Persuade Me! Heather's Reflection
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!