So, basically, that is what the lesson was about. I read them an excerpt of one of my favorite books, "The Book Thief" (which many of you have read in TE348), during one of the lessons before this, and we have used what we have read to work on the reading strategies of the week, which were compare and contrast. The students were supposed to use a Venn diagram that was created the day before as a guide, and write a few paragraphs that depicted the similarities between themselves and Liesel, as well as the differences between themselves and Liesel. As students wrote these paragraphs, I worked to meet with all of them to talk briefly about their writing, and filled out a T-Chart with them. The T-Chart had "I can..." written over one column and "I'm working on..." written over the other column (the same format that is suggested in Writing Essentials). Along with the students' suggestions, we would add one thing in each category, and then have the students continue to work on their paragraphs using these suggestions, with the intention that they will continue to do the skill listed in the "I can..." category and focus on improving the skill listed in the "I'm working on..." category.
This was the lesson that I was formally observed by my field instructor with, and I am actually really glad that I was because I got a lot of awesome suggestions. Together, we discussed what students were using the writing conferences purposefully, and the students who were really unaware of how to approach the writing conference. The students who were able to zero in on their strengths and weaknesses were the students who generally excel in writing. For example, I have one student in my class who has the potential to be an EXCELLENT writer - all she is really lacking is the technical stuff, but the natural talent is all there. She was able to zero in on that completely. She knew that she excelled at using vivid descriptions and she knew that she has a really strong voice in her writing. She was also able to target her weakness of grammar, and she voiced her desire to improve on this in order to make her writing even more extraordinary.
However, the majority of students really struggled. I was expecting these struggles, since I knew that talking about their writing would be something brand new for my class, and thus, something that may be incredibly difficult for my students. They are just used to handing in their writing and being done with it. They see their grade, accept it, and move on. However, this does not lend much opportunity for students to meta cognitively understand what must be done for them to continue to improve their writing. This lesson, then, was meant as a just an introduction for these types of skills in order for them to get their feet wet.
Robin, my field instructor, was super helpful when it came to the reflection piece of this lesson. She applauded my intentions here, and encouraged me to continue to try writing conferences. Although I would say the intentions were lost on most students, she did not want me to be discouraged, but use this as a way to improve next time. She had many suggestions for the next time that I use writing conferences in my class (and I really want to use them again, because I think this will open their world up so much and make them think critically of their writing and strive to get better!!!). For example, she suggested that I should have be way more explicit when introducing my writing conference idea to the students, especially because this is something that so foreign to them. I should have told them EXACTLY the type of conversation that was expected of them, so they would know where to start when I met with them. For this, a "fish bowl" between my MT and I would have been ideal. In addition, Robin suggested that I should have had students had a item in the "I can..." column and an item in the "I'm working on..." column ready to go. This would have gotten our conference off with a strong start, and I could immediately assess their meta cognitive skills, and also I could help them get on the right track, or confirm they were on the right track. This would have been less time-consuming, and way more efficient.
Overall, I am really glad I did this, even though the students really struggled, because it at least got them thinking about this idea. I am really glad that I got to talk to my field instructor and get her feedback, because I feel really inspired to continue with writing conferences, because I really believe in the benefits of them. :)
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