My focus area for guided lead teaching was to start writer’s workshop. I first started out by holding a discussion on what a good piece of writing includes. After the discussion, our focus areas in writing were: Organization, voice, sentence fluency etc. The next day was all about establishing routines during writing time. We talked about what I expected to see and also what they should expect of each other. After that, I went over the writing process and how I expect to see 5 full paragraphs. We planned, wrote a rough draft, peer edited, revised, and wrote a final draft.
The majority of my students were successful in writing our first writing piece. The students who struggled were the students who chose not to pay attention and misbehave during instruction. The main idea learned in my lessons, is that good writers take the time to plan and organize their thoughts and idea before they begin writing; writing is a process. Before I started writer’s workshop, my students had little practice and knowledge of writing. Some of my pre-assessments were quick writes and one day students could write about anything they wanted, which usually I give them a prompt. I found that is was more difficult for my students, especially the ones who struggle more. They had a hard time forming a single idea and writing about it.
After reading some of their work, I realized there are a few students who really excel in writing. Students were creative and used personal experiences in their writing. I was impressed to hear a lot of personal voice in their writing. Students really made the work their own by adding personality.
One of my goals was to be able to conference one-on one with each student. As we settle into the routines of writer’s workshop, it has been getting easier. After students understand the goal for the day, I make my way around and really try to work with the struggling students. This gives me time to work independently with those who need it, while the rest of the class is engaged in their task.
If I were to change something about my unit, I would add more modeling. I quickly became aware that several of my students did not know what a paragraph was. I had to take the time to examine student work with them as a whole class, so we could pick out sentences and paragraphs. I will also continue to incorporate more modeling as we grow as writers. I am excited to see how the students progress as we work through the writing process as the year continues.
Marie,
ReplyDeleteI was initially interested in reading your reflection because of your title, “Fourth Grade: Writer’s Workshop.” This is because I am in a Third grade classroom right now and I have taken over everything besides Reader’s and Writer’s Workshop, which are the two subject areas that I am most nervous about taking over since I am a Math and Science person. I will take over Reader’s and Writer’s Workshop in January after Holiday Break. However, my circumstances are a little different than yours though because my students have been doing Writer’s Workshop every day since the beginning of the year. Therefore, they already know all of the routines and what is expected out of them during each Writer’s Workshop. I will say though that it did take them a while to get into the swing of things, so I am very impressed that you were able to get the routines down, start teaching actual lessons, and start conferencing with individual students all within the two week long unit. I would say your unit was successful just for getting that done!
One part of your reflection that really stuck out to me was when you mentioned that you learned the extreme importance of modeling. There has literally never been a day where my CT has not modeled what she wants the students to do first. Right now they are in the process of producing three themed paragraphs, one for Chanukah, one for Christmas, and one for Kwanza. Each paragraph takes a week to produce. On the first day of the week my CT reads a story about the holiday that they are focusing on that week, such as Chanukah. She then makes a list with the students of all of things the students relate to that holiday, such as a menorah and potato latkes. The next day my CT shows the students how to fill in a graphic organizer with a topic sentence, four detail sentences, and a closing sentence by actually filling in one for her story with the students. The students then fill in their own graphic organizer. The next day, my CT shows the students how to use the graphic organizer to make a rough draft by actually making a rough draft of her story with the students. The students then make their own rough draft. The next day, my CT shows the students how to edit their rough drafts for punctuation, spelling, missing words, commas, descriptive details, etc. by actually editing her rough draft with the students. The students then edit their own rough drafts. We then check over their edited rough drafts and edit it even more. The next day, my CT shows the students how to transfer their edited checked rough drafts to the final copies by actually transferring her edited rough draft to the final copy with the students. The students then transfer their own edited checked rough drafts to the final copies. Then then draw a high quality illustration to accompany their final draft. Basically, she never ever skips modeling. I have accidentally skipped modeling once with a different subject and the students immediately got confused and started asking a million and one questions. Therefore, I can really back up your need for modeling take away from your unit.
I also noticed that you said that students did not do as well when you gave them free range to write about whatever they want. My CT and I have also noticed the same thing. To prevent them from struggling, but still giving them freedom with what to write about, we started to give them broad topics, such as write about a small memorable moment with another person. This is a very broad topic giving them freedom, but narrows it down enough to allow the students to write high quality descriptive stories without becoming confused.
Overall, I really enjoyed your reflection. I am still quite apprehensive about teaching Reader’s and Writer’s Workshop because there is so much freedom unlike with Science, Math, and Social Studies, which are very straight forward.
Kaitlinn DeRosier (Rutkowski)
Marie,
ReplyDeleteI really enjoyed reading your reflection about Writer's Workshop. Although we are both fourth grade interns, there are several distinct differences between the teaching philosophy of our mentor teachers. I love hearing information about what is going on in your classroom to get a different perspective on ways of effective teaching. I feel that your big ideas for this unit proved to be highly effective. I also believe that knowing how to effectively plan and organize a piece of writing has a huge influence on the outcome of the paper. You guided the student step by step through the process of writing. After much practice, the students will use the process you have taught them on their own without thinking about it. This process will stick with them throughout their education. I really like how you took time to individually conference with students. I would like to suggest that you take time to work with every student at some point. Although you would like the students who excell to work independently without your guidance, they too could use individual time with you to push them to reach their full potential. If students are able to exceed your expectations they should be encouraged to do so. In regards to free writing, I would tell you to not get discouraged by this. I have facilitated 5 minutes of free writing everyday since the beginning of the school year. Although students struggled with this task at the beginning as they wanted structure, they have made large improvements. They have been able to at least double the amount of words written in five minutes. Once again I really enjoyed reading your reflection and about your literacy unit. I'm sure your students are thankful for the amount of time you put into each lesson.
Lindsey Zito