This morning I observed Victoria Davis' Group 1A Writing class. Mrs. Davis
was very welcoming! She wrote the agenda on the board, explained it, and then
had me introduce myself to the group of students. The class only consisted of 5
people and I thought this was a good dynamic because the students got more
individual help with their writing. The class is currently working on
capitalization, punctuation, and explanatory writing.
First, Mrs. Davis had the students do a timed writing activity. They were to write a short paragraph in ten minutes. The students had the choice of writing about a time they were very angry or they could free-write (write about whatever they wanted). I felt like just having the one prompt about being angry would have been better because it allows the students to focus on one thing and creates some kind of structure. Mrs. Davis told me that the purpose of this exercise is to just get them used to writing sentences and forming paragraphs; she doesn't really grade them on grammar in this exercise. The class does a timed writing twice a week and turns them in at the end of the week. While the class was writing, I asked Mrs. Davis to show me an example of the rubric she uses to grade the writing. She told me that the rubrics change with every assignment because each assignment is centered on a different learning objective.
Next, the teacher handed back graded assignments. The assignment had been to write an email to the school or library. In the emails, the students asked questions like how to apply for graduate school or how to rent a video from the library. Overall, the class did good in getting their message across, they just had a lot of trouble with capitalization, articles, and some punctuation. Mrs. Davis explained what the correction symbols meant and then had the class correct their mistakes and rewrite the emails. Mrs. Davis and I went around the class and helped the students with their revisions. I think that this was a good activity because it allowed the students to recognize their mistakes and find ways to improve their sentences. Everyone did a great job!
The teacher did not have time to move onto the next part of the agenda (capitalization and punctuation lesson) because rewriting the emails took up the rest of class time. Overall, I think I enjoyed observing and participating in the writing class more than the grammar class.
First, Mrs. Davis had the students do a timed writing activity. They were to write a short paragraph in ten minutes. The students had the choice of writing about a time they were very angry or they could free-write (write about whatever they wanted). I felt like just having the one prompt about being angry would have been better because it allows the students to focus on one thing and creates some kind of structure. Mrs. Davis told me that the purpose of this exercise is to just get them used to writing sentences and forming paragraphs; she doesn't really grade them on grammar in this exercise. The class does a timed writing twice a week and turns them in at the end of the week. While the class was writing, I asked Mrs. Davis to show me an example of the rubric she uses to grade the writing. She told me that the rubrics change with every assignment because each assignment is centered on a different learning objective.
Next, the teacher handed back graded assignments. The assignment had been to write an email to the school or library. In the emails, the students asked questions like how to apply for graduate school or how to rent a video from the library. Overall, the class did good in getting their message across, they just had a lot of trouble with capitalization, articles, and some punctuation. Mrs. Davis explained what the correction symbols meant and then had the class correct their mistakes and rewrite the emails. Mrs. Davis and I went around the class and helped the students with their revisions. I think that this was a good activity because it allowed the students to recognize their mistakes and find ways to improve their sentences. Everyone did a great job!
The teacher did not have time to move onto the next part of the agenda (capitalization and punctuation lesson) because rewriting the emails took up the rest of class time. Overall, I think I enjoyed observing and participating in the writing class more than the grammar class.
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