Multigenre Project Presentation

Tonight was wonderful!!!!!!!  Everyone did a wonderful job!!!!!!  I could tell that everyone made such a great effort on all projects.  It was amazing to see all the research that took place on all the projects.  I know that with my own project I was able to take ownership and find lots of things that I could relate to Juliette Gordan Low. Although she never had children the girl scout troops were her children. I know that the girls in my own feel like my children.  So I can relate to her in that she wanted to make a difference in all girls life. 

I really enjoyed all the project.  I learned all about people and places I had never heard of before.  I really liked Robin’s alphabet pictionary it was amazing.  I thought that Jamie’s topic was the most unique!  I never knew about the wedding dress color and how that color expressed your feelings on the day of your wedding.  Really neat.  I can tell that everyone is so creative!!!!! 

Weekly Reflection on Cassidy,Reese articles and Ch. 3

I read the articles first and they really intrigued me.  I use wordless book in my classroom alot.  I use them for vocabulary and getting ideas from pictures.  My students like to make up the story as we go along.  I had never thought about wrting down our story and sharing it with others.  I know that sounds awful but at the beginning of the year we are lucky if we can sit for 15 minutes without requiring a break.  But now I have students that get really into our whole group writings.  I feel that this activity may be good for the ones who enjoy it and allow the others to complete something different during that time.  I have a dear friend that teaches first grade and I made a copy of the articles for her to read.  Once she read them she was amazed at what the 2nd grade students could do with the activity. She told me that she was looking for something to do with her students to keep them focused during all this warm weather that we are having and she said that she may have found her activity.  Iwould have love to see the books that they created.

The chapter was a great resource to show the various ways and stages that children use during storytelling and writing stories.  I know that looking back over some of my own children’s writing the difference  I can see through length but also adding great details.  I really like the ideas of teachers allowing students to partner write.  This is a great concept for a student who struggles with writing stories but has great ideas as long as someone else is writing.  allowing students the opportunity to see how other writers solve problems within the stroyline and also seeing transitions is a great way to learn and use them as examples in their own writing.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        

       

Weekly Reflection On Ch.13 and Writing w/o Boundaries

Ch. 13

This was a very hard Chapter for me to read. I guess because my background is strictly in Birth-Kindergarten and I don’t have to face this in the classroom on daily basis.  In my classroom we are drawing pictures to creat e a story or a sentence about a topic.  I know from my own personal experience in my education I always have struggled with writing assessments so I can relate to the scenario.  As a teacher myself, I feel bad for  the teachers who battle this dilema on a daily basis.  The demands are so intense for educators  that I can see why some have to leave the career after so many years.  I firmly believe the statement on page 268, “Writing is a performance task that requires substantial effort, motivation, persistance, strategic planning, and skill, as well as knowledge about a topic.”  I feel that constantly modeling the skills to students is one of the best way to teach writing skills.  

Again, this topic is very new to me so it will be interesting to see what Dr. Frye’s Blog will say about this chapter.  If anyone takes notes please pass them my way.

Writing w/o boundaries

The rest of the book was very informative and has helped me in preparing my own reflections.  I loved seeing the examples of the students work.  Ialso liked how the authors of the book encouraged the readers to utilize the units required by the state curriculum.  I feel this project is a great way for students to work on different types of writing and learning to reflect on their own writing and assess their work.   

       

Weekly Reflection On Multigenre PRojects

This weeks reading in Writing Without Boundaries made the multigenre projects more clear and a better understanding in implementing them into the classroom setting. I really liked the goal sheets to use to keep the students on schedule with the project.  The sheet taught them the importance of time management in creating a creative project.  I feel like I could benefit from trying to use these sheets myself. I really liked how the text encouraged peer conferences with the students.  I know alot of times students can take criticism and ideas from peers better than teachers or other adults.  I also liked the concept of individual conferences to complete with the students.  This is a great time for teacher to assist students with help but also a time where the teacher can gauge whether the student is struggling with the project or a particular genre.   I feel the teacher should provide the students examples of genres so that they can compare and use these examples in completing their own creation of that genre.

     The ideas that I have thought of for my own project are:

    Martin Luther King, Jr.

    Benjamin Franklin

    Penguins

    Rosa Parks

I think this is a great project for us to complete so we can show off our creative side!!!!!!   

