Week 2 ALL in P2

This week has been a WONDERFUL week of writing in P2.  My students are engaged and excited and it is rubbing off on me.  I love seeing the students feeling good about their writing.  So many wanted to share their first paragraphs today.

We watched the DREAM CATCHER from the fantasy shed in https://www.literacyshed.com/.  This is such an amazing resource!

After watching the video I told the students that they were going to write a story about the dream catcher coming in to their bedroom, to give them a dream.  However, he trips on something in their room and the egg falls on their favourite book or game.  They have to tell me the story so that it forms a picture in the mind of their reader.  We are going to break down the writing process into small chunks.

Day 1.  The brainstorm/Mind map.  Some students also drew their scene or made a cartoon strip of their story too.

Day 2.  Paragraph 1 - Setting the scene.  Most students did this really well.  A few wrote the whole story in their first paragraph so I spent time with them to fluff out their setting.

Day 3.  Paragraph 3 - The Dream Giver, What do they look like.  How did they get inside?

I am modelling the writing process by writing my own story on the board with the students.

It has been great to see students using a thesauras to look for 'better' words.

My favourite part of this week was when one of my students (who really struggles with writing and finding ideas) said "Mrs Hay! I have the most exciting idea for my story!" 

Week 1 ALL in P2

I am hoping to make my inquiry this year about not just accelerating a small group of students but my whole class.  I started week 1 by meeting with each of my writing groups and asking them to share their student voice.

The questions I asked were:

Do you like to write? Why/Why not
What is something you would really like to learn to make writing easier for you?
Think of all the pieces of work you have written so far this year.  Which one would be your favouite and why?
Do you think you are a good writer?  Why/Why not?
Do you think your teacher and your parents think you are a good writer?  Why/why not?

Below is an example of what some of my boys had to say.

It is interesting to see the huge range of confidence in writing.  From "I suck" to "I am an awesome writer".  Spelling was something that nearly every student mentioned as something they want to improve so I need to really look at this.  Also hand writing featured quite strongly too.

Go Team ALL Mokoia!

I am so grateful for the wonderful team of teachers we have in our ALL team this year.  They are already sharing really positive stories about their experience so far (week 2!)  Yay!  I hope they all gain as much from this experience as I have.