Revision and Editing - Best Practices (Blogs and Wikis)

As I sit here reviewing my blog, it has occurred to me that no matter how much I read and reread it, I keep finding simple mistakes that I had not caught before. I guess what I need is writing partners that can help me revise and edit my own postings or writings. Revision and editing are two big sections of the writing process that students dislike to do. They don't like going back checking their work. Then this idea wondered into my head. :) Why not use my own blog to teach my students the importance of revision and editing by modeling how to revise and edit on it? The students would be assigned to read a posting on my blog and look for errors. Last year, after modeling an organizer and getting the student ready to type up essays for their ME Magazine (a magazine they create all about themselves) I modeled how I typed each paragraph using the organizer and then used the students as my revising committee to add sizzling vocabulary, dialogue, onomatopoeia and other creative writing. Then we made sure all spelling, capitalization and other conventions where correct on the essay I modeled. This took us reading and rereading the essay. The students were fantastic at catching my errors and I told them they could be doing the same for their own peers. That's when we took off with peer revision and editing. Once they where in the revision and editing stages, the students had to have their own essay read by two other people and signed before they came to me with a clean copy. Students came to me only if they where at a stand still in their initial draft and needed guidance, otherwise they wrote, shared with peers and then conference with me. I found this a great way to be able to meet with students and not be overwhelmed and not getting to everyone. You see, I finally understood that students, no matter what stage you are modeling that day of the writing process, many would be at different stages as they write their own essay.

Here's an article from Glencoe's Teaching Today in Using Blogs to Integrate Technology in the Classroom. Its very insightful and answers any questions about how to implement and use blogs.

I got an even better idea, why not create a classroom Wiki of things we are currently learning in class? Model first, of course, how to post to a classroom Wiki and then have several students post and add to the Wiki according to subjects during the week. Each set of students can be assigned a week or day, depending on how fast they are grasping the idea and then have the students have a revising and editing days to review the Wiki on a weekly basis. I believe the students would enjoy creating a fourth grade Wiki, in which all the subjects and topics being taught that year can be there for the next batch of fourth graders coming up. They would then in turn, as they research and gather additional information can add a plethora of resources to create a continuous information Wiki of the fourth grade curriculum. Sounds like a project waiting to unfold in the land of writing and technology. PBWiki is a free way to set up a classroom Wiki.

Check out this cool teacher tube video on how a Wiki works.

Care to join me is some reading?

Well my latest venture in my summer journey into the world of technology has me looking into posting my own bookself on Shelfari. This is a wonderful networking site for anyone and everyone. I have started compiling my bookshelf, which many of my reads are for the purpose of my own classroom, but I also have many educational and adult level books I will be posting soon. As many of you know literature circles or book clubs are wonderful for discussing books. I would like to set something up like this for my class next year in which they can post their comments on the books read aloud to them in class. Though I have to still find out the restrictions I would have with the district and the parents this is a great way to discuss books you are reading, have read or want to hear the reviews of some books you may want to read in the future. View my bookshelf below and take a look at some of the many books I've read. One book I am currently hoping to read before school starts again is Wicked, The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West by Gregory Maguire. If you are interesting in reading along with me, give me a shout out or join Shelfari (psst...it's free) and look for eduhawk. Good reading :)

My new venture with Snap Shots

Introducing Snap Shots from Snap.com

I just installed a nice little tool on this site called Snap Shots that enhances links with visual previews of the destination site, interactive excerpts of Wikipedia articles, MySpace profiles, IMDb profiles and Amazon products, display inline videos, RSS, MP3s, photos, stock charts and more.

Sometimes Snap Shots bring you the information you need, without your having to leave the site, while other times it lets you "look ahead," before deciding if you want to follow a link or not.

Should you decide this is not for you, just click the Options icon in the upper right corner of the Snap Shot and opt-out.

