Leigh Daley

September
We have just finished our first in-service on Write-On - the new approach to teaching the writing process to our 5th graders who will be taking the writing test this year.  My feelings are somewhat mixed at this point.

While I do enjoy teaching the Language Arts, I am a bit concerned as to exactly how to fit this into my 90 minute block of instruction time as well as teach my other two subjects of Reading and Social Studies.  I wonder if I should have kept the English and let Kevin keep the Social Studies.  Seems I’m back to teaching three subjects again, but I’ll find a way.

This whole in-service has been extremely reminiscent of teaching in North Carolina.  While I was there, I was the Language Arts curriculum coordinator for an elementary school.  I was basically in charge of helping the teachers there learn to teach Language Arts of which, a HUGE part was the North Carolina writing test.  The whole four squares method is very similar to some of the methods I researched and developed myself.  I will have to dig out the materials I have stashed away somewhere.

I’m pretty confident that I can figure out how to integrate this into my classroom and make this work..  I’m excited about getting back to the classroom, changing my lesson plans for next week and integrating the four squares plus one this very next week.  I’ve got the folder I need to get the kids started and I’m excited to get going.  Wish me luck!!

October

1. Describe your class’ experience with Four Square writing this past month.

My students’ experiences this month were very positive.  They were very disappointed at first to learn that they had to take the writing test again, but after exposing them to this new way, they are positive about it.  There are very few that are not upbeat.  I think that they are doing a great job learning the program and will continue to do well.

We started by previewing the cdrom demonstration that was on the write-on disc.  They really liked it.  Then we used the four square plus one to describe colonists view of the stamp act.  I showed them how easy it was to fill in the squares and then transfer to paper by doing the four square plus one on the overhead and then transferring to a word document while I displayed it on the TV.  Then I gave them their topic to think about overnight and gave them their paper the next day.  Their topic was “If I could go anywhere I wanted to, I would go…”  They did a great job.

2. How often did your students attempt to write each week?

Between me and the 5th grade teacher that is teaching writing this year, we did at least one new “prompt” each week.  The students worked on this prompt at least 3 days a week.

3. Did your students attempt a Four Square + 1 paragraph (topic sentence, three detail sentences, one additional sentence for each detail).  If so, what success did they have with it?  If not, why?

My students did a four square plus one.  About 90% of them were successful.

4. Have you experienced any problems through your participation in this project this past month?

The only problem I have experienced is that I don’t have enough time to do all of the editing I need to do with them.  I have passed most, if not all, of the editing conferences to the writing teacher, but honestly, I do not feel that he does an adequate job even though he tries.

5. What suggestions would you have for making this project more beneficial to you and your students?

?????  None that I can think of….it’s going so well, so far.

November
 

    The kids absolutely loved this experience.  They loved both of the virtual fieldtrips that we took this last month.  It is amazing how entertained they are while surfing on the web.  It is wonderful to see the kids excited about writing.  When they have something that they are interested in, they love it.

My students wrote at least twice a week In my class.  Between my class and the writing teacher’s class, I’d have to say they worked everyday on some part of the writing process.  We even worked 4H into the process by using a finished story as the speech that they read out loud for 4H.

   My students have finished several four square + 1 paragraphs.  We are working on the +3 paragraphs.  Some of them have finished and are ready to move on to the transition words and finalizing of first and last paragraphs.  The ones that have finished the +3 paragraphs have been quite impressive.  They have been impressed with themselves, too.  Almost all of the +1 papers are very good.  Even some of the students that you would think would not be able to do very well have done wonders.

