Think Back Thursday
Why “Think Back Thursday?” Partly it’s the result of a meeting I attended last week with the P Panorama Middle School English teachers. We spent part of our time talking about ideas to help us post more regularly on our blog. And to be honest, Think Back Thursday is my own twist on Mrs. Chili’s Ten Things Tuesday. Yesterday it occured to me that posting to a theme might help. But what theme? Nothing I thought of yesterday seemed catchy enough, but this morning as I was deliberately reflecting on my week, it came to me–Think Back Thursday. With two days left in the week, and by looking back at what I had hoped to accomplish in the week, I still have time to git ‘r done.
What did I want to kids to accomplish this week? What have they actually accomplished? What do I need to do in order make sure we’re closer to our goal for this week? What are some highlights?The 8th graders are working on revising their book review rough drafts. We talked about the parts of their writing they could improve–sentence fluency, word choice, organization, etc. and we talked about the ways to do that–adding, deleting, and replacing. Thinking back, I realize I didn’t model this, so that’s how class will start today.
The 7th graders, on the other hand, are just getting started their book review rough drafts. We’ve analyzed sample book reviews and “unpacked” the rubric using a web-cluster like the ones I learned at the SpringBoard training two summers ago. Thinking back, I didn’t unpack the rubric with the 8th graders, and now that I’ve done that with the 7th graders, I want to be sure to refer back to their web-cluster. I will do this on Friday and maybe I’ll have students write little sticky notes that reflect on their progress and then put these on the web-cluster.
Some high points… one student who has resisted reading has become totally absorbed with a Frank Perelli book and tells me everyday (sometimes twice a day) what’s happening; the 7th graders are analying commas ala Jeff Anderson and Mechanically Inclined; the 8th graders are taking charge of themselves and getting situated for reading workshop without being told at the beginning of class; I re-structured the music class so that I am working with small guitar groups on a regular basis.
(Some portions also posted at the Panorama B English blog http://panoramabenglish.blogspot.com/.)
