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.

I really love how wordless picture books can bridge gaps between things like language barriers and different reading levels.  It is one of the only reading activities in which all kids can share the same experience and be on the same “level.” It made me think of my Hispanic students who are brilliant and write excellent stories, but are inhibited by their second language. I also thought it was important that the teacher made sure to scaffold by doing several whole group activities before letting the kids break off into partners and individuals.  Things that students seem to learn from wordless picture books: story structure, complete sentences, tenses, dialogue, etc.  Wordless picture books also inspire creativity, as there is no wrong story (as long as it makes sense with the picture).  It also draws kids in to pay more attention to the illustrative details, which are often overlooked.  I could see how the repetition of the words could help with sight vocabulary, although this wouldn’t necessarily help a child learn to read better if the child isn’t making sense of the phonetic patterns in the words (aka just memorizing). Anyway, I did an author/illustrator study on David Wiesner last semester…it was fascinating.  He wrote several Caldecott books, including Tuesday.    Here are some teaching ideas I came up with for Tuesday:

·        All of Wiesner’s books are great when exploring setting.  What time of day is it?  Where does this story take place?  How do you know? 

·        Writing ideas:  Have students become authors by creating their own words to go with the illustrations.  Or each student could write about one page and make the story as a class.  Ask the students what strange things are happening on Tuesday and write/illustrate what they think will happen next Tuesday.  

·        “Use this book to create “Split Images” described in Johnson and Louis’s professional book Bringing It All Together (Heinemann 1990 ISBN 0-435-08502-6) wherein each child sees only every other page of the book with her/his partner viewing the intervening pages. The two partners exchange information and try to recreate the story.”  ~~This idea came from http://www.carolhurst.com/titles/tuesday.html

Love the balloon speech idea!  It seems a little too complicated for fifth graders, but I could see it working on a smaller scale.  I don’t think my kids could handle researching all of the other people in their groups, but I think they could do the rest of it.  It is almost like playing make-believe…I would have loved this as a child.  I know I don’t do enough persuasive writing with my kids.  Persuasive writing is a lot more difficult for kids than narrative writing, for example.  I guess it is just more abstract?  One of my favorite parts about this book is that it provides so much structure with all of the discussion guides.  I could definitely see this helping students stay on task in small group discussions.  The guides even helped me think about my own multigenre project.  For example, what are the most important things to include about the time period and about my great-great-grandfather’s contributions to society?  In thinking about my class multigenre project, I have been trying to figure out what is “authentically appropriate.”  Does the genre always have to fit in with the time period?  For example, say I have a child that is researching the Revolutionary War and wants to do a comic strip…am I supposed to say, “No, because they didn’t have comics then?”  I want students to be able to use whatever genre they are excited about, but at the same time, I want it to be authentic.  Is there a right or wrong answer to this?  Finally, I liked how the last chapter considered the process and product of multigenre as different assessments.  I think the “strengths” and “needs” are very constructive.  At the same time, I do like the objectivity of a standard rubric, so students know ahead of time the exact expectations.  I’m so excited about my multigenre project, I’m just afraid I’ve spent too much time researching and I’m starting to feel the time crunch!  I cannot tell you how much I learned from visiting with my grandparents this week!  I was absolutely amazed (and still am) about all the historical artifacts that have been in that house all those years that I would have never seen before now!  Anyway, I guess researching is half the battle.  I’m still working on bridging the gap between reality (actual historical facts) and fictional genres (ex. journal entry/letter)! 

There are several points that stood out to me in Best Practices Ch13.  I felt like in this chapter the authors were more understanding of what the life of a teacher is like.  I appreciated that factors such as lack of time and state testing were not ignored. For example, p. 266 states, “standards have to be met, content has to be covered, and the textbook has to be finished.”  One thing I related to was the point that “no one seems to be teaching writing–kids are already expected to know how. ”  I think I was guilty of thinking that way before actually teaching…I soon came to realize that my students knew very little about writing, and the only way they would learn is through my explicit teaching of it as a subject in and of itself.   The chapter also talked about how writing should be focused on significant matters (authentic) and should be published for a specific audience.  My kids have loved writing their penpal letters, because they think of it as a tool of communication, rather than an exercise.   They have also enjoyed publishing an “ABC” book and are working on biographies to be published in a book from lulu.com.  I also plan on cramming in a few digital assignments between now and the end of the year that can go on our class blog.  It has really been rewarding for me to learn what works.  Straying away from standard prompts has not just been more enjoyable for the kids, but it is more pleasurable for the teacher, too!  I also thought it was important that the chapter distinguished content from process.  It is so easy only to focus on one or the other when assessing.  Before I started teaching, I spent so much time stressing over the students’ mechanical mistakes–practically driving myself insane!  I quickly realized this year that I could only do so much convention-wise to catch-up my kids (who are drastically behind).  I knew I needed to focus more on the content/communication aspect.  Since I have started focusing more on content and less on mechancis, I have enjoyed teaching writing so much more and feel like a more effective, less stressed teacher.  Also, I liked this quote on p. 279, “Seldom does a professional work on a problem (or write about it) with a closed book.”  I definitely think that makes a good case for using text-based prompts.  Finally, even though I am working on many digital ways to publish students’ work, I’m trying to find an area in the classroom to hang more work samples.  I also want to work on a word wall.  So many ideas, so little wall space! 

These next few chapters have given me great insight into developing a large-scale multigenre project.  This year I know that it will have to be a smaller version since I haven’t implemented enough genre study throughout the year.  I’m still excited to try it, though, and I can use this year as a trial run (plus I can hopefully get some good examples to show next year’s students).  I do wish there were more examples to show my kids.  I like how the chapters emphasized peer conferencing.  I think kids can learn so much from critiquing each other. The write-alouds have also proven to be very effective in my kids’ biography writing, so I’m sure they would be great for multigenre (and any kind of writing) too.  I was thinking about only offering my students a few genres to choose from so we could really focus on the aspects of those particular genres.  For example, I could show several literary examples with letter writing etc.  In a way I feel this would help the students have a better idea of a few particular genres, but I don’t want to hinder creativity if they’d rather do something different.  I guess I could just focus on a few, but then keep the option open if they want to do something else.  Next year, of course, I’d be able to focus on many different genres throughout the year so they’d be familiar with a larger variety. 

I have decided to do my multigenre project on a person in the Civil War.  We are going to learn about the Civil War in my classroom in the next few weeks, so I thought it would be great to tie in a multigenre study (using my project as an example).  Not to mention we have NO time for social studies, so I practically RELY on Language time to teach history.  I was going to do my project on Rose O’Neal Greenhow, a female spy for the Confederates in the war.  I was really excited about it…and then I realized that I had a great-great- (great?)  grandfather in the Civil War who got his arm blown off in a battle etc.  I know my grandpa has a good bit of information on him.  I thought it would be an awesome opportunity for me to talk to my grandpa about our family history (we have sooo much family history and I’m awful b/c I don’t know anything about it)!  Not to mention, it would be more personally meaningful, and I would still learn a lot about the Civil War.  I’m going to my grandparents as soon as I can to make sure there is enough research…if not, I’ll use the spy as a backup.  Let me know what you guys think!