Performance Walls

Last year, I made this sample writing chart to help show my students what awesome writing looks like and to help them strive for higher achievement:

{You can read the original post here.} This was writing my class completed during a non-fiction writing unit integrated with our Science unit about animals.{This was also my first formal observation and the principal really like this writing lesson!} Enough with the back story..

The other day my VP said the words "performance wall" in a mini-workshop I went to and I had to stop and ask, "What is a performance wall?" Turns out, it's what I did above with the leveled samples! Not going to lie, I was pretty excited about that - now I have a fancy term for what I already do with my class.

Here's one I made to show the students how to achieve a level 4 in our latest descriptive writing task - my favourite animal:

Later, I will colour-code these samples to show the specific things seen at each level {i.e. periods will be blue, interesting words will be green, capital letters will be pink, etc.}. I kid you not, after we discussed these samples in class, I had about ten kids stay in at recess because they were really excited about adding detail to their writing and improving their rough drafts overall. Wwwwhhhaaattt?! I was so proud! And, let me add, this week was a little wonky in our room - I saw a lot of behaviour that I don't usually deal with. This Thursday lesson really made the perfect end to a long week!

I'll post the writing pack and modeled writing that we used to complete the entire writing process for this project. For ESL, I've been blown away by their dedication and a lot of the overall improvement, so I definitely feel it's worth writing about!

Have a great weekend.

- Amanda

Smiley Writing - 4 levels rubric

 I'm sure many of you have already seen {and probably grabbed!} Valerie's Smiley Sentences poster from last week. If not, go get it NOW! You'll find many more great ideas on her blog while you're there ;)

The idea was inspired by Colleen at Coconut Cutie's Classroom, who uses a similar system to remind students what they need to complete before turning in work. I was immediately inspired after downloading the poster to create a writing rubric - and after seeing how well it was received, Valerie had the same idea! You can find her rubric HERE. She even included a poster set - isn't she wonderful?! It's a great pack, but I need a 4-level rubric so I've adapted it.

This concept is so perfect for my ESL learners: they can see visually what it takes to get a level 4 in their writing. 

For this school year, I used this sign to show my students what I expect to see in their writing:

 

I have updated it by adding the smiley faces to match the writing rubric and have leveled stars {1-4} to attach to show the mark that would be received for each sample. Of course, this is a system that I will have to teach explicitly. I want my students to strive for higher achievement and to understand how marks are awarded. In September I am going to start by introducing Smiley Sentences so they get a feel for it; that way moving on to the writing rubric should be an easy transition. I'm super pumped about sharing this idea with the grades one and two teams for next year!

I know this looks totally intimidating - she wants to use this in an ESL classroom?! I tried to make the poster less wordy, I really did, but it just wasn't enough information. Like I say, I'll have to model/teach, model/teach, model/teach this system so the students understand how it works. You can grab a copy for free from my TpT shop. Note that this is based on Ontario curriculum for Grade 1: Rubric for a Short Piece of Descriptive Writing, page 15. I am working on developing this to align with Ontario writing tasks for Grade Two {Rubric for a Short Narrative} and Grade Three {Rubric for a Letter (to a Favourite Author)} and a more general rubric to be used with any writing pieces.

Last but not least, please let me be very clear here: the inspiration for this idea came from Valerie at All Students Can Shine. I have only adapted it to suit my needs because I love the idea so much! I really wanted to keep it a consistent system, which is why I modeled the writing poster after the sentences poster in colour and style. After talking with Valerie about my plans she a-okayed the share, so I hope you will find this document useful. Big thanks to her for answering all my questions and being so understanding!

Hurray for summer! Take care.

- Amanda