Getting the Hang of it September 9, 2008

School seems to be going pretty smoothly for me now. We have been in school for about 4 weeks. In each 6th grade class I have 24 students, which I am used to 18-20. I am amazed of how well my new middle school students are getting the hang of “middle school.” They love writing in their writer’s notebooks and want to share more than ever. I am so excited that they are excited about writing. I can’t wait to take up their writer’s notebooks to see the creativity going on.

I have been using Aimee Buckner’s Notebook Know How to get ideas on writer’s notebooks. I love her rubric she uses to grade notebooks too. I have also used her idea of cutting and pasting notes/handouts in the notebooks–what a time saver! Her idea on how to keep notes and entries separate is priceless. Last year I got tired of thumbing through notebooks to find their entries b/c their notes were mixed. I even told my students to turn their notebook upside down if they didn’t like writing from the back of the notebook. I have learned a lot from last year’s trial and error with notebooks — I am still learning!

Writing Workshop Questions July 30, 2008

I am in the process of revamping my writer’s workshop because it is not working for me. I am curious to how you manage your writer’s workshop. I teach middle school so time is a factor. I have read that it needs to be at a consistent time each week–whether you do it 3 days a week or 5 days. I am considering 3 days a week, but what do you do on the days you don’t have writer’s workshop? Do you incorporate grammar within your writer’s workshop? How do you manage the noise level? (you know middle schoolers like to talk and it’s not usually about school) Is writer’s workshop only for lower grades? Most of the books I have read deal with grades 1-5.  How do you incorporate writer’s notebooks into writing workshop? So many questions!!!!

The End for Now May 27, 2008

The 2007-2008 school year is over! Last Friday was the last day of school. It went by so fast this year, but I am glad it’s over. I am ready for some R & R. The only thing about the end of the year is the process of packing up everything. At my school we have to take everything off of the walls and store it. It’s a daunting task, but I guess it’s a good thing because you start the next year off fresh.

This summer I am looking forward to reading literature about writer’s notebooks and how to implement them better. I will be attending an advanced institute where I’ll be researching more of my inquiries. Right now I am thinking of the following questions:

How can I better implement a writer’s notebook into my writer’s workshop?

How can I use a writer’s notebook to model and teach revision and editing?

If you have any ideas, I would love to hear about them on either topic… 

Pure Comfort February 10, 2008

What better food to give you pure comfort—mac-n-cheese & a Coke.

 

I wrote a description of my pure comfort and tomorrow I plan on teaching a mini-lesson on editing. (PURE COMFORT DESCRIPTION) I have errors because I want my students to pick up on them. I notice they have problems indenting, so I am going to discuss that too. They will be given a rubric and we are going to discuss each component on the rubric to see if I met them. (of course I didn’t) My students don’t like to revise, so I am going to model revising as well. I hope it goes well.

Great Finds December 31, 2007

For Christmas I recieved 3 great books to help me teach writing craft, teach the context of writing with grammar, and revision. I love books and I think these titles would be beneficial to any teacher who teaches English and writing.

Writing Whizardry: 60 Mini-lessons to Teach Elaboration and Writer’s Craft by Maity Schrecengost

This book is my favorite out of the three. It presents the lesson with examples and non-examples of elaboration or craft then gives practice. After practicing there is applying the knowlege learned. I highly recommend this book if you want help with teaching elaboration and craft.

Writing Workshop Survival Kit 2nd Edition by Gary Robert Muschla

 This book is packed with anything you need to know on creating a writing workshop to managing your writing workshop. It also includes 100 mini-lessons that focus on the types of writing, writing techniques, and the mechanics of writing.

 

 

Hot Fudge Monday:Tasty Ways to Teach Parts of Speech… by Randy Larson

This book is an unique way to teaching the parts of speech with the context of writing. This is an easy way to start teaching grammar in the context of writing. The book includes reproducibles that are not like worksheets you get with your grammar textbook. After practicing the skill, students apply the lesson with writing.

 

I can’t wait to start the new year off with my new great finds. I hope these books help you too!

Inspiration Goes a Long Way… December 19, 2007

 

Today was our class’s Christmas party. Before the party stated, we created an inspirational calendar for a 12 year old girl who has cancer. One of my student’s brought me an article about her and wanted to do something special for her. Stacey gave me the idea of gifts that are written, so I came up with the idea for making her an inspirational calendar. All I did was go on microsoft publisher and create a 2008 calendar with clip art and printed it off. Then I glued the calendar onto assorted colors of construction paper. Here is where my students came in: they chose an inspirational quote that I printed out from an inspirational quote site and wrote it onto white paper then decorating it however they chose. It turned out beautifully. I bound the pages with a spiral comb with the front and back cover. I had each student sign the back cover. The student, who had the idea, is going to deliver the calendar to the young girl over the holidays. Thanks Stacey for the idea!

