Welcome to Jamie Dickerson’s 6 th Grade Composition/Tech Classroom

1. WelcometoJamie Dickerson’s6th GradeComposition/TechClassroom

2. Jamie Dickerson • Has been teaching for eight years • Has a SPED/Language Arts background • Teaches (2) Adv. Comp/Tech Classes • Teaches (3) Composition Classes for students with LD, BD, & ESL • She uses the 6+ Traits for Effective Writing

9. Poetry Unit • Mrs. Dickerson conducts a two week poetry unit in which she teaches the students different forms of poetry. • The students learn Free Verse, I am From.., Ode’s, My important poem, etc. • I chose to teach a lesson on Limericks. Here is a sample of one of the student’s limerick: Limerick by Taylor Hargrove I am blond. I tend to fall in a lot of ponds Sometimes I drown Or I might even frown Of that I am not very fond. Limerick Lesson – Calligram Lesson

12. Reflection on Poetry Unit In teaching poetry, as in all writing, the technical aspects of the poem are really of secondary purpose; good writing is honest writing (Kirby, Kirby, & Liner, 2004 pg. 148). The students in Mrs. Dickerson’s classroom seemed to enjoy writing poetry, but as in many classrooms, there were some students that were not too thrilled. They did enjoy learning how to write a limerick because most students get it! They understand rhythms and the limerick is a short poem to construct. Kirby, Kirby, & Liner write that poetry grows much in the same way and through the same processes that prose does. They also suggest that students should be given a choice on whether to write poetry or write prose. What I learned from working with Mrs. Dickerson and the students during this poetry unit is: Students were not given the opportunity to read any published poetry. There was no relevance on why they were learning to write poetry. Once the unit was over and they turned in their final poems, that was it! The unit was not tied to any specific lesson on voice, language, audience, or connected to literature. In order for this unit to be relevant, the unit needs to be tied to what the students will be learning next.

13. Persuasive Essays The following unit that Mrs. Dickerson introduced to the students is their persuasive writing unit. In this unit, Mrs. Dickerson uses what I describe as the LCPS version of WebCT. The students have been reading different essays on-line and Mrs. Dickerson has a list of questions that students must answer about the essays. http://moodle.lcps.k12.nm.us

14. Questions

15. Student Response

16. Reflection on Persuasive Unit • Although they have only started this unit, I believe that the students will learn much from it. • They are reading persuasive essays. • They are learning the different parts of an essay. • They are responding to pertinent questions. • They are using a computer based program to respond to different essays. • Because of my rhetoric and composition background, I am thrilled to see students learning persuasive writing.