GMAIL: Home Writing Program - What I've Learnt After 2 Years

This year I started the program from the beginning of the school year. I believe this allowed me to help build the relationships with my students from day one. Overall, the students have been very responsive. It really has allowed a few of my students to blossom as writers. These students in particular really think about the feedback they are given and I can clearly see it being applied in the following email. This just emphasises the need for timely and specific feedback for students.

Many of the same writing areas of growth appeared and have allowed me to have a more targeted approach from the beginning of the year. The biggest one will always be quantity and quality writing. We have started our dialogue about how to create paragraphs that really give your readers a ‘juicy hamburger’ paragraph (detailed paragraph) instead of a ‘grilled cheese’ paragraph (a small paragraph with not much in it).

One student this year has asked to write a weekly letter by hand to improve her cursive handwriting. I have no problem with this and provided her with resources for handwriting as well. However, she still wanted me to email my response back so she could have one on Monday morning in her inbox like the rest of the students.

It’s important for my students to know the conversation isn’t just one way either. I always allow my students to ask me questions about whatever they want, and yes that sometimes means questions about who I am and my life. As long as they are appropriate, I have no problem answering them as I think it’s important for students to see you as a person just as they are. So far I’ve never had anything come my way I wouldn’t answer. Perhaps I’m just lucky to have such respectful students. I’ve always felt being honest with my students is essential if I expect the same from them so sharing about my holidays or relating to them with stories from my own life growing up or whatever the case may be is something I think is important for my students to see.

There was one weekend when I was away at a conference for a few days and into the weekend where I did not send individual responses to students. Instead, I sent a general email to the whole class. The students were understanding of it and I responded to many of the common questions asked throughout all of the emails that week. But the following week I was back to the individual emails again.

It is a time-consuming project on my end but I truly believe the value of it outweighs that. One thing I have done to help me combat spending so much time on email writing every weekend is to create a canned message template for each week. In doing so, each student hears about maybe something I did on the weekend, something that might be coming up to look forward to in class or another topic that pertains to all students. Then, I will respond individually to the content of their emails and provide feedback where necessary.  It still means sending an email to every student but I’m not rewriting every single word in every email.

For one of my beginner ESL students, this has been a really positive experience this year. He always sends me his email in English (his native language is Japanese) because he wants to improve his English and he has! He went from a one or two sentence email to sometimes up to two paragraphs now. The other really interesting part is how he uses images and videos in his emails to help convey his messages to me. Without the use of technology, we would not have this ability.

I had a student who was very disruptive during class at the beginning of the year. We tried different strategies in class to help him be successful in whole class settings but I always found he was more successful when he was able to use the computer to communicate his thoughts. In his emails, he would always express how he didn’t want to call out but couldn’t help himself and how much he enjoyed the class. His emails provided me more insight into the student I saw in class. The dialogue created through this digital medium allowed us to reflect on what was happening in class and what we could do together to make the classroom environment work for him. I don’t believe these conversations wouldn’t have happened in class to the same effect as they have.

On holidays and summers, I still get emails from my students - not all, but some. It always surprises me who emails me too. Often it is some of the students who really didn’t like writing when they came to me. It makes me confident that the plan worked. It makes me confident that students want to have an audience for writing, that building relationships with students is important and that sometimes writing isn’t just about writing.

Many students come and go in an internationally community and I still hear from some of them every now and again. I heard from ½ of the students who moved to another country at the start of this school year and left our school community. Sometimes students need that sense of comfort from their old life as they start a new one. I’ve always said to all my students, if you write me an email, I will respond. Sometimes that sense of security, as little as an email is, is what a child needs most.

The greatest success of these writing program is that is has had impacts much farther and more meaningful than just my students’ writing. It really is impacting who they are as a person as they grow. Each week I have the pleasure of reading about sleepovers, friends moving away, disagreements on the playground, celebrations at home, parents returning from business trips and more. Each week they open up their little lives to me with trust and respect and I do my best to do the same. It has become more than writing - it is a dialogue to build the foundation of relationships, skills and attitudes that go beyond what is reported on any report card.  I can only hope that I can continue to be that source of support both inside and outside of the classroom this year.

GMAIL: Home Writing Program - Year 1 Reflections

I absolutely love this program with my students. Over the past year and a bit, I have learnt so much about my students through this initiative and it literally makes my day when I get the sweetest emails from them.

