Writing and next steps

Inquiry: Can the children select their next step in writing?

 

Last week I decided I would like children to take notice of their co-constructed success criteria  and to identify their next learning step.
 

How will I go about this?

When they are finished their story children will highlight which success criteria they have included into their writing. The one that is left un-highlighted will become their next step.

2/9/15

How's it going? ... Great!! Children are able to tell me what their next step is and write it into their books.

The children write NS (stands for Next step) then they write down what they missed out of their story according to their success criteria. This photo shows their WALT and Co-constructed Success Criteria on the right of the picture, this child has highlighted the aspects they have included in their story and has chosen to focus on question marks and conjunctions next time. 

 

 

Next Step: do they apply their next step into their next lot of writing or do I get them to add a sentence to that same story to address their next step? 


25/09/15
Here is one way I addressed - What to do with my Next Step:
This example of work shows a 3 sequential picture plan of Maui and the Stars. The WALT was to retell a Maori Legend. I found that most of the class had not used time connectives in their last recount and their Next Steps that they identified was to write time connectives....Hence their challenge in this piece of writing was to use the time connectives that they had pre-selected and recorded on their plan.

 Pre-selected time connectives: First / Next / Finally
It worked as I could say throughout the lesson have you included what is in your plan? and most children could say yes and if not they quickly inserted the time connector.
 

Mixing Ability Writing Groups:

25/8/15

Will mixing ability groups for writing improve writing  ideas (quality) and/or improve student’s self-esteem towards writing?

 

I would like to find out if mixing my writing groups instead of streaming the groups will help with stimulating more ideas to those that need it.  All groups can help co-construct success criteria.  They are able to use a highlighter to mark which success criteria they have included in their writing and they can instantly see what their next step is in regards to that story. Hence they are able to tell me their next step or record this into their books.

 

However, I find that my 2 lower groups struggle to generate ideas and group/peer conversations (student discourse) doesn't flow as well as the more able groups.

 

 2/9/15
I have started mixing my groups - in actual fact I am trialling 2 groups at a time - one of lower ability and the other of  higher ability. So I haven't mixed the individual groups as yet just joined them together (small steps for me).  This is going well so far!!! Lots of sharing of ideas. One higher ability child was in awe of a lower ability boy as he had written more than him after 3 minutes
.
What went well: no one was stuck for an idea when they came to write down their ideas.

Next Step: Will mix my 4 groups for real now and try it out week one Term 4... just finding taking 2 groups at a time too big. 

Up-date on Maori Priority Students in Reading

25 August 2015

Exciting news, the 2 boys I am hoping to get to 'Achieved Standard' by the end of their 2 years of school are currently on Orange 2.  I will be testing them tomorrow to see how well they will score on Turquoise 1, which is the requirement for 'Achieved' in reading.  Both boys are not quite up to their Anniversary dates (21 September & 24 October).  They are paying more attention to their letter sounds but still need occasional prompting to use the 'reading on strategy' when decoding a new word.  Both have a solid understanding of the text after we have read it as they reflect on their predictions and can explain what they will change their thinking to if their prediction is not correct. Fingers crossed...

1 September 2015

Well the results weren't what I expected, Turquoise was too hard for them, they scored 89% accuracy on a 1x seen Ready to Read text 'At the Marae'.  Hei aha, never mind ... we will continue with Orange 2.  I did find out that they revert to visual cues only (sounding out) and ignore using meaning on difficult text. So will focus on reading strategies at the orange level and test them at the end of the term... on Orange 2.

25 September 2015

Hooray!! I have moved the boys onto Turquoise as they scored 98% accuracy and 100% comprehension at Orange 2 seen Ready to Read text. Their next step continues to be cross checking reading strategies and self monitoring. Early Term 4 they will be tested on Turquoise using a fiction Ready to Read story.