Being in the classroom for three years, I have witnessed my students struggle with writing. For many reasons, they lacked the ability to creatively express themselves. The Writer’s Workshop has been deemed as the most effective process teachers utilize when scaffolding their students' writing. Now whenever I hear the term workshop, it triggers a yawn reflex within my body 😂😂 and I'm pretty sure you guys can relate! The introduction to this lesson however, was quite stimulating. The lecturer provided us with a plethora of videos, written informative pieces and live demonstrations. I was aware that there are steps to take in the writing process, however, I was eager to learn more about this Writer’s Workshop *yawn*🥱 everyone was raving about. The first area of focus was the focus/mini lesson. This is where the teacher would enlighten students on what writers generally converse about, whether it be diction, plot ideas or the traits of the characters. In my opinion, this step on its own should have the students' creative juices flowing. The ability to create any plot or character should channel endless possibilities where the storyline is concerned. For my future students, whether primary or secondary, I would utilize the template of a Sims character. Regardless of their age, most children enjoy playing video games. Building a Sims character (or more than one) and a brief character trait synopsis may provide the students the opportunity to bring their plot to virtual life. This idea triggered a pleasant childhood memory, when I use to play Sims on my brothers Nintendo. I am a 90's baby, and yes we had to blow into the cartridge before inserting it into the game. The initial character trait set-up always grabbed my attention as I found it fascinating being able to choose my avatars personality. The personality trait then determine the outcome (plot) of the avatars life as they progressed through life (game levels) Imagine if we could make our own selection in the womb?! 😱😵 What would your personality traits be?
Conferring With Peers or Constructive Criticism for both peers and self was another aspect covered. As we all know, students have zero filters. Teachers should place emphasis on students providing positive feedback as it can affect their peers' writing. Students should also be taught how to critique their own work while not being too hard on themselves. For the younger students, they can make use of emojis or fun stickers to illustrate their feedback, while the older students can utilize colorful sticky notes when giving ideas and suggestions. To steer the students in the right direction, the structure of another author's work can be highlighted. As a beginning activity, the students can receive a passage (length based on grade level) where they would put into practice constructive criticism. What are some positive comments you would encourage your students to use?
Teacher-student conference was another aspect covered, and in my opinion the most popular strategy. I am guilty of adding ‘one-on-one conference will be provided’ in the development of my old Language Arts/Composition lesson plans. I assumed that was the best way to edit the students' work, however, I am now realizing it was dull-witted using my red ink pen to prematurely disrupt the pending magnum opus within the students book. For future reference, before emptying the ink chamber on a students draft (that was a bit dramatic), I would be an attentive listener while asking probing questions to get an idea of what the students topic is and how they plan to develop their piece. We were introduced to nine components that mirror the writing process and we were given the task to demonstrate a three-minute lesson. These components included:
1. Focus lesson- As previously indicated, it is used to instruct students on how to collaborate and write in pairs.
2. Pair write- a method for real-time content collaboration
3. Pair editing group- exchange of piece between two persons for the purpose of editing
4. Writing conference: teach the writer- analyzing the students need before teaching
5. Writing conference: writers intent- identifying the writing intents of students in order to complement the instructional technique
6. Writing conference: writers need - determining the student's current, most pressing need in order to help them become better writers rather than just focusing on the writing itself
7. Writers plan- inquiring from students their understanding of what the teacher said and what their next move or plan of action is
8. Tracking writing status- recording individual students writing progress with the use of index cards, computer programs
9. Group share- students sharing their piece with the other writers (students). Author’s chair can be utilized
We were unable to view every groups’ dramatization, however what I witnessed was an abundance of literacy ideas that I can utilize within my classroom. In my opinion, this is a strenuous process, however I see the many benefits it reaps and I would also tweak it to include an integration of other subject content. My hope is to always have the students writing, but ensuring that they are taken through the process. The following lesson entailed how students can be scaffolding in writing through the use of graphic organizers. This lesson was right up my alley as I have developed a passion for graphic design. The possibilities are endless when creating organizers as they can take any shape or form suitable for the objectives of a lesson. The lecturer provided us with a few examples such as sequencing, compare and contrast, problem and solution and cause and effect. I took the liberty of creating a few organizers with hopes of my students developing a love for creative writing. Do you have any additional tips on how to scaffold students writing? I am excited to hear from you guys!
First off the bat I must say this is a great blog for it had so many aspects of what we learnt in LIT102 about scaffolding. I really love your idea of using a Sims character template, I can see that being fun within the classroom for many students and maybe even changing the theme to other characters that the students may be familiar with and also the colorful techniques that students will use to give feedback to their peers work, this is indeed a positive way of encouraging students to be able to give positive criticism.
ReplyDeleteAmongst many valuable information mentioned, I totally agree about the use of red ink pens to edit students drafts for I myself have erred in the past when editing students’ work, primarily because the period had ended and I had made comments and fixed grammar mistakes in students' books after school. However, it turns out to be something that students cannot go back and change, but must restart because the pen marks are irreversible, and quite frankly, I had not considered their future inputs or feedbacks of changes that they may have made once permitted. Because of this, as well as the knowledge gained about the Writer's Workshop, I know that this must be done differently in my future classes.
Although I am one for making learning fun especially through visual aids, I have always depended on the web to find graphic organizers, where I would be able to copy and paste within a Word Doc and print for my students within the past but seeing you able to create on your own these graphic organizers, you have motivated me to try a few in the future. Your really good with these visuals for your graphic organizers were very creative!
Your post was very informative Jewel and I share a lot of your concerns in regards to getting students to write effectively. I found your metaphor on video game character setup to be quite funny and it really helped me to understand what you were referring to. If I were able to choose my personality traits I think I would have to leave mine as is. Aside from having a wicked sense of humor I think I’m ok.
ReplyDeleteIn the focus lesson where teachers educate students about providing constructive criticism to their peers I think this is of great importance and as you said students tend to have “zero filters”. Students should be able to give feedback that helps not only their peers but by identifying errors and providing suggestions it really improves their own writing. I have a few examples of positive comments that I believe students could use when reviewing each other’s writing, let me know what you think about them.
What an amazing sentence!
I never thought about it like that. Great job!
You worked hard on this!
I love your thoughts here!
The way you expressed your ideas is wonderful!
Your thoughts on the teacher-student conference were also very relatable. I am also guilty of jumping the gun and stifling my students' writing ability by writing on drafts instead of providing steady support in the form of probing questions. Writing has evolved since I went to school and we are entering an age where the lesson plans that we used in the past have become obsolete. I often think to myself how inexperienced I was at teaching language to my students. This course looks like it will be another eye opener and will take us to the next level not just as language teachers but overall.
The group demonstrations were awesome and I enjoyed sharing ideas to get the presentation ready. Something that really stood out to me was while preparing to do the dramatizations or skits on being a teacher it is easier to identify where we might go wrong or right in our own teaching methods. I gathered a lot of strategies from the different groups and I intend to incorporate them in my own lessons. I look forward to future discussions and sharing our ideas as educators.