Writing samples

The writing samples I collected from my classroom showed the stages of spelling development because I took one from one of the first days of school out of two student’s folders, and one that was more present. The improvement was subtle, but noticeable when you looked deeper into the vocabulary expansion, spelling errors from the beginning of the year to the same words that are spelled correctly. I can see improvement, but I think that there should be more improvement when realizing that they are practicing literacy more than any other subject in school. The entire morning and some of the afternoon they are practicing their reading, having discussions, or writing in their journals. The amount of time spent practicing their writing should be shown in their work, but it’s not obvious enough. I can see that they are working hard on their writing because I am there to actually see it, but when you look at the work from the beginning of the year to now, it does not do them justice.

I think a part of the reason there is not a significant improvement would be that they are bored. Yes, my CT has them writing about topics that are fun, but it is very repetitive, and has become very boring. My ct really does care and have fun with the writing, but I think that if she made the writing topics more meaningful, something they would be proud to share, then we would see a larger improvement in their writing.

My idea of having a center that would improve their spelling would be a spelling game. They are so competitive with each other, and I think that in a fun, competitive atmosphere, with something to strive for, such as more recess time, or some type of appropriate award, they would be more into the assignments, and proud to share. In their art classes, every student is constantly showing me their work, they are so proud of it! If we can get that type of environment in writing where they are so proud they just have to show you, then we will definitely be getting somewhere! I noticed one day that when I played a card game with two girls, they did better than they normally do with me during one on one time because they were having fun competing to see who knew the site word that was on the flash card. If we make two large teams in the class, and play the spelling game at least once at the end of the day every three days, they would be able to take the spelling words and patterns they saw during their game to their writing the next morning!