Karen Osmun's picture

Students Learning to Self-assess: Karen Osmun, Fifth Grade, Late Fall 2011

Submitted by Karen Osmun on Thu, 12/08/2011 - 5:16pm
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My fifth graders recently completed “The Writing Process” section of the Being a Writer™ program. They enjoyed the steps we followed daily to reach the goal of their published book. The students were excited about working with their partners to discuss each other’s writing. They each took pride in truly trying to give constructive feedback to their partner, as well as their own written piece. 

Some comments I heard from them as they kept rereading and revising their work were:

  • “This sentence doesn’t make sense”
  • “I repeated the same thing here”
  • "Would it sound better if I changed this word to…?”

and many others like these. It was great to observe that they were able to see their own weaknesses in their writing each day when we focused on one skill in the revision process. And self-stick notes work like magic. They LOVE using them and it was easy for them to listen and follow the given instructions for their use. Then they would rewrite their piece, plugging in the changes they made using their self-stick note. They each rewrote their piece a number of times, and I thought for sure I was going to hear them complain, but I never once did. One student, John, said to me, “I never wrote this much before. I don’t like writing, but I didn’t mind this because I kept seeing stupid mistakes I made, but when are we going to hear more books?”  

The only problem I am having with the implementing this program is the amount of time we dedicate to it. I know that this writing process shouldn’t have taken as long as it took us, but since it is new to me and the students, it was time consuming.  But now their books are complete and they are pleased with them. They are happy to be back generating new ideas and freewriting about them. I am assuming the next time we begin revising a piece to be published, it won’t take as long to get through the process. I really enjoy teaching this program and definitely can see a positive difference in the students' attitudes toward writing.  

Comments

Karen, Congratulations on

Submitted by Lindee Witt on Mon, 01/09/2012 - 8:10pm.
Karen, Congratulations on getting your kids through their first publication of writing!!  As a fifth grade teacher myself, I know first hand that can be quite a task.  It's so wonderful to see the things that your students were saying.  That's when you know they really have it. In regards to your question regarding the time devoted to that unit, I think that you will find that the other units go by much quicker because your students have that firm understanding of the writing process.  That unit also seems so much longer because it is tied in with the first unit, especially in regards to the fact that they work with the same partner the whole time.  Now that they understand the process, and have had success at completing a final product, I think you will see how that time pays off in the future units.  The pacing schedule that is laid out for you, I find, is very reasonable - even with all of the other demands that are put on us as teachers.  My advice would be to just keep going.  You'll see the difference once you get into the other units. Lindee Witt DSC Consultant

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