October 8, 2009
The secure link to this file is below. Take, tweak, share. The categories were my invention, but all other wording you see here is the production of group draft on a digital projector while I edited and typed according to class input. This was not purely democratic– I chose a day where I saw all my classes, ran the first class’ draft through the second class, the second class’ draft through the third, and so on, calling it a day by the end of school at 3:30 PM– but it worked. What you see here, then, is a pure kid take on what they believed successful behavior looked like in each of the arenas I wanted to assess.
This was the rubric I then gave back to them on the following Monday, asking them to both rate themselves and give themselves percentages. The latter was for the sake of our rubric-unfriendly report card, otherwise I would not have included it.
You will find some small errors in it, as I did, too late– I think the production of it drained my editing energy– but nothing that changes the essential meaning of the document. You’ll also note that is purely behavioral. This is deliberate. In the workshop model, it is essential to frontload procedures and behaviors, so that the kids can be “set free” to work productively later while you then add in content mini-lessons and conferences. Nancie Atwell managed to take an entire quarter to focus on procedural knowledge when she pioneered workshop at Boothbay Elementary in Maine. I get five weeks max, or important people start to question my rigor. I do the best I can. It seems to be working. More on that later, perhaps, when I get a chance to think about the perfect “Workshop Procedures in Five Weeks.”
The kids invariably found better and more precise wording for a number of things on the rubric, including my favorite: that “2″ level effort on “Writing Workshop” could include someone dealing with interruptions with good intentions, but “unnecessary actions.” I can see that kid clear as day, can’t you? “Dude, you HAVE TO BE QUIET, OK? It’s WRITING WORKSHOP! GEEZ!”
Enjoy.
http://www.box.net/shared/3efkxtqz8c
October 9th, 2009 at 12:59 am
Hi,
When I think of a workshop I picture a lot of cooperative learning and discussion on one subject. I appreciate that the kids are involved in their own books of their choice, their own reading and writing, but I was wondering whether you could/ or did introduce some cooperative learning , conferencing and discussion amongst the pupils. If some are reading the same book , they could make a joint presentation or a 15 minute play about what they have read , different books could be more challenging but possible. I like the idea that the real learning takes place when kids discuss what they are reading or writing.
Allan