Essay Publishing Party

Apparently I didn't manage to write a single blog post since the school year started! Whoops!  I guess that says something about how this fall went... new principal, new schedule, new teaching team, new behavior plans, new student teacher... It's been a whirlwind.  Now that it's Winter Break, I'm going to try to work my way backwards through the year -- sharing some of the highlights, and maybe a few low points, from this crazy fall.

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Just a few days ago, as we wrapped everything up before the break, we had our second official Publishing Party, for our "Boxes and Bullets: Personal and Persuasive Essays" Unit. During this unit, the kiddos learned to craft personal thesis statements such as "My sister and I have a very strong relationship," and then related persuasive theses, such as "Having a little sister is the best thing that can happen to you."  I have an amazing student teacher this year (we call her a Teaching Fellow) who took over some of the teaching during the second half of the unit and really pushed the kiddos to create some awesome pieces.

The unit did end up being a few weeks longer than I'd intended, in part because our schedule during the first part of the year didn't allow for Writing Workshop every day of the week. I know this is a challenge for many schools that have to prioritize certain subject areas over others. For us, this was due to trying to fit in specific typing practice one day of the week and also "Science Lab Writing" on another day.  Of course, both of these other activities are important, but I really felt the affect of not having our true Writing Workshop every day. (I'm working on changing the schedule for when we get back after break).  In addition to the scheduling challenges, in early October one of the other fourth grade teachers quit. While this ended up being for the best, it meant that I had to begin planning writing for a long-term substitute in the other class, in addition to planning for my own class. This required creating some more specific teaching points and moving at a slightly slower place than we would have otherwise.

At long last, we reached the end of the unit.  The kiddos all had a typed essay (we let them choose if they wanted to type their first or second essay).  For the Publishing Party, we had the kiddos do a quiet gallery walk of each other's writing. They stopped at each desk, read each classmate's essay, and then left a short note. Miraculously, it was incredibly peaceful!  The kiddos took it all very seriously and wrote really thoughtful comments to each other!  

Afterward, everyone returned to his or her own essay, read the comments that had been left, and set some goals based on the feedback. I think goal setting is an essential part of publishing in a Writing Workshop! We always talk about the importance of reflection and revision in the writing process, and that doesn't end with publishing. I think goal setting at the end of a unit helps kiddos make connections between units and transfer skills between genres. We are starting our Journalism unit after the break and I can't wait to see the kiddos bring their essay writing skills into this work!

What a great way to close out 2017!

Reading Rainbow Reviews

The Thursday before Winter Break was our school-wide Publishing Night.  This annual event brings families into our classrooms to celebrate the writing process.  However, in the past, we've typically had only one polished, re-written, titled, and illustrated piece of writing to share.  This year, in accordance with the new Units of Study from Lucy Calkins, our published work looked a little different.

First off, as I explained in my last post (here) about the Opinion Writing Unit, the kiddos actually "published" three different reviews.  For Publishing Night, I set up tables with our collection reviews and review anthologies.  I put the kiddos' book reviews at their tables, with their book inspirations propped up.  It was incredibly powerful for parents to see all of the writing that their kiddos had produced.  One mother picked up her daughter's first review and actually ask if it was from the beginning of the year!  When I explained that, no, it was only from a few weeks earlier, she was definitely impressed with her daughter's progress.

Not only did we have more writing this year than ever before, but for the first time we did not spend time re-writing.  In the past, I've saved 3-4 days at the end of each unit for the kiddos to copy their finished writing neatly onto clean paper.  My rationale was always that they could use the handwriting practice, but some fellow teachers who attended Teachers College this past summer, pointed out that re-writing every piece was really wasting up to two weeks of valuable instructional time.  More importantly, by not re-writing, we were able to recognize and honor the hard work of revising and editing.  I "warned" families ahead of time that they would likely see cross-out, carets, arrows, and other tools that writers use to revise their work, but no one seemed to mind.  I think they actually appreciated seeing how the kiddos had worked to improve content, spelling, and grammar of their stories.

Another new feature of this Publishing Night was the interactive SMART Notebook with clickable pictures of the kiddos and their books.  At the end of this unit I filmed each kiddo reading his/her book review.  (In order for the kiddos to get this concept we watched a couple episodes of Reading Rainbow on DVD, since, sadly, the show is no longer on the air).  The kiddos loved touching the pictures and watching the reviews pop-up!

I've usually enjoyed Publishing Nights just fine, but this one was, by far, my favorite.  Not only that, but I think it was most "impactful" (I know it's not a word, but it just works well here) for parents.  I'm already looking forward to teaching this unit and producing Reading Rainbow reviews next year!

Developing Opinion Writers

Next week is our school-wide Publishing Night -- and the firsties are so excited to share their Opinion Writing pieces!

But first, a little about what we've been up to so far.  This unit is part of the updated Units of Study from the Reading and Writing Project.  This is the first year that we have taught this unit; however it has quickly become one of my favorite writing units because my kiddos have grown so much in just a few weeks!

When I initially gave the opinion writing pre-assessment, I got a mix of personal narratives, informational pieces, and odes to favorite family members and pets.  It was clear we had a lot of work to do!  Fortunately, this unit has includes three "bends," or sections, that have allowed the kiddos to home in on different parts of opinion writing.  They have slowly built up their knowledge and skill with this genre by writing reviews of objects, places, and now books.  And it's been amazing to watch!

During the first "bend" the kiddos actually brought in small collections to review!  It was so cute to see them closely analyze each of their match box cars, snow globes, and bracelets and then select their favorites.  They learned that opinion writers have to include reasons (and not just one reason), use words like "because," and consider each feature of an item -- like which seashell is the smoothest and which has the most interesting design.  This bend also focused on setting goals based off of our writing rubric.  I transferred the rubric to a chart and the kiddos set daily goals by moving sticky notes with their names.  (This helped all of us focus during Writing time!)

Setting Daily Writing Goals

A Collection of Trucks

One thing my writers struggled with was clearly stating their topic.  I got a lot of "I like this one because...".  The naturally assumed that everyone would know to which "one" they were referring. However, as they read their reviews out loud during our first mini-publishing party, they suddenly realized that it was totally unclear what they'd be writing about! (It was a little funny to watch their surprise.)  We knew what we had to work on next!

During the next bend, they got plenty of practice defining their topic as they reviewed their favorite games, restaurants, vacation spots, and movies.  In order to publish these reviews, the kiddos put together books of like-reviews.  They produced a wonderful anthology of "Places to Travel in the USA" which includes reviews of Seattle, Florida, and Indiana, as well as an anthology of "Things to Do in DC" which suggests the National Portrait Gallery and McDonalds among others. :)

In this last bend, the kiddos are writing book reviews. For our final publishing, we will be recording their reviews: Reading-Rainbow style.  More on that to come... 

Working together to create the cover for their review anthology