In my second lesson of my unit, I taught the students about
what a lead in a story is, why it is important, the different kind of leads,
and how to chose the most appropriate ones for their stories. I did this
through first brainstorming with the students what a lead is, discussing how
there are three different kinds of leads, used a mentor text to show them how
great authors create great leads, and modeled creating a setting, action, and
dialogue lead and choosing the best one for my own story. I felt like this
lesson went great and that my students really got it. They were really engaged
with the lesson and were really interested when I modeled using my own story,
which I felt was a better way to teach the students how to make leads than what
it would have been by just telling them what the leads are.
The
majority of my students really understood the three different kinds of leads
and created great leads for their own stories, making their story better. I
think that only a few students stuck with their original lead, the majority of
my students changed their lead to make them stronger. There were a few students
who when I was circulating around were struggling with creating an action lead
and a dialogue lead. They seemed confused about the meaning of the action and
dialogue lead and how to create them. They needed a little extra guidance on
what the lead was and how to create them. I was able to discuss and trouble
shoot with each of those students, before the lesson was over, because there
was only a few of them that needed extra support. I feel that after working
with them they seemed to be grasping the different leads and helped to give
them ideas on how to create each lead.
It may have
been that some of my students who were struggling weren’t actually struggling
with knowing what each lead was, but rather did not see how these leads fit
into their story. Since these stories were their personal narratives they all
started their story with how it really happened. They may have had a hard time
trying to think of a lead that did not match the exact events in the actual story.
For this I could have discussed with them that sometimes we need to add a
little imagination to our stories to help them be complete. For instance, if
they could not remember what dialogue started their story they could have
imagined what could have been said and used that to begin their story. I feel
that this may have helped my students not get so stuck on starting their story
with, “One day…” and rather would have helped them to create a hook a lot
easier.
After I sat
down and rethought through my lesson and about those students who were
struggling with creating leads, I began to think about their writing process
overall. Many of these students were the same students who had struggled in my
first lesson. I thought that it may have been possible that these students felt
that their story was perfect because it was their story that they created and
did not realize that they needed to go through the revision process to make it
better. These students need a little more guidance on how to make a story
perfect through revisions particularly in finding different ways to begin their
story to really hook the reader. It is hard at that age to see that a piece of
writing they have created needs to be changed, because in the past years they
have written small pieces and did not have to go through the revision process
to make them better. They were already celebrated as perfect. For this reason,
the revision process is something that will need to be taught with every piece
of writing we have created.
The next
day I quickly went over the leads that we learned the day before and reminded
them of the examples that I used. This was because the lesson on leads lead
into the lesson on conclusions, because they were using similar skills to
create great endings. This also helped me to reiterate to those students who
were struggling the day before what the leads were and how to create them.
I learned a
lot about how great my students are with writing in dialogue. My students did a
great job incorporating a dialogue lead, as well as dialogue throughout their
story. While I was checking their leads many of my students wanted to show me
the other parts in their story where they incorporated dialogue. They were extremely proud of the dialogue they
incorporated into their stories.
If I were
to teach this lesson again, I would use some of my students’ own work to model
the technique we were using in creating new leads. I had my students identify
which lead they had and read that lead to the class, but I think that it would
have been much more meaningful to them if they could have shared their new lead
that they chose. I think that my students did a great job with listening to me
model the technique and discuss how my lead improved my story, but it would
have added meaning to my students’ work with having a share time at the end.
This would have given my students a sense of ownership of their work. It also
could have helped my struggling writers hear different lead examples other than
mine, which may have helped them think of leads they could use. I feel that
this would have caused my students to work a little harder and be more focused
on really hooking the reader. They really did do well with this lesson, however
and I think that incorporating a peer vote on their best lead already motivated
them to create great leads. This small change to the lesson would have taken
that ownership a step further.
I have
learned that focusing on one step to the writing process at a time can really
help me confer with my students in a much more meaningful and in-depth manner,
because these lessons are allowing me to meet with each student (with my MT’s
help) everyday to make sure that they are making improvements and are
understanding each stage to the revising process. It has taught me that when I
am a teacher in the future it is important to not just confer with my students
one or two times, but to confer with them daily on the skill that they are
focusing on. This will help my students get a much richer understanding of the
various writing skills and I feel will greatly improve their writing. I need to
continue to learn about conferencing informally and what I can do as a teacher
to push my kids to take their writing one step closer each time I conference
without taking over their stories. I feel that this will help me help my
students even further in developing their writing skills.
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