Saturday, January 24, 2009
Writer's Notebook ch.7&8 group b 650pm
View the first sample chapters (available on line) Using the Writer's Notebook in Grades 3-8: A Teacher's Guide at (http://www1.ncte.org/library/files/Store/Books/Sample/35006chap1-2_x.pdf) and begin your writers notebook then post entries on Class Blog. Engage in an online discussion group on our class blog. Please read designated chapters and 1)propose “meaty” fat questions to discuss, 2) make connections to your teaching and work with students, and 3) make connections to your work as a writer (ie Keep your own notebook and share your response to it), 4)Please respond to two of your classmates’s entries in your study group, 4) Consider how what you have learned from this book might support the work of your integrated language arts unit.
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7 comments:
Meaty Questions:
In chapter 7 Elliott discusses using the notebook as a place to work through pieces. She refers to it as a “workbench.” To help students organize and focus on their development of story elements Elliott suggests having students interview their characters that will be in the story. This is a technique that I have never heard of before, but am incredibly curious about. I love the idea of the writer’s having to create responses for their characters; I think it would really help students develop their characters. I can also see some students having a hard time with this and instead responding as themselves, and not their characters. I was wondering if anyone has tried this with their students and how it worked. If so, what type of questions did you have the students ask?
2. Also in chapter 7 Elliott mentions having students write recipes to explore a variety of topic. I have never had students write recipes before for things like friendship as mentioned in the book. This sounds like a great writing activity and I was wondering what other topics could you have students create recipes for?
Classroom Connection:
The past few years I have tried a variety of organizers in my classroom for writers. I have found that just as the text mentioned, there is not just one organizer that works for everyone. I have really enjoyed using story maps and storyboards. For my more hesitant writers I have found that storyboards really help. I enjoy using them especially when we start our unit on descriptive writing. It is a great way to have students draw their details and it helps me understand how they are envisioning their characters and setting.
I have found that revisiting pieces in the notebook is one of the best ways for my students to implement our mini lessons. I have never called it “have-a-go” before. I have used it quite frequently for sentence structure, length and descriptive writing. I like the idea of revisiting a piece to change the point of view.
Connecting to my Notebook:
After reading these chapters I went back to my notebook and revisited a piece. I wanted to take a piece that I had written in first person and change the point of view on it. I changed it to third person and I really enjoyed changing the piece up. I am always telling students to revisit their work, but I myself have not yet prior to this.
My Unit:
As I thought about my unit when I was reading this chapter I think I will be able to incorporate plenty of revisiting. I was also thinking that I could have students do some storyboards to draw details about the water cycle. I was also thinking that they could interview a water droplet.
Response to Tracey,
I agree both the recipes and interviewing characters are interesting lessons that the students would both enjoy as well as learn something from. When I read the section about recipes, I had several ideas that the students might get into: How to convince your parent to buy you a pet, How to get rid of you annoying brother, How make people feel better after you upset them. I never thought of a recipe before, but students love to explore new genres of writing and I'm sure they would love a recipe.
I have never done an interview before. I'm not sure how well it would work with third graders at first, but after some modeling it could be a successful technique.
Meaty Question-
In Chapter 8, Elliott discusses a unit of study focused around the writer's notebook. She discusses genre study and why authors choose to write in a specific genre. This is a reading comprehension focus for older students and the CMTs, however I don't typically discuss it as much in my third grade classroom. What do you think are good writing genres to begin this type of focus on? (I was thinking letters might be a start...)
Connections to Teaching-
I enjoyed chapter 7's workshop theme. I think it is important for students to understand that they have different thinking "tools" that can help them explore their writing. I also thought it was interesting that the author wrote about authors that plan everything before they write and authors that plan nothing before they write. So often kids want to write right away, but teachers want them to do some planning before they write. I am guilty of this all the time, especially with the students who are consistently writing quick stories with little elaboration and suspense. For some kids, it is powerful to have them work with a graphic organizer, and others it is more powerful to go back and revise to add more details. My students really seem to do better when I am working with them during the planning phase because I am able to ask the probing questions that force them to think/write more elaborately. I wonder if there is a way to begin to train them so that they can do this with their peers and get the same quality of planning done.
Connections to my Writer's Notebook-
I have been struggling with ideas and formats in my notebook lately. I sit and don't have much to write about, or at least nothing that I am excited to write about. This is probibly how the kids feel at some points. I think I am going to use the suggestions in chapter 7 starting with the recipe to spice up my writing and keep me engaged.
Connections to Unit-
I liked the quick blurb on informational text organization. I think that students can look at these informational text structures when organizing their writing during our unit. We just did a lesson on rocks by making them out of food, I wonder if I can do something with this and the recipe writing. I'll have to contemplate a way to make this work. A speech or a letter to or from a rock could also make for an interesting entry.
Connections to my Teaching: In chapter 7 Elliot talks about using graphic organizers as a tool to aid writers. I think that graphic organizers are so powerful because they can help students in so many ways. They can be used in differentiating instruction and scaffolding. They help students organize their thoughts and set up structure for writing.
