9: Week of Oct. 17

I started my inquiry project this week with the Lucy Calkins method. It went really well, and I am seeing good things already. Again, I noticed how much the students are on different levels. One student can write sentences with phonemic spellings with a picture that goes with it. Another student just scribbles for both the picture and words. Some students are very confident and will try very hard to spell words. Some students won't write anything because they are so scared they will spell it wrong. One girl who is very, very intelligent, waits until others have written things and then she copies them because she is a perfectionist. I am hoping that throughout the writing sessions, these students will gain confidence in themselves and not be afraid to try. I am interested in what this girl can actually do when she decides to do it! Another goal I have is to lower the number of students shouting "How do I spell..." I want them to be able to use their sounds to spell the words as well as they can. This is the idea of Lucy Calkins, so I will try it and see how it works! I am excited about this series and I am curious to see the progress by the end of the semester.