Practice

This is a practice blog post for our class blog.

Class Tuesday, January 29, 2009

During class on Tuesday, I introduced the class blog that I created on the SmartBoard. It was discussed that whoever reads aloud/shares a piece of writing/presents is in charge of writing on the blog for that day describing the events that occured during class.

Today I did my read aloud; the books that I shared with the class were The Giving Tree by Shel Silverstein and Where the Wild Things Are by Maurice Sendak. I chose The Giving Tree because it a good book to share with children about not being selfish and doing things for others. Where the Wild Things Are is a great book to spark imagination within the classroom!

After I presented my books, we broke up into our 6 writing groups. We were assigned a chapter to "graffitti" the important topics mentioned within our specfic chapter. The groups with chapters 2, 3 and 6 presented their ideas to the class. The other groups will present on Thursday.

Finally, our homework for Thursday is to write a paragraph about 1 or 2 events from our "Writing Timeline" that will be included in our autobiography. We are you bring our paragraphs to class on Thursday to share.

January 22 class

We began the day with announcements for Yellow Block, and a read aloud. I read The Whales by Cynthia Rylant. I like this informational text because it is written in a lyrical voice and yet gives so much information, such as different types of whales, where whales are found, that whales breathe air and suckle their young and sing songs to each other.

I asked the class why we need to read aloud in our writing classroom. We decided we read aloud to build community (a big deal when you're trying to establish a safe environment for sharing writing), reading fuels writing, kids hear good models for their own writing, and you can introduce different genre and writing techniques so kids can see possibilities for their own writing.



We integrated math into our writing class by making clock charts. A clock face with numbers of the hours was drawn in the middle of a 5x8 sheet of paper and lines were drawn out from each hour. Students went around the room making appointments for the different times, and these appointments become partners for activities. I got the idea from Kelly Gallagher's Deeper Reading book. We used our 4:00 partner when we engaged in a silent conversation concerning our beliefs about writing. A silent conversation begins with writing on a piece of paper (or texting on your phone) your thoughts and then trading the paper with the partner. We decided it slowed our thinking down, which can be a good thing, and that we might not want to do this with first graders although they might like "passing notes" just like older kids do.

Homework is to begin a timeline of our learning to write to include positive and negative memories from preschool through college years. We'll use this in the next two classes to write our autobiography. The purpose of the autobiography is to remember our writing journey so we can re-create or avoid lessons we had in our lives when we get into our own classrooms.
Also read Fletcher Ch 4-6 and make notes or highlight to use on Tuesday in an activity.

January 20 class

On our first day of class we made nameplates. We folded white cardstock in thirds, wrote our first names in large block letters and included at least two symbols that represent something of ourselves. I put a campfire because I enjoy camping and spend many weekends in the woods, and a pencil because I'm a writer. We shared our nameplates with the class. This was a way to begin to create community by the talking done during the making of the nameplates and in the sharing of them, and to integrate art into our writing class. It also helps me to begin knowing everyone's names.

The syllabus is on the Blackboard and lists main assignments. A master schedule was sent around the circle for students to sign up to teach a lesson with a partner and to sign up for a day to either read aloud a book or provide a writing sample or writing activity. I'll post a tentative schedule on the Blackboard over the weekend.

We looked at a writing sample of a second grade student. It was a journal entry in Sept of the school year. We considered what the student did well before looking at areas needing improvement, because so often we see the bad before noticing the good.

Students left class by handing me an exit slip. This was an index card with a written response to the prompt "What I wonder about teaching writing is ..." This will help me know what topics I need to be sure to include in the schedule.

Homework is to read Fletcher Ch 1-3 (and Ch 7 if there's time) and to look at Appendix A in Routman and check 5 beliefs about writing that we agree with.

Welcome!

Hello All,

This is my first time creating a blog, so bare with me during these first few days until I completely understand how all of this works. This blog will be used as a daily journal for the activities and discussions we have during class and also contain the homework/projects assigned. This will be open for any of you to leave you thoughts on as well! Personally, I think this is great practice as a future teacher, as this could be something simple to allow the parents of your students to check daily to see what their child is doing during the school day!

Happy Blogging,
Marissa

Here is an inspirational you tube video to check out as future teachers:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HiBd6TnCk-I&feature=related