How can I improve my practice to improve the writing of those children who are struggling to record their ideas? Part 5

 

WHAT?

 

As part of my own Professional Development around writing, I am given the opportunity to work

with our writing guru, Verity Short. She is currently developing a set of writing lessons that

support our journey on making our teachers and children better at writing. To make this work, she

comes in classes to trial lessons and give support to the teachers, by giving them taste of what

it looks like with their class.  I was excited to see what she was going to do in my class. Verity

and I had worked together on making a slot for her in my timetable. It worked out that she was

to come in first thing on Thursday morning.

Being an early bird like me, she came into the class well before the children and put a

set of objects under a towel and had it covered so there was an air of mystery. She instructed

the first child in the class to guard the towel and make sure that no one stepped on it or

looked under it, and she left the classroom. I hadn’t seen what was there either so I was

as intrigued as the children. I could answer the children honestly asI really didn’t know

what was there.

 

Once the morning chores such as roll, milk and bus list were completed, Verity came back

into class. The children had their writing books ready and she set about setting the scene

for writing. She told the children that she knew they were great writers and observers and

that today they were going to learn how poets see the world in different, fresh, and unusual

way. She shared with the children called the Safety Pin. She asked the children to read it

with their eyes, using their fingers on the words as she read the poem aloud. She asked them

to pay special attention to the poet sees the world in a fresh new way and what they noticed

how the poet saw the safety pin. She exclaimed surprise at how the poet had described a

simple safety pin, and that if she looked closely could see a little shrimp as had been described.

Verity discussed how the poet had used her imagination. She also invited the children to share

their favourite part of the Safety Pin poem.

 

She then invited the children to describe the ceiling using their imagination and what did they see.

She used pace and encouragement to get a range of ideas from the children. All ideas were

accepted and acknowledged. What I noticed was that she was giving names to the writing tools

that the children had shared such as ‘that was a smilie’, ‘I liked how you used personification’.

She said that we can describe any object, she had an electrical kettle sitting waiting that

she plugged in. She hadn’t turned it on but she told the children that it was their turn to write

with a poet’s eye. It was their turn to write and record their ideas.

 

When she turned on the kettle, she prompted them to share, “What does it remind you of?” As

they were sharing, she was encouraging them to write as well by saying, “Quick, get that down!”

The children were madly writing and listening as well as watching. One child zoomed in on the

red light, “..it looks like an alien’s eye..” Verity asked the child to tell her what the eye was

doing, and again after listening said, “Brilliant! Quick, get that down!” She was full of enthusiasm

and it was brushing off onto the children.

 

She asked the children to stop writing and asked if they could do what she had asked and she

reaffirmed with them that they had some fabulous ideas that really created a picture for the

reader and used imagery, the writing tool she was working on. After a very quick sharing about

the kettle, she pulled away the towel from a bunch of random objects and talked about being in

a museum and how fascinating everything is look at. Her selection of objects were things like

pinecones, pens, pencils, paper clips, marbles, feathers, a whisk, and other bits and bods. She

picked up the scissors and told the children it was their time to explore any object they wished

and to write down what it reminded them of, she demonstrated that the scissors looked like a

pair of lady’s legs dancing. She invited the children to take something and go away from the

mat area and write.

 

The children were very engaged with the writing and again she told them that they needed to

write without talking and to think hard about what they could see. She gave them 10 minutes

and brought them back to share each sentence that they had written, again with pace. Her

praise was quick and specific, …”Great comparisons!” “Nice simile!” “I can hear that you have

activated your nouns!” The children had written down some amazing ideas and were very

excited to write more. She then told them to stand up, bring their books and pens, as they

were going outside to explore the area outside. She took them away on an adventure.

 

SO WHAT?

 

In the debrief afterwards, I spoke with Verity about my next steps and what I noticed about

the lesson. What stuck most was her ability to quickly reaffirm the writing tools that she was

looking for and how that builds knowledge for the children, she also shared the word

comparisons over and over again. At the end of the lesson, she had shown the children

the difference between scientific writing and writing from a poet. She had an anchor chart that

she had shown the children to illustrate the ideas as well.

 

 

Scientists Notes on a Leaf	Poet’s Notes on a Leaf
One inch long, three inches wide Sawtooth edges Dark green on one side Veins stick out	Tiny enough to be a tree for a village of snails.  As if someone scissored the edges to make them pretty And painted on a deep forest green.

 

 

She was continually scaffolding what she wanted from their writing without creating a success

criteria, when I asked about this she said that this was only the first part of the lesson, exploring.

It would be my job to co-construct success criteria with the children later when I had looked

into what they had written and see what the needs were. Did they need more activated nouns?

Structure to their poems(line breaks and where)? Had they used imagery or where they stuck

on the facts?

 

NOW WHAT?

 

The books are what I need to check to see what the children need after the lesson. Verity also

had told me to have another exploring lesson with random objects so the children had a range

of ideas that they could expand on and stretch, getting down to the minute details.

