For our ALL session today I thought it would be nice for all group members to send an email to their parents with a snapshot of their writing. We have been focussing on hooking our readers by using rich, descriptive words that create mental images.
During our release time, each student chose a snapshot of their writing that they wanted to share and read it out as I typed for them. (Ideally it would have been better if the students typed their own email, however due to the fact that we didn't have any computers other than mine, we only had 45 minutes, and we were crammed into the principals office, I did the typing to ensure all 8 members sent an email).
Each students shared 4-5 descriptive sentences that would hopefully tantalise their whanau into wanting to read more. The students were super excited to hear the responses back from their whanau as well as being proud of the fact they had received an email at school.
This experience was something quite simple, yet powerful in engaging the families in our writing program. It also was a great way to build the relationship between school and home. The whanau also gave the students nice feedback about their snapshot of writing which I have printed out for the students to glue into their writing books. This serves two purposes. firstly as an example of writing for a purpose: a personal email, and secondly feedback and praise about the students writing from another source other than the teacher.
Below are some examples of the emails and the whanau response to their child. I have taken names out so the student and family identity are anonymous.
Student X email and response
Student Y email and response
Student Z email and response
Thursday, 30 April 2015
Friday, 24 April 2015
ALL whanau hui and afternoon tea
Last night our ALL team held an afternoon tea and hui with the students and their whanau to discuss the ALL writing program, our visions, goals, and as a way to strengthen the relationships between home and school.
The hui was extremely successful. At first parents seemed quite apprehensive about their children being grouped together with other struggling writers. This may have been due to their limited knowledge about what the ALL program actually involved, and why it was being conducted.
To begin the session all of the teachers who are involved, briefly spoke about what their goals are for this program and what we hope the students get out of it at the end. I talked about having my group of students grow in confidence and self esteem. Helping them to see themselves as successful writers by working with me to overcome their barriers to writing. I want the group to have fun, and develop a passion and love for literacy. I was very enthusiastic and passionate about the program and shared the days writing session about the group members being teleported around the school.
Once all the teachers had spoken, the students and whanau members were asked to complete four questions. Below is the list of questions that we asked with one student and whanau's response. I will attach all the ideas from the evening once the photos are available.
What do you hope to improve in your writing?
What do your parents hope you get out the writing group?
The hui was extremely successful. At first parents seemed quite apprehensive about their children being grouped together with other struggling writers. This may have been due to their limited knowledge about what the ALL program actually involved, and why it was being conducted.
To begin the session all of the teachers who are involved, briefly spoke about what their goals are for this program and what we hope the students get out of it at the end. I talked about having my group of students grow in confidence and self esteem. Helping them to see themselves as successful writers by working with me to overcome their barriers to writing. I want the group to have fun, and develop a passion and love for literacy. I was very enthusiastic and passionate about the program and shared the days writing session about the group members being teleported around the school.
Once all the teachers had spoken, the students and whanau members were asked to complete four questions. Below is the list of questions that we asked with one student and whanau's response. I will attach all the ideas from the evening once the photos are available.
What do you hope to improve in your writing?
My spelling
and use more descriptive words.
What would help to motivate you in your writing?
Planning my story with the teacher.
What do you like about writing?
I like having a really good story in the end. I just like
writing
I hope that he gets confident in spelling and using punctuation correctly. I
also hope that he has lots if fun and enjoys learning.
Thanks so much
Tineke. It sounds like all the teachers are on board and that it will be a
successful project. We are super pleased that you have picked up where ? is
lacking and have full confidence with ? being in your class.
By the end of the hui, the parents looked and felt very excited and reassured about the new approach to writing. Parents left feeling relieved and pleased that there is an accelerated learning program to help boost their child's writing whilst also building their self esteem, confidence and enjoyment for writing.
Thursday, 23 April 2015
Making it real for the students during writing
As you may be aware, my ALL group of writers have been chosen to work closely with me during writing times in order to boost their achievement levels in writing. Over the past few days, we have been brainstorming ideas and planning a piece of writing which we are going to begin next week.
The students came up with the idea of being teleported from our writing tables, back in time, to the World War 1 battle. In order for them to have some idea of what to write about as they are teleported in their story, I thought it was important for them to experience it.
When I told the group that they were going to be taking turns at being blindfolded and shifted to another spot in the school, they could hardly contain their excitement. Split into two groups, one student at a time was blindfolded, picked up by the remaining members of the group, then carried them around to another place in the school. Some students found themselves behind a tree on the field, some in the garden shed, others in a junior cloak bay... The students said the session was awesome. Once everyone had been teleported, we came back together as a group and I quickly typed up all the words they could think of that described their experience. Students described how they felt physically and emotionally, what they could feel, hear, smell etc. We ended up with a whole A4 page of descriptive words that they have now glued into their books for a reference so when they came to writing about being teleported, they have a helpful word bank as well as prior knowledge to prompt their writing.
