journal-entries

Here are my sample journal entries. Sorry it took a couple of days to upload–I broke out in hives from an allergic reaction, so I was under the weather for a while!!

My Classroom Blog is a link in my blogroll, but in case you couldn’t find it easily, here it is:

http://carolinecunningham.wordpress.com/

Click on my poetry tab and then click on “Sick” digital story!  If you want to create your own, go to Dr. Frye’s Wiki, click on FILES, and click on digital story tutorial and digital story template.

Click here to view my PowerPoint presentation on our I Poetry Unit: i-poetry

My Poetry Mini Lesson

I could definitely relate to this chapter on editing and revision.  My students are a lot like the beginning writers described in the chapter, who edit only thinking about word choice, grammar, and punctuation–focusing less on content and audience.  I have been trying to edit and revise papers on the overhead to guide my students through the process.  Explicitly showing them examples has really helped them more than exercises in a language arts book.  I still remember being a child and my teachers showing me an incorrect sentence structure etc. and all of a sudden…lightbulb… and I never made that mistake again.  I think the selection about editing by using a set of specific criteria was especially significant.  As teachers, we can’t really expect our kids to keep in mind every facet of grammar, punctuation, sentence structure, content, audience, etc.  That is why it is important to focus on a few specific goals you want your students to focus on that day.  For example, when I had my students revise their biographies, I provided a list of specific instructions to guide them: ex. circle five spelling errors, circle three words that the author could replace with more vivid adjectives/verbs, correct five punctuation/capitalization mistakes, etc.  We did this in small groups of four, so each paper was read four times.  By the time it went through four editors and the paper was re-drafted, it made the teacher-editing conferences much easier.  Not only did the authors learn from their mistakes, but I think it was a valuable experience for the editors.  They seemed to enjoy the process of helping their classmates, especially since they had something to guide them.  It was much easier for them to critique others’ papers than their own.  We have also been revising “I poems.”  We have been sharing our drafts as a whole group.  This has been a great learning experience, because when the kids hear a poem with great word choice and sensory details, they want to mimic this.  They also will freely give advice to their peers, such as, “Maybe you can replace big with immense.”  So I definitely agree with the idea that students “become better writers by paying attention to how others write.”

I  am still speechless about tonight’s presentations!  They were so heartwarming!  I think I had to wipe away tears about ten times…starting with Toni’s spiritual dance and ending in Cher’s I poem of the courageous Ruby Bridges. Each person really put her heart on her sleeves.  I think everyone went over and beyond the project assignment, which proves the power of multigenre and topic selection!  Everyone really got into the role of the person she was writing about.  I was so pleased to see how each person was as personally touched by the project as I was.   I feel similar to Kari who stated that her multigenre was so much more than a project—it was a family heirloom.  For someone like me who can’t sit still much longer than an hour, I had absolutely NO PROBLEM with my attention span!  The presentations were so visually appealing.  This is so encouraging because I know when I do this with my students, the projects will keep the attention of so many different  types of learners!  The best part of all the presentations was how much I learned!  Not only did it spark my interest into further researching a few of the topics…but I picked up a general overview of about twenty different topics!  Well my brain has been so stimulated by these amazing projects, this is about all I can write at the moment.  Thank you, classmates, for all of your insight and for sharing a bit of you along with these interesting topics…and thank you, Dr. Frye, for always inspiring us!!

This chapter was a good review for me in regard to the developmental stages of writing.  It helped me remember that even though my students are “behind” on the roadmap, they are at least still moving!  The narrative composition rubric and graphic/verbal scaffold tables were very helpful to me.  The chapter reminded me that essential story elements should be focused on regardless of the developmental stage.  It made me think of positive things going on in my classroom (Character Sketchers, etc.)  I loved the trickster tales ideas, even though they seemed like a time-crunch problem.    Wordless picture books could go along with these key ideas, as they bring together kids from all over the “road map” to focus on the same important story structures.  For example, the students could look at the pictures and write the problem and solution on their own.  I think if I was teaching wordless picture books, I would start off writing the words to the story as a whole group.  Then I would break the kids off into small group and eventually individual activities in order to scaffold.