First Semester

My students are currently working on reflections over first semester, and it's time that I join them in the reflection process. Of course, we accomplished a lot first semester in all areas of language arts, but most recently we finished writing a cause-effect essay based on a personal experience (I ended up writing about my husband's and my move from the farm) and a book project over our first literature circle novel. One of the new tools my students and I were able to use with the essay was the online writing assessment tool called Criterion. Throughout the conversations during the revision process, I kept hearing questions like, "Is this really a run-on? It doesn't seem like it." or "I overused this word, so I changed it." I also reminded them that the computer doesn't always get "it" right, so they needed to use their own knowledge of such things as compound and complex sentence structure (which we'd also been studying) to make final revision choices.

Now that it's second semester, we have started blogging, beginning with three basic posts: a reflection of first semester, a favorite piece or writing, and a piece of writing we'd like to revise (in a way, a simple portfolio). We are also discussing technology issues, issues like "Are video games good for you" or "How much texting is too much?" After exploring these and other topics, students will choosing one to focus on for a public service announcement. The kids have been excited about most assignments that utilize technology, and they have been very receptive to the activities we've done thus far.