Challenges with Narrative Writing Toward the end of term we gave students 2 hours to plan, write and edit an adventure story. We tried to give an appropriate amount of guidance without overwhelming students with too many details. It was eye-opening to see the resulting stories. We used a rubric to help us evaluate the skills that students were using and the literary devices of which they were aware. While I was very proud of my students for their efforts, I could see a lot of aspects that I'd like to work on further.
Story writing is not just a case of orientation, complication and resolution. There are so many additional features to take into consideration. Students need to create stories that contain depth of content and describe a believable universe. Timing needs to be considered so that stories have a captivating beginning, appropriate plot development and a satisfying ending that leaves the reader both content but wanting more. On top of all of this, characterisation, dialogue, vocabulary and description need to be considered. Prior to this year, I wasn't aware of how much there is to teach about narrative writing!
I am trying to prepare my students with the skills they will need when participating in our national testing next year. Apparently, they will be expected to write their whole story (with appropriate features) in 30 minutes with an additional 5 minutes planning and 5 minutes editing! How many adults can write a logical, well structured imaginative piece of writing in just 3o minutes?
My intern and I are trying to think up a useful acronym to help students to remember the significant features when planning and writing a narrative. Students need something easy and memorable to take with them as a guide. I want to give them the best tools for success that I can discover.
Do you have any other tips or tools useful for teaching writing? Do you know of any great short stories or resources for helping students to create short stories in a short period of time?
Today is Good Friday, and it's nice to have made it to Easter and be enjoying the start of two weeks of holiday. At the start of this week I wasn't sure how I'd make it through to the end - with interviews every afternoon and a workshop to present on Wednesday. Fortunately, I'd built it up to be bigger in my mind, and as I approached things step by step, it was much more manageable. I'm now busy organising the clutter in my mind so that the steps are laid out for the next twelve weeks! But I'm racing ahead. Let's look at the fun for this week...
Dragon Art Jonno organized a brilliant art activity for us - designing and decorating dragons with collage tails. Students used coloured oil pastels to colour the head and then alternated scaly strips in two colours for the body/tail. They looked really effective when they were finished. They represented a creative end to our unit on Rowan of Rin.
Cross Country Carnival On Thursday, students in all grades did some running for our Cross Country Carnival on the school grounds. In Australian schools we have three major whole school sporting events each year: the swimming carnival, the athletics carnival and the cross country carnival. (Do these occur in other countries?) At various quiet points throughout the carnival, one of the more experienced and enthusiastic teachers led students in high energy dances to keep them entertained. I have been surprised this year to find how many students look for ways to avoid running in the cross country. Quite a few of my students experienced performance anxiety or complained of some form of illness. I wonder what can be done to prevent this occurrence next year. This year I ran the race with one of my ten year old girls. It was nice to share the experience together, and together we felt the sense of achievement at the end. When I was a child, I had a hernia one year, and asthma another year. I think for myself, it was mostly an issue of laziness and an unwillingness to persist with a run for such a length of time. I didn't see the value in pushing through difficulties. This is something that I think I've learnt as an adult. Never Give Up Attitude This week we focused on the FRIENDS value: "Never Give Up Attitude". In Circle Time, groups created graphs about the difficult situations that students have had to face in life. The following lesson, students learnt about the story of Floppy Cat and considered situations in their own lives where they persisted through difficult circumstances. You can find out more about the story of Floppy Cat in the following videos.
Three-Way Interviews As far as I was concerned, our three-way interviews were very successful. I was impressed to see how well students summed up their own capabilities and work habits. Most could explain how they were coping with the work and took ownership of their plans for next term. They shared any concerns they were having, and together we talked through solutions. I really like this form of interview as it represents a real team approach to learning and includes the subject of the discussion! I even found that students were honest enough with their parents to own up to misbehaviour in class. It was much easier for me to have the student break the news, rather than having to 'dob' on them to their parents.
Assemblies and Visitors Again this week we made good use of our school hall for assemblies and visitors. On Tuesday we had some players from the Western Bulldogs AFL team who came to talk to our students about their experiences with sport. On Thursday we had a special FRIENDS assembly to acknowledge the work we have done on our FRIENDS values this term. Two students from each class received awards for following the FRIENDS values. We were also told that each class is going to be working on a name for each of the FRIENDS mascots. After lunch on Thursday we had yet another assembly to find out the results of the cross country carnival and inform students who progressed to the next stage of competition.
Friday Fun will be taking a break until term starts up again. See you again next term! Want more Friday Fun? Click here.
Last week I got two new 'toys' for my classroom: a Blue Snowball Microphone and a Flip Mino. I put both of these items on the wishlist for the P&C this year. They will make it easier for us to record our ideas, discussions, performances and much more. I thought I'd share them here with you today.