For the first few weeks of the first year of the program, I documented my weekly reflections. These are my thoughts from October - December from 2013 as the home writing program began to unfold.

Week 1 Reflection

Well, it’s out in the world now, let’s see how it goes. The students seemed pretty excited that they didn’t have to write on paper for the homework each week. By providing an example of what was expected in the email really allowed students to get a visual of what was intended.

I am glad I emailed the parents prior to the assignment – it can be difficult at times understanding the perspective of the email being sent and I could find myself in tricky situations potentially if a student emails content of concern so it’s good to be completely open about it first and educate the parents instead of trying to backpedal later. I even got a response from one parent being really supportive of the idea and excited to see what comes of this.

The first night I had a few students email me with their letters. It is interesting to see the range of emails. Some students are sticking specifically to the options, others are writing about their own topics. It is a quick glance at who chooses to be creative or follow the form.  The range of work is quite wide from a sentence to a couple paragraphs. Hopefully, I can get all of my students writing at least a few paragraphs each week to me.

One thing that also happened today was that a student emailed me about an issue that took place last Friday (not as part of their homework). This was the first time I have received an email like this from a student. It is clear that this outlet can provide students with a comfortable environment that allows them to connect with a teacher without having to have difficult conversations face to face. While I still believe face to face interactions are important, it simply provides students with another avenue to communicate with me so that we can problems solve together.

 

One thing I learned today is that I should draft the email from the students as I receive them. This way I’m not writing to 20 students on Sunday night. It is a bit much to do it all in one go. Therefore, this week I will try drafting the emails as I receive them and still send them out on Monday morning. I’m going to let my students read their email from me first thing Monday morning once they get settled for the day.

Some of the most common areas of improvement for writing emails include :

• Using capitals for  Ms.  and all names
• Using a comma after the person's name  in greeting (Ms. Mac,)
• Writing a salutation ex: Sincerely, or Many thanks, or Take Care
• Adding detail to explain their thinking and expand paragraphs
• Ensuring name is on a line of its own after the salutations

Ex:  Sincerely,

      Ms. Mac

• Rereading emails before sending

I loved how some students also included pictures in their emails. It was a great start with a lot of potential still to come.

Week 2 Reflection

Week 2 of the email writing. I emphasized to my students they should aim to write at least 3 good paragraphs to me if possible when we were reviewing our homework for the week. Hopefully, this will help them continue to develop the length of their writing.

Monday, October 7, 2013– Today was the first day my students got to read their emails from me. They were all very eager to read their responses from me. By the time I got home at night, I already had a few emails from students. Many responded to the questions I had asked them but the biggest thing I noticed was that the length of the emails had grown to almost double for most students compared to the first email they had sent.

Another thing I noticed was that I received questions about class work. I had 2 boys in my class email me to ask to meet with me tomorrow to review some of the work they were unsure of. All I thought was wow! Already my students are using this assignment not only as a vehicle to fulfill their weekly homework but also using it as an educational tool to reach out and get help. For these two particular boys, they both need extra help and rarely participate or ask questions in class. For me, this was a major success this week. These emails are truly opening up the lines of communication with my students and making them feel more comfortable reaching out for support.

I was discussing the project with a colleague tonight sharing some of my successes. I was also mentioning how labour intensive it was right now as it required me to write at least 20 long well thought out and grammatically correct emails for students each week. But how can you argue with the results?  A little work could mean a lot of rewards and right now I am enjoying getting to know my students better and being able to help them personally, socially and academically.

Topics that have come up so far in the first 2 weeks:

• personal issues – feeling alone, adapting to a new environment, playground issues
• academic – not understanding a topic, asking for clarification to fully answer questions, lots of students asking how to improve writing, not liking a topic and why, making connections between school and home life
• social - how to deal with friends
• appreciation – thanking me for help, joining teams, advice
• learner profile attitudes – balanced, risk taker

Week 3 Reflection

• There are a few students still writing really small paragraphs. How can I get them to expand their thoughts? Do I push it? Ask more questions back?
• Trying to get students to review work before sending  - how do you ensure this is happening?
• Paragraphing area of growth for some -- need to do a small group lesson about paragraphing with these students
• Some students are really expanding their writing.
• I am seeing the effects of writers workshop in terms of descriptive writing carrying over to the emails as well.
• I waited until the last minute to answer all emails this week– doable, but still time intensive and hard to write longer emails for each kid when doing them all at once

Week 4 Reflection

• I’m seeing the boys writing more without complaints.
• I’m noticing less ‘computer typing’ errors (punctuation, capital I, etc).

