HOW CAN I AS A TEACHER ENCOURAGE MY STUDENTS TO BECOME A COMMUNITY OF WRITERS?
Maureen McCarty Murray
Grand Erie District School Board, Ontario
Abstract
This is the description of a teacher using the creation of a class newspaper as a vehicle to improve the writing ability of Grade 3 students. In this instance, there was the added benefit of creating a community of learners who worked and supported each other in their classroom. Notes from parents, comments from students and teacher observations provide evidence of increased ownership of the writing process as the students wrote, compiled and edited their weekly newspaper.
Two children
One boy, one girl
Taking turns
Placing sunflower seeds in piles of ten.
One for you, one for me, one for you, one for me.
Your turn, my turn, your turn, my turn.
Not a word spoken,
But
To my heart, it spoke volumes.
It was an unlikely pair of students: one child from a privileged home: 2 parents, stay-at-home mom who was able to be actively involved in volunteering at school, extracurricular activities such as music and sports, proper food, clothing, stimulating family holidays, and a warm secure family atmosphere. The other student: economically, physically, socially and academically disadvantaged in many ways. However, the children weren't aware of the socioeconomic variables that influenced their lives. They were only aware of a pile of sunflower seeds that lay before them. On a warm October morning, the students at Paris Central participated in a cross-graded Math activity called "The Great Sunflower Challenge." The purpose was to count the number of seeds in several sunflowers and then collectively add the number counted for the entire school.
Working in groups of six, students used different strategies to estimate, count and record. For some reason, these two students gravitated to their own spot on the playground and proceeded to count out small piles of seeds. This image solidified my focus and imprinted a vision that hopefully will last a lifetime: a vision of two children spontaneously working together, communicating and cooperating for a common purpose. It was this sense of "community" that I was hoping to explore in my action research.
Finding a Question
As a mother of five, I am always amazed that children with the same parents can be so different! Therefore, it shouldn't be any surprise that in a class of 23 students with different parents, backgrounds, academic abilities, interests, philosophies, and home routines that it should be exponentially more challenging. My Grade 3 class consisted of thirteen boys and ten girls of various academic abilities and personalities. Although there were exceptions, my class had two distinct groups: active, talkative boys who were willing and able to dominate group discussions and quiet, passive girls who offered minimal input. One student was tested in September and qualified to attend the gifted programme the following year as a guest. On the other hand, another student was identified for placement in the Special Education class for the following year. While searching for a research question, I kept reflecting on the diversity of the class. Each child was so unique. My research question revolved around avenues in which I could encourage these students with such diverse abilities and personalities to work well together in my "little microcosm of society." How could I prepare them for a future of sharing their lives with others with diverse backgrounds and abilities? This was going to be their reality: to share their life, family, community, country and world with others who had diverse personalities, abilities, interests and attitudes. How could I as a teacher, encourage them in this endeavour ? The area of writing allows for creativity in expression, direction and selection. Therefore, I chose for my research question, "How can I encourage my students to become a community of writers?" How can I encourage them to encourage each other and work together with a caring attitude? How can I encourage them to retain their individuality while enhancing the abilities of other students? How can I establish and encourage a sense of community and a sense of togetherness or as the Three Musketeers would say "All for one and one for all?"
Gathering Data
I chose the following format for researching and gathering data for my question:
1. Encouraging a community of writers:
a) within the class: anecdotal observations and writing samples of students as they participated in the CN reading challenge, Book Bags, Class Play, weekly classroom newspaper.
b) within the school: Sunflower Challenge, writing buddies,
c) within the community: weekly contribution to community newspaper.
As I gathered data throughout the year, I was fortunate to be able to meet with 4 other teachers in our board who were also conducting action research. Under the mentorship of Deb Opersko and Diane Morgan, the five teachers plus two leaders met at regular intervals throughout the school year. The action research model we used was the living educational theory based primarily on the work of Jack Whitehead which places the researcher at the centre of the research. In an atmosphere of trust and acceptance, we were given many opportunities to discuss our research and benefit from the insight and experience of others. At my school, I was fortunate to work in a collaborative atmosphere with my principal, Rob Smith, and my unofficial mentor, Kathy Taylor. Most interactions with my colleagues were spontaneous 2 minutes reflections as I shared an observation or voiced a concern about my students or program. However, the action research group provided more structured feedback and opportunities to share the trials and tribulations of action research. It was within this environment that I was able to develop and refine ideas that eventually led to this article.
