Delving Deeper

This week we continued to learn about the features of persuasive writing.  We created a video to help us recall what they are, and to refer back to when we get stuck or want to identify our next learning step.

Unfortunately a couple of our group members were absent on Friday, so we will try and record their learning this week and get the video up as soon as we have done this.

This week we also moved our OREO writing activity about COOLs onto Word Online.  In doing this we were able to continue to add to our ideas, and highlight the features of persuasive language we were using.  This is a really powerful tool that helps us to see our learning in action.

Here are some screenshots of our work:

Remember, these are a work in progress and are still working documents.  

You can click on them to make them larger.

Did you spot the great example of Repetition in one of these pieces of writing?

Features of Persuasive Writing

This week we have started to look at the different features of persuasive writing.  As you can see, there are lots of different features for us to learn about:

Each lesson we are hoping to look at one of these features, although if we need to spend more time on some of them we will.  Likewise, if the group feel confident that they already understand a feature, we will move through it must faster.  This is a great example of why student voice in our classrooms is so important!

On Tuesday we looked at Rhetorical Questions.  We learnt that these are questions that make the audience think.  You will not get an answer, but they challenge the reader, entice them, make them think, feel guilty or examine their conscience.

There are 3 types of rhetorical questions:

Challenge questions - These questions encourage the audience to take a stand - Are you enough of a man?

Guilt inducing questions - These questions are written to make the reader feel bad - Can you watch this poor child suffer?

Enticing questions - These questions are designed to tempt you into something, to make you want it.  How can you refuse?

In order to earn a second OREO the students needed to add at least one rhetorical question to their piece of writing and highlight it.  You can see these at the bottom of this post.  Remember, you can make any picture bigger by clicking on it.

On Wednesday we looked at persuasive words and phrases.  We brainstormed a list of the different ways we could share our opinions:

The students then needed to go back to their writing and circle the persuasive words and phrases they had used.  Some students decided they could replace some of the words they had written with more interesting ones, which was great!  They also were pleased to see this chart go up on the wall as a reference for them to use.

We also learnt about modal verbs.  This is a helping verb that is used to express a persons ability, permission or obligation to do something.

The most common ones are:

• Can/could/be able to
• May/might
• Shall/should
• Must/have to
• Will/would

I didn't share this list with the student, but instead asked them to brainstorm all of the words that could follow the word You in a piece of persuasive writing.  They did a fantastic job to come up with this list:

On Thursday we looked at 3-point lists.  This is a technique often used in persuasive writing where the author uses lists of three.  They seem to have a special rhythm that sticks in the mind and gets the message across.  We had great fun playing a simple game that required the students to give 3-point lists:

Tomorrow we will be all about making it personal - Getting the reader involved by using words like you or making them feel part of something by saying we.  We will also start filling in our Persuasive Language Features Charts, and transferring our persuasive piece of writing onto a device - We are running out of room on our pieces of paper!

Features of Persuasive Writing

This week we have started to look at the different features of persuasive writing.  As you can see, there are lots of different features for us to learn about:

Each lesson we are hoping to look at one of these features, although if we need to spend more time on some of them we will.  Likewise, if the group feel confident that they already understand a feature, we will move through it must faster.  This is a great example of why student voice in our classrooms is so important!

On Tuesday we looked at Rhetorical Questions.  We learnt that these are questions that make the audience think.  You will not get an answer, but they challenge the reader, entice them, make them think, feel guilty or examine their conscience.

There are 3 types of rhetorical questions:

Challenge questions - These questions encourage the audience to take a stand - Are you enough of a man?

Guilt inducing questions - These questions are written to make the reader feel bad - Can you watch this poor child suffer?

Enticing questions - These questions are designed to tempt you into something, to make you want it.  How can you refuse?

In order to earn a second OREO the students needed to add at least one rhetorical question to their piece of writing and highlight it.  You can see these at the bottom of this post.  Remember, you can make any picture bigger by clicking on it.

