Last two days - September 21, 2010

Yesterday I saw my B day students.  We worked with a prompt for our memoirs.  The writing went well both as they responding and when they wrote long.  Fifth period worked with the most focus.  Sixth and seventh were a bit chatty.  All of the classes hunkered down when it was time to spend time with one focus.

We also talked about how writing at home was going.  The girls identified two problem areas.  One a place to work which was conducive to writing.  Lots of younger siblings.  One student preferred writing among others.  The other problem was what to write about.  I will continue to share ideas for generating things to write about.

Today I met with my B day students.  During first period I asked them to write about our speaker this morning and what they hoped to remember.  Then we moved on to reading our recent entries with the hope of finding a topic that interested them.  We wrote a tiny bit towards that.  Then we discussed Naomi Shihab Nye's poem Kindness as a focus poem for Comfort.  First period our discussion was great.  The girls felt that they had a better understanding of what metaphor was after discussing the poem and identifying metaphors.  They also saw how metaphors contributed to the meaning in a poem.

During second period we looked at our notebooks and identified an idea for our memoirs.  The girls seemed focused and successful.  They had some writing time.  Our discussion of the poem was not as rich.  The discussion did not seem to clarify  metaphor in the way it did for first period.

Finally during third period we also looked at our notebooks for ideas for our memoirs.  The class had several questions about what exactly they should do.  Could have been my instruction.  Once I clarified they went back into and most of the girls identified a direction.  Writing time was extremely focused.  Then we discussed the poem.  Their discussion fell somewhere in the middle.  Several of the girls had a greater understanding of metaphor others remained quiet.  

Since I will use metaphor as a tool for deepening their reading experience, their understanding will be evaluated again.  Need to stress when looking at Invictus, too.

Been a week - September 10, 2010

Looking back over the past week. 
Last Thursday and Friday the girls had a reading day - nice, totally easy, girls read for 20 plus minutes.  Relaxing especially for me who got an hour of reading in each day.
Writing during those days involved the object museum, sharing and writing.  The third period class had less interesting objects and the museum time went by more quickly.  On B day no real notes except to say how much I am enjoying 7th period.  Nice for all of us, 'cause I'm doing the same thing for the 6th time.  Cute, varied personalities.

Tuesday and Wednesday we read an excerpt from Annie Dillard's An American Childhood.  For the first time I really felt like B day went better than A day.  Like I'd gleaned from A day the rough spots to improve B day.  The lessons went so much more smoothly.  After reading the excerpt the girls took notes about ideas they wish to remember and thoughts about why they thought AD wrote the story.  Then they brainstormed stories from their lives and began writing one.  A day morning classes went better than 3rd period.  Post lunch slump?  B day worked with a few girls in 5th period as they started to write.  Then I sat down to write.  Good writing period.  Writing during 6th period went well on this day.  Girls seemed more engaged than usual in writing.  Also pleased with writing time during 7th period.

I was out on Thursday.  PA my sub had all good to say about my students.  Today I felt best about 5th period.  6th period I lost a couple and 7th just too chatty - that after lunch thing. 

My goals for next week.  Keep up with blog better.  Grow reading time.  Keep memoir starts going.