2. Encouraging a community of writers within the classroom:
Goal: My goal for Term 1 was to concentrate more on the sense of "community" than on the "writing" aspect of my research question. A community within a classroom can be compared to a community within a school, or a professional learning community (PLC). The same shared vision where everyone makes a contribution while collectively undertaking activities to promote learning occurs in both avenues. Another characteristic of a PLC, involves that of achieving goals that could not be reached alone. Cooperation by all is paramount. Reflective dialogue in an atmosphere of trust and respect is crucial. In order to achieve a sense of community, the class participated in a number of classroom activities which I will briefly discuss.
CN Tower : As a reading incentive, each child participated in a CN Tower Challenge, an activity shared by Jane Townsend, a teacher at Northward School . For each page the student read, they were able to colour in one millimeter on their CN Tower which corresponded to the 553 metres of the actual CN Tower. Pages read in class were initialed in their daily planner by the teacher and pages read at home were initialed by a parent. My intention was to establish a nightly habit of reading with the students and their families. After all the students had read to the top of the tower one time, we had a classroom treat. By working on a common goal, my intention was to build a sense of community and encourage one another.
One student wanted to know what would happen if they read to the top seven times, and on the spur of the moment, I told them I would take them out for lunch. For one student who had a food allergy and wouldn't be able to participate in the lunch reward, he read towards the reward of an autograph from one of his favourite National Hockey League (NHL) players. His mother wrote a note in his planner indicating this was the first time her son had actually enjoyed reading (S.M. Nov. 2003) At the end of the first term, the students collectively had read over 28,000 pages, and by the end of the second term, over 42,000 pages. Not only had each student personally been challenged to read, each child benefited from the sense of community of working toward a common goal.
2. Book Bags:
In another effort to encourage a sense of community and a common writing goal, my eldest daughter, Mary Elizabeth painted canvas book bags. Each bag, which had a theme such as Challenges, Families, Food, Emotions and Weather, contained 2 books, a mini-dictionary and an activity sheet which outlined important information for parents, plus a choice of 8 book bag activities. Each Thursday, the students returned their book bags with a written activity of their choosing, from one of the books in the book bag. As the book bags were numbered 1 through 23, each week they took home the next bag. When they returned them on the Thursday, the students recorded the number of pages they had read from the books in the book bags into their planner for their CN Tower Challenge, and then hung them up on "s" hooks which were attached to the chalk ledges. By November, the students were very self sufficient in the book bag routines. The only drawback involved students who failed to return the bags on the Thursday, so the next student could take them home. We continued with the weekly book bags until mid March. By this time, the students had read through most of the book bags, and were very competent in completing activities relating to main characters, plot, setting, problems and solutions to problems. This activity not only addressed many reading and writing expectations, but also fostered a sense of community by reading and discussing common books with common themes. It also gave them common writing goals. In addition it allowed me a glimpse into their distinct personalities as each student had unique answers to the same questions for the same books.
3. Class Rules
During the first week of school, our class discussed and decided on our classroom rules. Each student signed their name on their construction paper handprints to signify their agreement to the following rules:
• Treat others as you would like to be treated.
• Respect your school, yourself and others.
These rules were prominently placed in our classroom and discussed as needed.
