Nancy Puckett
| September | February |
| October | March |
| November | April |
| January | May |
September
Today I began a new
journey on how to teach writing. At first it was overwhelming because
it was a different approach to writing. After I listed to Jeannette
and Connie’s presentation I became excited. I can see this journey providing
me the opportunity to teach students how to be effective writers.
Finally, I am so excited about implementing Four Square method of writing
and plan to begin the journey on Monday, September 16, 02.
1. Describe your class’ experience with Four Square writing this past month. My experience with Four Square writing this month has been exciting, challenging interesting and amazing. The students enjoy the method of writing but hate to edit papers. Also, I have found it interesting to learn that children have not clue about using the thesaurus, therefore I have had to introduce it. Finally, I have found it somewhat amazing that some students have good writing skills while others struggle with writing a complete sentence.
2. How often did your students
attempt to write each week?
My students write daily in
their journals; however I use the Four Square method of writing daily.
3. Did your students attempt a Four Square + 1 paragraph (topic sentence, three detail sentences, and one additional sentence for each detail)? If so, what success did they have with it? If not, why? My students attempted a Four Square + 1 paragraph. We did not reach adding the details to the paragraph yet. The students have been successful at developing the three why’s and one feeling sentence, however editing has been difficult for them to grasp.
4. Have you experienced any problems through your participation in this project this past month? Yes
5. What suggestions would you have for making this project more beneficial to you and your students? One suggestion I have for me to incorporate is place student in groups so that I can work with them on editing rather than allowing them to have partners to edit their work. The other problem I have is I feel I need to teach specific concepts rather than spending so much time on writing. In other words, I feel I need to teach what is a verb? How to find verbs in a sentence, etc… I am so worried about that I’m trying incorporating a lot into one hour. Also, I know that the fourth grade teachers are not writing everyday and are teaching concepts too. As far as a solution I am not sure of one to offer, because I feel I am not confident enough to stray away from the book and teach everything through Four Square. Do you have any suggestion? See my problem is I have some students who could grasp teaching the Four Square plus the concepts then on the other side; I have students who are totally lost.
The experience I had with the Easter Island writing assignment was great. The students were very involved in watching the presentation and showed much exciting when asked to write about it. Actually, after the writing assignment, one student did more research on Easter Island and shared it with the class.
My students write daily in their journal. In the past I allowed free writing in journals, but as we move more toward the four square method of writing I’ve noticed writing skills improve. I incorporate one write-on (four-square) writing exercise weekly.
One write on project I do each week is following a story in our reading book, I have the students use the four square method and write about the story or the character in the story. I can use their righting sample for spelling, English, and reading grades.
All three classes are at the Four Square + 1 paragraph+ three details. I am pleased with the success we are having. I do have some students who experience difficulty with explaining the three details. I have learned the more I add the more the write and sometimes the students get confused. Often I am redirecting their writing by asking for more information especially on the details.
I have one class that is no moving as quickly as the other two, however, they are making progress. This particular class is at Four Square +1 paragraph + one detail. I feel confident they will improve before February.
I have experience one problem in particular and that is conferencing. Often it takes more time with students than I anticipated, therefore, the other students are anxious about their conference. One thing I did to help eliminate the wait was provide the students waiting with fun activities to do. I have found that eliminates a lot of the complaining. One positive thing about the conference is the students are open to constructive criticism concerning their writing. One technique I use when the students come for conferences is to begin with something positive about his/her paper. I feel I have resolved some of the previous problems I was having since I teach all three language arts subjects as opposed to teaching English only.
At White Pine School, one of the fifth grade teachers was move to sixth grade so I picked up teaching language arts completely. Teaching the entire language arts enhanced my opportunity to provide more time for writing and incorporating the weekly topic as well.
What suggestions would you have for making this project more beneficial to you and your students? At this time I have no specific suggestions. I feel I have learned how to teach children to write better. In addition, I feel students are learning a better and fun approach to writing.
February
1. Describe your class’ experience with Four Square writing this past
month. In January, the class experience was somewhat more challenging
simply because of the upcoming assessment date. Perhaps, my ability
to observe the writing process became better too. One specific experience
I noticed was a student who was having difficulty grasping the four square
method finally understanding its purpose. Also, after Connie came
my class and reviewed with my students about how to write a four square
and described it as “the meat of the paper”, my students become more comfortable
with writing.