The Blue Snowball Microphone
The Blue Snowball Microphone is a USB microphone that plugs straight into the computer ready to use. It produces great sound quality and can be used effectively to record group discussions without the need to pass the microphone from person to person. This makes it ideal for recording things like book chats, readers' theatre, radio shows and podcasts. At $180 (plus postage) this is more expensive than most computer microphones, but I read such great reviews on its quality that I couldn't resist.
Yesterday I used the microphone with small groups to record a discussion on the book Rowan of Rin by Emily Rodda. Students gathered around the microphone and leaned forward slightly when they wanted to record their views. The microphone was able to record from all directions, but worked best from the front. I used Audacity to make the recordings, and was mostly happy with the result. I am aware that I will need to tinker a little with the microphone volume in order to achieve the volume I desire. I am now able to listen back over the recordings to hear the perspectives shared by individuals and further ascertain how well they have comprehended the text and the underlying messages.
The Flip Mino
The Flip Mino is a pocket camcorder that records up to 60 minutes on the internal flash-based memory. Recording is started or stopped with a big red button, and viewed through the little LCD screen. It is kid-friendly - allowing for instant playback and can be plugged into the red/white/yellow sockets on your TV (or IWB if you're lucky enough to have it - like me). It has a built-in USB arm making it easy to move videos onto your computer for further editing and sharing. One of the things I really love is that it charges while plugged into the computer.
In summary, for $308 (plus postage) the Flip Mino camcorder is a fun tool that's easy to use, portable and a great introduction to using video in the classroom. Video quality is good without being great, so if you want high quality video this may not be the option for you. (Flip also produces a HD version that may be worth considering).
There are an increasing number of flash based camcorders being created now, but they are not as easy to access in Australia as they are in the USA. The one that we purchased was through ITmadeSimple! based in Victoria, Australia. They are also selling the Kodak Zi6 which seems better in some aspects, but takes AA batteries rather than containing a lithium-ion battery. (Which is what turns me off.)
I'm sure I'll be telling you more about these tools throughout the year, but I was just so excited when they arrived that I wanted to share them here! Have you got any new toys for your classroom lately?
Welcome to the April edition of the Teaching K-6 carnival. This month I had a great response from bloggers who were busy writing great articles. With this month's edition comes a new category for blogs that gripe or brag about things that are happening in the classroom. We have lots of innovative ideas for teaching and thought-provoking articles to inspire you. Thank you to all the contributors for this month. Enjoy, and please, spread the word.
Gripes and Brags
In The Last Zebra the Professor encourages people to keep children's safety in mind by keeping them close. He offers suggestions on how he has succeeded with this with his own children at Professor of Protection.
Gerald Aungst shares ideas for Keeping Kids Focused at Quisitivity.org. He encourages teachers to accept that doodling assists with concentration during teacher-led discussions and points to research that suggests this may be a coping strategy for gifted students.
At My English Pages, Mohammed Rhalmi presents Teach with love and logic- Breaking the ice! He gives suggestions on how teachers can create a positive, caring environment for students. His 'ice breaking tips' are sensible ideas to help teachers to develope mutual respect with their students.
Remember the ant farm of yesteryear?C Merrick presents Gel Ant Farm - A Space Age Habitat For Ants posted at Gel Ant Farms. If you've ever considered becoming a myrmecologist, or want to provide that opportunity to your students, be sure to check out these gel ant farms!
This month at Keeping Kids First, Kelly Hines challenges us to openly explore new learning with our students. Rather than simply go by the book, she encourages us to venture Off the Beaten Path and create learning experiences that are highly memorable to students.
While most of the content of this carnival is focused on K-6 education, Fiona Lohrenz shares some Ideas For Day Care Activities And Games posted at Child Care Only. These ideas are great for developing skills in the early years and engaging children's curiosity.
In these times of great economic crisis, we are all sadly searching for ways to save money and prepare students to act responsibly with finances. Debbie Ducker presents Your Children and Grandchildren Must Learn to Save Money posted at Ducker Promotion Ezine, saying, "Teach your children how to save money at an early age and you will save them a lifetime of heartache."
Chris Mauger has taken a closer look at the development of healthy self-esteem. In Kids and Self-Esteem: Avoiding a Culture of Proud Failures posted at Maugeritaville he encourages us to provide opportunities to try and try again. Chris sees the value in helping students to achieve success for themselves rather than stepping in to do it for them.
This month I present my Thoughts on Globalisation here at Teaching Challenges. I share my personal experiences of globalisation in terms of applying for and obtaining a job in an overseas school.
Brain Strain
This month's brain strain is The Iowa series - Wrap-up posted at Dangerously Irrelevant. It's actually not a hard read this month, and contains lots of great diagrams and videos to present information visually. Scott McLeod provides a brilliantly informative resource discussing the future of education. He introduces five 'levers' to move schools forward and help students thrive and survive in this digital age. This is a resource I would confidently recommend to anyone interested in bringing about change in our schools and making them sustainable in an uncertain future.
