You asked....I'll answer!

I want to revisit the picture of the para working with the three girls researching chimpanzees. The three girls participating in that collaborative group (only 1 is technically in my research group because the other two will be moving any day) are all performing significantly below grade level in literacy. They struggle with idea development, organization, and spelling.

During writing workshop these three students have been working with the para at my horseshoe table daily. She has been reading the text to them (because it is significantly above their reading level) and they have been working together to identify the facts that they need to put in their books. They talk through what they need to write and then she writes it on the whiteboard. These students struggle with spelling also so their writing would be very difficult to read. The three students have really enjoyed working with the para in this capacity and have been much more successful during this writing project that they have been during other units. They all are very interested in their writing topic and actively participate in the conversation daily. The para is providing guidance as needed with both idea development and organization of the information.

Comparing the product the girls are producing with the paras assistance to the work they produced when we did the on-demand writing will be very crucial evidence in showing how buddy writing can be very beneficial for struggling/reluctant writers.

Drowning maybe?!?

So I have completely felt like I was drowning and wasn't sure there was anything that I could do to get my head back above the surface before it was to late. Fortunately it appears as though I may make it but I am still not so convinced it is going to be pretty. 

After some discussion it has been decided that tweaking my RQ would be best. My new RQ will read as: How will buddy writing and technology-inclusion affect reluctant first grade writers? 

All of the students in my classroom have been working collaboratively to do their research for this project. Some of the reluctant writers are doing a great job of working with their partner doing both the research and the writing, some have needed some teacher prompting to work together, and some have just shown opposition toward working with another student. 

Two students are very reluctant to writing because they just do not find it to be a fun activity. I will be interested to see how using a word processing program will encourage them to get their writing down. 

Please give any feedback about ideas that you think might be helpful! 

Writing offices!

This blog contains photos of the awesome writing offices that I use in my classroom and it also has one great example of students who are collaborating with a teacher during this writing project.

Lets start with the pictures of the writing offices....The top picture is what the side of the "office" looks like and the bottom picture is what the outside sides look like.

Now lets talk about this example of collaboration with an adult. These three students are all performing well below grade level in writing and would be what I consider both reluctant and struggling writers. They are three girls and two of them are classified as special education. All three girls are researching the same animal  (chimpanzees). The book is well above their reading level and there writing is often to difficult to read because they struggle with spelling phonetically. These three students are receiving a great deal of structured support. This picture exemplifies how this teacher is working to help the students create the best writing piece they possibly can.

Animal Research Books!

Informational text is the unit that my research is focused around. This unit is scheduled to last about 6 weeks (or maybe 10 weeks after all is said and done and we stretch it out with a million snow days :) ). The kids are still in the beginning stages of their writing project. This stage is the research stage. It is set up on a two day rotation.

On day 1 students are using books (and occasionally the internet) to research with their partner about their animal. They are given one piece to look for each day that they research. This allows them to focus specifically on one topic. They have a planning sheet that they are recording their new information on. This is a picture of that planning/research sheet. 

On day 2 they write about the topic they researched the day before. This writing piece will serve as their rough draft. On this student's paper we worked together to edit her writing so that when she does her final copy it will be a stronger writing piece. The student who's work is shown below is the higher performing student in the collaborative partnership. She is paired with a student who is considered a reluctant writer. I am using her as a "teacher" to encourage and help the other student while they complete this project.

I will continue to post student work throughout this project. 

On Demand Writing Prompt

The On Demand writing prompt that I gave the students last Friday was a hit. The students were super receptive to this writing task (which was surprising because I had never done anything like this with my first graders before). I talked through the fact that they would be writing an informational text and we discussed the different type topics that would fall under that category. It was easiest with them to explain it as "write about what you are an expert at" because it was the very first informational writing piece we have done all school year. 

During the time while the students were writing I played soft music that did not have words (It was a Paddington Bear soundtrack....it is amazing for creating just enough background noise to keep them from talking) and I gave them writing "offices". These writing offices are an amazing resource that I have to use while the kids are writing. They are two file folders that are laminated together to create a cubical like office. On the office there is a portable word wall, writing checklist, blends and digraph charts, etc. (I will post a picture once we return to school). During the 45 minutes that the students wrote I provided very minimal assistance to them because I wanted to see exactly what they could complete independently. 

After the time was up I collected the writing pieces. The kids did an AWESOME job of showing what they are an expert about. Obviously the pieces weren't perfect because they were almost like a pretest to what they know about informational writing. There are a couple of students who I struggled to read their writing because of spelling, or because their thoughts are jumbled once on the paper. These are students who will likely benefit from the voice recording apps on the Ipad. This will allow us to break their thought process up into two steps. One step will be orally telling their story/writing piece and the second step will be actually writing it. I will compare writing pieces (like the on demand) to compare their writing before and after using the voice recording app. 

