Term 1 Action: Establishing a Writing Blog

While I had played around with a writing blog 2-3 years ago, it never really got off the ground.

This year Writing Rocks is our place to present work in progress, elicit constructive comments and re-work our writing in response to those comments.

We have been using this blog as a place to set writing challenges, attach resources and from which to promote our writing community.  It is from this blog that pieces ready for final publication are later posted to the Team Endeavour Blog.  Pieces are then converted into movies, e-books and other exciting publishing options.

Action:

• Model more - steps, editing, process with teacher writing, photos of student drafting etc.
• Break down the 'Writing Process' steps clearly
• Provide more links to motivators and challenges for 'Writing Seeds' and free choice writing
• Continue to promote work on this blog through teacher and class Twitter

Teaching and recognising constructive commenting

After being 'Focus Blog' for #comments4kids, we received a huge influx of viewers and comments.  While all of the comments boosted motivation and added sense of our audience, only a few comments were valuable for use in the editing process. These following comments were in response to Josephine's 100 word challenge blog post. 

1. 
   Thomas B (Sarajevo)18 April 2013 22:08

   Dear Josephine,
   I am Thomas, one of the kids from QSI International School of Sarajevo. I like how you were so imaginary of the challenge, how the moon melted, and you slid into the gooey middle. I have also done something like that before, although you have to make a story using a specific group of words, not amount. The moon though, because of its G-Forces to Earth, most likely wouldn’t melt. Speaking of school work, I am doing a blog, http://classypotatoblog.weebly.com/ that I would think you would enjoy. One last thing; does the boy look like he fell in mud in the picture? Well, hope to hear back!
   Sincerely,
   Thomas B.
2. 
   Aziza19 April 2013 01:06

   This was a really good piece of writing! It was really imaginative and fun to read. If you want to see my school blog here's a link to it http://classycupcakeblog.weebly.com/
3. 
   Anonymous20 April 2013 00:46

   Sarah
   
   I love your piece of writing. Very creative!
4. 
   Anonymous20 April 2013 00:47

   Wow sounds like you had a good time. That was a great story and I liked the deatail
5. 
   Anonymous20 April 2013 00:48

   My name is Jelena and I think it was fun and if you really want to go to the moon you should get a rocket to go there!!!

Anonymous20 April 2013 01:06

Loooove it! I especially like the part where you go to the moon. Very exciting! From Selma (QSI Sarajevo, 3rd grade)

The first comment from Thomas was the only one to discuss the actual writing rather than just a personal response to the content.  He discussed the use of words then challenged the writer to look more carefully at the child in the image and incorporate a description of their face.  Thomas also pointed out the scientific improbability of this piece, acknowledging the writer's imaginary approach.

Action:

• Teach students to recognise the difference between social and constructive commenting
• Review writing comment success criteria and paste checklist in drafting books
• List the next steps a writer could take in response to a constructive comment

Student responses to writing posts should always be constructive and give the author ideas on how to improve their work.  This requires them to have an understanding of the success criteria for any type of writing and make an evaluative decision on the next steps they would take if it was their own work.  This can only strengthen the editing of their own writing as they have learned to recognise achieved success criteria and identify next steps learning.

Term 1 Action: Making connections

Another step I took was to sign up with #comments4kids in an attempt to increase the size of our audience.

Signing up for #comments 4kids
Results:
We were the 'Focus Blog' for Team Endeavour and Writing Rocks for two consecutive days.  The response was huge on both with the Endeavour Blog visitors increasing from an average of under 100 to a massive 371 and on Writing Rocks the audience increased from and average of 5 to totals of 70, 60 and 26 in the following days.  This also resulted in four new comment sources on Team Endeavour and 19 new comments on Writing Rocks.


















Action: (after the holidays)

• Analyse the source of our audience, the quality of the comments we received
• Respond in kind with constructive comments and a link to Writing Rocks URL to encourage further interaction with what was mainly QSIS 10 Year Old Class  a class of international students in Sarajevo. 

Term 1 Action: Constructive Commenting

Whilst still researching, I did get started on a number of steps within the class writing challenge.

Teaching constructive commenting - with clear success criteria
Results:
We can confidently explain the success criteria of a blog comment but constructive comments given by students tend to only happen when there is a whole class focus and not when they are independently writing comments.

Comments before training:
18.2.13   We relly love the movie and we think we are in the movie the little aliens are cool. 

Comments during a class focus session:
5.3.13      Nice work Liam I like your simillie. Maybe next time you could put an alliteration like silent sleepy shadows. And what does he sound like when he speaks? By Phelix and Alfonso. 

7.3.13       Hi Chloe and Maggie Your writing makes me wonder where he is and why is he there? It really paints a picture in my mind.

2.4.13     Maggie, I really like the way that you used similes to describe the clock and the character in your story. It looks spooky as the clock face shimmers like the soft sky. You have also used adjectives to describe things like...glowing roof tiles, golden light. This makes the story interesting for people to read. Next time you could add another simile. joshua.g (Scribed by teacher)

Independent comments: (comment from home)
4.4.13  Well done lucy I read it to my sister and brother they both loved your shadow story. Daniella 

Action:

• Further analysis of comments in groups and whole class.  
• Learning about social vs. constructive comments.  
• Comments success criteria checklist poster from the class wall copied and pasted in individual draft books for reference.