writing with my students

I wrote with my students today. I vividly remember thinking, as I sat with them at the tables, "This is what I missed yesterday." And I was so right. First period is a bit behind, so I didn't get anything substantive with them, although I did do the Found Poem activity with them. I needed some time to just write, and although we only wrote for 8 minutes, it was good for me and them. Sharing was cool too, but I'll have to put those pictures up on the class website. 

I provided prompts, after we talked about different successful teams. I brought up teams such as the New York Yankees and Chicago Bulls (actual sports teams), as well as Metallica, the New York Fire Department, the design and construction team of Extreme Home Makeover, and those who work at Mission Control at NASA. The students brought up the sports teams at PV, as well as the band there and other bands that they liked a lot. Oddly enough, one student actually brought up the NASDAQ stock exchange and described the traders and everyone on the floor, but I think he was making a connection to NASA and thinking of the NYSE floor. Anyway, below are the prompts.

• What makes a good team?
• When have you enjoyed being on a team? Why?
• What type of a team would you like to be on? Why?

Keri brought up a good point in her response to my previous post. I probably need to probe more specifically regarding the actions of the team and teammates, rather than broadly address "a good team." I will admit that I love language and am very attentive to what I the words I use, but I'm not all that good at asking questions, especially unbiased ones. Sometimes I think that I want a biased question, especially with 8th graders, but other times (like when I'm challenged by Keri) I realize that certain questions elicit certain responses, and that's not necessarily good. So maybe we'll consider actions of a team and teammate--like shared interests in writing specifically with regard to identifying and developing topics/genres to write about/in, peer conferences, sharing work space, publishing and positive feedback. 


I've got a lot to think about, and a lot to consider with my students. Casey and Amy had a really neat Cinchcast about teacher/student feedback with regard to writing, and I think I'll have to relisten to that, and probably bring that question to my students too.