Description of Implementation
Week One: Introducing the next writing project.
I began implementing Phase Two during the second week of May. CST testing also began that week and I was a bit worried that this would effect students’ motivation to begin a new writing project. However, on that Monday when the students came in to do their morning routine, 6 students came to me and asked, “Will we get to know what we’re writing about today?” When I answered, “You’ll have to wait until our writing time to find out,” these students quickly relayed this information to the rest of their classmates.
I started our first writing lesson in Phase Two by inviting students to recall and discuss the Author’s Celebration, the feelings they had reading the comments from people who read and enjoyed their story, and the feelings they had knowing they were able to communicate with people through their writing. I then asked, “What are other reasons why we would want to communicate with people through writing?”
Responses the students generated included:
· To invite people to parties.
· To give directions.
· To ask for help.
· To say thank you.
· To show what you learn.
· To make people happy.
I then stated, “For the next couple of weeks, our writing will help us make a new friend.” I explained to the students that we would be writing to a second grade classroom from a different part of San Diego. I showed them a map of San Diego and identified where our school is located in comparison to our new friends’ school. This classroom belonged to a colleague of mine and together, we planned to exchange approximately three letters over the course of three weeks. We paired our students with each other randomly. My students were the first to write so as they were drafting their initial letters, the only thing they knew about their pen pal was that he or she was in second grade. Before drafting their letters, my students and I discussed appropriate introductions and the things they would want to share about themselves when meeting a new friend. We also discussed what they would want to know about a person when they first meet. Some students had a bit of trouble generating these lists – sometimes, omitting basic details like their name, age, gender, name of school, etc. However, after sharing work and further discussions with table mates, students got a better idea of what they could and should share about themselves and what they could ask. During this exercise, I noticed that students were learning valuable lessons regarding social skills and making friends. They also appeared to intuitively know what types of phrases they could put in their letters that would not have necessarily been appropriate in their personal narratives. Such phrases included, “Cool, huh?”, “What’s up?”, and “I can’t wait until you write back.” Students were made aware that their deadline was that coming Friday and that their pen pals would receive their letters the following Monday.
During this first week, I also explained to my students that they would be sharing their work with their friends in addition to sharing it with me. Because students expressed that verbal discourse helped them tremendously in their ability to write during Phase One, I wanted to give my students more opportunities to talk about their writing. I had a discussion with students and modeled for them how to be helpful and what kinds of things they should be looking for when reading their friends’ work.
Some peer conferencing tips that we agreed would be helpful were:
1. Listen. Face your partner and make eye contact.
2. What did you like? Be specific.
3. What was unclear? Reread what was unclear and ask the author to explain.
4. Did the author use capitals and proper punctuation at the end of sentences?
5. Do you have any suggestions as to what could make the piece better? What could they add? What do you think could be taken out?
All students completed their letters by Friday and even decorated their letters with pictures and words such as, “You rock!”
Week Two – The Writing Workshop supports different students at different stages of writing.
While students were waiting for responses from their pen pals (which were scheduled to arrive on Wednesday), they worked on fan letters. I gave a mini lesson explaining that the purpose of a fan letter is to express gratitude and admiration for the famous person you are writing to. Students generated a list of celebrities that they admire and wrote reasons why they admired them. I suggested that they also think about requests they may have for their celebrity – an autograph? A letter in return? Tickets to their concert or sporting event? About 1/3 of the students completed their lists and began writing fan letters by the second day of the week. By the third day of the week, students received their pen pal letter responses. The students were extremely excited and spent much of their writing time reading their letters, sharing their letters and discussing the questions their pen pals asked. At this point, I discussed with students their options for what they could be working on during the next several days:
1. Letters to their pen pal – to include:
2. Fan letters – to include:
Students spent the rest of this week diligently working on these letters, proofreading their peers’ work and revising and finalizing their pieces. All students chose to work on their pen pal letters first as they wanted to ensure that they meet the deadline. I noticed that during independent writing, most all students were successfully working on different stages of their writing and on different projects. During feedback conferences this week, students communicated that they enjoyed writing letters because they had a new friend, they were able to talk about things that they liked, and because they knew their pen pal would write back. These comments helped illustrate for me the role an audience plays in students' attitudes towards writing. Knowing that an audience would read and respond to their letters appeared to play a factor in their enjoyment of writing and increase their positive attitudes towards writing.