 

I am excited to expand on this lesson as I could see the engagement and the possibilities

open for my children, especially for my more reluctant writers.

 

“Poetry is the rhythmical creation of beauty in words.” 

~Edgar Allan Poe

How can I improve my practice to improve the writing of those children who are struggling to record their ideas? Part 4

WHAT?

 

My next step is to celebrate the work of those children who are at a lower level but have some “gold”, this means that they have worked hard and have used the success criteria at their level. I did this in the following set of lessons when the children were beginning to publish their work in Book creator.

 

During the weekend, I was going through my planning and the chidren’s posts in Seesaw, one of the children I know that doesn’t always follow the directions had worked particually hard on getting his ideas into Book creator. His work lacked full stops and sentences that made sense. He had a clear idea of what he was trying to teach his readers and the photographs worked well with the text. He had a great eye for layout and there was a good flow from page to page. I asked the child if I could use his work as an example for the class to share what he had done.

 

Being on Book creator, which is a App on the iPads I was able to screencast his work so that the class could see what he had done so far. I asked the children what they noticed and what they thought worked well in his All about book. The children were full of positivies, his pictures matched the text and he had used a contents page and that his pages worked from the contents page. Some of my more scholastic children picked up that he had used little if any punctuation. When I read his work aloud the rest of the class worked out what was missing. I told that the class the power of reading your work to someone else and then getting them to read it back to you, will show you what you need to revise and fix up.

 

Part of this lesson was learning the art of elaboration, where the author adds to their work to make it more meaningful. I used a sentence like from the lesson plan. I asked one of the girls if she was happy for the class to help her revise and make her writing better. She had written – “You can dribble a ball.” I purposefully asked her what that meant, she said that was what you do when play hockey. I asked the class if we could elaborate this idea. We worked and created a sentence that explained what dribbling a hockey ball actually looks like.

 

Once the class was writing and working well, I made time for the boy whose work I had used to demonstrate and help him revise his work. I also explained that he had some great ideas but they needed tweaking. Once we were working I asked questions on what didn’t make sense and he explained more and I praised his elaboration. from this we worked together on his learning goal.

 

SO WHAT?

 

By using some of the children’s work, it made it more relatible for the other learners, it gave the child who sometimes struggles a bit of a boost to his ego and was more responsive to the needs of my learners. I was able to put some pressure on my more able children who aren’t producing work that they are capable of, or are not extending themselves as much as they could.

 

What I have also noticed when I am reading through their work on book creator there are similar errors such as setting out, use of the space bar and punctuation. I also feel that the children are ready for something new and that we are ready to move on. Just a few more to get theirs finished.

 

NOW WHAT?

 

I need to record my findings into an assessment type of sheet to see if there are any trends and needs across the class. I have realised that I have such a spread of where the children are at that, there are a couple of children who haven’t even got their work onto book creator and I need to work with them to give them a hurry along.

 

After watching a video about the learning ecosystem I need to encourage the children to share their learning with their family and whanau throughout the whole writing process not just at the end when it is finished.

 

“Happiness depends on your mindset and attitude.” 
― Roy T. Bennett

How can I improve my practice to improve the writing of those children who are struggling to record their ideas? Part 3

 

WHAT?

 

The next part to working on improving my practice is to work with Verity on a reflection of the lesson I taught and to get some feedback and feed forward to where to next. As always Verity is very happy and gives me massive compliments on how my class behaves and the routines I have in place for writing.

 

I referred back to my blog post on my observation and what worked and where to next. Verity said that I was on the button but sometimes I am letting the children dictate the pace of the lesson with their random questions. This means when a child asks a random question that isn’t what I am looking for, such as something about purple rhinos when we are working on a piece on playtime, I need to move on with the lesson, to ensure that the class doesn’t lose focus of the task at hand.

 

Verity said that I needed to understand how the structure of the lesson has been developed by Lucy Calkins and then by her to get the maximum value for the writers. She showed me a simple diagram where you start with a spark, or provocation, this is only a small snippet/ not too much time but the teacher does all the talking. From there, there is a shared part of the writing, where you are working with the children to record their ideas, co-construct the success critera (that you have already worked out), support the children with new ideas and use ideas from the helping circle. Once the children know what skills to use and what they are writing about, they need to write, preferably with little and no intervention from you as the teacher.

 

As the teacher, you need to offer support to those children who are struggled by keeping them on track but not rescuing them. Once the independent writing time is up (this is the largest time slot of the lesson), the children come down to the Helping Circle to gauge their success with the success criteria and where to next, also this is a time when they each offer ways to help each other and grow their collective knowledge.

 

Part of my up-skilling, Verity said that the children’s books also guide you on what you need to refocus on or to give more direction in the planning of your next lesson. I had brought a couple of books with me to this session and showed them to Verity. One child had written bullet points and drawn boxes around his work, Verity told me to work with him, actually type up his writing as he read it aloud so he could actually see where he had gone wrong. She also said, ask the child if you could share what you had done to build up the skills in the Helping Circle, not only will he feel that he has something to share but it is powerful for your more capable writers to see a struggling writer’s work as a good example of revising and editing. 