4. Class Play
During the fall term our class read the novel, "Mr. Popper's Penguins." As a culminating activity, we performed a play for the entire school and invited family guests. Everyone who didn't have a role as a main character was a penguin who performed a song and dance routine. Stronger classroom ties were forged when the CD for our dance routine was inexplicably misplaced as the show was about to begin. The students performed a dance routine that I improvised to music we had never heard before, while performing in front of hundreds of people. The sense of accomplishment and satisfaction of working together far exceeded my original hope for our production. In post-rehearsal and post-performance discussions, I was continually amazed at the sincere encouragement the students gave each other. One boy, Matthew, who was new to our school, was one of six students who auditioned for the main penguin role. The spontaneity and enthusiasm with which the class greeted his performance did more to boost his self-esteem and sense of belonging that anything I could ever have imagined. This was but another step in building a sense of community and trust in our classroom. A journal entry from Nov. 19. 2003 states, "After our Mr. Popper's Penguins performance, the class is working extremely well. They are so focused. I don't even think they would notice if I wasn't here. They are helping one another, encouraging one another-no one needs to be spoken to." (Journal entry)
5. Class Newspaper
Probably the most consolidating factor in our journey of becoming a "community of writers" was our class newspaper titled "The Grade Three Paris Central Star" which will be discussed in more detail. The idea of a weekly student newspaper first occurred to me during a discussion with Diane Morgan who suggested the idea at an Action Research Group meeting. (Oct. 20, 2003). She proposed having an editor of a community newspaper speak to my class. I spoke with Beth Gurney, editor of The Paris Star, who not only agreed to visit our class and discuss her role as editor and the role of a community newspaper, she also agreed to let the students submit a weekly newspaper column. We had only written two weekly papers by this time, but we welcomed the opportunity to widen our scope to the town of Paris . This was our first venture from becoming a "community of writers within the classroom" to becoming a "community of writers within the community"
Our newspaper started at the beginning of October and was published weekly during the first term. Every Monday morning, I posted a sheet of chart paper with the date, and two columns: one for the title of the article and one for the author or authors. Suggestions from the class were submitted and discussed with ideas generated from activities occurring within the classroom and school: field trips, guests, novel reports, CN Tower Challenge updates, and new lesson topics. Students volunteered to write the articles. As a teacher, I found this part to be very exciting. The enthusiasm on their faces and eager hands waving to write articles was rewarding. In addition, their reactions were spontaneous. It didn't matter who their writing partner was. Usually in group activities, students were busy forming groups and plotting how best to ensure they will be placed with their friends.
With the newspaper, keen interest was shown for the newspaper article itself, and not for a writing partner.
Interviews were definitely the most popular articles that were written and read. One day when I was absent for a Math workshop, I left a blank sheet of paper on everyone's desk for bell work, and let them compose their own question for an interview with me. The questions were priceless and being in a lighthearted mood, I decided to submit everyone's question for our weekly submission to our local newspaper. Not only did everyone get a chance to be in the newspaper that week, it gave the non-teaching world a chance to get to know a teacher on a different level. When Chris M. asked the question, "Are you always busy?" I answered with" "Only from 6:00 a.m. until 11 p.m." Another student, Adrian, asked "What's it like to teach 23 students at once?" I answered: "Like chasing chickens, only a lot more rewarding." Another student asked, "Do you ever get headaches?" Answer: "No, thankfully. I never get headaches, but I sometimes get heartaches, when children aren't nice to each other." I've had dozens of people comment on that article alone. This column has helped our class to build a sense of community within our community of Paris . Parents have been very pleased with the newspaper and have written the following:
It's a wonderful opportunity for the children to expand their theatre of education and a chance to explore the adult world in a safe and interesting way. I appreciate the children's' work being taken seriously by adults (J.B., Dec. 2003).
There's nothing like seeing your story in print to get you excited about writing. It's great when "education" connects with the "real" world. When children read a newspaper article, they will have a better understanding of what it is like to write for a newspaper. ..Writing has become fun, exciting, and relevant. The more writing they do, the better they'll get.and there have been so many opportunities given to the children to write (K.B., Dec. 2003).
Excellent, wonderful way to use skills in a real way. Encourages cooperation, multi-skill tasks on a regular basis. Fun! (J.B., Dec. 2003).
Nice that everyone has input and a turn to have their articles published, not just the "scholar" students. J's grandparents live in Nova Scotia and this gives them "common ground" to talk about, and they feel more and more in tune as to what he is doing at school (S.M., Dec. 2003).
As stated earlier, this writing activity has been the cornerstone in my writing programme this year and has enabled the students to benefit in many ways. Many specific expectations from the Ontario Curriculum have been addressed through this writing activity. Not only have the students connected with each other as they have shared in the writing activities, but their parents also have observations they have shared with me. Chris G's Mom states "It's nice to get the student's point of view on classroom activities." I agree. Since September our school has focused on a major playground renewal programme . Akeem , Alex and Garnet stated in the Oct. 18 th edition that "The old playground was the dangerous one." And that our principal, Mr. Smith "is the thinker." Their choice of words is far more descriptive than mine could ever be. Lizzy's Mom states, "I think it makes kids feel important when they see that their thoughts are written down on paper and considered important enough to be seen by others" (Dec. 2003).
