It has been wonderful being able to teach part of the All About Books unit. The students have put in a great deal of effort to complete and perfect their All About Books. There has been a lot of extra time spent on these during journaling, writing workshops, and through peer and self evaluations. The students have really focused on their writing and have produced great work. During our writing workshops the students spend time deciding what to include in their books, how to include it and how they will answer the questions that some of their readers might have. The students put a lot of effort into editing their writing as well. We discussed about looking back to reread your writing and checking for anything you may need to clarify or a spelling you need to correct, and the students have really done a great job with this. I even see them editing as they write!

In addition, the students have also spent time analyzing and reflecting on their own work. They looked at a checklist of things that they should be including in their All About Book and “graded” themselves. The students really focused, reread their work and thought for awhile about their strengths as a writer and some areas that they may need to improve on. They then read someone else’s writing and filled out the same checklist for them. Not only did they get to read someone else’s work, but they then got to compare how they “graded” themselves to how someone else “graded” them. A lot of the students began to rethink things and figure out new ways to make their writing much stronger.The commitment and focus the students have put in this class was amazing. I cannot wait to see the finished products!

 

-Amanda