Cathy S - My goal is to use mentor texts with more consistency and intent and to gather feedback from my students on how the use of a mentor text in writing instruction impacts their writing process and product. Suggestions for high school texts welcome!
My goal is to keep better documentation of conferences that I do with students which will then hopefully produce better mini-lessons as well as more constructive and productive student work.
My goal is to find simple ways to help my students edit their writing. My plan is to find good examples of ways to teach editing and to gradually implement these into my lessons. I intend to use articles & texts I've read for ideas as well as Mailbox magazine for intermediate level students.
Cathy, I think high school students should really be able to run with the idea of mentor texts if they haven't been scarred by too many warnings against plagiarism to even think about copying a great idea! :)
Heather, I like your idea of documenting your conferences. It's so easy to forget even the simplest things said, so having notes to refer to should definitely help drive your lessons & lead to greater strides in student performance.
My goal is to create more focused mini-lesson with an end-cause in mind. I feel that my mini-lessons now are very haphazard and sporadic. I don't have a long-term goal other than "WRITE!" and I know that my students are not benefiting very much from it. I want them to get the most they can out of my daily mini-lesson ~erin~
My goal like Cathy S. is to use mentor texts with a particular mini-lesson in mind to better focus my teaching of writing in the classroom. I feel that my students do well with journal writing and storytelling, but in order to help them be better writers and to meet standards...I know that I need to have more of a lesson and focus with their writing. I would love any suggestions of good books to use as mentor texts in my class.
Lynn I admire your goal for editing. Editing is quite a challenge at any level. Editing without worksheets would be more useful and meaningful to students. I would use some of their samples and previous drafts and focus on one element at a time. I will ask the upper grade teachers at my school as well for some tech savy ideas. ~Melissa
My goal is to develop an assessment tool and method for assessing my students' writing and then assigning a grade. I hope to create a way that is motivating to my students. Some of my processes are as follow but I would welcome suggestions: 1. Ask students what their goals are for writing this week. 2. Present an SOL each week or two to focus on. 3. Create a rubric/chart for each student to record their accomplishments. -Jenny
Because I follow a more strict pacing guide and don't have as much "wiggle room", I'm going to focus my efforts on strengthening mentor texts as my goal for writing. Reading and writing go hand and hand. Finding mentor texts that support the skills/strategies that I teach on a weekly basis will benefit my children. I would like my students' writing to be an extension of what we are working on in the classroom. -Amee
At first, this was going to be my idea as well. I feel like I am always giving the students ideas of how they can enhance their story instead of letting them take the reins.Keeping better track of the conferences will allow you to know students strengths and areas of weakness. -amee
I understand what you mean about having more focused mini-lessons. Sometimes, it is hard to know where to begin or know which mini lessons will benefit the whole group vs. small groups. -amee
My goal is to learn to incorporate more lessons on revision in a meaningful way for my fourth graders. I have been trying to get them in but I feel like they are more whimsical and sporatic than purposeful. Revision is something that they are having trouble with because they look at it as tedious and I want to make it more natural. So my goal is to work it in more naturally for them.
Melissa and Cathy, I have been struggling a little with mentor texts and mini lesson because I have to incorporate the 6 traits too which is helpful but I will be interested to see how you guys work this out because it would be helpful for me as well. I do mentor texts with minilessons BUT I feel like I am having trouble organizing what I should teach next. Do you guys have a pacing type guide to use or in mind?
My goal, similar to Erin's, is to more intentionally and directly meet the needs of my students through mini-lessons. I plan to keep track of students' progress/strengths/weaknesses through my conferences with them and create some small group lessons to target those needs. I'd also like to design a unit of study to address a "big idea" which all of my students need exposure to, such as personal narrative. I'd love some suggestions for mentor texts for kid-friendly stories told through the first person, if anyone has any? ~Katie
My goal as a writing teacher this year is to become more intentional and effective in using mini-lessons to not only address the WHAT to write about, but also the grammar part of SOL's. I do feel that I am using mentor texts appropriately, however I'm finding it hard to squeeze grammar/mechanics into my mini-lessons when they seem to be taken up by the WHAT to write about. In looking ahead, I think I can attack this goal by maybe addressing the grammar parts every other day during mini-lesson time? Any suggestions welcome!
