Teaching one another

Aliyah and Ryan sit in the fishbowl and model an effective conference.

In writing workshop this week, students began peer conferencing. In order to begin teaching students good peer conferencing practice, Matthew and I modeled for students both rotten and fantastic conferring sessions. To model, we use what is called a fishbowl: those who are modeling sit in the center of a large circle of everyone else and engage in the activity (in this case, conferring). The members on the circle must observe without commenting, but are able to share their ideas about what worked and what did not once the modeling session has concluded.  Since the first day, a number of students have volunteered to sit in the fishbowl to model effective conferences.

When conferring, students are expected to sign up on a magnetic board when they have an issue they need help resolving. Thus, when they arrive at the conference with a peer, each student is responsible for sharing with her/his partner in what way(s) they need guidance. Partners are expected to reflect on the author's needs and give very specific ideas to address the problem at hand. No student should, in a conference, sit down and tell a partner, "I would like to know if you like my story." This is not a specific need. Rather, an author is expected to take responsibility for her/his own work and ask a specific question, such as "Does my story zoom in on the important parts and paint a picture in your head?" or "Does my piece give enough detail so that you are able to see the movie of it in your head?" or "Does my lead grab your attention?"

It is the audience member's job to listen intently, give some positive feedback, and then address the author's concerns. The authors know that they may take their peers' advice or not. Once one author has read her/his piece and received constructive feedback, the two students switch roles and begin the process again. An entire peer conferencing session should take about five to seven minutes.

Our goal is to complete and publish personal narratives in time to have an Author Celebration the week of October 24th. Currently, I have tentatively set the date for October 25th at 8:30 a.m. in my room. I will let you know as soon as I am able if this date changes. I hope that you will all be able to join us. Author Celebrations are a highlight of the year.

In reading workshop last week, students spent a great deal of time learning about and using the rubric-style scoring guides that outline the expectations for both behavior and strategy and skill application when reading independently.  Both scoring guides are built around learning objectives.

This first scoring guide outlines expectations for behaviors: does the student act like a reader with consistency? The gray boxes indicate at what level we expect the students to be right now. As time moves on, those gray boxes will all migrate to the left.

This second scoring guide outlines expectations for strategy and skill application.

This scoring guide is designed to help assess whether a student is applying what has been taught to her/his own reading practice. As time moves forward, not only with the gray boxes move toward the left, but additional expectations will be added to the scoring guide.

Students each have copies of both scoring guides. As they work, they have been encouraged to use Post-it flags to determine where on the rubric they believe they are. Students are learning to be more self aware and responsible for their own learning. They have set goals for themselves as well, considering what they believe they need to improve.

In science, students continue to study electricity. Last week students created complete circuits using batteries, small light bulbs and wire. This week students will learn about parallel and series circuits as well as insulators and conductors.  As a class, we will also construct our own light bulb, creating a filament out of very fine wire. Next week, students will learn how to make switches and add them to their circuits, which is always fantastically fun.

Next week we begin another technology round. During this session, students will be working with partners to create Voice Threads that will teach their audience about a concept they have learned in science. Students will be creating story boards to plan their projects, then taking photographs to illustrate their instruction. The entire piece will also be narrated and then published when completed.

Eric and Kyra play High Number Toss

This Thursday is our first round of conferences. I have posted the conference schedule on a page above; just click the tab marked "Conference Schedule" to view the list. If for some reason you are unable to make your scheduled appointment, please contact me right away. Also, you can see that the schedule is tight, so please be on time for your appointment. If you are late, we may need to reschedule. I will also do my best to stick to the schedule. It can be tricky!




Important upcoming dates:
October 6: Conference Day
October 14: No school--staff development day
October 25: Author Celebration (tentative); 8:30 a.m.
October 28: Fall Festival