jessicaturco_journal4

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February 27, 2009

Assessment Journal # 4 This Friday, my students worked on their writing journals for a good portion of the morning. Inside their journals, they are allowed to write about whatever they want and then illustrate a picture of it. Throughout the year, they have learned how to write an initial draft, edit their work by peers as well as the teacher, and then finalize their documents. Since then, their work has improved and their spelling and vocabulary has definitely increased. Today, my teacher explained to the class whoever was finished with their journal entry of the day, checked and finalized, were able to go on the computers to “publish” their work. Publishing their work meant that they would go on a computer and type their entry. After it is typed and printed, the students would then draw a picture of their entry and the teacher would laminate all of the students’ finished work.

Five students went on the computers to type their journal entries. The teacher had me watch the students on the computers as well as observe how they typed their journals. One student in particular, she pointed out, had a unique way of typing on the computer. This child would read his journal as it was presented in front of him and when it came time to type it onto the computer, the story changed. He would read his written copy sentence by sentence and from the moment he typed it into the computer, a new story arose. It was interesting to see how this child took his story from his journal and put it on the computer.

After observing the students on the computers, I walked around the room to observe the students writing in their journals. Some students asked me to see what they were writing while others asked me to read over to find mistakes, if there were any. When I check the students’ journals, my teacher has me read over and skim to find if there are mistakes, and if there are, then I am to underline them explain them to the child. If a word is misspelled, a student is to find how to properly spell the word if it is already written down in their “green word book”. If the word is not in their green word book, then I am allowed to offer them the word and add it to their green book. I like the way my teacher has her students correct their work, it is very effective to their learning and it shows.