Made a change. Listened to my son, my student teacher, and my gut, for all pointed to one truth: kids needed more time to write.
“Dad, we only get like 30 minutes twice a week.”
“When I am writing I need to focus on just that.”
“The most important work we do is writing.”
Yes. Yes. And Yes.
So, I had to find a better.
Currently, our week, mostly due to our having to share Chromebooks, consists of two days of reading and two days of writing. My writing days–my Chromebook days–are Wednesday and Thursday. And as my son, who is my class, pointed out, that’s just not enough time. He’s right. My student teacher recently engaged me about the two-day approach, saying that would be hard for her to go nearly a week before coming back to her work. She’s right. My gut reminded me that we have to put our time where are priorities are. It’s right. Something had to change.
Yesterday, I approached my grade-level and Chromebook partner about finding a better. We put our heads together, and came up with the plan to alternate weeks between reading and writing. Now we will have more sustained time and focus. We didn’t get more time; we just organized our time differently. Best way? Best is a myth, so I doubt it. Better way? Maybe. All we can do is give it a go. I feel good about it. My student teacher and colleague feel good about it. And, importantly, most of the kids feel good about it. We’ll see how it goes.
Today’s Trail
Along today’s trail we will experience…
…connecting through Smiles and Frowns.
…growing with grammar
…growing as writers.
…reflecting in our Journey Journals.
…hearing a Sappy Sy Rhyme.
Happy Friday, all.
Do. Reflect. Do Better.
Timely post (no pun intended) as I’m dealing with the same issue. I’ve divided my time, parsed it might be more like what I mean, so tightly because I’ve already given over one day a week in my gifted English classes to the Touchstones Discussion Project. I won’t let that go. It’s too important to what I think we need in a country whose civic religion (democracy) has lost too many active participants. So that gives me Tuesday–Friday. Fridays I’ve given to independent reading, based on the work of Nancie Atwell and Penny Kittle, as well as our former Chair of the Eng. dept. Kids need time to read on their own. So now I’m down to Tuesday–Thursday. I started a personal narrative with my students about a month ago, and it’s not done yet. I can do better than that. I know time away from pieces is often a good thing (and my kids write most everyday as I begin my classes with freewriting on Tues–Friday), but not this much time.
I can do better. Thanks for this insight. It’s instructive.
Good Monday morning, Garreth. Glad you found some value in the post. Hope you are well.