The research continues, but the project is wrapping up. I gave my "professional presentation" at staff meeting Monday, since several people would be out of town next week. The comments were all extremely positive. Not that I really expected different, but it's very intimidating talking to people who have spent many more years and hours with dyslexia about dyslexia. Anyway, I'm hopeful this may turn into an actual component of our tutoring services...which may lead to more hours. *fingers crossed*
Even though the blog is "done" and has been graded, I had to share something that happened with Student 2 yesterday (11-1-12). He came in so excited and shared a story he wrote for an assignment. His class is studying Edgar Allen Poe and he wrote a story similar to "The Cask of Amontillado." Not only was he excited to share it with me, he even said he did prewriting for it. As in, ON HIS OWN WITHOUT SOMEONE MAKING HIM!!!!!! For this student, it's HUGE. This is the student who, on his initial interviews, said he hated writing and never wanted to do it. He has discovered Inspiration, an iPad app that allows students to organize thoughts for writing in a variety of ways. And it's interesting. He also wanted to do his Current Events assignment (and there was no shortage of topics to choose this week) and was showing me several features. He had fun going between outline format and thought web. He had a pretty complete outline with minimal guidance from me and then saved the outline, e-mailed it to himself, and opened it as an editable document to flesh out a finished draft. Needless to say, Inspiration is the latest app I downloaded :)
I may have listed my findings and supported them with data evidence, but how to you explain what happened in that office yesterday? To realize you really have broken through a barrier? Not only have you found effective instructional practices that led to positive student changes, but you've actually managed to make a reluctant writer excited in the process. Chills!
Friday, November 2, 2012
Friday, October 19, 2012
10-18-12 Activities and Reflection Student 2
Field Notes:
Goals: Narratives
*No school (Fall Break)
*Talked about the Transy/UK basketball game coming up, which led to a discussion of sports being played on each of our birthdays tend to be cursed with UK losing on them.
*Saw "narratives" at the top of these notes and got excited
*Said he already knows how to do
*Told him we'd work on the planning/organizing
*Began narrative instruction
*Got off topic as I modeled drawing
*Began pre-writing his own story at 4:58, finished 5:08
*He did the drawings and I wrote his dictated notes
*Stopped to look up hardest substance on earth
*Began working on story on computer (not iPad) at 5:10, finished 5:20
*First, left notes in other room as we went to the office with a computer.
*Spent several minutes looking for a picture to go with his story before he actually started typing
*Actually began typing at 5:13
*Changed several small details from original prewriting
*Had a hunt and peck method of typing--funny since he tries to keep fingers on home row when using the iPad!
*Actually used the spell check to help
*Went back to do title
*Pointed out that the formula actually wants us to do this step first, but it's totally OK to use a "working" title and go back to change it.
*Watched YouTube videos of Minecraft
*Seemed to be his inspiration for the story. I asked if it was and he said no, but his drawings had quite a resemblance and his story had the same characters.
Reflection:
This is the first time I've really deviated from my first student. Obviously no two sessions are exactly alike and this student has had several sessions where I chuck my lesson plan out the window and do what he needs help doing. But he's still followed my first student in terms of activities and as I've refined the instruction, has even caught up. Since this student prefers stories over expository, I figured our time was better spent learning the pre-writing process for narratives. I suspect my third student will prefer narratives as well. Just another reason one-on-one sessions are best for these students. Maybe it's a little more work on my part, but we're not using tons of time working on concepts that 1) the students seem to understand and 2) don't actually interest the student. We've done it, they get it but prefer something else, we move on. Luxury. But hey, he was excited!
Overall, his story was of about the same quality as his non-fiction--short, has the details from pre-writing, but not really expanded upon. But, the story followed a logical order. I suspect some of his short and sweetness is due to the fact that this writing was not for school. I wonder how his short story assignment from forever ago would have gone had he done this method of pre-writing instead of answering written questions. I'm kind of anxious for another short story assignment, just to try it out!
Goals: Narratives
*No school (Fall Break)
*Talked about the Transy/UK basketball game coming up, which led to a discussion of sports being played on each of our birthdays tend to be cursed with UK losing on them.
*Saw "narratives" at the top of these notes and got excited
*Said he already knows how to do
*Told him we'd work on the planning/organizing
*Began narrative instruction
*Got off topic as I modeled drawing
*Began pre-writing his own story at 4:58, finished 5:08
*He did the drawings and I wrote his dictated notes
*Stopped to look up hardest substance on earth
*Began working on story on computer (not iPad) at 5:10, finished 5:20
*First, left notes in other room as we went to the office with a computer.
*Spent several minutes looking for a picture to go with his story before he actually started typing
*Actually began typing at 5:13
*Changed several small details from original prewriting
*Had a hunt and peck method of typing--funny since he tries to keep fingers on home row when using the iPad!
*Actually used the spell check to help
*Went back to do title
*Pointed out that the formula actually wants us to do this step first, but it's totally OK to use a "working" title and go back to change it.
*Watched YouTube videos of Minecraft
*Seemed to be his inspiration for the story. I asked if it was and he said no, but his drawings had quite a resemblance and his story had the same characters.
Reflection:
This is the first time I've really deviated from my first student. Obviously no two sessions are exactly alike and this student has had several sessions where I chuck my lesson plan out the window and do what he needs help doing. But he's still followed my first student in terms of activities and as I've refined the instruction, has even caught up. Since this student prefers stories over expository, I figured our time was better spent learning the pre-writing process for narratives. I suspect my third student will prefer narratives as well. Just another reason one-on-one sessions are best for these students. Maybe it's a little more work on my part, but we're not using tons of time working on concepts that 1) the students seem to understand and 2) don't actually interest the student. We've done it, they get it but prefer something else, we move on. Luxury. But hey, he was excited!
Overall, his story was of about the same quality as his non-fiction--short, has the details from pre-writing, but not really expanded upon. But, the story followed a logical order. I suspect some of his short and sweetness is due to the fact that this writing was not for school. I wonder how his short story assignment from forever ago would have gone had he done this method of pre-writing instead of answering written questions. I'm kind of anxious for another short story assignment, just to try it out!
10-18-12 Activities and Reflection Student 1
Field Notes:
Goals: Thesis Statement
Transitions
"Blue to Jazz it up"
*No school today (Fall Break)
*Reading To Kill a Mockingbird
*Likes it so far.
*Asked lots of questions about main characters and what happens. Favorites are Scout and Atticus
*Likes Atticus' name and likes how much of a tomboy Scout is. Didn't realize Scout was a girl at first.
*Introduced Occasion/Position Statements as Thesis Statements.
*Described 13 ways to write a thesis statement
*Most familiar with #7: lists, and #2: Power numbers.
*Talked about the "There are" traps, especially for Power numbers statements. Avoid using "There are __(Number)___..." Discussed ways to avoid.
*Discussed transitions
*Read several sample paragraphs and circled the transitions. Some were obvious and others were not.
*Gave handout to take home with common transitions
*Talked about teachers and being taught writing
*Didn't like one teacher because she was "boring and did old school handouts and worksheets."
*Has several younger teachers now and thinks they're easier to relate to. Also likes how I'm teaching writing--"It's more interesting." Didn't really press for specifics into what made it more interesting.
Reflections:
He likes it. He really likes it! I'm glad my student is enjoying our time together. For our first session, I was giving a brief overview for what we'd be doing and said we were going to be working on writing. His response was "But I like writing." I said that was great, but even professional writers work to make theirs better, so that's what we would focus on.
We discussed 13 ways to create a thesis (or topic) statement. I'll work on getting a copy of the list our academic therapist gave me posted here. He was most familiar with Number Statements and Lists. Lists are what he's most familiar with from writing five paragraph essays. We talked about the trap of using "There are..." with number statements, so switch it around to use specific nouns and verbs. Instead of "There are four important procedures for new recruits." say, "The new recruits learned four important procedures." He seemed to understand how the latter was a stronger statement. Now I have to work on that myself!
We also worked on transitions. This is something I've noticed often lacks from his writing. He will go from one key point to the next without much warning. He read two similar paragraphs with different transitions and asked him to mark what the thought the transitions were. He easily got the first, next, and finally. We needed to talk through several less obvious ones--"first of all" was easy while "They are also playful" was trickier, simply because it wasn't the first word of the sentence. Either way works and using a variety is always a good idea.
Goals: Thesis Statement
Transitions
"Blue to Jazz it up"
*No school today (Fall Break)
*Reading To Kill a Mockingbird
*Likes it so far.
*Asked lots of questions about main characters and what happens. Favorites are Scout and Atticus
*Likes Atticus' name and likes how much of a tomboy Scout is. Didn't realize Scout was a girl at first.
*Introduced Occasion/Position Statements as Thesis Statements.
*Described 13 ways to write a thesis statement
*Most familiar with #7: lists, and #2: Power numbers.
*Talked about the "There are" traps, especially for Power numbers statements. Avoid using "There are __(Number)___..." Discussed ways to avoid.
*Discussed transitions
*Read several sample paragraphs and circled the transitions. Some were obvious and others were not.
*Gave handout to take home with common transitions
*Talked about teachers and being taught writing
*Didn't like one teacher because she was "boring and did old school handouts and worksheets."
*Has several younger teachers now and thinks they're easier to relate to. Also likes how I'm teaching writing--"It's more interesting." Didn't really press for specifics into what made it more interesting.
Reflections:
He likes it. He really likes it! I'm glad my student is enjoying our time together. For our first session, I was giving a brief overview for what we'd be doing and said we were going to be working on writing. His response was "But I like writing." I said that was great, but even professional writers work to make theirs better, so that's what we would focus on.
