My first group needed to work on their spelling. In their writing samples, I had noticed that they were either writing letters that didn’t belong in the words, or only writing sounds from the beginning and end of words. My goal was to get them to say unknown words slowly, and write down the corresponding sounds.

I started out by showing them a story I wrote (with many misspelled words). When I tried to reread it, I purposefully stumbled. When I asked them why I was having such a hard time reading it, they were able to verbalize that it was because I didn’t spell the words right. For each word, we said it slowly, and I had each one help me by telling me what sound to write down. After we fixed my story, I told them that I’ve had a hard time reading some of their stories. We practiced stretching out words and they started writing independently.

Some observations:

Student A:
-has trouble pronouncing certain sounds and therefore has trouble spelling words that contain these sounds
-has a great strategy for stretching out words: pulls her fingers apart slowly as she says the word slowly

Student B:
-has trouble distinguishing sounds when there is a blend
-wrote “cooking” as “camsk”
-showed him how to break longer words apart and write each part, one at a time

Student C:
-was able to stretch out the words in his head and write the correct sounds down.

In order to set up guided reading groups, I had to analyze each student’s writing. I chose a writing sample from each folder and wrote down 3 needs each student had. I then made a spreadsheet of needs to see which students had the same needs and formed groups. I prioritized these needs and chose 3 groups to start with. I made a plan to meet with a group twice a week to start with.

At the beginning of the second marking period our students came up with a set of goals they wanted to achieve in writing workshop. This week, my fabolous co-teacher and I, asked our students to evaulate themselves in writing.  Each student evaluated their goals and determined which one they think the met.  They also had to describe the strategies they used to meet that goal.  I sat down with one of the students in our classroom that has difficulty expressing their thoughts.  The student was really excited to share that they met their goal of “saying words slowly and listening for all the sounds.”  I asked this student how it was accomplished.  The student told me that “I say the word outloud and listen for all the sounds.”  I asked if that was it.  The student responded with “Oh no.  I also read the word to check if it looks right.”  I was SO excited!  At the beginning of the school year this student struggled to hear all the sounds in unknown words and would never be able to express the thinking that was going on.  It shows that this student has a true understanding of the strategies they used to meet their goal for the second marking period.  I think that having the students create their own goals has helped them take more accountability for their writing.  They are the ones putting forth the effort to become better writers.  I wonder what this student will do next!

In our class we have a student with special needs who did not produce any work during the first marking period.  It would take forever to get this Writer4 to start working on a piece of writing, then a lot of one on one support to create a few sentences.  This was very frustrating for my co-teacher and I because we felt like we couldn’t reach Writer4 and the other students in our class at the same time.  We knew that Writer4 responded well to social stories, so at the beginning of the marking period I created a step by step social story about the process of writing a story.  I put pictures of the supplies needed in writing workshop and my co-teacher and I created a spot for our friend to work in the classroom.  The first few days, Writer4 was still really dependent on us for support during the writing process.  After a few short weeks, Writer4 was shouting, “Look Ms. B I am writing all by myself!  I don’t need your help!”  My co-teacher and I were so proud of how hard Writer4 was working and the progress that was made in such a short time. 

Today I sat down to conference with Writer4 again.  I looked at Writer4′s folder and was so excited to see a huge stack of stories that were written this marking period.  I know the point our research is to see how the goals the students create help them become independent writers.  With this student, the teachers came up with a goal.  Either way, Writer4 was able to meet his goal of working in writing workshop everyday.  The bonus is that Writer4 is now working independently.  It is so exciting!

On Monday I met with Writer1 to see how her “small moment” ended up.  She shared with me a story about going to her friend’s house after school.  Writer1 was able to write a small moment story independently.  I will be interested to see if she continues to write small moments over the next few weeks.  Until that happens, I don’t feel like she has met her goal for the marking period.

I have really liked using these “student goal sheets” so far.  It has made conferencing with the students easier.  I am able to focus my conferences in a certain direction.  A direction in which I know the kids want to go.

My co-teacher and I were talking about how we want to use them at the end of this marking period.  We are thinking about reviewing the students’ goals and having the kids determine if their goals were met.  It will be interesting to see if the students feel like they were more successful because they had a goal in mind and a plan to reach it.

Writer2 always has great ideas, but sometimes her ideas do not come out in her writing.  When I sat down today to talk about what she was working on, this is the story she read to me:

I want to go to the beach because we would have a great day.  So yeah.  So we went to my cousins and we went to the beach.  So we played and played with my cousins because we have the most cousins!  There!  That’s why!  We take them there.   We played and played.

After she read me the story I asked her, “what is this story about?”  She replied, “Going to the beach.”  I told her that I wanted to know more about what they played at the beach.  I said playing at the beach could be all sorts of things and as a reader I want to know the details about her trip to the beach.  I got out the Think Blocks and Writer2 planned her story again.  This time she told me about how she built a sand castle with her cousins and how she wanted to show her mom.

This is what she wrote after we planned:

I was building a sand castle at the beach and I did not want my mom to go in the water because I wanted to show her my sand castle but…up came my cousin and she asked me can I play with you?  We can make a better sand castle.  I said to her, Okay!  So we made a sand castle.

By planning the parts of her story, Writer2 was able to add more details and give her reader a better picture of what happened when she went to the beach.

At the end of the conference we talked about how she can plan her stories in the future the same way.   This will help her reach her goal of writing stories that other people can understand.

Today I sat down to conference with Writer1.  As I looked at her goals for this marking period, I saw that she wanted to learn how to write a “small moment” story.  I had her re-read what she had already written and asked her what the story was about.  The words she had written, were not what she told me the story was about.  She was writing all the details leading up the “small moment” she wanted to focus on. 

We decided to plan out her story again using the “zooming in” graphic organizer my co-teacher created.  The student wrote down all the things that happened one afternoon after school, then “zoomed in” on the part about when she went to her friend’s house.  Writer1 and I discussed how planning out our story helps us to focus on what we really want to share with our reader.  She is currently still working on her new story.  More to follow…

Story #1-Before talking about a small moment

Writer1-Zooming In Graphic Organizer

This blog is going to be used to document our teacher research for the 2009-2010 school year.  We are a group of second grade teachers working together to research writing workshop in our classrooms.  Watch for more to come!