6 + 1 Writing Traits

As I mentioned before, one of the main purposes of this blog is to document and evaluate my work in the classroom. Because most of last year was spent in survival mode and because I don’t have a background in education, my approach to teaching was largely based in internet research and trial and error. I feel like I did some really great work last year helping my students expand their existing skills, especially in literacy but this year I want more. I want to really dig in deep and find ways to allow them to use language to express themselves. But how does one do that? That is a question I’ve been chewing on all summer.

The answer, at least in part, lies in encouraging students to find their inner writer. Once the desire to write is there, the rest is simply giving them the tools to be able to bring that writer to life. I suppose there are a thousand approaches to teaching writing but the one that I’ve found most useful (and that’s been widely adopted under the Common Core Standards) is the 6+ 1 writing traits. The idea behind 6+1 is that it’s a tool for teaching writing that creates a common language for teachers and students while making certain areas of writing easier to teach and assess. Here are a few helpful links for explaining the 6+1 traits:

http://educationnorthwest.org/traits

http://languagearts.pppst.com/6traits.html

http://ethemes.missouri.edu/themes/1283

http://writingfix.com/traits.htm

I hope to be able to integrate these traits into my teaching of the writing process in more depth this year. I’ll keep you posted on what that looks like when the year gets underway.

In other news, I’m looking forward to the new books I ordered last week. For those of you living in the western world- you have NO IDEA what a luxury it is to be able to just order books online and have them show up at your door or go down to your local bookstore and peruse the aisles of categorized paperbacks. Please take a minute to be thankful for that amenity. I won’t go into too much detail about what an ordeal it is to acquire such things here, but just know that it’s one of many challenges to be faced when living/teaching abroad. Here are the books I’m making my wonderful partner schlep back to Vietnam to help get me through the school year. If you’ve used any of these or have other recommendations, I’m ALWAYS open to hearing about it. Goodnight from Greece.

my new books-

Update

Maybe it was a bit too ambitious of me to think that I could launch this blog before going on my yearly vacation. I told myself that I would post at least once a week, but last week it just wasn’t happening.

Before I left for vacation, I made a to-do list that would trump Santa’s and I swore that I would get it done before going home. Well, here we are about 10 days from the end of my trip and I haven’t managed to do ANY of it. In my defense, I haven’t had wi-fi since arriving at my dad’s so that put a serious wrench in my plans. I realize my dependency on technology is pathetic but seriously, what the heck did people do before the internet? How did anything get done?

Here’s a look at my week of work distractions:

Now you see why I haven’t gotten any work done.

Room 21

Well it wasn’t the way I wanted to spend the first week of my vacation, but I did manage to tackle a big chunk of my classroom decorations last week. Here are some pictures of the stencils I did on the walls in my room.

I’ve been looking for an excuse to try this technique for a LONG time. All you need is Microsoft PowerPoint, a digital projector, and some paints. I’m so inspired that I might take the projector home one of these weekends and do something with our spare room. Here’s my step-by-step on stenciling. Happy painting!

Easy Peasy Wall Stencils:

·         Choose the images that you want to stencil- I used Google Images but I’m sure there are other options. Remember to choose a picture with sharp lines and large pixels. The larger the pixels, the easier your life will be… trust me on this oneJ

·         Import your picture into MS PowerPoint- once it’s in PowerPoint, the image will appear without a heading and all that other stuff, which is helpful.

·         Plug in your projector- this can actually be the hardest part of the whole project. In my case, I had to move the projector back really far from the wall to get the size I wanted so just play around with it until you get what you want. 

·         Trace with a pencil- Pretty self-explanatory.

·         Go over your outline- This step is probably easier for those of you who live near a Wal-Mart, Home Depot, Michael’s, etc. Unfortunately, life is a bit more difficult here in Vietnam and finding what you need can be a chore to say the least. I used water based poster paints because they’ll be easier to cover at the end of the year, but I’m sure acrylics or interior paints would be your best bet.

·         Ta Da- stand back and take in your masterpiece.

How it all started…

In the spring of 2011, my partner’s company announced an opening in the Vietnam office for work on two big projects. After a lot of prodding and pushing, I was able to convince him to take the position and we made the move of a lifetime. Here we are more than a year later and I find myself embarking on a new (very ambitious) project- The Cultural Classroom. The idea came to me last year in my first year of teaching at an international school here in Ho Chi Minh City. I wanted a place to document and evaluate the work I’m doing in my classroom, share ideas with other teachers, and (hopefully) market myself to other international schools. This is my first attempt at something this big, but I am hopeful and motivated to bring a unique take on teaching from abroad. So, here goes nothing.

Since school is starting in about 4 weeks, I’ve decided to get a jump on decorating my classroom because I started having flashbacks of the breakdowns I had last year in September trying to get it all put together. I had my class theme decided back in the spring semester so when they asked everyone last week, I was golden! We are officially the Grade 6 Surfers this year and I was REALLY excited about it until I found out… queue the doomsday music… I only have 4 students registered for next year!!! OMG, really? Last year was the first year my school had ever opened a 6^th grade and I started with 8, went down to 6, then finished with 7 students, but 4, really? I’m not complaining, but I’m a bit confused about how I will do group projects and what not. If you have any suggestions about working with such a small group, please pass them onJ

Anyway, about my class decorations. I did my best to clean out what junk was left in my classroom from June, rearranged the desks, and took all my boards down to clean and decorate. The stenciling started yesterday and I’m almost finished with the surfboards. Pictures are coming, I promise. With any luck, I will have most of it done before I leave for vacation on Saturday. That way I can focus on lesson and project planning during the non-pupil week before the kiddos start. Here are a few BEFORE pictures of my room so you can see what I’m up against. Have a great night!

It's pink...ugh!

It's old...but we can work with that.

This is pretty much my second home from September to June.