Week Three – Comparing two different writing projects
During this last week of letter writing, all students met their Monday deadline for their Pen Pal letters. All students also completed generating a list of celebrities and why they admire them. Creating this list took a bit longer than expected for approximately half of the students because they did not know the actual names of the actors, actresses, singers, authors etc. that they wanted to write to. As a result, students spent quite a bit of time researching these celebrities on their iPods and/or on the desktop computers. Approximately half of the class was able to complete their fan letters. Students continuously asked, “Will they write back?” I answered truthfully and said, “Maybe. But if they don’t, at least you know you sent a letter that will definitely make someone happy.” Knowing that there was a possibility that their fan letter would not get a response appeared to decrease other students’ sense of urgency to finish their fan letter or to write another one.
At the end of this week, I gave students a survey that asked them to identify what they liked and didn’t like about this letter-writing project. The survey also asked the students to compare the two writing projects they participated in thus far. While 95% of students said that letter writing was easier, 90% of students said they liked the first writing project – the personal narratives - better. Students’ reasons for liking the personal narratives better were:
Finally, the survey asked each student if they felt they improved as writers since the beginning of Phase One and if they enjoy writing. 90% of students felt they improved as writers and 85% of students stated that in general, they enjoy writing. These results are a significant increase from the results of these same questions when asked in Phase One.
The results of this survey prompted me to facilitate small group conferences in an effort to learn more about students’ feelings towards writing their personal narratives, pen pal letters and fan letters. I was surprised that such a large percentage of students favored the personal narratives over letter writing, especially since at the end of Phase One, ten students expressed fatigue and resistance towards beginning a new project. These conferences helped me realize that while the personal narrative project was initially viewed by the students as demanding, they now regarded themselves as more capable writers. Consequently, as their self-efficacy as writers increased, their positive attitudes towards writing increased as well. This increase in confidence appeared to alter their feelings towards Phase One’s writing project and I found it extremely valuable to give my students the opportunity to reevaluate Phase One’s project after growing as writers and having time to rest and reflect upon the experience.
I began implementing Phase Two during the second week of May. CST testing also began that week and I was a bit worried that this would effect students’ motivation to begin a new writing project. However, on that Monday when the students came in to do their morning routine, 6 students came to me and asked, “Will we get to know what we’re writing about today?” When I answered, “You’ll have to wait until our writing time to find out,” these students quickly relayed this information to the rest of their classmates.
I started our first writing lesson in Phase Two by inviting students to recall and discuss the Author’s Celebration, the feelings they had reading the comments from people who read and enjoyed their story, and the feelings they had knowing they were able to communicate with people through their writing. I then asked, “What are other reasons why we would want to communicate with people through writing?”
Responses the students generated included:
· To invite people to parties.
· To give directions.
· To ask for help.
· To say thank you.
· To show what you learn.
· To make people happy.
I then stated, “For the next couple of weeks, our writing will help us make a new friend.” I explained to the students that we would be writing to a second grade classroom from a different part of San Diego. I showed them a map of San Diego and identified where our school is located in comparison to our new friends’ school. This classroom belonged to a colleague of mine and together, we planned to exchange approximately three letters over the course of three weeks. We paired our students with each other randomly. My students were the first to write so as they were drafting their initial letters, the only thing they knew about their pen pal was that he or she was in second grade. Before drafting their letters, my students and I discussed appropriate introductions and the things they would want to share about themselves when meeting a new friend. We also discussed what they would want to know about a person when they first meet. Some students had a bit of trouble generating these lists – sometimes, omitting basic details like their name, age, gender, name of school, etc. However, after sharing work and further discussions with table mates, students got a better idea of what they could and should share about themselves and what they could ask. During this exercise, I noticed that students were learning valuable lessons regarding social skills and making friends. They also appeared to intuitively know what types of phrases they could put in their letters that would not have necessarily been appropriate in their personal narratives. Such phrases included, “Cool, huh?”, “What’s up?”, and “I can’t wait until you write back.” Students were made aware that their deadline was that coming Friday and that their pen pals would receive their letters the following Monday.
During this first week, I also explained to my students that they would be sharing their work with their friends in addition to sharing it with me. Because students expressed that verbal discourse helped them tremendously in their ability to write during Phase One, I wanted to give my students more opportunities to talk about their writing. I had a discussion with students and modeled for them how to be helpful and what kinds of things they should be looking for when reading their friends’ work.
