Clip Description
Here Ely explains how he thinks of a story. As you will see, Ely has a large vocabulary and high meta-cognitive ability. He has also taken on a lot of Spanish and tried to incorporate that into his writing as well. Ely also does a great job of explaining how to sound out letters and write them.
Commentary
I'm happy Ely is doing all of this good thinking. I also know that he is kind of a special case - typically, not many kindergartners will share this kind of thought process. But after watching this video interview, I realized I could teach kids how "thinking" might look. I could have a mini-lesson about how to put your pencil on your chin while thinking, for example.
Transcript
| VISITOR: |
Puedes decir.. cual libro escogiste?
Can you tell me, which book did you pick? |
| STUDENT: | This is, um, a very good book about things that might happen... |
| VISITOR: | Really? |
| STUDENT: | ...when you're... when you're , um, when you might go to a fair. |
| VISITOR: | Oh! Things that might happen when you might go to a fair? Can you read me that book? |
| STUDENT: | Yeah. There might be brick walls... that, the sun would shine down on you and it would make a shadow, see? It says 'Sol la mi.' |
| VISITOR: | Wow! |
| STUDENT: | And this says 'uvas' because I'm eating... |
| VISITOR: | What are you eating? |
| STUDENT: | Uvas! |
| VISITOR: | Uvas. And what's 'uvas'? |
| STUDENT: | Because we were having lunch. Uvas is, um, 'grapes' in Spanish. And this is me saying 'Adios!' because I'm done with my ice cream, and I was throwing it in the trash. See? There's the trash can, and I lifted up the lid... bye bye ice cream and the ice cream cone! |
| VISITOR: | That's excellent. So, Ely, can you tell me... is there another page, or is that the end? |
| STUDENT: | Another. |
| VISITOR: | Okay. Tell me about the last page. |
| STUDENT: | This says 'La, mi, family'. |
| VISITOR: | and is that a picture of your family? |
| STUDENT: | Yeah. That's my sister, that's me, that's my mom, that's my dad. |
| VISITOR: | Oh! Okay. So Ely, tell me a little bit, what do you think about when you're writing? How do you decide something that you're going to write about? |
| STUDENT: | I just think of it first, with my pen, with my pen on my chin... |
| VISITOR: | You think of it with your pen? |
| STUDENT: | No, I think about it with my pen on my chin. |
| VISITOR: | Oh, yeah? Can you show me? |
| STUDENT: | Like this. |
| VISITOR: | Mmmm. Is that what you look like when you're thinking about what to write? |
| STUDENT: | Yes. Like this. |
| VISITOR: | Awesome. And so do you draw the pictures first, or do you write the words first? |
| STUDENT: | I write the words first, and then, once I look at the words, I know what I'm going to write, so that's why I write the words first. |
| VISITOR: | That's awesome. What's your favorite thing about writing? |
| STUDENT: | Um, it's about that whenever I write far away from home, or close to home but not in my home, it makes me feel better once I draw a picture of my home, it makes me feel like I'm, I'm really for real at my home. |
| VISITOR: | Oh! |
| STUDENT: | But really, I'm just at school and I made a picture. |
| VISITOR: | So is it, like, writing helps you imagine your home? |
| STUDENT: | Yeah. |
| VISITOR: | That's cool! Now have you ever read any of your friends' writing in the class? Have you read any stories that your friends have written? |
| STUDENT: | No. |
| VISITOR: | So you guys pretty much just write by yourselves, then? |
| STUDENT: | I only wrote one, I only looked at one, which was (inaudible). |
| VISITOR: | So what would you say you're learning how to do as a writer right now? What are you learning how to do? What's hard for you about writing? |
| S2: | Is this yours? |
| STUDENT: | No. |
| STUDENT: | It's about Spanish, it's hard for me to write in Spanish. But now, since I've learned words, it makes me think about the sounds, which makes me think about the sounds of the letters, so I listen to the sounds in my head, of the letters, in Spanish, and then I write them down! |
| VISITOR: | That's awesome! So are you getting ready to write some words on those pages? |
| STUDENT: | No, I'm about to color these houses in. |
| VISITOR: | Oh, okay. Can I take some pictures of the story that you showed me? |
| STUDENT: | Sure. |
