1. To increase my collaboration time with a colleague outside of my PLC. 2. To engage in collaborative conversations with students (both seniors and fifth graders) and other teachers to facilitate increase proficiency in my students' writing skills. As a side note, I will strive to ensure that the comments I leave for students are constructive in nature. I will avoid statements such as "Nice job" or "Good Work". My feedback should be specific (Goemaat, 2015).
I have begun the process of engaging in collaboration time with the Senior English teacher. We have met one time and have set up a time to meet on a bi-weekly basis. We will also correspond through email when necessary.
The students have only begun their collaborative partnerships with the senior writers this week, so not much has been done by myself. I am waiting for the students to begin conversations before I get involved.
I have become a member of the ProTeacher Community and plan to post a discussion forum regarding collaborative partnerships between high school and elementary students to gather feedback from other educators who have "gone before me". I am eager to read about what others have done and possibly avoid pitfalls that others have struggled with.
Another resource that I plan on obtaining is the book 100 Trait-specific Comments: A Quick Guide for Giving Constructive Feedback on Student Writing by Ruth Culhum. I hope to use this book as a resources for honing in my skills for giving useful, specific feedback to my students in regards to their writing.
References
Goemaat, A. (2015, September 9). Mrs. G's G-A-M-E Plan. [Blog Post]. Retrieved from http://frivolousreflect.blogspot.com
Hello Amber,
ReplyDeleteI really enjoyed reading about your GAME plan last week and the steps you have taken so far this week. I think you have great ideas! Writing is such an important skill that your students will need to use in every subject area. For those students who are reluctant writers, they should find this experience highly motivating. Do the students meet in person or do you send the writing pieces to the seniors for them to edit? If the students do meet in person, then you may be able to expand on the writing pieces by turning them into PowerPoint presentations, creating a digital story, and making animations. The seniors could assist the students and help bring their writing pieces to life. The seniors would most likely have stronger computer skills than your fifth graders and could help them with the technology portion.
I love your idea of becoming a member of the ProTeacher Community. I have never heard of this website before and after reading your blog, I went to this website to find out more information. I ended up joining, too. This will help me with my GAME plan as well. Thanks for the idea! After learning more about this website, I can see that it will be a valuable resource for you in order to get feedback from other teachers who have already been successful with collaborative partnerships. It sounds like you are off to a great start!
Catherine Crisi
3rd Grade Teacher
Morgantown, PA
Catherine,
DeleteThank you for your comments. Students actually have their own school email addresses, so they use google docs with their senior partners. They have set up a "Collaborative Folder" that they have shared with myself, the Senior Writing teacher, and their partner. Anything they write, should go in this folder. The senior writing teacher is also using this experience with her students to assess them on their editing and collaborative skills, so she has access to see what comments/edits are happening.
Our technology coordinator has set up the fifth grade emails so that they can only send and receive emails, requests, etc... from within our domain. So, anyone who does not have an email address that ends in @nmwarhawks.org cannot contact the fifth graders. I think this is a great feature for my students. It really sets my mind to ease in regards to safety!
Thanks again!
Amber
Hi Amber,
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed reading your Blog post for this week and the continuation of your GAME Plan. I think the idea of meeting up bi-weekly with your colleague to discuss your press is brilliant. I also like you how you have made considerations for if you cannot meet in person and must email instead. We get so busy as teachers and sometime things come up! Flexibility is the most important asset of a teacher in my opinion : )
The membership in the Pro Teacher community is also another nice move. Having access to that network of teachers and their accomplishments simply multiplies your collaboration pool.
Finally, the book you mentioned sounds awesome. I am going to go out today and track it down if possible. Order it if I must.
Thanks for sharing this week!!
Josh Peterson
4th Grade
Cheyenne, WY
Josh,
DeleteYes! Flexibility is paramount for an educator!!! I am so excited to get my hands on the book I mentioned! I have sent out an email to our staff to see if someone might by chance have it, if I strike out there, I will be ordering it. :-)
The ProTeacher community is such an unbelievably wonderful resource. It is great to be able to post something and get feedback from peers from all over. Many times we think that our difficulties and/or questions are unique to us, but in reality, there are many educators out there who have toiled over the same issues and have an abundance of guidance to offer!
Thanks again,
Amber