On Wednesday we looked at persuasive words and phrases.  We brainstormed a list of the different ways we could share our opinions:

<photo to come>

The students then needed to go back to their writing and circle the persuasive words and phrases they had used.  Some students decided they could replace some of the words they had written with more interesting ones, which was great!  They also were pleased to see this chart go up on the wall as a reference for them to use.

We also learnt about modal verbs.  This is a helping verb that is used to express a persons ability, permission or obligation to do something.

The most common ones are:

• Can/could/be able to
• May/might
• Shall/should
• Must/have to
• Will/would

I didn't share this list with the student, but instead asked them to brainstorm all of the words that could follow the word You in a piece of persuasive writing.  They did a fantastic job to come up with this list:

<photo to come>

On Thursday we looked at 3-point lists.  This is a technique often used in persuasive writing where the author uses lists of three.  They seem to have a special rhythm that sticks in the mind and gets the message across.  We had great fun playing a simple game that required the students to give 3-point lists:

Tomorrow we will be all about making it personal - Getting the reader involved by using words like you or making them feel part of something by saying we.  We will also start filling in our Persuasive Language Features Charts, and transferring our persuasive piece of writing onto a device - We are running out of room on our pieces of paper!

How do you eat your OREO's?

To help us understand the structure of persuasive writing, we brought OREOs into the classroom today!  While we had a great time eating them, and completing the OREO challenge - the purpose of this was to help the students understand and remember to write using their OREOs:

O pinion
R eason
E xample
O pinion

We used the latest announcement from Hekia Parata, the Minister of Education about Community Of Online Learning (COOL) as our base board for our work today.  We listened carefully for the different perspectives given in the report - knowing that facts are valuable, and therefore could be something we could include in our own writing.  We wrote them around the outside of the clip - which is why they look so strange.

<iframe src='//players.brightcove.net/3921507366001/73568996-99ce-4b17-abd9-39751fa59035_default/index.html?videoId=5095070220001' allowfullscreen frameborder=0></iframe>

We talked about what COOLs were, how they would work and looked at some of the media coverage from this announcement.  Interestingly, the students formed their opinions about these very quickly, and not in the way I was expecting!  Unanimously, the students thought this was a bad idea - no matter how much I tried to (strategically) convince them otherwise!  I thought and had prepared to argue the opposite!

The students brainstormed their ideas, and then ranked them according to their strengths.  They also needed to decide who they wanted to be their audience - with many of them asking me if they could send their writing to the Minister when they finish!  It was great to see such a buzz!

Fact or Opinion?

As we start moving into persuasive writing, we have had to explore what the difference is between fact and opinion.

As a group, we decided that an opinion is:

• Your own thoughts and ideas
• Your point of view
• Your preference

Opinions are all about YOU!

We then talked about facts.  We decided that facts provide:

• Real information
• Proven Points
• Information supported by others

Facts help to change the readers mind.

The purpose of persuasive writing is to change the audience (readers) thinking.

There is a place for both facts and opinions in persuasive writing.

To help us understand the difference between facts and information, we looked at a selection of online examples of persuasive writing.  As we read each example we looked for evidence of facts and opinions, circled them and ticked them off on the whiteboard.  You can see from this that facts are really important in Persuasive writing.  This is the reason why we started with report writing this term.  To write a great piece of persuasive writing - you need to know your stuff!  Our Opinions must be backed up with Reasons and Examples.  We also need to keep thinking about the Purpose of our piece of writing, and who the Audience is.

At the end of each piece we voted on the topic, and then got quite involved in looking at the statistics!  The students were particularly interested in the differences between the way the boys and the girls voted, and how younger students, and Grade 5 students voted.  It was fascinating to see the differences in the data.

Here are links to the persuasive writing examples we looked at (there are hundreds more on the website that you can read at home!)

Should circuses stop using wild animals? Should students learn a foreign language? Should schools allow cell phones? Should kids have a TV in their bedrooms?

