Using Authorship to promote better writers – Part 14

WHAT?

As part of our teaching this year, we have been asked to make science a priority in our learning programme and ensure that the children are experiencing change this term, in a range of contexts. I had been sharing egg experiments with the class and my next experiment using an egg, was to demonstrate density and help explain the preceding density experiment. So as part of that learning, I decided that I would challenge the children and myself to write up our experiments.

Again I used the planning template provided from Verity. I used the egg experiment as my exemplar and showed how the experiment was set out and what the structure was. I lead the children to notice the setting out, sub headings and headings, diagram with labels and we highlighted the important information.

When given the exemplar, the children were quick to notice that the piece was informative and was giving instructions. As a class, we again watched the egg experiment on youtube to confirm the information and explanation within the exemplar. At this time I used our own photographs from our experiment to help engage the children in what we were going to write about.

I told the children that were writing up the second experiment we did on liquid density, I again used youtube to demonstrate the liquid density experiment. The children as a class, created a word bank of the scientific words, labels and any other words that they deemed important.

I then encouraged the children to close their eyes and play the movie as I read from my science experiment notes about what we did. I had recorded the explanation on liquid density on my writing plan for reference purposes. The success criteria was about using headings, technical language, using a diagram and making sure that ‘good’ sentence construction was present. The children wanted to work through writing up the experiment bit by bit and they were all contributing to the structure of the writing.

I used the whiteboard and a writing workshop, stopping the others with reminders on what to remember such as starting with action verbs for each step, using labels on our diagrams and the actually setting out of their writing.

  

SO WHAT?

The children were successful in writing up the experiment and some were very proud of their diagrams and their use of numbered steps. Most of the class was able to do this within the hour lesson, those who struggled generally hadn’t joined in the writing workshop, and had been distracted by each other. The technical language caused a few difficulties.

What I noticed was a reluctance to take a risk from my more capable writers, as they were crowding the writing workshop.  Those who needed help, needed encouragement to be working as part of the class. My less able writers are always first in the writing workshop, so I know where they are at, all the time.

NOW WHAT?

I need to build up the resiliency of those children I know can write successfully so that they will take more risks with their writing. I also need to be more aware of those children who are on the edge – I can do this by being on top of my own marking, conferencing with them and set writing goals. Some goals may need to be behaviour goals as well because I do some boys who struggle to complete the task in the allotted time.

How can I encourage the children to connect with the exemplar when it is not something they are interested in?

“The whole purpose of education is to turn mirrors into windows.” - Sydney J. Harris

Using Authorship to promote better writers – Part 13

 WHAT?

The piece that I decided to use from the PD pack from Verity was called ‘Hide and Seek by Vernon Scannell,’ I wrote up the lesson plan again using the editable planner. I also referred to the lesson plan from Gail Loane’s –“I’ve got something to say’ and wrote my own plan. I had use this text with a previous class and had experienced success.

The children were given the text, we read it together, cleared any roadblocks but it was also a day for a fire drill so we didn’t get to analysing the piece as deeply as I would have liked. So I amended the plan to include a piece of text from a child who wrote with success last year. I also labelled this copy with her name and her year level.

So our next try, the children really engaged with the text and enjoyed sharing what they noticed – activated nouns, verbs to create a picture in the reader’s mind, the use of personification and the deliberate choice of vocabulary.

I used a powerpoint presentation to help the children to understand how to write personification and the children were encouraged to write a sentence to practice using this writing device. The children enjoyed writing to describe the picture of the sailing ship in a storm. They then shared with the class their success and how this could be used in their writing. I chose to finish the lesson here and start again the next day.

Continuing on from the previous lesson, the children reread the text written by a Year 4 child. I encouraged the children to share a time when they had played hide and seek. Again they used the THINK-PAIR-SHARE technique, turn in and knees touching, the timer ran for 2 minutes for each person. The next part was to use the visualisation to help the children capture that experience like a mini movie in their heads.

