Participant B
TF: How long have you been a teacher?
B: Ummm lets see, 20 years?
TF: really?...whao, i mean you look so young. Okay, umm where did you go to college?
B: I went to 2 years to Rampoo and then when I decided that I wanted to teach, that’s when I transferred to Kean and I graduated from Kean.
TF: And what grade are you currently teaching?
B: I teach 3rd grade. I’ve taught 3rd grade for 17 years and prior to that I did maternity leave in Kindergarten and prior to that I worked in nursery schools and daycare.
TF: So for 3rd grade, you’re an expert! Okay so, what made you decide that you wanted to become a teacher?
B: Ummm I always knew that I wanted to do something to help people, children. In highschool, I worked in a kids clothes store and i realized that I wa more drawn to where the kids play area was and wanted to be with them rather than being the sales person, so I loved interacting with the kids so I knew I wanted to do something with them…
TF: Can you recall your most influential teacher?
B: that’s a difficult one. I don’t think I have one that was most influential. Looking back, it probably was a middle school language arts teacher that was really really strict. And at the period of being in the class, we didn’t really like him but looking back, I can see the many things that he taught me and allowed me to appreciate the different styles of all teachers and how you need a variety of each type of teacher to teacher different things.
TF: Another loaded question, what is your teaching philosophy?
B: Well I’m sure it developed through the years and just like in our school, that no child, no matter what has the possibility of being successful and learning. And my goal is to take them from where they are and teach them as much as possible in my class and without any kind of excuse.
2:32
TF: Okay so my focus on this study is a writing studies class with a focus on how teachers comment on student work.
B: okay
TF: What kind of writing assignments do you give your students?
2:41
B: Ummm well we have a variety. We have a free writing in a journal. I have a fun Q&A book that has fun type of questions where they have to answer like what is your favorite thing to do on a weekend and a variety of questions where they can just write for them. They write for 10 minutes straight without me looking at punctuation where they can get writing done. And then we have writer workshop where we work on, and in preparation for NJASK, where they are required to write a speculative writing piece and then also an explanatory piece. So throughout the year we focus on that.
TF: Okay now where do you find that you do most of your grading? At school or...
B: ...for writing I usually do it at home. Yeah, I do it outside because it takes a lot of time.
TF: Do you find that you have a specific place within your home that you use to…
B: Well I have a comfy chair and do it there.
TF: ummm and during which part of the day, or weekdays or weekend do you find that you do your grading?
B: Well I like to get that back, especially since we have writer’s workshop 2 to 3 times a week, so I usually do it during the week. Yeah, something like that I want to give back to them sooner so we conference.
TF: now you said for writing its usually at home, so do you do the other grading here?
B: Umm yeah you need more time and its a more relaxed environment. I mean to read 27 essays takes a lot longer.
TF: Ummm can you walk me through the process of grading papers?
B: For grading the paper? or revisions?
TF: for grading the paper
B: Reading the paper, we have the rubric that we have to use.
TF: is that the same rubric that 5th grade uses?
B: Ummm is a five section rubric?
TF: I think so…
B: I can give you a copy of ours. But yeah, I would use a rubric to score it.
5:08
TF: Do you have a pattern that you follow?
B: Well usually we focus, we pick one of the focus areas in the rubric, i might focus on their opening and closing and really focus and grade them more on that than everything like their punctuation and spelling. So like today we’re going to focus on creating exciting beginnings. I’ll really be looking at how they started their essay.
TF: Are you targeting your comments?
B: It would be like the mini lessons. If we’re learning how to use quotation marks that week maybe I’ll specifically be looking at their use of quotation marks correctly. So i try to focus on one area.
TF: Do you confrence?
B: Yes
TF: Can you walk me through your process with the students and the conferences?
B: When we’re working on a writing piece, after we’re done with the 1st draft, I would confrence with them, and on a piece of paper I would write their strengths and then the areas that they’d have to work on for revisions. For example, I mean something its hard to find a strength, but I will say, I love the detail about what your bedroom looked like or a strength might be that I loved how you used figurative language, or this was a great vocabulary word and I would specifically write which one, so they know what things they are doing, good and bad paper. Or you pull all the periods in the right place.
TF: Is all this on a separate piece of paper?
