I had to wake up especially early this morning in order to make my blog entry. After the full day session, rereading notes, and doing homework, I have no more strength to comb through the entirety of what I learned and identify the most important or significant gem; there are so many. So this morning with my STRONG cup of coffee I can say that understand so much better what I have been doing well, or at least been on the right track with, in my teaching and where I need to be more intentional, but mostly, where I need to pick up the pace.
Lucy tells many stories of what it was like growing up with eight brothers and sisters and how there was no dilly-dallying in that house. If her mom wanted to get everybody to church on time, she had to set the pace. In my classroom I have 33 children at any given time, and I have got to set a much tighter pace if we are ever gonna "get to the church on time".
IN our whole group session yesterday we moved into essay boot-camp; jump starting with opinion, transitioning into persuasive, and diving right into literary essay. Unbelievable. Lucy emphasized a certain structure in essay for fifth graders, acknowledging that some very smart people who she highly respected didn't agree with her. She explained that her experience as a parent of children who went through middle school, high school, and beyond affects her decision; she knows the kind of writing that students will be asked to do in the upper grades and feels it is important to prepare them. As a parent of three boys, two in college and one in high school, I agree and know that is why I have done the same in my classroom since I became a classroom teacher three years ago. Lucy is confident that it is this emphasis on structure which has allowed the NY School District to embrace so much about Writers Workshop in that supports students success on high stakes testing.
Our home work for my small group session with other fifth grade teachers, led by Garrit, had required that I prepare a mini lesson on one aspect of writing narrative and be ready to pair up with a classmate to teach it. I found that creating stories to model the strategy was the most challenging part of planning the lesson. Lucy and Garrit had both made it clear that it was FINE to use the stories in the Units of Study to start with, but it is hard to tell someone else's story as my own, so I knew my lesson would feel better if I thought of a personal example. I am glad I did. I felt good about the way the lesson went; I known there will be times when I will need to rely on the script to improvise from, but I also know that over the years I will be developing my own stories.
I had my second workshop with Meghan Hargrave yesterday and was once again impressed by her style. I can only imagine how much her fourth grade students must idolize her. The previous day's workshop focused on Materials, Routines and Accountability. Meghan is incredibly organized and high energy, reminding me once again of the need to run a VERY tight ship with the kids. She shared her Powerpoint, but so far the file has been too big for me to upload- I will continue to try and incorporate a link here. Yesterday's session was instruction on how to run strategy based small groups. I volunteered to be one of her guinea students for demonstration and I am so glad I did; I had a real sense once again of the need to assess what the kids need, get them writing, and sending them back out to do their independent work.
Off I go to Day 4. I remember at the end of Day 1 being afraid that I would be so overwhelmed with information by Day 3 that I wouldn't be able to take anymore, but this moring I find myself afraid for how fast the Workshop has moved and want more, More, MORE. I am SO glad and grateful that I am able to stay for next week's Reading Workshop Training. The two are stronger together- the sum being an exponent of the parts.
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