We discussed 13 ways to create a thesis (or topic) statement. I'll work on getting a copy of the list our academic therapist gave me posted here. He was most familiar with Number Statements and Lists. Lists are what he's most familiar with from writing five paragraph essays. We talked about the trap of using "There are..." with number statements, so switch it around to use specific nouns and verbs. Instead of "There are four important procedures for new recruits." say, "The new recruits learned four important procedures." He seemed to understand how the latter was a stronger statement. Now I have to work on that myself!
We also worked on transitions. This is something I've noticed often lacks from his writing. He will go from one key point to the next without much warning. He read two similar paragraphs with different transitions and asked him to mark what the thought the transitions were. He easily got the first, next, and finally. We needed to talk through several less obvious ones--"first of all" was easy while "They are also playful" was trickier, simply because it wasn't the first word of the sentence. Either way works and using a variety is always a good idea.
Monday, October 15, 2012
Catch-Up
Not to be confused with ketchup :) No wonder my kids all roll their eyes at me! Anyway, I'm pretty sure last week tried to kill me. Some of my students had Fall Break, some didn't, some went places, some wanted to come early, and some didn't or couldn't. I survived though and they say what doesn't kill you makes you stronger. Well, I'm probably a body-builder by now!
I'm trying to play catch-up in most things work and school related. I have begun the tedious task or coding my data. Since we miraculously had zero plans this weekend, I was able to get caught up on transcribing my field notes into Mac Pages form, so I could more easily manipulate and organize everything. My writing student tomorrow will be out (going to Disney World and not taking me. How rude!), so I hope to spend that time figuring out how to post samples of my notes.
This project seems to actually be coming together. As I've mentioned, one major theme that has already jumped out at me--without me even looking for it--was the concept of talking. Since I welcomed my writing students to bring assignments from school, I worked through some reading comprehension questions (which I was pleasantly surprised to find were actually pretty deep and thoughtful) with one student. He was was having a terrible time with "why" and "how do you know" questions, but once I got him talking about the story, he quickly wrote thorough answers. I had never read the story he was responding to, so my questions had a little bit of guidance, but mostly were because I had no idea. Clearly, the questions weren't "What color shirt was ________ wearing?"! Another time, this student brought in a writing assignment for a short story. His teacher had provided some guiding questions to help students get started, which my student had answered, but not very thoughtfully. He continued to get stuck after each sentence with what should come next, but once he talked aout what he wanted to happen, all it took from me was a, "Well write that down!" and he realized he already had half the story written!
I keep trying to drive home the idea of the planning/organizing stage of writing--the biggest difference between the traditional writing process and my process. One student seems to have caught on and flown with it. I may actually have to plan some short-essay activities for this week for him. My other students are the type that would rather do it once and be done than to do anything well. That's kind of hard to work with. One has the excuse of limited instruction, since he began late. The other gets the concepts I've been teaching, but I don't think he has as fully bought in. I'm working on him though. I pointed out how quickly he was able to plan/outline and write a paragraph compared to responding to his reading questions. Hopefully a few more sessions like that will drive the point home.
I've also noticed students write more thoroughly and willingly when they get to write on a subject they like. Last week, one student wrote a full page and some on the back about the baseball postseason. My reluctant student writes more willingly when he gets to pick the topic as well. Since we started with "I hate writing. I don't wanna write," a short paragraph about Pusheen the Cat counts as a win!
I'm trying to play catch-up in most things work and school related. I have begun the tedious task or coding my data. Since we miraculously had zero plans this weekend, I was able to get caught up on transcribing my field notes into Mac Pages form, so I could more easily manipulate and organize everything. My writing student tomorrow will be out (going to Disney World and not taking me. How rude!), so I hope to spend that time figuring out how to post samples of my notes.
This project seems to actually be coming together. As I've mentioned, one major theme that has already jumped out at me--without me even looking for it--was the concept of talking. Since I welcomed my writing students to bring assignments from school, I worked through some reading comprehension questions (which I was pleasantly surprised to find were actually pretty deep and thoughtful) with one student. He was was having a terrible time with "why" and "how do you know" questions, but once I got him talking about the story, he quickly wrote thorough answers. I had never read the story he was responding to, so my questions had a little bit of guidance, but mostly were because I had no idea. Clearly, the questions weren't "What color shirt was ________ wearing?"! Another time, this student brought in a writing assignment for a short story. His teacher had provided some guiding questions to help students get started, which my student had answered, but not very thoughtfully. He continued to get stuck after each sentence with what should come next, but once he talked aout what he wanted to happen, all it took from me was a, "Well write that down!" and he realized he already had half the story written!
I keep trying to drive home the idea of the planning/organizing stage of writing--the biggest difference between the traditional writing process and my process. One student seems to have caught on and flown with it. I may actually have to plan some short-essay activities for this week for him. My other students are the type that would rather do it once and be done than to do anything well. That's kind of hard to work with. One has the excuse of limited instruction, since he began late. The other gets the concepts I've been teaching, but I don't think he has as fully bought in. I'm working on him though. I pointed out how quickly he was able to plan/outline and write a paragraph compared to responding to his reading questions. Hopefully a few more sessions like that will drive the point home.
I've also noticed students write more thoroughly and willingly when they get to write on a subject they like. Last week, one student wrote a full page and some on the back about the baseball postseason. My reluctant student writes more willingly when he gets to pick the topic as well. Since we started with "I hate writing. I don't wanna write," a short paragraph about Pusheen the Cat counts as a win!
Wednesday, October 10, 2012
10-9-12 Activities and Reflection Student 3
Goals: Bare Bones
Expand Bare Bones
ARMS and CUPS revising/editing
*Has a paper to write for Spanish. In Spanish.
*Finished with his dad
*Talked about a trip to Transy for sister’s swim team meet.
*Reviewed differences between a phrase and sentence
*Wrote 3 bare bones sentences.
*Took a break to write sight words
*Diagrammed basic sentences, then expanded with adjectives
*Talked through expanding his bare bones sentences, I wrote what he dictated.
*Introduced Traffic Light paragraphs
**Chose not to introduce ARMS and CUPS because we haven’t done much revising yet.
Reflection:
Student 3 really enjoyed the Bare Bones activity this week. I really don't know what the difference was between him and the other two, but he quickly and easily wrote three Bare Bones sentences without much guidance. The others needed me to write one as an example before the idea clicked for them. Maybe the quick review about a phrase versus sentence as well as the two components of a complete sentence (noun and verb)? Either way, he wrote three basic sentences: I ran. Bob burped. and I play.
He also seemed to enjoy expanding those sentences. I had been separating out those two activities, but I think it fits just as well same day. Yesterday provided a good break, since I forgot to review sight words first thing this session. Since this student is also to be "reviewing" things from Barton, I'm also reviewing sight words. His mother expressed concern over his difficulty correctly using homonyms (homophones?) while writing. Since he had finished Barton's lists of sight words, I created my own list of homonyms. I would use the word in a sentence and for me to mark it correct, he had to not only spell the word correctly, he had to spell the correct one. Not a perfect system, but it's the best way for me to see if he really doesn't know or if he may just be rushing. I think he just rushes through his work and decides that part isn't important. Anyway, now I've created several lists of old sight words he had missed the first time through to review and they are actually proving to be quite the challenge. Kind of makes me want to pull out ones he didn't miss just to see if he actually knew them or got lucky the first time (we've switched the way we do sight words...long story).
Since we had the sight word break, I thought going on to expanded sentences would work and he enjoyed that activity as well. I ran became Swiftly, I ran to the store while burping. Bob burped became Bob burped rapidly with his friend, Billy Bob Joe. (a quick lesson in the comma between friend and Billy was needed). Can you tell he's my fifth grader? I play became Quickly, I played basketball outside with Bob 1, Bob 2, Bob 3, Bob 4, and Bob 6, so we could play a lot of games. He explained that he was Bob 5 and wanted to play a lot of games of basketball. I'm pretty confident in saying this is why he enjoyed this activity so much--he got to be silly.
Friday, October 5, 2012
10-4-12 Activities and Reflection Student 2
Field Notes:
Reflection:
This week has been a slight challenge. My student who loves writing, and our sessions, had to miss his session, so I only had my twostinkers less enthused writers. I completed some initial data on one student, since he's just now being added as a writing student. I really wanted him to participate A) because he's actually the inspiration for my project and B) I feel like I'm getting my process refined, since I'm making it up as I go along, so I'd like to see a more "polished" version of my instruction.
I completed an interview with him and one of the questions asked what the student's goals were in improving his or her writing and the dialogue went a little something like this:
"I don't really have anything to improve." -student
"Then why are you coming?" -me
"Because my mom's making me." -student
"Well, she's spending a lot of money to bring you here. Why do you think she's doing that? What do you think SHE might want you to improve." -me
"I dunno." -student (in a laughing it off tone of voice)
Head meets wall. This student is a lot of fun though, I just hope he can take enough of the instruction seriously.
