[LIT] that time of year...

[Pam]

Bill wrote:
I don't know about most of your schools, but in my school, this is
probably the lowest point in the year. So what better time than now 
to...
celebrate our successes!

Pam writes:
Every single student except one (who isn't on my roster after today) 
read a novel, wrote a one page summary, *and* are in the thick of 
things creating a project to present to the class.  Many have found 
learning to podcast to be very exciting.  For many, just the 
opportunity to use a new laptop that has built in cameras is motivation 
to work when they were ready to slump into apathy.  I have kids 
creating interviews with characters from novels, researching authors & 
creating interviews, preparing to teach lessons about their non-fiction 
books, drafting I Am poems from characters' point of views, scripting 
and creating audio podcasts of songs about their novels and enhanced 
podcasts with video to create commercials about their novels.  I'm just 
amazed at the surge of energy that the 6th graders have shown when 
presented with new technology.

 :o) Pam/6th gr./FL
An education isn't how much you have committed to memory, or even how 
much you know. It's being able to differentiate between what you do 
know and what you don't.
Anatole France (1844 - 1924)


-----Original Message-----
From: Bill IVEY <bivey at sbschool.org>
To: lit at literacyworkshop.org
Sent: Mon, 11 Feb 2008 11:55 pm
Subject: [LIT] that time of year...






Hi!

I don't know about most of your schools, but in my school, this is
probably the lowest point in the year. So what better time than now 
to...
celebrate our successes!

In my case, I am really excited about the first drafts of literary
analysis essays that my ESL students are producing. One of them, 
although
her vocabulary is extremely limited, managed to turn in two or more 
pages
on friendship, discussing at length (on paper and with me in conference)
issues around making and keeping friends through thick and through thin.
Another produced work which, a few grammar tweaks aside, shows that she
has come light years in terms of being able to express sophisticated
thinking in English. It is so cool to see these kids developing the
English to express that which has been inside them all along!

What successes are you all seeing?

Take care,
Bill Ivey
Stoneleigh-Burnham School


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