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 met with my colleague already this week to discuss our students' progress. We have had some great conversation and she shared that her students are really loving helping out my fifth graders! I have yet to begin my collaborative conversations with the students but I plan on beginning that in the next few days. I am just fearful that if I begin commenting on the student's work before their seniors do, the seniors might get too relaxed in their responsibilities. So, I'm trying to figure that part out.
As far as resources, I have not heard anything on my post in the ProTeacher Community. I am fearful that I may have done something incorrectly when I submitted it, so I may have to check on that. I am still trying to track down the book I had mentioned. I am curious to know if anyone knows of any good blogs out there about collaborative partnerships between grade levels? I would also like to find some more information about giving good, quality feedback to students. If anyone has any resources they'd like to share, please let me know!!
So far, I think my plan is going well and I am really excited to continue. I don't foresee myself having to make any changes, but there maybe some that arise at a later date.
References
Goemaat, A. (2015, September 9). Mrs. G's G-A-M-E Plan. [Blog Post]. Retrieved from http://frivolousreflect.blogspot.com
Hi Amber,
ReplyDeleteWhat a great idea having other students work with your fifth graders! I may have to try that with my students! Let me know how that goes for you this year.
As for your thoughts on providing students with meaningful feedback, I would say that this a such an important part of our job as teachers. My school has been on a Cultures of Thinking journey the past 5 years or so with Dr. Ron Ritchhart. This summer, our staff did a book study on his recent book, "Creating Cultures of Thinking" and he speaks a lot about student and teacher language. I really recommend his work....I use his routines from his first book, "Making Thinking Visible" every day!
Good luck with your GAME plan!!!
Stephanie Battaglia
I forgot to post his link!
Deletehttp://www.ronritchhart.com/Welcome.html
Hi Amber,
ReplyDeleteIt sounds like the collaboration with your 5th grade students and the high school seniors is off to great start. You mentioned suggestions for blogs or resources about commenting to students. ReadWrtieThink has an interesting lesson about using blogs in your teaching. The lesson says that it is more geared for 6th-12th grade, but I think many of the concepts could be introduced and modeled with your 5th students, http://www.readwritethink.org/professional-development/strategy-guides/teaching-with-blogs-30108.html. This blog, http://www.theedublogger.com/2010/02/22/guest-post-by-kathleen-mcgeady-teaching-commenting-skills/, also has some guidelines that you could model for students when commenting on blogs. I hope you find these resources helpful. Good luck with your G.A.M.E. plan
Erin Eickman
Hello Amber,
ReplyDeleteYour idea of collaboration between your 5th grade students and high school seniors is fantastic. How better to let your students know and see where their education is taking them. I want to try this with my students , providing collaboration between 2nd graders and middle school students. Keep up the great work.
Tim Hampton
Mira Loma, CA
2nd Grade