***One book I have started using recently is called: Mentor texts: teaching writing through children's literature, K-6 by Lynne R. Dorfman & Rose Cappelli ....IT'S AMAZING!!! This book has been the reason mentor texts have been a natural addition to my writers workshop time. The chapters are divided by ideas for writing, then gives you mentor text options, and THEN lays out your mini-lesson for you! Definitely worth buying!!***********
My goal is to be more intentional with students sharing their writing. Last year we had 90 minute blocks and it was much easier. Now, I never seem to have time for the sharing. I'd welcome ideas on how others are working this into their classrooms.
Thank you for your encouragement, Melissa. I hope I haven't bitten off more than I can chew, but editing is something that definitely needs to be addressed by my students.
Cathy, You asked about some high school mentor text selections & I didn't have any at the time because I'm so new to working with older students. While working on my lesson plans for next week I found this site - http://www.squidoo.com/teachingwithpicturebooks. I haven't thoroughly explored it yet, but thought it might be worth passing along to you. Here's wishing us both good luck!
My goal is to read at least one mentor text with each of my K-5 ESL groups. I also plan to conduct one mini lesson before assigning a follow-up writing activity. So, let's see-that's six mini lessons and six mentor texts. I hope I am not being too ambitious, but I think having this direction and goal will improve my teaching and benefit my students. To document the process, I will probably create a chart of some sort. This project is both scary and exciting at the same time!
Jenny, I admire your ambitious goal of creating an assessment tool and think tying your teaching to an SOL is a great idea. The classroom teachers should be very supportive and appreciative of this approach. I would be interested to hear how it goes with your ESL students.
Tonya, thanks for providing the name of the book you are using. I definitely plan to check it out! Having a program to follow could sure simplify planning.
My goal is to be more intentional with allowing my students to share their writing. I don't usually make time for this activity since my time to for writing is so limited. I do see this as a very beneficial activity. I am still brainstorming ideas as to how I'm going to document this so any ideas are welcome! The two I have at this point are to video tape a sharing session and journal each day that we share what I did and how it went.
Kathy B, maybe we can give each other some suggestions/ideas for each other’s goals since we chose the same one. I'm very limited on time so I've decided to have Fridays be our class sharing time. Maybe you could pick a day to do the same?
Erin, I have found that it can be difficult to come up with focused and specific mini lessons. I considered making that my goal too!
Kathy B. and Kim, I find myself pressed for time for sharing too. About once a week I've been having my kids just share quickly (like 1 minute) at their tables, and then we rotate around. This has actually allowed some of my quieter kids to speak out about their sharing. I wonder if you could tie an exit-slip to the sharing somehow by having the small group sharing, having them respond with a "Something I learned...." or "I still want to know...." statement about one of their classmate's writing.
Tonya, The book I'm reading, About the Authors, seems to suggest that a mini-unit of like a week on a specific mechanical skill can be helpful, I guess going with the "hit it hard and fast" theory. They suggest that the mentor texts you use might use the punctuation in a fun way that you can focus on. I guess it would also be helpful to teach a grammar skill that might be particularly helpful for approaching the next genre or other content mini-lesson you might be teaching. For example, quotation marks might be helpful for personal narrative and questions might lead well into a unit on non-fiction. Maybe those SOLSs are too young/simple for your kids...I have no idea of the level of grammar appropriateness that is expected at different levels!
All looking for mentor texts, like me, check out these two sites I found:
My goal is to improve my conferencing skills by working with an individual second grader in an after school tutoring setting. ~Mari Tonya- Thanks for the book recommendation. I can always use ideas for fitting grammar and mechanics into mini lessons. Patsy- Mentor texts are so much fun! Maybe you can try out some of the library books with your class. If you do, let me know how it goes.