Reader's Response Journal

This coming year, I plan to share my power point presentation with any new teachers to my team and any interns that may be in my room for the upcoming year. This is how I implement reader's response journals through the First 20 Days of Independent Reading (2005 Fountas and Pinell).

Math Inquiry Tiered Lessons

This is my second year in using inquiry in the classroom. Currently, I am one of Lastinger Teacher Inquiry Leader for my school and am always looking for ways to improve my teaching and increase student achievement. This year, I knew that I needed to do something with my math instruction. Inquiry has been great for me in making me aware of my teaching and to try something else to help improve or see if it would improve. Her is the scenario, my students were coming in from related arts all tired, sweaty and ready to call it day. My math lesson would start at 1:10 p.m. and end at 2:05. That would give me at least 55 minutes because I would need at least 5 minutes to get them settled. Well, things didn't go very well conducting whole group instruction, because this is the end of the day, students were tired and math was the last thing they wanted to do. I had off task behavior like side talking during a lesson. I had student coming up to the board, using small whiteboards at their desk, even math manipulatives to get them involved in the lesson. Students would respond with correct answers when we reviewed homework, but when the test was given, the majority failed. I asked myself what could I do to improve student performance and motivate them to remain on task? Well, I have been reading a lot about differentiated instruction strategies through my many classes at UF and loved the idea of preparing tiered lesson according to student readiness. These students would be tiered according to how they performed on a chapter pretest and then categorized with above, at or below grade level groups. I determine this by their test score average and looked at sections in which they were having difficulty on the test and what they already knew to determine the level/tier I would put them in. I created workstations that challenged those who knew the first lesson taught before meeting with me, but I also created workstations that had those who needed practice on lesson taught. For example; I would be teaching a lesson in bar graphs to my tier one (below grade level) students, but would have the tier two (at grade level) and tier three (above grade level) students doing workstations on creating bar graphs by using a survey either in a chart or on an excel program. I would then instruct them on reading either line graphs or graphing points on a graph. Depending on their needs. Each level would get exposed to all lessons or have practice on those lessons. I would rotate them every 15 - 20 minutes, depending on the group for an instructional lesson with me in a small group setting. I gave each group a guideline in which the workstation were listed in order that they were suppose to do them to make sure they rotated on time to meet with me. The students loved moving around and working on various math activities. When I had to do whole group instruction to review or because of interruptions, they always asked me when were we going to do small group instruction with workstations. It takes a lot more planning, but I loved creating the workstation because I looked for workstations that would target the multiple intelligences and would help them learn better. This was the most difficult part, because I had to come up with a variety of workstations and in some lessons I was scrambling to find those that would include at least several of the intelligence. The most exciting thing about this inquiry was that I knew my students better academically in math and I knew what the struggled with and when they were getting it. This summer, I will be attending the National Conference for Differentiated Instruction and am excited in learning more about tiered lessons. Though I feel I took a step in the right direction, I want to make sure I am conducting this style of instruction correctly and differentiating it to benefit of my students. I want to continue this form of instruction and improve of what I have started. I am always looking for awesome activities to do that targets one or more of the multiple intelligences and would love any resources you can give me. I have one that I would like to share that I found on Teacher Tube. This looks similar to Singapore Word Problem Solving and I like the steps it show by using thinking blocks to figure out the problem in steps. Check it out at MathPlayground.

Sweet Child of Mine

WOW! What fun was St. Augustine. I got to take eight of my best, well-behaved students, who were consistently hardworking and deserved the trip. Even though there were only eight out twenty-five going, I was excited for them. Many had never spent the night anywhere. Several were hesitant, but after some coercing I got them to commit to go. I believed that they enjoyed the whole trip, but the highlight of many of our students was staying at the motel. Most of our students had not ever stayed in a motel or hotel. I felt good that I got to give them this experience and that they had a wonderful time. Especially for my top Accelerated Reader student Brayan. Brayan is a quiet young man, who loves to read. His nose is always in a book, even when I was teaching another subject, he wanted to sneak in a book inside his desk and be reading. I of course, redirected him and would always tell him how much I loved that he was reading, but needed him on task for this particular lesson. I was proud in taking Brayan to St. Augustine. His parents were always there for our report card pickup nights and were very proud of the achievements and improvements he was making this year. Even though his parents didn't speak English, that never deterred them from attending school functions and were supportive of their children. They often asked me how Brayan was doing in class. His parents were one of the kindest families I had ever met. I told them every time how much I enjoyed having Brayan in my classroom. Brayan was only nine years old, curious, and a lovable young man. I never knew that my last picture of him would still be loaded in my camera waiting to be downloaded so I could share it with the class on Monday. The call came on a Sunday morning about 8:15 a.m., it was one of my colleagues from school and Brayan's teacher last year in third grade. She gave me the most devastating news a teacher could ever hear. My sweet child, student and friend had been killed in an automobile accident the day before, Saturday, April 28th. A day I will never forget. My husband held me as I cried and cried for the loss I felt. How could this have happened? What was I going to do on Monday? How was I going to handle this and be strong on Monday when I would have to tell the other 24 students and not break down and cry? How ironic it was that I had come across an accident that same day after my son's baseball game and did not realize it was the same accident that had claimed my student's life. I remember the time vividly 4:00 p.m. The wrecker had just picked up a white Ford Explorer all mangled and the other vehicle looking worse with no front end. I had just commented to my husband, "WOW! Who could have lived through that?" Not knowing it would be people from two wonderful families from my own community. As Monday came around, I had the wonderful help of having the school counselor, psychologist and principal there to assist and tell my students the terrible news of our loss. The students of course, looked directly at me for confirmation that these people were telling them a terrible lie. My eyes and my face confirmed what they were just told was the truth. After the initial shock and tears, and after the other school personnel left, the class, we decided to have a Brayan's Day. What would Brayan be doing today? I asked the students. They all quickly said, "He would be reading." :) We wrote letters and cards about how we felt about him, we wept, we shared our writings, but best of all we read. Brayan would have loved reading all day too.

St. Augustine School Trip

Well, FCAT was finally over and we were getting ready for our 4th grade end of year trip to St. Augustine. As excited as I was, I had a whole lot to do before I left. I am the fourth grade team leader and it was my responsibility to not only continue teaching, but also ask for everyone's preferences for dinner, sleeping arrangements, payments, and so on. My first year in fourth grade, team leader and booking an overnight trip was overwhelming. Now that I sit back and think about it was a great experience. I have booked trips before and figured I could easily do it for 50 people. HA! HA! Well, as far as the trip went, almost everything went off without a hitch. One of my team members had to cancel from going as a teacher chaperon because her husband was involved in an automobile accident. Her husband was very lucky and is going to be o.k. So that left only ME and our dean (thank goodness) to go with 36 students and 13 parents. Why so few students you asked? Well, we rewarded the students who met all their Accelerated Readers points each quarter. It was a shame not many more could pull it off or had the funds to go, but either way, I felt we had a great group going and I was anxious for some fun. All that hard work paid off, because we had a fantastic time. The children were awesome everywhere we went and our school were given compliments after compliments. Even from other tourist who were visiting this beautiful historic city. The parents I had did all the work for me. They counted and recounted the students, I could not have asked for a better time, date, weather, students and parents. I thanked them all from the bottom of my heart for making my first overnight trip planning a wonderful experience. We took lots of pictures and many of the parents who had gone previously on trips commented that they had never been on one as great as this one. This was one of the highlights of my first year in fourth grade and in my new role. If you are ever interested in booking a trip please visit the website of Tour Saint Augustine, they are flexible and fantastic for helping you book school educational tours. There were many other highlights of my first year in fourth grade, but some were not so happy. Read Sweet Child of Mine for one of my most memorable unhappy fourth grade moments.