Wednesday 24 April 2013

The Writing Workshop: Heather's Reflection


Persuade Me!     Heather's Reflection


 The shift from our previous Saskatchewan curriculum to our renewed curriculum has compelled us, as educators, to evolve our pedagogy to one that really encourages the learner to become a deeper and more critical thinker.  More elaborately, we are encouraging our students to not always rely so much on what to think but how to think from a micro to macro level.  Logically, our persuasive writing journey certainly embodied that pedagogical approach where our high number of reluctant writers had to move away from worrying about what is the “right and wrong” answer, to taking risks in choosing something they felt passionately about. As a result, many chose a topic that reflected some kind of social responsibility (i.e. stopping animal product testing, violent video games being linked to violent behavior), defended it with logical reasons, and facts to further stabilize their argument.  Simply stated, this was a learning experience where the students were encouraged to feel safe enough to think outside the box yet stayed within our curricular grid.

            As with any learning process, especially in writing, students need to develop a confident foundation of understanding to then scaffold.  The need to establish a foundation was definitely our starting place as my students’ November VAAW informed me that they had limited knowledge and/or confidence with this literary style.  Shirley modeled and created a foundation for me as well, a first year classroom teacher, how to be approaching a writing project like this and, perhaps more importantly, why.  We had regular conferencing and the collaboration allowed for us to reflect on the lesson from the day, and differentiate and plan for the next in order to better meet the needs of the students.  Therefore, this writing experience had a strong sense of direction.    

The importance of Shirley and I modeling how persuasive writing could look and sound as a whole, and its parts—modeling how to use the student-friendly graphic organizer, how to be effective researchers, the use of the anchor charts as a framework to help the students “check in” (self-reflect) with their writing to see if they are following some of those persuasive writing techniques--was routinely practiced throughout this whole learning experience.  We really wanted to embed all of this information through these different entry points listed.  Fortunately, it became evident to me that when the students were writing their rough draft, they were making the connections from their previous learning by translating their information from their graphic organizer and those various persuasive writing techniques into a literary piece that truly possessed their strong voice.  In the end, the students were able to make sense of a complex writing procedure and, ultimately, they produced work that has been worth sharing.  In fact, a book with their “published” work is now available to share in our Resource Centre, our Principal came to hear their presentations, some will be chosen at random (and out of their own volition) to present at our talent show while some others will have their work put into our Monthly Newsletter. So this project has really manifested into one where they were not only pushed to take a risk and think critically, and where you could see and hear a student’s sense of pride, accomplishment, and confidence in their work, but one which has now moved outside of our four walls of the classroom and into our community.  What a memorable experience for all of us!         

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