Thursday, November 3, 2011

Grade 6- Step up to Writing framework

I sat in and observed a grade 6 class. These are students I know from the past two years, and it is interesting to see them now in a middle school setting. The session first started with a 20 minute study hall due to the school's long lunch timetable. During this time the students engage with DEAR (silent reading), homework, or teacher directed mini lessons on anything from time management and study skills. It is definitely a worthwhile session, and one that the English teachers of the senior classes are planning to also introduce to ensure that the students are using their time productively rather than socially during their extended flexi break.

The grade 6 class then went to the computer lab, where they continued working on their compare and contrast essay. The middle school uses the Step up to Writing framework which provides a common language for the students - everyone is 'on the same page'. The teachers would like to see this introduced at the elementary level to ensure a continuum across the elementary and middle school. The framework has students colour code/highlight the language features and conventions of writing such as introduction, conclusion, topic sentence, examples of the topic sentence that students use in their own writing. The framework provides the scaffold, from which the students can use to write independently.  The majority of the students are multilingual, with English as an additional language, not their first, so this scaffolding is even more important.

The scaffold sees the student doing a 'prewrite' using a graphic organiser, then a plan of their writing even before starting the draft writing, and finished writing/assessment task. Students hand in all steps of the writing process.

The teacher begins by reinforcing the focus of the lesson, and then uses a variety of differentiation strategies during the lesson from working independently, whole class instruction to 1:1 student/teacher instruction and  peer assessment with students using their 'elbow partners' to check each others writing, and to make comments on each others work. Work is returned to the owner, who then continues with editing and correcting based on those suggestions. The teacher randomly checks students to see how they have peer assessed.  Students use the same word processing format using 1.5 or double spacing to allow students to clearly read, highlight and comment.  Students also include a bibliography even at this early draft stage of their writing. They have access to bibliographic examples in their student handbook, and also use online citation tools such as BibMe to save their bibliographies.

These are the writing and responding skills that the students need to support their English as they move from middle to high school.

Lesson date: 1 November






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