In this clip, Tai Sear, an English Learner, receives help with his writing from a classmate while I am conferencing with other students. He and his helper, Nicole, are interviewed about how they work together.
Since we cannot always work one-on-one with all of our students, we must rely heavily on them to work together and help each other. Developing this kind of effective cooperative learning environment takes consistent modeling, praise, and practice. However, I find it worth the time and effort when you see kids working together like this.
I think this clip demonstrates how the norms and procedures of a writing workshop make all students in the room feel like valued writers who can help each other. Tai Sear is at beginning levels of English acquisition. He is able to produce some vocabulary, but generating full sentences is a struggle. Yet, he sees himself as a capable writer. He knows that he can get help from Nicole when I am busy, and she feels like a capable writer who can give him the assistance he needs.
| STUDENT: | Say that again. |
| STUDENT: | One home spider. |
| STUDENT: | When he comes home? |
| STUDENT: | Comes home to eat up cupcake. |
| STUDENT: | Chocolate cupcake? |
| STUDENT: | C-A |
| STUDENT: | C-O-L-E-T. |
| STUDENT: | E-T? [Unclear]. |
| STUDENT: | What? What - what happens when he eats the chocolate cupcake? |
| STUDENT: | I don't know. |
| STUDENT: | So put he smashes S-M-A-S-H |
| STUDENT: | I-N-G |
| STUDENT: | No. It smashes, E-S. |
| STUDENT: | E-S |
| STUDENT: | No, the, T-H - the cupcake on his, H-I-S, head. |
| STUDENT: | H? |
| STUDENT: | Head. Right? He smashes it on his head? So H- |
| STUDENT: | E-A-D. |
| STUDENT: | Very good. |
| VISITOR: | Can I ask you a quick question? |
| VISITOR: | So can you tell me about like how do you help what do you do to help them? |
| STUDENT: | He just passed English class. |
| VISITOR: | Oh so what do you guys think - |
| STUDENT: | He thinks of the ideas and you just tell him how to explain it. So - so he does think of the ideas and we just tell him how to explain it and write it down. |
| VISITOR: | Did that help you with your writing? Tai Sear does that help you? So when you ask for help, what kinds of things - how do you ask for help? |
| VISITOR: | Yeah. When you - when you ask for help do you say, how do you say or what - what do you say? It's hard to explain, huh? Is it - is it Nicole? How does Nicole help you? |
| STUDENT: | Help? |
| VISITOR: | Uh-huh, help. |
| STUDENT: | Help read. |
| VISITOR: | Ah. Great thank you. |