Making Connections Assessment

Making connections to our reading is something that all good readers do as they engage with the text. This assignment involved lessons about the types of connections we make to our texts and how to explain these connections. We also focused on trying to make deep connections as opposed to more shallow ones. Here is an anchor chart that was used to help the students with the different types of connections:
(INSERT ANCHOR CHART)

We discussed the meaning of shallow and deep (with visuals). Students then had a worksheet in which they had to work with a partner to identify if the connection was shallow or deep. Finally, after checking for understanding, students read their books and looked for connections of each type. When they found a connection that they considered a deep one, they used a post-it to mark the spot and later they completed the following table. This is one student example. Here is the RUBRIC used by the student to self-assess their work followed by his reflection questions and answers.

Type of Connection	Title, author, page number	My paragraph
Text-to-self	Boy, Roald Dahl, 75~166	My childhood has been similar to Roald Dahl's; I have also had to leave my friends and my family behind. When I came to India, I had many difficulties adjusting to the new environment. Likewise, Roald Dahl found it difficult to get used to boarding school. Also, because I was worried about being able to communicate in English, I was too nervous to ask questions to the teacher. Like me, Roald Dahl was scared to talk to the teachers, because he was afraid something bad might happen.
Text-to-text	Boy, Roald Dahl, 75~166	About a year ago, I read most of the Harry Potter series. Boy reminded me little bit about The Sorcerer’s Stone because both of the protagonists had very difficult childhoods. While Roald Dahl was mainly mistreated by his teachers, Harry was brought up by his uncle Vernon and aunt Petunia, who also treated him badly for 10 years. On the other hand, while the teachers in Boy hate everyone equally, Harry’s aunt and uncle especially hated him.
Text-to-world	Boy, Roald Dahl, overall	Since Boy was an autobiography, Roald Dahl could be trying to tell the reader about how it is to attend many boarding school. When someone goes to boarding school, their parents don’t know what happens to them every day, and the students have no power to control what happens to them. For many, this can be a frightening experience, since students in the real world can also get hit, abused, and mistreated.

Book Blogs: Engaging and Building a Community of Readers

"I need a book recommendation." 
"I don't know what to read."
These are just a few of the questions middle school readers may have when they enter the library or a classroom. To help them select books and to give them a chance to make recommendations about the great books they are reading, they only have to head to our Grade 6 Book Blog!

We have all students as authors on this blog and we show them how to write a Book Review (see anchor chart below). After some lessons that talk about the ingredients of a persuasive book review, we set the to work on writing their very own review and encourage them to comment and write reviews every time they finish a book they want to share. 

All students enjoy sharing their reading and this blog builds a strong community feeling as they are all able to share, no matter what their interests and reading levels might be.  Even the most reticent student will write a review and get encouragement from peers when they make a comment. This encourages a community feeling in our class and among our grade 6 students.

We also have a rubric to accompany these reviews and at certain points in the year we ask that a review be assessed according to this rubric. Here is the rubric we use.

There is a link to our Book Blog in the links section. Here is a typical example from one of this year's students. I particularly like the voice in the last line.

   The book I finished is called The 39 Clues: The Maze Of Bones. The author's name is Rick Riordan. Every page was worth reading. It was filled with mystery and action. It's about Amy and Dan Cahill(sister and brother) whose parents have died and they are living with their Grandmother. Then suddenly their Grandmother also dies. All of Amy and Dan's relatives come to the funeral and Grace(the Grandmother) wrote in her will, that there would be a contest where there would be clues all around the world and only one team would succeed. They could either accept the challenge or take the 1,000,000 dollars which was under each one of their chairs. Of course, Amy and Dan accepted the challenge(I would have gone for the 1,000,000 dollars). They had a babysitter called Nellie who was also going with them around the world to find clues. All their relatives would do anything to win the contest. Even if it meant hurting other relatives. That is only the beginning. Little did they know that their journeys would take them to Paris, Italy and many more places; but I won't spoil the rest. You just need to read this book to find out what happens next.

   I would rate this book 5 stars because it has the 2 genres I like: action and mystery. I would recommend this book to anyone who likes fast pace action and mystery books. Like I said, EVERY PAGE IS WORTH READING.

Memoir Rubric for Self-Assessment

This year students wrote memoirs as their personal narrative for our first writing unit in language arts. We spent a considerable amount of time on mini-lessons that addressed the following:
*generating story ideas
*characteristics of memoirs
*hooking the reader with a good lead
*zooming in on the main event
*showing not telling using the senses
*satisfying conclusions
*revision and editing skills

During the process, the students periodically self-assessed and set goals for the continuation of their memoirs. As a final assessment, they were asked to self-assess using the following rubric. The rubric begins with a grade 4 level to the left and works towards a grade 7 level of writing proficiency. This rubric was adapted from materials from TCRWP (Teacher's College Reading and Writing Project). The original rubric is about 4 pages long; however, we knew that this would overwhelm our student population in which many of them are ELL's. So, we adapted this rubric to make it more manageable.

For many years now I have believed strongly that students should always assess their work before the teacher does so. It is imperative that they can reflect on what they have written and identify on a rubric what they have achieved and where they need to focus their attention for future work. In my experience, very few students are unable to assess their writing. Some students do have inflated ideas of where their writing is on a rubric and some are way too hard on themselves. But, for the most part, they are usually right on the mark and I often agree with their assessments of themselves.

We also added reflection questions for the students at the end of the rubric. This is often the section that I enjoy reading the most and which gives me the best insight into what the student is like as a writer. I am regularly amazed by some of the thoughtful responses to these questions by my students as they are able to tell me what went well, what they struggled with, and what they would remember for the next time. This set of reflection questions also included which mini-lesson they found most helpful- a great way for me to judge which ones were effective and to work on strengthening my practice.

Here is the rubric.

Here is an example of a student's thoughtful reflection on her writing:

Reflection: Answer the following in complete sentences with details.

1. What was the purpose of writing a memoir?
I think that the purpose of writing a memoir was to challenge ourselves by changing settings (flash back) and then reflect on a certain moment.

2. What was the easiest part about this assignment?
The easiest part of writing the story was to get the ideas and put them all down.

3. What was the hardest part about this assignment?
The hardest part was to describe my feelings and the story to make the reader really understand and feel what I feel.

4. What mini-lesson helped you the most?
I think the mini lesson that helped me the most was the best times last times one because it’s how I got the idea of how to make a good and powerful story about my cousin.

5. Which parts of this assignment helped you to develop your skills as a writer?
The ending part, it helped me understand that the best ending aren’t the ones that are the longest and have the most complicated words. Infact an ending can be short, simple, and very powerful.