WHAT?
My next lesson on writing was a
follow up on the lesson started by my student teacher. She had begun a memoir
lesson as this was the next step for the children. She set them up by asking
them to observe a routine of a family member after she gave them an exemplar
called, “My Dad shaving.” The children’s next step was to go and observe and
make mental notes to help craft a piece of writing. Her idea was to use a
graphic organiser to help the children to understand the beginning, middle and
end of the routine.
The children were required to write
in the different shaped boxes the routine they had observed and with Teacher
support this was achieved successfully for some children. As part of the follow
up, I gave the children I piece that I had written on my routine about getting
ready to travel by aeroplane, as I had
just been away to Christchurch for the weekend. I had discussed with Verity
where I should take the children’s writing after they had started but hadn’t
finished the previous lesson.
I showed Verity my exemplar and my
lesson plan before teaching this memoir writing. The pre-observation help me to
clarify what she was looking for and where I hoped to take the lesson. I wrote
notes on my plan and I was ready to teach the children to notice how good
writers can combine different genres to describe to reader what is happening.
I read out my piece for the children
and asked them to find the steps I had taken to get ready to go on an
aeroplane. The children sat in a circle and worked collaboratively to highlight
the steps within the exemplar. The children used Think-Pair-Share to tell each
other how the highlighted words were only part of the writing. I challenged
them to tell me why this was so. The children were able say that the author
(myself) had describe what I had done and the writing tools I had used.
My observation was over and I shared
the text type, the purpose and the success criteria for this piece of writing.
I asked the children to tell me what they hoped to achieve and what their piece
of writing would have in it. I worked through the visualisation techniques that
Verity had shown us with very little ‘buy-in’ from the children with a number
of them signalling each other through half closed eyes as well as one child
calling out. The children were given time to write. I worked on a table with my
more reluctant writers and one child who had been away for the previuos week.
On the teacher’s table, one child
who is a capable writer but takes ages to get going sat with his piece. He
didn’t get going as usual. The noise in the class was beginning to get noisey
and the children weren’t writing. I stopped the class, and step by step told
them that they had to create a picture in their head in order to be able to
write. I showed them that the step that they had written with my student
teacher were only parts of the writing and they were writing so the audience
could understand. The class became quiet once more and the children were
writing. I continued working with the children on the writing table.
Once the children had become noisey
again and I looked at the time, I brought the children back to the writing
circle so they could share what they had written for the others. The lollipop
sticks were used so the children were randomly chosen and shared their best
sentence they had written to describe.
SO WHAT?
I was of mixed feelings as I was very surprised on how the
children had analysed the exemplar and what they had taken on board about writing
tools. I had my observational feedback from Verity the same afternoon which
helped as she pointed out that I was taking too long in analysis stage and I
needed to deliberately tell the children that my exemplar was a piece that was
used to describe and had elements of steps embedded within it. As my children
are Year 3s and 4s, it makes more sense to do this.
I also shared my concerns on what was happening during the
visualisation stage of the lesson and how I found it very disruptive to getting
the children to know what they were writing about. Verity said that I need to
be explicit and set very high expectations, challenge the children to
understand the purpose. That by running ‘the movie in their heads’ it will make
them better writers and it also fires up the synapses in their brain so that
they can write with more clarity. I did say that I had to stop the writing time
as the children were getting too noisy and she showed me where I had missed the
mark in the lesson. When I told her what I had done, she said that can happen
sometimes it can be an idea to shelf that lesson and start again. She shared
with me times when she knows that lesson hasn’t been as good as it could have
been by the effort of one of her children.
NOW WHAT?
My next step is to ensure
that I am working on making the lesson do-able in the given time right through
all the stages. Maybe not a whole piece but through the whole lesson sequence.
It will make the lesson seem faster and the children will be more engaged.
When leading the children
through the visualising stage, I need to be firm and fair to ensure a high
expectation of behaviour. If I am
successful with this the children will know what they need to write and their
writing will have more sincerity.
Good teaching must be slow
enough so that it is not confusing, and fast enough so that it is not boring.
― Sidney J.
Harris
