MGRP Chapter 5 Character and 7 Arts and Seedfolks

 As I was reading through both of these chapters which, I know are  meant to help us use MGRP as a teaching tool in our classrooms,  I can’t help but try and envision how I will use such things as character and the arts in my genre pieces. 

Chapter 7, Character:

“Good characters are central to good writing. They are also central to our multigenre research reports”.  How might I reinvent this idea to make spelling instruction into a character to more easily capture our research in different genre pieces?    Hmmmm…capturing the essence of spelling instruction.  This should be interesting.  An important point about character seems to be that characters should reveal themselves through action and dialogue rather than depending upon description. 

Chapter 5, Arts

“The doers and observers both discover something about the further reaches of being human”. That seems like a tall order for any genre but I can see how it might work with some of the arts, especially drama.  Important points made about using the arts in MGRPs seem to be not only how the arts evoke emotion, but also how “they can help children express their ideas in ways that tap alternative thinking processes”.  I appreciated the point made that the arts “aren’t about the security of a correct answer, but rather a jack of all trades emotional brain that has a quick multiple inventive solutions to most problems”. I can see how this can be a scary reality for some students, especially those that are used to having a clear, correct, expected answer.  “This freedom of expression empowers children and forces then to think for them”. How exciting!!

Seedfolks

I actually read the entire Seedfolks book before checking the syllabus to see that we were to read assigned chapters.  Hoping I haven’t totally blown the lesson for Monday night, I enjoyed the book and even took mini notes on each character as I went through so that I could refer to my list and know who was who as I went along.  My assigned chapter happened to be the last character, and as such, I had already read the rest of the book before getting there.  I took special care to try and find how Florence was revealed to us through dialogue and action rather than description as was discussed in the character chapter of MGRP.  I hope I chose the right quotes to bring with me to class. 

MGRP chap. 4 poetry & Van Sluys (setting up invitations)

MGRP Chap. 4 Poetry

            I had to read the first two pages of chapter 4 a few times for them to really sink in.  I know this probably sounds strange to most of you, but honestly it is as hard for me to imagine not enjoying writing as it is for any math teacher to comprehend why some students don’t like math, probably even harder.  After all, writing is personal, there is no right or wrong answer like in math and most of the time there is a freedom of rules and expectations unheard of in other disciplines.  To write poetry…that comes from within….and to share those thoughts with others…seems effortless to me.  To observe the world, to process how you feel about what you see and know and then be able to express it, how could that be anything but joyful? It’s a game to me, although one I often play alone, to find just the right word with just the right sound to express what I intend, or more often, imply in my writing.  I guess we will all be including some type of poetry in our MGRP if we agree with page 55, “multigenre papers would not seem complete if they didn’t contain some poetic experiments”. 

 I have to force myself to accept that some students will find these exercises difficult, unnecessary and perhaps just plain boring.  I have to find a way to reach them, to help them find their own inner writer full of voice and passion.  I liked the idea of introducing song lyrics with a lesson on poetry, something most all children can relate to.   I also appreciated the different techniques of poetry presented to give students lots of different formats to get started writing poetry. Many times creating a plan for the writing is the hardest part.  I was also impressed with the content of many of the poems.  Children have observations, emotions, and understandings that go much deeper than I imagine at times.  These examples remind me to stop and really take in what students have to say about their world. 

Van Sluys (setting up invitations)

            Okay, so maybe I’ve really missed the mark here but I keep searching for a definition of what “an invitation is” and can’t quite get a handle on it.  I have a clear picture of what is entails by the description of the common features, and what it is about, but somehow I’m still left wondering what it is.  I am stumped by the notion that invitations should be “always accessible and not artificially relegated to certain periods of the day”.  How in the world would this work?   What would it look like in practice and how would a teacher support all the invitations going on and get anything else done during the day if the time was not regulated? Baffling to me! 

            So after finishing reading about invitations I can’t help but think, “wow!”, “awesome!”, what another fantastic teaching tool.  Then my mind grows weary and dizzy trying to imagine encompassing all the standards expected to be taught, as well as the day to day requirements of teaching within an invitation. “Whew!” please tell me it isn’t just me feeling this way.  I also had some questions about allowing students to do google searches to find research on subjects.  Our field experience teacher advised strongly against this because inappropriate material surfaces often.  How would one support appropriate research without doing “pre research” on every single invitation topic beforehand yourself? And how would you have time for that?  Don’t get me wrong, I love the concept of invitations, I just have a difficult time envisioning them.  “Students being in charge and paving the way of their inquiry paths”….how cool is that!?  Surly our class discussion this week will pull all the pieces together for me. 

           

Ch 1-3,6 Introducing MGRP/Powell & Davidson

I found that this week’s readings gave real understanding and meaning to the MGRP, not only to what it is and how it’s done but why it is such an amazing teaching tool.  Isn’t that something that has been stressed in all of our classes this semester? That we need to make sure students understand the “why” of what they are learning.  Aha! it’s important for adults too. I finally started to get excited about this project rather than overwhelmed. Although, that could be due in part to the fact that the research element has been turned in...hmmmmmm?? 

            I appreciated the breakdown given in chapter 1 of all the skills students use when creating a MGRP.  On page 8, it states “multigenre projects have helped our students build skills, have extended our curriculum in meaningful ways, and have helped our students value themselves and one another”.  What more can we ask for from and educational experience?  I also enjoyed seeing the students’ different genre examples.

            Chapter 2 gave some concrete ways to get started.  These were great tips we can use later with our students and I can see now why we were introduced to the idea of our own MGRPs right from the beginning. 

