Here is a variation on basic sentence frames, using the same prompts of
- I went to
- I saw
- I received
- I ate
- I played
that were suggested by Robert in the first of this series of articles suggesting a good way to start back in after a vacation:
After collecting the first batch of writing responses, which are usually pretty bad on the first day after a vacation, I grade them and enter those grades in the gradebook and then hand them back and say that they lack quality.
Because they do lack quality – with the exception of a few four percenter types. The grades are there in the gradebook, and the kids are told that they can now – on day 2 back from the break – redeem that bad grade by rewriting their responses to the prompts again, this time with effort. Call it a second draft.
Once the kids have their first drafts back in their hands, I ask them to sit together in pairs for about three minutes, comparing their work, looking at content and quality of writing, before doing the second draft.
I give them much of the class period (day 2 after the break) to work on this on the second draft. I make it clear that these responses will be the subject of much class discussion and many quizzes over the next few weeks. I stress to the students that they can use the second draft to replace the bad writing grade that is their only grade in the gradebook so far here in the new term.
Grading this work on the first day after the break sends a strong message, and, in my opinion, a necessary one. The kids now have lots of motivation to work hard here on day 2 of the return after the break.
There are two obvious benefits to approaching a return from a vacation in this way:
1. by giving a (deserved) bad grade to the kids for their first efforts, we immediately connect their work now with grades. I have now officially come to the conclusion that without frequent formative assessment, CI cannot work in schools as they exist at the current time. Realizing this could significantly reduce teacher stress in teachers who use comprehension based instruction methods. The alter for the kids in schools is the grade. After vacations, many teachers make the huge mistake of holding off grading until “more has been taught”. That is a huge mistake. Kids know that in schools they are not tested early on after a vacation, and thus absenteesim is high, morale is usually down as well and the kids are much more focused on each other than is good for the mental health of the teacher. Grading early and often jerks the kids back into the reaility that the teacher is fully in charge of the classoom, and our stress goes down.
2. by making the main focus of the first two days back after the break writing, the kids don’t have to step up to the jGR plate right away, which will only occur on day 3 after the break as discussion begins around the responses to the prompts. So, the students, in those first few days after the break, by writing and being graded on the writing, are informed in that way that you are the one in charge and that they will write quietly in class. Thus, they are not focused on each other, which, to repeat, is always a major but often ignored distraction for CI teachers after breaks or to start the year, when the kids are going through a very complex dance, a ritual of seeing which students are going to be the cool ones and raise hell, who is going to sit where, and who the boss kid is, and all that other stuff that is more important to the kids than you or anything you might be able to provide in the way of actual class instruction. So, when they are busy writing and not focused on each other rightr after the break, you are setting your seating charts during this time, separating people, conquering by dividing, making it YOUR classroom, keeping the room fairly quiet, nailing jerks, and generally resting for the PQA to come on day 3.
In this new more focused writing session on day 2 back from a break, I ask the kids to tell one lie in response to just one of the prompts, but to not make it too obvious. So one of the five prompts above is a lie. Note therefore that not only is their writing providing you with good personalized information but is also, with the lie, becoming slightly bizarre. Both things are necessary for good CI.
So, in order, this sentence frames options has this sequence:
- the kids write their responses to the prompts on the first day as per the “Sentence Frames 1” article by Robert.
- on day 2 we return the prompts for correction to replace the existing bad grade in the book.
- kids critique them in pairs for a few minutes.
- kids write new much higher quality responses to the prompts, including one lie.
- then on day 3, we begin the lengthy quiz-filled process of discussing the new responses, trying to guess the lies, and the weeks of high quality PQA and quizzes begin, possibly for months.
- in this process we can turn samples of student work into power point slides, writing them with correct grammar. We do not mention that we did that. We read and discuss the samples of student work. (credit: Bob Patrick)
- we ask students to swap their writing sample with a partner. The partner circles anything that is not clear and then returns. Students are given a minute to make any changes they want to before reading their sentences aloud. The act of reading another student’s work seems to help them listen and understand better when read aloud. (credit: Miriam Patrick)
I don’t think that this is an easy thing to do at level one. I don’t currently have a level one class to try it out on, but that is my guess. This would obviously work better at the upper levels.
A repetition of a point made in the last article here on sentence frames: sentence frames bring big discipline, which is necessary after a vacation. Besides the normal powerful discipline presence of jGR,plus the everpresent Classroom Rules (see link on this site to “TPRS resources”, quizzes every day, the jobs, and the kids being graded on what they write, the personalization piece, and the class trying to guess which of the things the kid said is the lie, all of it keeps the kids more involved than a neutral text like a novel would. We get all these discipline pieces from this approach to sentence frames without even having to do regular PQA or a story right away after a break, which is a bit too exposed for many of us on those hard days back after breaks, certainly for me.