The Teaching K-6 Carnival is posted monthly on the 7th. I am collecting submissions throughout the month, looking in particular for posts that discuss and exemplify innovative teaching and the integration of technology in the K-6 classroom. I also invite a few "brain strains" to keep our minds alert and challenged. Please submit only articles of which you are the author and refrain from using this merely as a sales pitch. For full details, please read my call for submissions.
If you have a relevant post that you would like to submit to the next edition of teaching k-6 carnival use our carnival submission form. Past posts and future hosts can be found on our blog carnival index page.
Support this Carnival
If you enjoyed this edition of the carnival, you can support its continuation by sharing it with others. Link to us, add us to a tweet, stumble or digg us. Thanks!
This week was packed to the brim with exciting learning experiences.
Communication - Assessment Task Students began this task last week. This week they finished preparing their presentations and presented them. Three groups chose PowerPoint presentations, two chose role plays and a talk, and others chose posters (with or without a talk). It was very interesting to see how students organised their ideas and cooperated in their teams. As this was the first time I've given my students this level of student direction with a task, I learnt a lot from the process. This time I gave explicit details about what the presentations needed to contain - in the way of a rubric - but I did not give students a tool to help them organise their information and plan their presentation. Fortunately a very experienced relief teacher was in the classroom with me at the time and was able to throw something together to give students more direction. This is something that I will remember for next time.
Maths We got to play with angles again this week in our Maths lessons. Miss Eschauzier (an intern who will be with us for eight weeks) took small groups out to work on ordering acute angles and measuring them with a protractor. I worked with the rest of the class exploring angles with compass directions and clock faces. Yet again, students loved playing with angles and learning how to name them. Students also completed a test to determine areas of strength and areas for development from this term.
The Ridge We finally started our ridge project this week. Doug and Jenny from the Park Care group, came to speak to students about our school's previous involvement with the ridge and start a project with this year's Year 4s. They showed us pictures of some of the plants to look for, and some of the weeds that we will be responsible for pulling out. It was really enjoyable to learn from people who are passionate about plants and maintaining the natural environment on the ridge.
Part-way through lunchtime, we walked up the ridge to see it all for ourselves. I chose a few people to be our photographers, and other students had the option of bringing notepaper and pencils to record information. The following slideshow is a collaborative effort from students and myself.
A few students discovered the magic of moss in a drought-stricken land. The following video shows their discovery.
When we returned to class students worked in self-chosen teams to "graffiti wall" all the things that they had seen and learnt. Each student had a different coloured texta. They worked simultaneously to record their ideas. Most of the groups filled a huge page in just 15 minutes!
Our project on the ridge will involve students in taking responsibility for the care of their local community through protection of the ridge. We hope that students will develop a greater understanding of and connection with nature in the local region.
Performance Students performed for parents this week to celebrate their learning this term. Students from the Fife and Drum Band performed five songs and Readers' Theatre people performed four plays that we learnt throughout the term. I was really impressed by how well the students read and played. They looked really professional and seemed so confident. Parents were invited to stay for light refreshments, and many commented that they had enjoyed the performance.
Homework This term students have had the flexibility to work with a Homework Matrix. We encouraged students to choose at least two activities during the term and do quality work in presenting these. Activities chosen relate to the Higher Order thinking strategies of Bloom's Taxonomy and Gardner's Multiple Intelligences. Students have chosen a range of activities to explore and demonstrate their learning. One student created a video about friendship and welcoming a new neighbour. Another student created a lego animation of one of the scenes from Rowan of Rin. Please visit his blog and leave an encouraging comment.
People who support us After exploring some introductory resources on "Support", students considered people who support them at home, school, and in the wider community. They used Kidspiration to create a diagram of these connections and wrote about how these people support them. Students got off to a great start and their mind-maps were very detailed. They will have the chance to finish them off at the start of next term. We hope to add these to the student portfolios. Once students have finished, I will check if someone is willing for me to share their diagram here.
Self-evaluation Next week we will be having three-way interviews. These involve the student, parent and teacher coming together to discuss the student's progress. We prefer for students to do most of the talking in these interviews. Students have been reflecting on their development in their "reflective journals" since the beginning of the year. Each week they write about their challenges, successes and plans. They used these reflections and their recent maths test to decide what they will share and discuss in their three-way interview. I haven't done three-way interviews with students this age before, so I am keen to see the result.
Rowan of Rin I will not be posting about Rowan of Rin this week, but instead will include a final Rowan of Rin entry next week.
I am currently teaching gifted and talented students at a boys' school. I love what I do and the kids I teach. I am easily inspired and love to find ways to improve learning for my students using a variety of strategies and ideas. I am happiest in my life when I am actively learning and can connect with others to foster growth and understanding.
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