Miayana and
Sherrie: “Build a Super Sentence” 11/29/12
Data Source: Voice
recording
The mouse ate. The baby cried. (Lots of repetition of “the
baby cried” as they copy it down).
Miayana: “So can we
use an adjective?” (no intelligible
response from Sherrie)
Miayana: “The baby
cried so much”
(some whispering)
Sherrie: “Go!”
Miayana: “Can we change
the verb? Change the verb! Let’s change the verb! The baby cried so much…”
Sherrie: “Her hair
could explode”
Miayana: “No…”
(bell)
Both: “awwww…”
Teacher: “Let’s hear
one super sentence…Sherrie!”
Sherrie: “My mother
cooked eggs on Monday”
Teacher: repeats back and says “excellent”
Reflection:
Firstly, they did not add an adjective—the question, then,
is do they know what an adjective is? The words “so much” do describe how the baby cried…but not in one word. Second (and
most importantly), teacher feedback was totally inaccurate! I can’t believe my
response was “excellent” when they had not changed the verb or added an
adjective (they are supposed to add an adjective, then change the verb and then
add a prepositional phrase). No wonder they aren’t successful in what they are
doing—I’m not giving them good feedback! That’s the next step. They have new
instructions for some of the stations (synonyms/antonyms, past present future
sort and contraction matching) in which they now have to also write sentences
as an extension for students. The next step is figuring out a sustainable way
for me to give them regular feedback on their work. I can’t do it through
conferencing because I am pulling guided reading groups while they are at
stations. I can take them home and write in them but I know that’s not
sustainable for me as a teacher (I am bad at working at home during the week
and I can’t add it to my Sunday line up of work). Also, I would have to teach
into looking at feedback and how to change work based on what the teacher has
written. I’d love ideas for quick
feedback! I’m thinking we might try a few of the stations whole class again in
order to talk about what the expectations are while working at each station (as
a refresher).
