Bluebonnet Poster

I was just fiddling around. Here's a poster about our Summer Institute. It came out pretty cool!


You all are so wonderful!
Janelle

A response to Rebecca!

Excellent job. I think that response journals are great vehicles to really get to know your students. The challenge is motivating the writer and providing the climate for them to feel safe in so they will begin to open up and express him or herself. This lesson in my opinion would not be intimidating to children and would be a fun, light way for them to explore not only their personal feelings but also feelings in different people caused by the same events. You were very supportive as a teacher and created a safe, inviting atmosphere to learn and work in.

Your lesson plan is very detailed and most helpful. Although connecting with our kids is not a state TEK, writing fluency certainly is and your lesson would definitely enhance that.
I would not tamper with it in any other way because then you would defeat the purpose of trying to get the kids to open up.

I have not used this type of journaling for awhile in my classroom but am contemplating reinstating it this year. We supposedly have a challenging group coming into 6th grade with a lot of emotional problems. I definitely could use this lesson in my classroom at the beginning of the year to get the kids thinking about their own feelings and also to address the concern of "bullying."

Your extensions show wonderful thought and insight. Your lists is quite comprehensive. You mentioned in your lesson graphing the emotions to determine frequency of occurence and I think that might be a good math follow--up as well as give you another avenue to pursue conversation about feelings and emotions.

Wonderful job! Your students are blessed!

Response to Rebecca Sandle's Students Connecting to Literature

Rebeccas%20Teaching%20Demo.doc

Jeannine's Response to Becky's Teaching Demo

Becky%27s%20Teaching%20Demo.doc

In response to Becky!

Dear Becky,
Great job today. I really enjoyed your presentation. I know how difficult your particular teaching situation can be as sometimes the "specials" are thought of as being off time for the kids. I really think your passion for art in the presentation of your material shines through and respect you for your interest and acknowledgement that you need to learn more in order to better motivate your students.
The QAR method has been out for a long time and I think might prove to be an effective strategy for using in your classroom. The use of this method with not only picture books but art work was very effective in your lesson. The learning immediately became a collaborative effort between you and your class where each individual was not only allowed to give their own comments but also could use others as a springboard for their own thinking. You effectively built us to the point where we could use writing to express our own creativity, providing the opportunity for us to use the writing process and develop fun stories.
I am not sure what your art TEKS are but your lesson would definitely meet writing TEKS in the 5th grade.
One consideration you might think about is co-teaching with the language arts department so that the stories your students create can be published and perhaps put on display with the art work you use as your motivation. Make a school gallery of sorts or a living museum of some kind.
One question I have is the issue of time. I know you have TEKS you are responsible for in your subject area. What kind of time line are you on? How often do you see your kids? Would this be an issue?
Again great job. I now have seen not only how I can incorporate art and QAR into my own room, but also how I need to collaborate with other departments so that a better connection can be made with our kids between learning and the real world. Thanks!

log for Wednesday, June 28

We started out the day with a fun multiple choice game by Catie. We had two teams, the Not Really team, and the Really? team. I am delighted to report that the Really? team won. We are so smart.

Next to come, we did a brief writing and sharing exercise on exploding the moment in our papers. I personally think this is a great tool to teach revision, and I especially like the term exploding the moment rather than fixing or revising.

To top the morning we had two very different and informative teaching demonstrations. Katherine shared a book and puppet lesson on teaching children revising techniques. I especially liked the idea she had of having the Carnavella be a revision symbol. In the future, when she gets out the puppet, they will know it is time to work on making their papers better.

Scott, our GT student, treated us to a power point presentation about helping students to find voice in their writing. When he put up a quote by Nancy Atwell that stated she was confused too, I felt a lot better about my own confusion, but I think I got it. The activities broke up the time, and revived us. It is so important to remember to do that in class, too.

We wrote our responses to Katherine and Scott with a little time for lunch thrown in there. After lunch, we worked on research for our literature reviews and bid goodbye to another busy exciting day at the Bluebonnet writing project.

