Assessing the Graphic Organizers

Personal Narrative Graphic Organizers

• I asked my students to add sensory details to their graphic organizers today. I also talked to them about writing small seed moments. I asked each student to put their draft in the middle of their table for me to collect. I had 2-3 students who did not write small seed moments. A lot of my students need to ask more sensory details. I wrote sensory detail hints at the top of each graphic organizer in hopes that my students will add more interesting sensory details to their stories. I also corrected any spelling/grammar issues while I was at it. I am looking forward to seeing the papers that my students write. Quite a few of my students decided to write about baseball and getting new pets. I am nervous about the 3 students who are writing about playing video games or watching a movie. I wrote all of my comments in pencil, but I underlined good examples of sensory details in ink pen. I plan to use this graphic organizer as a type of progress assessment again during this unit. These graphic organizers were really helpful because they were able to show me what my students were planning to write before they got too far into their papers. I thought that it was interesting that some of my students wrote their rough drafts in their graphic organizers while other students barely used enough details for me to understand what they are talking about. My next step is for students to conference with me in person before they begin writing their personal narratives. I am happy with how far the students have come with this project. 

Writing Progress Clip Chart

• A few weeks ago, my teacher mentioned that she would love to have a clip chart which shows which step each student is on for writing. Today, I found a really cute one that I liked. It turns out that my teacher does not like the children that people put on education items. She said that I could make mine anyway and that it would be mine to take to my future classroom. I asked her if she was sure, because I would be fine as long as we wrote the names on pencils. She said that it was fine. I'm really looking forward to this clip chart. 

Wrong Grade

• I was excited because our class group pictures came in today. The only issue is that our picture said that we were a second grade class. I can't wait for our new class picture to come in. 

Creating the Spelling Test

• I created my first spelling test today. I didn't mind selecting the words for students to spell on their own or to break apart (open/closed), but I was nervous about writing the sentences and asking the students to select the correctly spelled word. I tried to make the spellings as phonemically correct as possible. I thought about what I saw as I looked at student work. 

Blogging!

• My teacher mentioned that I need to communicate with parents more. She listed options such as writing the e-mails or creating a newsletter. I got really excited when she brought up the idea of creating a blog. I already have to reflect every day, so I will write the highlight moments on the class blog and then I will reflect on those same moments here. I like blogs because they are usually pre-formatted and you can add pictures. I already take pictures of fun activities or when I create something, so it will not be too much extra work for me to get pictures to add to the blog. My teacher suggested posting weekly. I think that I will post when something cool happens as well as on Fridays. I figure that a natural pattern will eventually show itself.