• Home
  • ABOUT
  • Knowledge Base
    • About Writing
    • Content-Area Literacy
    • Digital Learning
    • English Learners
    • Equity & Access
    • Leading Professional Learning
    • Program Design
    • Teacher as Writer
    • Teacher Inquiry
  • Blog
    • Events & Opportunities
    • NWP Radio
    • Marginal Syllabus
  • Books
  • Contact
  • NWP.org
  • Home
  • ABOUT
  • Knowledge Base
    • About Writing
    • Content-Area Literacy
    • Digital Learning
    • English Learners
    • Equity & Access
    • Leading Professional Learning
    • Program Design
    • Teacher as Writer
    • Teacher Inquiry
  • Blog
    • Events & Opportunities
    • NWP Radio
    • Marginal Syllabus
  • Books
  • Contact
  • NWP.org

When Third-Grade Writers Do Case Studies

85 views 0

Author: Janet Kiddoo

Summary: Bilingual third grade students acted as helpers to first graders in a collaborative writing workshop. The third grade teacher guided her students through a process similar to teacher inquiry–to reflect on their own experiences as writers in order to help the younger writers, to take notes on their experiences as teacher/tutors, and to carefully think through the problems encountered and results obtained in order to improve their practice. This article models three useful practices in a writing context: 1) students as researchers; 2) older students as tutors to younger; and 3) reflective practice in writing and teaching.

Original Date of Publication: Spring 1996


Excerpt

Download “When Third-Grade Writers Do Case Studies”

Looking back at my students’ notes a year after this experience, I found that these novice teacher-researchers had faced the same kind of problems and made the same kind of discoveries as their adult counterparts.
 
Like adults, the young researchers were sometimes dismayed by how little their students knew. “Yo aprendi que los ninos de primer grado no saven escrivir muy bien” (I learned that first graders don’t write very well), said Daniel, a very logical third grader. I responded with a plea for understanding. “Son muy jovenes!” (They’re very young!). And while it may have taken these third graders a while to adjust to these beginning writers, they also came to realize that their students made more progress when they were encouraged rather than criticized. Irma wrote, “[I did] not say anything mean because that would have made the first grader feel bad.” The mentors came to aprpeciate small steps: “Ya está mejorando poco a poco” (He is improving little by little).

 

Related Resources

  • Resources for Educators of English Language Learners: An Annotated Bibliography
  • Creating Intentional Communities to Support English Language Learners in the Classroom

Original Source: National Writing Project, https://www.nwp.org/cs/public/print/resource/1217

  • Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Pinterest (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Pocket (Opens in new window)
  • Click to print (Opens in new window)
  • Click to email a link to a friend (Opens in new window)
Tags:elementarydual languagebilingual/biculturalculturally relevant/responsivewriting workshop

Would you recommend this resource to others?

Yes  No
ABOUT

write.learn.lead. is a collection of resources, insights, and reflections from National Writing Project teacher-leaders. You can also find us at nwp.org and Educator Innovator.

SEARCH BY TAG
access advocacy art badge bibliography Building New Pathways to Leadership career technical coaching college/university community connected learning coronavirus cross-disciplinary dual language elementary environmental studies framework grammar/correctness immigrant journalism KB Feature key reading language acquisition math multimodal music online learning out of school literacies parent involvement partnership poetry reading reading/writing connection research revision school-year program social justice standards student samples teacher leadership technology testing urban video writing process
NWP Logo
NWP ON THE WEB
NWP.org
Educator Innovator
The Current
STAY CONNECTED WITH NWP
Get more great resources on teaching and writing delivered to your inbox every month by subscribing to our Write Now Newsletter.
  • © 2020 National Writing Project. All Rights Reserved. Privacy Policy | Terms of Use

 

Loading Comments...