            Chapter 3 explained why it so important that students have ownership of their research topics.  Again, as we have been learning throughout our courses, students must have “a stake” in what they are learning; it must be meaningful to them for it to become a part of them.  We can see in this chapter that the topic choices are really limitless and bound only by the wonderment of the children. 

            The Voice of Nonfiction, as presented in Chapter 6, shows us that the different genre possibilities are as numerous as the topic ideas themselves.  I liked the description on pg. 69 that the “multigenre pieces make the research come alive”.  I pondered the likelihood that I would do a multigenre research paper with my students the first time I have them do one.  I would like to think I would do this, though I’m not sure how realistic that really is.  I imagine the demands of teaching in the beginning will be overwhelming enough.  I could relate to the difficulty with the background part of the MGRP as the rationale seemed to be the most difficult part.  Like the book said on pg. 70, “children often find this the most difficult piece to write because they must analyze and synthesize all their material. Once they have done this, however, the remaining pieces in their paper grow naturally from it.”  Let’s hope so!!

            I really enjoyed reading The Donut House.  This title reminds me of a favorite preschool song called “the donut shop”.  If any of you are just dying to know the lyrics, let me know.  I was awestruck at this endeavor taken on by a teacher of kindergarteners. Wow! I adored this example of situated literacy, that in which, “literacy is embedded within real-world events”.   I couldn’t help but daydream about what a venture like this with my own class might look like someday. What a rich, invaluable experience for these students and their community members.  What I found really interesting was that the children “were learning a great deal about written language through the activities of the donut house project.  These experiences emerged naturally as the children went about planning and developing their classroom business”.   This project is a great tribute to the fact that all children can learn and be successful despite their economic status.  Children need to be prepared for life and equipped with the ability to change their lives, not simply equipped to pass a literacy test.  Bravo Mrs. Davidson!

MGRP Inquiry

 I apologize for my tardiness with this blog.  It was my over sight, I didn’t realize we were blogging on this process.  Patti and I worked so well together on a project for our Human diversity class that we decided to team up again to delve deeper into a subject that we have both struggled with in our homes.  The dreaded weekly spelling test!  After commiserating together over common experiences with this educational tradition, we wondered if there was a better way to teach spelling and how do children really learn to spell?  Without giving too much of our project away, suffice to say that neither of us had seen much, if any improvement in our children’s application of the learned spelling lists and we thought it would be a great subject for this paper.  I have to admit that I am still (hard to believe I know) a bit of a novel when it comes to researching online.  Though Karen gave awesome tips in class, it can still be a chore for me.  After some somewhat fruitless searches on my own, Patti came through with some amazing articles! We had more than enough information and yet still craved more.  Was there something else out there phenomenal we had overlooked?  Were we sure we were coming at this subject from the right angle? Should we have done this or that or looked here?  All a string of questions put to rest by mere time constraints if nothing else.  We felt confidant enough in our material that we would find some sound reasoning behind our case. 

             

Crafting Writers Ch, 10-12 response

In response to Chapters 10 of Crafting Writers, I found that once again, Hale has managed to give us the “whys” of using and teaching writing crafts in certain ways.  There are many concrete, useful, hands on examples of how to use the various techniques described in this chapter.  I especially appreciated the real life example she described about her first teaching observation and review with the principal. It tied in perfectly with the goals of teaching conferences.  While I always knew it was important to give positive feedback to students before and after giving them areas to work on…the “sandwich” delivery if you will, I was surprised by what was referred to as “powerful conferring”.  The idea that “we need to let go of what we want students to be and accept without subconscious resentment toward our students, that this is where they are” had to really sit with me for awhile to digest.  I find myself always looking to where the student could be, or should be without really appreciating where they are and the process it takes to move forward.  Letting all students know they are capable “right now” means noticing where their strengths are rather than the gaps between where they should be. After reading this chapter in particular, I plan to make a conscious effort to see where students are and to help them view themselves as strong writers at that point by teaching strengths.  I believe strongly in the emotional aspect of teaching that was described throughout these readings.  That is “the emotional aspect of teaching can impede learning or cause it to flourish. Reaching potential to learn depends a lot on the relationships between the people involved.” I remember having such relationships with teachers and how it affected my success. I have also felt these personal relationships with my preschool students and have seen first hand what a difference it can make in their growth.

Chapter 11, Group Conferring, explained nicely the benefits and “how to” of a group conference. What took me a bit to understand was the difference between grouping students by a need they have rather than writing ability. At first this seemed just a matter of semantics to me.  Then  I had an “aha!” moment when I read not to use the group conference as “a cool teaching opportunity”, but rather as a way to teach skills that would help with what was hampering their writing.  This made a lot of sense to me when Hale stated that as children get older group conferring could be used more to teach craft.  An important point made was to not let these small group conferences replace one on one conferences because we would lose the forum where we teach strengths.  There were many good ideas to draw upon in the following sections about conferring.  I especially liked the idea of practicing transitions and the ways given to help students access their own ideas for independent writing such as decorating notebooks, writing spots etc.  These were great useful tips, and as always, I love that she gives us the why behind each suggestion. 

Chapter 12, Assessment explains the value of using Rubrics.  I agree that using rubrics as opposed to a letter grade really “helps teachers notice different aspects of writing, which then, ideally, impacts instruction”.  I liked how the use of different rubrics was described so that it became evident that different rubrics are important in regards to authenticity in that assessments match instruction.  This way of assessing students will help us as educators respond to the needs of children individually.  I had never really considered using rubrics as a planning tool but after reading this chapter it makes perfect sense.  What a terrific way to build students’ expectations of what they can do.  This practice ties in nicely with the goal of having students view themselves as competent and capable!