B: Yeah this is all on a separate piece of paper and I would be writing it as we were going over it. And then the areas to improve, the 1st thing, because its so hard for them to do revisions, you know, they know the editing to look for punctuation and spelling, so I might prompt some questions to like, if it was part of a story of when they went to school, I might ask them, what happened before I went to school? Or how did you get there? Give them a specific target question to kinda get them to add more detail. And then I would have them, after I had them work on a couple of aread I’d want them to improve, maybe I might say, add more detail on your last paragraph or the ending, write a better closing, or change good and find a better vocabulary word, like I’ll give them specific things to do.
TF: So are they reading their paper?
B: they are reading to me and then they will go back to their seat with their essay and their revision paper I gave them with their strenghts and then they could work on that and we would kind of meet again. Then I would go over editing. Look at their spelling.
TF: Sounds like its side margin comments, but since they are in 3rd grade, its not so little.
TF: for the final draft, what kind of process do you do?
B: So for the final, it would be attached to the rubric and then on the rubric they would see, what score they got. And then on that I might put a comment like “oh I love the way you changed your closing” or “this was such a great vocabulary word”, “ I was really able to picture when this happened”. I want to be able to give some type of positive feedback on the final draft.
TF: Has your method of grading papers evolved?
B: Ummm Im sure it has. Specifically when I first started, we didn’t really have the rubrics to work with. That has changed, you know, using the rubric and having something there. Its still so hard because its part of being objective. Ummm...yeah, and there has been so many more expectations put on them from when I started. Now its really, you know, they have to be at least 3 paragraphs, you need to do this this and that. So, I’ve definitely had to put higher expectations on them and expect more from them.
TF: Do you find that the rubric helps you focus on what to look for?
B: Yeah, it does.
TF: Do you ever have them read their own work?
B: Ummm yeah, once we have gotten through lots of conferencing with me, so maybe towards March or April, then yeah, I kind of have them confrence with each other. Or sometimes, I’ve even taken the better writers and have them confrence with another student and make suggestions, so its cute, I would model what we do, like what I do with them and then you do it now with your classmates.
TF: How many students do you have in this classroom?
B: 27
TF: How do you find the time to conference with 27 students?
B: Its really difficult. I mean lucky if I have other teachers in here like the special education teacher, but a writing assignment can take over a month to finish, so yeah, it takes a long time.
TF: How long are the conferences? However long it take them to read their work?
B: I mean, like 15 mins, but even in a class, during workshop time, I might only conference with 3 or 4 students. So yeah, it usually takes about a month.
TF: What is your overall goal in providing feedback to the students?
B: Well my goals is for them to know what things they are doing well and to continue to do that. But really, the hardest thing is to get them to add detail. So my goal is to like, when I am questioning them, look at their next draft to see that they are trying to add detail by trying to answer the kind of questions that I ask them during the revision.
TF: Do you find that your students do follow your suggestions?
B: A few of them. The self motivated students do. Others you still kinda have to prompt. They have trouble elaborating. Like if you ask them, what color was it? they might just say red, rather than adding more sentences.
TF: We’re in Nov, do you see a progress from Aug to now?
B: Definitely, and its a hard transition because they are so literal in 2nd grade. And this is the year where you try to get them to think outside the box and understand figurative language. So i’m starting to see it now, but its hard at the beginning of the year because they take everything so literal, but I am seeing some progress. My student teacher just did a whole poetry unit with them so they started to give the reader a clearer picture of their mind, some figurative language, so I am seeing some progress.
TF: overall, how to do you try to get your students to become better writers?
B: Expose them to a lot of literature. I know last year I saw a big difference. We do guided reading and they're kind of short chapter books, and then once I went into the chapter books, and then I saw, just encouraging them to read and as they read better text and richer literature they see what good writing looks like, and then they’re better able to apply it. Definitely being exposed to a lot of different types of literature and then just writing everyday. I mean in order to become a good writer you have to write.
TF: Do you find that the rubrics help them?
B: they don’t use them as often as I’d like. They do know, i mean they do understand how you need the opening and the closing so I think it does help them, but I think also, because the expectations are so high for the NJASK it takes so much away from them to write creatively just to like writing. Its so formatted. You need a beg, you need three supporting details, and you need a closing and i feel like its just a template that they’re putting information in and I think it stifles their creativity to write. Thats why i do that journal writing.
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