Juli
Kendall's
2004-05
READING/WRITING
WORKSHOP JOURNAL
Entry #05
Getting Blind-sided Can Be Fun!
I'm watching TV, and all of a sudden there it is.
"If you have arthritis, your vocabulary is about to change." Words like enjoy, envision, enable, and enact float across the screen. And it seems to me that these are the words we need as we are teaching. Enjoy—enjoy what you are doing. Envision—envision how education can change kids lives. Enable—enable students to take on new learning and new challenges. Enact—enact it! (Just do it!) So how did I find myself "teaching" the Journalism Club? I got blindsided. I just didn't see it coming. New principal, new instructional leader, renewed focus on writing, and there it was—the Journalism Club. It's actually a really cool idea. Kids who are in charge of their own school newspaper learning how to select topics, develop questions, interview, research, write, revise, and edit their own articles. Then add in the photography (a picture is worth a thousand words), the page layout, the printing, and the distribution, and it's almost a full time job. But I didn't want it to be for the "gifted" kids. I wanted it to motivate kids who are below grade level to meet, and even exceed, grade level expectations. I wanted to infuse reading and writing into the Journalism Club to act as a springboard for improving students' achievement. Whoa! I picked 31 kids who are just below grade level and invited them to a 45-minute meeting to explain the Journalism Club and hand out applications. I also have a co-teacher, our new principal. It's so exciting to see him working with the kids. They respond positively to his suggestions, especially the idea that they will ultimate help produce our school's new weekly 15 minute TV show, "Wizard TV." The first applications for Journalism Club are starting to come in, and it's so interesting to see how the kids write their reasons for why they want to be reporters for "The Wizard News." (See a PDF of the application.) "I will like to be in the journalism club for the pictures and cartoon drawing. I like to draw some stuff. In class people say, 'Casey, could you draw me something? Could you give me a picture?' My teacher said, 'You should sell some.'" "I would want to be a reporter for Wizard News because I never been on a job before. Only on leadership but I didn't like that so this is why I wanted to be on a TV commercial and I wanted to be here. Thank you." "I would like to be a reporter because I think it is going to be fun. Even though it is hard work. I can still do it because I got chosen to do a newspaper. So that means that I got chosen because I like writing." "I want to be in this club because it is going to be fun, OK? Plus I will be here because I want to be a great reporter and be giving good stuff. Plus I know what is happening in our school. Because I know that I care about the people. Plus I really like to take pictures." "I will like to be a reporter so I know how to write better, have knowledge, and help kids learn how to spell things or tell the people in school what's going on. I can write." As I think about it, the Journalism Club meets all my new requirements for teaching. Enjoy...envision...enable...enact!
Resources page for our Reading/Writing Project