Learning in Context

This week we had a group of students from Japan arrive at Rangeview.  We greeted them on Wednesday morning with a whole school Powhiri, and as many of the students in our ALL group are also in Kapa Haka, we felt it was important that the students attended this event.

The students shared with us information about Japan, and also their school - Atagohama.  This was a great example of report writing in action - with factual information that had specifically been designed for our students.  It also provided a great context for us to compare the quality of information we had written in our own reports and reconsider whether it was the best information to have included.

This week we also spent some time talking about the importance of a really strong introduction.  We talked about how the introduction of a report is where you will convince the reader that it is worth taking the time to read the rest of what you have written.

I have started putting together the Powerpoint presentation that we are using within our ALL group.  This will be added to in preparation for each session, and by putting it here it means that you, as parents are able to talk through these key points with your child, and they are also able to access it to support them with their learning in other classes here at school.

Teaching and Learning Resources to support ALL students.  Click to view.

We have been using these resources to rework the introductions for our reports that we started last week.  We started by improving our own introduction, before sharing this in small groups for feedback.  We then identified the best parts from each and used these to recreate a collaborative introduction on the HP streams.

Here is the link to our collaborative report 

We will be working to complete this next week before choosing an Olympics based theme to write our next report on.  The highlighted words in these introductions indicate the topic specific vocabularly that was used.  These words were selected by members of the other group, helping them to engage in and critically read the work of others.

Competition is alive and well!

This term our English classes are focusing on two types of writing: Report Writing and Persuasive Writing.  These two text types compliment each other quite nicely as in order to convince someone of something, you need to be able to support it with factual information.

With this in mind, we started the week with a Venn Diagram that helped to show the difference between Narrative writing (that they students did last term) and what they already knew about report writing.  Through discussion we came to the realisation that there are some features that are important in both text types.

This week we started to compile a list of all of the things we know about Rangeview.  We needed to consider what ideas were important to share with others (purpose), who would be interested in reading this information (audience), and we needed to ensure that our ideas were appropriate.

This was more challenging for the students than they initially thought and even though we created Popplets on the iPads, it took a while for us to get some appropriate ideas onto our brainstorm.

We revisited this activity in our second session, and turned it into a collaborative competition.  The students were split into two groups, each with a different colour pen.  They were given 10 minutes to come up with as many different ideas as they could - this was much more successful and the students were a lot more motivated!

<<INSERT VIDEO>>

We then looked at the school website and prospectus, and for the next 10 minutes added any new ideas we found in our research in a different coloured pen.

The next step was to think about how we were going to group our ideas that were similiar.  When we looked at the chart, the students suggested the following groups:

We categorised our ideas into these groups using the corresponding symbols:

The students then used this information to independently write a report about Rangeview Intermediate School.  This report has given me great information about what the students currently are able to demonstrate in their report writing, and highlighted some important areas for us to work on over the next few weeks.  More on this later!

Next week I will also be popping into each of the students English classes to observe how they are working and what learning they are finding most engaging.  I'm looking forward to the opportunity to see how they interact with others across their different learning areas and to reflect these successes in our ALL group time.

Thinking about thinking ...

We had another great session today where we really started to think about how we learn.  The students were encouraged to identify the types of activities they enjoy, and from this information we were able to ascertain that most of us are People Smart.  We learn best with and through our peers.  This highlights how important the discussions that took place throughout the rest of the day were going to be.

It was also interesting to find out that we have some very visual learners in the group (Picture Smart), and also a lot of kinesthetic, active learners (Body Smart).  Interestingly, many students also identified that they enjoyed spending time in the outdoors (Nature Smart).  This has a huge effect on how I can now plan our sessions moving forward, as I endeavour to best meet the learning needs of all of the students in the group.

I would like to thank all of the students in my group for continuing to trust me with their learning, and for being so open and honest about what learning is like for them.  The relationships that are being built between us as partners in their learning, and also with the other members of the group is going to be our greatest asset as we move forward on this journey.

