ASSIGNMENT SIX: DVD Reflection- Included in your text is a DVD containing video clips of Regie’s conferences with writers in the classroom. There is a detailed commentary accompanying the DVD on page 336 of her text. Please watch the DVD and then look at her teaching notes beginning on page 336 (Regie suggests just watching without notes first so that you don’t miss what she and the students are doing.) After both watching and reading her notes, write your reflection and please post a copy of your DVD Reflection to the blog.
*NOTE: If you experience problems playing the DVD please refer to the Writing Essentials companion website at www.heinemann.com/writingessentials for directions for playing the DVD. Look in the upper right hand corner for the link.
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Writing Essentials # 6--DVD Reflection--Joyce Reynolds-Ward
ReplyDeleteMy first impressions from the DVD overall were that these techniques were very kid-friendly to use in whole group conferring and instructing, especially in a middle school setting. While correction and guidance is happening, it is with the shared participation and cooperation of the student, it's not being done TO the student.
I've not used these techniques in a group setting but now that I've seen them, I'm eager to try them. I had seen our literacy coach use these techniques while working with our shared middle school group so they weren't unfamiliar, but I'd only seen partial conferences and not seen any notes or thoughts about them. I do many of these techniques in individual conferences with students and in small groups with adult workshop attendees, but now I can see how this would work with a classroom.
Key points--start out with overall praise. This isn't just a standard for teaching K-12, it is a standard critique group technique, even in the fairly aggressive and brutal Clarion critique style (where the person whose work is being critiqued cannot respond until the end of the critique. FYI, Clarion is an extremely competitive seven week science fiction and fantasy writing workshop which has the reputation of either making or breaking a fledgling writer's career. The format carries over to convention writing workshops and many writing critique groups). Whether you're working with adults or with children, knowing that their work has a positive aspect is crucial.
Additionally, even while Regie is teaching, she is looking for confidence-building moments with each student. She respects the student's voice and the student's choices, even while making suggestions to clarify meaning. She Is. Not. Line. Editing!!! This is a crucial, crucial point to keep in mind in my experience working with both adults and kids. Her focus is upon improving the *meaning* of what the student writes, not nitpicking through conventions and grammar. There is a place for the line/copy edit, but it belongs after you've edited for meaning.
Using sticky notes to indicate teacher word choice and spelling additions is an excellent technique, along with the use of sticky notes to jot down thoughts while observing students at work. I like using 2" x 3" lined sticky notes because those seem to be easier for the students to read.
In Derek's conference, while Regie IDs her comment about the title as alerting the writer that a title will be needed, it also to me serves the important function of identifying to the student that opening pieces (title, first sentence, even the first paragraph) do not have to immediately be perfect. Both in tutoring my college student and with my students, I find that focusing on openings can bog the rest of the writing process down. Many times kids really want that opening to be perfect from the beginning, and they just can't hack their way through that beginning.
I know from my conversations with other professional writers that many times a professional will simply bypass the opening if it causes problems. Some writers do not write in a linear sequence (which is why the composition software Scrivener is so popular--it allows the writer to manipulate scenes and chapters as needed, much more effectively than in a word processing program). If professionals don't always write a linear first draft, why can't we teach kids that same thing?
I liked, liked, liked the methodology of the whole-class minilesson and editing conference. Here Regie is getting firmer with the kid and expecting rigor and accountability, but she does so appropriately while still engaging the student and building confidence. Obviously, she pretaught the other students not to blurt out the correct spelling, even though she had to reprompt them several times.
Very good food for thought, and, as always, more things to take away to use in the future.
I was motivated and thrilled to see that Regie’s whole class share is very similar to my own reflection time during my writer’s workshop. One of my goals in the past few years has been to change my reflection time from just an author’s chair experience in which student read their writing aloud and the rest of the class just listens, claps, and perhaps asks a few questions to a learning experience for all students. Regie’s approach illustrates this goal perfectly; it is so much more meaningful. I appreciated the fact that Regie’s focus was on celebration of student work. This is an area where I can improve. Regie is a master at taking student celebrations and turning them into teaching points for the other students listening. Students learn much more from each other they then do from me.
ReplyDeleteReaching my goal of changing my reflection time has only been made easier by that addition of a document camera to my classroom last year. The whole class share is so much more impactful now that all of the students can see the students work projected as opposed to just holding up a notebook or making an overhead of student work (for use the next day). I love how the whole class share provides immediate and descriptive feedback to students. During my reflection time I give feedback but I also find it crucial and important for students to give feedback to their peers. I have my students respond by asking questions, giving compliments, or offering suggestions. Suggestions given do not need to be taken by the author but often students are happy to take the suggestions of their peers.