My other student was surprisingly on task today. All of the teachers at his school are going to California for a conference, so he doesn't have school tomorrow (Friday) and consequently did not have homework. While our tutor coordinator has been careful in telling parents these sessions are not specifically "homework help" or homework hour, I do welcome any writing assignments from school to go over together. And this student has come in every week with plenty of assignments! Just none today. Luckily, I had plans written and the fact that he didn't have homework distractions helped a lot. He was actually attentive and responsive and followed directions. The last one is nothing short of a miracle. The only downfall was he didn't bring his iPad (his school is part of an initiative to go paper-less in the upper grades, so he has a school issued iPad), so he discovered the games on mine. I just used that as my bargaining chip :)
He really did do a pretty great job. He doesn't like writing, but I suspect it's the physical act of writing...handwriting. This isn't surprising since many of our students also have dysgraphia, so writing is a difficult and literally painful task. I made him a deal that I would handwrite the outline he dictated if he would do the typing of the paragraph and that got the thumbs up. Once we were all done with the outlining and typing (and he was itching to beat my high score of Fruit Ninja), I pointed out that the outline could also be done on a computer and we spent some time figuring out how to do one on the iPad as well. Pages doesn't have an outline option on the iPad...that we could find. However, we were able to find a rough version of an outline in Google Docs (without the tab key, a true outline isn't possible, but it's close enough). I explained the easy part about making an outline on the computer is that it's easier to expand the thoughts into full sentences and make sure no details are left out. I may have him give that a try next week.
He definitely seemed to grasp the differences between narrative and expository this week. His writing was still a little disjointed--I'm not sure his "key points" were really key points and the "details" didn't always seem to to support the points, but it was at least nonfiction, and he made a pretty good effort with a topic he was actually interested in.
I also made sure to point out the time it took to create an outline and resulting paragraph, which was significantly less than anything he tries to write off the cuff. I'm not sure that has really hit home yet, but I'm working on it!
Goals: Expository vs. narrative
Practice a true expository paragraph
*No homework because there’s no school tomorrow due to teachers’ conference in CA
*Had science and religion tests
*Not sure how he did, but enjoys astronomy
*Plays basketball for Lex Cath 6th grade team.
*Reintroduced traffic light and expository/narrative writing
*Discussed differences
*Began outline at 4:50, finished at 5:07
*Stopped to look up information about elements and read aloud several interesting facts.
*Began typing paragraph at 5:08, finished at 5:13
*Didn’t look at outline, except for conclusion--kept asking what came next.
*Didn’t use capitals or seem to take completely seriously because it wasn’t for school.
*Discussed the benefits of doing an outline
*Outline took 17 minutes and actual writing took 5.
*Looked at formatting outlines on iPad/computer
*iPad Pages does not have outline template, but Google docs does
*Neither has Tab key to move bullets
*Benefit of doing outline online is going through line by line to create sentences within the same document so no information gets left out.
*Assignment next week is to do an outline before beginning writing assignments
*“That’s why I hated my 4th grade teacher--She told us to make an outline, but never told us what it looked like or how to do it!”
*I made sure to point out the elements of our outline: Topic at the top, key points on the left, details on the right and conclusion at the bottom.
Reflection:
This week has been a slight challenge. My student who loves writing, and our sessions, had to miss his session, so I only had my two
I completed an interview with him and one of the questions asked what the student's goals were in improving his or her writing and the dialogue went a little something like this:
"I don't really have anything to improve." -student
"Then why are you coming?" -me
"Because my mom's making me." -student
"Well, she's spending a lot of money to bring you here. Why do you think she's doing that? What do you think SHE might want you to improve." -me
"I dunno." -student (in a laughing it off tone of voice)
Head meets wall. This student is a lot of fun though, I just hope he can take enough of the instruction seriously.
My other student was surprisingly on task today. All of the teachers at his school are going to California for a conference, so he doesn't have school tomorrow (Friday) and consequently did not have homework. While our tutor coordinator has been careful in telling parents these sessions are not specifically "homework help" or homework hour, I do welcome any writing assignments from school to go over together. And this student has come in every week with plenty of assignments! Just none today. Luckily, I had plans written and the fact that he didn't have homework distractions helped a lot. He was actually attentive and responsive and followed directions. The last one is nothing short of a miracle. The only downfall was he didn't bring his iPad (his school is part of an initiative to go paper-less in the upper grades, so he has a school issued iPad), so he discovered the games on mine. I just used that as my bargaining chip :)
He really did do a pretty great job. He doesn't like writing, but I suspect it's the physical act of writing...handwriting. This isn't surprising since many of our students also have dysgraphia, so writing is a difficult and literally painful task. I made him a deal that I would handwrite the outline he dictated if he would do the typing of the paragraph and that got the thumbs up. Once we were all done with the outlining and typing (and he was itching to beat my high score of Fruit Ninja), I pointed out that the outline could also be done on a computer and we spent some time figuring out how to do one on the iPad as well. Pages doesn't have an outline option on the iPad...that we could find. However, we were able to find a rough version of an outline in Google Docs (without the tab key, a true outline isn't possible, but it's close enough). I explained the easy part about making an outline on the computer is that it's easier to expand the thoughts into full sentences and make sure no details are left out. I may have him give that a try next week.
He definitely seemed to grasp the differences between narrative and expository this week. His writing was still a little disjointed--I'm not sure his "key points" were really key points and the "details" didn't always seem to to support the points, but it was at least nonfiction, and he made a pretty good effort with a topic he was actually interested in.
I also made sure to point out the time it took to create an outline and resulting paragraph, which was significantly less than anything he tries to write off the cuff. I'm not sure that has really hit home yet, but I'm working on it!
Friday, September 28, 2012
9-27-12 Activities and Reflection Student 2
Field Notes:
Goals: Traffic light paragraphs
expository vs. narrative
*100 on geography test
*Test in Wordly Wise tomorrow
*Played iPad game to review
*Talked about types of writing
*Then writing process, then traffic light
*Tried to say the final paragraph of his short story did not follow this formula. But that was ok--I explained his story was a different style of writing, so it followed a different formula
*Read example paragraph and color coded--not terribly enthused to color, but was happier when I told him we would be scribbling. Got bored with that eventually, but did do #3 independently--only used vertical lines to mark beginning and end of sentences.
*Worked together to create outline, but final paragraph was a story (narrative). It still works, kind of.
*Began typing paragraph at 5:19, finished 5:25, but accidentally deleted. Had full conclusion written and was very disappointed.
*I pointed out how much less time typing the paragraph took compared to last session where 2 paragraphs took the full hour.
Reflection:
Hmm...This one might give me (more) gray hairs. This particular student has a hard time focusing anyway, so I'm not terribly surprised he lost interest with dissecting the sample paragraphs. He did do well with them, so I think he understands at least. We definitely need some more work in the difference between expository and narrative though. As I said in the field notes, he was initially confused because his prior narrative didn't follow the "formula." I had to point out the differences between his fictional narrative and the nonfiction nature of expository writing. Also, he had difficulty writing his own expository paragraph. Again, his story works...it's just not what I was going for.
Hopefully he at least saw the value in doing prewriting activities. I made sure to point out to him how little time the outline and drafting took compared to a few weeks ago when he had to write a short story and he struggled and struggled to come up with his few paragraphs. He acknowledged how little time it took. I just hope he internalizes it and follows the process himself. That's my main goal for all of my students, whether they're reading or writing--for them to internalize the process so it becomes automatic, especially since so little for these students is automatic. Many will still struggle to some extent, but at least having a strategy they know works is huge.
9-27-12 Activities and Reflection Student 1
Field Notes:
Goals: Review traffic light paragraphs, elaborate on elements of expository writing
Introduce accordion paragraphs
Thesis sentence if time
*Came in and immediately asked if he could work on a current event assignment after I made a comment about him bringing iPad.
*Doing iPhone 5
*Found an article- 5 things to know about the iPhone 5
*Read and verbally summarized: Passbook is a new feature, asked how it worked, so we played with the new features on my iPhone 4S.
playing with the panoramic camera
*Introduced basics of accordion paragraph
*Related it to actual accordion--asked what an accordion sounded like, so I searched on iTunes and youtube for examples
*Began 2 side outline or article
*Used each of the 5 points as key idea and added details from article
*"What does inferior mean?"
*Talked about other iPhones
*Began drafting paragraph at 4:18, finished 4:30
*Stopped to talk about future current events assignments
*Choose own topic each week, but cannot be about sports
*Stopped to talk about evolution of computers
Reflection:
This session was so much fun. I love how eager my student was to write today! He came in ready and raring to go. In actuality, I had spoken with him mom about doing his Current Events assignment during our time together. We agreed this week and next to spend time reading an article, summarizing it, and then doing the outline/draft. After that, he will be responsible for doing the above steps and we will work on revising/editing. Future steps include a strong thesis statement, transitions, and conclusions.
This student completed his draft right as our time expired. Since he worked on his own iPad, I unfortunately did not get a copy of the draft, but he wrote a strong outline. This article lent itself nicely to our method of outlining. The article had 5 new features, but he ended up only using 4. The one he left out, neither of us knew much about, so since he didn't understand it I think that decision was wise. No sense in writing about something you can't actually explain.
I think this is also a great example of learning by doing. It's one thing to read about the features of the new iPhone, but to be able to try them out really helped him understand how they worked (even though I have the "old" 4S, most of the upgrades were iOS related so I got them, too!). Once again, talking is an important theme for the day. I have a feeling when I start coding data, this will be a major finding.
Wednesday, September 26, 2012
Student 3
I have a third participant! He has been coming only once a week to finish up his current level in Barton. Small explanation: Barton spans 10 level and do not correspond to reading levels. Most students complete levels 1-8 while in elementary school and return for Levels 9 and 10 once they have completed eighth grade, simply because of the advanced vocabulary in the last two levels. This particular student just completed Level 8. We have done some limited writing instruction towards the end of last school year and during the summer upon his mom's request (this was actually the inspiration for my project). By participating in my study, I hope this will give us both more structure in the writing instruction and serve as a way to refine what I've done with my first two guinea pigs students.
Field Notes:
Field Notes:
Goals: Baseline for writing and typing
Review and sight words
Interviews
*Writing baseline: began at 3:42, ended at 3:56, paused at 3:44 to read aloud a section I was in (I died).