Moulton Article

The Moulton article on Multigenre Paper was very interesting.  The entire process really intrigued me to want try it on students to see if they enjoyed completing a paper in a different format. The process seems to be easier because the student is able to make more choices in deciding on how to present the information.  The student is able to complete genres that interest them and they are able to show their own strengths in other areas while presenting the accurate information.  I do feel that the teacher can use this activity to give the students the opportunity to be creative and expressive through their work.   I am excited about completely my own multigenre project.

Weekly Reflection

What is an “I” poem?  That is the question!!!

An “I” poem gives the writer the opportunity to express their emotion about a particluar topic.  The writer also uses their senses to express ideas and information about the specific place, person, or thing. 

This past weekend  I  had the chance to read the books that were”I” poems.  They were wonderful the illustrations went very well with the poems.  The books were easy to read and even my own children didn’t mind sitting down and listening to a book that was a poem.

Weekly Reflection on Kucan Article

This article was very interesting.  I am not a fan of poetry at all so this article was a eye-opening experience.  I loved how the article explained in great detail on teaching “I ” poems directly with novels before the reading and after reading.  I also like being able to give the students a format to begin with and then allowing them the opportunity to create the “I” poem without guidance.

Before the article I was very apprehensive about writing an “I” poem myself.  After reading the article I feel inspired to write one and possibly use the “I”  poem for my poetry assignment.    Great article!!!!!!!  

Weekly Reflection on Chapter 6

This weeks reading was very informative for me.  I love the layout of this chapter.  It broke down the different strategies to use with students when teaching the planning stage of writing.  After reading this chapter I believe as a student I was not taught strategies to planning a paper.  I believe that is why I have difficulty planning any type of paper that I have to write.  On page 132 I really enjoyed reading the Report-Writing strategy and how the teachers taught the class in whole group class discussion but also gave the students who struggle the opportunity to have smaller group sessions to allow them more opportunity to work with the teacher and the concept until they were able to understand better.  When I have the opportunity to teach older grades this chapter will be my guide on teaching students how to plan on writing assignments.  This chapter also reinterates Chapter 10 in that the best way to teach students is to model continuously throughout the activity.  

Weekly Reflection Ch.10 & Article

This week’s reading included Ch. 10 Promoting Motivation for Writing.  This was a very good chapter. Some of the reading is very hard to compare to my students because they are just in the pre-writing stage. My children in my classroom enjoy writing and enjoy writing stories as a class.  So I am never sure when the dislike of writing takes place in their education.  Although, I am able to compare these ideas with my children who are in the 2nd and 4th grade.  My fourth grader  complains about writing everyday and it is scary because she has a long time before she finishes school.  The chapter was able to show me reasons why she feels like writing is a death sentence.  One reason that I can see is that the writing task the teacher gives her does not interest her or she has never experienced the task.  I like the idea of allowing the students see the teacher write and go through the writing process along with them during the activity. I think that allowing the students the opportunity to participate in creating ideas and using writing across the curriculum to attempt to spark the interest of every student in the classroom.   

The article ”Children Can Write Authentically If We Help Them” was about giving students the opportunity find their authentic voice  in their writing. I feel that giving students the chance to write about their feelings, a situation that they may have faced, or just about something they like gives them the feeling of owning their writings. Students also need to realize that writing can be a positive outlet to express feelings,wants and needs.   

I am not sure how my journal is going I have some ideas but I want a little more clarification before I get really engrossed in the project.                 

Weekly Reflections « Pam’s Weblog

This morning I completed my second time reading the chapter from the textbook.  The first time I felt like I was struggling to understand the contents of the chapter but I am not sure if it was the noise from my children or the inexperience that I have working with older grades.  We were on 2-hour delay and my children were asleep and it gave me a good opportunity to take the time to focus on what the author was saying and try to relate it to the classrooms that I have observed and seem while my children were in the lower grades. 

The writing process is very different for my classroom in that we focus on trying to learn to write their names, write other words that interest the students.  I know one thing that I do in my classroom to assist the students in future  writing experiences due to providing my classroom with a print-rich learning environment.  I am also able to provide a writing center were students are able to practice letter formation with words that relate to the themes or topics of interest  by the students.  In the reading I was able to realize the importance of writing at a very early age.  The reading also allowed me the opportunity to make sure that modeling and teaching the writing process is so beneficial for the students.  Also providing writing oppportunities across the curriculum give s them more time to use the writing process and try to work on areas of improvement but also continuing to development the areas of writing that come easy to the students. The chapter also showed me the importance of showing students work throughout the classroomand in the halls allows the students to feel more confident in their writng skills.