Before the children wrote their memoir poem about Hide and Seek, as a class, we co-constructed the success criteria – using dialogue, using senses to describe, try personification and use precision in their word choice. The children were then encouraged to write. I worked with my struggling writers and wandered the class to check in to see how the others were going. To finish the lesson, the children gathered in the “Helping Circle”, I used the sticks again to randomise the 5 children who would share with the others.

The writing was done over a couple of days and all in all the writing shows how far they have come. I gave the children time during reading to publish their writing and I added it to their Seesaw portfolio. Below is one of my successes, a Year 4 boy who is a reluctant writer, what I am most pleased about is his sincerity and personal voice.

SO WHAT?

Having a fire drill at the beginning of the lesson did not help to motivate the children to engage with the text from Vernon Scannell. It was lucky I remembered the success from the previous year and asked the child in question to share it with me once more. I know that it if the piece is written by a child of similar age, the children in my class are more than likely to connect with the text.

The personification practice using the powerpoint presentation was a great way to break up the lesson and gave the class an opportunity to write quickly and share their ideas. For my visual learners, I have also added this powerpoint presentation to a Google classroom where they were able to access the information over and over again.

By using a timer on my screen, the children were able to share their experience for the same amount of time and add detail that they may not have though about earlier. The children have become better at visualising – I think it has helped them by using the prompts, “run the mini movie in your head so you know what to write about.”

The children’s ability to record their ideas has developed so much this year and I believe this is down to the deliberate acts I am making to help them connect with the text and their own bank of knowledge to do with writing. Now creating success criteria with them often comes from what they notice during our helping circle time and as well as what I see when marking their writing.

NOW WHAT?

My next challenge is to get the children to be able to write across the curriculum and not just using memoirs and descriptions. Also I need to roam more around the class as I feel that some  children are using the exemplar text to imitate too much and not to innovate on it.

How can I build on what they children know about writing to help them realise that we write all the time to record our ideas and that when master these skills we have the ability to transfer them into any writing genre.

“Education is not the filling of a pail, but the lighting of a fire.”

- William Butler Yeats

References

Loane, G., & Muir, S. A. (2010). I've got something to say: leading young writers to authorship. Aries Publishing Company.

Using Authorship to promote better writers – Part 12

WHAT?

Because I wanted to encourage the children to use another type of writing and not a poem, I did some searching for an appropriate text. I discovered that the School Journals are in fact a wealth of exemplars, which coincidently happen to be levelled at the correct level. After finding the correct piece, I proceeded to create the lesson plan using Verity’s template.

My lesson started the same way as usual with the children sitting in a circle and we glued in the exemplar. The children were able to make connections with the piece as it had many language features they were familiar with such as listing sentences, adverbial phrases to introduce the reader and dialogue to show what the character was doing.

I lead the children to notice the onomatopeia that was used to complete the paragraph. The children were very animated with this as I think they had used it before. I shared my own story about playing netball and getting ready for the game. Using a THINK-PAIR-SHARE, the children shared with a buddy what sport they play, where they play and who they usually go with. The start of the exemplar doesn’t give the reader any clues as to what the character is doing so I unpacked this for the children how we ‘show’ what is happening.

The children then had to write when their event happens (day of the week, time of the day), what are they doing, and where they are going to introduce the reader. The children wrote quickly and shared back with the class using the sticks to chose randomly. There were some children who were busting out of their skins to share.

The next lesson, I shared the structure of my piece using ‘Think Alouds’, again making the piece do-able. I asked the children to write only the listing sentence of what they needed to wear/have/bring. My piece ‘imitated’ the exemplar with my metaphor so I told the children I was imitating it because it worked for me. As the lesson progressed I could see some of the children wanted to get going on their own so I let them work independently.

I worked through the first paragraph of my own piece modelling another listing sentence to finish off the paragraph. The children were wanting to record their ideas so I wandered round the room assisting children as they needed it. The children were able to record what they wanted to say so we called the ‘Helping Circle’ together and a few shared.