Below is the list of words that the group came up with to describe their experience of being teleported:
Descriptive words for being teleported
The students came up with the idea of being teleported from our writing tables, back in time, to the World War 1 battle. In order for them to have some idea of what to write about as they are teleported in their story, I thought it was important for them to experience it.
When I told the group that they were going to be taking turns at being blindfolded and shifted to another spot in the school, they could hardly contain their excitement. Split into two groups, one student at a time was blindfolded, picked up by the remaining members of the group, then carried them around to another place in the school. Some students found themselves behind a tree on the field, some in the garden shed, others in a junior cloak bay... The students said the session was awesome. Once everyone had been teleported, we came back together as a group and I quickly typed up all the words they could think of that described their experience. Students described how they felt physically and emotionally, what they could feel, hear, smell etc. We ended up with a whole A4 page of descriptive words that they have now glued into their books for a reference so when they came to writing about being teleported, they have a helpful word bank as well as prior knowledge to prompt their writing.
Below is the list of words that the group came up with to describe their experience of being teleported:
Descriptive words for being teleported
Tuesday, 21 April 2015
That OMG moment in teaching.
Wow!!! Today's ALL writing session was amazing. The kids and I were absolutely buzzing that even my hands were shaking.
Our follow on session today began by finishing off our brainstorms about topics of interests and things we would like to write about. The students then highlighted the top three points from their brainstorm and shared these with the group. The purpose for this was to find out if their were any commonalities among the group. This was a neat part of the lesson, as the students discovered what their peers were interested in, as well as being able to share their interests with others. It was amazing to find that between all eight students (7 boys and 1 girl) and their three goals, there was at least one interest in common between them. The result being that the group were all keen on writing a narrative story that had plenty of adventure and excitement.
The next step involved recapping the structure of a narrative. Again, sharing our thoughts, having me give prompts by acting and drawing pictures and hangman, all helped add fun, whilst motivating the students to share their answers.
Next came the bouncing around of our ideas for our potential story. Many students were interested in writing stories about war which is very fitting as this term our context is on world war 1 and the ANZAC's. Using this context as our starting point, students then worked in pairs. They were given sticky notes and asked to jot down either potential characters or settings. They then shared these with one another. This saw the voices in the group become louder, and the smiles on faces become larger, as the students built on each others ideas to come up with a brilliant, exciting story which I will write up for them tomorrow as I model planning.
The mood and energy within the group today was electric. We were all so excited that we couldn't sit still. Students were almost jumping out of their seats to add ideas for our story. To see a simple individual brainstorm, develop into an exciting, captivating story idea that every member of the group, (me included) were not only involved in, but can't wait to begin writing, has made all the extra work, blogging, planning, finding resources, doing professional readings etc totally worth while.
What really made me thrilled today was seeing a group of students who constantly struggle in writing, are reluctant writers, and often lack confidence when it comes to writing; beam with excitement and be the envy of the rest of the class who were onlooking with gloomy faces wishing they were apart of my ALL writing group.
From what I have gathered through my research so far, the first step in creating successful writers is to firstly get students engaged. Secondly its about getting students ideas out and expanding on them. Somehow today this all happened. Whether it was because each group member felt safe to contribute their ideas, or because they weren't expected to write much or complete a graphic organiser for a story plan, I'm not sure. The one thing I am sure of is just how powerful orally sharing ideas together as a group is, because what I witnessed today was brilliant. To see a group of eight reluctant, struggling writers work together by taking the theme of war and turn it into a captivating story idea which includes adventure, magic, and time travelling, was amazing. This story now has every single member of the group (and probably the rest of the class) eager for writing tomorrow. We can't wait to finish planning our ideas in detail and begin writing, which goes to show I am on the right track so far.
My next question for my inquiry however, is What can I do to get students detailed ideas that have been give orally, into their writing books with the same amount of detail?
Our follow on session today began by finishing off our brainstorms about topics of interests and things we would like to write about. The students then highlighted the top three points from their brainstorm and shared these with the group. The purpose for this was to find out if their were any commonalities among the group. This was a neat part of the lesson, as the students discovered what their peers were interested in, as well as being able to share their interests with others. It was amazing to find that between all eight students (7 boys and 1 girl) and their three goals, there was at least one interest in common between them. The result being that the group were all keen on writing a narrative story that had plenty of adventure and excitement.