A Wiki to help understand and integrate technology

Will Richardson has done it again. The author of the great book I had in class has created a super resource site for educators based on the presentations he does around the world. Weblogg-ed Presentations is created in a wiki format allowing others to chime in with their own two cents. He offers great links and how-to's throughout covering blogs, podcasting, vodcasting, wikis, RSS, and more. Check it out, and then go by his blog and let him know you appreciate his hard work with it.

Hello all!

I am irritated that I am not with ya'll. TCU is not impressing me very much. It is nice to spend time with some of my co-workers/friends, but I must admit that I found myself reading one of my research articles. Discretely (sp?) I might add!! There has been this one technology session, go figure, that excited me. I did not realize how powerful Microsoft Word can be. I must demonstrate the revisions, comments, grading security, and summarizing (yes the computer will summarize a piece for you) Word can do. You can also lighten the load of grading by having students highlight in specified colors the parts you are looking to grade. (i.e.--thesis statement in red, evidence in yellow, and commentary in green...or for grammar--pronouns in pink, compounds in purple, yadda yadda) The color coding reminds me of ratiocination. The sessions are sadly not so focused on middle school, but they are trying to implement more since the PreAP curriculum is moving into 7th and 8th grades.

Miss you all...miss the yummy food...miss the yummy foods for thought!

Scott's Teaching Demonstration PPT

Thank you all for being such wonderful students. I enjoyed my time teaching you today. I truly appreciate the positive feedback from each of you. I will take your comments to heart as I use these strategies once again as school begins this coming fall. I look forward to learning from everyone else throughout the rest of the presentations.

Scott's Teacher Demonstration PowerPoint Presentation

Teaching demonstrations

I just wanted to send kudos to Katherine and Scott for starting us off with two strong, yet unique presentations. I am sold on teachers-teaching-teachers concept. Both of you proved that teachers are professionals.

Best Practices in Writing

Please use this link to best practices in writing to replace the one in the handout Janelle posted today.

http://www.learner.org/channel/workshops/middlewriting/images/pdf/HomeBestPrac.pdf

Response to Katherine's Teaching Demo

Well.doc

To Katherine on her teaching demo

Lens 1: I give a thumbs up on the respect that you showed the students in regards to speaking out and asking questions. Even when some of us got a little too excited, you seemed to understand that. Directions were clear and concise.

Lens 2. Some of the best practices I noticed were that you related the lesson to our previous knowledge, and you also helped to build background with the puppet exercise. You made the learning meaningful to the learner.

Lens 3. You printed your TEKs on your lesson plan, and I'm sure your principal will be impressed.

Lens 4. Extensions and adaptations. I like the way you were going to use the puppet you made in other revision lessons, so that the students could remember and pull from this lesson every time you ask them to revise. It is a good cue. I noticed that you had follow up lessons that the students would continue with based on this lesson.

Lens 5. I saw that you had clear class room expectations for behavior and voice level. You had times when it was OK to talk out loud, and times when it was not. You gave the students plenty of time to process the information and to ask questions and get feedback. I think sometimes teachers forget to do that, and the students don't get their questions answered, or even realize what the questions are until they are in the middle of the project. The lesson was broken down into small sections, giving variety. That would be help to keep the kids from getting to bored or overwhelmed. This is something I need to try to incorporate into my art lessons more when possible.

Thanks Katherine, you gave me some good ideas on how to help students revise papers they write in art, or in after school tutoring sessions. I especially like the way you related the revision process to the puppets. I can use that big time.

Becky

Teaching Demonstration Response Letter

Please use these guidelines as we provide feedback to our most excellent and helpful teaching demonstrations.

Teaching%20Demonstration%20Response.doc

Thanks so much.

Project Poster

Let me introduce Project Poster. It is another great tool for teachers to use with students to share work in a new format. This is what their website has to say about the tool.