I really enjoyed watching the Spelling: Editing Conference and Minilesson. This is an area where students always seem to struggle. In fact, I was relieved to see that Regie’s students have the same difficulties as mine. Now that the new CCSS are in place all expectations are high, especially in conventions and spelling. I will be referring to Appendix J, editing expectation, and creating something similar for my 1st grade classroom. I think using a real student example (with permission) is truly important in order to effectively model the “fix up” strategy. Again, Regie was masterful at taking one student example and generalizing her expectations for all of her students. “This is what I would expect to see from second graders.” I also appreciated her comment about erasing. “I don’t want to see any erasing. We’re going to be doing this with colored pencils so we can see you work. No erasing because then we can’t see what your thinking is, and we can’t help you.” This is so true. Often students are so worried about getting it right or perfect that they erase all of their hard work and thinking. Getting students to realize that showing their thinking is the only way we can help them improve as well as the only way they will learn from their mistakes. This leads back to Regie’s model where she made Derek check his re-spelled word so he could see for himself that it was now spelled correctly. Derek was learning from is mistake instead of Regie telling him what his mistake was; this is an important difference. These videos gave me great insight into how Writing Essentials works in the classroom.
Assignment #6 DVD Reflection
ReplyDeleteI thought it was really helpful to see Regie in action actually working with real students on the DVD. Especially after reading the various chapters on sharing and conferencing with students it was nice to see how she interacted with the students and what was going on around her during the conferences. I was also amazed at how many teaching points she covers in such a short amount of time. The conversations and sharing were also very positive for the students. Regie was able to build their confidence as she taught them the needed skills to improve their writing. I always find it beneficial to see teachers in action in the classroom; it shows that it can be done.
I am definitely going to take Regie’s suggestion and focus more on the “Celebration of Writing” in my classroom. I liked how the students were sharing from the front of the classroom, with the teacher at their side, and how the teaching benefited the whole class. I also like the idea of using sticky notes, when writing for my students; Sorry to say but I am guilty of writing on my student’s papers.
I also enjoyed watching the conference that focused on spelling, it gave me some ideas and phrases to use in my own classroom; “What do you know about those sounds,” “Write it another way to see which way looks right.” “Now you can never spell that word wrong again,” The, nine minute conference was beneficial to the Derek. However, I am concerned about losing the other 29 first graders. On the DVD, I could not see all the students but the ones I could see were not very engaged and I could see me losing some of my little ones. So I would obviously have a shorter conference time with Derek in a whole class setting, and then continue the conference if needed, one on one.
I really appreciated watching Regie work with the students on this DVD. It made a real difference to see what she had been describing in the book. It gave me that visual understanding of how she conducted her (primarily) whole class share. It was great to see how she praised students for a clever beginning, interesting word choice or use of humor in their writing. It was evident that each student felt good about his or her work. Regie also maximized the lesson using whole group share as an opportunity to teach the class about various elements of writing. Watching Regie in action helped me see how carefully she balances praise and constructive criticism. I usually use the whole class time for students to celebrate and share finished pieces, but this year I will use whole class share as an opportunity for our class to learn and grow as writers.
ReplyDeleteI also enjoyed Regie’s spelling lesson with Derek, but I do have concerns about the length of that particular lesson. I worry about keeping the rest of my 2nd graders engaged in the lesson while focusing on one student. I watched the video a few times and was distracted by the little girl in pick sitting behind Regie. She was barely engaged in the lesson. I suppose that video clip is an example of a mini lesson (or maxi lesson), I wonder if there is a way to incorporate the rest of the students into the lesson more – for example calling on other students to share examples of word that have the “-ou”/”-ow” sounds or having them write a word with and “-ou” or “-ow” sound on a sticky note? Also, thinking through this example with Derek, would Regie then place the high frequency word on the word wall for future reference?
I also loved the student gallery. It was so much fun to see other student’s work. It gave me some great ideas for the upcoming year. I really want to create more classroom books, especially non-fiction. Reading through the example of the “Human Body “ book I thought, what a great way to assess for understanding…The students were able to summarize the concept in their own words and make it fun and kid friendly. Brilliant!!
