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Our class will continue to practice working with writing partners and carry on discussions about how the conferences go. I will plan mini-lessons on the topic either before sending off students to confer or at the end of the writing workshop to check in with how things went. Additionally, I plan to model a good conference with students occasionally. Another idea would be to video older students perhaps in first or second grade as they confer with a writing partner and share this with our class; see the video below for some 1st grade students I found who modeled this for me.
More generally, I would like to inquire into how students can become better listeners. This issue is at the heart of learning from others, so I believe it is an important question. I intend to plan some games apart from the writing workshop which will hopefully strengthen students’ ability to listen actively to each other. Lastly, being able to listen is a sign of empathy and leads to action to help others.

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After interviewing the students, it was clear that they already had lots of good ideas about learning together. However, even with the class split in two, it was challenging for them to sustain their attention listening to everyone's’ comments. Although their ideas are good, they don’t always practice them. One area which is particularly challenging for many students is being able to actively listen. With 19 students sharing their work in one classroom, the noise level was fairly high. Students often did not ask their partner to speak louder or repeat what they said in order to understand them; at this point the conferring stopped and students went off task. Also, with a few students, they were challenged to come up with wishes or suggestions on how to improve their writing. I was able to scaffold some conversations successfully, but it was clear that the class was not ready to engage in helpful conversations about each others’ writing at this time. However, this is a good starting point for an ongoing discussion about how we can help each other learn, both in general and in the context of the writing workshop. Our class will continue to work on this important skill.

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Padlet to "How can we help each other learn"?

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Padlet to "How can we help each other learn"?

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In order to find out what the students already knew about this topic, my co-teacher and I split up the class in half as to speed up the interview process, each posing the same question: “How can we help each other learn?”

My co-teacher scribed the students’ comments in response to the question; I decided to video the students using the app Seesaw so their responses would be saved digitally.

I created a Padlet with their responses. Their next day in class, wee reviewed these on the Smartboard and discussed how we might do all these things during the time writing partners shared their work. Next, the students were assigned a writing partner based both on personality and writing ability. They were sent off to confer with their partner and offer specific comments of praise for work well done as well as suggestions on  how to improve their partner’s writing. This is meant to be done in the context of “Two Stars and a Wish”; stars for what went well in their writing and a wish for what they could do to make it even better.

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Our classroom consists of a group of 19 students aged 5 and 6 along with 2 co-teachers. We have begun to explore how we can help each other learn because of the belief that learning takes place within the context of a community rather than within isolated individuals. Together our class can create new understandings building upon the experiences and contributions from all of us. Further, all of us in the classroom and beyond, including the schools’ other teachers, administrators and parents play a role in supporting the learning.

In the context of the writing workshop, we are researching the idea of empathy as it relates to students’ work with writing partners in our writing workshop. How can writing partners support each others’ work? What does it look like to be a helpful partner in learning?

As a starting point, I asked my class “How can we help each other learn?” This question then was modified to relate to the writing workshop? How can we help our partners?

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Atlanta International School
5K English