Ch. 7 in Writing Without Boundaries

After reading this chapter I realized that a lot of the research and things that were in there are things that when I have observed higher grades I see going on in the classroom.  Most of the teachers that I see doing writing use peer editing, author’s chair, and teacher conferencing.  I think that this chapter makes some very good points.  One point they make is that students must have good reading skills to be able to identify problems within their texts.  If they do not have good comprehension then how are they going to know what they need to change when revising if they do not understand the context in which they need to write.  I also think that elementary student have a hard time revising and writing at the same time and I agree that this is why we have to come up with steps and goals to help make it an easier transition into this.  I also think that by making these steps and goals studnets are going to be more cautious and aware when they are revising, because they will have certain things they are looking for in their texts that need to be changed, they are not just aimlessly wondering through their paper not sure of what they are trying to fix.

I think that by combining a lot of the ideas that were proven to work in the research a teacher will get a more well rounded writing and revising program.  I don’t think that just one thing can make a student good at revising.  I think it is lots of practice and being shown many different ways to do it and different strategies to remember when revising.  I also think that the teacher and peers play a major role.  A person does not know how good their paper is until they hear feedback and I think it is important for a student to get feedback from peers their age and from the teacher.  All these things will really help to make a paper the best that it can be.

Poetry Assignment

Here is my poetry assignment!!!

 Project writeup

Ants-invitation

Rubric-for-acrostic-poem

Ant-poetry-powerpoint

Poetry-analysis

Reflections on Class Multigenre Projects

Wow!!! I can’t even begin to explain the amazing projects that I saw tonight.  I am really impressed with the topics people chose and the creative genres and designs they used.  I thought the group  I was in had great ideas.  I loved listening to everyone present their information because you got to see their personality shine through.  I really loved The genres Robin has in her book called A Tale of Mickey and Ricky Mouse.  I thought the idea of creating a dialouge between the two mouses was great.  It really made me laugh and want to create something like that.  I also liked her cinderella’s castle concrete poem with all the information right inside the design!!  Great Job Robin!!  I loved Erica’s project because I thought Sarah Winchester was so interesting to learn about.  She covered her whole life with great detail in all her genres.  She made them look old like they came from that time period.  She is such a great poet.  Her I poems are amazing.  I also was touched by Cher’s Ruby Bridges project it was very touching.  I loved the report card and the letter from a student to ruby wondering why they couldn’t play together.  I think this really represents how chidren think.  They do not see color at all.  They just see themselves as kids that can all do the same things.

Multigenre Project

Here are my pieces to my multigenre project.  I hope you enjoy!

Butterflyology-cover-sheet

Butterflyology Pictures of my scrapbook

Table-of-contents

Defense-for-multigenre-butterfley-project

Bibliography

Invitation

Multigenre-reflective-essay

Chapter 3

I believe that since I work in a Title I school a lot of my children do not attend preschool and therefore may have not been exposed to story telling like what is at the beginning of Chapter 3.  I think that I have had to take a lot of the narrative features and use them in my classroom this year.  I have to make up for the fact that some of my students did not go to preschool and expose them to things that they will not be exposed to at home.  Most of my students do not have children’s books at home to read.  Therefore if I do not show them good literature in school they will not be exposed to it.  I also do see more retell in kindergarten than I do recalling of events.   I know that this is not a bad thing because this is one of the steps for them to take before they can make up their own stories.  I think that by me reading to them everyday with different types of text and different types of stories they get a wide range of what they know a story can be and then they can incorporate the things they hear when they are trying to write.

I do love how my students writing has gotten more exciting over the year.  At the beginning they just copied ideas that I had put on the board, but now a lot of my students are really starting to come up with their own ideas and sound them out.  Teaching kindergarten and first, and student teaching in 2nd has really allowed me to see the progression of writing.  It is very interesting to see how they start to add more and more detail and use words that they have picked up here and there.  I really loved how this chapter gives you ideas on how to scaffold writing and different methods to use.  It really seems to me like the lessons or blocks that they use really get the students excited about writing and really help them to create better pieces.

Wordless books

I really enjoyed reading these two articles about wordless text.  I think that using wordless text in the classroom is a great idea and one that I had never really thought of.  I have in the past tried to steer clear of wordless text because you could not do anything because there were not any words.  After reading these articles I have really heard some examples of ways to use this in my classroom.  I think this would fit right in for kindergarten.  They love to come up with their own stories when they look at books we have read together since some of them are to hard for them to read so I know they would love to make their own books. 

I also agree with the articles that it would really help in the upper grades.  Students that are older would probably really like that they could express their creative side and put the stories into their own words.  I am really interested to see how this will work in my classroom although I worry about how long it would take with kindergarten.  Some of my students have a hard time writing a sentence.  I think however that they could do it with enough guidance.