Literacy Success Criteria

This is my success criteria that I've been using in Grade 6 over the past few years. 

Click here to download.

"I'm just checking my feedback..."

It was a good day yesterday. I was determined to start the new year fresh, and be on top of my game. I was really going to focus on my low and struggling students, and consistently meet with them everyday, specifically about the work they are doing during the literacy block.

I had my "high" group started (that hierarchy I've implied is, in and of itself, worthy of another post), freeing my up to float around the room and check in with my struggling students who are working away on the computers. I made my way over to O, who traditionally, and in every possible way, avoids any and all work, responsibility, liability. He lives to not work. I braced myself for the reply to my now-routine question: "What's your plan today O." I was presently surprised by his reply.

"I'm just checking my feedback," he said. "Then I'm going to do some writing."

Now, I'm not hoping for miracles here, but it was yet another reminder about why I love my MOODLE. In another setting, O would have quickly lost the original assessment, forever gone with the descriptive feedback I had so carefully constructed for him. Now, it is always at his fingertips. All the work is centralized and neatly displayed for him. He simply has to access it, then go from there.

Now, as I've just said, I'm not hoping for miracles. This is one small step solved in the many that will help O be successful. He still needs regular and intense interventions, but he is more empowered in his educational choices.

Here's hoping the miracles do happen though!

M.

What does good look like?

I would say that the biggest addition to my writer's workshop this year has been the Mentor Text.

In the writer's workshop, I encourage all the students to be creative and innovative. Within the framework established they must publish their writing on the MOODLE. As one of the steps of their Developing and Organizing Content, they must find a mentor text - an example of what they are writing. If they are creating a menu, then they must find an example of an excellent menu.

The mentor text provides many benefits to the writer's workshop. It gets them inspired towards excellence. They have an example of what excellence looks like! It gets them thinking about how that specific text works. If we continue with our menu example - it forces them to think about how menus work. They must think of appetizers, salads, main dishes, desserts, etc. This is what good looks like.

Too often children rely on their schema. They create based on what they think it looks like, but spend too little time actually examining what excellence looks like.

I have taken this into my assessments as well. In the writing assessments I give them, I provide for them an example of what good looks like. This really elevates the work, and gives more evidence to me. Did the child not succeed on the task because they couldn't, or did they just not know what good looks like? A clear target is much easier to hit, isn't it?

So far in the writer's workshop, I've found two main examples of mentor texts being used. The first is a completed example. This may mean a published menu from a favourite establishment. The second tends to be an instructional piece - possibly a "How to Create a Menu" article that outlines the steps to successful creation. Either way, success is attainable!

M.