Sunday, March 15, 2015

Slice #15 of 31: My New Favorite Wall for Classroom Writers

For the month of March, I am participating in the Slice of Life Challenge, hosted by the community of writers at Two Writing Teachers. Many of my slices are at my personal blog, Just Write, Melanie, but ones that deal specifically with education appear here. All are welcome to join the slicing party by reading and commenting. People write amazing posts.





Last week, I had a conversation with one of the teachers I've been working with. She has been asking me to work as much with the strong writers in her room as the struggling ones, and she has some students who have taken off as writers this year. We have done a lot of goal-setting with students in her class, so they are familiar with the idea of working on specific strategies.

"What if you allowed some students to be the experts on specific aspects of opinion writing?" I asked her.

I sketched out what a chart could look like, with students possibly signing up as "experts" on a strategy.

This particular teacher always takes my sketches and makes them look way better than my scrawl. I have a new favorite wall.


Happy Slicing,

18 comments:

  1. What a fabulous idea! Collaboration is powerful on so many levels. Thanks for sharing great practices :)

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  3. That wall could just keep growing. I'd now copy student expert samples of each feature students have drafted and post them beside the students' names. Students mentoring students-love it!

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  4. Great idea for celebrating what students CAN do and providing "go to's" for students who may just need another conference! I can easily see how this would be your favorite! <3

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  5. Great idea for celebrating what students CAN do and providing "go to's" for students who may just need another conference! I can easily see how this would be your favorite! <3

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  6. I love the idea of student experts. The board is a celebration of their willingness to help, and also a place to let others know where they shine.

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  7. Your teachers must love the support and great ideas you bring to the table.

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  8. Your teachers must love the support and great ideas you bring to the table.

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  9. Wonderful idea! Giving voice and power back to the students!

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  10. I like tha! I often refer students to other students when I notice they have something they can do really well, but this is a better way to recognize their successes and make it publicly ok to go ask for help. Methane you for sharing!

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  11. That is fabulous! I'm going to create a similar wall. When I taught first grade, I used a wall like that for experts in zippering, shoe tying, and other things many kids came to me for.

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  12. Great idea Melanie. I hope you'll continue sharing about this. Must be nice for those who are the experts.

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  13. What a great idea! As a kid, I would want my name to be on the wall, so that would push me to work harder in an area so I could be an expert.

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  14. Wonderful idea! It is hard to get my students to want to write for more than 5 minutes at a time (they are 100% ESL students). This might keep them interested and on track. Thanks for sharing!

    -Amanda at http://teachingwanderlust.com/

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  15. I love this idea, Melanie! Thanks for sharing!

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  16. I love making students the experts in the class! Thanks for sharing!

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  17. This is adorable. So important that students are able to teach! One of the best ways to retain information is to be able to explain/teach it. SUCH a good idea :)

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