Project Poster allows students to make online school projects and short
reports quickly and easily. Students can include one image (.gif or .jpg
format), four links to other Web pages, and a report of up to 3,500 characters.
These posters are available to the public on the Internet after they have been
reviewed. The reports MUST relate to a school subject and the teacher must
register so his/her students can use Project Poster, but there is NO CHARGE for
its use.

And, yes, it is nearly 2 AM, and I am still up. I am just too excited about my teacher demonstration today (and by today I mean in a few hours). ;>)

Reflection and the Middle School Blogger: Do Blogs Support Reflective Practices?

I found this research article on using blogs in the middle school classroom. I thought there might be someone researching this topic.

Reference Lists???

Hi,

Did you all post your 10 reference sources on the blog or discussion board. I might be overlooking those. Or, were those turned into Kelly in hardcopy?

Another Sample Lit Review by Jeannine, Kelly and Janelle

Hirtle, J. Frankum, K. & J. Quintans (2005). Online Assessment: Door Knob Medicine or Meaningful Exchange?. In C. Crawford et al. (Eds.), Proceedings of Society for Information Technology and Teacher Education International Conference 2005 (pp. 427-434). Chesapeake, VA: AACESpanning%20the%20Accountability%20Divide.pdf

Lit Review Models

Here are some literature reviews from some of my published studies. The easiest ways to access model is to look at the journals and check out the structure of literature reviews in published studies.


Spanning the Accountability Divide (attached) is a short paper (4 pages) accepted into an AACE conference proceedings.Spanning%20the%20Accountability%20Divide.pdf

Virtual Libraries--Take a Look

http://www.csu.edu.au/education/library.html The World Wide Web Education Virtual Library

Literature Reviews How Tos

Please read over these as you prepare to write. It will help with structure:

http://www.utoronto.ca/writing/litrev.html

http://www.unc.edu/depts/wcweb/handouts/literature_review.html

http://lrs.ed.uiuc.edu/tse-portal/literaturereview/junghyun-an-literature-review/literature-review.html

Revision Tips:

http://www.unc.edu/depts/wcweb/handouts/revision.html

Skim to the bottom of this if you are an experienced reviser--there are specific strategies listed that will be helpful. If you are not an experienced reviser, read the whole thing! :>)

Request for Wednesday

Katherine Barney’s writing request
Please have this ready for Wednesday morning lesson (9:00).
I need a total of 3 copies of your writing.


Please respond to the following prompt.

Perimeters:
You are 7 years old
It is the second 6 weeks of school
Write between 8 and 15 sentences
Handwrite your response and make 2 copies (copied or written)
Or
Type your response in 36 point font with 1.5 line spacing



Prompt

One night a few months ago there was a really bad thunderstorm. You woke up to a loud crash and a flash of lightening right outside your window. The next morning when you were leaving for school you noticed a black hole in the ground with a strange looking plant growing in it. Then you left for school. When you got back in the afternoon the plant grew 10 feet! You started to wonder what kind of plant grows that fast. Write a story telling us about the plant.

Action Research Powerpoint

Here's the excellent presentation from Kelly.

Action%2C%20Applied%20Research%20Ppnt.ppt

Thanks so much.

Screencasts from HigherEd BlogCon 2006

For additional listening and learning activities on the themes you have been encountering in BWP, I recommend the archives of HigerEdBlogCon 2006, especially those with a "teaching" theme.  This conference took place on-line several months ago, and screencasts of the presentations are available for your viewing/listening.

Among the many fascinating presentations there, James Farmer spoke on learning environments, which I know has been a topic of discussion these past few weeks!

Powered by Qumana

Dessert Pizza

Some of you have asked for the recipe for the dessert pizza (to avoid infringing on any copyright laws, Kelly Frankum gave me the recipe. ;)

What you need:

1 package of already-made sugar cookie dough (I think mine was Pilsbury ?)
1 regular size cream cheese
1 small jar of marshmallow cream
fresh fruit of your choice (about 3 cups - I used blueberries and strawberries. I wanted to put some kiwi on it, but the kiwi at Costco was nasty. Kelly sometimes will put sliced banana on hers - but if you do this, remember to add lemon juice to keep from browning! :)

What you do:

Spread the cookie dough onto a 13" pizza pan and bake at 350 degrees for about 13 minutes (until golden brown)

Mix together the marshmallow cream and cream cheese. Dip your finger in and taste it. ;)

Prep your fruit of chioce of (wash 'em up, cut 'em up, etc. I use vinegar to clean my fruit, and I get made fun of by some family members for this, but hey, it gets it cleaner than water alone! :)

Let the cookie cool for a while.