*"How do spell your name...I mean Angie?"
*Very quickly began reading story aloud, without prompting.
*Found 5 corrections to make
*"That was a funny story!"
*Questionnaire-Writer's profile
*Superficial answers; got stuck for a plan, but found inspiration for iPad story.
*iPad story: began 4:07, ended 4:20
*"Not how you spell there...That's not how you spell it either...oh well, this is the wrong there."
*"How do you spell Philip?" "I spell it "p-h-i-l-l-i-p, but some might only have 1 L." "Your way it [spell checker] says is wrong and my way is right."
*Read aloud and found 2 corrections to make.
*"What was easier to write, on paper or iPad?" "iPad"
*Began attitude survey and interview
Reflection:
This student may be another toughie. He likes to be funny and I think sometimes that's his cover for his struggles. All of his answers to questions about what kind of stories he likes to write were "funny ones", which is exemplified in his response after reading his own initial writing piece.
I'm kind of impressed we got both initial writings in this session. He spent the least amount of time drafting both than either of my other students. Either I'm more focused or he's a "do it and be done" kind of writer. We'll hope for the former :)
Reflection:
This student may be another toughie. He likes to be funny and I think sometimes that's his cover for his struggles. All of his answers to questions about what kind of stories he likes to write were "funny ones", which is exemplified in his response after reading his own initial writing piece.
I'm kind of impressed we got both initial writings in this session. He spent the least amount of time drafting both than either of my other students. Either I'm more focused or he's a "do it and be done" kind of writer. We'll hope for the former :)
Friday, September 21, 2012
9-20-12 Activities and Reflection Student 2
Field Notes:
Reflection:
Since Student 2 is now official, I figure I can begin sharing his data. I've been keeping up all along with his stuff, so he's well beyond all the initial data. For the most part, Student 2 has been working about a day behind Student 1 mostly because Student 2 actually brings in writing assignments and English homework to work on. Since most of this works in to what we're doing anyway, it's been working. Just another reason individual sessions are so wonderful.
This session really wore me out! He really struggled with this assignment, partly because he has attention difficulties anyway, partly because he did not really take the time to fully answer the teacher's pre-writing questions. Although, to be fair, asking a dyslexic student to read and write in that way may not have been the best idea. But, pre-writing is where we're headed, so he's just going to have to deal with this extra step.
Talking seemed to be the huge theme for the day. I noticed this in another session with this student when we worked on reading responses. He struggled and struggled over what to write until I had him talk it out, explain what he's thinking. "Tell me more." "What else?" He got a little frustrated I think, but this led to more thorough answers, and today a longer writing. Talking may end up being a major theme of my findings.
I really need to look up and study how Step Up to Writing teaches narrative writing. The academic therapist recommended the traffic light first "because it's easier to teach" which I certainly agree with so far. However, between the struggles today and this student's favoring narratives anyway, I think we may briefly work on expository and move on to narratives relatively quickly.
Goals: Expand bare bones
Write phrases on cards and move around, check to make sure they make sense
*Has a short story to write: 3-9 pages, historical fiction.
*Has 2 paragraphs so far, I read those to myself
*Found 1 sentence that didn't make much sense, he edited appropriately.
*Asked how his short answer response from last week went
*"Good!" With double thumbs up
*This reminded him of edmodo assignment for fragments and run-on sentences
*Had difficulty figuring out how to edit on site.
*Reviewed short story assignment details
*The teacher had created a document with some pre-writing questions. She asked for details, but he limited how thoroughly he answered.
*Began writing paragraph 3. Had difficulty getting started: "How do I say this is the next day?"
* "You could start the paragraph with 'The next day'"
*Got stuck again after that sentence
*Talked through how the people to died.
*"Did you write any of that?" "Oh. No."
*Had a much easier time after we talked out the details.
*Uncomfortable typing on iPad on table and chair, so he stretched out in the floor.
*Counted sentences for each paragraph--strives for 4 to be a paragraph, Got disappointed why I suggested he add a small detail sentence to a paragraph, which would have added a sentence.
*A nurse shark saved Bo (the man character) and he began telling me all about nurse sharks, what the look like, etc.
*Had about a page and a half double spaced when he left.
**Look up 6+1 traits of writing (what his class is using).
**How does SUTW teach narrative writing?
Reflection:
Since Student 2 is now official, I figure I can begin sharing his data. I've been keeping up all along with his stuff, so he's well beyond all the initial data. For the most part, Student 2 has been working about a day behind Student 1 mostly because Student 2 actually brings in writing assignments and English homework to work on. Since most of this works in to what we're doing anyway, it's been working. Just another reason individual sessions are so wonderful.
This session really wore me out! He really struggled with this assignment, partly because he has attention difficulties anyway, partly because he did not really take the time to fully answer the teacher's pre-writing questions. Although, to be fair, asking a dyslexic student to read and write in that way may not have been the best idea. But, pre-writing is where we're headed, so he's just going to have to deal with this extra step.
Talking seemed to be the huge theme for the day. I noticed this in another session with this student when we worked on reading responses. He struggled and struggled over what to write until I had him talk it out, explain what he's thinking. "Tell me more." "What else?" He got a little frustrated I think, but this led to more thorough answers, and today a longer writing. Talking may end up being a major theme of my findings.
I really need to look up and study how Step Up to Writing teaches narrative writing. The academic therapist recommended the traffic light first "because it's easier to teach" which I certainly agree with so far. However, between the struggles today and this student's favoring narratives anyway, I think we may briefly work on expository and move on to narratives relatively quickly.
9-20-12 Activities and Reflection Student 1
Field Notes:
Goals: Begin paragraph construction (SUTW)
*Introduce traffic light, purpose, writing process
ID parts of pre-written paragraphs
Explain expository v. narrative--our focus is expository
Do two column outline for own paragraph
*Good field trip
*School's Oktoberfest is coming up and already being set up, so dismissal is weird
*School gets dismissed early Friday so they can finish.
*Apple came to interview sixth grade teachers and students about iPads.
*Told him we were going to move on to paragraph writing, which he said he does at school a lot.
*Introduced the traffic light-discussed the colors and what they mean
*Read paragraph 1 to himself and together we decided what color each sentence should be and I "highlighted" with colored pencils
*Had a pretty easy time, wanted to say a sentence was red, but once I asked if it went with a yellow sentence or the topic green sentence, he realized it wasn't.
*Read paragraph 2 to himself and repeated the process. This time paragraphs had red sentences and we talked through those, especially if there was more than 1 red sentence per yellow. I related this paragraph to 5 paragraph essays, which he said he writes a lot for school.
*Read paragraph 3 to himself and he independently highlighted the sentences their appropriate colors
*100% accuracy
*Discussed elements of expository writing, using SUTW hand out
*Outlined paragraph about Octoberfest
*He wrote a paragraph based on the outlined and took approximately 7 minutes.
*Made a few minor mistakes with periods, 1 wrong word.
*Once he finished, we repeated the highlighting activity as a way of checking all details were included
Reflection:
I am so glad our academic therapist showed me this program! Step Up to Writing is designed to be a multi-sensory writing program, perfect for dyslexic students. While I'm mostly working off sample pages, she also had a binder of the full program...except not? I feel like it's missing some handouts and visuals, but it is helpful for filling in some blanks left by the samples.
Our traffic light discussion was kind of funny. Paragraphs start off with the green "go" sentences, a.k.a. the topic sentences. Then you must "slow down" for yellow and the conversation turned to how most drivers speed up to get through the intersection at a yellow light. Finally I just told him he better slow down or the detail car will make him stop anyway!
I had him deconstruct several sample paragraphs just so he could get practice with these detailed sentences. Our academic therapist warned me students cling tight to the 5-sentence paragraph like a life raft. When we first worked on Paragraph 1, he was a little confused that there were no reds. After reading Paragraph 2 (which was very similar to #1, but with more detail), I asked which was was a better paragraph and he said #2. I asked why and he said, "because the details make it more interesting. I told him absolutely and that technically nothing was wrong with #1. It's a "get it done" kind of paragraph--the kind you write for an assignment just to be done. But #2 is a "get a good grade" kind of paragraph--the kind you write and you'll get an A on.
I guided him through the writing of an outline, pointing out the different components. From there, he very quickly wrote his paragraph. His form certainly looked more like a paragraph--the first line was indented compared to the others. It still wasn't quite lined up with the vertical pink line, but it's progress!
Visuals
I officially have a second study participant! This student carpools with another of our kids and Mom and Dad had been out of town, so s/he kept forgetting. But it's signed without coercion :) I may even be able to pick up a third student, as one of my regulars finished Barton, but is staying on for review/writing instruction anyway. Now that I'm figuring out what the heck I'm doing, this student will be a good one to refine on.
Since I officially have two students, from now on I will refer to students as "he" instead of the "s/he" mystery. Protecting identities and all that.
This session was a lot of fun with Student 1. Our academic therapist introduced me to the program "Step Up to Writing", a commercial program that is great for dyslexic students because it incorperates many visual cues and is multi-sensory for the planning process of writing. It also changes the linear approach to writing students are often accustomed:
The traditional writing approach tends to go in a straight line: brainstorming/prewriting, drafting, revising and editing, final copy, publishing. However, real writers don't follow that process so rigidly. That's why there are cycle lines around drafting, revising, and editing. That's a continual process. I used the example of Kathryn Stockton writing The Help. She revised and edited her manuscript over 40 times before a publisher accepted it.
