Juli Kendall's Weekly
Reading/Writing Workshop Journal
A MiddleWeb Listserv Project
Members of the MiddleWeb Discussion List and other interested teachers
are joining together to explore the Writing Workshop and other ideas about
supporting young adolescent writers and readers. Juli Kendall, a reading-writing
teacher/coach in Long Beach, California, is helping moderate the discussion.
Juli also posts a weekly journal entry from her reading/writing classroom.
This year, Juli will focus on her efforts to integrate subject matter into
her reading and writing workshop approach. In her first
journal of the year, she explains the rationale behind this move and
some of her thinking about how she hopes to accomplish this goal.
Find out more about our project at our Reading/Writing
Workshop homepage. You'll find Juli's background article here.
Links to many of the tools created by Juli and her colleagues are embedded
in these journals. Most often, when you click on them, a PDF file will begin
to download. You'll find a list of the downloads here.
If you'd like to join the daily discussion that parallels Juli's Journals,
find out how here.
2003-04 Reading/Writing
Workshop Journal
Week #25
Nonfiction Investigations:
Bringing Our Research to an Audience
"When you do a presentation you gotta know what you are
going to say because you don't want to say something dumb and get embarrassed
and run off the stage."
--Helen, a 5th grader in our class, on the importance
of being prepared before you do a presentation.
We are entering a strange, new world.
Just like the movie, "Jurassic Park," where huge electrified gates
opened and let visitors into the world of dinosaurs, we are embarking on
an uncharted journey. To get ready for this trip, we gather together the
background information we have about presentations. It seems that this concept
is a new one for some of us.
What we know about Presentations
--Do something and show it to people
--To explain it
--Get up in front and show your work to the class
--Give facts from what you learned
--Drawing
--You read about it, you write about, and then you draw it.
--Show and tell. You show what you did and then you read the facts that
you learned.
The last two parts of our unit of study about Investigations help us bring
the kids' research to an audience. Everyone will present what he or she
has learned to the class.
Just a reminder -- these kids are in this class because they are at risk
of not meeting the benchmarks to move on the middle school. Many are already
12 years old and they are used to failure. They have taken on this concept
of presentations with great zeal. I want to make sure it doesn't turn into
"risky business."
1. Getting organized
In order to help students understand and make sense of the information
they have gathered, we're working on breaking the topic down into smaller
pieces based on their questions. Then they organize it into sections. Since
they are working on this project as a group, each member is responsible
for one section of the project. I take a suggestion and have them physically
organize their materials on a piece of chart paper using post-it notes and
markers. It's up to each group to make sure that everyone has a section
organized on chart paper. That way, as a group, they have decided on the
order of the sections.
The conversations are fascinating as the small groups begin their work together.
"Where are we going to put the giant tree?" Juan asks Rin as Pedro
works on a sketch of a parrot for their "Rainforest" presentation.
"I don't know," answers Rin, "But we better not start drawing
until we agree."
"Can we write in cursive on the chart paper?" Vanessa asks Yaritza
as they work on their individual papers. "Yes. Just make sure it's
big enough for people to see the writing," Yaritza answers, as she
leans over to give Vivana some advice about her title.
"Does this look like a tornado?" Edgar wonders, as he tries to
fill some extra space on his chart paper with a large illustration. "I
guess I'll check that article about tornados in "National Geographic."
A little later, he has another question. "How do you spell 'survivor'?
I think I'm going to make boxes of 'Survivor Facts' to put on my chart paper.
That way if anyone is ever in tornado country they will know what to do."
"Yikes!" Michelle calls out, "What are you doing to my picture?"
Helen, who's always full of ideas, has decided to alter Michelle's drawing
without asking permission. "Next time, ask first!" Michelle concludes.
Some of the prompts we have found helpful to promote peaceful collaborative
work:
"Ask first."
"Wait a minute."
"Tell me what you are going to do before you start."
"May I borrow that chair, please?"
2. Doing presentations
Each group prepares a presentation using the individual chart papers
they created to organize their information. Each member of the group is
responsible for a different section, based on their individual questions,
and then the group as a whole decides on the sequence in which the sections
will be presented.
We brainstorm the criteria for our "Oral Presentation Self-Assessment
Scoring Guide." We work together to create this scoring guide so we
have a way to reflect on our presentations and think about what we might
change in the future. We've found that self-evaluations are an important
part of growing as readers and writers. These assessments help us understand
what we are doing well, as well as, our challenge areas. (Download
a PDF version of the guide here.)
Oral Presentation Self-Assessment Scoring Guide
Date _________________
Name of Presenter ______________________________________
Title of Presentation ______________________________________________________
Rating Scale: 1-Oops!, 2-So-so, 3-Wow!, 4-Outstanding!
How did I do?
_____ Decorations and drawing
_____ New facts and information
_____ Courage (don't be embarrassed)
_____ Talk loud enough for people to hear
_____ Look at the audience, not the floor
_____ Total Points
One thing that was successful about my presentation:
________________________________________________________________________
One thing I would do differently next time:
________________________________________________________________________
My Student Interview
After Daniel's presentation, I interviewed him to see what he learned from
the self-assessment of his Investigation. I've included the scores he gave
himself as well as, the comments he made. Although I originally thought
no one had selected the topic, "The Brain," it just so happens
that Daniel's investigation and presentation were about this topic. Shows
what I know!
__3__ Decorations and drawing
"I put the 'Brain' in the middle since I was talking about the brain
and it was important. My title is arranged at the top in the middle so everyone
will know it's about brains. I decided to put facts on the right side and
questions on the left so people wouldn't get confused. I decorated the whole
thing with drops of blood because when they take out he brain there's a
lot of blood."
__4__ New facts and information
"Men and women use different parts of their brains. I got this fact
from the article about the brain on the Internet. Brains work when men and
women are performing math problems like when we just had our Math Bee in
the cafeteria."
__3___ Courage (don't be embarrassed)
"You try so hard to make this presentation that you should not be embarrassed."
__4__ Talk loud enough for people to hear
"It's important because if you whisper they won't be able to understand
what you say and they can't hear the information."
__3__ Look at the audience, not the floor
"If you cover your face, they'll think you're shy and won't know how
much good work you did."
What was successful?
"One thing that was successful about my presentation was I did my best
on my facts and questions and my pictures."
What would you change?
"Next time, I would change and take out the blood drops and put people
thinking about the brain because some people don't like blood."
What I Learned
Without a doubt, presentations are incredibly important to kids. Although
I think they can be a bit problematic, the amount of oral language and negotiation
of meaning that occurs truly lifts the level of learning.
Right now, I'm thinking that one way to motivate kids to learn is to do
more group presentation and collaboration activities. It certainly makes
learning more fun!
SEE Juli's Curriculum Map for Investigations
- Unit Four
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