Week 5 Reflection

• Writing this week is not mandatory due to 3 day week. It will be interesting to see who writes and who doesn’t when not being “told” to write.
• The majority of the class wrote emails still, some longer some shorter this week but kids still wanted to write which was great to see /
• When I told them they didn’t have to write an email this week,  some of them told me to expect an email from them including some of my ESL and reluctant writers.
• I am happy to see kids are enjoying writing and receiving the feedback.

Week 6 Reflection

• Noticing patterns in questions for clarification of assignments. This is good to know so I can clarify to class and help make sure everyone is on the same page.
• Students talking a lot about fears and concerns (books)
• Students are providing feedback for things changing in the classroom (addition of music, dancing, etc)
• I’m still struggling to get a few boys to write. What other strategies could I be using? Need to get some feedback from other teachers on ideas.

Week 7 Reflection

• I have been receiving emails about our updated house merit system and their thoughts. It’s great to get this feedback, praise and suggestions from my students. It’s also really nice to know they feel comfortable telling me what they think about it.
• Kids are wanting to dance more in class. This should become a regular part of our class.-       questions about math
• A few kids didn’t do emails this week (5) – Could a summative due this week be the reason?
• I sent emails to kids who did not submit emails to inquire the reasoning - some summative due, internet down, others forgot. This created a discussion about how we need to be accountable for our work. If students feel they can’t complete the task on time, they need to have that conversation at least the day before and happy to give them the weekend as an ‘extension’ or depending on the situation, allow the student to miss a week. This helps build responsibility.

GMAIL: Home Writing Program Plan

Last year I began a writing program in my class where the students would write me an email each week and I would respond.  I created a thought out plan with input from our Director of Education Technology and off I went. After just over a year of doing this, I opened up the same document to check in and see if I was still doing everything I had set out to do and reflect on the overall effectiveness of the program.

Here is the plan created in October  2013:

Rationale:

In my first year of teaching, a colleague of mine had a grade 4 class who did ‘Thinking Thursday’ every week for a lesson. The concept was simple – write what you were thinking about. Students had an option to write a letter to the teacher, choose a topic from the jar or write about whatever they wanted. Surprisingly, most students would choose to write a letter to the teacher.

We had many discussions about the power of a letter back and forth between the teacher and student

• Get to know your student
• Improve student writing
• Tailor individual writing with feedback
• Challenge students by questioning things in their life
• Provide meaningful guidance and support (pastoral)

And yet, when faced with my own classroom as a relatively new teacher, I was struggling to find time to have students write each week with the given curriculum and school demands while also giving them the choice of what to write. As a school adopting the Writer’s Workshop, it provided limited room for writing the way individual teachers view writing and more of a formula to generate writing.

I personally have never been one to be good at communicating in person and have found writing a better form of communication for me as I am able to think through what I want to say before saying it. While it takes away the initial face to face conversations, it will allow for more meaningful conversations inside the classroom and help me relate to my students more.

I have decided to incorporate this as part of their homework rather than an in-class assignment for the simple reason that it utilises technology and writing in a way that will captivate students and allow them to develop their writing skills without feeling they have to write a polished piece to publish.

Why Not Blog Instead:

• Lack of response/ meaningful feedback
• Forced writing
• No authentic audience
• Hard to have a targeted audience when you don’t know who will read it

Purpose:

• To build a mutually respected relationship between students and the teacher
• To have writing opportunities that are authentic, meaningful and inspiring
• To provide the student with individual feedback
• Write with a specific and targeted audience
• Improve technology skills and digital literacy (eg. Email etiquette, typing, etc)

Writing Task:

• Students are expected to write an email to their teacher each week about any topic of their choosing.
• The teacher will respond to the comments/questions the student has written about in their email. The teacher will also provide general feedback for writing style, conventions etc.
• Email is to be submitted by Friday of every week.
• 
  

Guidelines for Students:

Students must:

• Use proper email etiquette
• Dear Ms/Mr.
• Sincerely
• The specific title of an email
• Use capitalisations
• Use punctuation
• Use paragraphs (eventually)
• Reread your work before sending
• Utilise the spell check function prior to sending
• Maintain an understanding that the emails are confidential UNLESS you are in a position where you will hurt self or someone else
• Should these guidelines not be met, the student will receive an email from the teacher outlining that their email should be modified to meet these success criteria before resending.

