My hooray!

I heard a wonderful sound the other day. Usually when it comes to my ears, its a sound that makes me cringe and remember patience is a virtue and that I am responsible to hold my tongue but this time my heart went a-flutter.

Let me take a moment to set up the scene before I explain this magical sound.

We have been doing a short writing time since nearly the beginning of school. My students are very used to the routine and have jumped right into the concept of making writing about taking ideas out of our head and just putting them on paper. We started with white sheets of paper that could have anything put on them. Words were optional but encouraged. The students then graduated to white paper divided into two sections. The top for illustrations and the bottom for words. No lines, no rules, just words. I also set up specific procedures for how writing time works. The rules are simple. You cannot say, "I'm done" until the timer goes off and so each student may draw, write, review their work or add details but they must be involved in their own work. The timer is set for 10 minutes and the students get five more minutes after the timer dings to finish up any ideas they need to close-up. I also don't answer most spelling questions because right now ideas are more important than conventions. Finally I set the mood. In the background I play some soft, but energetic, classical music.

So now back to the beginning.

We had been working through our writing time for nearly three weeks and I finally felt the students were understanding the flow of this time. We had just started a new project, writing a story about different things at school when the magic happened. The timer had gone off, I had reset it for five more minutes and all the students chose to continue on with their current projects. The time flew and once again there was a sharp "DING" that came from my timer and all across the room I heard a heart satisfying...

AWWWWWWWWW

What is Working?

Hello all,
I read a comment on Tara's Facebook page that she was investing in new ways in her classroom. What about the rest of you? I would love to see a post about what is working or even what isn't working. I have tried using the techniques learned about conferencing and I think it has helped immensely with student revision and what ends up at the end with the final draft. I hope this sunny fall day finds all of you well. Christy