Paper?

Hello internet classmates,

I've lost the assignment sheet for the paper that's due this Saturday. Professor Hyman, if you're out there, could you post it on here? Or email it to us? Classmates, any of you have a scanner/lightning quick typing skills?

Love,

Katherine

Social Issues

I have two new students this week, and both are quickly becoming handfuls. One has explosive anger issues like I've never seen, and the other sits in the back of the classroom with his head down the entire class. Like I said, they're both new this week when we're about 1/3 of the way through poetry. I'm having trouble involving either of them in the classroom because my kids are so close knit, and they both seem to feel left out as near as I can tell. Has anyone had to incorporate new kids recently? Any strategies? With other new kids I just kind of waited for them to mesh in with my class, but the year is so close to being over (!), I feel like they'll loose way too much of the rest of the year.

For those who can't post...

I believe that you cannot start a thread except through accessing the blog through your dashboard, which requires a gmail account. For those of you who do not have an account with gmail, and who don't want to open one, you can, I believe, still respond to already existing posts. So let's use this post for that purpose!

Lost in translation

So after spending this entire year stressing over how I am going to bring my ELL students up to 8th grade standards, I stumbled across a method that I think will really help. I thought I might share it here.

My students, who all speak Spanish as their first language, often write the words that sound exactly as they hear them-- which is problematic because it is not correct. For a while I conceded to the fact that their language would just always be low, and so I focused on just working on improving their ideas and voice and organization.

One problem that my students have is that they write "When the rain falls, is wet" instead of "When the rain falls, IT is wet." I was conferencing with a student on Wednesday when I realized that I should look at the reason behind the problem instead of the problem itself. I quickly jotted down an example on the back of the page I was working on. I explained to the student that if you were to say "Esta lloviendo" it means "It is raining" even though it is only 2 words. In English, we must say "It is raining" because "Is raining" is incorrect.

The student looked at me with a recognition of what I had explained to her, and I realized that this is a poster I should have put up at the beginning of the year. In my next conference, I was working with a student who kept writing "dint" instead of "didn't." I showed him what "din't" actually stood for by writing "did" and "not" and saying that when they came together they crashed, and added an apostrophe. He looked up at me with a smile and said, "oh! I never knew that!"

I tell this story because when we have been talking about giving feedback to our students, we often guess what kinds of comments will discourage and what kind will actually help our writers progress. I had been making progress with my student's ideas and voice but still fell short when I would grade their writing pieces on the same rubric as all of my other students. By giving direct mini lessons on language issues like this one, I can eliminate a lot of the problematic aspects of my ELL's writing.

Help

This is stupid, but how do you reply to a post? When I write up a comment and try to post it it won't let me, even when I am signed in and have chosen a gmail id.

Anyway, til I figure it out, this was my response to the writing process.

Maybe the problem is that kids aren't seeing the difference between the first and final draft. I mean, yah there are little improvements usually... but maybe you should really break it down for them how much better a second draft can be. I know I always hated drafts except for the fact that they kept me on top of my duedates. A lot of times I always felt like I could do in one sitting what it took other students multiple times, but I know that wasn't the case. Maybe you could do a class lesson showing the difference... and possibly the difference in grades?

Stuck in the writing process mess

Hi there,

I'm wondering about the writing process. In general, do different "stages" work for kids? Or is it too step by step? Sometimes I think that a lot of my students do really well with the step by step idea and others just want to write the whole thing one time and be done. Any ideas for how to work this out for all my students without losing track of where individual kids are at?

I have a feeling that if I say that writing the piece one time without any kind of brainstorming...then that is all I'll get. And I do think that brainstorming or prewriting of some kind is helpful a lot of the time.

Hmmm.... Ideas?

Thanks!

Writing Articles from Class-Holla

So I just read the article "Passion and Craft in Writing: Finding a Balance"...I need this! I feel so blasse about writing right now. I definitely find myself just grading my students writing and not really reading it. I agree with his point about process and product. You need to look at how you get there, and what you get in the end (so the craft and the passion).