In my unit:
I will use graphic organizers to explore nonfiction texts. I plan on using a KWL chart and a Venn Diagram as we explore plants. The Venn Diagram can be used to compare and contrast human's needs to plants needs. Then as I was reading about the web, I had an idea of how that could be used as well. Students could make a web of all the different things we get from plants. Graphic organizers have so many uses and they are effective teaching strategies.
Connections to teaching continued:
Elliott also talked about sketching characters that students are writing about. I sometimes do this for students who have a hard time elaborating and adding those important details to their writing. I found that for my student with Autism, having a picture in front of her helps her to focus on her writing. We recently wrote a story about a leprechaun after reading about leprechauns and this student used a picture from one of the stories to connect to the topic. She wrote a good story and I used the picture to help her pull details, which is something she struggles with.
Question for my peers:
Elliott discusses using mentor texts to teach writing. I think this is a great idea. I would love to compile a list of books to use. Does anyone know of a bibliography or list of children’s books that could be used for teaching specific mini lessons in writing?
Response to classmate:
Allison, I also really liked Elliott’s ideas about the recipe. I think my students would enjoy writing a recipe, especially to some of her creative ideas. I know some of them could write a recipe on how to avoid doing homework!
Response to classmate:
Allison, while watching Jon and Kate Plus 8 one day I saw an episode where the older girls who are were in first grade conducted interviews of their parents. It seemed manageable, (even though it was TV). They spent the first day thinking of good questions and discussing them. I could see this done as a class where the teacher wrote questions on a chart paper. Then the students could write down the questions they would like to ask. Partners would probably work better for the first time around. Then they could interview their parents or siblings, grandparents…on a topic; maybe something in regards to their culture or traditions. I could see this done with modeling, although I haven’t tried it yet.
Connections to my notebook:
I am also using my notebook to “have a go” on a topic. I am writing quick ideas down for a family scrapbook. Then I will create the scrapbook when I have more time, perhaps in the summer. The notebook is allowing me to try out my ideas, and write down my thoughts so I don’t forget them.
Response to Diane,
That's a great idea, and a good connection to a show that I really enjoy (but that my husband hates). I do have a list of Mentor Texts for writing as a part of Teaching the Qualities of Writing by JoAnn Portalupi and Ralph Fletcher. I'll copy the list and bring it to class for the group next time we meet in Barnard.
Response to Diane:
I agree with you about how hard it can be to find great mentor texts. There is just no way we can have a book for everything! For me I have found a lot of great lists in reference books that I have read. For example, I know in the Nancy Boyles book, That's a Great Answer she provided books for different age groups that go along great with the different strands of the CMTs.
Hi everyone! I was way behind..sorry. I got so caught up with working on the cyberlesson and I had this book tucked away, that I completely forgot. I read all the chapters and wished I'd read them earlier. I read all of your responses and you had some similar ideas and responses to the chapter!
Meaty questions:
Have any of you ever tried pie charts to help kids organize their ideas? I had never done this before and thought it'd be a great connection to fractions and also force them into building their ideas about an event, setting character, or anything really.
I was also wondering how often in the second or third grade, do you allow kids opportunities to write to authentic audiences. Elliott really drove home the importance of this and I had a friend who recently told me that she had her class write to Barak Obama and he wrote back!!!The kids were thrilled. I've written to favorite authors before after an authors study such as Kevin Henkes and the kids absolutely love it, but I was wondering if you had any further ideas for authentic writing.
Class connection: This chapter made me think abou t the importance of "mentor text", which our school always refer to as "strategy texts" because we usually use them to teach comprehension strategies. When I do units on poetry or descriptive writing, I often use books to model an authors craft, but I'd love to build a basket of books for writing and make a list of these titles so I remember to use them year after year. I was also thinking about the release of responsibility being so important. I feel like each kid could be so different in their ability to work independently, so I'm still unsure if it should be a personal choice for each kid or if I should release responsibility whole-class when I feel "most" of the kids are ready. I tend to be scared and want to hold their hands the whole way through things. I'm still thinking about this...
Notebook connection: In my own writers notebook, I drew a picture of a character that actually reminds me of someone in my own life. I've always wanted to write my own children's book someday so I'm thinking about this character. The drawing of the character definitely builds ideas for the story and the kinds of things the character might do or say in my book.
Unit connection: In my unit, I have my kids write a letter to a girl who is being made fun of and they need to give her advice as to how to solve her problem peacefully. It's in my cyberlesson and although this person is not real, I feel that the idea that this is a "real letter" makes it exciting for the kids and allows them to connect their learning in a fun way.
Response to Tracey's questions::
Tracey, I never had my kids write recipes, but I did have them do "How-to" lists earlier in the year abou t things they knew how to do such as make a pb and j. It was more of a sequencing activity, using transition words like first, next, then, lastly. I have had them do recipes of a person to make them think of either themselves or a character and have them think about their qualities. It makes kids really think about personality traits of the people they know and the characters they meet in books.
I have not had my kids interview characters before but I love the idea. A unit on character study is coming up in June and I can't wait to try this. I'm hoping that the kids will be able to interview eachother's characters and act as their character when they answer the questions. I think the kids would have a lot of fun doing this!
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