Reflection Two - THE WRITING PROCESS: REVISING

            This reflection is based on the class held on the 18^th of October, 2016. This time, we looked at the second part of the writing process which is REVISING. At this stage of writing, the writer i ensures that all the ideas that was writing in the drafting stage are in this segment.

The lecturer, Miss Polius continued the class with her draft paragraph and we were to assist her in revising the paragraph. She asked for volunteers to help. Thereafter she assessed the contributions made by our colleagues and took the time to immediately address the misconception that some of us possessed.  We were of the perception that at this stage, spelling errors were to be corrected, but essentially this is not the case. In the revision stage, all that is done is ensuring that all the ideas that were jotted down in the graphic organizer are in the piece, ensuring that the piece flows smoothly, moreover, words can be changed and new information can be added to the piece

            This session was an extremely thought-provoking one and we appreciate the way the lecturer goes about modeling and allowing us to assist in the process, giving the class a whole new meaning. Instead of only being told what to do, we are actively involved in the writing process. However, there is one thing that we felt could have made the class even more superb and that is for the demonstration piece to have been placed on a bigger sheet of paper because it got a bit confusing and difficult to follow when all the corrections were made on just one sheet of paper. Nonetheless, this was another exceptional class.

This is an entertaining instructional video that Primary School teachers can show to their students to help them better understand the process of revising.

CHART IDEAS FOR DESCRIPTIVE WRITING FOR THE LITTLE ONES

~Shaditta Glasgow

Additional Links to the Blogs of our classmates

anthberthkeys.blogspot.com

tabsnashrina.blogspot.com
denneryteachers.blogspot.com

lisavernkwa.blogspot.com

chrishminthel.blogspot.com

mafecildenis.blogspot.com

Additional Tips for Descriptive Writing

Reflection Number One for the Period of the 10th - 14th October, 2016

This week’s class has been a demonstration lesson to teach Fourth Grade Students about how to write descriptive pieces. The writing process was also incorporated into the lesson. We believe that by equipping the students with the knowledge of the writing process and how to use it effectively, we as teachers, are helping students build confidence in their writing abilities as well as promote independence and self-direction. We really enjoyed this class because two out of the three blog owners are novice to the teaching profession and by having such a knowledgeable lecturer, we deeply appreciated her modelling this lesson, so that we know exactly what is expected of us when we do stand in front of a class. We took down all the steps and wrote out all the activities in detail that our lecturer, Miss Polius, conducted with us because we do hope to utilize it in the near future. Most times in the classroom, the teacher will tell us what is expected of us when we are on our teaching practice journey, however, it is another thing when a teacher actually models these behaviors with the class. Another thing which really seemed interesting to us was the Five Senses Cluster. This is an extraordinary tool for helping students organize their thoughts about the given topic into the five senses: taste, sight, feeling, hearing and smelling. We really appreciated how active and involved all our classmates were in the exercise, even to the point where we acted like actual fourth Grade students.

Although this experience has helped us develop professionally, it has also helped us developed on a personal level because another component of this assignment requires us to put together a Writing Portfolio with pieces written for different purposes, reflecting five different genres of writing, with the first being descriptive. Therefore, we are of the belief that this in class exercise will help us tremendously when it comes to the compilation of this particular assignment. 
          Our suggestion for this lesson was that the Lecturer should have provided everyone with a copy of the descriptive piece that she used in the introduction of the lesson so that we are able to follow on our own because although some students may hear and are able envision what is being said, that picture is not complete until they are able to see what is being read. However apart from this, there is nothing that we would change about this week's class.

Welcome

This blog is created as part of our Promoting Writing In the Primary Grades course at DTEEA. Follow us on this journey, where we explore different strategies to promote writing among students.