Saturday, January 24, 2009
Writer's Notebook Ch. 3 &4 group b 4pm
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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I really loved reading chapter 3 in this book because it is full of creative and useful ideas to use in the classroom! I love that everything in the writer's notebook is considered a "seed" because they can lead to more involved pieces of writing down the road. I also loved her example of writing with honesty where she shares her stealing experience with her students. I think it is important for kids to write honestly, and this is something I need to stress with my own students. I am so excited to try the plethora of ideas in chapter 3 with my students including the webs, lists, maps, quotes, photos, and sketches. I have been experimenting with these in my own writer's notebook, and so far I have two photos of my husband and I at our wedding and on our honeymoon because I wanted to write about memories from both of those times in my life! I have also made a list of pet peeves, interesting quotes I have heard, and a lot of observations I have made, especially in my classroom. I have been bringing my writer's notebook to school to write down interesting things my students say so I can use them in future writing.
ReplyDeleteI thought chapter 4 was very interesting because it really stresses how important it is for writer's to be observers. As I was reading it, I came up with an idea to take my students outside for a few minutes and have them write about what they observed using all of their senses. One of the things I struggle with the most is that I will teach my student a skill using a minilesson and they always impress me with how much they write, and then they don't USE the skills I taught them during a writing prompt. Does this happen to you guys? What do you do to reinforce skills?
I am going to try to incorporate this into my cyberlesson by having students write in their writer's notebooks about what the pioneers felt like traveling west. Also, I am going to show them many pictures of prairies and the midwest region and have them use their 5 senses to describe it in their journal. This will help them with their diary entries that they have to write for my cyberlesson.
Allison I totally agree with you. I also really loved chapter 3 because I thought that there were so many ideas that were useful. I love when authors give you real actual ideas that you can use. I think that one of the things that I am going to try with one of my students is combining both chapter ideas, and giving him a topic on a piece of paper, like "foods". Then I will have him use sentence starters, such as "I smell, I feel, I taste, I hear" and have him complete the sentences about a favorite food. I really think that he can do that, and it would be really interesting to see how it turns out. I would love to hear what he was thinking about his senses.
ReplyDeleteI also used these ideas for things in my own notebook. I made a list of things I find peaceful, and ways I relax. It actually helped me turn a topic off the list into a small poem and written passage. I think for me, lists are the way to plant my own seeds and get me writing into more in depth descriptions with details.
In chapter 4, I took the idea of observing nature, and did it while looking out my window. It always amazes me of how pretty nature actually is, and time and time again I always tell myself to stop and notice it, yet I never do. So tonight, after reading chapter 4 I actually took the time to observe nature and write down my thoughts.
Something else that was going through my mind in chapter 4 was how I feel like my students' minds are like nature in the way that there are 55 things going on at once and never stopping. There are sounds, lights, feelings, creatures, and movements constantly occuring, and as I watch my students, I feel like their minds are experiencing much of the same thing too. Pictures, sounds, sensations all moving through their mind at once. Beautiful, yet overwhelming at the same time.
I think I can have the students use the senses writing after giving them a topic of something that they have completed using sequential steps. For example, after following a recipe, they can use the senses writing to write about that experience, or after ordering pictures of a known routine (like brushing teeth) then they can complete the sentence starters of the senses writing.
Tiffany,
ReplyDeleteI think that is such a cool idea to have your students write down their thoughts on certain topics, and I love how you are giving them sentence starters. That is such a great idea, especially for special education students, and for students who have difficulty formulating ideas. There are many times where my students have no idea what to write about, and I have to brainstorm a list of ideas to help them out. Sentence starters are really perfect for helping these students think about what they want to say, and it is less work for the teacher!!
Today was the first day in a very long time that I actually went for a walk. I am always so busy that I never really even think about spending the time outside. My husband and I walked all around our neighborhood and it was such an amazing experience! I was thinking about what Janet Elliott wrote in her book about using your senses to really take-in the outdoors, and it took everything I had but I cleared my head and was able to only focus on my surroundings. It is amazing how many things you miss when your mind is full of so many other things. I immediately wrote in my writer's journal when I got home, and I wrote down various observations such as neighborhood kids running around playing basketball in their driveways or riding their bikes. I also wrote down memories of times when I used to do those things, and my three sisters and I would play outside pretty much all summer long with the other neighborhood kids. I wrote about how important I think that is, and how many kids today don't have that opportunity because they would rather sit inside and play video games all day. The last thing I wrote was a list of hopes and dreams for my own kids, and what I want to be able to do for them just like my parents did for me.
I definitely want my students to take their writer's notebooks with them on their walks, and make observations the way I did today.
Allison, that is great that you were able to do that today and really apply what Jane Elliott had talked about. I loved how the observations you had made outside brought up old memories, and then turned into hopes for your own kids. It's amazing how somethings can be triggered by observation!
ReplyDeleteToday I tried what I said I was going to about the topic of "favorite food". I then gave him sentence starters of I smell, I taste, I hear, etc. He was so amazing with this. He chose "pizza" for his food, and wrote that he smelled "baking", heard "oven opening", tasted "cheese", saw "sauce", and touched "hot". It was so great to see him really describing and visualizing his experience. I definitely want to continue to use this process with him, and feel like I can get him to use these as beginnings for further writing.
I forgot to mention that after I read chapter 3, one of the quotes that really stuck out to me was "nothing is significant until we make it significant. It is our job to validate their lives by honoring their thoughts, feelings, and daily experiences". As I wrote in my journal, this reminded me of Slumdog Millionaire, the movie that I loved! It just seemed to click how in that movie, the main characters own experiences were the only things he knew in life. What happened in his daily life was the knowledge he learned, and everything else was almost irrelevant! It's incredible how that seems to really be true. Heather, do you see this with your kids a lot? I know that you have some inner city kids and I wondered if you thought their knowledge was very much based on their real life experiences. How does that differ from your life experiences and knowledge, and how do you adapt to this when teaching?
Hi Tiffany and Allison!
ReplyDeleteSorry it's taken me a while to get back to you. I have to agree with all of what you both said about these two chapters. I've really been enjoying the book as it has a lot of really good and easy ideas to use in the classroom. I'm thinking of sharing a lot of the ideas in chapter 3 with my students and then creating some kind of box with examples of all the ideas in them, so when they need some help getting started with their writing they can go to that and look for some ideas. I already have a container of story starters and I find students going there as a reference when they need some inspiration.
I liked the idea of the job timeline and tried it in my writers notebook. It was interesting thinking about the real "jobs" I've had. I didn't include babysitting although I probably could have, but I included my 2 retail jobs and then tutoring and teaching. There really isn't a whole lot of a connection between working retail and teaching, but I found that I was writing about how working retail and being the person who would try and smooth customer issues out before managers got involved really helped me learn how to word things and discuss things with parents and students without getting them too upset.
I'm also going to use the timeline idea for my cyberlesson or unit. I want the students to create a timeline of the pioneers journeys and keep track of their feelings and emotions on the trip. I think for them to do this they will be able to see what a complex thing moving west really was. As they were hopeful they were also fearful and full of anxiety and emotions could change in an instant.
My question to you both, is how do you encourage students to be honest in their notebooks? We've talked here and in class about notebooks being private, but I still find many of my students write fiction or when they are writing about their lives I can tell things aren't always truthful. I don't know if this is a necessity for them to be honest, but I would like them to keep some record of what life is really like so when they go back to read this later in life its a true account. Just wondering