Years from now when I reflect on this class, I am confident that our class newspaper will be one of the highlights I will cherish. Our motto is: "News by the students, for the students, and about the students." When my students were asked by my mentor for Action Research, Deb Opersko , what they like best about writing in our newspaper, students replied, " I like to write about something that is meaningful to me"."something that is important to me" ."I have a choice and can choose what I want to write about." However, one student replied, "I am nervous in case I make a mistake and people will laugh at me." I assured him that I carefully check every article before I print them. We have had a tremendous response from the community.
During the course of writing their weekly newspaper, my class has gone though a transition in roles. Initially, I would lead the assignment of writers, and during the week the students would work on an outline and gather data for their articles. Writing with a partner, they would then print their articles on a sheet I had developed for them to guide them through the process. After they had completed their articles, they would put them in a "Newspaper Article" bin and I would type them on the computer. For the first couple of months, their role was to decide on articles, volunteer to write them, work with a partner, and hand in the article by Thursday or Friday. My goals for Term 1 were to inspire enthusiasm, creativity and community. Mission accomplished.
6. Community of Writers within the school
The Grade 3 class also participated in the Sunflower Challenge, a cross-graded math activity which was described in the introduction. My main focus was to concentrate on learning to work well within the classroom and establish routines and effective writing practices both individually and within the class.
7. Community of Writers within the Community
Submitting several articles from our classroom newspaper to our community newspaper worked extremely well. It was a wonderful avenue for my students to communicate with a wider audience. As a result of an article published in our local newspaper, my class received an invitation for several students to visit the playground equipment factory that was manufacturing a play structure for our new playground. Belaire Equipment hosted a tour that highlighted the manufacturing process and showed the students the final processing stages of our own equipment as it was painted and assembled for shipping. A photo shoot and more newspaper articles resulted from this tour.
End of Term Reflections
Term 1 - Upon reflection, my goal of focusing on and building a sense of community was achieved. The group of students who arrived in my classroom in September were a fairly cohesive group of students who were comfortable working with one another and enjoyed group activities. Our sense of community was enhanced with class activities such as the newspaper, play, CN Tower Challenge and book bags. However, one aspect that I felt needed to be addressed was risk taking and feeling comfortable with trying something new. The first day of school, I handed out "welcome bags." It was important for me as a teacher that each child knew he or she was valuable in my eyes and that I cared for them and about them. One important item in each bag was an eraser to signify that it was okay to make mistakes. The bag also included a band-aid because I would help them if they were hurt; a penny, because each student was valuable to me; a piece of bubble-gum, because we were all going to "stick together" and a box of Smarties because we are all smart in our own way.
Author Donald Graves , writes about an "orderly hum to the classroom." ( Graves , p.131). There were many days when I would pause and look with satisfaction at my class and reflect with pride at the work they were doing. These students were working together with a common purpose and encouraging each other along the way. The most telling moment for me occurred in December during morning announcements. Instead of standing tall and singing O Canada, several students who were struggling readers, were quietly and secretly attempting to read "their" newspaper that had been left on their desks that morning. I was proud.
Term 2 - Having addressed the "community" aspect of my research question, I now felt it was time to focus on the "writing" aspect. As a class we had devoted most of our time and energy on writing within the classroom. It was time now to expand our horizons and concentrate more on writing within the school and community.
My main goal during this second writing period was to concentrate more on the "process than the product." The weekly newspaper reminded me of "The Shoemaker and the Elves." Every week the students would leave their rough copies of their articles in the newspaper bin. At the end of the week they would arrive at school to find an edited, colourful and finished newspaper placed on their desks. Everyone was very pleased. The product was great, but it was now time to concentrate on the process of writing. Just as making outlines and paragraphs were the main topics for Term 1, editing was our main priority for Term 2. I could no longer expect the class to produce a weekly newspaper if they were going to have to spend more time self-editing, peer-editing, and consulting with the weekly "classroom editor." It was my own opinion that I would be letting the school, parents and community down if I didn't produce a weekly class newspaper with community newspaper contributions. However, at this time a medical crisis in my family necessitated my absence from the classroom for two weeks, and I realized that life would go on without a weekly newspaper. Quality and not quantity became the new focus. It was also rewarding to see that routines, writing and otherwise, proceeded while I was away. As a result, our newspaper was then published bi-weekly.
