Weeks of February 6th through February 29th

The weeks of February 6^th through February 29^th.

We started and finished the unit for the month of February, which was: Writing adapted Fairytales, Folktales, and Fables.  To kick off this unit we spent several days reading, investigating, and charting what we learned about Folklore.  Then, we began working on writing our own versions of classic tales and finally we made up our own stories.  I began the unit defining Fairytales, Folktales, and Fables.  On Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday of the previous week, we started to investigate these types of books and charted what we noticed about how they began and ended, the characters, the settings, the plots, good vs. evil and who always wins, elements of magic, etc.  We were able to find patterns in these stories and list them, which will help the students when they begin to write their own versions.  The following week we were ready to talk about what should matter in our Fairytales.  For this unit I did not want to just give the students examples, I wanted the students to come up with their own ideas based on what they learned from our investigation of Folklore.  I wanted to take them through the whole thought process of what it takes to write a fairytale and in creating the rubric.  In order to do this, the students would have to research (which we did in our investigation), discuss and chart what they learned, determine the quality criteria (what should go into writing) of their own Fairytales, and determine what would count to get a four, three, two, one.

When I started this process with my students I wanted them to know, learn and understand the whole process.  My teaching points were directed so they would know what they are learning, why they are learning it, and how they are going to show what they have learned.  My teaching points were: Writers think about what they want to write.  Writers research many types of writing to help them gain knowledge of the genre.  Writers determine from research what makes good writing and poor writing, decide the criteria (what will count), and list the criteria.  Writers plan and decide what they want to put into their writing to make their writing great and they can make a rubric to use that will help them write with quality.  Writers write their story from their heart and organize their writing based on the criteria they gleaned was important.  Writers reread their story and make revisions based on the rubric.  Writers share their writing with others to get another perspective and feedback based on the rubric.  Writers revise and edit their writing.  Writers share the changes they’ve made and get more feedback.  Writers write a final copy and can publish their writing.

We went through this process together for the remaining of the month.  It was a great experience to share this whole process with the students and to see how eager they were to come to our Writer’s Workshop each day and write and share their stories with each other.  From this experience and process, I learned that when my students were able to investigate, discover, inquire, create, decide, have choices, work together, compare, analyze, celebrate, etc. they were more engaged, self-motivated, and had joy in their learning.

In my last post I stated that I had new data from my students that I needed to analyze.  I have finished analyzing that data and the results have shown me that most of my students have made gains this year based on the Writing Continuum and most of my students have more of positive outlook on their writing based on the Writing Survey I gave to my students.  What the data does or doesn’t show is, the positivity in their eagerness, self-motivation, engagement, and joy that my students came with to Writer’s Workshop each day.

Results: