S16: Blog 10: The Biography Project Part 2

For a little over three weeks now I’ve been working on the biography project that I’ve designed for my small group of higher-level students (see Part 1 for an explanation). As always, things have not gone exactly as planned, but I am pleased with some of the results.

After my students had read information from their selected figure’s biographies about their childhood, it was time to begin writing our book pages. I created a template on Word for my students to use for the book pages. Every page has a space for a title, a box for an illustration, and lines on which to write.

I decided that the best way to teach my students how to write these pages was to provide a model for them. I had been reading and coding my own biography about President Kennedy while my students were reading their biographies, so I planned to create my own book about him.

While holding my biography open to the page which I was getting information from, I pointed out to my students how I had written notes on my sticky notes that I planned to turn into complete sentences. I used think-alouds to show my students what and how I was thinking when I was creating my sentences. I really wanted them to see how I was not copying my sentences straight from the text, but was using that information and putting it in my own words. I also wanted them to see how I was paying attention to my handwriting and grammar while I was writing. I put in effort to point out how I was making sure to put punctuation at the end of my sentences and was remembering to capitalize Kennedy’s name. I also modelled how to look back into the text to check how to spell tricky words.

After I had modelled, which is the first step of the “gradual release of responsibility” model that has been discussed in several of the courses I’ve taken/ am taking, I moved on to the second step which is “we do.” This means that I asked my students to help me create sentences to add to the page I was writing. I asked my students to tell me what information I had left out that they wanted me to include and asked them to tell me how I should structure my sentences. My four students collaborated among themselves and with me to create two more sentences about Kennedy’s childhood. I then felt comfortable releasing them to work independently on their own book pages about their chosen figure’s childhood. This “I do” is the third step in the gradual release model.

I’ve repeated this process several times over the last few weeks, as my students and I continue to work on our book pages. I’ve written pages about Kennedy’s naval career, time in Congress, and presidency. One of my students, who’s learning about Ulysses Grant, has created pages about his childhood, time at West Point, his family, and his role in the Civil War. Every time one of the student’s finishes a page, we read it together to make sure that what they’ve written makes sense and then they have the opportunity to create an illustration.

As I’ve said before, not everything has gone as planned. In a perfect world all of my students would be working at about the same pace. However, I’ve got one student who finished writing his sixth page today while another is still on his first page. This has occurred because of a multitude of factors. One is because I will not pull the students for the group unless they have completed their independent working during reading time; I know that my students consider this group to be fun so I try to use it as an incentive for them to do their work, not a reason for them not to do it. Two of my four students are very consistent about doing their work and then coming to work with me. The other two rarely finish their class work and have only gotten to come to group two or three times. Another reason is that my students are choosing to work differently. My one student who is six pages in is choosing to read his book chapter by chapter and write a page whenever he finishes one. Another student is choosing to fully read and code the books I’ve given him before he writes much of anything.

It was probably more than a little naïve to think that my four very different students would all be at the same pace. I’ve had to adjust my plans so that I can address each of their individual needs, depending on what they’re working on for the day. However, I couldn’t happier with the engagement that they’ve all shown throughout the entire process. They’re so interested in the people about whom they’re reading; they’re always showing me some cool fact that they’ve discovered. It’s also amazing to hear the conversations they can have with one another and how naturally they are able to compare and contrast their figures. I am also seeing that they are much more motivated to write, and put strong effort into their writing, during this time. I don’t think I’ve had to remind a single one of them to remember to put a period at the end of their sentence this week!

Hopefully, sooner rather than later, the books will be completed so the students can move on to the next phase of the project, creating their speeches! I can’t wait to see the results!

*The creating a book strategies comes from: Harvey, S., & Goudvis, A. (2007). Strategies That Work: Teaching Comprehension for Understanding and Engagement (2nd ed.). Portland, Maine: Stenhouse.

Addresses FEAPS 1 b, c, and e 3 a, b, h, and j

#EDE4942 #FEAPS1B #FEAPS1C #FEAPS1E #FEAPS3A #FEAPS3B #FEAPS3H #FEAPS3J