What do you do when you have a handful of students that are unable to perform the task you have assigned? Last week, while my class of third graders wrote out their final drafts of their Greek Myths, I worked with each of my four struggling writers individually. These four students had written first drafts that were pretty incomprehensible. A couple of these students knew what their story was, but couldn’t express it in writing. One student had a beginning, then veered off into personal experiences unrelated to the topic. She needed a lot of guidance to come up with a plot.
This is what I do with each of these students:
We sit together at a table. He/she reads me their story. I rewrite it using simple sentences. I try to pare the story down to about six to eight sentences. If they have trouble reading their work (which may be a jumble of words lacking coherence)I ask them to tell me the story. With appropriate prompting I manage to get a story out, which I write down using their words. I learned this method of teaching writing (the Language Experience Approach) back when I was doing coursework for my teaching credential. I have found it to be very effective – especially for students who are still developing English fluency.
On Monday my session with one of my students went like this:
Me: Who is the hero in your story?
Student: Sandy.
Me: Tell me about Sandy in a sentence.
Student: Sandy was a hero, was a brave hero.
Me: Sandy was a brave hero. I wrote the sentence down. What happened to Sandy?
Student: There was a monster and the mother was crying.
Me: The monster’s mother was crying?
Student: No. The monster took her kid away.
Me: Oh, so that was the problem in your story. How about you make a sentence about the monster?
Student: A monster took a kid away.
I wrote down the sentence.
Me: Where did the monster live?
Student: In a hill, in a cave.
Me: Now tell it to me in a sentence.
Student: The monster lived in a cave.
Me: So what have written so far? Let’s read it.
Sandy was a brave hero. A monster took a kid away. The monster lived in a cave.
Then what happened?
Student: Sandy went to the cave with a club.
I wrote down her sentence.
Me: Uh-huh? And?
Student: He saw the monster and killed it.
Me: Is that the end? What about the kid?
Student: Sandy took her back to the mother.
Me: Sandy took the kid back to her mother.(I wrote).
With a pleased smile the student took her story and final draft paper to her desk to copy the sentences that she had dictated and I had written.
A session like this takes me about ten minutes. Time management is an issue. Most of my students are finishing up their final drafts while I’m working with individual students. I usually have them moving on to some other assignment that they can work on independently.
To end, here is a sample of a story written by one of my past students.
Schulz, The Greek Hero
By Wesley
Schulz, the Greek hero, was an amazing swordsman. He could split an arrow blindfolded. The king called Schulz to the castle. “What do you need, father?”
“I will have a feast tonight. All our soldiers are coming home.”
“Yes, Father. I will tell the cooks to prepare for the feast.”
“Wait.”
“Yes, Father?”
“Go practice with your sword.”
As Schulz was walking he heard a voice. “Who’s there?” he said in shock.
“It’s me, Poseidon.”
“I can only hear you.”
“I know.”
“I must warn you the feast will be shocking.”
“I must go now, but I have so much to ask you.”
“The time will come. You must be going now.” In shock Schulz walked away. While he was walking he thought about what he would say to his father. He heard something in the bushes.
“Who’s there?”
“It’s me, your father. Come on.” When Schulz walked in he saw many people. He asked one of the soldiers how it was.
“Amazing.”
Right after that the king was going to say something when the castle shook. Then Hades appeared in the middle of the room and said, “I will send the Titan in one week.”
As he was speaking, Schulz said, “I will leave tomorrow morning and I will bring back Medusa’s head and kill the Titan.” The next day Schulz set off. Six days later he came back and saw the Titan. A monster with a man’s body, the tail of a snake, the head of a lizard, and the arms of an octopus. Schulz ran and showed the head of Medusa. The Titan collapsed and smashed into the sea. The crowd cheered.
That night they had a feast. Then Schulz heard Poseidon. “Hello, I know something,” Poseideon said. “I am your father.”
Here’s another sample story. A handwritten copy of this story appears in my previous blog entry.
Hegestus and the Howling Werewolf
By Alexander
Long, long ago there was a boy named Hegestus. When he was very young two lions attacked him. He ran as fast as light across the room and onto the ceiling. With his incredible strength he pulled away a pillar that help up the ceiling, and smashed the lions with it.
One day, when he was grown up a messenger came to the kingdom where Hegestus lived. The messenger went to the king and said. “A terrible werewolf is attacking our town. We call him the howling werewolf, and he lives in the biggest tree in the deep, dark forest. Please help us!”
Hegestus overheard the messenger and jumped into the room. “I will destroy this werewolf who is eating the people of the town,” he said. He pulled out his sword and ran off to his chariot with the messenger. “Tell me the way to get to the town,” he said to the frightened messenger.
“Go right until I say stop. Then go straight forward.” Hegestus obeyed the messenger. Soon they were in the deep, dark forest. “You must continue your adventure without me. Go into the forest until you see a huge tree. That is where he lives.” And at that the messenger ran off as fast as he could.
Hegestus rode into the forest until he saw a tree as big as the palace he lived in. He stopped the chariot and got out of the cart. He saw sharp claws that glowed in the moonlight. He knew at once he was looking at the howling werewolf’s claws.
The werewolf jumped out of the tree onto Hegestus. Suddenly Poseidon, God of the Sea, and Apollo, God of the sun, appeared. Apollo gave him a sun disk and Poseidon gave him his trident and then they disappeared. Hegestus stabbed the werewolf with his sword. The werewolf howled and took a step back. Then Hegestus used Poseidon’s trident to make a giant wave appear that got the werewolf soaked. The werewolf jumped at Hegestus, scratching him with his claws. Hegestus used Apollo’s sun disk to blind the werewolf, then he stabbed it with his sword again. It fell back, dead.
The next day he went back to the kingdom.
No comments:
Post a Comment