week of January 23rd.

Week of January 23^rd.

This week the students continued to write book reviews of books in their series and we wrote a movie review.  For the movie review, we looked at a few movie trailers and read some reviews.  The students “convinced” me to use the same rubric for writing the movie reviews as we did for the book reviews.  The students had a lot of fun writing about the movies they saw, sharing parts they liked with others who saw the same movie, and recommending movies to friends who had not seen the movie yet.

For the next part of this entry, I am writing a reflection of my Action Research so far based on some prompting questions given to me by my facilitators for my Masters program.

Step 1: Review the following questions:

•  How do you communicate your action research with your student and their parents?  I have been communicating my AR with students simply by sharing our process together and telling my students why we are creating the rubrics together; to help them become better writers and to help them think about how they can determine their own quality of work to assess their own learning.

•  How do you communicate your action research to your administration?  I would like to communicate my action research more with my administration and share what I’ve been working on.  So far, I have only shared my initial idea at the beginning of the year.  In my mind this is tricky for several reasons but, I will think about how I can communicate my work.

•  What do you hope is the outcome of your action research?  I hope students will be more aware of their own learning process; using student-created rubrics for learning.

•  How do you plan to sustain what you have started?  I have done a lot of groundwork in research and in coming up with examples for good and poor writing.  I know that I will be able to continue this process with students in the future and even improve on what I’ve begun.

•  Who or what has been the most helpful resource for your work?  The student-created rubric model, my districts writing continuum and curriculum, my schools literacy specialist, and my students themselves has been the most helpful resource for my work.

•  How do you involve your learners in action research planning?  I involve them as we discuss criteria for writing and as they give feedback on the rubrics.  I plan according to where they are and what they are saying, and where I want to take them in writing.

•  How do you see your action research impacting your teaching?  I am learning how to involve students in their own learning and they are becoming teachers of writing themselves.  I am beginning to learn how to teach in more ways with the student’s involvement.

•  How do you see your action research impacting your students' learning?  My students are learning how to assess their own work, they are more involved in their learning, and they are having fun looking for what matters in writing and it has carried over to other subjects.

•  What evidence do you have that supports your action research?

•  What is the one thing you wish you had known before you started your inquiry process?  I wish I had known more about some of the specific needs of my students and I wish I knew the second grade writing curriculum my district was using.

Week of January 16th.

Week of January 16^th.

Last week our writing work focused on writing reviews.  We specifically focused on writing food reviews.  This week we continued to write reviews with a focus on books.  In our reading unit this month, we are learning about book series.  We are learning that in book series there are patterns.  Characters may act a certain way in the series, and there are certain ways the books start and end, etc. 

In beginning to think about how to write book reviews, I had the students look at some book reviews written by adults and by other students.  As we looked at the reviews, we made a list of what the students noticed about each of the reviews.  We were able to find patterns in the reviews and determine what we wanted the reviews to include.  From our study of book reviews, we determined that we liked when the review had an opening statement about the book, the review told a summary of the book, the review gave an opinion of the book and why, and the review had a recommendation to a specific audience.  After we made the list, we looked at the criteria and the rubric we made for our food review and we compared that to our list for book reviews.  We noted similarities and differences between the two and started to change our rubric accordingly. 

The next day I gave them some examples of reviews I wrote to determine the criteria, scoring, and why.  Again we followed the process and the students were able to pick out the 4 and 1 and express why.  We discussed the 2 and 3 in more detail.

The students are becoming more aware of the process and they are beginning to see that good writing has certain qualities like; neatness, being thoughtful, using the writer’s feelings, making meaningful word choices, and using detail to support the writer’s thoughts and feelings.

The next day I had the new rubric ready for them to review.