Spread the cream cheese/marshmallow mixture over the cookie.

Add fruit.

Cover and refrigerate.

Enjoy!

Useful Print to Support the Importance of Writing

Here are some excellent print resources from both the National Commission on Writing and NWP. Get these in the hands of decision-makers, policy-makers, and other stakeholders. We need to know these statistics.


neglectedr.pdf

Writing_Matters_brochure_final.pdf

writing-ticket-to-work.pdf

Thanks,
Janelle

Is David Warlick Right?

I thought his post this morning, about the role of writing, was fascinating!

Class log, 6-26-2006

BWP log, 6-26-2006

Dr. Hirtle read When Lightening Comes in a Jar to start the daily writing exercise. The story was about a Grandmother telling family stories. To start the writing process each group drew a giant jar with lightening bugs, thought about family stories, then wrote words around the jar to remind us of each story. After telling the story to our group, we each drew a story map, showing the elements of the story (characters, location, what happened, what do you want to get across). Then we re-told our story and started to write it. We talked about what we got by going through the steps of the pre-writing process, especially the use of two different graphic organizers. It was interesting to see how the telling of the story changed as the process progressed.

Dr. Hirtle showed us copies of the anthologies produced in past years of the BWP. She asked us to think about whether we wanted to make a hard-copy anthology this year, or an e-anthology, or both. Kelley cautioned that if we choose to publish a hard copy then group members will have to do the work of getting it assembled and copied. Be ready to express your opinion.

During lunch we listened to podcasts. See Scott’s post and follow the links. It was recommended that we listen to the podcast by Dr. Berlinger on the effects of NCLB.

Kevin Thompson of Vantage Laboratories gave us a presentation on his company’s on-line software program, “MY Access”. Go to www.vantagelearning.com/ and check it out. Hit the “View My Access” button for a demo. Using this program, students write essays, assigned by their teacher from a list of over 400 possible prompts. The students gets immediate grading and feedback from the computer. No endless hours of grading, and the students are motivated by the immediate feedback! Sounds like a fascinating use of technology.

Pete Smith stopped by to see how we were doing and said that he would be back tomorrow to help us through the process of making our podcasts. Dr. Hirtle provided three digital recorders from BWP. Each group recorded a audio file to use in producing their podcast.

Reminders and requests from the leaders:

Please finish the family story you started. We will work on editing on Tuesday.

If you haven’t done so already, please post a sample of writing to the open mike section of the e-anthology at NWP.org.

Listen to the podcast that Janelle posted to the blog. Please respond to Janelle on your thoughts on blogging vrs. bulletin boards, the writer’s workshop, or on technology and the writing process. Janelle talked about how “Garage Band” can work to ad music to our podcast.

Dr. Hirtle asked us to read the “big long article” she posted on the blog.

See Scott Floyd’s blog, “A Piece of My Mind”, for more examples of podcasts and vodcasts.

See Bob Sprankle’s blog (follow Scott’s link) for examples of podcasts that parents can subscribe to. There are some very entertaining vodcasts there.

Garageband Tutorial Videos

Just a quick link to some tutorial videos for Garageband that I thought may prove useful to those of you fortunate enough to have an Apple.

Death by Racism: Article in Dallas Morning News

Please read this - very interesting story regarding why disease rates for middle-class African Americans are higher than that of whites (when they were the same in the 1950's). At first, I felt anger when I read it. Why is it always blamed on the white man? Then I re-read it and felt more compassion.