As has been mentioned, the DVD is a necessary companion. The experience would not be complete without being able to witness in action all of the points that Regie has made about conferences. What stood out to me is how many potential teaching points are missed in limiting to one-on-one conferences. In the classroom I worked in last year, we would conference with a student when they felt they were ready to publish. More times than not, this would result in the student returning to rework some points and another visit to check before publication. The point I am trying to get at is that the process often led to repeating many of the same struggles over and over again with individual students. The whole group share format allows a teacher to cover a single teaching point in a student’s writing to the entire class making it much more efficient.
ReplyDeleteAs in all of the conferences shown, the focus on celebration and content was evident. In the same class as mentioned above, we would only use the author chair and share after a student had published. I can see how much more effective it is to include sharing prior to pieces being completed. It allows for students to see the development of the writing and hear all of the suggestions made to help guide the writer and piece to its completion. Then when they read the published piece, the work can be even more appreciated for the time and effort spent by the writer.
The editing conference was a bit uncomfortable to watch. However, it showed in vivid detail how much sterner Regie would be in an editing conference. And it reaffirms the points of placing a larger expectation upon the writer for more of the editing capabilities. I was surprised at the length, but this was probably necessary for her to show the teachers she was working with the process and expectations. I think in the case of a student like Derek, I might have cut the whole group conference in half and worked with him one-on-one on the remainder. I would have to judge that based upon the behavior of the students.
Hi Joyce,
ReplyDeleteYes, we must start with the positive, not only for students but also for all writers. ☺ I am right there with you- focus on improving the meaning first! The more students write the better they become. Have you looked back at any of your high school or undergraduate papers??? :D I know when I was forced to write a lot from my senior year in college through graduate school, that was where my writing greatly improved.
Excellent point that professionals don’t always write in a linear fashion. I know, as a librarian, part of why we bring authors into schools for an author visit is for the author to share with students the process they go through in creating their stories.
Tricia, that is great that your whole class share is similar to Regie’s. And it sounds like your practice of having students give feedback to each other is such an important skill (for both the audience and author alike.) I agree with you about erasing also. ☺
Hello Lori, Kristin and Todd,
We’re glad you enjoyed the DVD. Yes, many teachers comment about Derek’s conference and how it was a little uncomfortable to watch. I likely would also change the conference as you all mentioned. Wouldn’t it be great if we could ask Regie about it? Kristin, classroom books are so versatile, not only in the primary grades but at all levels. I think they would be a great addition to your classroom.
I also enjoy watching Regie in action. Here are links to some other video clips she put together for her book Teaching Essentials and from a Google search on the web.
http://www.regieroutman.com/teachingessentials/videos.asp
http://www.regieroutman.com/inresidence/cnctn/player.aspx?file=Connections_Sessino_04
http://www.regieroutman.com/inresidence/wrtg/player.aspx?file=1_07_chapter01
http://vimeo.com/22093383
I, like others in the class, also really appreciated watching Regie in action. Watching her interact with students really helped me to visualize what individual writing conferences and whole group writing celebrations/lessons would look like in a classroom setting. I found the DVD to be a great supplement to what we’ve been reading in Writing Essentials. Watching her positive interactions with students and hearing her “teacher talk” makes me more confident about being able to implement these strategies in my own classroom.
ReplyDeleteIn Chapter 9 I was surprised to read about Regie’s whole-class share as a venue for teaching. I have always used this to celebrate student writing, but not as a time to teach a mini-lesson. And, even after reading about it, I was not quite sure how this would work in a classroom with students. I know they love to share what they write about and other students love to hear writing from their peers, but how would this work using their uncompleted work as a mini-lesson? Well, I was pleasantly surprised by the DVD clips. The students Regie worked with were proud to share their work – she really made them feel at ease and comfortable with this process. I love how she started with a compliment or celebration (they really shine when she does this) and then moved onto the teaching points. She respectfully makes suggestions and only moves forward when there is mutual agreement. These truly were effective teachable moments.
I too was surprised at the length of Derek’s spelling mini-lesson. For keeping things lively and students engaged, I’m not sure this lesson fit those criteria. My only guess is that because it appears she is training other teachers in how to teach spelling through mini-lessons (using student writing) that the lesson lasts longer than she would actually conduct with students. I agree, it would be interesting to hear Regie’s perspective on this. Overall, I did like the concept and appreciated some of the strategies she was using with Derek (i.e. – checking off the letters he knows are correct, writing and not erasing so teachers can see student thinking and how we can help them, and her suggestion of using what he already knows about words/sounds). Hearing her walk him through this process will definitely make it easier to try out with students in my class this fall.