 

SO WHAT?

 

My instincts at first were somewhat cringing at the thought of not acknowledging the child who was asking questions even when they are random. Sometimes I don’t really know how to move on, my knowledge is still forming on how to capture those moments in writing so that they can be teachable moments.

 

The structure makes more sense now when it was explained using a funnel shaped diagram, start small, join the children in the skill development and judge their ‘buy-in’, sent them away to use the just taught skill and use a quiet focussed environment and then spend time crafting and re-crafting their writing in the Helping Circle.

 

By looking through their books after each time of writing, not necessarily marking, but looking for trends and skills that I feel that needs revising, I can make the next lesson more powerful for all the class. I did type up the child’s writing and then use his work as an example to share. It made such a difference for the understanding for the class, they could see the purpose for reading aloud to a buddy and then a buddy reading and helping them re-craft their work.

 

NOW WHAT?

 

My next step is to be more mindful of what they do each day in their books and tell the children that I will make every effort to help them with what they are struggling with the next day. Be looking for similar problems that can be addressed within the Helping Circle or can be the focus for the following days lesson.

 

I need to use the work of those children I know are trying so hard and put them on a pedistal to show what great ideas they have and what they have to offer to build up their sense of self worth.

 

 

“Low self-esteem is like driving through life with your hand-break on.”  Maxwell Maltz

How can I improve my practice to improve the writing of those children who are struggling to record their ideas? Part 2

 

WHAT?

I started the lesson with the children sitting in a circle and asked them about what they do with information. The first answer was about explaining how to do something. I clarified that and asked as the receiver of information, the child told me that you learn about what they trying to tell us about. I then went on the explain to the children that is what our All about books were going to teach someone about your topic. As per the plan, I asked what classes adults go to. I prompted them to realise that the adult goes to learn about the topics such as Indian cooking.

 

I began saying that if I was going to a class about flowers, I would like to know about flowers. So when the teacher comes in and says,  “Flowers are nice. Flowers are pretty. I love flowers. Flowers are great, great, great. Some flowers are read, some flowers are yellow. All flowers are pretty.’ Then he said, ‘Class is over. You can go home.’” One of the children, said that you need more information and details. I prompted and asked the children to give me as much information as they could about flowers.

 

I keep referring to the words about information. My next step was to ask the children to sit in pairs and tell their buddy all about their own topic. “Tell your buddy as many facts as you can about your topic.” Th children were very animated and they were engaged in the task. I worked with my struggling writer who didn’t have his writing book in front of him. Using a count down, the children were listening, there was a transferring the information to their buddy.

 

I unpacked the information, that they are promising them something. I asked them how I would feel if the lesson I went to hadn’t given me enough information. One of the children explained that I had been let down and that there wasn’t enough information and that I had been given information that I already knew.

 

I acknowledged his ideas were on the spot. I used information with one child who I know was writing about planets. I referred to the plan and shared a trick that Mrs Short had given me about writing information. We wrote a shared piece together about playtime and used the anchor chart I had written up earlier on using numbers, names, examples and advice or a weird fact.

The children contributed and were pleased with their ideas. I asked them if they thought that they would be able to go away and write some information about their topic. The children were very excited to write.

 

I told the children to get ready to write and then after a couple of minutes I asked them to get on with writing without any talking. The class was quiet, a few children came up to me, I told them it was time write. After some time the children were brought back to the mat for a time to work in the Helping Circle.

I worked through the anchor chart, highlighting names, numbers, examples and weird facts. During this time I congratulated the children on their successes. Mrs Short was observing and at this time, she asked who hadn’t had success with numbers. A number of children put their hands up. She asked one child to share her topic, insects. She then asked the other children how we could help this student with numbers. Hands shot up and offers of ideas came thick and fast.

 

The lesson finished with the children adding more if they could to their writing and then I collected their books.

 

SO WHAT?

Overall I was pleased with how the lesson went and I thought that it was timely with where the students were at. They had been writing using the planners for a number of days and some had started to write more information on their topics and they were ready to have some structure. They had recalled great facts and I was really surprised by how much they actually knew about their topics.

Verity jumping in during the helping circle time was an eye opener as she used the other children as experts to help out the others. It does make sense as it is called a helping circle. I can see the benefits of this and how it develops a great culture around writing. This could be something that I need to be aware of when I do my next writing survey, do they like receiving and giving help.

 

NOW WHAT?

 

I need to include the others in the helping circle as part of the sharing and encourage the children to ask for help as well during this time.

 

My next step for this writing is to persevere with this so the children are able to get down the information they need in their All about books so we can publish using book creator. I also bneed to make time for my strugglers so they can their ideas down and at their ability level.

 

 

“There is no exercise better for the heart than reaching down and lifting people up.” John Holmes