Trait and Criteria	1 = NO!	2 = No But!	3 = Yes But!	4 = YES!
Concept of Writing/craft: Students will: write reviews using their own thoughts, feelings, and “spicy” words to a specific audience	Has no opening statement. (I like this book). Does not write a summary. Does not have sentences supporting what you thought. Does not have a recommendation.	Has no opening statement but, may tell only what you are reviewing. Writes a brief summary but, is missing the beginning, middle, or end. Has only one sentence supporting what you thought. May or may not have spicy words. Has a recommendation but is not written to an audience and is not telling why you should or should not read the book.	Has an opening statement telling what you are reviewing and what you thought about it. Writes a brief summary of the beginning, middle, or end. Has two sentences supporting what you thought using spicy words. Has a recommendation but may be missing whom it is written for or why you should or should not read the book.	Has an opening statement telling what you are reviewing and what you thought about it using spicy words. Writes a brief summary of the beginning, middle, and end using detail from the book. Has three or more sentences supporting what you thought using spicy words. Has a recommendation to a specific audience telling why you should or should not read the book using spicy words.

The students were eager to write about the books they have been reading in their series books and they were excited to share their thoughts, feelings, and recommendations with their Critical Friend. 

While I was conferring with students, I noticed the students were giving more of a total recall of the book verses a brief summary, so we stopped and reviewed the difference of a total recall and a brief summary.  I wrote down what they noticed on chart paper, so they could refer to it as they wrote.

Week of January 9th. New Year and New Rubric.

Week of January 9^th.

This week we are continuing to review, remodel, and revisit.  I have remodeled routines, reviewed expectations, and revisited our Hopes and Dreams.  I shared my Hope and Dream with my students, which is: to help every student to learn to their full potential and to have every student enjoy coming to school every day.

This week during writing we are writing reviews.  We will focus on writing reviews of books, movies, and food.  For our rubric this week, I want the students to think about how they can write good reviews; remembering the criteria from the latest rubric and adding criteria that focuses on their thoughts, feelings, word choice, and audience.

For the start of our lesson on Monday, I created examples of a food review, reviewing tacos from our school lunch.  I put the reviews on the smartboard, I read them to the class, we read them together, and I had the students take time to think about the examples.  Before the discussion, I told the students to think about which example sounded the best and why?  The “best” example I wrote for the four had a beginning statement stating what I was reviewing and what I thought about the tacos overall.  Then, I wrote three sentences with “spicy” words explaining why I thought the tacos were great.  Next, I wrote a sentence making a suggestion on how the tacos could even be improved.   Finally, I wrote a sentence to a specific audience (the students) recommending the tacos at Carver Elementary School.  The poorest example didn’t say exactly what I was reviewing, there was only one sentence saying I like the food, there was no reasons given why I liked the food, there was no suggestion, and there was no recommendation.  In the other two examples, one was a No But, and one was a Yes But, based on the beginning statement, supporting sentences with spicy words, the suggestion, and the recommendation.  The students were easily able to pick out the 4=Yes and the 1=No but, we had to dig deeper into the 2=No But and the 1=No to determine the “what counts” in the writing.  Our discussion on day the first day was going a little long for the students so, I let them write about their favorite food.  I told them while they write to list reasons why they like the food.

The next day we dove back into our discussion.  We looked at the examples again and had time to make determinations as to why we scored each example.  We listed the criteria under what counts and the next day I presented the rubric to the students.  The students agreed on the criteria for the rubric and they were excited to start using it to help them write their reviews.

Trait and Criteria	1 = NO!	2 = No But!	3 = Yes But!	4 = YES!
Concept of Writing/craft: Students will: write reviews using their own thoughts, feelings, and “spicy” words to a specific audience	Has no opening statement. (I like tacos). Does not have sentences supporting what you thought. Does not have a recommendation.	Has no opening statement but, may tell only what you are reviewing. Has only one sentence supporting what you thought. May or may not have spicy words. Has a recommendation but is not written to an audience and is not telling why you should or should not.	Has an opening statement telling what you are reviewing and what you thought about it. Has two sentences supporting what you thought using spicy words. Has a recommendation but may be missing whom it is written for or why you should or should not.	Has an opening statement telling what you are reviewing and what you thought about it using spicy words. Has three or more sentences supporting what you thought using spicy words. Has a recommendation to a specific audience telling why you should or should not…using spicy words.

In this rubric, we decided to leave out the suggestion in the scoring of our writing, because the students thought they might not have a suggestion if they liked everything about the food, book, or movie.  I told the students that would be okay, but I would like them to try and write a suggestion if they could think of a way to make the book, movie, or food better.

