TWICP2 Looking Forward.
This week, rather than looking backward, I want to try and make visible my thinking as I envision the week ahead. We have tossed several unwieldy balls into the air, chainsaws might be a better metaphor, and I have to think about how to keep them aloft (or which to let fall). Those chainsaws are: 1) Finishing our study of To Kill a Mockingbird 2) Our “This I Believe” collaboration with students in Florida 3) Putting the finishing touches on our second quarter portfolios 4) The second quarterly assessment focused on writing. Ugh!
To aid in my lesson planning, I try to build in scaffolding, a weekly skeleton for the course. In CP2 that scaffolding looks like this:
Monday: Writers on Writing
Tuesday: Writers Workshop
Wednesday: Literature Study
Thursday: Writers Workshop
Friday: Quiz and Literature Circles
I think that Writers Workshop this week has to be given over to the “This I Believe” collaboration. My students have to get their essays saved as pdfs and uploaded to our shared wiki. Our partnered class already has their essays and voice recordings uploaded. I don’t want to hold them back.
Wednesday I intend to facilitate another gallery walk for the last nine chapters of To Kill a Mockingbird. I intend to kill two birds, not mockingbirds, on Friday. We will write timed essays on prompts connected to the novel. These essays will serve as our final “test” for Mockingbird and will also give us a timed writing sample for the portfolios.
Whew – it is going to be a busy week with only one remaining before portfolios are due.