The AT brought me all of her resources to put together real writing instruction. Student 1 has worked through the basics of sentence structure, so I felt he was ready to move on to paragraph construction. What I love about the Step Up to Writing program (SUTW) is their "traffic light" approach.
(sorry, I forgot to rotate BEFORE uploading). The basic premise is the first sentence is the thesis or topic sentence (Go = green). The next sentence is a reason or detail supporting the topic (Slow Down = yellow). Then, the student must STOP (red) and explain that detail. Yellow and red cycles repeat as long as the student wants, but I encouraged at least 3 supporting details. Finally, the last sentence reminds the reader of the original topic (green again).
Because this approach is totally new to most students, I used some paragraphs from the program to illustrate what these paragraphs look like. The first, obviously, is not very detailed. I had Student 1 read the paragraph to himself and we talked through the colors. He then read the second paragraph and we again talked through the colors. I then asked which paragraph he thought was better and he said, "Definitely 2" (field notes, 9/20/12). For the last paragraph, I turned control over to my student. He read the paragraph and then on his own marked the sentences with appropriately colors. After he finished, we talked through it, though he did not have any trouble.
Then it was his turn to write. The biggest addition to the writing process, besides the cycle method, is the planning stage. This was the thing that stuck out to me most in my initial research that dyslexic students need. They need some kind of structure to organize their thoughts BEFORE they actually try to draft. I used the two column approach described in SUTW, although I messed it up just a little bit. We'll do it again though and do it correctly!
My student decided to write about the upcoming OktoberFest. Below is his planning outline. I walked him through the steps and afterwards, we again color-coded each step. His supporting details include, fun, friends, and the dunking booth.
Since I officially have two students, from now on I will refer to students as "he" instead of the "s/he" mystery. Protecting identities and all that.
This session was a lot of fun with Student 1. Our academic therapist introduced me to the program "Step Up to Writing", a commercial program that is great for dyslexic students because it incorperates many visual cues and is multi-sensory for the planning process of writing. It also changes the linear approach to writing students are often accustomed:
The traditional writing approach tends to go in a straight line: brainstorming/prewriting, drafting, revising and editing, final copy, publishing. However, real writers don't follow that process so rigidly. That's why there are cycle lines around drafting, revising, and editing. That's a continual process. I used the example of Kathryn Stockton writing The Help. She revised and edited her manuscript over 40 times before a publisher accepted it.
The AT brought me all of her resources to put together real writing instruction. Student 1 has worked through the basics of sentence structure, so I felt he was ready to move on to paragraph construction. What I love about the Step Up to Writing program (SUTW) is their "traffic light" approach.
(sorry, I forgot to rotate BEFORE uploading). The basic premise is the first sentence is the thesis or topic sentence (Go = green). The next sentence is a reason or detail supporting the topic (Slow Down = yellow). Then, the student must STOP (red) and explain that detail. Yellow and red cycles repeat as long as the student wants, but I encouraged at least 3 supporting details. Finally, the last sentence reminds the reader of the original topic (green again).
Because this approach is totally new to most students, I used some paragraphs from the program to illustrate what these paragraphs look like. The first, obviously, is not very detailed. I had Student 1 read the paragraph to himself and we talked through the colors. He then read the second paragraph and we again talked through the colors. I then asked which paragraph he thought was better and he said, "Definitely 2" (field notes, 9/20/12). For the last paragraph, I turned control over to my student. He read the paragraph and then on his own marked the sentences with appropriately colors. After he finished, we talked through it, though he did not have any trouble.
Then it was his turn to write. The biggest addition to the writing process, besides the cycle method, is the planning stage. This was the thing that stuck out to me most in my initial research that dyslexic students need. They need some kind of structure to organize their thoughts BEFORE they actually try to draft. I used the two column approach described in SUTW, although I messed it up just a little bit. We'll do it again though and do it correctly!
My student decided to write about the upcoming OktoberFest. Below is his planning outline. I walked him through the steps and afterwards, we again color-coded each step. His supporting details include, fun, friends, and the dunking booth.
Once the outline was finished, he transferred his organized ideas into sentences. Again, sorry for the rotation. The paragraph reads:
Octoberfest is coming up. It is a blast. There are blow ups, which I think you can never get old of. Then there are the games which you can collect all the junk food. Many of my friends go. We hang out there. There is also a dunking booth. There are priest and teacher there. There is always a crowd around the mean teachers. Overall, Octoberfest is awesome.
Still some things to work on...word choice and variation, subject/verb agreement, "say what you mean", etc. For a first shot with a new system, I think he did a good job. After he finished, I went through and color coded his sentences, thinking out loud as I went. All of his original ideas were there, slightly changed and expanded, everything (generally) makes sense.
Saturday, September 15, 2012
Thick Description 2
Yesterday (Friday), I had the pleasure of eating lunch with a co-worker. We see a mutual student, who is struggling with our reading program, so we met to discuss how to personalize the otherwise generic lessons. She also knows the mother of a student in my study and Mom had e-mailed my co-worker with some questions, not only about what we're doing in writing, but also how the student is progressing in his/her reading therapies. And P.F. Changs helps everyone talk :)
We had a wonderful discussion over egg drop soups about our first student and came out with several plans of action to help. My co-worker printed the e-mail Mom sent and showed it to me. Nothing terrifying. Just wondering if there was a particular program I was following, if sending his/her homework assignments to me was OK, how long I planned on working with him, and what I felt his strengths and weaknesses were. I explained the activities we have done so far--Phrase or Sentence?, Create a Sentence, revising and editing, IVAN CAPP parts of speech, and Bare Bones sentences. We had just the previous day worked on expanding those sentences (which will be another post) and while the student understood the concepts, s/he struggled just a little to come up with longer sentences. The expanded ones were good, definitely longer and more descriptive, but they still lacked...something. I told my co-worker I think this may be one of his/her weaknesses. His/Her strength is being very verbal and articulate, but there is sometimes a disconnect between what can be spoken and what gets written. I fully expected this disconnect, as it's a common struggle for students with dyslexia. I think the next part of what I will be doing will help bring a concrete example to an otherwise ambiguous topic.
Speaking of what's next, to answer Mom's question if I was following a particular program, the question comes from reading tutoring. I've mentioned before we use Barton Reading and Spelling system for our reading sessions, so it's a planned out, "scripted" (I'm notorious for going off-script, just because I've taught the lessons enough to know the rule and its applications) program. I'm not doing anything like that. Instead of telling my co-worker what I'm kind of doing--making it up as I go along--I couched it nicely with "I'm cobbling together the best aspects of several things I've found." Which is true. In my research, I found a fairly natural progression suggestion in one book. I found a great way of helping students organize their ideas for longer writings in another. I found a concrete way of showing students how to expand their ideas in another. Absolutely, his school assignments can be worked in to this model, so please send them with him. My co-worker said she would ask Mom to ask the classroom teacher for extensions on writing assignments or even send them to me ahead of time, so I could gather any materials the student may need. It was then my co-worker filled me in on why Mom is so concerned--my student seems to have a case of the "no turn ins." Homework mysteriously doesn't get turned it. I was unclear on whether it was s/he wasn't telling Mom about the assignments period and not doing homework or if it was done, just not getting turned in...point of clarification needed.
I also told my co-worker my study runs through the end of October, but that I was prepared to continue through December. However, my real plan was to continue until someone told me to stop! Once I introduce the "new" writing process, our sessions will mostly be a matter of writing and refining and can be rinsed and repeated as often as necessary. Mom is a little concerned about getting Barton done as quickly as possible, so I suggested I could take a few minutes to work on Barton, but my co-worker said she would push for the full hour remain writing instruction.
Finally, over almond and cashew chicken (me) and something my co-worker described as "not Weight Watcher's approved, but I've already had my weigh-in for the week and I've lost so it's OK" (her), we wrapped up work talk and moved on to more interesting subjects like our husbands and why we love them, the difficulties of a literal interpretation of the Bible, and a meeting she had with our boss. Hard to believe all of that and we were only gone just over an hour! We arrived back at the office in time for her to get in the car line to pick up her daughter from school and for me to finish preparing for a student I see for Academic Coaching.
We had a wonderful discussion over egg drop soups about our first student and came out with several plans of action to help. My co-worker printed the e-mail Mom sent and showed it to me. Nothing terrifying. Just wondering if there was a particular program I was following, if sending his/her homework assignments to me was OK, how long I planned on working with him, and what I felt his strengths and weaknesses were. I explained the activities we have done so far--Phrase or Sentence?, Create a Sentence, revising and editing, IVAN CAPP parts of speech, and Bare Bones sentences. We had just the previous day worked on expanding those sentences (which will be another post) and while the student understood the concepts, s/he struggled just a little to come up with longer sentences. The expanded ones were good, definitely longer and more descriptive, but they still lacked...something. I told my co-worker I think this may be one of his/her weaknesses. His/Her strength is being very verbal and articulate, but there is sometimes a disconnect between what can be spoken and what gets written. I fully expected this disconnect, as it's a common struggle for students with dyslexia. I think the next part of what I will be doing will help bring a concrete example to an otherwise ambiguous topic.
