Slice of Life: If students can't do the work without us---

Every Tuesday, the writing community of Two Writing Teachers hosts Slice of Life. All are welcome to participate by linking up posts or commenting on other participants. 

I thought about skipping the slicing life tonight. Truth be told, I've been writing all day. I've worked on my first three chapters of my novel, I've revised my query letter, I've edited some descriptive paragraphs for summer programs, and I've written a critique of a book proposal. I've also made charts and written some demonstration pieces. All in all, there's been a lot of writing done today, and sometimes it gets in the way of a good slice.

Then, almost simultaneously, one of my favorite (I know I'm not supposed to have favorites, but) teachers texted asking if I'd take a look at some of her students' recent on-demand writing samples, and a tweet came through my feed from #tcrwp.

Of course I'll look at the writing samples, I texted right back. She went on to share how disappointed she was with the quality of the writing. I responded with the standards. They met the state standards--just not her standards. And now in our upcoming unit, we have a new bar set, and that is one where they go above the basics and into the realm of independent demonstration of all of her great instruction.

 We teach well beyond the standards, and sometimes the work we see in process pieces exceeds the work students produce in an on-demand situation. Let me revise that statement. Sometimes the work we see in process pieces exceeds the work we ALL produce in an on-demand situation. That being said, I think it's crucial that we are constantly and continually assessing students' internalization of our instruction because yes, if they can't do the work without us, they can't do it.

So here are some questions to help us build independence and repertoire regardless of unit and regardless of level:

• How long can the student sustain productive work without adult intervention? Is that amount of time increasing?
• How strong is the scaffold, and what is the plan for removing it? 
• What is the student's understanding of the work they are doing?
• Are we valuing the process and growth more than the product? 

When left to their own devices, sometimes students will wow us and sometimes they will disappoint us. Our job is to give them the instruction, power, motivation, and pride in becoming independent writers, regardless of their level.  

And now, I've completed my writing for the day, including a slice!

All good things,

Slice of Life: One big upside-down bag

Every Tuesday, the writing community of Two Writing Teachers hosts Slice of Life. All are welcome to participate by linking up posts or commenting on other participants. 

This morning, my car had to go into the shop. It's been making a funny noise. For a while. I've tried to ignore it. I had to stop ignoring it when my daughter was home and drove my car and said, Mom, what's that noise your car is making? 

My husband took my car today, so I had to drive his car. I am happy that I have a husband who takes my car into the shop. He has a nice car with a heated steering wheel, but other than the heated steering wheel, I don't like too much else about his car. It's too big. The radio stations are all sports-oriented. His keyring doesn't have the fob I need to get into schools throughout the day. 

When I got to school, I stayed in the driver's seat for an extra couple of minutes as I wrapped up a conversation with my sister-in-law. She was still on the line when I got out of the car and opened the back door. I might have said a bad word when I opened that door. I could blame the car, but I think probably the cause was user error. When I tell you that my teaching bag fell out upside down, I mean 100% upside down. 

She laughed, and then I laughed. "I don't even have to be there, and I can tell you have a big mess," she said. "I do," I said. 

As I write this post, I wish I had taken a picture, but I'll try to explain with writing. My classroom bag is a Scout bag with 6 outside pockets and a big center compartment. I keep mini-charts in it, as well as pens of every color and size, paper clips, a stapler, demonstration texts, a couple books,  folders, and a set of paper types. At least. And my bag turned upside down in the parking lot. 

My friend Frank was walking across the lot. "I saw that," he said. He knew exactly what I was going to ask. We laughed, and he helped me pick up the mess. 

"It could have been a Monday," he said. 

"True that," I said. 

When I saw him at the end of the day, he wanted to know if my day had gotten better. It had. And my bag is much more organized!

Happy Slicing,