Please respond to the reading for Session 5 - Start with Celebration. You should post a comment by February 12. Don't forget to return to the Blog to see what other people have said!
I was struck by a point in the second paragraph. While reading,it dawned on me what our at-risk students are lacking and it is not life experiences. They have their short lifetimes full of richly diverse experiences. The recent events in Haiti remind me that all humans, regardless of their financial standings have a wealth of experiences, both good and bad.
What struggling students often do not have is the oral language to express the depths of these experiences. Piled on top of this language deficit is the lack of the knowledge of how written language works. In order to write, we have to have the language to express it. Without oral and written language skills, these reluctant writers are unable to express and record what they do have, life experiences.
When modeling writing to students, I appreciated the direction in this reading to "Focus on content." In teaching, everything always goes back to "purpose". Is the purpose of the mini-lesson content or conventions?
When learning something new, a learner can only focus on one new concept or skill at a time. If our young writers are not automatically using what we have previously taught them, carrying these new skills forward into new writing experiences where does the problem lie?
Is it that we have not supported them enough with the "we do it" of the OLM or is it that their focus is on the new learning and their previous learning is not yet automatic? Is it that the learner still needs to think about previous new learning to correctly use them in their writing?
At the end of the day, when we bring the pieces of our whole-part-whole instruction back to the whole, we need to hold our students accountable to previously learning (which is different from previous teaching). Our developing Editor's Checklist is how we hold students accountable for previously learned conventions. This accountability is important and has it's place, but not in the "during" part of the Writing Block, if our purpose is to have our students write their stories.
I agree, Nancy. Some of my favorite student writings are about the broken down cupboards with rat poison behind them and how do you keep your cat out? I enjoy reading about their life experiences because they are so different than mine, and it throws me back into the spot of learner! Showing love of their stories gives them human worth and validation. No matter what life has thrown at you, there is value to dig out.
I also find the best product is the exercise with the most personal purpose to the student. I was disappointed recently with a pattern story they wrote. But when I taught Christmas card writing, wow, the part-to-whole kicked in. They were so excited about how to express their thoughts to a specific audience and it showed.
I enjoyed reading how the author wrote about telling her class her story before she wrote it. She described all the language and and conversation she had as she "told" her story first. I agree with her and I have tried this several times, but the one that really sticks out in my mind is an "End with a Memory" lesson from Tim Hargis's book. It was a story about my dog Lucy looking for a place to piddle in the deep, deep snow. The children were in stitches as I told the story, pulling out "all the stops". When I finished, we wrote the story together on the overhead. They had a great time then writing their own memory story. What I did not do was to afford them the opportunity to share with others their stories before they wrote. They could be in triads or partners with the teacher circulating to enjoy their story telling. As the author said, she likes to put her "heart on the page when I tell a story". This is an activity (the pre-story telling) that I would like to incorporate in a future writing lesson.
We all have life experiences to draw from for writing. We as teachers need to be more open to what our students bring to writing. (at least I am speaking for myself) It is necessary for students to write from the heart. They will then be vested and take more interest in the topic and the quality. I know that I enjoy writing my stories for the students if it is something I am interested in or have experienced. It goes for them too. The article was enlightening.
One of the things that stuck with me most was when she said, "stories are how we relate to one another in the world and form the necessary bonds that build trust". This ties so well into what we have working on in Capturing Kids Hearts. We feel so time crunched that we don't feel like we have time to sit and talk to kids and get to know them - but we can use our writing time to do that. We can tell them our stories and hear their stories to build that trust. Another thing that had me thinking is that we need to write about things that the kids can relate to. If we write about something huge - like a big trip - that the kids haven't experienced, what they are going to write about might seem trivial.
The part that struck me was the lack of language/vocabulary students (at least many of my students this year) are struggling with. I have been working on Young Author books and you can see kids searching for the right words. Sometimes I provide the word(s) for them and see their face light up because that's what they were looking for, but couldn't find. I then struggle with whether it is their voice or mine, but this year I feel that I'm helping them say what they really mean instead of being trapped by their too small vocabularies. Normally, I would say it's because I have a lot of ELL's, but they're not the only ones who struggle. I think it's the lack of story and conversation in the homes of our students that makes storytelling (both orally and written) so difficult for them.
As I read the article I couldn't help but think,do our students hear heart warming stories of everyday life from their parents? Do they hear about times their parents were 6 and 7 years old? The rich language that we were brought up with is almost void,as well as conversations with all family members. As I model my writing lesson each day I try to begin first with a personal story that peaks their interest. Some of the best writing I have seen this year was after I modeled my cat climbing the Christmas tree. Yes, the stories all had to do with animals, but every day for a week the students wanted to know what my cat had done the previous day. As their mentor, I need to be reminded to focus on the content, and the revising and editing will come.