What are your thoughts?

http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/dn/opinion/points/stories/DN-blackmen_25edi.ART1.State.Edition1.242c7fd.html

Kelly

Weeks 3 & 4 Calendars

Here are the calendars...can you believe we're already so far along?

BWP%20Week%203.doc

BWP%20Week%204.doc

Thanks so much, Kelly!

Wesley Fryer Discusses Podcasting

Wesley Fryer has posted a helpful podcasting post on his blog titled "Audacity for Audio Podcasts." It contains several additional great links to other how-to podcasting posts and sites and discusses Garage Band and Audacity for creating podcasts as well as just audio creation. I thought it might be useful.

Be sure you notice how his own elementary-aged children make their own podcasts. If you get a chance, download some of Wesley's podcasts and take a listen. He provides some wonderful insight on a great many diverse topics. If you have iTunes (or another podcast subscribing software, you can subscribe to his site. He is a much needed part of the global conversation.

Bluebonnets, Please Share your Input

Hiya, Bluebonnets, please consider this....

Bluebonnets%2C%20Please%20Provide%20Feedback.m4a


Here is the mp3 for the Mac-impaired.

Bluebonnets%2C%20Please%20Provide%20Feedback.mp3

Janelle

All, Please Read: Barbara Ganley on Blogging

Ok, I'm shrinking this post due to popular demand, and/but PLEASE read
"Nerve Center of Barbara Ganley's Blogging"

http://mt.middlebury.edu/middblogs/ganley/bgblogging/009714.html

THANKS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Here are our beautiful mugs!

Picture of our iChat :)

Audio Recording Survival Tips

Hello all, I thought I would add another listening opportunity to the blog--this a short overview of tips for recording live events.

The presenter is Doug Kaye, one of the most prominent names in the field of podcasting, especially the technical side of audio production and post-production. His blog will lead you to several amazing treasure troves of audio, podcasts, and on-line training.

Great tips for blogging from Vicki Davis

If you are serious about wanting to use blogs effectively, Vicki Davis wrote an awesome post on her blog Cool Cat Teacher about the "Ten Habits of Bloggers that Win!" She is the same lady that posted a comment on Rebecca's narrative on this blog. Check it out when you get a chance. It is great information to share with the students as well.

ESL/EFL Podcasts

From reading your blog entries and visiting with you, I know that ESL/EFL learners play an important role in many of your classrooms.

So, within our thinking about podcasts, I wanted to share one 'cast targeted at English language learners. Conversations is produced by Aaron Campbell, who is well known in ESL/EFL cirlces internationally for his net-based writing, thinking, and connectivist projects.

There is also a blogroll list at the bottom of that page linking to other, similar podcasts.

Thundersome Thursday

The only thing I can say is Uuuhhhh and AHHHH! Today was awesome! The group discussion we had this morning using Nancie Atwell's book gave me an idea for my demonstration. I can't wait to delve into the other sections. And where has Refworks been all my graduate days?!!!! The afternoon session was amazing with the tools we now have on the web. It will save hours and frustration as I prepare for my Monday assignment and lit. review.

At the breakfast I heard people say this class would transform me. I thought to myself, "Sure" (with sarcasm). But, I can say that I feel like a monarch caterpillar in pupa stage- all the magic is occuring inside unseen. If I feel like this in just two weeks, I wonder what I'll feel at the conclusion? Looking toward the metamorphosis!

Evelyn and Lea--Thank you

Your presentation was very informative and has sparked ideas for my 7th grade classroom. I look forward to using your resources!!!
Thank you

PowerPoint from 06/20/2006

Sorry for the mix up... I have attached the PowerPoint...

