Assessment+Live!+Engaging+Ways+for+Kids+to+Show+What+they+Know

=Assessment Live! Engaging Ways for Kids to Show What They Know=

Writing Circles - Jim Vopat

 * Writing Circles by Jim Vopat, available through Pearson Canada.
 * Writing Circles are different from Workshops because 4 - 6 students choose a common writing topic. It's a compatible model to Literature Circles.
 * The Writing Circle includes the following steps:
 * Groups of kids name their writing circle and choose their group's writing topic.
 * Kids write on this topic, using any format or genre.
 * Writing circle minilessons focus on circle management and writing craft.
 * Writing circles meet.
 * Kids share their writing.
 * Kids respond to one another's writing.
 * Each circle chooses their next writing topic.
 * New topics and some writing from each circle are shared with the whole class.
 * Kids think about the writing circle sessions they've just completed and jot down their reflections and notes in their writing circle notebook.
 * Periodically, kids review their rough pieces and select the most promising one to revise.
 * Writers participate in a circle devoted to collaborative revision, editing, and publication.
 * Classmates serve as on another's agents, illustrators, reviewers, and editors.
 * Finished works are shared and celebrated in some public form.
 * ==Strategy for topic selection: Stack the Deck for Writing Circles==
 * Take three index cards and jot down an idea for a writing topic on each card. Include genres as possible writing ideas. "A Contemporary Fairy Tale" and "Friends" could be equally promising topics.
 * Once you are in your writing circle, mix the cards together and then redistribute them randomly so everyone still has three topic cards (but probably not their own, or at least not //all// their own).
 * Of the three topics, choose the card you like best and put the other two away.
 * Each of you now has one topic card. Pass the card to the right.
 * On the card that's passed to you, put a plus sign if you like the topic, a check if it's okay, and a minus if there's no way the topic will work for you. Once you've recorded your mark, pass the card to the right.
 * After everyone has marked the topic cards, narrow the topics by throwing out any card with a "no way" indication.
 * A consensus topic may have already emerged from the remaining cards, or there might be two topics that spark interest.
 * Discuss the most popular topics and choose one you all want to write about.
 * If you have time, share ideas for how you might write about the chosen topic: different points of view, different genres.

Assessment Live! Nancy Steineke

 * Assessment Live! by Nancy Steineke available through Pearson Canada.
 * ==Strategy for Shared Writing: Found Poetry==
 * After each person in the Writing Circle has written on your chosen topic, each person will select their strongest line from the piece.
 * From your powerful lines/sentences, you are going to create a piece of free-verse poetry, poetry that conveys a strong emotion or message but doesn't have to rhyme.
 * First, take a look at the lines/sentences you copied and draw lines through all of the nonessential words: //if, but, and, it, is//. Look for words that have little or no meaning. Remember that sentence fragments are okay in poetry.
 * Second, look at each word individually. Wherever you can, replace weak words with stronger, more powerful and precises ones. Words that create a picture.
 * Now check the line starts and endings. Make sure your line grabs attention and the line ends finish with an action verb or visual image.
 * Make sure none of your lines is too long. A typical free-verse poetry line is no more than eight words in length. If you need to, cut words or rewrite the line.
 * Read your line aloud to the group.
 * Arrange your lines within the group to make the strongest poetic statement.
 * This activity could be done individually as well.
 * The presenter gave an example of how this was used this in a classroom, as an individual project:
 * This was used in a World History class, where students were studying the Spanish conquest of the Inca people.
 * Students watched the second episode of a National Geographic series called "Guns, Germs, and Steel." This installment discusses the contact and subsequent conquest that occurred when the Spanish met the Inca.
 * Rather than being passive observers of this video, the teacher asked the students to funnel the information into specific viewpoints. After viewing, half the students write letters from the point of view of the Spanish, and half write from the perspective of the Inca, each group examining the advantages and disadvantages both cultures brought to the conflict.
 * Before writing, the teacher gives them the following prompts:
 * //You are there...//The Incas, your people, have lived in a successful culture for centuries, yet, in several months time, has faced virtual devastation at the hands of the Spanish conquerors. Write a letter to future generations that examines the advantages and disadvantages your culture brought to the conflict. Acknowledge the atrocities your people endured but also encourage future generations to feel hopeful and strong.
 * //You are there...// You are a Spanish conqueror. The Incan society you have just discovered offers a wealth of gold and slaves. With their simple weapons and primitive beliefs, these people can be easily defeated. Write a letter to future generations that examines the advantages and disadvantages your culture brought to the conflict.
 * The students had 10 - 20 minutes to do the writing.
 * Once finished, the teacher encouraged the students to look over their video notes so that the letters were grounded in fact, but also that their letters should be personal, including reactions and feelings in order to get the reader to identify with the writer.
 * Then the students did the above Found Poetry exercise with their own letters.
 * I have samples of the letters and poems if you would like to see them.