Hello everyone! How is everything going in your new school year? How is implementing the ideas we learned at the institute going for you? Are your colleagues on board or are you hitting a brick wall trying to communicate your great ideas? I was pleasantly surprised and my fellow colleagues in 7th grade are going to try out the workshop approach with me! I also plan to implement and hold writing circles every Friday. Things are going great, I'd love to hear how things are going for you....when should we do our first face to face follow-up?
Missy :)
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A local discussion forum for past, present, and future participants in the National Writing Project.
2 comments:
I was watching Kyle during writing workshop. He's new to our school and I didn't have any information about his kindergarten experience. The other first graders were laboring over their initial attempts at writing while Kyle twirled around on the floor. I approached him and asked him what he was writing. Dumb question! He told me he didn't know anything to write about. He stopped twirling and sat down. After a few more questions and more "I don't know" answers I tried this one: but if you did know what to write about what would it be? Well, that did it. It turns out that Kyle knows a lot about the earth, outer space, animals, planetariums....Today he wrote about how the planets appear when you visit a planetarium like he has done. He started a list of things to write about next week! So keep asking questions. You will get surprising answers.
Mary~
I was having a similiar situation with one of my sixth graders. He was continually off task, especially during writing. When I approached him about it, he also claimed that he didn't have anything to write about. So we started our "Territories" list and I asked him to pull that out. That still didn't do the trick. The next day I saw him playing with a stick of gum that he had in his desk. I reminded him that gum was not allowed in school. At first he resisted, but then put the gum in his backpack to take home and the entire time he proclaimed that this was a stupid rule and the school should change it so that 6th graders were allowed to have gum. I explained to him some of the reasons and he continued to argue. At the end of our conversation, a lightbulb flashed inside of me. It was our writing time and I suggested that he write a persuasive letter in his Writer's Notebook on why our school should allow 6th graders to chew gum. He paused and then returned to his desk. At the end of the day, he came and read me his letter. I could see a sense of ownership and pride that he had in his writing. For the past three weeks he hasn't had anymore issues dealing with, "I don't know what to write." A small success :)
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