Clip Description
In this clip of Izabella's writing conference, she seems to have applied the mini-lesson and put a star on her favorite book. I notice that while Izabella's book has a wonderful drawing, she hasn't added words to the story. I ask her what she wants to write and invite her to the easel to show her where we had previously written the word "parque." She then adds words to her story independently.
Commentary
I showed Izabella how she could use some of the writing in the classroom to add words to her story. I have done mini-lessons demonstrating to students that many words we use in our writing are available around the room and that we can use the walls and posters as a resource to enable us to write independently. This strategy may be especially helpful for my native English speakers because they may not know or remember Spanish vocabulary.
In this conference, I redirected Izabella's interest to the fact that her book should have letters, drawings, and color. If the mini-lesson had not focused on picking our best books then I might have let her draw more - which is what she wanted to do. The goal of this particular session of writing workshop, however, was to select and to publish our favorite books.
Transcript
| TEACHER: |
¿Este libro tiene dibujos excelentes?
This book has excellent drawings? |
| STUDENT: | nods |
| TEACHER: |
Ok. Tiene letras?
Ok. Does it have letters? |
| STUDENT: | shakes head |
| TEACHER: |
No tiene letras? Quieres poner letras aqui?
It doesn't have letters? Do you want to put letters here? |
| STUDENT: | shrugs shoulders |
| TEACHER: |
Y que dice aqui?
And what does it say here? |
| STUDENT: | I'm walking to the statue. Oh! I forgot to draw me! |
| TEACHER: |
Ok, Isabella, piensas que puedes poner algunas letras? Algunas letras? De que es esto? Este es el parque?
Ok, Isabella, do you think you can put some letters? Some letters? What is this [drawing] of? Is this the park? |
| STUDENT: | Yes. |
| TEACHER: |
Quieres escribir "parque"?
Do you want to write "park"? |
| STUDENT: | Yeah. |
| TEACHER: |
Sabes? Parrr, que?
Do you know how? Parrrr, que? |
| STUDENT: | shakes head |
| TEACHER: |
Sabes donde esta? Ven, ven aqui conmigo, ven. Trae tu libro y yo te voy a enseñar la palabra parque. Ok? Vamos. Con tu libro, y tu lapiz.
Do you know where it is? Come, come here with me, come. Bring your book and I'm going to show you the word "park". Ok? Let's go, with your book, and your pencil. They walk across room to a large pad of paper on an easel. |
| TEACHER: |
Te acuerdas la palabra "parque"? Vamos al...
Do you remember the word "park"? Let's go to the... |
| STUDENT: |
Parque.
Park. |
| TEACHER: |
Parque! Aqui está "parque". Ok?
Park! Here is "park". Ok? |
| STUDENT: | Student writes "parque" on her paper. |