I hope in my coming blog to provide you with pictures of the writing offices, pictures of student artifacts from the on-demand and telling you about the voice recording apps that I will be utilizing. 

Hope everyone is staying warm during this crazy winter!!!

Google Chrome and the Interest Survey!

Well obviously half of my problem was that I was using the wrong internet program. Downloaded Google Chrome this morning. Hopefully no more operator errors!

This is a picture of my interest inventory. I gave this to my students on January 28th. It provided some interesting information for sure. I looked specifically at some of my students I consider to be the most reluctant and struggling of my writers. 

Parker was the student who I mentioned in an earlier blog. He is the student I would consider the most reluctant of all of my writers. He is not reluctant because writing is difficult, he is reluctant because he simply does not want to complete most assignments that are given to him. He is a special needs student but he scores in the 98-99% on MAP testing and reads on a guided reading level I. He is extremely capable of completing all tasks that are given to him.

Parker's responses would lead you to believe that he is a student who absolutely loves writing and does it when it is assigned AND in his free time. 

The majority of students in my class indicated that they wish there was more time to write at school. I am trying to take this information and make sure that at least 2-3 days a week they get to use a literacy center as a "free choice" writing time. My literacy centers have changed several times this year because my kids are flexibly grouped and I have significant support staff assistance in the classroom. We also use Ipads daily but based on this information I think taking the Ipad center (or computer center) away 2-3 times a week and replacing it with a free choice writing center may help my students to continue to grow even more as independent writers.

Blog problems....or operator error!

Last week I attempted to put my paper and my interest survey onto my blog. I was having difficulties and gave up. Due to the craziness of the weather and the craziness of life I completely forgot that it never got uploaded. I am putting my methods paper into this blog (it is far from perfect and needs a lot of work but it is a great start). I cannot get it to let me insert the picture of my interest survey. Any idea what might be my problem? It is locking up every time I try.

This study looked at the progression of first grade writers over the course of an eight week time frame. There were multiple measures that were used during the study and decisions for new measures were made based on the way students were performing throughout the study. The measures that were used to collect data in this sudy include fieldnotes and observations, an interest survey, interviews, and artifacts. Pappas and Tucker-Raymond (2011) identified all four of these as valid data collection strategies to be used during an action research study.

                The collection of artifacts was of grand importance during this study because it was the concrete way to look at changes in the students’ writing over time. Writing instruction occurred each day and students were continuously producing writing pieces. Each of these pieces was collected and one piece was chosen each week to score using the 5-Point Beginning Writer’s Rubric (2010).

Prior to collecting writing pieces fieldnotes and observations will be conducted. Marshal and Rossman discussed the importance of observation and how it is a “fundamental and highly important method” when conducting research (p.99). Pappas and Tucker-Raymond (2011) identified two types of fieldnotes: descriptive writing and interpretive writing. Descriptive writing fieldnotes were used throughout the course of this study. The simplicity of conducting a conference with students and having written field notes was invaluable to tracking their progression. These fieldnotes were strictly observations of what was going on in the classroom with the students who participated in the study.

                Interviews were another critical measure that was used throughout the course of the study. Rossman and Rallis (2003) devoted a large portion of “Chapter Seven: Gathering Data in the Field” to the discussion of interviews. They stated that “interviewing takes you into participants’ worlds, at least as far as they can (or choose to) verbally relate what is in their minds” (Rossman and Rallis, p.180). Through conducting these interviews I was able to determine how the students felt about the writing projects that they were producing and why they had the feelings they did. The section that spoke specifically about interviewing children was pertained particularly to the situation I was in with collecting data. Rossman and Rallis discussed how it was unrealistic to expect young students to participate in a long face-to-face dialogue about anything however, they encouraged talking during other activities such as lunch, snack time, or while they are playing with blocks or puzzles (p.193). Meeting my students in these sorts of settings allowed them to discuss topics in a more comfortable and honest way. Interviews were conducted in the beginning, middle, and end of the research study.

                At the beginning and the end of the study students participated in a Writing Interest Survey (Appendix A). This survey asked the students questions about their feelings about academic and leisurely writing it also asked them to list things they enjoy writing about. The reasoning for choosing this data collection method was because it was relatively easy to administer and it also provided a quick snapshot of their feelings toward writing and their survey results could easily be compared as the study progressed.