The third day is when they were able to use the new rubric.  During their writing they were checking the examples and using the rubric to see if their writing had the same criteria as in the Yes column.  While I was conferring with the students, I noticed that students were getting hung up on word choices.  I stopped the writing and had a mid-workshop conference to discuss “spicy” words again.  We looked at our list of words we could and did change into spicy words that we had come up with earlier this year.  We reviewed these words and brainstormed a list of words students were thinking about.  Then we thought about what word we could use for that word that would spice it up.

The next days the students were able to finish at least one review, score it, change it, and share it with their CF. The students were really thinking critically about their writing and the word choices they were making.  It was fun to see them working so intently.

Week of January 3rd. New Year and Refresh.

Week of January 3^rd, 2012.  It’s a new year and January is re-month at our school.  Re-month means we are revisiting our school wide expectations as well as our classroom expectations, routines and procedures, and our academic goals, which are our Hopes and Dreams for the second half of the year.  In the classroom during re-month I will reteach and remodel what it is supposed to look like, sound like, and feel like, when we are listening, have class discussions, working independently, working in groups, and working with partners. 

For this first week back after holiday break, I decided to start our new writing unit, which is, writing reviews and persuasive writing using the last rubric we created.  I decided to stay with the latest rubric this week because, I wanted the students to be focused on what we left off with in our Writer’s Workshop, and on the expectations during this time; remembering how it should look, sound, and feel when we have Writer’s Workshop. 

This week I remodeled the mini-lesson format and reviewed what the expectations are.  Then, we practiced.  I remodeled independent work time and partner work time and reviewed the expectations.  Then, we practice.  We discussed the latest rubric we created, reviewing “what counts” in our writing, how we can use the rubric to help us write better, and how we can use the rubric with our Critical Friend to give each other feedback on our writing.

I was really glad I took the time this week to review.  The students were excited to be back in school and see their friends and there was a lot of unfocused energy in the classroom.  The students needed time to have some fun together and share about their events and experiences over the break.  The time it took to review this week and re-channel their energy will hopefully pay off next week when we revisit our Hopes and Dreams and focus on everyone working together so, we can all reach our Hopes and Dreams. 

Week of December 19th Adding Criteria to the Rubric

The week of December 19^th.

This week I wanted to focus more on the craft of their writing and I wanted them to look at their writing in terms of their thoughts and feelings.  I wanted to help them be more aware of their punctuation.  On Monday I showed the students four more examples I created.  In the examples I had written pieces using periods, question marks, ellipses, and exclamations.  I had the students look at and read the pieces first, then I read the pieces to them, and finally, I had them read the pieces with me.  When we read the pieces aloud it was easy for the students to determine that the piece without the punctuation ran together and it was boring and the piece with the punctuation sounded better and it was more exciting.  We went through the process again using the model as before.  The process was easier this time through and we were able to have our added criteria to our rubric the next day.  Our rubric now looks like this:

Trait and Criteria	1 = NO!	2 = No But!	3 = Yes But!	4 = YES!
Concept of Writing/craft: Students will: use letter sounds/phonics to spell words, words will have proper spacing, letters will have consistent sizing, capital letters will be used properly, sentences will have proper punctuation.	No words are spelled correct. No words are spaced properly. None of the letters are consistently sized. Capital letters are not used in the correct places. None of the sentences have punctuation.	Some words are spelled correct. Some words are spaced properly. Some letters are consistently sized. Some capital letters are used in the correct places. Some sentences have the proper punctuation.	Most words are spelled correct. Most words are spaced properly. Most letters are consistently sized. Most capital letters are used in the correct places. Most sentences have the proper punctuation.	All words are spelled correct. All words are spaced properly. All letters are consistently sized. Capital letters are used in the correct places. All sentences have the proper punctuation.

For Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday of this week I had the students follow the process of write, reread, edit/revise, and peer review with the new criteria on their rubric. 

On Thursday December 22^nd we ended another writing unit and will begin the next unit.  The next unit will be Persuasive Writing:  Reviews and letters.  In the next unit I will have the students add the trait of Meaning/Significance to our rubric.  With the next  piece we will focus more on meaning, sense of audience, feelings, and excitement.