This week, the students were listening to the teacher read one of the books that the students are expected to write about. The writing activity for the students was honestly very rough. The vast majority of the class are not strong writers at all. They are pretty good at finding the concepts in which they have to write about, but when it comes to writing them into sentences and expanding on those concepts, they really struggle to explain their ideas. Their ideas are also very basic. There really isn't a lot of depth to them, unfortunately. They aren't really writing anything long, either. They use the R.A.C.E. concept. R is for restating the question. A is for answering the question. C is for citing the source of their information. E is for explaining their answer. In total, it really only comes out to four sentences, but the students are so below level with their writing that they struggle to form complete sentences and come up with their own ideas beyond the initial R portion. They bounce off of the higher-level students in the class a lot.
If I were to do a writing activity, which I will have to, I think I'm really going to try and work on this strategy with them. I would use a topic that is familiar with the students, possibly a book that they all have read before or even something simple like their Mohawk pledge. I really want to drive this concept in with them because it's something that they will use a lot just in more advanced conversations.
Overall, I thought this week was very beneficial because it will help me to build my writing lesson. I know where the students are at now.
Hi Zoe! I see how it can be hard for the students to explain their ideas when their ideas are coming out very basic. I do not believe those four sentences are helping them gain knowledge and form their own sentences. This could benefit you as you are seeing how this strategy works in the classroom and how you can implement it to maximize the students learning.
ReplyDelete