Speaking of what's next, to answer Mom's question if I was following a particular program, the question comes from reading tutoring. I've mentioned before we use Barton Reading and Spelling system for our reading sessions, so it's a planned out, "scripted" (I'm notorious for going off-script, just because I've taught the lessons enough to know the rule and its applications) program. I'm not doing anything like that. Instead of telling my co-worker what I'm kind of doing--making it up as I go along--I couched it nicely with "I'm cobbling together the best aspects of several things I've found." Which is true. In my research, I found a fairly natural progression suggestion in one book. I found a great way of helping students organize their ideas for longer writings in another. I found a concrete way of showing students how to expand their ideas in another. Absolutely, his school assignments can be worked in to this model, so please send them with him. My co-worker said she would ask Mom to ask the classroom teacher for extensions on writing assignments or even send them to me ahead of time, so I could gather any materials the student may need. It was then my co-worker filled me in on why Mom is so concerned--my student seems to have a case of the "no turn ins." Homework mysteriously doesn't get turned it. I was unclear on whether it was s/he wasn't telling Mom about the assignments period and not doing homework or if it was done, just not getting turned in...point of clarification needed.
I also told my co-worker my study runs through the end of October, but that I was prepared to continue through December. However, my real plan was to continue until someone told me to stop! Once I introduce the "new" writing process, our sessions will mostly be a matter of writing and refining and can be rinsed and repeated as often as necessary. Mom is a little concerned about getting Barton done as quickly as possible, so I suggested I could take a few minutes to work on Barton, but my co-worker said she would push for the full hour remain writing instruction.
Finally, over almond and cashew chicken (me) and something my co-worker described as "not Weight Watcher's approved, but I've already had my weigh-in for the week and I've lost so it's OK" (her), we wrapped up work talk and moved on to more interesting subjects like our husbands and why we love them, the difficulties of a literal interpretation of the Bible, and a meeting she had with our boss. Hard to believe all of that and we were only gone just over an hour! We arrived back at the office in time for her to get in the car line to pick up her daughter from school and for me to finish preparing for a student I see for Academic Coaching.
Friday, September 14, 2012
9-13-12 Reflection
Field Notes:
Goals: Expand bare bones
Sentences
*Going on field trip to Bagdad, KY
*Disappointed he cant't do ziplining because the teachers won't let them.
*Talked about why I wrote the previous note :)
*Reviewed complete sentences
*Mentioned his class is learning prepositions.
*Has to memorize first 20 from a list by Monday
*Talked about songs as a memorizing technique
*I sang my high school chemistry elements song, which reminded his of Harry Potter character singing all of the elements--looked up on YouTube
*Direct Instruction for expanding sentences
*Rules: Noun must come before verb
Adjectives modify (fancy word for describe) nouns
Adverbs modify verbs
*Expanded bare bones sentences from last week, his included adjectives and prepositional phrases
*I mentioned sentence 2 has two prepositional phrases, but tell two different things.
*Didn't change any phrases to the beginning.
*Since we had not really discussed conjunctions or interjections, I showed him the two corresponding Schoolhouse Rock videos on YouTube.
*Discussed using conjunctions sparingly so sentences don't get too long and the reader gets lost.
**Follow up on long sentences, work on where to end.
Reflection:
I worked with one of my students on expanding "Bare Bones" sentences. We have discussed the elements of a complete sentence--a noun followed by a verb--and wrote three "Bare Bones" sentences, literally on bone shapes. S/He had just a little trouble getting started, so I wrote one and that got him/her jump started to do two more (The page I used had three bone shapes). The focus of this session was to expand these sentences. We discussed how parts of speech like adjectives, adverbs, and prepositional phrases are not essential to sentences, but make sentences better. I took the Bare Bones sentence I wrote (Miss Angie drove.) and expanded it to read: The stunningly gorgeous Miss Angie drove her lime green Porsche quickly down the street. We worked together to deconstruct what I had written, though not formally "diagramming" it. My student pretty easily identified the parts of speech i added to make my sentence more interesting. I also switched phrases around to read: In her lime green Porsche, the stunningly gorgeous Miss Angie quickly drove down the street. I gave him/her a general rule that if a sentence does not begin with a subject phrase (our reading tutoring calls it the "who phrase"), a comma is needed between each phrase until you reach the subject. S/He seemed to catch on. Then it was his/her turn. Overall, I was pleased with the sentences. S/He achieved the goal of expanding the sentences to be more interesting, but didn't expand them as fully as I think s/he is capable. As I noted in my previous post, I think there is a disconnect between verbal and written expression, which I was prepared for, I just didn't take the time to talk through the expansion first.
We also deconstructed the expanded sentences, noting s/he included two different prepositional phrases. I noticed that s/he didn't really expand much at the beginning of the sentence, only adding an adjective before the subject noun. That's something I'd like to work on in the future--just writing the same sentence different ways. Maybe make it a game--how many ways can you write the same thing? Ha! S/He'll LOOOOOOOVE that (insert eye roll here)!
I worked with one of my students on expanding "Bare Bones" sentences. We have discussed the elements of a complete sentence--a noun followed by a verb--and wrote three "Bare Bones" sentences, literally on bone shapes. S/He had just a little trouble getting started, so I wrote one and that got him/her jump started to do two more (The page I used had three bone shapes). The focus of this session was to expand these sentences. We discussed how parts of speech like adjectives, adverbs, and prepositional phrases are not essential to sentences, but make sentences better. I took the Bare Bones sentence I wrote (Miss Angie drove.) and expanded it to read: The stunningly gorgeous Miss Angie drove her lime green Porsche quickly down the street. We worked together to deconstruct what I had written, though not formally "diagramming" it. My student pretty easily identified the parts of speech i added to make my sentence more interesting. I also switched phrases around to read: In her lime green Porsche, the stunningly gorgeous Miss Angie quickly drove down the street. I gave him/her a general rule that if a sentence does not begin with a subject phrase (our reading tutoring calls it the "who phrase"), a comma is needed between each phrase until you reach the subject. S/He seemed to catch on. Then it was his/her turn. Overall, I was pleased with the sentences. S/He achieved the goal of expanding the sentences to be more interesting, but didn't expand them as fully as I think s/he is capable. As I noted in my previous post, I think there is a disconnect between verbal and written expression, which I was prepared for, I just didn't take the time to talk through the expansion first.
We also deconstructed the expanded sentences, noting s/he included two different prepositional phrases. I noticed that s/he didn't really expand much at the beginning of the sentence, only adding an adjective before the subject noun. That's something I'd like to work on in the future--just writing the same sentence different ways. Maybe make it a game--how many ways can you write the same thing? Ha! S/He'll LOOOOOOOVE that (insert eye roll here)!
I think today exemplified what we have been learning about and recently treating in our office--students' memory difficulties. Some dyslexic students have excellent visual memory. It's why so many "fly under the radar" for so many years; they can quickly and easily memorize words. They just have no idea how to break down words they don't know. Other students have terrible memory. One little guy we saw over the summer couldn't tell you what he had for breakfast that same day. Often I ask how a student's day was and they'll respond, "Good." I ask what they did and they have no idea, can't even name one thing.
That's why I spent a lot of time talking about memory devices today. Anytime a dyslexic must memorize a seemingly arbitrary list of items, he or she is essentially set up for failure. Memory tricks help. That's why I've been using pneumonic devices like IVAN CAPP. We've talked about what a pneumonic device is--of course they all look at me like I have 5 heads when I say "pneumonic device." Once I show them the popular ROY G. BIV, they can usually name others they've heard.
Songs are another great memory trick. Hopefully this student will be able to put the list of prepositions to some kind of tune. The alphabet song is why most of our students can even tell us the letters of the alphabet and even then, if they get stuck, they have to start all over to pick back up. Songs are also why I showed this student the SchoolHouse Rock videos. What haven't I learned from SchoolHouse Rock? To this day, I can still sing the preamble to the Constitution. I think it brought conjunctions and interjections into a relatable level, since we had not really talked in depth about them. My student had never seen these videos and, while they are a little young for him/her, I think they got the point across and dare I say were enjoyed. I was also careful to note use conjunctions to combine sentences sparingly. If you've used "and" more twice in one sentences, it's too long and needs to be broken up.
Monday, September 10, 2012
Thick Description
Last Thursday, I saw each of my two writer guinea pigs students. One student in particular stood out in his/her session. We began our session by revising and editing a previously written piece using my handy ARMS and CUPS posters. Eventually I hope to separate out these two tasks, but for now simultaneously works. S/He did a great job with CUPS. I love how s/he put a check mark by each sentence as it was proofread. That made capitals and punctuation very easy. However, the student chose not to add, remove, move, or substitute any details, nor did s/he really read the writing to make sure capitals and punctuation were in the right places. Maybe s/he would have been more willing to change things if we were working again on the computer, as we were in a different room that day.
I then began some direct instruction about simple subjects and predicates, which this student has been reviewing in school as well. I know because we've worked on an assignment for his class during a few minutes of a session :) S/he really likes to take shortcuts. In the few sentences he diagrammed (I didn't feel the need to do many sentences since the student is already very familiar with the concept), he would draw one long line under the noun and verb and divide between the two words. When I modeled, I carefully rewrote the noun and verb, adding articles under the noun.
Once we had the basics of deconstructing simple sentences down, we began creating our own simple sentences, or "Bare Bones" sentences. I again insisted on sentences with just a noun and just a verb for now. However, some of the creations were not sentences, such as "running battery"and "iPad wearing cap." These sentences led to discussion about the nouns needing to come before the verb. In the case of the first sentence, we also needed to drop the -ing in order to help make the sentence make more sense. The last sentence had a little more detail than I wanted at this point, so we finally camp up with "Cap wears." Not perfect, but s/he is also very literal, so s/he had difficulty pulling apart his/her own sentence to simplify.
Perhaps the most telling activity of the session was our game "Phrase or Sentence?" In retrospect, I probably should have introduced this activity first, just because of the difficulty s/he had. Although, because s/he had such difficulty, maybe it'd good it was last since now I can create more cards for practice. Out of a total of 14 cards, s/he misidentified 5, mostly calling phrases sentences. However, this may not be surprising because the student likes to take so many shortcuts, s/he easily could have just looked at the capital and period all the cards had and put the longest ones in sentences. I will definitely make more for our next session.
