Today was the first day in Mrs. Bradshaw's class.  The session started with Frances telling a few stories.  This was a great engaging activity.  The students were all very interested and attentitive.  Next, we broke into small groups and shared a few stories of our own.  This was a good time to get to know some of the students and get them more comfortable with us.  Alberta shared a wonderful book that she brought with the students and they seemed to really enjoy the story.  I am looking forward to the next 9 weeks.  It should be intriguing to see what kind of progress the students make on their own family stories.

 

9/20/07

     The class today was interesting.  We didn't get a chance to work directly with the students, but we saw them interact as a whole group with Mrs. Bradshaw.  We went over the 6 traits of writing and a few people shared their I Am From poems.  It was nice to see the students reactions to the poems.  I am expecting that the next few weeks will be very fun and beneficial.  The students seem to be enthusiastic about having us in the class and I hope we can keep them intrigued. 

 

9/27/07

     Today we met the two students that we will be working with throughout the semester.  We went out front and shared some stories that we might want to write about.  It was funny, some of these stories that the kids were telling me about were really scary.  Both of them seemed to have a ghost story theme, and had several stories to share.  I tried to relate by sharing some things that I was afraid of as a child.  I am wondering how the students are going to want to write some of these stories.  Putting them down on paper may be a bit more difficult than just sharing them in a relaxed environment.

 

10/4/07

     This class went great today.  Both students completed at least one web and had several idea's that they may want to write about.  I was surprized that neither of the students brought up the ghost story theme.  They both wanted to write about different trips that they had recently went on, one to Pheonix and the other to Albuquerque.  One of the students that was writting about Pheonix made up a great story when I was trying to get him to tell me about the long road trip to Pheonix.  He quickly said "it only took about 45 min. to get there from Denver."  I naturally was curious about this and began to prode the student as to how this worked out.  He casually said "we took a helicopter".  After I asked several questions about this he admitted that he was just kidding, but he had me going for a few minutes.

 

10/11/07

     The students began writing their stories today.  One of the students wrote about a page and tried to complete it very quickly.  I think that it needs more and needs to be more precise then what it is now.  She does not want to adjust it though, or at least did not want to today.  The other student is having a tough time staying focused.  He is talking about a few great idea's but has not been able to put much down on paper.  It will be a challange to get these stories completed over the next few weeks.

 

10/18/07

     The class today was great.  The students both worked efficiently.  The one student that I was worried about staying focused worked well today.  He was able to write well over a page and still is not finished.  I was impressed with his ability to stay on task.  The other student completed her story, but it still needs to be revised quite a bit.  Next week I will have both of their stories typed and ready to try to complete.  I hope we can agree on where to spilt the pages and how to revise the stories to make them as interesting as possible. 

 

10/25/07

     This session went Ok.  I typed up the stories and let the students work on them today.  The student that had completed her story is very reluctant to change anything.  I was able to convince her to add a bit more though.  We decided on where to break the pages up as well.  The other student completed his story today and I will try to have it typed for our next meeting. 

 

11/08/07

     Today the students made their final changes and rivisions for their stories.  We were able to work out any last minute changes and decided on where they would have their pages broken up.  Today was a very good day.  It is exciting to see the students wrapping up the editing process. 

 

11/15/07

     The students both had their edited stories delivered to them earlier this week.  When I arrived today they just had a few adjustments to make on their pictures.  We worked on reading them out loud and makeing them sound fluent.  They have both put a lot of work into this project.  It is great to see the finished products.