Reading twice

I don't usually read a book twice, not even Harry Potter or the Twilight Series. I read Seedfolks in 8th grade, but didn't remember it; so I decided to read it again. I do remember liking it, but couldn't even remember what it was about at all. This lack of memory was a blessing in disguise, because I really enjoyed reading it again. It seemed even more enjoyable, because I'm older now. I was able to really appreciate the garden whereas, in 8th grade I obviously didn't take it to heart or I would have remembered it. I've never read another book that had each chapter about a different character. I love how Paul Fleischman connects the characters too. It's very realistic and heart-warming. Every year I sell my books back to TIS, but I've found that the text books this year are so rewarding and informative that I just may have to keep them, including Seedfolks!

Seedfolks tied into the Allen readings we had as well. Initially, I had a hard time seeing the difference between show, don't tell. I had to reread (something I don't do) to investigate further. It seems to mean that writer's should be very descriptive by using action verbs. An example would be "He sat with his head resting on his hand while reading the newspaper." This gives a nice visual and a sense of action that his body is doing. One of the sentences that was a “tell” didn't use an action verb. The writer wrote, "He seemed to be in his own little world." This is more of an opinion. Being in your own little world wasn't described with an action until after the comma when the writer wrote, "not paying attention to anyone walking around or others having a conversation nearby." Allen’s 34 question activity seemed very similar to a character sketch done in theatre. People who are very serious about their acting write answers to similar questions to Allen’s in a notebook. They always develop their character through writing this way they can go back and reread if need be or add more. I’ve done it several times for characters I’ve played and it’s been very helpful. It gives you a voice, especially when your chorus and don’t even have a name. I always make a name for my chorus parts.

As for chapter 7 in Allen, I learned in more detail about other specific genres. Although they all seemed impressive, I’m not sure that any suit my paper. I may need some help in this regard. I thought about doing a poem from a child’s perspective and a newspaper article from a teacher’s perspective, but that’s all so far. I wonder if I can do something that hasn’t been done before…

Orange or Orenge?

I did more writing conferences Wednesday, but they were more difficult than the last two weeks I’ve done them in field study. I’ve not experienced a child correcting me on spelling before. I wasn’t even sure how to handle it. He read his story to me and most of the errors he had were spelling related. I went through each page and picked words that were slightly off to go over. He didn’t really have too many words that were way off (we went over those too though). I came across the word “orenge” and said to the student that it sounds like it’s correct but it’s actually spelled “orange.” He said, “No, it’s with an ‘e.’ I’ve never gotten it wrong before. This is how my sister spells it.” He was so adamant about it, I didn’t want to argue; but I wanted him to learn the correct spelling. I told him that maybe his other teacher missed it and that maybe his sister’s teacher had made a mistake since everyone makes mistakes. He still seemed hesitant, so the only thing I could think of was to put in into the computer and show that spell check underlines it or changes it automatically to “a.” He seemed satisfied with this, but disappointed. I’m not sure if I did the right thing. I didn’t know how to handle it. The next child’s handwriting I couldn’t even read, so that was difficult to deal with too. I didn’t want him to think his handwriting was bad, so I tried my hardest to read what I could. He couldn’t read some of it either. How do I help him fix his penmanship? Is that something I should do, or say something about during the conference?

On a different note, Allen’s chapter on poetry taught me new forms that I never knew about. When I write poetry it usually rhymes. It’s nice to have some examples of other types of poems to reference, especially if I want children to do a multi-genre research paper. I really enjoyed the six-room form. I’ve never read a poem like that before and it made sense to me. It was great for description purposes. Poetry in general is a genre that can be easily appreciated according to Allen. She says,” If you have reluctant writers in your classroom or if you as a teacher are a reluctant writer, poetry is a good place to ease into writing.” She says it’s short and easy to edit. I’m not sure if I will use a poem for my MGRP, but it’s a possibility.
The invitation piece was confusing to me. I looked at the children’s work given and the blank worksheet. I didn’t see how it really related to an invitation. It was more like an observation/inference and question prompting sheet in my opinion. I’m not sure that invitation is the right word for the activity the author is talking about, but I can see how it would be beneficial to students in regards to literacy.

