CT observation #1

One of the first things I noticed at the start of this semester was the fact that the students' writing was very basic... even for kindergarten. Many sentences read "I like the..." or "I see the..." There were only one or two students to attempted to think beyond the basics. Since my inquiry is surrounded around creating literacy centers, and one of those centers should be surrounded on writing, I thought it would be necessary to implement a daily writer's workshop. I created a chart with the steps to good writing: think, draw, label, write, add details. For this particular lesson, I read a story named, "One Dog Canoe," about a little girl who goes canoeing with her dog, but little by little more animals jump in and ultimately tip the canoe. As a reading response, I asked the students to write about which animal would they want to go canoeing with. First, I modeled writing. I followed the writing process, using invented spelling. I thought aloud the entire time, often asking for my students for help with spelling. The students were extremely engaged the entire time, offering assistance whenever I "needed" it. Then, it was their turn to create their own writing. I challenged them to use the word "because" in their sentence, in order to offer the reader more details and make their writing more interesting. I reminded them that writing a sentence like "I like the uncorn" was absolutely off limits. Many students started the sentence very similar to my samlple sentence, "I would like a ________ in my canoe because...." Some gave cute reasons why they would bring that particular animal in a canoe. For example, one student wrote "I like my bat in my canoe because he likes going on a cruise!" Other students gave reasons like "...because I like it," but it was definitely a long way from what their writing was like before. Witnessing these students push themselves to do more than they were used to was so rewarding. Going forward I will continue to emphasize the writing process we used for this lesson. I noticed the students were more likely to add details to their sentences when they drew and labeled pictures first. I cannot wait to see the progress they will make over the nect few weeks!