused how I used the graphic organizers and mentor texts, these really enhanced my students writing. But I took something different away from these chapters. I focused more on why I have my students use notebooks. I reflected on my classroom practices and what I really want my students to learn and get better at in writing. As I answered some questions for myself I found my writers workshop mini-lessons to be more focused and my students to be more successful.