Kim, Kathy, and others interested setting "sharing" goals: Hopefully our teaching segment this week will provide you with some ideas!! Stay tuned!! :c)
Jen G. You will do wonderful at Revision. I am shocked that you chose this as your goal..LOL. I would focus on using their writing and I think that your sporadic moments are excellent "teachable moments" for the children. Good Luck! I will pick the 4th grade teachers at my school for any useful recommendations for you. ~Melissa
Tonya.....I got the Mentor Text book that you mentioned and can't wait to dig into it...:)
Tonya, I also found that text most helpful when picking mentor texts. I was lucky to find it in our professional library. :)
Mari, I would love to hear about your conferencing progress. Will you use these conferences to plan mini-lessons or perhaps use them more to work on revision skills? It will be interesting to do this in a tutoring format.
Katie, I believe the Mentor Texts book that Tonya spoke of has some personal narrative ideas as well and will be happy to bring that to our next class if you are still looking for more books although your websites look very helpful.
Mari-I too would like to find better, catchy, ways to improve the conferencing time to make it more meaningful. Let me know if you stumble upon any!
Patsy-I hope that incorporating the mentor texts go well! I remember that you said that your students enjoy the books that you bring! You will find books that will inspire them, and you, I'm sure!
Patsy: I'm really interested to see how that would work out for you. Time is always one of my great concerns and I think your goal is attainable, but I would love to here how you structure it to allow for all of it. I always feel I've got this great lesson or this great text and I can't put it all together because of TIME! :)
Katie: Since we seem to have similar goals, it would be fun to compare notes! I am very worried as I start to define my outline for mini-lessons on paper, but I am hopeful to keep it short, focused, and organized. What direction are you taking your mini-lessons?
Everyone...I think time is our biggest competition! Hopefully, in doing our best in the amounts of time that we have, and sharing our most effective ideas, we can still help students find the success they are looking for:)
Cathy S - My goal is to use mentor texts with more consistency and intent and to gather feedback from my students on how the use of a mentor text in writing instruction impacts their writing process and product. Suggestions for high school texts welcome!
ReplyDeleteMy goal is to keep better documentation of conferences that I do with students which will then hopefully produce better mini-lessons as well as more constructive and productive student work.
ReplyDeleteHeather
My goal is to find simple ways to help my students edit their writing. My plan is to find good examples of ways to teach editing and to gradually implement these into my lessons. I intend to use articles & texts I've read for ideas as well as Mailbox magazine for intermediate level students.
ReplyDeleteCathy, I think high school students should really be able to run with the idea of mentor texts if they haven't been scarred by too many warnings against plagiarism to even think about copying a great idea! :)
Heather, I like your idea of documenting your conferences. It's so easy to forget even the simplest things said, so having notes to refer to should definitely help drive your lessons & lead to greater strides in student performance.
~ Lynn
My goal is to create more focused mini-lesson with an end-cause in mind. I feel that my mini-lessons now are very haphazard and sporadic. I don't have a long-term goal other than "WRITE!" and I know that my students are not benefiting very much from it. I want them to get the most they can out of my daily mini-lesson
ReplyDelete~erin~
My goal like Cathy S. is to use mentor texts with a particular mini-lesson in mind to better focus my teaching of writing in the classroom. I feel that my students do well with journal writing and storytelling, but in order to help them be better writers and to meet standards...I know that I need to have more of a lesson and focus with their writing. I would love any suggestions of good books to use as mentor texts in my class.
ReplyDelete~Melissa
Lynn I admire your goal for editing. Editing is quite a challenge at any level. Editing without worksheets would be more useful and meaningful to students. I would use some of their samples and previous drafts and focus on one element at a time. I will ask the upper grade teachers at my school as well for some tech savy ideas.
ReplyDelete~Melissa
My goal is to develop an assessment tool and method for assessing my students' writing and then assigning a grade. I hope to create a way that is motivating to my students.
ReplyDeleteSome of my processes are as follow but I would welcome suggestions:
1. Ask students what their goals are for writing this week.
2. Present an SOL each week or two to focus on.
3. Create a rubric/chart for each student to record their accomplishments.
-Jenny
Because I follow a more strict pacing guide and don't have as much "wiggle room", I'm going to focus my efforts on strengthening mentor texts as my goal for writing. Reading and writing go hand and hand. Finding mentor texts that support the skills/strategies that I teach on a weekly basis will benefit my children. I would like my students' writing to be an extension of what we are working on in the classroom.