Megan Downey
ReplyDeleteWriting Essentials Assignment #6: DVD Reflection
This video is such a useful way of seeing all that Regie has talked about in her text come to life. There were many points in the conferences that I found to be useful and wanted to make a note about for use in my future instruction/conferring with students.
-Lahana: I liked how she made a point of jotting down her name while students were working so she would remember to call on her during the whole group time. During summer school, I’ve had students volunteer to share their writing at the end of each class. I find I often struggle to come up with points on the spot. If I were to jot down names (and perhaps a note about a celebration) this would be really helpful. I also appreciated how she reread the story aloud multiple times.
-Garrett : After Garrett read his poem aloud, I liked how she mentioned, “You did not read it the way you write it.” This point seems to remind the students to read their work purposefully, and reminds them that they are writing for an audience and their enjoyment.
-Ervin: I love how she got worked with Ervin to get more detail about what happened in the story. She gave him alternate ways of saying things and wrote them on sticky notes to remember the language, but allowed him to cross it out. This is such a great way of clearing up some confusing language. I often struggle with how to do this, as I don’t really want the words in a student’s story to be mine.
-Derek: I like how she worked with him to continue to build his story, “tell us what happened.” She acknowledged that it was a funny story, and that everyone is laughing. When they talked about an ending/conclusion but then left it at…“I’m not going to write that down, because I want it to be your words.”
-AlexSandra: This piece of writing was a bit confusing at first, but she asked great questions that helped to clear up what happened and what the story AlexSandra was trying to tell. I like how she told AlexSandra why she’s writing it on a sticky note, and how and why to use a carrot.
Assignment #6
ReplyDeleteDVD Reflection
It was very helpful to be able to watch Routman work with students and demonstrate celebration with guidance, then see the students work and then hear her comments about the clip, the student and the lesson. I liked that we got to see different lessons and different age groups. I wish there had been this type of video for the reading course as well. It would have been a great addition.
I did find her comment to the teachers about teaching spelling to be a bit snarky. This was where the whole class had trouble with the “ou” “ow” sound. I am really sure that the teachers had been working on spelling, word families and rhyming. I don’t know where in the year they were. Could they have not got to that sound yet? Could that group just be having trouble with that sound somehow? Rountman spoke earlier in the book about having damaged her working relationship with a school of teachers by the way she presented and questioned them. She mentioned that it took a lot of work to rebuild that relationship. If I had been a teacher observing in the room in that clip and she had made the comments that she made that would have damaged my working relationship with her. I have no issue with her message. I do have an issue with her delivery. Wow, the first thing about Routman that I don’t like. In her reading book she always referred to the generic teacher as she- that has been corrected in this book so that is overlooked.
I did like how she had Derek check off the letters that were correct in the words he had trouble spelling. This is another good way to acknowledge what he had right. I also liked how she had him then practice the word once he had all of the correct letters in the correct sequence. I thought it was a good connection when she asked him what he knew about words that end with the “er” sound. This gave him something to picture in his head and to try and reproduce on his paper.
I was truly able to connect with Routman’s conference with AlexSandra. I could have held that exact same conference with many of my students at any grade level. What finally clicked with me one day in this situation is that they know what they mean and they just expect everyone else to know what it is also. It does not occur to the student that the reader may not have the same prior knowledge that the writer has so there is no context for reader to make the connection. The reader was not at the park that day, did not watch that particular TV show, didn’t go to the birthday party, etc… Since young children live in a world that revolves around them and some of our older students have not moved past that, they just don’t understand that not everyone has had the same experiences. This is very true with our students at any age with autism and or Asperger’s Syndrome.
She made a real connection with Lahana when she identified the poem to be read and discussed word choice. Stating that she (Routman) would never have thought to use those words and then identifying what a great picture the words painted really hit the point home about word choice. She used description to make her point- “make my heart melt” and compared it to chocolate melting. She then showed where in the poem many students would have stopped but congratulates her on continuing and ending the poem with a question.
I like these heart poems. Whenever I try to do poetry with my students they all believe poems need to rhyme. We spend so much time trying to move past this that the assignment just fails. I also appreciate how she makes a big deal about the start of stories for students who have a hard time with the task. Her encouragement and prompting seems to really allow the student to reach a finished product.
I would like to see more video of Routman working with students. I would also like to see her working with teachers to discuss what is going on and where to head to next.
Hi Ladies! Glad you also found the DVD worthwhile. :D
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