This was a wonderful article. It reminded me of several things that I had heard/read before, but sometimes overlook in trying to manage all the writing resources we have at our disposal. Nancy, I think you were the one that told me a number of years ago that writers have to have the story "on their lips" before they can get it down on their paper. I know I need to provide my first graders with more time to talk about what they are going to write and actually practice saying the sentences before they put pencil to paper. Shawn, I agree with your comment about the lack of conversation in many of the homes and without that experience, it's hard to converse with their peers. So many of my children write about a new video/computer game or playing the Wii at home the night before and I suspect that none of those require a great deal of thoughtful conversation with a caring and interested adult or sibling. One other comment that the article mentioned that caught my eye was the part how stories are fun and "fun is sadly missing from our classrooms these days". I feel like I am always working so hard to cover everything that we are responsible for that there isn't time to just do an activity for "fun" - educational or otherwise. Just this Wednesday, when we didn't have our library time, I pulled out a math game that required listening, asking a question, and providing an answer in the circle of classmates and they absolutely loved it! "This is fun - can we play it again?" Too often it is the students that complete work before the others that have those extra few minutes for "fun". This gave everyone a chance to have a good time. Now, it I could only manage that on a more regular basis!
When we were together last time and Nancy stated that all students do have experiences to write about, I started thinking about all those times that my students want to tell their "story". But I also continued to wonder why when they wrote their stories they weren't very interesting. I agree that most times they do not possess the vocabulary to make their stories interesting. All the more reason for me to tell and read good stories to my students so they develop a rich vocabulary. I have also noticed that since my class started looking for Wonderful Outstanding Words (WOW) in our reading that they are more aware of the need for great words when they write. One thing I am going to make an effort to do is to tell my story first, and then write about it and make sure I include details. That way I hope my students will learn to show the story not just tell it.
I liked the part of the article where she talked about letting students know that stories happen everywhere. It is true that some of the best teachers are also the best story tellers. I was always interested to hear stories from my teachers and professors when I was in school. The good ones that I remember kept class interesting and fun and brought in real life scenarios as they taught.
We are lucky to have many resources to pull from when sharing great stories with our students. It is so important that we strive to make learning fun as we tell the stories from our lives with our students. Your students love to hear about your experiences outside of the classroom. It is hard for them to believe that we have lives outside of school.
Using stories as a springboard....you bet. Most everything in print or on tv has a story - from news to Nick Jr. - everyone has a story to tell - or sell. We teach students to "connect" their experiences (stories)to text they read. It's what they know best. There is no surprise, then, that we are reading about the opportunities we have to teach children how to write. One of my writing choices was to write about a special holiday. One student wrote about one of her religious holidays. It was wonderful to see her face light up while she was planning her writing. This was the hook for that student. She was having fun writing about what she lived and knew well. We are on the right track.
Well I will try this again for a second time as my fingers touched some key that erased everything...Shawn, can you tell me how to get it back like right now :)
Overall, I enjoyed the idea of stories / sharing builds trust and creates relationships. Sharing good news, doing a quick write before a writing lesson, meeting during the "after" of a guided reading lesson are all ways these types of stories exist.
One thing my students can't seem to get away from no matter how much I talk to them about finding other topics is....yes, you got it..video games. Wow, are students driven by video games. How cool would it be if a student wanted to share about the book they read the night before. What is valued in a household can definitely be uncovered. So many students of mine share about hoping they are able to go to an aunt's, uncle's, grandma(pa)'s for the weekend again. No wonder why they lack the ability to come up ideas to write about. They are not given the opportunities to experience life outside of the t.v.
I do find that students are really intrigued by stories I have to share. They always seem to ask me if I have good news to share...showing they are interested, care and want to connect with me.
I think this article had some good ideas. I like the idea of dramatizing the students stories. I have always struggled to get them to write a piece that flows smoothly. If kids act out what they say then it might help them see they can't have gaps.
I know why this article was titled "Start with a Celebration" as a story a child has to tell is a celebration. I enjoyed reading what everyone had to say about this article and I totally agree with everyone. Kids need to draw and dramatize their stories as a springboard to their writing especially my students. Drawing is one thing most special ed. students do well. I liked when they said, "oral language and literacy skills are closely linked. Children need to have conversations before they write. Another point is that we need to be careful when we choose the topics we write. Our children especially ned to related to our topics. I have found that children love to know all about their teacher's life. Share it with them and then write about it. I always enjoyed writing about Ashley running and the excitement I felt. Children love to hear these stories. Another one they lvoe to hear about are your dogs. Amma and Gracies are great things to write about. To close, I agree where are older children do need to have diffrent things to write about as they do get tired of the same old thing. Great article!!!
This section is a quick and easy read.