The last part of this writing lesson was finishing the last paragraph using dialogue and an onomatopeia. I was on release for this lesson so my reliever took this lesson and the children were very successful with their writing.

SO WHAT?

I like the way the template structures the lesson and helps me visualise how and what I need to say and do. What worked well with this piece was that the children were able to make connections with their own lives whether or not it was getting ready for Saturday sport, a dance performance or even getting ready to go to scouts. Also by writing only a small part at a time, the children were able to manage and choose how they extended themselves. Being a piece that was easier to imitate helped, even for me, I found the structure gave me the scaffolding for a successful piece of writing.

My reliever was impressed at the sincerity of the writing and how the children were able to achieve what she had asked of them, even my more reluctant boys were successful.

NOW WHAT?

After this I was able to share my class’ successs with Verity as we part of a PD session and she wanted to take photos of their writing and wanted a copy of the exemplar for her own. That was pretty much a pat on the back, thumbs up.

How do I top that? What the needs of my children now? I need to go back to their books and look at what is needed and how can I develop my own resource bank to continue to make positive change for my learners. I have a new bundle of resources from Verity, so possibly a place to start.

“The teacher’s task is to initiate the learning process and then get out of the way.”

― John Warren

Using Authorship to promote better writers – Part 11

WHAT?

The lesson started with the children forming a circle on the mat and having their spider diagram ready. I discussed what we had done in the previous lesson and how the children needed to have recorded 2 ‘whens’ – how did they know the event was over, the event, and a listing sentence showing the reader what was there.

I modelled on the whiteboard my ‘spider’ diagram to show them how to use it to begin writing their poem. By making the children reread the exemplar I asked them to help me imitate the style and structure from the author. I was explicit in saying to the class that we were only working on writing only one stanza at a time. The children were again wobbly on the correct name of the ‘verses’ so recapped this as well.

I again lead the children to share the text type and its purpose before modelling my own piece of writing called ‘Bridge’. I used ‘think alouds’ and deliberately asked the children to suggest any ideas that they had to develop the writing. The children were then asked to visualise once more to make sure they hadn’t forgotten any important details of their event.

The children were then able to write and share with a partner their success for the first stanza of their holiday poem. Some of the children did struggle with creating a simile but as they were sat in a circle, there were many suggestions from their peers to help. There were a couple of children who wanted to write their listing sentence for the second stanza so I let them get on with writing.

I worked extensively with my more reluctant writers in order to get them on board to understand that their message was just as important as the others in the class. One child needed me to scribe for him as he struggles to get his actual ideas recorded in a timely fashion. I used a whiteboard marker and wrote directly onto the table for the other children who worked on the teaching table with me.

The next day most of the children recorded their listing sentence with little intervention and the class were ready to finish the poem using the exemplar and the last part of their spider diagram. I again modelled using the structure of the exemplar and told the children I was imitating the ideas from the last stanza as I only wanted to change one line about the part where I still have much to learn about playing Bridge.

As part of my behaviour management in my class I am trying to promote children leading the learning so I encouraged the more able children to help the less able in order to finish their poem using the structure modelled and what they had finished. The final part of this writing lesson was for the children to share their ‘holiday’ poem with the rest of the class.

SO WHAT?

By making the writing more do-able the children are more willing to get writing although there are a couple who still don’t follow the structure and success criteria. One child in the class who is always quick to understand the concepts asked if he could publish his poem using keynote. I had to encourage him to use his expertise to help and lead others.

When marking I was generally pleased with their efforts and the poems that they have produced are great way to record a holiday experience without relying on the usual.

NOW WHAT?

My next steps are to be more specific still on what the structure looks like and not assume that everyone has it. I need to make charts that show the type of language feaures and vocabulary, we have used and refer back to these when teaching and to create a bank of scaffolds for the children.

I now need to find an exemplar that will build on the children’s experiences and still continue to build on their new knowledge but in another written form not a poem.

“Even the longest book is read and was written one word at a time.” 
― Mokokoma Mokhonoana