I then began some direct instruction about simple subjects and predicates, which this student has been reviewing in school as well. I know because we've worked on an assignment for his class during a few minutes of a session :) S/he really likes to take shortcuts. In the few sentences he diagrammed (I didn't feel the need to do many sentences since the student is already very familiar with the concept), he would draw one long line under the noun and verb and divide between the two words. When I modeled, I carefully rewrote the noun and verb, adding articles under the noun.
Once we had the basics of deconstructing simple sentences down, we began creating our own simple sentences, or "Bare Bones" sentences. I again insisted on sentences with just a noun and just a verb for now. However, some of the creations were not sentences, such as "running battery"and "iPad wearing cap." These sentences led to discussion about the nouns needing to come before the verb. In the case of the first sentence, we also needed to drop the -ing in order to help make the sentence make more sense. The last sentence had a little more detail than I wanted at this point, so we finally camp up with "Cap wears." Not perfect, but s/he is also very literal, so s/he had difficulty pulling apart his/her own sentence to simplify.
Perhaps the most telling activity of the session was our game "Phrase or Sentence?" In retrospect, I probably should have introduced this activity first, just because of the difficulty s/he had. Although, because s/he had such difficulty, maybe it'd good it was last since now I can create more cards for practice. Out of a total of 14 cards, s/he misidentified 5, mostly calling phrases sentences. However, this may not be surprising because the student likes to take so many shortcuts, s/he easily could have just looked at the capital and period all the cards had and put the longest ones in sentences. I will definitely make more for our next session.
Friday, September 7, 2012
9-6-12 Activities/Reflection
Field Notes:
Goals: More create sentences
More phrase v. sentences (using run ons from own writings)
Diagramming sentences
*Create sentences
*"Their furious teacher bravely made a proposal to publicize the outrageous suggestion."
*me: "How can you change the order of words and it still be a sentence?"
*S/He moved bravely to the beginning.
*I began my short rule about commas and s/he finished it for me.
*I moved "Made a proposal" to the beginning and asked if that was still a sentence
*No; discussed why
*I switched words to say "To publicize the outrageous suggestion, their furious teacher bravely made a proposal" and asked if that was still a sentence.
*Yes
*Asked about an objective summary
*Talking about inverted sentences in English
*Phrase or sentence?
*"It is a famous..."
*"It needs a comma, but yes it's a sentence."
*Talked about how it's actually 2 sentences. Able to pick out the other two that were run-ons and figured out where to put periods.
*Diagrammed simple sentences and sentences with adjectives.
*Wrote 2 "Bare Bones" sentences.
**Think of a way to turn "Bare Bones" into full sentences...skeleton?
Reflection:
I don't remember if I mentioned the logic behind Create a Sentence and Phrase or Sentence. Because I have so few students for writing, I borrowed a tutor manual of the current Barton level for each student and selected words/phrases/sentences roughly from the same lesson the student is working. Just to account for the other hour of reading tutoring each student receives, I did a few for future lessons as well.
The comma rule I mentioned I explain to students when they write sentences as part of their Barton reading tutoring. Overly simplified, if a sentence does not start with a "who/what" phrase, then you need a comma to separate the first phrase from the rest of the sentence. I'm sure there is a very technical way to explain that but 1) I never learned it myself and even if I did, I never use that knowledge so I've forgotten and 2) if I don't understand the technical rule, I KNOW my students won't. So I keep it simple. Any student in at least Level 5 knows what I mean by "who/what phrase" and that's about when they start mixing in complex sentences like that anyway.
I thought it was funny that my student didn't catch on to the first run-on sentence as being his/her own writing. Actually, I didn't say anything until the second one and only because s/he didn't seem to recognize it.
The "Bare Bones" activity is another "steal" from our academic therapist. She's giving me tons of ideas and resources for my instruction in this project. She has a page of literal bone outlines for students to write the very most basic of sentences--a noun and verb (or as I often end up referring to it, a "who" and a "did what"). They're called "Bare Bones" because that's what they are--the bare minimum you need to make a sentence. I wish I had a creative way to connect their expansion to something like a skeleton...not sure how that would work since each sentence is a bone. Maybe it would work for compound sentences?
Goals: More create sentences
More phrase v. sentences (using run ons from own writings)
Diagramming sentences
*Create sentences
*"Their furious teacher bravely made a proposal to publicize the outrageous suggestion."
*me: "How can you change the order of words and it still be a sentence?"
*S/He moved bravely to the beginning.
*I began my short rule about commas and s/he finished it for me.
*I moved "Made a proposal" to the beginning and asked if that was still a sentence
*No; discussed why
*I switched words to say "To publicize the outrageous suggestion, their furious teacher bravely made a proposal" and asked if that was still a sentence.
*Yes
*Asked about an objective summary
*Talking about inverted sentences in English
*Phrase or sentence?
*"It is a famous..."
*"It needs a comma, but yes it's a sentence."
*Talked about how it's actually 2 sentences. Able to pick out the other two that were run-ons and figured out where to put periods.
*Diagrammed simple sentences and sentences with adjectives.
*Wrote 2 "Bare Bones" sentences.
**Think of a way to turn "Bare Bones" into full sentences...skeleton?
Reflection:
I don't remember if I mentioned the logic behind Create a Sentence and Phrase or Sentence. Because I have so few students for writing, I borrowed a tutor manual of the current Barton level for each student and selected words/phrases/sentences roughly from the same lesson the student is working. Just to account for the other hour of reading tutoring each student receives, I did a few for future lessons as well.
The comma rule I mentioned I explain to students when they write sentences as part of their Barton reading tutoring. Overly simplified, if a sentence does not start with a "who/what" phrase, then you need a comma to separate the first phrase from the rest of the sentence. I'm sure there is a very technical way to explain that but 1) I never learned it myself and even if I did, I never use that knowledge so I've forgotten and 2) if I don't understand the technical rule, I KNOW my students won't. So I keep it simple. Any student in at least Level 5 knows what I mean by "who/what phrase" and that's about when they start mixing in complex sentences like that anyway.
I thought it was funny that my student didn't catch on to the first run-on sentence as being his/her own writing. Actually, I didn't say anything until the second one and only because s/he didn't seem to recognize it.
The "Bare Bones" activity is another "steal" from our academic therapist. She's giving me tons of ideas and resources for my instruction in this project. She has a page of literal bone outlines for students to write the very most basic of sentences--a noun and verb (or as I often end up referring to it, a "who" and a "did what"). They're called "Bare Bones" because that's what they are--the bare minimum you need to make a sentence. I wish I had a creative way to connect their expansion to something like a skeleton...not sure how that would work since each sentence is a bone. Maybe it would work for compound sentences?
Visual Aids
I didn't quite make my goal of blogging the day of my writing teaching. I'm getting there though :) I have some pictures, too!
We currently working on the "building blocks" of writing: What do sentences need? How do I know if I have a sentence? I previously described the games we have played to help drive this point home. I also introduced my friend, Ivan Capp:
Ivan is actually a friend of our academic therapist, but teachers are master borrowers and I added my own flair to the idea. So far we have learned all sentences must have a noun (or pronoun) AND a verb. One student tried to get smart with me and gave an example of a command sentence, which doesn't have an explicit subject. True, except his example wasn't a command, so I totally won that round! One student is working slightly ahead of the other, so s/he has also created "bare bones" sentences--sentences with only a noun and verb, which we will be adding to later. I'm trying to come up with a connection from the bare bones to a skeleton. Ideas?
My other handy helpers I learned in ENG 5...something. I've tried to block that class out. But there were a couple of helpful nuggets buried in there. First up is the ARMS acronym for revising.
And the CUPS acronym for editing.
I want to be intentional about separating out revising and editing, since I did learn in my ENG class that they are, ideally, two different steps. My students have used both of these acronyms to edit two longer writings they've done, mostly to establish baseline skills. CUPS has gone over better than ARMS, but I fully expected that.
I'm also working on a poster depicting the two different approaches to the writing process. One is linear which most schools tend to teach and the other is cyclical, which is closer to what real authors use. I also will be adding a step from the traditional methods, which is the main difference I found in my research to teaching composition to dyslexic students. More on all that later.
Wednesday, September 5, 2012
A Change Will Do You Good
In creating my plans for activities tomorrow, I'm making a couple of executive decisions. One student has been catching on very quickly, but in reviewing some pieces s/he has written so far, his/her biggest struggle is when to end sentences. Holy run-on sentences, Batman! I was planning to do a similar activity to last week, but making minor tweaks to further drive commas home. I think I will add in some of these sentences to our "Phrase or Sentence" game, just to see what s/he thinks. Instead of focusing on building sentences with nouns/pronouns and verbs, conjunctions might have to make an early appearance!
I also think my official description on who will be asked to participate will be limited to only those students I see for writing instruction. I should be adding another student to this group in another week and a parent is pretty accessible, so I can easily explain the project. That brings my grand total of possible participants to three...not a lot, but since my instruction is "extra curricular" anyway, I really feel for the families just trying to get their students through reading tutoring.
I finally got by the store today for visual aid supplies. I plan on actually taking pictures tomorrow so my descriptions actually make some sense! I'm also trying to get in the habit of posting the day of my instruction. It's tough since I see another student for reading after I see my writing kids, so my mind is usually on the last session since s/he is a hard one.
