My small group reading block began the same as every Monday
– students responding to my writing in their dialogue journals. I sat with
Karen, Jessica, Michelle, Anthony and Kevin at the kidney table in the back of
the classroom. Each student came to the table prepared with a pencil and ready
to work in their journals. I set the timer for fifteen minutes and watched as
they anxiously and excitedly read my response to their previous writing. By
now, dialogue journal writing has become routine for students and they
understand expectations. There was no initial conversation, and no questions
asked. After reading what I had written, Jessica, Michelle, and Karen did not
miss a beat; they immediately went to writing their response back. Anthony sat
for three minutes, with pencil in hand, staring from his notebook to the
ceiling. I interpreted this behavior to mean he did not know how he wanted to
begin his response back to me. Kevin showed little interest to what I had
written in his journal, and sat for the first four minutes tapping his pencil
to his cheek, saying, “Hmmmm….” In the first eight minutes, the three girls
were on they way to writing half page responses, while Anthony had filled two
lines on his notebook page. This did not totally surprise me, since he works hard,
but very slow, although he is a very bright student, and came make great
contributions to class discussions. At this time, Michelle looked at me and
said, “I’m done.” I reminded her of our timer and encouraged her to continue
writing for the remaining seven minutes. After a thirty second (or so) pause,
Michelle went right to work. Through her journaling, Michelle does not usually
engage in the conversation aspect of this activity, but tends to stick to
simply answering my questions. However, my most authentic writers, the two
students that I have felt have had the greatest success with this activity, are
Jessica and Karen, and they never seem to struggle with what to say next. Ten
minutes into the writing time, I observed that Kevin had simply restated one of
the questions I had asked him. Up to this point, I had redirected him five
times to stay focused and work on his response. From this observation, I can
infer three things: Kevin is not interested in our current conversation, he is
uninterested in maintaining a dialogue journal with me, and/ or Kevin does not
like to write.
When our fifteen minutes were up, I interviewed the students
on their thoughts and opinions about our journaling activity. I first asked
them, “What do you think about how we write to each other in the journals?”
Jessica, Karen, and Michelle immediately responded, “It’s fun!” When asked why,
Jessica responded, “I like how we are talking to each other without actually
talking.” Karen thought it was fun because we were able to talk to each other
freely. At this question, Kevin and Anthony say quietly and avoided eye contact
with me. So I directed a question to Anthony. I asked, “Anthony, why do you
think we write back and forth to each other? Why do I have you all do this?” His
response was perfect, “To learn from each other and to get to know each other.”
While discussing the students’ likes and dislikes for this activity, Kevin was
pretty quiet; he didn’t seem to have much of an opinion on this activity. When
I asked him if writing to me was hard, he replied, “Yes because you expect us
to think and I don’t like to write.” I further explained how this activity was
not chosen to be too demanding or require intense thinking, however, it
provides us the opportunity to talk with each other, learn about each other,
and share a special conversation we might not have otherwise. At this, Kevin
nodded his head in agreement and the dialogue journal activity concluded. Based
on my conversations with the other four students, this is a fun activity that
they enjoy doing, and it strengthens our relationship.
No comments:
Post a Comment