A New Way of Connecting with Students - SOLC March 2

On a recent #NCTE Twitter chat, the topic was formative assessment, such an important topic for all educators to be thinking about.  During the conversation, Kristine Mraz posted a picture of a chart in her room that helps her stay honest when it comes to conferring with students and meeting with them in specific strategy groups during writing workshop.

Kristine Mraz's brilliant idea

Kristine is a primary teacher, but I immediately saw implications of how I could use this system in my own writing workshop with 2 groups of 5th graders.  I set up a bulletin board that was divided so that both classes had a place to communicate their writing needs to me.  As a starting point, I divided the possible needs into 3 categories (very similar to Kristine's, just slightly different wording):

1. I need your feedback on a section of my piece
2. Our group would really like to work on a writing strategy with you (slow down time, speed time up, show not tell, effective dialogue, developing characters, taking good research notes, etc.)
3. I would like to share a short piece or a small section of my writing on Friday.

My version of Kristine's idea

The students were asked to put Post-it notes under one of the categories that would best help them as a writer when a need arose.  My initial thinking was about the autonomy this would give students; the power of having them ask for what they need as writers would be terrific.  This board went into place the day after the #NCTE Twitter chat, and in my humble opinion, has been a huge success.

While I still have strategy groups or conferences that are on my radar as a writing teacher, students are now asking for the assistance they need as writers to get them past a particular roadblock to which they may have come.  The focus and the industry of our writing workshop has changed dramatically, especially this last week, as this new routine became a more solid part of our workshop. Truth in advertising, this was also the first 5 day week I've worked since December (more on that in a later slice), but I think it's more than that.

I think this chart I borrowed and remixed from Kristine has allowed students a voice as writers that they might not have had before when I was the only one directing which students I would meet with each day.  Now, we have a more democratic way of helping writers, where everyone has a voice.

I expect that these categories might get tweaked as different needs arise, but for now I am cherishing the "work" time of our writing workshop.

Thanks so much to the ladies at Two Writing Teachers blog for hosting the Slice of Life Challenge!  I look forward to catching up on many lives this month.