Let's keep rewinding!

How can I move some writers who just can't seem to maintain their focus? They know lots of HFW, can find words around the room and can HR some sounds? In our micro groups today I had them record their stories as a sound bite on Explain Everything. They played it back and wrote the first word. After looking up at me and hearing me say "play your story back" they would play it back, write the next word and then re-read their story. This cycle went on and on until their stories were finished. Another wonderful thing about the rewindable nature of Explain Everything. Check out the before and after story of one of my students.

Writing changes...

Our writing has finally taken another step. Now that some groups have more control (fine motor and letter formation) we have gone from writing (rather large) high frequency words on an Explain Everything blank sheet, to writing our story during Guided Writing time. Today we focussed on hearing and recording sounds, locating unknowns and the 'old chestnut' finger spaces. The girls in this group were then able to save their work into their writing folder on Teacher Dashboard.

What a great language session today. Karen gave the class a picture of the playground. With some nudging and prompting a simple story was designed.... "I like to play on the playground." Next offering was "with my friends."the children were told we needed to add on to make it more interesting. From here it grew from "in the sun" to "sunshine" to "suns' rays"---all within seconds of each contribution the stakes were upped! Our final draft... "I like to play on the playground with my friends in the suns' rays." We built a song around our story....watch this space as we'll go public with our it tomorrow! Next step-we will re-visit and re-craft a more interesting sentence starter!

Today, as part of our post writing activity, the children were asked to open up an 'Explain Everything' and write their full name. After previous discussion we decided to begin this process as part of our writing programme inorder to help with size, letter formation and of course knowing how to 'write my name!' On completion their work was shared on the 'Apple TV' and previewed by their classmates.

Which Technology?

After a wonderful PLD with Manaiakalani 1-4 Team Leaders and Dorothy Burt, I came away questioning and reflecting our timeline decision with regards to our formal writing encounter and when we should consider doing more writing purely on the the iPad. I ran my reflections and considerations past ‘Karen’ my MDTA BT (and co conspirator). She felt the same way I was feeling. Although the learners get multiple opportunities to write on their iPads formal writing has been paper and whiteboard focussed.

Keeping with our adage ‘slow and steady’ makes me feel comfortable with all our decisions to date and when questions like this pop up it’s always good to rethink our pathway and reconsider the future goals! Next year may be completely different once we have experienced the new encounters!