The biggest problem I've experienced is TIME!!!!!I know that is all we ever whine about, but gimme a break.  Between being pulled out for special education and speech classes, there are students that I instruct for only 2 hours a week.  Then factor in 4H once a month (doesn’t seem like a big commitment, but consider that there is preparation for the meeting, reminders and coordination of other classes and it really is), DARE once a week, and heaven forbid you have a program or something to be preparing for…ya know like Veteran’s Day, Dicken’s Day, graduation, the occasional fieldtrip, planned reward incentive days….when do we get to teach?  Let’s try to teach Reading (Definitely an important subject), Social Studies ( you know I’ve got to do something about the county-wide low performance) and now Writing (even though it’s not my subject, I’m working on it with Write-On because it’s a county focus and I was the teacher chosen for my grade level). Of course, we also have to coordinate make-up work for Susie, Gretchen and Virgil who have been out for three days, get records together for Mary who moved to Sevier County (but she’ll probably be back after Christmas), and three-week progress reports come out in two days.  By the way, there’s a parent in the office who just told us her child will be out until the end of the week with Strep Throat and would like to take her work with her so she doesn’t get behind and the children you sent home yesterday with head-lice are in the nurse’s station waiting for you to check their heads for re-entry to school.

What step in the writing process were we on? 

I’m wondering if self-contained might be the route for me next year….then again, isn’t the grass always greener on the other side 

January
 

1. Describe your class’ experience with Four Square writing this past month.
This past month has been difficult to get serious writing done. With “Dicken’s Day” and Christmas it seemed that the time flew by. It seems like time is always such a crunch. We are currently working on giving the students several prompts a week. We are only editing a few of these. We are trying to get the children to the point where they can write a good first draft, which is basically what the writing assessment is.

2. Share your experiences with the “Christmas Surprise” activity.

The students thoroughly enjoyed this experience. Of course there was a bit of difficulty with those students who “don’t play well with others,” but you always have a few students who make group activities difficult for the other students in their group. The stories that they developed were great and the kids were impressed with themselves.
 

3. Did your students attempt a Four Square + 1 paragraph (topic sentence, three detail sentences, one additional sentence for each detail). If so, what success did they have with it? If not, why?

Yes, we have done what I would consider a successful Four Square + 1 paragraph. I modeled one for the students on one day and told them that they would do one the next day. I told them that they would need to choose their topic by the time they came to class the next day. They did pretty well. I wouldn’t consider them up to par as far as the writing test, but they did a good paragraph.
 

4. Have you experienced any problems through your participation in this project this past month?

TIME TIME TIME…honestly, why do we have all of these distractions? I don’t consider some of the things we do to be a valid use of our instructional time. Can’t we get rid of DARE and 4-H?
 

5. What suggestions would you have for making this project more beneficial to you and your students?

Beneficial to me and the kids…probably the same thing, if it benefits the kids, it then benefits me, so….let me be the English teacher for our grade level…it is SO HARD to fit this writing in with my Reading and Social Studies in 90 minutes a day. I try to choose topics and ideas that relate well to the other two subjects, and that works well, but then to go into really good detailed writing instruction…how do I come up with the reading comprehension grades and the social studies grades…how do I teach the students to be good writers and still be responsible for the subject matter? Writing needs to be an instructional subject….separate….by itself….it’s own grades…maybe with 4 teachers next year…I just don’t know. Where’s the time?
 

February
1. Describe your class’ experience with Four Square writing this past month.

 This month was the “crunch month” as far as practice writing.  About 2 weeks before the Writing assessment, I dropped my two subjects of Reading and Social Studies to completely concentrate on writing and really engraining the four-square method into the minds of my students.  I spoke with the writing teacher on a daily basis to give him feedback of where I thought we should be going and what we needed to be working on.  The students did really well.  I didn’t “write them to death.”  We did many many many four square plans and got the students down to ten minute plans.  They felt totally comfortable with planning a paper.

2. Share your experiences with the writing assessment practice.

When Connie came into my second period class to practice the writing assessment with the kids, they were pretty exciting.  We had gone through anchor papers and the rubric until they had it down pat, but I think they really wanted to hear it from someone besides me.  They did a great job.  I would have liked it to have been several more days before the actual writing assessment day, but with the snow days, it wasn’t possible.

3. What suggestions would you offer for 5th grade teachers next year to prepare for writing assessment?

Start early.  If you departmentalize, get with the other teachers that you work with.  Do not presume that anyone else is covering the material – do it yourself.  Get the kids so comfortable with it that it is second nature to them.  Really work with the four square planning – the kids like it – it’s fun for them.  They feel so successful because for the first time, they are able to create a five paragraph paper that is really organized.  If you really build these kids up and help them feel successful and help them believe that they can do it, then they won’t be so stressed on the day of the assessment.