Presentation by Scott

Discussion Board

Kelly Frankum has set us up a temporary Discussion Board.
I have added the link in the sidebar (Under Google News in the links section)
This is a temporary board until we can get something permanent set up.
You will have to use your "Back" buttons to return to the bluebonnet site, though we may be able to remedy this soon.
Kelly will probably have more details about signing in to the board.
Have fun.
Cobe

Literature Review: For Beginners

http://info.wlu.edu/literature_review/literature_review.html

Components of a Lit Review

This site is not as user-friendly as the previous site I linked for you, but some of you may be able to relate to it. It is very, very linear. http://library.ucsc.edu/ref/howto/literaturereview.html

Literature Review: How To

I'm posting a link to one of the best written, most comprehensive, user-friendly lessons on writing literature reviews. Please read! http://www.languages.ait.ac.th/EL21LIT.HTM
This is an interactive tutorial and worth every minute you will spend going through it.

PowerPoint from 06/20/2006

Don't hesitate to contact me with any questions. scott@distance.uta.edu

What other technology is needed?

This question is for Scott Massey and Pete Smith:

I did part of my student teaching in Columbus Junction, Iowa, and part of it in Tawa, New Zealand. When I went overseas, I'd intended on creating a pen-pal session between my stateside students and my overseas students. Due to time constraints, we were only able to get one letter to and one letter from the reciprocating students. (And the 'one letter from' hit my NZ school's mailbox about the same time I was going through customs in California! So, I never actually got to see those, and although my cooperating teacher, Mrs. Pearl, said that the kids were very excited and that it was definitely a positive experience for them, part of me wondered if there could have been a better way to approach it.

When I left New Zealand, Mrs. Pearl and I said that we would pen-pal with our upcoming students. I have been in touch with her, and she is all about it, and so am I! How neat would that be for my students to make the world just a little bit smaller, by communicating with children who live on the other side of the earth?! Especially since I know the reciprocating teacher so well, I feel confident that this would be a highly valuable and treasured experience for the children involved. I get so excited when I think of the possibilities. :)

My question is, what is the best method (electronically) to go about implementing pen-pal letters?

Thanks for your presentation today; I look forward to our next Technology Tuesday.

Catie

re: to scott's book suggestion from catie

Scott let me borrow this book (Blogs, Wikis, Podcasts, and Other Powerful Web Tools for Classrooms by Will Richardson) and it is such a great resource! It does a great job of outlining technology in the classroom specifically and it is very detailed. I highly recommend it!
~Catie

Recap of June 20, 2006

A recap of today’s events: June 20, 2006

We drew what happened the day before which was an interesting way to summarize the events of the previous day.

Next, we wrote a journal response that stemmed from a paint chip panel activity which gave us a reason to write based upon the color we selected.

A point of interest brought up by Janelle is that you can post your writing pieces to the E-Anthology of the National Writing Project Website with pinpointed questions and get specific feedback from reviewers.

Afterwards, we spent the rest of the morning learning about podcasting with Scott Massey (smassey@uta.edu). We also spent some time discussing how we would use blogging in our classrooms. We need to think of what other technology we feel is necessary, such as putting images on our blogs. Scott will be posting the PowerPoint presentation he showed us to the Bluebonnet blog.

After lunch, we spent the afternoon in the library doing research for our literature reviews. A valuable resource provided through the UTA library is RefWorks which allows you to search for references and catalog your information into a bibliographic
format.

Stacy

Good book for integrating all of this technology!

Blogs, Wikis, Podcasts, and Other Powerful Web Tools for Classrooms by Will Richardson is an awesome resource.

You can also read on his blog how to read the book for free online, although I prefer the book on my shelf when I need it.

Tuesdays with Technology!

I thought I would post this nice little picture of Pete working his magic last week to get us all ready for round two today.

Book Recommendation

What inspiring research questions, moving stories about education, educators, and the vital roles we play!

In reading your entries on the blog tonight (not too late!!), I was reminded of a book I found several years ago and wanted to recommend to you all:

Mentors, Masters and Mrs. MacGregor: Stories of Teachers Making A Difference

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1558743367/

Stacy's Critical Incident (Narrative Draft)

Burning question: How can I use writing to enhance my students’ reading skills?

