Well I guess I have to post my summary and general questions now. I admit it, I was having a fabulous bday weekend and I do not feel even close to prepared - yikes.
Here is goes - a summary. First, I think my question was clarified in inquiry group by Rebecca. The question is: How can I streamline writing workshop in my classroom?
This is the situation. I am very integrated with the SS teacher and we team teacher. Our classes are intertwined. This creates a difficult time situation for me because I am not just responsible for my curriculum, but also the SS curriculum. We have to stay in sync because our projects extra are so dependent on one another.
My goal has been to create a method to help students workshop together with their writing. I seem to be concentrating on our discussion and student comments. Funny, on Thursday, after Stacey's research chair I was thinking about the research discussions that we have had and I realized that most questions are based on discussion. Discussions about reading, creative discussions, blogging discussions - I wonder what the link is there. Maybe discussion is the epitomy of critical thinking (now define critical thinking - ha ha)?
Back to my research... I am trying to create literature roles for writing, hence "writing circles". There are different questions on each role sheet that have helpful question ideas for the students to use. It also gives them a specific part to concentrate on when reading, like voice or organization. I want to simplify the role sheets and add to them. I will probably have to pass this around to those who are not in my inquiry group so you get the idea.
Soooo, here are some questions, but I know others will pop up tomorrow :)
1. How much time do you think should be given to workshop?
2. Stacey had mentioned not wanting to help with discussion - is it a bad thing to give out question prompts?
3. How can I simplify the roles?
4. Should I be worried more about the discussion or the comments students make on each others' papers?
5. How is the best way to group students ( I think I have my answer to this, but would be interested to hear other opinions).
6. I am thinking of adding roles to include 6-traits and writing types, are there any other suggestions for roles?
7. Other?
Is everyone impressed that I just figured out how to change the text color????
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I love the idea that discussion is the thread that binds all critical thinking. In the definition of critical thinking that I am working on, communication is a central aspect. I definitely think that it is difficult (if not impossible) to think critically in a vacuum, separate from other people's thoughts and opinions.
It is when our ideas meet other people's ideas and we start to really consider why we hold the beliefs that we do that our assumptions and blind spots come to the forefront.
So in the context of writing circles, the advantage is that rather than just writing a paper and getting a letter grade back from the teacher, kids can see how their writing effects the reader. They can learn what they said is not necessarily what they meant,and can begin to really develop thier writing ability.
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