Week of January 3rd, 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.
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