ReplyDelete-Amee
Heather,
ReplyDeleteAt first, this was going to be my idea as well. I feel like I am always giving the students ideas of how they can enhance their story instead of letting them take the reins.Keeping better track of the conferences will allow you to know students strengths and areas of weakness.
-amee
Erin,
ReplyDeleteI understand what you mean about having more focused mini-lessons. Sometimes, it is hard to know where to begin or know which mini lessons will benefit the whole group vs. small groups.
-amee
My goal is to learn to incorporate more lessons on revision in a meaningful way for my fourth graders. I have been trying to get them in but I feel like they are more whimsical and sporatic than purposeful. Revision is something that they are having trouble with because they look at it as tedious and I want to make it more natural. So my goal is to work it in more naturally for them.
ReplyDeleteJen G.
Melissa and Cathy, I have been struggling a little with mentor texts and mini lesson because I have to incorporate the 6 traits too which is helpful but I will be interested to see how you guys work this out because it would be helpful for me as well. I do mentor texts with minilessons BUT I feel like I am having trouble organizing what I should teach next. Do you guys have a pacing type guide to use or in mind?
ReplyDeleteMy goal, similar to Erin's, is to more intentionally and directly meet the needs of my students through mini-lessons. I plan to keep track of students' progress/strengths/weaknesses through my conferences with them and create some small group lessons to target those needs. I'd also like to design a unit of study to address a "big idea" which all of my students need exposure to, such as personal narrative. I'd love some suggestions for mentor texts for kid-friendly stories told through the first person, if anyone has any?
ReplyDelete~Katie
My goal as a writing teacher this year is to become more intentional and effective in using mini-lessons to not only address the WHAT to write about, but also the grammar part of SOL's. I do feel that I am using mentor texts appropriately, however I'm finding it hard to squeeze grammar/mechanics into my mini-lessons when they seem to be taken up by the WHAT to write about. In looking ahead, I think I can attack this goal by maybe addressing the grammar parts every other day during mini-lesson time? Any suggestions welcome!
ReplyDelete***One book I have started using recently is called: Mentor texts: teaching writing through children's literature, K-6 by Lynne R. Dorfman & Rose Cappelli ....IT'S AMAZING!!! This book has been the reason mentor texts have been a natural addition to my writers workshop time. The chapters are divided by ideas for writing, then gives you mentor text options, and THEN lays out your mini-lesson for you! Definitely worth buying!!***********
(Tonya)
My goal is to be more intentional with students sharing their writing. Last year we had 90 minute blocks and it was much easier. Now, I never seem to have time for the sharing. I'd welcome ideas on how others are working this into their classrooms.
ReplyDeleteKathy B.
Thank you for your encouragement, Melissa. I hope I haven't bitten off more than I can chew, but editing is something that definitely needs to be addressed by my students.
ReplyDeleteCathy, You asked about some high school mentor text selections & I didn't have any at the time because I'm so new to working with older students. While working on my lesson plans for next week I found this site -
http://www.squidoo.com/teachingwithpicturebooks. I haven't thoroughly explored it yet, but thought it might be worth passing along to you. Here's wishing us both good luck!
~ Lynn
My goal is to read at least one mentor text with each of my K-5 ESL groups. I also plan to conduct one mini lesson before assigning a follow-up writing activity. So, let's see-that's six mini lessons and six mentor texts. I hope I am not being too ambitious, but I think having this direction and goal will improve my teaching and benefit my students. To document the process, I will probably create a chart of some sort. This project is both scary and exciting at the same time!
ReplyDeleteJenny, I admire your ambitious goal of creating an assessment tool and think tying your teaching to an SOL is a great idea. The classroom teachers should be very supportive and appreciative of this approach. I would be interested to hear how it goes with your ESL students.
Tonya, thanks for providing the name of the book you are using. I definitely plan to check it out! Having a program to follow could sure simplify planning.
-Patsy
My goal is to be more intentional with allowing my students to share their writing. I don't usually make time for this activity since my time to for writing is so limited. I do see this as a very beneficial activity. I am still brainstorming ideas as to how I'm going to document this so any ideas are welcome! The two I have at this point are to video tape a sharing session and journal each day that we share what I did and how it went.