The next step involved recapping the structure of a narrative. Again, sharing our thoughts, having me give prompts by acting and drawing pictures and hangman, all helped add fun, whilst motivating the students to share their answers.
Next came the bouncing around of our ideas for our potential story. Many students were interested in writing stories about war which is very fitting as this term our context is on world war 1 and the ANZAC's. Using this context as our starting point, students then worked in pairs. They were given sticky notes and asked to jot down either potential characters or settings. They then shared these with one another. This saw the voices in the group become louder, and the smiles on faces become larger, as the students built on each others ideas to come up with a brilliant, exciting story which I will write up for them tomorrow as I model planning.
The mood and energy within the group today was electric. We were all so excited that we couldn't sit still. Students were almost jumping out of their seats to add ideas for our story. To see a simple individual brainstorm, develop into an exciting, captivating story idea that every member of the group, (me included) were not only involved in, but can't wait to begin writing, has made all the extra work, blogging, planning, finding resources, doing professional readings etc totally worth while.
What really made me thrilled today was seeing a group of students who constantly struggle in writing, are reluctant writers, and often lack confidence when it comes to writing; beam with excitement and be the envy of the rest of the class who were onlooking with gloomy faces wishing they were apart of my ALL writing group.
From what I have gathered through my research so far, the first step in creating successful writers is to firstly get students engaged. Secondly its about getting students ideas out and expanding on them. Somehow today this all happened. Whether it was because each group member felt safe to contribute their ideas, or because they weren't expected to write much or complete a graphic organiser for a story plan, I'm not sure. The one thing I am sure of is just how powerful orally sharing ideas together as a group is, because what I witnessed today was brilliant. To see a group of eight reluctant, struggling writers work together by taking the theme of war and turn it into a captivating story idea which includes adventure, magic, and time travelling, was amazing. This story now has every single member of the group (and probably the rest of the class) eager for writing tomorrow. We can't wait to finish planning our ideas in detail and begin writing, which goes to show I am on the right track so far.
My next question for my inquiry however, is What can I do to get students detailed ideas that have been give orally, into their writing books with the same amount of detail?
Below are some of the groups feedback about how they thought today's writing session went:
Monday, 20 April 2015
First session with my ALL writing group
Today I had my first session with my ALL writing group. The focus for today was around setting up our new books, then brainstorming our interests and topics we would like to write about during our time together. The reason for starting with a brainstorm of ideas was because after interviewing each group member about what their thoughts on writing, 7 out of 8 group members, all said they preferred independent writing over guided writing because they get to write about what they want and what interests them. Keeping this in mind, I felt it was important to start with the brainstorm so that I could find out what interests each student, what potential topics they would like to write about, and if there are some commonalties across the group.
The vibe in the group was wonderful. Everyone felt motivated and excited to be developing writing together. The new books, meant a new start and has allowed us to set our books up how we feel like to meet our needs.
The next session will continue on developing our ideas and interests, then share these with the group. Once we find a topic or theme we all wish to write about, planning together will begin.
The vibe in the group was wonderful. Everyone felt motivated and excited to be developing writing together. The new books, meant a new start and has allowed us to set our books up how we feel like to meet our needs.
The next session will continue on developing our ideas and interests, then share these with the group. Once we find a topic or theme we all wish to write about, planning together will begin.
Wednesday, 1 April 2015
Empowering students through assessment
Yesterday I conducted a new approach to assessing my students afternoon topic and profiles they had created. Using the set criteria which followed the SOLO approach that was formed during our team planning day, I decided to do the assessment in a 1-1 situation with the child. Rather than having me mark their profiles against the criteria and putting a mark on their work, I decided to sit with the student, read through their profile and assessment criteria, then decide on the appropriate level together. If we were in disagreement about the level, then we went back through the profile and looked for the evidence to show where they were at. I found this approach a lot more empowering for the student as it gave them immediate feedback about their work, as well as giving them an understanding of what their achievement level was and why they were at a particular level. I found that this approach also enabled students to come up with more meaningful next step for their future learning.
My next step in reflecting on empowering students through assessment is to gather student voice. I am interested in finding out if the students did in fact feel more empowered assessing their work with me, or if they prefer me just giving them a mark. Students will need to give reasons for their thoughts as well.
My next step in reflecting on empowering students through assessment is to gather student voice. I am interested in finding out if the students did in fact feel more empowered assessing their work with me, or if they prefer me just giving them a mark. Students will need to give reasons for their thoughts as well.
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