MGRP Relates to a Donut Shop? You Bet!

I read chapters 1-3, and 6 out of The Multigenre Research Paper text book. It gave me many ideas about the genres I might use for my paper and reiterated the importance of using this type of paper for all ages. Some of the genres used I would have never even thought of such an an obituary. A resume for MLK seemed really neat too. There are so many possibilities, it will be hard to narrow it down for my own topic.

I never thought about how a multi-genre research paper would be part of my own MGRP though, until I read the Powell Davidson article. The kindergarten classroom's story that the authors share is quite remarkable. My topic for the MGRP is how gender affects motivation and understanding of reading and writing and how teachers can incorporate gender into their lesson plans. It just so happens that much of my research suggests using real life literacy in the classroom as opposed to books or at least supplementing the text books. I write about how boys and sometimes girls have trouble concentrating and get bored easily with the same old reading and writing. Taking a field trip, like the kindergarten kids did to the donut shop is probably the best way to show how a school project relates to real life, but some schools can't go on field trips. In that case, my MGRP comes in, with theatre and drama and games. If you can't really play a video game, then make up your own, and if you can't go to a donut shop create your own in the classroom. Those of just snipits of my thoughts, but I guess you'll all have to read my MGRP for more info! Say tuned :)

conference and MGRP

I’ve come to find that Wednesdays are writing conference days in my field placement classroom. This is a great thing, because I will continually get practice to perfect my conferencing skills. This week I worked with another two students. Both were Asian boys. Both seemed very confident in their reading to me of the story. There handwriting was nice and pictures elaborate. They seem to have written more than the students I had last week. Even though they wrote more and were more descriptive, I still found ways they could improve their pieces. I praised them for what they did do well and then moved on to possible sentences they could include using senses. One seemed eager to add more description and the other seemed reluctant, but did add one insert about how the cold made his legs stiff. I wasn’t sure if I should have pushed him to do more. His story was great and wasn’t in need of gobs more, but I felt I was blowing his confidence by saying much. He seemed to know he was a good writer.

In regards to the multi-genre research paper, I have been quite involved with my sources. Some I’ve found to be a little outside of my topic and I had to find others to supplement the originals. I have focused on what I need from the valuable sources I’ve found and pulled out all that I can to make my paper more accurate and interesting. It has been a pleasure reading many of the journals concerned with my particular topic. I’m looking forward to continue my work to make it the most informative and compelling that it can be.

My very first conferences!

I’m so glad I read chapters 10-12 before our field study, because I incorporated my reading into my teaching today.

Hale starts chapter 10 with negative experiences a first year teacher might have, and then she transitions into how to focus on positives first followed by how to improve your weaknesses as a teacher. After the opening, Hale related this personal tidbit on her first day teaching to how to give feedback to young writers in a conference setting starting with the strengths they possess. The first task my teacher had me do today was to have a child read a story to me that they wrote, and I was to edit and publish their story by typing it on the computer. I was able to do two complete conferences of this sort. Both times I let the student read their story in its entirety. I started by conference by complimented them on one or two specific crafts that I saw that they utilized.

My first student wrote, “My sister is really, really, REALLY cute!” I told the student that I loved how she repeated the word really to emphasis how cute her sister is and that she used all capital letters with the last really to make it even stronger. From that point I was able to praise her on her use of adjectives to describe her sister. She said, “My sister has big brown eyes and fluffy brown hair.” I started to read a section that had no periods and asked her what she thought when I read it all together without taking a pause. She said it was too fast. I asked her what type of punctuation I could use to slow it down. She right away wrote two periods in the one, long run on sentence. After her editing, I asked her to tell me what I had just said to reiterate the concept taught like Hale had suggested. She then said that you need to put periods to end sentences to show a pause is needed when reading the story. I was pleased with her answer and knew that she understood. I also asked her why writing the same word more than once is a good writing tool. She also was able to repeat what I had said about making a strong statement. Overall Hale’s tactics proved to be beneficial. I felt the child had learned in a positive manor while also having fun at the same time. I was careful to word my questioning like Hale worded her examples in the book. I said, “I noticed that you used the same word three times in a row. It makes your writing very visual to me and is a good thing to do.” I then asked her if she knew why I might think that.

