Hello Barb and Dave,
My first blog, too. I have also survived BTSN and am working on my DRA's. The classroom is beginning to gel and we are becoming a learning community. Routines are beginning to form and structures are becoming more solid as I am getting to know my students.
As for writing, the notebooks are great! However, I am still working on writing stamina and kids understanding that they are not "done" in writing workshop.
Hope all is going well for all fourth grade teachers, and I look forward to seeing you today at Vernfield.
Jill :)
1 comment:
Let's talk writing stamina! I find that students often think they are done - but I'm trying to help them unerstand that free writing or quick writing is about writing and writing and writing. One way to get kids to keep on writing is to do a quick write off a word. For example, they put the word RAIN on the top of the page and write for a set time, at the end of the time (4 minutes?), they take a word from what they just wrote (last word or count back 6 words, it really doesn't matter) and use that word as their starting point. They repeat this process a few times.The entries don't connect but the children have learned to put thoughts on paper for a sustained time and that they always have something to say. And, there might be some nuggets in these free writes to mine for stories.
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