Authors Curt Dudley-Marling and Patricia Paugh penned the book Struggling Writers: How to Provide Differentiated Support & Ongoing Assessment where they detail the importance of minilessons. The area in which I am in complete agreement is that students need to be directly taught specific writing skills and strategies. For instance, I tested my students from day one. After completing a composition, I placed a green pen in all 10 of their hands and said, "Please revise and edit your essay. Take as much time as you need." I had alloted the entire period, knowing that I would need a back-up since I didn't think my students would take very long completing this task. And sadly, I was right. About 7 minutes later, all 10 of them were done. Done! We are talking a five-paragraph essay. There was no way they revised and edited!
The problem was, they didn't know what to do. They even voiced that. "Wait, Ms. Singleton, what do I do? Everything looks right to me." They didn't know what they should be looking for! Writing isn't always about spelling things correctly; it's about manipulating your thoughts into words and revisiting our work to better it by adding ideas, changing our ideas and sentences, showing and not telling, etc. Students need to be taught how to do this because it isn't natural for them, especially my 6th graders. After multiple (not so) minilessons on how to properly revise and edit, they can (mostly) do it on their own. Yes, they need prompting and yes, they need some help, but they know what they are looking for. They're on a mission when they revise and edit.
The same can be said for any number of concepts that fall under the umbrella of writing skills and strategies. Just last week I read the book "Eats, Shoots and Leaves" by Lynne Truss to my class. We BRIEFLY reviewed when commas are needed and then I read them the book to really get the point across. Twenty minutes later, they were using commas correctly! Magic! Now, do they still forget commas? Of course! But they have been forgetting them less and less over the past week!
Just like Dudley-Marling and Paugh emphasize, minilessons are critical components of effectively teaching writing. I have seen the difference they make with my students, whom are all somewhat struggling writers. Take the time and evaluate where your students need to improve and plan mini (or not so mini) lessons! And read the book "Eats, Shoots and Leaves" by Lynne Truss to your class! They will love it! :)
While I totally hear YOUR thinking loud and clear, I think the fear Dudly Marling and Paugh discuss is that teachers will spend so much time on teaching lessons, students will not have time to try the strategies! Often, a mini lesson can last 35-40 minutes leaving NO time for student practice until the next day when it needs to be reviewed! I like the idea of FOCUSED mini lessons - 5-7 minutes with time for students to practice. Writing takes practice and in today's world, most of this practice takes place in schools!
ReplyDeleteWhat a refreshing perspective on mini-lessons in a program-driven classroom! While I know that "mini" lessons should, in fact, be a "mini" piece of time (5-7 minutes), it can be so hard to introduce and reinforce these concepts with our struggling students. As long as you leave time for students to practice this new skill under your observation (which you seem to do), I think it can still be considered "mini". It's all about knowing your students and what they can handle, and you seem to master that idea!
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