Midterm blueprint

Thanks once again for a terrific work session with Susan's class today. I loved looking around and seeing pairs of you working and getting to know each other. I've emailed Susan with our questions and will get back to you with answers.

Here's the material about the midterm:

EDEL 408 Fall 2007 Midterm (20%)
October 28, 2008 13:00-14:30

Content:
Demonstrates conceptual knowledge of learning and teaching writing;
Demonstrates expected quality of writing (given exam conditions): response is clearly articulated.
Provides well articulated, clear illustrations of teaching/learning situations;
Makes explicit reference to course readings, class activities, and discussions as appropriate.
Responses demonstrate appropriate professional to for audience (as given in writing prompt); no jargon; friendly and informal but basically correct, not slangy and not pretentious.


Part A. Applying ideas from the textbook: 2 questions (3 marks each)

Part B. Sample of a child’s writing. (7 marks) Read the writing sample (grade level and context of assignment provided).
Strengths you see in this writing? Give examples from the writing.
Areas you would like this child to work on? Give examples from the writing.
Write what you would say in a writing conference in a specific conference situation.

Part C. Scenario. (7 marks) Choose ONE of the following TWO scenarios of professional practice. For each, compose a carefully reasoned and articulated response to explain how and why you would teach writing in response to the situation presented. Be specific and give examples or illustrations of your ideas. Draw explicitly upon class readings, discussions, and activities as appropriate to develop ideas for teaching writing. If you want to show that an idea draws specifically from the text, for example, insert [B&W]. Write in a tone appropriate for the given scenario (for ex., not expecting parents to know the terminology of your textbook). You can choose to write in dialogue, as you would speak to the group, or you can write an explanation of what you would say.

Week of Oct. 21--Working with children

Thank you to Eryn and Cheryl for reporting the feedback from the “midterm feedback session” to me. And thank you all for your thoughtful responses. I will work on addressing them, especially the immediate concern about the midterm exam and explanations for the assignments. We’ll work on these for the 2nd half of class after the children leave on Tues. In the meantime, don’t be overly anxious: I regard your work as professional development, not as “gotcha” tests and assignments.

Please read the following carefully. Print out if you’d like to have it in class.

Procedure for class on Tues, Oct. 21:

Bring your MovieMaker project on memory stick and/or your laptop.

If you can come a few minutes early to room 277, please do. I’ll have nametags for you.

We will be pushed for time, so it’s important that you understand what you need to do with your student and the timelines we’ve laid out. The class will be with us from 1:00-2:30.

Ms Kosanovich’s class will arrive at 1:00. Find your partner (list below). We will have another room (380) to use, and half of you will be directed to take your partner to that room after we have said our welcomes and given directions.

The children's assignment is to create a MovieMaker project that is a response to literature. Each child will have read one of the following short books: Love that Dog (Sharon Creech), The Van Gogh Café (Cynthia Rylant), or Hey, World, Here I Am! (Jean Little). Each child will have a copy of the book for you to read and respond to later. The book will have stickee notes in it where the child made comments about anything he/she particularly liked or noticed when reading the book.

The purposes of Tuesday’s work with Ms Kosanovich’s class are: (1) for you to get to know your partner a bit and to learn about the book that your partner has read; and (2) to help your partner get images and some text files to start the Movie Maker project.

(1) Get to know your partner: When the computers have been assigned and we are in the 2 rooms, first show your partner the MovieMaker project that you have created as a way of introducing yourself. Talk for a few minutes with your partner about how you made the movie so that he/she gets a sense of what can be done with the program. (15 min max.)

Next, spend a few minutes talking with your partner about the Multimodal Text Survey (from the textbook, p8) that Ms Kosanovich’s class has filled out. Each child will come with his/her copy of it. Use this time to get to know a little about the child’s interests and ideas about stories. Then ask the child about the book that he/she has read—what he/she liked about it, what kinds of things he/she noticed and wrote about on stickees, etc. This is your time to learn about your partner so that you’ll be able to help create the movie. (15 min max.)

(2) Help your partner with his/her MovieMaker project: Ms Kosanovich’s students will each come with a memory stick with 2-3 images on it:
• a photo of the book jacket,
• a photo of a drawing he/she has done about the book, and
• probably a photo of him/her working on the drawing.
You will talk with your partner about what kinds of images will be good to have in the movie (based on the child’s responses to the book). Then help your partner find more images that will be good to use. You should prepare to do this by going back to the free sites we talked about in class.
• NOTE: Check the Learning and Technology Integration site for such free images and audio: www.lati.ualberta.ca . Do this before we have the class meeting so that you are comfortable looking on the sites. On the site, follow links: "research subject areas" and then "secondary ELA" to see the free sites.

If your partner has selected some text passages that he/she especially likes from the book, then help your partner create the text passages on MovieMaker. Save all files that you and your partner want to use in a folder on the child’s memory stick.

At 2:20, all students should return to room 277 to return the mobile lab equipment and to get organized for the children to return to Belgravia.

In our Nov. 4 session, we will have writing conferences and work with sequencing the MovieMaker projects. By this time, you will have read your partner’s book and written a response letter to him/her. (This response letter will be part of your writing folder as well as a response to your partner. I’ll talk about this more in class.)

Susan and I are excited about the work you will do with the children. I know that it takes some flexibility on your part to work with children in our class, and I appreciate your flexibility and enthusiasm. You will learn a lot, and I’m confident that you’ll teach the children well during this project. See you Tues!

Pairing of students: If you have 2 students, they are reading the same book.

EDEL 408 Ms Kosanovich’s students

Gillian Justin
Ashley B Sarah B
Marco Zachary
Jason Adam P
Eryn Matthew
Cheryl C Samual and Georgia C
Christina Autumn
Carmen Grace
Vickie Sarah H
Ashley K Sam H
Kara Adam L and Jacob
Cheryl L Rachel K
Stephanie Madeleine
Tiffany Travis
Kristin Stephanie
Allison Aida
Natasha Jenna
Robyn Iris
Carly Georgia W
Natalie Rachel Y
Rhea Davina and Olivia

Writing conferences this week

We'll work on the "how, when, why" of writing conferences in class this week. You'll need your MovieMaker project on a memory stick or on your laptop. Remember to have all the pictures and audio files in 1 folder and do not "publish" it yet. When you consolidate the files to publish, you cannot revise any more.

And don't forget to vote for the candidate/party of your choice!