4. Have you experienced any problems through your participation in this project this past month?

Scheduling.  Having to give up my subject matter at the last minute to give extra practice time to writing.

5. What suggestions would you have for making this project more beneficial to you and your students?
I feel like I would be more successful with this project if I were a self-contained classroom.
 

March
1. Describe your class’ experience with Four Square writing this past month.

I tried to use the four square writing in Social Studies this month.  I’ll be really honest…we did not do near as much with it as I wanted to.  We have had some major absences this month due to sickness, including me.  We have done other writing with the four square this month, but not near as in depth as I wanted to.

2. How often did your students attempt to write each week?

We wrote on average about twice a week.  Not necessarily a full blown writing project, but at least a descriptive paragraph or explanation.

3. Did your students participate in a social studies cross curriculum writing activity?  If so, describe its successes/weaknesses.

Two out of three of my classes participated in the project on the Civil War.  We have not completed the project.  The students are excited to write the group paragraph explaining the causes leading up to the Civil War (at least the boys group was excited – the girls group was not so excited and they have not mentioned it at all while the boys class has been begging for me to find the time to finish the paragraph).
The power point presentation was interesting to the kids.  They were involved and excited with the material.

4. Have you experienced any problems through your participation in this project this past month?

Time and sickness.

5. What suggestions would you have for making this project more beneficial to you and your students?
This project has been extremely well planned and thought out.  The information has been very helpful to me.  The only suggestion that I have would be for myself.  I need to start at the beginning of the year next year and really plan and integrate the project into all aspects of my classroom.

April Absent
 

May

The Tennessee Master Plan Goals the project addressed was:

State of the art technology will be used to improve curriculum. Tennessee Report Card Performance Indicators Competency (Composition Skills)

1.      How do you feel this project moved toward the goal of improving student composition skills?

I think this project allowed me to finally master a way of helping my students become more organized writers.  I have always felt that students at this age still need concrete examples.  Writing has always been so difficult to teach since it is so abstract.  You have all of these rules and techniques, but trying to get students to roll it all into one great paper is hard.  With the four-square method, the students have a solid structure to follow and it is easy for them to remember.  Students have to be taught to organize their thoughts and this project helped me help them do that. 

2.  How did your participation in this project positively affect the writing skills of the students in your classroom?

My students felt very positive about writing a paper after they learned the four-square method of planning.  At first, when I announced that we would write a paragraph or story of any type, I was met with many groans and rolled eyes, even a few heads banging against the desks in agony.  Once my students were able to see the four-square and how well it helps them organize their thoughts, it became fun and they actually looked forward to doing them.  Because it was so helpful in organizing writing, they were much more productive.  It allowed me to spend individual conference time talking about ways to improve the quality of the writing that was already there rather than trying to PULL the writing out of them.  Once I was able to tell them exactly what they had to have and exactly where it went in the order it went, they were able to do it. 

3.  How did your participation in this project positively affect your instructional strategies?  

Okay, I’ll admit that some of the head banging against the desk in agony was my own head.  I used to have to really psyche myself up to want to teach writing or to tackle a start to finish, entire writing process from planning to publishing, writing assignment.  It was hard…very hard.  We learn quite early on as teachers that the better we feel about something – our attitude toward something will so greatly affect the attitude of our students.  Now that I am equipped with the many great strategies that we have learned, planned, and developed through this project, I feel better about my writing instruction.  I feel like I have a whole bag or tricks to pull from, whereas, I felt hit and miss before. 

4.  Describe any problems you encountered through your participation in this project?

The only problems I had being involved with this project were time constraints.  It seems that every year, we are given more and more to get into the time that we have.  I feel so pushed to accomplish so much and to give my students the quality of instruction that they need to be successful.  I feel like I will be more successful with the fruits of this project next year when I am in a self-contained classroom.  I know that there will be a lot of responsibility, but I feel I can manage my time better with self-contained.  I wish that we did not have to participate in things like DARE and 4-H.  I know that these are great programs that can help students, but I feel like it takes away from my instructional time.   

5.  What could be done to improve the Write On project?

Clone Connie Campbell!