Writing- Community Conversations and Wall Displays

Writing Wall Display

                                

Cathy Mere, a first grade teacher, writes for the Choice Literacy blog about how she incorporates classroom conversations as formative assessment and uses wall displays in her classroom:

Formative Assessment: Wall Displays and Conversations in First Grade

"In Peter Johnston’s book, Opening Minds, he tells us, “Formative assessment isn't only the teacher's responsibility.  In the end, the community members need to be able to recognize how to take stock of their own and each other's learning and respond to it in ways that provide a productive path forward.” (p. 50)  When we think about learning conversations in our communities they occur on a variety of levels:

Community conversations about learning help students to think deeply about the work they do.  They provide opportunities to look at strengths in work as we learn from one another.  They also allow us to think about what is next in our learning.  Being a part of a writer’s workshop isn't just about doing our own writing each day; it’s about being a part of a writing community.  In our writer’s workshop we learn to have conversations with one another.

As a writing community we:

• celebrate new successes
• talk about risks we have taken in our writing
• share crafting techniques we've used to create a more meaningful piece
• notice the shifts in the writing of our peers
• seek clarification of ideas
• ask hard questions

In our classroom we begin these conversations around the work we do as writers by creating a concrete way to talk about our journey.  I’ve found using bulletin board space to display each student’s writing journey is a powerful way to grow the conversations we have as writers.  Not only does it provide a visual to help me quickly assess and monitor growth, it provides a way for our community to talk about our writing together."

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