I have often been overwhelmed by the challenge of helping learners at various levels become better readers. For many years, this has translated into helping my students pass the TAKS Reading test. I can remember when I first began teaching reading. I felt very under-qualified and the district I was in offered no training for their teachers in their content areas. There were many days when I felt like I was “winging it,” which was truly no good for my students. In spite of my deficiencies, many of my students were successful on the state mandated reading assessments, but I must admit that some were not. The ones that stick out most in my mind are those who were not. And every year, the names change, but the struggle that these students have to become better readers, remains the same.

When I transferred to a new school district, I had the opportunity to take graduate level courses. My Master’s courses have allowed me to learn a great deal about the teaching of reading, and I have applied what I have learned to my classroom instruction with more than favorable results. This past year, I had the opportunity to teach a sixth grade English Language Learner who was also a struggling reader. Her name is Lee. Lee failed all three administrations of the fifth grade TAKS Reading test. When I taught Lee, I felt much better prepared to teach reading than I had been in the past. I had been exposed to so many new and innovative ideas in teaching literacy learning and I was using research based methods in the classroom. I had learned about conducting Reading and Writing Workshops and I was applying those ideas in my daily activities. Even so, due to time constraints, my writing lessons often took a back seat to my reading instruction. It always seemed as if I could never fully incorporate the writing piece into my instruction even though I knew that my learners desperately needed to understand the reading and writing connection.

That year, I was able to implement some writing to learn activities which I think proved beneficial to many of my students. I used writing activities such as KWL charts, story maps, literature discussion questions, daily journaling, and reading response to incorporate some aspect of writing into the curriculum. Many of my students did well on TAKS that year, but Lee did not. It was disappointing because she had passed every reading benchmark given by the district that year. Although I used many different teaching strategies that year, I feel that if I had done more writing with Lee, she may have fully grasped the idea of reading and all that is involved with it.

Stacy

Rebecca: Where am I now?

I think that the discussion and feedback has put me more at ease about this assignment. I started off with a narrative, but was unclear of how to pull a question from it. It was benefical for me to hear the strategies and suggetstions concerning my question and experience in the classroom. Now I am to the point where I really need to dive into the research and literature in efforts of modifying my narrative. I noticed that my narrative explained too much background information and not enough concerning what actaully happened. I hope that this makes sense.

Rebecca

Rebecca's Burning Question

My buring question is the following:

Is journaling an effective tool to use with students who have emotional and social needs?

I am trying to connect this question back to writing and started with the following:

How can I motivate students with social and emotional needs?

Please give me any feedback that you can.

Thanks!

Rebecca

Katherine Narrative and status

I am starting my research for my burning question and I will go back to refine my narrative before including it into my final project.

Question

How can I motivate my students to edit?


Critical Incident Narrative
Second Grade Classroom


Twisted Fairy Tales



I always enjoy writing especially when it involves man-eating plants or totally twisted fairy tales. It was late April when my second grade class was reading classic fairy tales followed by fairy tales rewritten with humor. A favorite was The Stinky Cheese Man and Other Fairly Stupid Tales: by Jon Scieszka and Lane Smith. Neither my students nor I tire of reading these silly stories involving classic fairy tale characters. This year was no exception and my students were eager to get started on their own versions. Each student differred on the support needed during the writing process, but everyone did end up with a story. I have highlighted four different students from this class that represent different writing personalities.

Austin loved to write when he is free to use his humor and imagination in his work. He read a little above grade level and read for pleasure. He was eager to start a fairy tale and wrote three pages the first day! His story was a humorous version of Shrek, a favorite children’s movie involving an ogre. Austin’s ogre had different adventures than the Shrek character from the movie, but wass lacking description and action. He was very competitive and motivated to write the longest story. He had a tendency to write run-on sentences and and not end a story at a logical point. He understood that he lost focus when he wrote too many pages, but he avoided editing. Austin wrote dilegently for several days on his fairy tale. He shared the story with the class when he finished the first draft, but he put his story in his writing folder and did not tell me he was ready for editing. When the final drafts were due he finally pulled out his writng to show me. He still did not want to take the time to edit.