ReplyDeleteI was struck by a point in the second paragraph. While reading,it dawned on me what our at-risk students are lacking and it is not life experiences. They have their short lifetimes full of richly diverse experiences. The recent events in Haiti remind me that all humans, regardless of their financial standings have a wealth of experiences, both good and bad.
What struggling students often do not have is the oral language to express the depths of these experiences. Piled on top of this language deficit is the lack of the knowledge of how written language works. In order to write, we have to have the language to express it. Without oral and written language skills, these reluctant writers are unable to express and record what they do have, life experiences.
When modeling writing to students, I appreciated the direction in this reading to "Focus on content." In teaching, everything always goes back to "purpose". Is the purpose of the mini-lesson content or conventions?
When learning something new, a learner can only focus on one new concept or skill at a time. If our young writers are not automatically using what we have previously taught them, carrying these new skills forward into new writing experiences where does the problem lie?
Is it that we have not supported them enough with the "we do it" of the OLM or is it that their focus is on the new learning and their previous learning is not yet automatic? Is it that the learner still needs to think about previous new learning to correctly use them in their writing?
At the end of the day, when we bring the pieces of our whole-part-whole instruction back to the whole, we need to hold our students accountable to previously learning (which is different from previous teaching). Our developing Editor's Checklist is how we hold students accountable for previously learned conventions. This accountability is important and has it's place, but not in the "during" part of the Writing Block, if our purpose is to have our students write their stories.
I agree, Nancy. Some of my favorite student writings are about the broken down cupboards with rat poison behind them and how do you keep your cat out? I enjoy reading about their life experiences because they are so different than mine, and it throws me back into the spot of learner! Showing love of their stories gives them human worth and validation. No matter what life has thrown at you, there is value to dig out.
ReplyDeleteI also find the best product is the exercise with the most personal purpose to the student. I was disappointed recently with a pattern story they wrote. But when I taught Christmas card writing, wow, the part-to-whole kicked in. They were so excited about how to express their thoughts to a specific audience and it showed.
I enjoyed reading the selection!
I enjoyed reading how the author wrote about telling her class her story before she wrote it. She described all the language and and conversation she had as she "told" her story first. I agree with her and I have tried this several times, but the one that really sticks out in my mind is an "End with a Memory" lesson from Tim Hargis's book. It was a story about my dog Lucy looking for a place to piddle in the deep, deep snow. The children were in stitches as I told the story, pulling out "all the stops". When I finished, we wrote the story together on the overhead. They had a great time then writing their own memory story.
ReplyDeleteWhat I did not do was to afford them the opportunity to share with others their stories before they wrote. They could be in triads or partners with the teacher circulating to enjoy their story telling. As the author said, she likes to put her "heart on the page when I tell a story". This is an activity (the pre-story telling) that I would like to incorporate in a future writing lesson.
We all have life experiences to draw from for writing. We as teachers need to be more open to what our students bring to writing. (at least I am speaking for myself) It is necessary for students to write from the heart. They will then be vested and take more interest in the topic and the quality. I know that I enjoy writing my stories for the students if it is something I am interested in or have experienced. It goes for them too. The article was enlightening.
ReplyDeleteOne of the things that stuck with me most was when she said, "stories are how we relate to one another in the world and form the necessary bonds that build trust". This ties so well into what we have working on in Capturing Kids Hearts. We feel so time crunched that we don't feel like we have time to sit and talk to kids and get to know them - but we can use our writing time to do that. We can tell them our stories and hear their stories to build that trust. Another thing that had me thinking is that we need to write about things that the kids can relate to. If we write about something huge - like a big trip - that the kids haven't experienced, what they are going to write about might seem trivial.
ReplyDeleteThe part that struck me was the lack of language/vocabulary students (at least many of my students this year) are struggling with. I have been working on Young Author books and you can see kids searching for the right words. Sometimes I provide the word(s) for them and see their face light up because that's what they were looking for, but couldn't find. I then struggle with whether it is their voice or mine, but this year I feel that I'm helping them say what they really mean instead of being trapped by their too small vocabularies. Normally, I would say it's because I have a lot of ELL's, but they're not the only ones who struggle. I think it's the lack of story and conversation in the homes of our students that makes storytelling (both orally and written) so difficult for them.
ReplyDeleteAs I read the article I couldn't help but think,do our students hear heart warming stories
ReplyDeleteof everyday life from their parents? Do they hear about times their parents were 6 and 7 years old? The rich language that we were brought up with is almost void,as well as conversations with all family members. As I model my writing lesson each day I try to begin
first with a personal story that peaks their
interest. Some of the best writing I have seen this year was after I modeled my cat climbing the Christmas tree. Yes, the stories all had to do with animals, but every day for a week the students wanted to know what my cat had done the previous day. As their mentor, I need to be reminded to focus on the content, and the revising and editing will come.
