I don't grade the students' first drafts, but rather provide guiding questions and comments to help them revise for their second drafts. Then the students will peer revise for their third drafts while we're typing in the computer lab this week. Toward the end of the week they will collaborate to help each other edit and print these final drafts for a grade. We're planning to publish the pieces in a class blog, which I have yet to set up with our technology lead - blogs are blocked in our school district.
Just as writing is a process, so is teaching writing. The students have spent about 4 weeks working toward these rough drafts, and most, I must say, are decent. Many are in serious need of reconstructive surgery, but probably the same number are what I deem "good." Every student will revise and improve their pieces.
We began the unit by reading a feature article about feature articles that I wrote, discussing its formal elements and its content: what exactly makes a feature article unique. We read articles in the newspaper, discussed and presented them in groups. We displayed those around the room. We spent a lot of time differentiating between fact and opinion.
Then I had the students propose topics. I frequently had to help my students narrow these topics: they weren't allowed to write about "baseball" for example (too broad), but they could write about "Steroids Use in the MLB" or "The New York Yankees." They had to identify a purpose, an audience and three questions that audience would ask about their topic. I modeled this process for them.
At this point we learned how to cite our sources. This took a lot more time and effort than I thought it would. I had to have the students who "got it" lead groups of students who didn't, until at last every student understood how to cite a book and web resource.
I returned their proposals with my comments, and once I approved their topics, etc. the students were then allowed to begin their guided research. They researched facts and statistics to answer their audiences questions and anything else that developed during their research.
Once a student got a healthy amount of research, he or she was then allowed to begin drafting an outline. I modeled this for them and let them try it on their own. The students who struggled were given blank "outlines" to fill out with their information. This helped special education kids and many others who struggled with organization and the concept of outlining.
Finally, after I approved their outlines, the students were given the "go ahead" to start drafting by hand. I collected the rough drafts on Friday, and while I won't "grade" these, I do give the students an 10/10 points for turning them in on time. On Monday I'll take up late drafts for 10% off, 20% on Tuesday, and so on, until the students reach 5/10. I won't go lower than 5/10 and I'll accept them up until the end of the grading period.
The majority of problems I'm seeing in their feature articles are:
- Generic leads; overused rhetorical question
- Students writing in first person when it's not appropriate
- Giving opinions
- Lack of factual support
- Plagiarism - copying sentences from sources, not internally citing sources, not citing sources at the end of the document
- Lack of transitions
- Lack of organization within paragraphs
- Imprecise language
- Homophones: *sigh*
Aside from the homophones, I'm not marking editing mistakes. I circle the misspelled homophones, because we've studied these so much. Otherwise, I let the editing mistakes slide for now, and will focus on those during the editing phase as students type, revise and edit themselves or in collaboration.
Hey Sarah! Love this post and glad to see you back. I have a request for a future post. Could you discuss how you teach texts in a Title 1 school? What book resources do you have? How much paper do you have for photocopying? I see myself struggling with even gathering enough texts for literature cirlces and was wondering how you handled teaching full or partial class texts.
ReplyDelete:)
Hi Missy! Sorry about the second hiatus. Turning over a new leaf as I type.
ReplyDeleteTexts. So broad, but I'm happy to ramble. In my first year I definitely struggled with only a single shelf of mediocre to dull books for my students' independent "choice" reading. That summer I went to every flea market, garage sale and used book store in a twenty mile radius, and shelled out a pretty penny for a classroom library. (Up to $200.00 you spend on your classroom can be claimed on federal taxes.)
In my third year, I moved into a classroom where the previous teacher had retired, leaving over one hundred young-adult books and close to that number in children's books. Imagine my excitement. I still replenish the stock from time to time, but I'll never have to spend money like I did my first year. One year I even had a book donation contest, and bought the class who brought in the greatest number of books a pizza party.
In terms of class sets for literature circles. I have been very lucky in that my school's literacy closet has always been stocked with class sets of fabulous books: S.E. Hinton, Walter Dean Meyers, Christopher Paul Curtis, and many more. My principal has also been very generous in allowing us to purchase class sets of books with Title 1 funds reserved for literacy resources. All Title 1 schools should have such funds - just ask your principal, trusted administrator or a teacher mentor.
Also, check out the public library. The often work out deals with teachers and you could at least get four copies of several titles to do literature circles.
Paper: that's school-to-school or district-to-district. At my school, we're alloted $200 (I believe) to spend on supplies for our classrooms, but we have to order everything through the book keeper. Some schools reimburse teachers, others have paper on shelves in the office or teacher's lounge. Whatever the system, you should NOT be paying for your students' paper.
One other point about paper: color coding. It works brilliantly for my students. It helps them stay organized when all their pre-writing resources are on pink, touchstone texts are on blue, grammar is on green, or reading logs are on yellow. If you can get your hands on colored paper, I HIGHLY recommend.
Thanks for the question - sorry it took me so long to respond!