Students took to the newspaper report task with enthusiasm. We read the example in the monitoring book and then discussed topics we could use. Because they liked the idea of writing nonsense reports there were some interesting headlines. “Woman attacked by purple shark”
It was a difficult concept for these Year 5 students and first attempts were more like recounts than reports. Working on a computer make editing so much easier!
One of our reading activities involves contributing to our class blog. Students are encouraged to read what is on the blog and post a comment. They can alternately post their own writing and some of the learners have chosen to do that.
Writing their owns plays has become a popular activity in Room 5. Several students have written a play, organised the actors, and presented the play to the class. A couple of the priority learners group have also been involved.
In Room 5 writing is an enjoyable activity for most students. They have lots of choices when writing. (Ownership, resposibility, student voice) They can choose how they write, whether it is in their writing books, or on a computer or an iPad. They can choose to write independently by themselves or with a writing buddy. They have a choice of different programmes or aps they would like to use including word, comic life, book creator and i movie. There are not enough devices for everyone to use a device so there are usually some students working in their books. Everyone writes in their books at times. This is useful as they can then generate words that are suitable for their spelling programme.