Jane also enjoyed writing. She wass a gifted and talented student that read at a seventh grade reading level. She acted very mature for her age and got frustrated when her peers play around. She wass frustated a lot in second grade because second graders love to play around! Her story involved a princess and combined several different fairy tale traits that came together into one story. She started right away and required no help with the rough draft portion. She naturally added action and description to her writing as I would expect a high-level reader to do. She wasn’t happy about editing, but she understood it needed to be done and did what I suggested. She did change a few hings on her own without my prompting.

Jon had a very active imagination and a great sense of humor. He was the all around good student. Good grades, good at sports, good at making friends, etc. He was an above average reader who occasionally read for fun. He was inspired by the stories we read and had no problem getting started. He quickly wrote an adequate story, but the story was below his potential. When I asked him to elaborate he became defensive. When I asked him to go back and add details he told me he was happy with his story the way it was even though he admitted he could improve on it. He became angry and pouted when I instructed him to spend more time on adding details. When it comes to editing he really becomes aggitated.

Keeanna liked school, but it was a bit of a struggle for her. She read slowly and was very self-conscious. She had extemely high expectations of herself and often cried when she was challenged. Since the whole nature of learning involves challenge she was ofen in tears. She was actually paralyzed with the fear of making a mistake. Writing a story was the most challenging and frustrating for her, because she had to use her imagination. She could not use the strategies that she depended on to help her, such as memorization or clue words. I usually have this type of student at least writing short personal responses by the end of the year, but not Keeanna, she continued to cry up until the very end! (However she was crying less and was a little more willing to try.) I find this personality type them most challenging to work with and Keeanna was the most extreme student I have had to work with. How can I get her to edit when she won’t even write? I eventaully got her to use a story frame I created for her to fill in the blanks, but she was not happy with herself having to use it. She didn’t want to make a mistake so she would just sit there staring at an empty page. She was thrilled to be able to edit because it was something she could see and apply rules to. Perhaps there is a way I can motivate her through editing.


Let me backtrack a little and reflect on what we did prior to writing the first draft. We began by reading several different fairy tales. Then we brainstormed, mapped, and discussed the characteristics of a fairy tale. We compared stories that were the same and then a few stories that were different using graphic organizers. We wrote a class story as a whole group using the graphic organizers we created. The students copied the class story as I wrote on a transparency so that the students were able to experience several aspects of writing a story. I made comments on some of the editing I would do if I was going to take the story to a final draft. I did not have the second graders actually make the changes on the class story because some of them got overwhelmed or lost interest in writing with too much time spent on editing. Next the students wrote a few sentences about the fairy tale they wanted to write. I had a quick conference with each one to make sure everyone understood the assignment. I helped those who had difficulty getting started. Some of the students required a story frame in order to write a story. I required those students to change the characters and the names. For example, The Three Little Penguins. Then I gave my students three days of 30 - 45 minute writing periods. As each student finished he/she shared the story by sitting in the Author’s Chair. Even my student who could not read or write stood up and told us his story! Author’s Chair was a popular part of the writing process. Keeanna did not share at this time because she still had not started a story. I was hoping she would get an idea from one of the other students. All of the other struggling writers did get started by this point. Keeanna required much more coaxing and eventually had to spend some recess time with me before she actually started writing.

One of the editing strategies we used was to highlight all of the ands in their papers. Then I had them cross the and out, add a period before the and, and a capitol to the word after the and. Then they reread their stories to see if the sentences made sense. If they didn’t make sense then the student was to correct the structure. I used similar techniques to highlight and check for other grammar or spelling corrections. I only had them look for one or two things each time we edited. We checked for complete sentences with capitols and end punctuation each time we read. After that one or two more rules was plenty for second grade. I didn’t highlight more than five grammar rules altogether. Even this controlled amount of editing was a challenge to get the students to do. (Except for the serious and/or overachieving students, which are usually white females. Perhaps that is a clue!)

My question is: How can I make editing fun, motivating or less intimidating for all of my students?