I'm running into the same problem Lisa mentioned - having too high expectations b/c I'm still remembering how well my class last year wrote their letters and interpreted their stories. I keep having to remind myself that I wasn't too impressed at the beginning of school last year either, but that over time I began to realize I had some great thinkers. One thing that I think helps with the letters is to be sure you have a sharing time at the end of every workshop. During the last 10 minutes of reading workshop I ask my kids to share the thinking they did while they were reading - what their "little me" was saying (thanks Ginger!). Once they've had practice sharing these genuine conversations with the group (they'll point out cool facts where "my little me was amazed", or confusing parts where "I was wondering where these people in this magazine could be") they will begin transferring these to their letters. I remember that it wasn't until the 2nd half of the year that my last year's class began using the word "schema" in their letters, so it takes a while to make that transfer (hopefully not as long this year). For the reluctant writers, I remind them that all they need to do in their letter is write down what they normally would have said on the rug at the end of workshop. Of course, some of these guys never want to share with the group b/c they're shy, buy they've heard the type of comments I'm looking for. Another thing I had to do last year, part way through the year after our letters took a dive in quality and became just summaries again, was as a class create a rubric for what a "great" letter entailed (LOTS about your thinking, less about the book, has voice, has been proofread), what a so-so letter was like, and a not-so-good letter (all about the book, doesn't include thinking, parts of the letter don't make sense). They decided to designate a smiley face to go with the great letter, a straight face with the so-so, and a sad face for the poor letter. After writing their letters the kids knew to evaluate it and draw the corresponding face at the top. When I wrote my letter back, I drew the face I thought it merited at the top. The kids were very accurate, and even sometimes too hard on themselves. One thing I'll change this year, if we end up going the rubric route, is I called the middle letter a "good" letter instead of "so-so" and I found some kids were satisfied with writing a "good" letter and didn't shoot for great. I'll call it "so-so" this year. Heather
Heather Wall/ 3rd grade/ Georgia NBCT 2005 Literacy: Reading - Language Arts _______________________________________________ Mosaic mailing list [email protected] To unsubscribe or modify your membership please go to http://literacyworkshop.org/mailman/options/mosaic_literacyworkshop.org.
