Writing Lesson

Objective: To understand how to write meaningfully about a grandparent or other adult.

Learning Activities:

            Mini-Lesson

For this lesson, I chose to focus on grandparents, as the class was to begin a unit the following week. I started by reading a couple different trade books on grandparents in preparation.

At the beginning of writing workshop, I started off with the mini-lesson at the front of the classroom. I began by showing the front of the book, Grandma, According to Me by Karen Magnuson Beil. They quickly figured out that grandparents had been the theme of the books I had read. We then discussed the grandparents in our lives. I told them that some people have "adopted" grandparents, or other adults that function as a grandparent, so that everyone could feel included in the theme. I read the book and when I finished, they clapped (as they usually did when I read books to them. But, for some strange reason, they never do this for Connie).

We then discussed how grandparents can play an important part in our lives. They were full of stories that they wanted to share. I then told them that for writing workshop, they would be invited to write about grandparents. Using one student’s previously written story, I explained one way in which they might choose to write. Following this, they went back to their tables and began to write.

I walked around, observing how the students were doing with their writing. Almost every student began immediately without hesitation. After one student asked how to spell ‘grandma’ and ‘grandpa’, I decided to write the words on the board, even though I usually do not give my students spelling. Following this, I walked around and conferred with individual students about their writing. We conferred on punctuation, style, subject, and a number of other topics. It differed as to each child and what level they were working from. Connie was also wandering around and conferring with various students.

Finally, I placed a sign-up on the board for the four people who would be sharing. I selected three different people to share that had taken the invitation and written about their grandparents. A few students began complaining to Miss ___ that they were supposed to be able to share, so she told them to add their names anyway. We both conferred and decided that it was time for sharing. She asked for attention and gave them instruction as to the sharing procedure. During the sharing time, she managed the class. After each student shared their piece, the rest of the class raised their hands with questions. The sharer called on students and answered questions. The students loved the sharing and the lesson ended.

I was very happy with the way that the lesson went. Over 3/4 of the class responded to the mini-lesson and wrote about their grandparents. In conferring with them, they really got into the emotion of the pieces. But, not all were happy emotional. A number of students had unhappy things to say about their grandparents. It was hard to commend them for their writing, but it was important to them, otherwise they wouldn’t have written it. Not one lacked emotion.

I was extremely happy in that I was able to work with my management skills during the lesson. As I will be student teaching here, I have been working more on getting used to orchestrating the events of the morning. For the most part, there were no students that were off task.

About halfway through the student writing, students began asking to write their names on the board to share. Connie began telling students who and who could not share, even though I had already done so. I know that I felt a little perturbed by this as it was my chance to lead the class, but I didn’t say anything. Perhaps I should have, because from that point on, she seemed to take the class back over. I felt a little discarded on the side of the classroom as they shared. I tried to come up with some way that I could reassert myself without sounding demanding, but it wouldn’t have worked during the sharing session. I let it go and watched and listened to the responses from students.

All in all, the lesson went well and I honestly didn’t feel that I was doing a poor job so I’m not sure why she felt it was necessary to take the class back from me in the middle of my lesson. I’m sure that it just stems from her loving her class. She really loves to work with them and probably never even noticed what she was doing. The students did not notice and I was able to complete my lesson.
 

After the lesson, I interviewed Joey, who had written about his grandparents. It started off very informally as he approached me and we began talking. He then brought out his writing and he agreed to talk about it for my professor, as I explained to him. He felt that the length of his writing was good. He explained that he was so excited about his writing that he did not have time to draw any pictures. He was very happy with his writing as a whole. When I asked about what might need further work, he stared blankly ahead for a little bit. Finally, he replied that he might need to work a little on the spelling. I prompted him about sentences and he said that he might need to revise the length of the one sentence.

When I asked him about what a writer does, he responded by saying they wrote books and journals, just like he did. He fully considered himself to be a writer. When asked, he said, "Oh yes, I am a writer." When he is a writer, he writes stories or journals. When he is done, he reads them and makes any changes that might be needed. He said that he enjoys writing and wishes he could do it more often.

I really enjoyed planning and doing this writing lesson. With Connie stepping in, it just meant that I was not able to have the further experience of managing the class. The students responded very well and were excited to keep writing on the same subject in the days to follow. It was also interesting to finally see the entire class (for the most part) writing about the same thing. It gave the class some cohesion and allowed some focusing in on a particular subject. I am excited to do my next writing lesson with them next semester.