The next child had different crafts that she did well. She used periods and exclamation marks all correctly, but had many spelling errors. However, the spelling errors were on words that are beyond her grade level, so I knew she was going above and beyond to try new words even if she knew they weren’t always correct. I complimented her on the job well done. I then said that I noticed the word Disney in the title had an “e” in it and I asked her on page one why the Disney on that page looked different. She automatically pointed out the “e”. I followed this question with, “Do you think you need and ‘e’ and why?” She was able to sound the word out and make sense of the vowel. I was very pleased.

My first conferences went well. I tried to incorporate what I learned and by doing so the children proved they learned something new. I did my job as a teacher in respect to this activity. I hope I can continue to build on this experience.

more wows about our book

Several aspects of the chapters we read really stood out to me. First being the benefits to a mini-lesson. I feel the attention span of younger children only allows for about 7-10 minutes of focusing on one topic, which is the time frame Hale sets for this type of lesson. She included a useful table about the four categories of mini-lessons that one can incorporate into their own classroom. I was thinking about concentrating on one aspect each school day and have a free write integrating all of the categories on Friday to review. What do you think about this idea? I’m quite pleased with the idea that 10 minutes on one small concept and reviewing it a few days after will allow what was taught to be absorbed and retained.
Hale also makes a point of saying that if you use literature that is well known, the students can concentrate on the concept you’re teaching rather than the comprehension of the story (100). She even said just pinpointing a few sentences that cover your topic being taught or just a simple paragraph is sufficient for some lessons. From my experience with writing, I don’t recall being so familiar with a text that I was able to dissect different sections of it and relate it to a new concept. We frequently switched texts so our focus was mostly comprehension rather than crafts, mechanics, etc. The “try its” are amazing ways to make sure students are learning. Discussion always leaves room for alterations and understanding, while writing a little bit gets the mind flowing with ideas and uses for mechanics. Allowing students to share their work on the overhead or with small groups gives the student a sense of power and pride (101). I know I feel a since of pride when I share just about anything that’s exciting to me; being praised with words of affirmation makes me want to open up even more with others. It may be the same for students according to Hale.
As for conferences with children, I’m all about it. Each child has different needs and one on one conversation can tell me where a child is and where they need to be. I would like to have conferences with parents frequently too, even if it’s just a short period of conversation over the phone. I will of course begin telling either the student or parent of the strengths the child exudes. After the praises will come how to get more praises by practicing new tactics. Fear sticks in me when I think of how to transition from strengths to weaknesses without hurting someone’s feelings or making them feel stupid. I don’t know how many times I felt stupid when a teacher was talking to me one on one and was telling me the things I did wrong. Any advice on how to discuss what needs work in a positive way?

Crafting Writers 1-6

How can a person critique someone else's piece of writing when they are a poor writer their self? In high school we peer edited each other’s writing. I always found a few grammatical errors, but nothing more in a peer’s work. I wasn’t capable of finding anything else at the time. Once my paper was returned to me, all I could see was red pen. Punctuation wasn’t my problem, for the red marks were in the margins stating that I lacked content and clarity. I always wanted to pour my heart out into my writing, but never got into a groove where everything flowed together nicely. I lacked detail and even when I tried to use some strong vocabulary, other aspects of my writing would suffer. I couldn’t seem to reach a balance. Crafting Writers is a blessing because if I had read this book in high school I wouldn’t even k now what red pen looks like. The book is laid out well with many tables of useful information. Much of it was review from writing tactics I learned at IU in undergraduate classes; However, I found the organization of the concepts easy to comprehend and apply to my own knowledge. I feel that I have better insight to how to write than ever before. I’m actually excited to apply these crafts to my writing. Improving my skills will make me better able to teach children how to write well. Although chapters 1-6 were lengthy, I felt them to be so engaging that it went rather quickly. Sometimes I find myself victim to skimming; consequently, I was sucked in from the beginning and didn’t miss one detail. The writing samples in the book were precious to me. There’s so much to look forward to in grading papers written by children. Their imaginations are so vivid and soar with creativity. I’m hoping their ideas will rub off on me!