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Ontario teachers are required to have students write complete, interesting sentences. By the end of grade one, students need to be able to write several sentences that begin differently, connect to each other, include details, are easy to read, and are grammatically correct. How can we shift a reluctant teacher and student to become intrinsically motivated about writing in school? How teachers create meaningful events and "offer interesting experiences within those boundaries that might have a lingering effect" (Sumara, 2002, p. 158)?

 

Connecting students with events that are personally meaningful to them will result in increased engagement (Allington, 2012). The books The Day the Crayons Quit and The Day the Crayons Came Back are excellent resources to engage students in writing and learning about perspective. With the writing activities described in the Perspective Prezi, my intention is to create literacy events that are "both aesthetic enjoyment, and creative and critical learning" (Sumara, 2002, p. 93). When our class participated in our crayons project, everyone felt the excitement and energy in the room. It is because,as a collective group we loved these books, that the activities worked so well (Sumara, 2012). All students understood the perspective of the crayons and were highly engaged in the illustrations both texts provide.

 

 

 

Effective Strategies in Overt Instruction

 

 

In grade one, Overt Instruction typically originates from the teacher. Implementing the Multiliteracies framework there are increased opportunities, where peers teach each other specific concepts (e.g., peer editing), but most of the Overt Instruction is delivered by the classroom teacher. If we can underpin this instruction with effective strategies, students will be more engaged in their learning and their understanding of concepts are more likely to "stick."

 

In the article, Critical Literacy as Resistance, Wallowitz (2008), describes a banking model of instruction where the teacher's role is to deposit information in each student's bank of knowledge. This description attempts to persuade the reader that this is a negative form of instructional practices; however, I can accept this metaphor as one of the methods teachers implement in the classroom. At times, especially in the early primary classroom, this is exactly what a student may require. There are moments in the educational day when we do need to overtly explain how language works and perhaps have a peer in the class teach another student a key understanding (e.g., /c/ and /k/ can sound the same). Gibson (20o8) explains that "children need explicit scaffolding, expertly delivered instructional conversations that address the language, knowledge, and strategies required for problem-solving"(p. 324). Depositing information into student banks is a necessary component of literacy; it is just not the only method for literacy instruction.

 

I agree with Plantaleo (2016, April) in that "all schools need competent, caring and high-expectation teachers who are knowledgeable about and confident in their pedagogy, who understand the multifaceted nature of their responsibility for student learning and who expect the best of and for their students" (p. 91). The effective strategies described below are intended for a grade one classroom, but could certainly be implemented in a kindergarten program as well as grades two and three. 

 

 

 

A Good Beginning

 

 

 

 

Overt Instruction for Perspective and Letter Writing

Guided Writing 

Here are our classroom's guided reading and writing table. I agree with Gibson's (2008) description of "the characteristics of effective reading instruction overlap with those of effective writing instruction" (p. 325). I have created a Multiliteracies WIX for Struggling Readers and Writers in Grade One. I encourage you to peruse that site as well because it includes the effective reading instruction.

Reading WIX
What is guided writing?
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"small-group context allows teachers to provide high levels of immediate, targeted support while each student writes his or her own short but complete text" (Gibson, 2008, p, 325)
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"students are actively engaged in their own sustained writing" (Gibson, 2008, p. 328)
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"guided writing lessons might occur after a whole-class writing lesson has been completed and students are writing independently" (Gibson, 2008, p. 326)
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"students rehearse new ways of talking about topics of interest" (Gibson, 2008, p. 326)
 
teachers are providing "feed forward [feedback] focuses the writer's attention on what strategies to use next" (Gibson, 2008, p.328)
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"It is not necessary, however, for every student to participate in a guided writing lesson every day. Instead, teachers should make intentional, thoughtful decisions about which students are in need of a "shot in the arm" regarding writing at any point in time" (Gibson, 2008, p. 325).
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Before students begin to write, I have them think and then talk about their ideas. I enlist the "multimodal processes of writing by their integration of talking, drawing, and writing" (Boyle & Charles, 2011, p.16). The social situation of students orally sharing their ideas with each other requires them to construct their thinking (Wilson & Chevaz, 2014) and as a result, they are better able to write. Students share with others at the carpet, in parteners, inside outside cirlces, at Tribbles, and during guided writing.   

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Tribbles show emotions (e.g, happy, sad, excited). Students go to the Tribble that best shows their feelings about a particular event (e.g., How was your weekend?)
First students draw their 
ideas and then they talk
with a friend about their 
image. 

After milling to music students find a random parter and talk about the topic (e.g, weekend events, their plan for a writing activity).  

Activities to Consider

Quick Questions ?

Arias de Sanchez (2013) suggests showing students an intriguing picture and have students write five questions they might ask the photographer or artist.

Make Print Permanently Accessible 
Martin and Thacke (2009) suggest putting print everywhere in the classroom. Most primary classrooms have a word wall, but you may want to consider posting rhyming words, describing words (e.g., colour, size, shape, emotions), a wall for word families (e.g, words ending the same way) and posting children's stories so students can read the room to find the words they need. 
Observe Student Interests, Connect Curriculum, and Create a Social Project
Sumara (2002) believes "good teachers understand that if people are to become committed to one another, they need a shared project" (p. 119). Depending on your student interests, values, motivations, social and cultural experiences, their shared project will be very specific to them. 
Predictable Charts (Great activity for the beginning of the school year)
In the article, Predictable Charts an Effective Strategy to Engage and Impact Learners, McClure (2015) describes a five-day process of modeled and guided writing. McClure (2015) posits that "predictable charts encourage active participation while increasing students' understanding of sound-symbol relationships, sentence structures, authorship, and collaboration" (p. 505). 
Day 1 Model the sentence stem and completed sentence (When it is so cold out I like to wear my big black coat). Randomly ask for approximately half the students to say their sentence. The teacher writes their words and uses the resources in the room to facilitate spelling. 
Day 2 Read sentences created on day one and have the rest of the class create their sentences. The teacher records each sentence and writes their name beside the sentence. 
Day 3 Prewrite two to three sentences from the chart. Cut up the words and have the class assemble each sentence. Read the completed sentences
Day 4 Prewrite two or three different sentences from the chart in large print. Cut each word out and have students hold a word. The rest of the class puts the sentence in the correct order. 
Day 5 Type each student's sentence and then cut up the sentence so that everyone has their original sentence. The student glues their words, in the correct order, on a page and illustrates their sentence. 
 
Tribbles
"Good teaching, then, depends upon the teacher's ability to create conditions whereby she [the teacher] and her students can enter into a shared world of inquiry, that while primarily organized by her, is also able to accommodate what students know and, importantly, what is generated through their shared interest" (Sumara, 2002, p. 119).
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