ReplyDeleteKathy B, maybe we can give each other some suggestions/ideas for each other’s goals since we chose the same one. I'm very limited on time so I've decided to have Fridays be our class sharing time. Maybe you could pick a day to do the same?
Erin, I have found that it can be difficult to come up with focused and specific mini lessons. I considered making that my goal too!
I forgot to sign my name to my post....Kim
ReplyDeleteKathy B. and Kim,
ReplyDeleteI find myself pressed for time for sharing too. About once a week I've been having my kids just share quickly (like 1 minute) at their tables, and then we rotate around. This has actually allowed some of my quieter kids to speak out about their sharing. I wonder if you could tie an exit-slip to the sharing somehow by having the small group sharing, having them respond with a "Something I learned...." or "I still want to know...." statement about one of their classmate's writing.
Tonya,
The book I'm reading, About the Authors, seems to suggest that a mini-unit of like a week on a specific mechanical skill can be helpful, I guess going with the "hit it hard and fast" theory. They suggest that the mentor texts you use might use the punctuation in a fun way that you can focus on. I guess it would also be helpful to teach a grammar skill that might be particularly helpful for approaching the next genre or other content mini-lesson you might be teaching. For example, quotation marks might be helpful for personal narrative and questions might lead well into a unit on non-fiction. Maybe those SOLSs are too young/simple for your kids...I have no idea of the level of grammar appropriateness that is expected at different levels!
All looking for mentor texts, like me, check out these two sites I found:
http://www.readingrecovery.org/pdf/conferences/NC07/Handouts/Hoover_It's_Always_The_Write_Time.pdf
http://www.jmeacham.com/writing.mini.lessons.htm
~Katie
My goal is to improve my conferencing skills by working with an individual second grader in an after school tutoring setting.
ReplyDelete~Mari
Tonya- Thanks for the book recommendation. I can always use ideas for fitting grammar and mechanics into mini lessons.
Patsy- Mentor texts are so much fun! Maybe you can try out some of the library books with your class. If you do, let me know how it goes.
Kim, Kathy, and others interested setting "sharing" goals: Hopefully our teaching segment this week will provide you with some ideas!! Stay tuned!! :c)
ReplyDeleteCathy
Jen G.
ReplyDeleteYou will do wonderful at Revision. I am shocked that you chose this as your goal..LOL. I would focus on using their writing and I think that your sporadic moments are excellent "teachable moments" for the children. Good Luck! I will pick the 4th grade teachers at my school for any useful recommendations for you.
~Melissa
Tonya.....I got the Mentor Text book that you mentioned and can't wait to dig into it...:)
Tonya, I also found that text most helpful when picking mentor texts. I was lucky to find it in our professional library. :)
ReplyDeleteMari, I would love to hear about your conferencing progress. Will you use these conferences to plan mini-lessons or perhaps use them more to work on revision skills? It will be interesting to do this in a tutoring format.
Katie, I believe the Mentor Texts book that Tonya spoke of has some personal narrative ideas as well and will be happy to bring that to our next class if you are still looking for more books although your websites look very helpful.
Jenny
Mari-I too would like to find better, catchy, ways to improve the conferencing time to make it more meaningful. Let me know if you stumble upon any!
ReplyDeletePatsy-I hope that incorporating the mentor texts go well! I remember that you said that your students enjoy the books that you bring! You will find books that will inspire them, and you, I'm sure!
~Heather
Patsy:
ReplyDeleteI'm really interested to see how that would work out for you. Time is always one of my great concerns and I think your goal is attainable, but I would love to here how you structure it to allow for all of it. I always feel I've got this great lesson or this great text and I can't put it all together because of TIME! :)
Katie:
Since we seem to have similar goals, it would be fun to compare notes! I am very worried as I start to define my outline for mini-lessons on paper, but I am hopeful to keep it short, focused, and organized. What direction are you taking your mini-lessons?
Everyone...I think time is our biggest competition! Hopefully, in doing our best in the amounts of time that we have, and sharing our most effective ideas, we can still help students find the success they are looking for:)
ReplyDelete