#Daily5 in Action

A video of my 10 to 13 year olds using the spaces made by throwing out some of the desks from the classroom.
I am really pleased with the space that has been freed up, plenty of space for individuals to spread out, and we have a large meeting area. I suspect I will never go back to a desk per student in a classroom.

Writing in the Classroom

Recently I have been working on what good writing looks like, and what the teaching of that looks like as well.  Last summer holidays,- overseas readers  its just going into Spring down here- as teachers do, I was searching around for new viewpoints on writing.  I came across the Northern Nevada Writing Project.  It has some wonderful pointers on the teaching of writing in the classroom.

It takes the six traits approach to writing, and I find this really helpful in teaching the skills of writing.  When I went to school, we didn't learn that much about writing.  Once when my mother went to a parent interview the teacher said, "You would think her writing would be better with all the reading she does".  My mother came home and repeated that to me, and it's a remark I've never forgotten. It wasn't that helpful, and if I was being myself now, I would say, "So teach me to write!"  Back then, we were expected to learn about writing by osmosis perhaps? The Northern Nevada writing project which you can link to from the picture below, features children's books that can be a model for writing.

I noted this site, but it is only recently that I have returned to it and started to really make use of it.


There is also a Ning linked to this site, which again I joined but did little about until now.  You can check it out through the picture link below.  At present I am grappling with developing the skills of sentence fluency with my class.  Another post on that later.  Let us say I am coming to terms with the participle phrase, hoping that my students are at the same time.

It is said that what we need to learn,  is best learned by teaching it.  You see, it is not only my class that are developing their writing knowledge and skills, count me in too.  At present I am preparing a guest post on books for another teacher.  I just need the time to revise and edit it first!  I want to put into practice what I am learning.  Hope my class does too.

Were you taught about writing when you went to school, or did you learn by osmosis?