Some peer conferencing tips that we agreed would be helpful were:
1. Listen. Face your partner and make eye contact.
2. What did you like? Be specific.
3. What was unclear? Reread what was unclear and ask the author to explain.
4. Did the author use capitals and proper punctuation at the end of sentences?
5. Do you have any suggestions as to what could make the piece better? What could they add? What do you think could be taken out?
All students completed their letters by Friday and even decorated their letters with pictures and words such as, “You rock!”
Week Two – The Writing Workshop supports different students at different stages of writing.
While students were waiting for responses from their pen pals (which were scheduled to arrive on Wednesday), they worked on fan letters. I gave a mini lesson explaining that the purpose of a fan letter is to express gratitude and admiration for the famous person you are writing to. Students generated a list of celebrities that they admire and wrote reasons why they admired them. I suggested that they also think about requests they may have for their celebrity – an autograph? A letter in return? Tickets to their concert or sporting event? About 1/3 of the students completed their lists and began writing fan letters by the second day of the week. By the third day of the week, students received their pen pal letter responses. The students were extremely excited and spent much of their writing time reading their letters, sharing their letters and discussing the questions their pen pals asked. At this point, I discussed with students their options for what they could be working on during the next several days:
1. Letters to their pen pal – to include:
- answering their pen pal’s questions
- asking their pen pal other questions that may have arisen
- sharing an event of their choosing with their pen pal.
2. Fan letters – to include:
- generating a list of celebrities and why they admire them
- choosing a celebrity and drafting a letter with an introduction, an explanation of how/why they became a fan, and a request if applicable.
- additional fan letters if time permits.
Students spent the rest of this week diligently working on these letters, proofreading their peers’ work and revising and finalizing their pieces. All students chose to work on their pen pal letters first as they wanted to ensure that they meet the deadline. I noticed that during independent writing, most all students were successfully working on different stages of their writing and on different projects. During feedback conferences this week, students communicated that they enjoyed writing letters because they had a new friend, they were able to talk about things that they liked, and because they knew their pen pal would write back. These comments helped illustrate for me the role an audience plays in students' attitudes towards writing. Knowing that an audience would read and respond to their letters appeared to play a factor in their enjoyment of writing and increase their positive attitudes towards writing.
Week Three – Comparing two different writing projects
During this last week of letter writing, all students met their Monday deadline for their Pen Pal letters. All students also completed generating a list of celebrities and why they admire them. Creating this list took a bit longer than expected for approximately half of the students because they did not know the actual names of the actors, actresses, singers, authors etc. that they wanted to write to. As a result, students spent quite a bit of time researching these celebrities on their iPods and/or on the desktop computers. Approximately half of the class was able to complete their fan letters. Students continuously asked, “Will they write back?” I answered truthfully and said, “Maybe. But if they don’t, at least you know you sent a letter that will definitely make someone happy.” Knowing that there was a possibility that their fan letter would not get a response appeared to decrease other students’ sense of urgency to finish their fan letter or to write another one.
At the end of this week, I gave students a survey that asked them to identify what they liked and didn’t like about this letter-writing project. The survey also asked the students to compare the two writing projects they participated in thus far. While 95% of students said that letter writing was easier, 90% of students said they liked the first writing project – the personal narratives - better. Students’ reasons for liking the personal narratives better were:
- “I was able to write more and we had a big party.”
- “I was proud of the long story that I wrote.”
- “I liked the books that we made and the Author’s celebration.”
- “A lot of people got to read my story and they liked it. Only my pen pal reads my letter.”
- “I don’t know who read my fan letter. [He] didn’t write back yet.
Finally, the survey asked each student if they felt they improved as writers since the beginning of Phase One and if they enjoy writing. 90% of students felt they improved as writers and 85% of students stated that in general, they enjoy writing. These results are a significant increase from the results of these same questions when asked in Phase One.
The results of this survey prompted me to facilitate small group conferences in an effort to learn more about students’ feelings towards writing their personal narratives, pen pal letters and fan letters. I was surprised that such a large percentage of students favored the personal narratives over letter writing, especially since at the end of Phase One, ten students expressed fatigue and resistance towards beginning a new project. These conferences helped me realize that while the personal narrative project was initially viewed by the students as demanding, they now regarded themselves as more capable writers. Consequently, as their self-efficacy as writers increased, their positive attitudes towards writing increased as well. This increase in confidence appeared to alter their feelings towards Phase One’s writing project and I found it extremely valuable to give my students the opportunity to reevaluate Phase One’s project after growing as writers and having time to rest and reflect upon the experience.