As you will see in the chart below, once we identified how we learn, we then started to think creatively around how our brains work.  This was a very powerful exercise and one that the students really engaged in.  The response they highlighted below was their favourite simile.

As a teacher, I found some of these statements quite confronting, but I think this is a good thing.  This reflects the level of trust these students are putting in me to help them accelerate their learning.  It is my hope that by the end of this intervention, all of these students will have developed a more positive view of their ideas, and that these similes will look different.

	My brain is like …	Multiple Intelligence's
Logan	My brain is like a calculator.  My ideas have to be figured out. My brain is like a car.  My ideas sometimes get stuck. My brain is like rubbish processing plant.  My ideas get recycled. My brain is like a pie.  My ideas get narrower as you take away slices. My brain is like a ball.  My ideas hit me. My brain is like a boat.  My ideas sink in.	People Smart Music Smart Nature Smart
Tre	My brain is like a toilet.  All of my ideas get flushed away. My brain is like the sea.  My ideas float all around. My brain is like a calculator.  I have to calculate all of my ideas. My brain is like a plant.  My brain always needs to grow. My brain is like a hair drier.  My ideas get blown in. My brain is like a baseball bat.  All my ideas come in and then we just whack them away.	Picture Smart Number Smart People Smart Nature Smart
Malachai	My brain is like a dog.  My ideas slowly die away. My brain is like a car.  My ideas take different turns on a round about. My brain is like an engine.  My ideas need petrol to work. My brain is like cake.  A slice of an idea falls on my paper. My brain is like a window.  I’m open to new ideas. My brain is like a volcano.  Ideas erupt in my head.	Picture Smart Word Smart Music Smart Self Smart People Smart Nature Smart
Jury	My brain is like cheese.  There are holes in my ideas. My brain is like a car in mud.  Sometimes I get stuck. My brain is like spaghetti.  My brain gets muddled up. My brain is like a volcano.  My ideas surprise people. My brain is like a vacuum.  I can suck up learning. My brain is like a tree that is losing leaves, because sometimes I forget stuff.	Body Smart Picture Smart People Smart Nature Smart
Nathan	My brain is like the sea.  I am unpredictable. My brain is like a giant mess.  It goes in lots of different directions. My brain is like a plant.  It grows. My brain is like a firework.  My ideas are cool at the time. My brain is like a pet store.  People have to adopt my ideas. My brain is like a book.  I write my ideas in my head.	Picture Smart Number Smart Nature Smart
Paige	My brain is like a rubbish bin.  I throw my ideas away. My brain is like blood.  My ideas flow through my body. My brain is like a giant mess.  My ideas go in different directions. My brain is like an empty whiteboard.  I erase my ideas. My brain is like the sea.  My ideas go in and out of my head. My brain is like the toilet.  My ideas get flushed away.	Body Smart People Smart Nature Smart
Lena	My brain is like an empty whiteboard.  My ideas get erased. My brain is like a rubbish bin.  My ideas get thrown away. My brain is like the wind.  My ideas flow in the air. My brain is like a plant.  My ideas grow. My brain is like a calculator.  I need to figure out my ideas. My brain is like the sea.  My ideas go in and out.	Body Smart Number Smart People Smart

From here we moved into a really powerful discussion based on the learning the students have been doing in English this term, around the concept of "Show don't tell".  To tell an interesting story, writers show, not tell, the reader about the people, places and things.  Showing helps the readers "see" the story in their minds.  While the example below was not from our class today, it is a great way to illustrate this concept.

We used a selection of photographs to help us with this discussion, and concentrated on moving the talk around the group, ensuring that everyone's thoughts were heard and respected.  Some of the strategies we used are shown in the image below.  We will continue to work on these strategies throughout the intervention.

It would be great if you could spend some time over the holidays supporting your child to "Show not tell" some of these pictures:

Finally, thank you for the lovely treats you sent in for our shared lunch.  It was lovely to spend some 'social' time together with the students, and your generosity helped us to do this.

Have a wonderful holiday, and I look forward to working with the students again, and meeting you all, next term.