While doing my field experience on Monday, I was giving a 2nd grade student an assessment. It required me to tell the student to "write down as many words as you know," and I was to stop him after it had been 3 minutes. Although he knew words, it was hard for him to just do it on the spot like that without being given some kind of prompt. I eventually had to be like "do you know how to spell any types of animals, colors, etc..." Chapter 7 mentions this same concept with writing. It can't usually just happen on its own if telling a child to write. The child will have to know something about actually writing. I like that the idea of mini lessons were also introduced...that helped answer some questions I had after reading some previous chapters in this book.
Additionally, I liked reading the story about Jonathon in Chapter 8. I know as a future teacher I will make it a point to point out the strengths in the children's writing. I just feel like if teachers at the primary level are constantly wanting to make corrections to the students writings, that the kids will dislike writing and shy away from it more.
I think this book is a great resource to hold on to when I have my own classroom.
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I agree Whitney. How are children supposed to get started if they don't have a subtle push? Also, although I do not completely agree with this teachers decision to implement this activity, I like how there is a three minute time limit that will cause the student to focus and work as hard a she can for that remaining time.
ReplyDeleteThe key question is: Why was the assessment being given and how was it to be used?
ReplyDeleteThe three minute write is a take-off (I think) of a Reading Recovery tool, the 10-minute word write. Some teachers use it effectively to get a sampling of the specific words a child knows and to prompt the use of these words in guided writing, "I know you can write Mom" and then turn the shared pen (and the responsibility for writing) over to the child for that specific word. However, like many assessments, it sometimes is used just to measure and rank children and then it's a more questionable activity.