Great Conferences

What a fantastic Monday! My conferences were fantastic as I visited with over half of my class. I had one other teacher come in to help, so that all who wanted to talk with a teacher today could. I really tried to keep in mind the points Ruth and Stacey made last week. I made sure that each student received what I liked best and the teaching point. Most students were still not restating their topic sentence at the end of their mini-stories. I don't believe anyone felt deflated...all kept writing even after I left.

One funny story...one of my young ladies was writing about her favorite pet and that you can't leave them alone. Only in my classroom would you hear about a dog peeing on the carpet, but that being said...I wish you could have heard her voice in the piece and it was an essay piece. It just goes to show you can have great writing even within an essay. Genre does not matter; creating great writers matters.

Framing Our Essays

Today the students and I framed our essays for drafting. I really liked the lesson. I had the students work on the floor and it seemed easier to work with them today. Usually, I let them choose where to sit. They seemed to be focus better closer to me. At the end of my morning block a few were still struggling with the framework of boxes and bullets and I color coded the process of writing the frame and it seemed to help. My afternoon block has more writers who struggle so not only did we take it slower, but I introduced the color coded organizer before I sent them to write. I was very pleased with their thesis statements. Over all they are very simple, but I keep telling myself that it isn't about depth of the subject, but that they are authentically writing and writing on a topic they chose. Tomorrow we will begin the organization and, hopefully, composing mini-stories. I will try to remember to take a picture of the boxes and bullet frame color coded and post tomorrow.

Writing Thesis Statements

As I mentioned last night, my thesis statement lesson went great! I modeled for them my process. Then as I was "touring" the room, nudging those that needed help I realized what I was missing from my thesis statement. Tonight I will use my thesis statement and make a frame for my essay.

My thesis for my personal essay

People should look at others and see only a person who has a heart and soul, not our differences.

Our class essay will be

West Intermediate is a fun school.


We will frame this together after we look at mine and then they will work on their own to frame their essay.

I have to say I am was not a fan of the essay, but I really like the way Lucy has us teaching it. I feel like it is still connecting to them instead of answering a bunch of prompts. We will work on prompt writing, but only 2 weeks before the test.

Thesis Statements

Tomorrow I am teaching Session 6 from Book 3 of Breathing Life Into Essays. It is a very simple lesson on narrowing your focus into a thesis statement to prepare for drafting an essay...basically asking yourself "What is it I am trying to say?"

As I looked through my own entries for the personal essay, I wrote many meaningless entries. At the time it seemed significant, but now a few weeks later they aren't inspiring. Which I am sure some of my students will feel tomorrow. So I went back and looked at my small moment entries from earlier in the year. My last published piece with my students was about the day I found out my daughter has Down syndrome. Many entries are about my experience whether positive or negative with the community. So I tried Amy Buckner's Try 10 strategy from her book Notebook Know-How. Here goes.

1. Don't view people by what you think you know, but what you actually know.
2. Disability does not mean retarded.
3. Having a child who is considered disabled changed by life in many ways.
4. Normalcy is never achieved in our lifetime.
5. Everyone should be treated fairly, regardless of any difference the world may or may not see.
6. Disability does not mean impossibility.
7. People who live with a disability are truly amazing people.
8. Disabled is a word that can break the heart of parents, but it is a reality in many people's lives.
9. Children living with a disability should not be mistreated.
10. When we look at others we should look at their heart and soul.

I keep asking myself how do I sum what I am trying to say in one sentence...#2 seems so harsh, but in reality I have had people ask me, "How retarded is she?" So that is where that came from. Each one of my thesis statements could take me in many different directions. I think really when I explain this tomorrow I should focus on the Big Picture...what do you want to tell your reader? Which direction do you want to go? I want my reader to realize that when they see my child Down syndrome should not be the first thing they see, but a beautiful 4 year old child.