Revising & Hearing All Voices

One thing I've learned as a teacher is that it's ok to revisit mini-lessons that carry a lot of importance in your classroom! Earlier in the year, we created an anchor chart as a class on what it means to REVISE in our room. Kids are expected to do all of the expectations on the chart when they get to the revising stage, however, not all my students are, so I decided it was time to revisit this stage!

In students' writing binders is a red revising sheet similar to the red revising anchor chart that hangs on our wall. Students can access their individual chart during Writer's Workshop or use the large anchor chart on the wall to help guide their revising process. Today I had students get out their red revising sheet in their binders to remind them it is a resource they are expected to use.

I modeled my own revising process using a piece of writing from a student last year. My own students just finished this same writing assignment last week so it was a familiar assignment to them.

Then I had students practice revising their own similar writing assignment to the one I modeled on the board. Students had their draft and their red revising checklist on their desks to use a guide.

Our literacy coach, Mrs. Johnson, came today to teach a lesson on purposeful talk. We focused specifically on the importance of hearing all voices during a purposeful discussion. This lesson is one of several we will teach prior to starting literature discussion groups in a few weeks.

To help model the value of hearing all voices, we asked students: Would you rather have someone give you $100 for yourself or have someone donate $1,000 to Barrie School. We went around the room and all students got to share their answer and why. Before long, it was evident we didn't all agree (which is exactly what we wanted to happen!) We divided students into two groups to physically model how we didn't all agree, and discussed how everyone's opinion and idea was heard. Differing opinions challenge us to see new perspectives and think more deeply about a topic. You'll also notice we video-taped this lesson using an i-Pad. This is one way we teacher grow and learn from one another.

Homework:
1. Reading - 15 mins., Turkey Log
2. Math - 10 mins., Chapter 8 Review
3. Spelling - Test Fri.
4. Social Studies - States/Cities Map Test - Fri.