I also think my official description on who will be asked to participate will be limited to only those students I see for writing instruction. I should be adding another student to this group in another week and a parent is pretty accessible, so I can easily explain the project. That brings my grand total of possible participants to three...not a lot, but since my instruction is "extra curricular" anyway, I really feel for the families just trying to get their students through reading tutoring.
I finally got by the store today for visual aid supplies. I plan on actually taking pictures tomorrow so my descriptions actually make some sense! I'm also trying to get in the habit of posting the day of my instruction. It's tough since I see another student for reading after I see my writing kids, so my mind is usually on the last session since s/he is a hard one.
Friday, August 31, 2012
8-30-12 Activities/Reflection
Field Notes 8-30-12
Goals: edit typed piece
teach IVAN CAPP
Phrase or sentence?
Make a sentence
*Read a book on religion and service
*Has to write a report about service
*Talked about iPads and religion
*Read birthday piece out loud (from printed copy)
*Found places to add periods
*Added a sentence about Lex Cath beating Trinity in football on a Friday--found a logical place to sequence.
*Discussed how he’s watching all of his favorite teams beat their rivals
*“What is easier--typing or writing?”
*“Right now writing, but once I get used to the iPad, that will be easy since typing on a computer is easy.
*Direct Instruction on types of words: IVAN CAPP
*A complete sentence MUST have a verb AND noun or pronoun
*He asked what the different was between linking and helping verbs.
*A helping verb is usually a smaller, “to be” verb that helps a bigger action verb.
*Phrase or Sentence?
*Sorted cards into 2 piles--phrases and sentences from Book 6, his current Barton place
*1 questionable phrase--Jake began.
*Make a sentence
*Single words are written on index cards. His task is to simply create a sentence. Asked if he can use all the cards--May not be possible to use ALL cards, but use as many as you can to make a complete sentence that makes sense.
*The citizen bravely decided to publicize their furious proposal.
*Talked about comma placement--he said it goes wherever there’s a pause. I explained that’s kind of true.
*I changed the order by putting “bravely” first. Gave general rule that if a sentence doesn’t start with who/what phrase or noun, put a comma.
**Look up linking verbs.Last week, more significant changes were made, so hopefully those acronyms and purposes are getting internalized and keep going that direction.Reflection:
In addition to reviewing ARMS and CUPS, I introduced my friend, IVAN CAPP. Ivan helps us remember the parts of speech. I hope to actually get by the store for poster board and printer ink to make some visual aids so I have pictures to post here. They are the best part of blogs. Maybe I'm biased though, since I mostly read home decor blogs. Anyway, my student enjoyed trying name all the parts of speech. I explained knowing the parts of speech are important because they help us build and expand sentences, which in turn can be expanded into paragraphs, and eventually essays (though I'm sure my project will be long over by that point).
We also did several activities. One I called Phrase or Sentence? I tried to make it like a game. My student had to read a group of words written on an index card, which I corresponded to the Barton level s/he is currently working in. You know, to give more experience with the reading/spelling rules of the level and to relate tutoring to more authentic activities. After the student read the group of words s/he had to decide if it was a complete sentence or a phrase. The criteria for a complete sentence was a noun or pronoun and a verb. S/He did great getting all but one right, but the one s/he missed was tricky, so I wasn't too surprised. It also lead into an interesting discussion of verbs and types of verbs--action, linking, helping.
The other "game" we played was called Make a Sentence. I gave the student a set of cards with single words written on them (again, corresponding to the level of Barton) and told him/her to use the words and make a complete sentence. It could be as long or short as s/he wanted, but there were slightly more words than would make sense. I also used this as an introduction to punctuation, as I also made small cards for periods and commas. We rearranged the words to make different sentences and I think s/he actually enjoyed that.
I explained before we began that the activities were building blocks for later work. Before we could create exciting sentences and paragraphs, we needed to make sure the basics down. I also related it to Level 1 of Barton, and s/he seemed to understand the connection.
Whew! We packed a lot in our session. My student seemed to enjoy the activities though, especially since we talked about similar things s/he knew from school, but done in a more exciting and interesting way--yet another blessing of working one on one with my students.
Monday, August 27, 2012
Beginning Reflection
Somehow technology is supposed to make our lives easier. We're supposed to save time doing small things so we free up more time for big things or, heaven forbid, fun things. And yet...
Updating this blog the way I want to may be a little tricky. In order to get the displays I wanted, I had to create an entirely new account. Not a big deal. It's free after all. And my daddy taught me to never turn down a free "thing." However, it also means I have to sign out of my primary account and into this account, which is a pain. Now that I type that out though, I think I have a solution. Isn't that how it always seems to go?
Maybe that's why I'm interested in helping my students be better writers. Writing has helped me work through so many problems and trials in my life, even if it's just a recount of my day. Getting thoughts and feelings OUT somehow seem more manageable than when they're all floating around in my head. My students have the added difficulty of a language-processing disorder, so they have an even greater difficulty finding the words, let alone getting them out on paper.
I am excited to have this documentation to keep up with what we're doing. I've already been taking meticulous notes for my non-reading tutoring kids, but to have a place to actual reflect on what I did will be helpful.
Updating this blog the way I want to may be a little tricky. In order to get the displays I wanted, I had to create an entirely new account. Not a big deal. It's free after all. And my daddy taught me to never turn down a free "thing." However, it also means I have to sign out of my primary account and into this account, which is a pain. Now that I type that out though, I think I have a solution. Isn't that how it always seems to go?
Maybe that's why I'm interested in helping my students be better writers. Writing has helped me work through so many problems and trials in my life, even if it's just a recount of my day. Getting thoughts and feelings OUT somehow seem more manageable than when they're all floating around in my head. My students have the added difficulty of a language-processing disorder, so they have an even greater difficulty finding the words, let alone getting them out on paper.
I am excited to have this documentation to keep up with what we're doing. I've already been taking meticulous notes for my non-reading tutoring kids, but to have a place to actual reflect on what I did will be helpful.
Sunday, August 26, 2012
Action Research--An Introduction
My purpose for this blog is to track the successes, failures, and reflections as I work on my Action Research project as part of my Masters degree from Georgetown College. Specifically, I will be considering the question "What are the effects of direct writing instruction for dyslexic students?" I chose this topic because writing, authentic composition that is, seems to be a lacking component of my office's tutoring program. We systematically teach students phonemic awareness, reading rules, and spelling patterns; however, the only writing they actually do is writing dictated words, phrases, and sentences. I feel that if we want our students to truly internalize the rules we teach, they need to practice them in an authentic way. Further, my background research suggested that reading and writing are not inherently linked for these students and they need specific instruction in writing.
A litte background: All of the students I have were tested and diagnosed with a language-processing disorder, or dyslexia. That is the one thing all of my students have in common. From there, they splinter. Some have dysgraphia (difficulty writing), some have ADD/ADHD, some of those are medicated while others are not, some have additional sensory difficulties, some have large vocabularies and strong visual memories, some take ten minutes to tell a story and I have no idea what the story was about. Their ages range from kindergarten to high school, with most falling in the 4th and 5th grade range.
I tutor fifteen students on an individual basis. All students are seen for two hours per week. Most students are seen twice a week after school, for one hour at a time. Because of some students' memory problems and attention difficulties, some are seen for often for less time. Because of some students travel needs, they are seen once a week for a full two hours. Whenever possible, we try to work with schools to see students at a time convient for them and their classroom teachers. I see some students for both hours, while others I split with another tutor.
Because our tutoring is generally considered "extra curricular," most families pay for sessions out of pocket, though in some instances insurance will reimburse them. Because of this, I want to be very sensitive to the needs of the families and not create "one more thing" students do. I am not planning on including students with extreme memory difficulties or students I see at school. My focus is on students I see for writing tutoring, but will offer a modified instruction to others.
Enough talk. What's the plan, (wo)man?
A litte background: All of the students I have were tested and diagnosed with a language-processing disorder, or dyslexia. That is the one thing all of my students have in common. From there, they splinter. Some have dysgraphia (difficulty writing), some have ADD/ADHD, some of those are medicated while others are not, some have additional sensory difficulties, some have large vocabularies and strong visual memories, some take ten minutes to tell a story and I have no idea what the story was about. Their ages range from kindergarten to high school, with most falling in the 4th and 5th grade range.
I tutor fifteen students on an individual basis. All students are seen for two hours per week. Most students are seen twice a week after school, for one hour at a time. Because of some students' memory problems and attention difficulties, some are seen for often for less time. Because of some students travel needs, they are seen once a week for a full two hours. Whenever possible, we try to work with schools to see students at a time convient for them and their classroom teachers. I see some students for both hours, while others I split with another tutor.
Because our tutoring is generally considered "extra curricular," most families pay for sessions out of pocket, though in some instances insurance will reimburse them. Because of this, I want to be very sensitive to the needs of the families and not create "one more thing" students do. I am not planning on including students with extreme memory difficulties or students I see at school. My focus is on students I see for writing tutoring, but will offer a modified instruction to others.
Enough talk. What's the plan, (wo)man?
- Week of August 26: Create blog (check). Update (check) and submit IRB forms. Obtain informed consent forms from parents and students.
- Week of September 3: Complete student writing attitude surveys, interviews, and initial writing samples. Begin intervention instruction, if time allows.
- Week of September 10: Continue intervention instruction, collecting data through field notes and copies of student writing. Analyze, reflect on, and refine instruction as needed.
- Week of September 24: Administer mid-point assessment (writing sample). Continue cycle of instruction, analyzing, reflection, refining.
- Week of October 17: Administer post-instruction assessment (final writing sample). Complete post-instruction interview. Begin work on final paper.
- Week of October 31: Schedule presentation to full-time instructors, creating an action plan for future students.
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