This week's readings could not have come at a more perfect time. In my placement, my students are working on the writing process as they develop reports on an animal of their choice. Last week, I shared with the class that I was teaching students how to use PowerPoint. This was a result of one of the steps they are doing to complete their animal reports. First, the students were able to do research on the computer to choose an animal they were interested in. Then, my mentor teacher had them make a concept map with different facts about their animal. To scaffold the students into making concept maps for the first time, he made a blank concept map with "animal name" in the middle, and 5 categories branching out: habitat, eats, moves, babies, and body. When I come into the class, I help the students put their information into a PowerPoint presentation, which will be printed out and showed to parents and other students at the school as well as at parent teacher conferences.
We have done multiple drafts with the PowerPoints. Two weeks ago, the other "helpers" that come in and I did a rough draft with them without checking for spelling or punctuation. This week, we have started to work one on one with each student to help them create a final draft by editing, punctuating, and polishing. My mentor teacher has stressed to us that we need to keep using that language around them so that they will understand the writing process.
In Thompkins Chapter 2, the author describes the stages to the writing process. I also see these same stages in my placement. Stage 1 is the prewriting stage, where my students chose a topic and gathered and organized ideas. Stage 2 is the drafting stage, where my students made their first drafts of their PowerPoint presentation. We are currently in between Stage 3 and 4 of the writing process, where the students are revising their rough drafts. Stage 3 is revising and Stage 4 is editing (to me they seem to go hand in hand). After these stages, the students will be ready to publish their reports.
At the beginning of Thompkins Chapter 12, it highlights a third grade class where they are doing almost the same project as my students are. They use a K-W-L chart to prewrite and get ideas. The teacher outlines different "chapters" that the students will write for their informational books. I really like how the chapter gives ideas to connect reading and writing, such as through informational magazines, poems, videos, maps, diagrams, etc. In my placement, the students used National Geographic for Kids on the computer to gather information about their animals. I thought this was a great way to get students engaged in the reading/writing process. I also like how this chapter gave example concept maps for different grade levels.
In the past few weeks, I have learned a lot about the writing process from both the readings and my experiences in the classroom. I couldn't be more thrilled to see and help my students go through the writing process to do reports on animals. We are shooting to be done by the time I am done coming for the semester, so stay tuned for pictures! (I HOPE)
Heather’s work with her students is wonderful! Just like Heather’s students have taken time to research and present information on animals, my students have also taken great time to brainstorm and create a writing piece. My students just finished writing papers about special people in their lives. To begin, they created a web that included the person’s looks, personality traits, history, and information on why the person was special to them.
ReplyDeleteAs mentioned in Heather’s post and the Tompkins reading, an important step in the writing process is revising and editing. I worked one on one with students to help them revise and finalize their drafts. It seemed beneficial for some, but it took so much time for my teacher and me to do all the editing! By the time the writing block was over, I only reviewed two or three students’ works. While my teacher and I edited the students’ writings, the other students were supposed to re-read their own work and make it the best writing possible. I noticed that more students were playing and chatting rather than revising their own work.
In Hsu’s article on writing partnerships, she highlights the idea that students benefit from working with one another in editing rather than always going to the teacher for help and ideas. Writing partnerships foster independent writing, and it helps students learn how to critique and edit other student writing and their own. Students who participate in writing partnerships also experience many different writing styles which helps them hone their own writing talents and niches.
Like Heather’s students, the students in my placement have also written reports on different animals. They did this at the beginning of the year though so I was not able to see the entire writing process for this assignment. I have been able to see the writing process for another assignment though. In one assignment, the students were required to select a famous African American from any time in history, and write a poem about them. The students were given an outline to fill out with different information about the person that they found in their research. They were then required to take that information and use it to write a poem. The students then had to go back and revise and edit the poem, and once they were finished, they presented their poems to the class.
ReplyDeleteOne thing that Heather talked about relating to the Tompkins article was the prewriting stage of the writing process. As I have seen in my placement, this is a very important stage in the writing process. Many times, when my students are having trouble writing, it is because they haven’t done enough as far as gathering and organizing data. I can’t tell you how many times students have come up to me saying that they don’t know what to write and when I ask to see their outline, it barely has any information on it. If the students don’t have enough information, it makes it very difficult for them to even begin writing.
I also thought it was interesting how the Tompkins chapter talked about how writing may differ depending on the purpose. For example, an expository writing piece will be different than a narrative writing piece. It is important for students to know what the purpose for their writing is as the language may differ from one purpose the another.