Full Week of Field Experience

Wow, it seems like we haven't written blogs in a while! I had a fabulous spring break and I hope everyone else did too! :)

So as I mentioned in my previous post, my 2nd grade students have been working on persuasive papers about their opinion on school uniforms. I must say that luckily the writing workshop time went better during the full week I was in the classroom. The students were finishing up writing their final copies of their papers and I could tell they were somewhat excited to finish this long project. My teacher allowed them to share their papers with the class and I heard many great reasons and word choice from the students. In Camille A. Allen's article we were assigned to read, it was clear that topic choice is a VERY important part of students' writing. Allowing the students to have a say in what they are writing about develops an interest and connection that then produces more engagement and success. I related this to my 2nd grade class because my mentor teacher did a great job of letting them choose as a class a topic that they can relate to and are currently interested in. Since the school has been trying to decide whether to insert school uniforms into next year's school policy, this topic is relative to the students' lives. I think it is great that my mentor teacher allowed them to do a persuasive piece on their opinions on school uniforms because it gave the students an opportunity to say what THEY think and why. Oftentimes children do not get a say in matters such as these, but since my class and even other classes in the school wrote persuasive pieces about their opinions, I really think the school board will take their opinions and reasons into consideration when making the final decision. I know that my class is only 7 and 8 year olds, but they definitely do have strong opinions about whether they want to wear school uniforms or not! (haha) Their passion about the topic was very clear in their writing and both my mentor teacher and I were very pleased with the students' final drafts. It was perfect timing to read Allen's article after this successful writing workshop experience because I was able to relate to how topic choice really does play a significant role in students' writing.