A Community of Writers within the Classroom
By the beginning of December, I told my students my plan for the rest of the year. Just as they came to class every Friday or Monday and found a neatly typed, photocopied and colourful newspaper on their desk, my goal was to slowly transfer the roles, so that by June, I would arrive at school to find the newspaper on my desk. By January, I was selecting a weekly editor who was in charge of not only article and writer selections, but also editing, and sorting out any issues that might arise. A co-editor was also chosen who would be observing from the sidelines, and would be the following week's editor. At first, I intervened several times during the process, but as the months progressed, the students realized I was taking a back seat to their leadership, and would defer any questions or problems to the "editor." I physically sat at the back of the room, and gave my entire attention to the editor. Also, at this time, I started bringing my laptop from home so the students could take turns typing the articles on the computer. Working in pairs, one student would read the article and the other one would type, then they would switch. Most weeks only four or five articles would be typed because their keyboarding skills consisted on a great deal of hunting with a little bit of pecking. At this time, I had the students start a keyboarding programme that was installed on our school computers called "Right Type." A tracking sheet was posted and three students were taught how to use the programme . After they had finished the first lesson, they each chose one student to demonstrate the programme to and get them started. In this "train the trainer" approach, I was able to "teach" the entire class after just teaching three students. Our three classroom computers were centrally located in our classroom, and it was easy to monitor any problems while still circulating within the classroom. A typical morning would include students working in pairs on newspaper articles, an editor circulating between groups, other students working either at the classroom computers or at the laptop typing articles for publication and students taking pictures with the school's digital camera. I would be circulating among groups of students, observing and directing where necessary.
I found during the second term, the type of articles written also took a different direction. In Term 1, as long as the article was appropriate, it was submitted. Interviews, class activities, jokes, riddles, field trips, and birthdays of the month were typical articles. In Term 2, the class decided that only activities that occurred within the class and school would be allowed. Family vacations, births, and events happening outside the classroom would not be permitted. However, as each student would have an opportunity to be the newspaper editor for a week, that student would be allowed to write a personal article of their choosing such as vacations, birth announcements, etc. I also made a new and improved newspaper outline with article suggestions, and an editing checklist. Book, movie, and video reviews, recipes, editorials and advertisements were added as possible ideas. No longer would it be acceptable to copy jokes and riddles from a book. Actual outlines, drafts, and editing would need to be done with each article submission, in addition to self-editing, peer-editing and weekly newspaper editing. As I told them on a number of occasions, I was trying to phase myself out of a job. By June, I planned to arrive at school, and find a newspaper that they had written, edited, photocopied and placed on MY desk!
Community of Writers within the School
Grade 1 Buddies
During the second term, my class also worked on writing "mini-books" which were eight page booklets folded from a single piece of paper. In addition, they each wrote an animal research project which gave them exposure to non-fiction materials. We chose to share their writing with another class within our school and invited the Grade 1 class for a reading and cookie time.
Grade 3 and 6 Writing Buddies
At the end of January, we invited author Linda Hendry to speak at an evening presentation for students and their families. In order to prepare for her visit, the Grade 3 and 6 students worked together to produce a book called "A Day in the Life of Paris Central." Working on half sheets of bristol board, each pair of students wrote one or two sentences about their favourite activities that occurred at our school. Illustrations were completed using magic markers, crayons, feathers, foil, etc. Not only did this give the Grade 3 class a chance to work beside and learn from an older student, it also gave us a chance to share our writing with the rest of the students and their families. Unfortunately, inclement weather prevented our author from visiting, but we had fun preparing for her visit.
