Yesterday (Tuesday) I met with my participants at Made-up Elementary (pseudonym). Many times I have to wait for my participants to arrive at school, put away book bags, check in with their teacher, and then make their way to my classroom, and this time was no different. Slowly they began to trickle into the classroom one by one, until the majority were in attendance. Although their first article was due this week there were some hang ups. Participant A forgot to write an article; Participant K forgot her article at home; Participant C did bring his article to the meeting. While waiting for all participants to come to my classroom, I asked Participant K to go back to her classroom and retrieve one of her writing samples to bring to me so that I could make a copy of it (all of this was previously discussed with Participant K's teacher in regards to what it will mean for the research study). Participant K brought a writing sample which was an essay about a project that the entire fifth grade class worked on. The writing sample was about the surrounding community; this writing sample by Participant K will be used as a base line to compare future writing pieces (in this case the articles specifically by Participation K). Finally, most participants arrived and we began our meeting. Below is a dialogue of how the meeting went:
C: How long does the article need to be?
(From there, we examined a newspaper).
C: Are we going to have to read the newspaper?
A: We could talk about Sochi!
Myself: While you are looking at this newspaper, what are some key elements or key parts that make up a good newspaper or article?
M: Title
C: Subtitle
K: Pictures
A: Quotes
C: Punctuation
M: Caption
C: Sections
Myself: look for things that pertain to your article, something that can help you.
M: Date and time
Myself: What things can you pull to help your article that you'll write.
K: Informing details
M: Story
A: Gossip
C: The main idea (K: is in bold)
M:You need who it's by...their name. It has to be true
C: Specific words
M: Make sense
C: Specific sentence
K: Certain details and stay on topic. Get others' opinion.
I was very proud of my participants for generating such a detailed and extensive list of ideas for their articles; this could even be used as a rubric, now that I think of it! After finishing the meeting I created a list of all of the participants' responses of "Elements of a good newspaper or article," and gave that student generated list to the participants. The deadline for their first article was rescheduled for Friday 2/12/14. More information to come!
LaShanda, it sounds like they have a good idea of what to write about and the elements, but they still need to work on following deadlines. I work with some fifth graders myself and I see that same issue on a regular basis. I am excited to read some of their work though and hopefully once they see their work published they will have the drive they need to continue.
ReplyDeleteI think you were on the right track for providing a "thick description" of your morning experience. You may have chosen to add a few more details about the students reactions and consequences for not being prepared. I am still a little iffy on exactly what the "thick description" looks like, but I think that is what they are expecting. :/
LaShanda, I absolutely love the idea of using the list that they generated to then turn it into a rubric. If they are able to come up with all of these elements for a good newspaper article they are also capable of using them in their own writing. It being a list generated by them will give you some leverage on holding them more accountable. I agree with Jill about discussing their reactions to not meeting the deadline. Three students is a significant number for missing the deadline. 5th graders are old enough to understand the importance of meeting deadlines, and if these students don't it may be a very teachable moment.
ReplyDeleteKeep up the great work! :)
Sounds like the first week of articles came with a few small bumps along the road. What do you do for students like Participant A whom forgot to write an article? How do you hold them accountable? That’s great that you were able to get a writing sample from Participant K. Did you already collect writing samples from all other participants? I am excited to hear about/see samples of the students writing pieces. Hopefully they will start meeting their deadlines from week to week. I like how you examined a newspaper when talking about the length of articles. This gives the students that real world connection.
ReplyDelete