This was a wonderful article. It reminded me of several things that I had heard/read before, but sometimes overlook in trying to manage all the writing resources we have at our disposal. Nancy, I think you were the one that told me a number of years ago that writers have to have the story "on their lips" before they can get it down on their paper. I know I need to provide my first graders with more time to talk about what they are going to write and actually practice saying the sentences before they put pencil to paper. Shawn, I agree with your comment about the lack of conversation in many of the homes and without that experience, it's hard to converse with their peers. So many of my children write about a new video/computer game or playing the Wii at home the night before and I suspect that none of those require a great deal of thoughtful conversation with a caring and interested adult or sibling. One other comment that the article mentioned that caught my eye was the part how stories are fun and "fun is sadly missing from our classrooms these days". I feel like I am always working so hard to cover everything that we are responsible for that there isn't time to just do an activity for "fun" - educational or otherwise. Just this Wednesday, when we didn't have our library time, I pulled out a math game that required listening, asking a question, and providing an answer in the circle of classmates and they absolutely loved it! "This is fun - can we play it again?" Too often it is the students that complete work before the others that have those extra few minutes for "fun". This gave everyone a chance to have a good time. Now, it I could only manage that on a more regular basis!
ReplyDeleteWhen we were together last time and Nancy stated that all students do have experiences to write about, I started thinking about all those times that my students want to tell their "story". But I also continued to wonder why when they wrote their stories they weren't very interesting. I agree that most times they do not possess the vocabulary to make their stories interesting. All the more reason for me to tell and read good stories to my students so they develop a rich vocabulary. I have also noticed that since my class started looking for Wonderful Outstanding Words (WOW) in our reading that they are more aware of the need for great words when they write.
ReplyDeleteOne thing I am going to make an effort to do is to tell my story first, and then write about it and make sure I include details. That way I hope my students will learn to show the story not just tell it.
I liked the part of the article where she talked about letting students know that stories happen everywhere. It is true that some of the best teachers are also the best story tellers. I was always interested to hear stories from my teachers and professors when I was in school. The good ones that I remember kept class interesting and fun and brought in real life scenarios as they taught.
ReplyDeleteWe are lucky to have many resources to pull from when sharing great stories with our students. It is so important that we strive to make learning fun as we tell the stories from our lives with our students. Your students love to hear about your experiences outside of the classroom. It is hard for them to believe that we have lives outside of school.
Using stories as a springboard....you bet. Most everything in print or on tv has a story - from news to Nick Jr. - everyone has a story to tell - or sell. We teach students to "connect" their experiences (stories)to text they read. It's what they know best. There is no surprise, then, that we are reading about the opportunities we have to teach children how to write. One of my writing choices was to write about a special holiday. One student wrote about one of her religious holidays. It was wonderful to see her face light up while she was planning her writing. This was the hook for that student. She was having fun writing about what she lived and knew well. We are on the right track.
ReplyDeleteWell I will try this again for a second time as my fingers touched some key that erased everything...Shawn, can you tell me how to get it back like right now :)
ReplyDeleteOverall, I enjoyed the idea of stories / sharing builds trust and creates relationships. Sharing good news, doing a quick write before a writing lesson, meeting during the "after" of a guided reading lesson are all ways these types of stories exist.
One thing my students can't seem to get away from no matter how much I talk to them about finding other topics is....yes, you got it..video games. Wow, are students driven by video games. How cool would it be if a student wanted to share about the book they read the night before. What is valued in a household can definitely be uncovered. So many students of mine share about hoping they are able to go to an aunt's, uncle's, grandma(pa)'s for the weekend again. No wonder why they lack the ability to come up ideas to write about. They are not given the opportunities to experience life outside of the t.v.
I do find that students are really intrigued by stories I have to share. They always seem to ask me if I have good news to share...showing they are interested, care and want to connect with me.
I think this article had some good ideas. I like the idea of dramatizing the students stories. I have always struggled to get them to write a piece that flows smoothly. If kids act out what they say then it might help them see they can't have gaps.
ReplyDeleteI know why this article was titled "Start with a Celebration" as a story a child has to tell is a celebration. I enjoyed reading what everyone had to say about this article and I totally agree with everyone. Kids need to draw and dramatize their stories as a springboard to their writing especially my students. Drawing is one thing most special ed. students do well. I liked when they said, "oral language and literacy skills are closely linked. Children need to have conversations before they write. Another point is that we need to be careful when we choose the topics we write. Our children especially ned to related to our topics. I have found that children love to know all about their teacher's life. Share it with them and then write about it. I always enjoyed writing about Ashley running and the excitement I felt. Children love to hear these stories. Another one they lvoe to hear about are your dogs. Amma and Gracies are great things to write about. To close, I agree where are older children do need to have diffrent things to write about as they do get tired of the same old thing. Great article!!!
ReplyDelete