Writing Wednesday - Go Google! (or digital)

What if I told you that I was able to conference, I'm talking meaningfully conference, with half of my students each day last school year? I'm talking about 14 kids each day! I'm not pulling your leg! I was seriously able to accomplish this through the use of my new best friend....*drum roll please*....Google Classroom! Now, let me be clear that this is not the only platform in which you can complete this seemingly daunting task; however, this is the tool that my district provided me, so I took it and ran with it!

How did I do it? Let me share my recipe to success with you!

Step 1: The mini-lesson. Yes, I literally taught a mini lesson that went with the genre or grammar skill that we were working on. Like most people, sometimes my mini-lesson ran a little long, BUT the point is, I set the stage for my students to write.

Step 2: Students write....a lot! Okay, I must admit, it took a little (or a lot) of training! My students were eventually able to write for 30 plus minutes...independently. Did I ever have students approach me during conferences? Of course! The trick was that I had to be consistent in my response. Of course, I varied from time to time, but I tried really, REALLY hard to stick to my procedures.

Step 3: Conferencing. Let me tell you, the first time I conferenced with 10+ students in one day, I was astonished, and honestly, so were my students! They were so used to standing in a long line and then potentially being cut off until the next day because we ran out of time. I  know, I know....such a waste of time! I would give them small assignments to go back and complete while they waited (for example- add 3 adjectives, add 5 more sentences, etc.) Through the use of the Google Classroom chat feature, I was able to quickly conference with my students by telling them a glow and a grow. (I'll fill you in on that one in another blog post!) They would use my feedback to begin tweaking their work...I could watch them too....in real time! This process could be repeated over and over!

So, there you have it! Google Classroom, like other digital platforms, completely helped revamp my writing instruction. My students were engaged and able to have meaningful conferences about their writing more than just one time per writing.

Oh! My students were also able to stay SUPER organized through the use of Google Classroom! That's definitely an added bonus, huh?

Thanks for stopping by!

Elaine, Teaching Lane

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