When it became clear to me how to incorporate oral language practices with peer and self assessment into our lesson activities, I relaxed a bit. All of a sudden things seemed to be falling into place and I could see many ways to create cross-curricular connections. I found myself motivated to expand my way of thinking because the transformational teaching practices on the path ahead looked a lot more fun than the familiar one I have already travelled. While re-watching some of the videos for this week’s learnings I was once again touched by the excitement and motivation that is clearly displayed on the proud faces of the children. As I mentioned in my reading response dated September 22nd, “students talked proudly about using their imagination, becoming better readers and being able to describe their feelings on paper.” I hope to create the same expressions on children’s faces in the future, and being able to do that with a skill as essential as writing would be fantastic. I am definitely motivated to learn more in this area. Gaining a good understanding of the 6+1 literacy teaching practice has helped me to see more clearly how the course learnings can be implemented in middle-years classrooms.
There are 6 focuses identified with writing practice. These include; ideas, organization, voice, word choice, sentence fluency and conventions. There are also steps which guide the writing process from prewriting, to drafting, revising and editing. Plenty of opportunities to engage students in independent writing are identified throughout the readings. Those that resonate with me best range from the practices of encouraging a student to get pen to paper with even one word, then two and upward to full sentences and then paragraphs, to creating daily goal orientated writing practices. Students can engage in ELA practices intentionally with projects designed to practice specific skills or to expand vocabulary awareness. They can also practice their ELA skills while learning in other subject areas, as was demonstrated with the use of presentations which is the +1 in the popular 6+1 teaching practice. (Scholastic, n.d.)
The modelled writing practice is a step in the process toward creating independent writers. Success happens through guided, interactive and goal orientated writing practice and it is evidenced in self-assessment activities. There are even checklists available to help students set expectations of themselves. Creativity is aided when students are afforded the opportunity to get comfortable with the process of writing. Every student is different. Some may be struggling through the mechanics of getting ink to paper with words that are spelled correctly, while others are concerned that their message is not being conveyed appropriately to their intended audience. Once a student has gained comfort, through the practice of prewriting, they can compose a representation of the final project. Through a series of drafts, and the possible use of an editing checklist, a student can see their work progress into a piece that expresses their understanding in a way that others can comprehend. (Reading Rockets, 2019)
Class 4’s portfolio challenge was to create a lesson to satisfy Compose & Create outcome 5.2 in the grade five curriculum. Along with Crystal, Carolyn, Robyna and Nicole, we decided to present the students with the topic of climate change. The idea sparked from a story shared by Nicole about when she had written a letter to parliament as an elementary student. However, as you will see, we never came around to writing a letter afterall. In our lesson the students select a climate change related sub topic that they will brainstorm ideas for, collect information on and then present about. My concern with this lesson is the assumption that the student’s parents believe in climate change. ‘Flat Earthers’ have children too. Thus, my enhancement would be to flush out the topic with a journal entry request ahead of time. It is important to consider your audience and identify any risks associated with creating a group activity around a social issue. Our role, as literacy teachers, is to create an inclusive environment where students feel safe to learn and express themselves. Fostering creativity requires us to connect with our students in order to reduce the risk of making someone feel discounted.
The journal entry mentioned above could be used as a diagnostic assessment. Teachers can assess a student’s writing fluency on a scale of emergent, early, developing, transitional to fluent while reviewing what the student currently understands about climate change.
Increased awareness has opened my imagination and I can now see a new lesson designed to satisfy outcome CC5.2. Let us assume that we can stay with the climate change theme, and that students have selected their related sub topics. The task will be to find their topic of choice demonstrated in at least five of the following forms; drama, drawings, dance, diagrams, music, three-dimensional objects, posters, cartoons, maps, graphs, photographs, pictures, charts and videos. This will be a jigsaw effort. Each group member will write a synopsis of one of the main writing factors; organization, voice, word choice, sentence fluency and conventions, and their impact on the audience. As a group the students each present their individual findings for their topic, including visual representations. Each group’s presentation concludes with a class discussion around which presentation styles are most appropriate for various tasks and identified purposes.