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.