Thursday 16 November 2017

Bursting Bubbles

Image result for bursting bubbles
What happened for the learners?
The learners have all really enjoyed practicing their thinking skills and especially using the game of awesome to structure and motivate them to write. Two students have made a shift of 2 levels of the developmental writing scale and two students have made a shift of 1 level and one students has remained the same. I think these a great results as we have not moved backwards or regressed at all.

What evidence do I have for this?
This evidence has been gathered by marking a writing sample against the developmental writing scale that we use here at Sommerville. There base levels was taken in Term 2 and we reassessed at the end of Term 3. I have shared these results on earlier posts.

What did I do to make this happen?
I have introduced thinkers keys as much as possible and allowed the students to find out what they like and are interested in. Students like the idea of brainstorming and especially categorising their ideas which helps organise their thoughts to write confidently. Using the game of awesome removed  a lot of negative and fixed mind frames around writing not wanting to write or sit down at a table even though they possess the skills to write. This inspired them and was something they looked forward to and was more enjoyable than writing personal accounts of trips.

Wondering's about what next?
After talking with some of my colleagues I think I haven't really used thinkers keys as well as could have and have used The Game of Awesome as an activity which isn't really what my focus and inquiry was directed at. It has however been very beneficial at engaging my learners and building confidence in writing. Next for me will be teaching through the thinking keys implicitly and also looking in to new assessment methods for my writers to see if can see really shift in certain parts of writing.

1 comment:

  1. You spoke so well at last weeks presentation Lionel. Well done on moving your students through the developmental writing scale. That is no easy feat! - Lauren

    ReplyDelete