Reviewing Student Work

I brought my writing folders home over the long Labor Day weekend -  all 35 folders! - so I could analyze student writing and get a good idea of how much of the teaching I have been doing is getting through.  I also want to try to learn each author as a writer.  As I go through each folder I have been writing and printing notes on labels to post in our Writer's Notebook under each child's name.  This is an example of one child's note:



Name      9/1/12       Pattern Books 
+good spacing with sight words spelled correctly and phonetic spelling of unknown words
+good fluency
+has started "Have you seen my mom?..." pattern book

-work on finishing pattern and creating a "changed up" ending
-add question mark to "Have you seen my mom?" and capital after the question mark

These notes are a little more thoughtful and longer than I am usually able to write after a conference because we always have a number of children waiting for a conference and the time seems so short... so my jots during the Writers' Workshop are quicker and more to the point.  I do like the + (plus) to indicate noticings and things they already do well and the - (minus) to indicate next things to work on.  Because we have more than one teacher using our Writers' Notebook, we generally write our notes on sticky notes during the Workshop and add them at the end of the day under each child's name.  When you have more than one teacher involved, it is extremely important to make sure you know what the other teacher(s) may have talked to the student about the last time they had a conference so it's important to review the notes before each conference.  The Writer's Notebook becomes our way of detailing the progress of each learner.

I learned so much about these writers... As I was reading the pattern books I came across one student's pattern book that broke my heart.

Translation:
My Dad does not have a job.
My mom does not have a job.
My brother does not have a job.
I do not have a job.
My uncle does not have a job.
Does anyone have a job?

The pattern is perfect.  The message... heartbreaking.

Kindergarten Portfolios 2008

Teachers keep three different kinds of portfolios in kindergarten. They keep a works-in-process folder for each child. In Kindergarten this is a vinyl folder with clear pockets that includes an insert of pictures worked on as a family project to give the child a menu of things to write about that he cares about. It also includes the current work of each student.Teachers also keep cumulative folders that include ALL of the child's work. Some teachers keep these in a file drawer (above) and other teachers keep them in an open crate in the classroom. At specific times during each nine weeks, usually at the end of a writing unit, the teacher encourages each child to go through her folder and choose things to keep. The teacher then transfers the "keepers" into the cumulative file. In earlier years we kept every single piece of paper that a child wrote in Kindergarten, but now we clean out these folders on a regular basis, keeping several sample pieces that represent the student's writing for that period of time. The reason we went to this system is simple. Keeping every single piece of paper just meant bulky, messy folders so now we send home a few of the pieces and keep a few.
The final type of folder that teachers keep is the final portfolio. This is kept in an orange folder that is put in the cum folder at the end of the year for each student.

In writing we keep a single sample for each of the genres of writing: Narrative, Information/ Report, Functional/"How to" procedures, and Response-to-literature. In addition the final portfolio includes three pieces - one from the beginning, one from the middle and one from the end of the school year to document work over time. In reading we file an in-house assessment profile and a graph of the child's reading levels. In Math we simply keep the scores of the beginning, middle and end of year internal assessment scores.

Each grade level has an agreed upon list of items that go in the child's portfolio at the end of the year. This information informs next year's teacher and provides a history of the child as they move through the school. In the fifth grade the entire orange portfolio file is sent home and provides a keepsake for the child of their growth through their elementary years.

After the Holiday

Have you ever noticed with kindergartners that when they come back from the winter holidays, they seem to have grown?! It's only a two week break but when they come back they seem to have assimilated much of the teaching that you did before the break. When they left, you wondered if they were really getting it, and then you come back and realize that, "Yes! They are getting it!" It is what I call the "magic pixie dust" that gets sprinkled over the holiday!!

As we came back to Chets Creek our Kindergarten Pacing Guide said that we should be working on Reading Strategies in Readers' Workshop and on Response to Literature in Writers' Workshop. Our teachers quickly realized that Reading Strategies (such as "looking at the pictures," "getting your mouth ready," "skip and return") are exactly where we should be in Readers' Workshop, but in Writers' we really needed to revisit Narrative. So-o-o-o when you walk into classrooms, what do you see right now?

In Writers' Workshop, teachers are having students make decisions and cleaning out their work-in-progress folders. "Can you read this? If you can, you should keep it, but if you can't you should get rid of it." The children end up with a few pieces that they can read back to themselves to begin to revise (by adding to it), and to edit (for capitals, punctuation and spelling of words that can be found around the room).

Small Moments

At the half way point for the first nine weeks, Writers' Workshop is in full bloom in Chets Creek Kindergartens. By this time of year each child has published his first piece and most classes have enjoyed their first Publishing Party! Each family has helped the little author decorate a folder of favorite things. These folders (as seen below) act as a list of topics that children care about and can write about. You never hear, "I don't have anything to write about," because teachers just remind students to look at their writing folder covers for ideas! Children self select writing topics each day.On the back of each folder (see below), teachers include an alphabet list. It is not unusual to see children turn their folders to the back and quietly say the ABCs to figure out what a letter looks like or to match a sound. This strategy for figuring out a letter has been taught in a mini-lesson

You might also see students look at the alphabet chart on the wall that is part of an every day ritual of shared reading to find a letter, word or sound. The children are free to go up to the chart and find what they need. They also use the word wall for letters and for the first sight words that have been posted and the color chart that has all the color words. Once words are up in the classroom, children are expected to use those resources when they need a specific word, letter or sound. Mini-lessons have been taught to help students internalize these strategies.

Children are free to choose the type of paper they want to use to write. Some children prefer story paper where they have a place for a picture and a place for writing. Some children prefer a single blank page and others prefer a booklet. All of the different types of paper have been introduced during mini-lessons and children know the routine for getting paper when they need it. At this time of year some children are still telling their stories through drawing pictures and are being encouraged to add details to their pictures that match their story. Others are using pictures and a letter string to represent the words. When you ask them to "read" what they have written, they "tell" the story and will sometimes point to the letters although there is no relationship between the words they are saying and the letters they have written. They don't always tell the story with exactly the same words. Still others are beginning to s-t-r-e-t-c-h the words they want to write and are writing the sounds that they hear. A few children are even beginning to use spaces between words. The longest "story" at this time of year is only a couple of sentences. Some children use three or four sheets of paper to tell their small moment in pictures and words (as seen in the 4-page story above)!

Teachers have had mini-lessons on taking a small moment to write about instead of telling everything that you did from the time you got up until you went to bed. The lessons are taken from Lucy Calkins' Units of Study for Primary Writing. These units will guide much of the Kindergarten design for these young writers this year.

During the independent writing time, the teacher goes around and confers with students. In the picture at the right bottom, the entire table is listening to the point that the teacher is making for a single student. The idea is not to just make a single piece better for a single child but to teach the writer something that they can use today and forever more. These youngsters take writing seriously because their teachers take it seriously. The teachers realize the reciprocal relationship between reading and writing and can tell as much from analyzing writing as they can from listening to a child read. These amazing authors have so many great stories to tell!