2. Share your experiences with the writing assessment practice.
The experience I want to share with the writing assessment practice
is having the opportunity to evaluate myself as a teacher and my students’
ability to become skilled writers. As an educator, I was able to identify
areas in which I can improve teaching writing skills. Also, reading and
critiquing the practice assessment gave me the opportunity target areas
each child needed additional help.
3. What suggestions would you offer for 5th grade teachers next year
to prepare for writing assessment?
I would encourage all fifth grade teachers regardless of what
they teach to incorporate the four square method. I have watched
as students develop their ability to organized their thoughts and create
productive writing.
4. Have you experienced any problems through your participation in this project this past month? Yes, one problem in particular was the format for the actually assessment. I was told to allow students to use paper for their four square. A few days later, I was told not to allow them to use white paper. The anxiety of not knowing what was required made me more anxious.
Another issue I had difficulty with this past month was getting my students to do extra writing assignments at home. I do not give a lot of homework; however, during the month I gave writing assignments and told students they would be graded. Unfortunately, some of best students failed to do the work and their grades dropped.
Overall, I am glad the writing assessment if over. I feel I have
grown as an educator and plan to be a better teacher next year.
5. What suggestions would you have for making this project more beneficial
to you and your students?
March
1. Describe your class’ experience with Four Square writing this past
month. This month has been the most rewarding month with my classes
with Four Square writing. After reading the writing essays I have
noticed their writing skills have improved. The other thing, I find
so humorous is in the other classes my students are insisting on using
the Four Square before writing.
2. How often did your students attempt to write each week?
In Language Arts class we write weekly; however, my students do journal
writing daily.
3. Did your students participate in a social studies cross curriculum writing activity? If so, describe its successes/weaknesses. Yes, my students did participate in cross curriculum writing activity. The students had to write about the Civil War and enjoyed this writing activity more than any of the others.
4. Have you experienced any problems through your participation in this project this past month? I have not experienced any particular problems this month.
5. What suggestions would you have for making this project more beneficial to you and your students? I suggest more power points presentations be developed and implemented because the students enjoy them. Students tend to be more attentive to the subjects.
1. Describe your class’ experience with Four Square writing this past month. My class continued to write using the Four Square writing this month; however, due to review of the Terra Nova, I did not implement writing as much as previous months.
2. Share your students’ experiences with the Civil War or Iraq writing activity. My students enjoyed the power point presentation a lot. Actually, I was informed by some of my students that I should teach social studies instead of Language Arts. I feel confident they learned more about the cause of the Civil War in Language Arts than in their Social Studies class. One other thing, I noticed the children enjoyed writing about the Civil War more than any other topic.
3. How have you utilized the resources from the Write On site in your classroom? I have utilized the Write On site for writing prompts, development of writing sentences (sentence stretchers), using transition words, create a superhero, peer editing narratives, etc… I could list almost everything on this site that I have utilized in some way every day/week.
4. Have you experienced any problems through your participation in this project this past month? I have not experienced any particular problems this month.
5. What suggestions would you have for making this project more beneficial to you and your students? More power point presentations because students really love them. I have noticed they learn and find the subject more interesting.
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? This project improved student composition skills by allowing educators the time and ability to teach a new and less complex way or writing. Students interest in writing was enhanced because of the technology incorporated in this project.
2. How did your participation in this project positively affecting the writing skills of the students in your classroom? Having the opportunity to participate in this project enhanced my knowledge on how to teach writing skills. Also, my attitude that writing was fun also assisted in positively affecting the students. Often I would write a composition as they were writing and share my paper with them. As the year progressed, I watched and listened to their vocabulary increase as well as, writing skills improve.
3. How did your participation in this project positively affect your instructional strategies? My participation in this project affected my instructional strategies by teaching students a simple and consistent method of writing. Before beginning any writing activity, I provided my students with a blank sheet of computer paper to do their four- square on. Once the completed the four square, I would inform them that they had “graduated to a yellow sheet of paper. On the yellow sheet they would write their first draft. The students would be so excited to graduate to yellow paper. Finally, came the notebook paper and they were more excited because they knew they were almost finished with the paper. My participation affected my instructional strategies in so many ways. I used the computer and the Write on Project more than ever. Each week, I would go to the county web back and research the Write On site to locate activities I would incorporate in my lessons.
4. Describe any problems you encountered through your participation in this project? The only specific problem I encountered with this project was trying to find time to teach the basic grammar skills as well as, teaching writing. Although some teachers are able to incorporate basic skills and writing together, I felt the need to use other materials to teach grammar skills in addition to the writing.