Writers in the Spotlight December 18, 2007

Each quarter I have my students create a writing of choice. This is where they browse through their writer’s notebooks or come up with a new topic to write about. I give them a week to create their works of writing. I provide them with self editing rubrics, peer editing rubrics, and a teacher rubric. These rubrics are to help them edit their writing. The teacher rubric looks just like the self and peer rubrics; however, they don’t write on it. I use it to grade their work. I feel that they need to know what I am expecting and that’s why the self and peer rubrics have the same criteria. This has helped greatly.

After completing their writing of choice, they turn them in and I grade them. I then decide on the best ones and display them in the hallway. I have a flashlight with a beam coming down and their writing is placed on the beam. The title says “Writers in the Spotlight.” I then award those students with an award and a pen for their creative work. By the end of the year, I will have everyone’s work on the wall and they will also be awarded. I try to look for improvements in their writing. I also send a postcard to their parents to let them know how well they are doing in class. I have gotten several complements from their parents and my students too!

More on Organization November 23, 2007

My students have a writing binder that stays in the classroom. It has 5 tabs in it to help organize their binders. This idea came from Judith Gould except for the rubric tab. That’s my idea.

    The order of tabs:

 

tab 1 = my work – this is where their current writing is located (choice of writing, assigned writing, etc)

 

tab 2 = conferences – all the essential tools needed for conferencing are located here

 

tab 3 = rubrics – this is new this year! I have several rubrics for my students to use (self editing, peer editing, & teacher rubrics) I found that having a place for their rubrics helps me and them stay organized

 

tab 4 = writer’s helpers – all the essential tools to help them be better writers (transitions, proofreading stuff, whatever you would like for your students to have, etc)

 

tab 5 = tips from writers – any pieces of writing from other authors that they may want to use for guidance in writing styles

Each quarter I have my students turn in a choice of writing. This writing is anything that they choose to write about. (poems, songs, stories, etc) They are given time in class to work on these pieces. Once the pieces are done, I have them use rubrics to help edit themselves. The rubrics consist of self editing, peer editing, and teacher rubric. The self editing is where they edit their piece of writing themselves and once finished with that they get a peer editing sheet. The students are to give their piece of writing and the rubric to any peer to edit. They then conference on what was edited. Now, my students are to make any revisions that they may have. After making revisions and they are ready to hand in the writing of choice, they are to get the teacher rubric. The teacher rubric is the one I use to grade their work. Each of these rubrics have the same criteria on them except the teacher rubric has a scale of 5-1 and the self/peer rubric has yes and no check sheet. I found last year that giving students a scale of 5-1 didn’t work because they didn’t know what consisted of each criteria. Yes, I need to model each of these and that would show them each, but right now I haven’t had the time.

Back to organization:

To organize their rubrics, I bought color coded folders and labeled each of them. Each folder has a different type rubric in them because you know that poetry is different from essays.

Blue folders= 7th grade poetry/songs

folder 1 = self editing rubric (students are to get this rubric first)

folder 2 = peer editing rubric (after self editing, they are to peer edit)

folder 3 = teacher rubric (get when ready to turn in)

Pink folders = stories or essays

folder 1 = self

folder 2 = peer

folder 3 = teacher

Yellow folders = 6 poetry/ songs

I have a rubric station where they can get these rubrics when they need them. I took time to explain the rubric folder system. We’ll see how it goes. Next week I plan on going step by step on each rubric to explain what the criteria means.

The Lemonade Club October 14, 2007

What a wonderful story to teach mood, voice, and themes of friendship with! I sat in Books a Million and cried while reading this book. I will definitely use this with my sixth graders when teaching mood and voice. Thanks Jen!

Writing Conferences September 26, 2007

It’s that time of the  year when I start conferencing with my students on their writing. So far my students have been drafting their personal narratives. Of course the next step is to have a teacher conference. Yesterday and today, I spent time conferring with students. I use the system of taking a number and waiting your turn. Sometimes I go to the students and sometimes they come to me. When they wait, they are to work on writing of choice, read a book, or work on some other assignment.  This doesn’t always work because my attention is focused with the conferring student wherever I am in the room. The class catches on to this and notice that I am not paying attention to them, so I have a little clowning around. What can I do to make this more successful? Any suggestions would be helpful.