There were a couple things that struck me...
One student in particular can't stand writing. In her interview she told me there was nothing she liked about it and she really only liked to color. She clarified she only liked coloring in coloring books because she didn't really like to draw either! So it was very surprising to me to see her sit down and write her opinion piece with EASE. I was so proud of her! She normally will come to me a thousand times (exaggerated) and ask me what to write about because she doesn't have any ideas. Not this time!! I have seen such a change in my students as writers. I see my homeroom class doing much better with writing as opposed to my morning class. I don't know if I can give all the credit to the interactive writing but I do believe it plays a role!
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| This is one of my student's individual white board. |
Friday we went to the carpet again and did some interactive writing with our easel and students had their individual boards. Students would help come up with sentences and bring their marker to the easel to write a sentence. I sat back and watched what happened. Students were saying things such as, "don't forget your capital letter!" "you need punctuation!" "does that sentence make sense?" "I think it would sound better if we wrote ______"..it was AMAZING to watch. This week I am going to set up a camera or at least get some audio of this experience. I was a proud teacher for sure.
This is Wonderful! We don't spend as much time writing as I would like to. I love the idea of having the kids write on their own board what the class is writing. I might try that next week when we model our next type of writing. Do they sit in a circle? I feel like my kids would step on each other as they come up to write.
ReplyDeleteGood question!! I have tried it both ways. Asking the kids to form a circle is like asking them to write a novel, ha! It is very hard for them but it did work well. Some students were laying down writing and some were sitting up. I kind of just watched how that played out because I wanted them to enjoy it. As long as students were on task I was fine. So, to answer your question...you just have to see what works best. Try the circle first. :) Let me know how it goes!!
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