One idea he had that I thought was really cool was a notebook organized in 5 sections: Vocabulary, Language, Literature, Nonfiction, and Writing. How could one implement this in the middle of the year? Should I just wait? Its hard enough getting my kids to bring a notebook and pencil, nevermind something so organized...I wouldn't feel right asking parents to buy a 5 subject notebook in April...

For the most part I liked this article but I wasn't sure how much was applicable. Ianacone made it a point to say he works in a very affluent district with high schoolers...however I have a very different group of 6th graders. One question it brought up for me is how applicable some of these teaching resources are for innercity schools. I worry about things like investment since, for example, many of my kids would not have much of a connection with the texts he writes about. I also want to make sure I use models with a similar cultural heritage but I don't always know where to find these.

attachments/pictures!

I want to add some resources like the poetry unit I did and the sheet I use for classroom service, but I don't know how to attach things. I'd also like to put up some pictures of my classroom... how do I do that?

Wishlist!

Hey all,

I'm thinking this post (and the ensuing comment thread) could be a place for us to let each other know what we need in terms of resources--our very own mini-craigslist!

Here's what I want/need:

-Anything about teaching poetry, especially reading poetry, not just writing it.
-Lord of the Flies resources
-Any student jobs that have worked out really well in your classroom
-Independent Reading recommendations for 15 year old boys
-Shoes that don't hurt after standing in them all day (hey, thought I'd ask!)

Reply with anything you have for me, or your own wishlist!

Grading rubrics

I'm curious about what every one thinks of the TFA general writing rubric. Do any of you use it? Prof. Hyman, after looking at it, what do you think about it? What is a good way to grade writing?

Our Poor, Neglected Blog.....

I feel our blog's pain. For what, truly, is a blog with almost no posts? A blog in name only. So....WHERE ARE YOU??? YOUR BLOG NEEDS YOUR LOVE AND ATTENTION!!

My room!

Here are some of the more exciting parts of my classroom: (when it's empty, that is--but I'm pretty sure I'm not legally allowed to post pictures of my students doing headstands on the desks on the internet)

This is my pride and joy, and it's responsible for increasing homework turn-in rates to, as you can see from last week, over 80% for most of my classes! I'm lucky enough to have a laminating machine, so I can update the percentages during each class as I check the homework.


(I know it's not rotated correctly, but I'm too tired to figure that out.)









This is the other part of my room that I'm very proud of, and it is also thanks to the laminating machine. It's just a blank two-week calendar, but it's revolutionized my teaching. It forces me to plan ahead, and then once I've got the plan written down for all the students to see, I tend to stick to it. It makes my life SO much easier!












Finally, some quotations from my brilliant students. You can also see the seminar-style table layout!

Accountable Talk Writing

I am currently working on accountable talk in my classroom and I was wondering if anyone knew any good writing assignments to spur conversation or to wrap up good dialogue. I was also wondering if other people could post their accountable talk procedures and rules so we could all benefit from them!

A rose by any other name would be this group

I am officially sponsoring the choose a name search for a blog. If we are to feel connected with this intangible entity we need it to be able to emote to us in a human way. What better way to study personification than to personify the blog? here are my suggestions:

TODD - Teachers are O.D. Descriptive

TWIA - Teaching Writing Is Awesome

WIL - Writing Is Learning

any other ideas?

Please send me your e-mail address!

It looks like I have to "invite" you all in order to have you be able to post as authors. So could you please send me your e-mail? It would be easiest if you create a gmail address if you don't already have one! Thanks!!

Welcome!!

I've decided that Blackboard.com is both
A)Unreliable

and

B) (maybe unintentionally) reproducing what's wrong with classrooms: their restrictive architecture, their insistence on formal correctness, their boundaries of what's acceptable and what's not. Whereas this feels volitional, exciting, and fresh. Like a technospace that's actually meant to be lived in and explored instead of a place for forced labor.

So I've decided top try to blog our way through the rest of the semester!