Sample Email for Introduction to Students

Dear Ms. Mac,

I hope this email finds you doing well. This week at school I really enjoyed doing our summative assignment. I liked that we were able to work in groups to make our buildings. I found it tricky working with Roger on our project because he did not listen to my ideas. Do you have some suggestions on how to work better as a team?

In cross country this week, I came 4th. I ran as fast as I could and really tried my best. I would have done better but I tripped over a log on the path and rolled down the hill. But I did pass one person because I rolled really fast.

I look forward to hearing from you soon.

Sincerely,

Sheila

Foreseeable challenges:

Challenge	Proposed Action Plan
ESL Students	Students may write in their native languages. I will Google translate their answers. Then write in response back. The point is to get them writing. Slowly transition from native language to writing in English.
Students without access to a laptop at home	When students are finished their work in class, they may work on their assignment. Alternatively, they can do it during ‘work in progress’ time on Friday afternoon Students can also write a handwritten letter if necessary.
Learning disabilities (dyslexia)	Remind students to utilise spell check. Importance of trying and writing for length and meaning. Focus on building a love of writing. Less focus on spelling etc.
Lack of technology skills (typing, the inclusion of sentence structure and conventions)	Students will develop typing skills by doing assignments online Students will be made aware of exclusions of capitalisation, punctuation as part of the written feedback given each week.
Mandatory – reluctant writers	Students are writing about themselves and what interests them They can share as much or as little as they want with me about themselves or choose one of the topics of the week to write about Choice allows for more buy-in
Parents not wanting students emailing teachers ‘personal’ information or at all	Students can complete a writing assignment on paper and submit each week. Students can choose from a list of optional topics.
Coming across questionable emails	Speak with the students for clarification of what they meant in their email When necessary, discuss concerns with Year Group Coordinator, JYP, PYP coordinator
Assigning this as homework instead of in-class activity	Students can write at their convenience when they feel like writing Doesn’t have to be related to course content
Responding to emails on weekend	This will be part of their homework and homework is marked over the course of the weekend. All other emails will wait to be responded to on Monday during work hours
Parents wanting to be CC'd	Parents will be notified about questionable comments only Email parents in advance about the purpose of the assignment

Email Sent to Parents Prior to Beginning Program:

Dear Parents,

I wanted to take a moment to write to you in anticipation of our next unit of inquiry which is about personal awareness. The central idea for the unit is “A person’s behaviour and how they choose to present themselves can project aspects of the identity.” We’re really looking forward to exploring it.

As part of the writing homework, students will be asked to write a weekly email to myself. Students may choose to write about one of the selected topics in their homework package or choose to write about something of their own interest, but each email must be submitted no later than Friday along with their regular homework. All emails will be sent from the student’s Chatsworth email account to the teacher’s Chatsworth email account as usual.

There will be two parts to the teacher feedback to these emails. The first part will be a response to what the student has written, while the second part will deal with writing styles, grammar and conventions.  I will read them over the weekend and students will have a response in their inbox on Monday mornings - at which point they can ponder the questions posed by myself and include their answers in the next email. I’m excited at the potential for some very interesting conversations and dialogue.

Chatsworth’s mission includes developing students as internationally aware, responsible digital citizens. By connecting with students through email, they are building skills in digital literacy and developing their writing skills in a 21st-century environment.

Students who are enrolled in the ESL program are welcome and encouraged to write in their first language if they feel more comfortable. The purpose of this writing exercise is to allow them to express themselves without feeling restricted by language. I will translate emails through Google Translate and respond in English. Students may choose to read the English response or translate it back to their first language. (Please note: No translation is perfect).

This assignment will provide students with many learning opportunities and has the potential to develop our classroom community tremendously. Students will learn how to write letters and use proper email etiquette as well as developing their writing skills with individually tailored feedback. It is important for students to become familiar with typing on a computer and remembering to incorporate appropriate capitalisation and punctuations.  

In doing this, I hope to continue to develop an ongoing relationship with my students and allow them to write about topics of personal interest in a format that is meaningful and timely.

Should you have any questions or concerns, I would be more than happy to discuss this with you at your convenience.

As always, it is a pleasure learning with your children.

Sincerely,

Ms. Emily MacLean