Revising (Ideas)

Today for our mini lesson the focus was on the revising of ideas, of a piece of writing. Revising consists of helping the students on improving student writing. To accomplish this students should be rethinking, rewriting and refining their writing. With this application of their knowledge of language skills and sentence structure in order to become better writers. 

When we are teaching our students these things should always be at the forefront, modelling, collaborative practice, guided practice and independent practice.  Once these attributes are included in the lesson plan the creation of good writers will be an easy task.

To help students remember the process of revising I use a writer's revise chart.  Since we were teaching Grade Two students I changed the word substitute to switch, to make the word more student appropriate.


This entire class was entertaining and exciting, my colleagues used different strategies to help students in the process on becoming good writer.  One group had a song referring to sentence fluency, the use of transitional words were done by another group which help me remember there are different transitional words for each genre of writing.

Janelle Melchor

The Writing Process(Revise)

23/11/16
Reflection: 4

The mini lesson offered alot to aid for the teaching of the writing process. I saw it to be enjoyable and was able to gather information from the groups who did the Pre-writing, Drafting, Revising, Transitional words, and Fluency. In all the stages of the writing process, the teacher is the one who has to do the modelling to help develop students into good writers. This is where the IMSCI model comes in, it is an instructional teaching aid used by the teacher to scaffold students in their writing. Before the teacher allows the students to do any genre, he/she has to model to them on how to brainstorm a topic, pre-writing using a graphic organizer, drafting, revising, and editing.

Revising Stage

Rereading the rough draft

Sharing the rough draft in a writing group

Revising on the basis feedback

Conferencing with the teacher

     

Mearline Hippolyte

Poetry

8/11/16
Reflection: 4

Poetry elements
Writers use many elements to create their poems. These elements include:
Rhythm
Sound
Imagery
Form

Pigs
Muddy, smelly
Digging, running, rolling
Uses its hooves to dig dirt
Disgusting!



The last class was about Poetry, the lecturer introduced this with the use of nursery rhythms. After we had to think of words to describe a poem. There were things that I knew and did not know about a poem. I learnt that there are different types of poems like Cinquaine, Limerick, Haiku. Some poems had words that rhythm but they spelling are not the same. Some poems have shapes for example if you are writing a poem about a star, it can be written in the shape of a star.
    I feel it is good that teachers introduce poems to the students and allow them to discover some of the elements foud in a poem. Having them to do so will make them see what a poem is, the types of  poems. I also feel that drama is good for students to be in tune with a poem. This will help them to express themselves better and get to understand the piece of writing.
    I also see poems as a very creative way to begin a lesson. Especially if the students can dance or move themselves to the rhythm of the poem, or if the poem is describing the topic or just a poem to change the mood of the classroom and get the students attention for the lesson. It would also be nice to get the students to end the lesson writing a poem about the topic either individually or as a group. They can also present their poem in many fun dramatic ways. What a wonderful way to end a lesson.

Janelle Melchor

Mearline H ippolyte
Marla Theodore    

Expository Writing

25/10/16
Reflection: 3





Expository Writing is a type of writing that is used to explain, describe, give information, or inform. The text is organized around the topic and developed according to a pattern or combination of patterns.


As a teacher in practice I feel it is very important to use tools or strategies to help students to better understand a concept. When I was at school I struggle to write good essay. This made me hate school, so I never looked forward to attend school. Right now I am not at a Primary school any more but at a Tertiary level. However, the lecturer introduced  Expository Writing  much better than the teacher who taught me years ago. I love the way she linked many words to the writing. There were step by step process on how to write an Expository piece, for example the introduction, body paragraphs, and closing paragraph. I feel doing this will help students to see what this genre is, especially at a grade 3 level.
       The teacher modelling will made the students better understand the writing. The writing procsess  that were used in this writing, for example prewriting, drafting, revising, and editing. I feel as a teacher it is very important that step by step instructions is done for the students. The teacher talking about the writing piece is not enough but IMSCI model would be an ideal instructional teaching used by the teacher  to scaffold the students.

Mearline Hippolyte

Descriptive Writing

11/10/16
Reflection:2

What is descriptive writing?
Descriptive Writing is a clear description of people, places, objects, or events using appropriate details. It pays close attention to the details by using all the five senses.

Descriptive Writing is one of the genre I am familiar with. However, attempting it in class made me enjoy it more. The lecturer help bring all the ideas I needed to help me write my piece. The use of the Five Senses Cluster was a good graphic organizer to aid with brainstorming. I was able to see the topic to write about and to use smell, taste, see, hear and feel to make the paragraph interesting.

      Using the Five Sense Cluster in the prewriting is an ideal tool for students. I feel that this organizer can be use in any grade level. Students are taught about their senses and they are quite aware of it too, so using this tool in Descriptive Writing will assist them. I look forward to use this tool for the students, especially for struggling writers.

                                  

                       Mearline Hippolyte

POETRY

This week ,the class was about the types of poem, for the introductory activities, we recited and sang nursery rhymes.  We were asked to express our feelings and what we knew about poems.  I dislike poetry because, of my past experiences with poetry.  But after this lesson ,I realized I always like poetry but in a different form because, I love our local calypso.  Limerick are rather interesting,and I love it so much for my Math lesson I used one.  My cooperating teacher was very pleased by the use of poetry, the children were very attentive and understood the lesson easily.  Poetry can be used across the curriculum, one other type of poem we learnt about was a Cinquain.  The lecturer asked us to form groups of two, where we had to create our own Cinquain.  This was Mearline and my outstanding creation which we performed for our colleagues.
Pigs
Nasty, Smelly
Digging, running, rolling
Uses its hooves to dig the dirt
Scavengers
My lesson was on the number ten (10) and this was the limerick I use

I have ten fingers,

I have ten toes,

I will always have ten,

No matter big I grow.

Ten, ten, ten, ten,

Ten fingers and toes,

Ten, ten, ten, ten,

                                                            No matter how big I grow.

Janelle