September 22, 2009

Another week started and already the days are filling up before they seem to have gotten started. I have heard for years that block days are seemingly endless but for me they don't seem to be long enough.

The students in my middle school writing classes are finishing up their family newspapers and some of them are really good. There are so many skills that are learned in a project like this. First of all students have to think about what is going on in their families and then they have to verbalize it in the third person. Adding pictures takes more skill on the computer and in the brain power is challenged as students search for just the right picture to complement their stories. Then comes the organizational part as well as managing time to get it all together by the due date. The older students have managed this a little better than the younger ones.
I have always found that meeting deadlines is problematic for middle school students. I am interested to see if this type of writing project can facilitate the deadline mentality with more fervor than simply assigning a homework essay or a timed essay in the classroom.

Writing provides such an outlet for emotional creativity and it is sad that by middle school many students hate to write. It does seem to be easier for the older students but the sixth grade, especially the boys, have a difficult time writing for pleasure or just coming up with an idea of what to write about.