Amy Smith
| September | February |
| October | March |
| November | April |
| January | May |
September
The Write on Project will take place in my classroom
this year of 2002-2003. I love talking to other teachers about school
issues. A concern is that we are teaching children to write using
a process that takes many days and the writing assessment lasts only 35
minutes. It is very enjoyable to learn new things from such a humor-filled
and experienced individual like Connie. This project is extremely
engaging and Connie creates an atmosphere in which teachers feel inspired
to learn.
1. Describe your class’ experience with Four Square
writing this past month.
The four square model helps my children organize
their writing. They are struggling with descriptive language.
They tend to use the same big words we went over in class and use no imagination
to describe what they are talking about.
2. How often did your students attempt to write each
week?
We tried to write at least once a week. We
did the Four Square model a total of three times including Connie’s presentation.
Our first prompt was about their favorite zoo sites, the second was the
one Connie did, and the third was the prompt Connie assigned concerning
their experiences so far in fourth grade.
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? No, I did not feel that they were ready for it yet. We need to work on descriptive language.
4. Have you experienced any problems through your participation in this project this past month? No.
5. What suggestions would you have for making this project more beneficial to you and your students? I do not have any suggestions. I am really enjoying the project and learning a lot as my students are learning.
My children really enjoyed the Easter Island presentation. They were very motivated to write about it and did well on their writing pieces. My funny situation from this experience is that most of my kids had something to the effect that “An erosion occurred” kind of like “a tornado occurred” and we talked about how it isn’t a thing but a process. I don’t know how to explain it, but it was funny. J
We try to write about once a week.
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? Well, no, because I have this writing book I have been working out of and I usually have them write a page on the prompt. I haven’t figured out how to get a page out of the four square format yet. I know that I need to I just haven’t had time to think it through yet.
Have you experienced any problems through your participation in this project this past month? No, as usual it has been fun and enjoyable. No problems that I know of.
What suggestions would you have for making this project more beneficial to you and your students?
At the moment I do not have any suggestions. The project is great as it is.
January
1. Describe your class’ experience with Four
Square writing this past month.
We have used the four square writing model for writing
a few times since our last meeting. Our stories included narratives concerning
dreams we have had and our future occupations. The children feel success
because the model is so easy to follow.
2. Share your experiences with the “Christmas Surprise” activity.
My children always get excited when Ms. Campbell comes to visit our room. They truly enjoy learning from her because her presentation is so enticing and sound. I must admit that I, too, was shocked over the amount of violence the children included in their writing.
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, they did. They wrote very well and I was impressed with the results. They were eager to write more. Some wanted to add sentences to the model were it was not permitted and I wasn’t sure how to accommodate their enthusiasm. I think we are ready to move up a step and start adding more details. They seem to really enjoy writing.
4. Have you experienced any problems through your participation in this project this past month?
No.
5. What suggestions would you have for making this
project more beneficial to you and your students?
None.
1. Describe your class’ experience with Four Square writing this past month.
We wrote a practice test prompt on the Castle. My children had
trouble making paragraphs and correctly organizing their papers.
2. 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 did, but it wasn’t very organized on their papers and they had trouble knowing when and if and where they could add extra stuff to their skeleton story. I got confused myself. They did not use paragraphs and most, if not all, did not indent.
3. Have you experienced any problems through your participation in this project this past month?
My children seem to understand how to make the 4 square model, but have trouble taking the information from the graphic organizer and using that information to create a paragraph.
4. What suggestions would you have for making this project more beneficial to you and your students?
Teach my children and I how to better take the information from the graphic organizer and use that to create our story.
March
1. Describe your class’ experience with Four Square writing this past
month.
We did some civil war prompt presentations off the web which the children really enjoyed viewing. They are still struggling with organizing their paragraphs and some are even still failing to write their topic sentence. About 3 kids in my class seem to truly understand how to organize a paragraph. I feel a little frustrated because the bulk of my class has not mastered this yet.
2. How often did your students attempt to write each week?
We attempted to write at least once a week.
3. Did your students participate in a social studies cross curriculum
writing activity? If so, describe its successes/weaknesses.
Yes, we studied the civil war. They learned a lot of information
from the presentation, but most are still struggling with putting a paragraph
together if it involves more than the basic 4 square model (4 square plus
3 or so). I don’t even want to think about doing 6 trait.
4. Have you experienced any problems through your participation in this
project this past month?
Yes, they can’t seem to go past writing a 5 sentence paragraph.
5. What suggestions would you have for making this project more beneficial
to you and your students?
Please help me teach my kids how to write more than a 5 sentence paragraph
?.
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)
How do you feel this project moved toward the goal of improving student composition skills? This project helped me to help my students write better by showing us how to organize our writing, how to edit our work and how to expand and better our writing. Most importantly, this project created enthusiasm for writing in both me and my students. We now look forward to writing instead of dreading it. The monthly meetings kept me focused and the support Connie gave us as teachers was outstanding. This project has taught my children how to be effective writers; it has taught me how to be a better teacher, especially in writing.
How did your participation in this project positively affecting the writing skills of the students in your classroom? We learned how to organize our thoughts, add details to our stories, edit our work, and how to use writing in subject areas like science and social studies. My children loved it when Connie came to teach them writing lessons and begged for me to tell them when she would be coming back. My children can now write an organized paragraph and/or story and include such important things as a beginning, middle, and end, interesting detail, and long flowing sentences instead of short choppy ones.
How did your participation in this project positively affect your instructional strategies? I now no longer use the same old boring approaches to teach writing. I use fun and exciting technology and great books as resources for writing. I have learned a lot about how to teach writing. I now feel much more competent as a writing instructor. The web site, C.D.s, one on one instruction, and books are awesome resources; I will get a lot of use out of them.
Describe any problems you
encountered through your participation in this project? It is hard to fit
all the many objectives we have in during the day. Instructional time is
very cramped. Every
subject is crammed full of terra nova objectives and there are only so many
hours during the day. It
gets frustrating at times.
What could be done to improve the Write On project? Maybe we could continue to meet and learn next year?