Conventions Update

 Here is the pre-assessment for Conventions.  Again, I apologize for the graininess of the photo, but I have really struggled with uploading photos and documents to this blog (I'm sure it's me). 

Please focus on Student 11.  This is my lone conventions bird.

As you can see, he's improving.

 

 

Data Updates

So, because I decided to do a mid-assessment to determine my lessons from there, I have added some data.  My kids seem to be growing, however, there are a few that aren't.  Moreover, I am curious to see how they do on the post-assessment.  Also, I am wondering whether their trait awareness will improve all of the Traits rather than just the one I'm instructing them upon.

You can see below the scoring rubric.  Again, I only scored them on the Trait I was instructing them upon for this mid-review.

 
 
 
 
 
This is a sample of a very odd story one of my sentence fluency kiddos wrote, however, she's really improved with her sentence fluency.  She has even improved with her conventions, as this is typically an issue for this student.

I am curious to see how the remainder of my research goes.  I am hoping this is a good sign (as well as the weather of course).

This Week's Reflection

So far, it looks like we are going to go a full week!  This is the first full week I've had since November and I cannot contain my excitement!!
However, I'm still terrified about spring (more like summer) state testing.  It's absolutely mind blowing that my kids will be expected to demonstrate everything they know in a couple months.

I decided to do something a little different.  I wanted to give them a "mid-unit" assessment, so I allowed them to review the lessons we have already done (for sentence fluency: pumping up sentences, complex sentences, and prepositional phrases; for Word Choice: figurative language, onomatopoeia, and transitional words/phrases; and conventions: commas, capitalization, and APLUS editing) and then I asked them to apply those skills into a piece of writing.  Some chose to write nonsense stories (my kids really enjoy that) and some just simply chose to reflect on the week.

I am wanting to see some gains, but, again, that's being a little bias and hoping for the best.

Do you all think that's an odd thing to do?  I will score them with the same rubric that I scored the pre-assessments with, but only the Trait area that they're being instructed within will be reported...however, it will still be interesting to see if any areas have made gains.

What are your thoughts?

Emily

Weekly Reflection

Not only am I struggling because we missed out on two days this week (I'm not even sure how many that is, but it's definitely up in the 20's somewhere now!), but because I feel like I'm not doing my lessons correctly. 

Dr. C. keeps saying that this is my study and that I am really the determining element here, which is true.  However, that still doesn't ease the uneasy feeling I have about some of my lessons.  For instance, I feel like some of these lessons, though touching on topics my kids may not have ever heard (or maybe they just haven't heard them or applied them in a while), I feel line some of them are too easy.  What do you think about me using the same type of lesson set up, but a sixth grade level book?  It's from the same company, still aligned with both the Traits and the Common Core standards, but I just wanted everyone's thoughts before I began this journey. 

For instance, I really want to pull in lessons from a multiple array of sources, like the Six Traits text by Culham (2003) and also these Getting to the Core books.  But, again, I'm afraid that's not right.  It's not that I'm changing their groups and the students are still receiving lessons based upon their level of need, as determined within their pre-assessment, but I just wanted to gather thoughts regarding how much is too much?

Conventions Update

Again, I feel as if I'm the only one that has trouble with uploading pictures onto this blog and it really irritates me.

Conventions
My one sole member of the conventions group ironically scored quite high in both word choice and sentence fluency (however, his conventions would give any teacher an anxiety attack!).  This specific participant is very disorganized (organization is also a Trait that he fell week within).  Each of the lessons varied in amounts, which determined his overall score for that specific lesson.  Like the other groups, he will be applying these skills into a piece of writing this week!

Data Updates

Sentence Fluency
My Sentence Fluency group is by far my largest group.  These are the first three lessons that I've completed with these students.  I am beginning to pull lessons from Culham's (2003) Six Traits book, which is basically the text to refer to, as Culham (2003) began this research way back when.  I'm curious to determine if there is more significant gains (or not) by using multiple sources of lessons, versus just sticking with one book. 

 I realize these are somewhat difficult to see, and I apologize.  The numbers on the x axis represent each participant involved with the sentence fluency lessons.  (If you see a blank, it is because that particular student is not in the sentence fluency group).  I also want to point out that the first and second lessons were out of 3, whereas the third lesson was scored on a 0-4 scale.  Furthermore, the students have not yet applied these skills, but I am going to have them do that prior to beginning another round of three lessons.

Word Choice
My word choice group, though smaller, has been enjoyable because I feel like I've gotten closer with them (simply because the group is smaller in size).  I apologize for the lack of data here.  Due to the snow days, I am missing some of my students' work and I didn't want to create a half analyzed table.  So, below is the first lesson that involved figurative language.

Again, if the students aren't seen with a bar, it is due to the fact that they are not involved within this group!

What I am struggling with at this time is still my amount of snow days and the lacking amount of data that I have.  I am curious to determine if or how my kiddos apply these lessons within to a piece of writing, rather than just within these lessons.

Lessons This Week

Lessons I've done this week include the following:

• Sentence Fluency
• Top Ten and Above - Students discuss the importance of prepositional phrases within their sentences to strengthen sentence fluency.  Students used prepositions that showed movement (how), location (where) and time (when) when writing using sentence starters I provided them. 
  
  
  

• Word Choice
• Sounds Abound- Students discussed the significance of onomatopoeia and created sentences using sounds.
• Writing Road Signs- Students discussed the different uses of transitional words/phrases within writing.  We wrote a story together and then students were assigned one to write using at least five different "road signs" with a topic of their choice for homework.

 

• Conventions
• Commas for a Cause- Here, my participant reviewed the different functions of a comma and then chose three he felt he needed to work on most and wrote a sentence demonstrating each of the skills.

After I have the students apply their Trait skills they've learned, I am going to re-assess (on a smaller scale than the pre/post-assessments) and determine if groups need to be adjusted.