I have two groups of students: one group is ready to move on and the next group still needs time with narrative writing. I didn't just guess this. I looked at my conferring notes, my data from the grade level rubric, and discussion with my fellow colleagues in my grade level. So some of my students are writing descriptively within a small poetry unit and others are focusing on telling a small moment using dialogue, inner story, and word choices. What I absolutley love about data driven instruction is the guess work is gone or willy nilly "I think I'll teach that..." doesn't exist. I know exactly what each student has or has not mastered.
This nine weeks I have been using less of Lucy's Units of Study and more of
Ralph Fletcher's work. So these are some lessons that have been taught in my room since mid October.
- writing descriptive leads
- using sense of humor in endings
- describing the setting
- using redunant words
- outer story vs inner story
- confusing pronouns
- using FANBOYS with run-ons
- using white space in poetry
- using fragments in poetry
- the power of words
Where are your students at on the writing continuum? What are you doing to monitor their progress and find out where they are going? What lessons are you teaching for second quarter?
