Man oh man. What a flurry of activity the last few weeks have been! And we haven’t even really begun!
Hebrew Celebrations
As you may know, in 3rd grade, we study the Hebrew legends. So far I’ve told the class stories from the Tanakh and we’ve just made our way through Abraham and Sarah. As always, my stories tend to go long, so I haven’t moved through them as quickly as I thought I would.
So far, the stories have mostly been the backdrop for our math block. I’ve been telling story at the end of main lesson — “a story for the sake of a story”, as I like to call it. I’ve shared before on the blog that though I always use an image to introduce math concepts, I don’t find those little made up stories to be a replacement for the soul food that comes in those curriculum-appropriate stories.
And even though we’ve been in a math block, and we’re doing plenty of math practice, I can’t resist having the students write about some of these stories. Last week they wrote about Sarai and her maid Hagar.
It’s worked out that we’ve been hearing the Hebrew Legends because the Hebrew celebrations are really clumped together in the fall. We’ve been having a great time with them. Here are the festivals we’ve celebrated (this is on top of our school’s Michaelmas festivities — phew!)
Rosh Hashana
For the Hebrew new year, I told the students a story about the reverent and inward-reflective spirit of the new year that is traditional in Judaism, contrasted to the parties and fireworks of our culture’s observation of the new year. We had such a sweet conversation about thinking about mistakes from the previous year, and then reflecting on them with the goal of making a change in the next year.
In class, volunteer parents came in to make challah with the class during one of our project periods. The kids had so much fun learning how to make the braid. And though it was challenging (and loud!) to have 27 children in four groups, in one room making challah, all of that activity meant that we were there to support each other. In the end it worked out beautifully.
Yom Kippur
We happened to have Yom Kippur off school this year, but a couple of days before we made honey cake. Again, parents came in and we talked about the symbolism of honey cake helping us to remember to make the new year “sweet” and “good.”
Succot
Just this week, we celebrated Succot with the building of a sukkah. I have heard of some classes building a sukkah and spending the night inside. Honestly, I was grateful that my school does not hold this tradition. Instead, we worked together to build the sukkah and then ate our lunch inside of it.
I had parent helpers come in to facilitate, while I worked with the bulk of the class inside, making decorations. The students went out to help with the building in groups of 7 or 8. With a large class like mine, managing the masses and figuring out a way to allow everyone to be involved is a big part of the challenge!
Our work with the sukkah was preceded by a story about the early Hebrews and how after they had been saved from slavery (which I haven’t even told them about yet) they became farmers. They built the sukkah so they could have a nearby place to sleep when it was harvest time. That’s why the sukkah has such a harvest theme.
Today, in the review portion of our lesson, we remembered the story of the sukkah, as well as what we did in class.
Waldorf Grade 3 Composition
After spending so much time on kid-writing last year, my students feel quite comfortable with writing and we have moved on to writing our own independent compositions during the review. We thoroughly review, I take some notes on the board and they get right to work — sometimes with a partner, sometimes independently, sometimes with the help of a support teacher. When they finish writing, I collect it, correct it and we put it in our main lesson books — just as if they were middle schoolers!
They’re doing remarkably well with the process, but today’s assignment helped me realize something interesting about their writing process. I’ll explain.
For this composition, there were two components. One was writing about what the sukkah is; the other was a reflection on what we did in class. I told the students that their writing would have two “sections.” I didn’t want them to get stuck on words like “paragraph” or “sentence” because for some students this writing would be two sentences, while others would write a page about each one.
One observation I had was that my students had a difficult time getting started with this more factual writing about what a sukkah is. Last week, when they wrote about the story I told of Sarai and Hagar, they had a very easy time with it. They dove right into the story and the words flowed easily. This was much more difficult.
The other observation I had was that even those students who are strong writers, found it tricky to switch to the second section. They wanted their writing to naturally flow from one section to the next, but there just wasn’t an easy way to do that. I love that they’re mindful of the flow of their writing, but I told them that for this writing they should just imagine it to be two different pieces of writing.
In the end, it wasn’t the most successful piece of writing we’ve done, but everyone came away with something solid to put in their main lesson books.
Correcting Student Writing
The composition above went onto a second page (thanks in part to all of the “really’s”) so you’re not seeing the whole thing, but it’s making me think of a couple of things that are worth mentioning about how I think about their compositions. I’ll translate a bit, in case your teacher-spelling is out of practice.
“A long, long time ago, when the Hebrew people harvested the crops, they knew that the frost was coming so they started to build a small hut that was right on top of their field, like literally it was on top. Anyway, they also slept in it and they hosted a really, really, really big . . . ” (He went on to talk about a big meal that was hosted in the sukkah, and then wrote a sentence about the sukkah we built.)
Sometimes when I read their writing, I want to say things to them that I (wisely) edit. Here’s some unedited teacher feedback.
“You know that rule!”
I am frequently completely astonished by how easily they forget the phonics rules when they are writing. I mean, “laing”?! And “harvestid?” If this kid thought about it for a minute, he would know that’s not how you write it. WE’VE TALKED ABOUT THIS!
But, here’s the thing, I’m just so incredibly grateful that this group of students is perfectly content to put pencil to paper, not worrying too much about whether they get it “right.” If sifting through some obvious mistakes is the price for that comfort, I’ll gladly pay.
“Cute, but that’s not how we write in school.”
Okay, can we just gush over how adorable some of this language is? “Literally, it was on top of it.” And “really, really, really”. So cute. And as much as I’d love to include it, most of the time I need to call it out. Now that they are so comfortable with writing, I want to move them towards understanding that formal school writing is a little bit different than what you would say when talking to someone. Many teachers use the phrase “talking on paper” and I think that language is helpful for kids who are new to writing, but this group is ready to get more formal about their writing.
So no more “really, really, really,” though I will confess that I let it go when a student wrote that Abraham turned to Sarah and said, “I know! You’ve told me a thousand times!”
Hilarious.
“Hey! Look at those smart mistakes!”
Can we just notice for a minute all of the brilliant mistakes in this composition?
- thay
- wus
- cuming
- bild
- rite
- felde (silent e!)
- rely
Seeing these intelligent mistakes more than makes up for “laing” and “harvestid” (not to mention “startid”). I’ll still correct them, but I’m glad this kid is thinking.
And one final note, I always make sure that I give a composition assignment on a day when I have a helper teacher in main lesson AND I’ve told a memorable story the day before. I have this extra support two days/week in 3rd grade. I give my assistant a handful of students to work with and I try to mix it up every time. I always give her a couple who really need the support, but I also send a couple of students who are strong writers and can help to offer ideas. By the end of the lesson, everyone has a solid composition written that I then spend the rest of the day correcting.
Oh, one other thing. Last year, I made a concerted effort — every week — to have my students read me their writing and then we would correct it together. We don’t have the same rhythm this year, but I’ll be watching to see if they can make adjustments without me verbally going through it with them.
Our sukkah project was the launching day for our shelter project. It turned out to be just perfect. Now we’re starting to explore the beginnings of shelter-building and taking a close look at some shelters.
My students have already started asking about when they can start their shelter projects — it’s quite the rite of passage at our school. With all of this writing, I’m sure they’ll be able to write some nice little stories about their shelters.
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