Vanessa’s High-Performing, Inclusive Classroom

As we enter the classroom, some students are working in small groups, some in teams, and some individually. Vanessa explains that her students are engaged in pre-writing activities as part of the Writer’s Workshop. They are generating and gathering ideas prior to drafting character studies. Vanessa invites us to walk around the room with her. “The children will tell you what they are doing.”

We first stop to talk with five students who sit cross-legged on the floor, each with an AlphaSmart (portable keyboard) on his or her lap. Using a round robin strategy, the students take turns writing sentences that describe a person doing a good deed. When Jimmy offers, “The boy held out his hand to help the old man cross the street,” the four other students nod their approval. Later, after these students download their preliminary ideas into the computer, they will have them to refer to in generating a first draft of their character study.

On the other side of the classroom we sit down with three students peering intently into a beautiful book of photographic essays of people from around the world. As they examine the photos they write words describing the people on different colored sticky notes. Then they attach the notes to the edge of the pages. The red sticky notes indicate physical features, the blue ones are used to record a skill or talent, and so on. Later, they will pull off the sticky notes to make a word collage on poster board, grouping the words by color. This strategy will help Jennifer, who finds referring to word and phrase lists very useful when generating a first draft.

Next, we join six students who are seated at a round table. They take turns re-reading aloud Chapter 4 in Charlotte’s Web. Each student, armed with a different colored highlighter tape, has been assigned a character. Whenever they see a trait mentioned about their character, they tear off a piece of tape from a scotch-tape type of dispenser and lay it over the word, phrase, or sentence. Later they will select text they want to copy into their journals. Mary interjects, “Charlotte’s Web is my favorite book.” Vanessa later tells us that she had used this knowledge about Mary’s interests to keep her motivated. Adding the physical task of tearing off the highlighter tape and placing it on the text was another boost to keep Mary engaged. After the students record seeds of ideas in their journals, Vanessa will work with them to grow the seeds into first drafts.

Vanessa directs us over to Nathan and Sammy, who are tape recording their conversation. They are describing family traits of parents, grandparents, aunts, and uncles. Through observation, she has come to realize that having them generate ideas orally into a tape recorder as a pre-drafting activity gives them a record of their thinking. Listening to the tape later helps them produce a solid first draft.

Vanessa has carefully placed four computers near the front of the room. Today, all are in use by students who felt ready to start some early writing (a pre-first draft) about their favorite characters from stories they read. Lauren tells us she is using a talking word processor to determine if her language “sounds right.” Calli, with low vision, has changed her computer’s font to 16 point and changed the background color to pink for more contrast. Juan is using a word prediction software program to cut down on the motor demands of keyboarding. He is looking over a menu of words to pick the next word he wants in his sentence. This menu of words is “predicted” based on grammar and the first two letters of the word he has already typed. He knows that he can choose a word from the menu by saying the word, highlighting it, or typing in the number of the word. Connie is using the software program Draft:Builder to help her organize ideas, create an outline, and draft text.

Vanessa tells us that after we leave she will circulate around the classroom, listening to students, offering advice, asking probing questions, reminding students to look at the rubrics on the bulletin board and in their notebooks, and suggesting that they create or select a piece of work to add to their portfolios. She keeps notes on what is happening and what students need next in order to continue drafting.

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