Grade 3 in the Second Term
Life in Grade 3 for Term 2 had many facets to it. In addition to our usual classroom routines, our class was privileged to participate in our school musical production of an Italian opera, " Corvo ," written and produced by Bill Farrell, a Grade 5 teacher at our school. Although this opportunity, may not have addressed the writing component of my research question, it further consolidated our sense of community. As each song was sung in Italian, the Grade 3 class had the opportunity to sing their own song, perform a black light dance, and join in the grand finale with the entire school singing in Italian. The school wide venture was possible through the combined efforts of many parents and staff that designed and sewed costumes for all 200 students in the school and helped design and build props. As a result of this production, another "brick" was added to the foundation of their sense of community.
Another reality of the Grade 3 world in the province of Ontario is the E.Q.A.O. Provincial Assessment which occurs every May for 5 days. Activities to help students become familiar with the testing format were reviewed to give them a sense of confidence and competence. I often had students write in pairs or small groups to share their problem solving and communication strategies with each other. In this way, a sense of community of writers was enhanced.
Grade 4 Math Writing Buddies
As I was looking for opportunities for my students to become a "community of writers within the school" the Grade 4 class across the hall, taught by my mentor Kathy Taylor, was eager and willing to try a math buddies activity. Wanting to make the most of every learning experience, we decided to incorporate a math measurement activity we developed called "Pupil Perimetre , Group Graphing, and Math Mats." Working in groups of four, with two students from each grade, students estimated their perimentres and took turns lying down and having yarn placed around their perimeters. After each member was measured, they graphed the results, and recorded their observations on chart paper. During the five days this activity took to complete, students in both grades were able to observe different problem solving techniques, writing styles and communication strategies. Although many students had favourable comments regarding the activity, one boy stated he was "stuck in a group with all those females."
Overall Reflection
As the school year is drawing to a close and I look back on my time with my "community of writers." I am proud of their accomplishments and the joy they have shared both with me and with each other. An image that will remain with me occurred a few weeks ago. It was the day after our final performance of our opera. It was a Friday afternoon and the students were quietly working on a Mothers' Day activity. Soft classical music was playing in the background and students were working at their desks composing and illustrating acrostic poems for their Moms. Although I'm sure every student was tired from the hectic week behind them, they each had a look of satisfaction on their faces. Every now and then, a student would quietly hold up an illustration for a friend to admire, or point at a line in their poem. I was struck by the fact that there was very little "talking" but a tremendous amount of "communication." A nod of encouragement, a smile across a desk said it all. My class of 23 unique individuals had evolved into a community of writers.
As I reflect upon the sunflower scenario described at the beginning of this article, I realize it symbolizes my action research. Although I started out with a basic plan, events and opportunities altered the direction of my path. Just as the two students described in the sunflower poem, spontaneously decided to work together, so my action research evolved into a spontaneous entity in many respects. The classroom newspaper idea which led to the weekly community newspaper column occurred as a result of a comment from Diane Morgan, one of my mentors. In my opinion, professional dialogue is crucial to our practice. Opportunities to be able to reflect, discuss and critique are necessary in order to determine where we are presently, and in which direction we need to move in the future. Professional learning communities are essential to growth in our education systems. A shared vision, whether counting sunflowers or writing a class newspaper involves a collective commitment, an attitude of cooperation and an environment of mutual respect.
There were lessons to be learned from the sunflower episode; lessons that directly impacted my daily activities and adventures in my classroom. As a teacher, I need to remember to be open to change and open to opportunities. Sometimes as teachers, we need to be willing to take risks and be spontaneous. Sometimes, we just need to stand back and "let it happen." Sometimes the students not only have a different plan, but they have a better plan. I was also able to replicate the spontaneous partner selection that I had observed at the Sunflower Challenge. For most writing activities, and especially the newspaper articles, students were given free reign in choosing a writing partner. Upon observing their pairing, it became obvious that they wrote out of pure enjoyment and interest. Writing became a natural, enjoyable, and meaningful part of their school experience. As a teacher, I gave myself permission to not only lead, but to follow.
I don't believe a teacher can fully appreciate the impact of research until one has had the opportunity to reflect after its completion. Jackie Delong, a superintendent with our board and a strong advocate for action research, has stated there are five reasons for conducting action research. She states: "There are benefits that radiate outwards like the concentric circles of ripples that result from throwing a pebble in a pond. The benefits begin with students and extend outward to teachers, the school, the school system, and the education profession as a whole." (Delong, 5) I would hope that activities, in which my students participated, instilled in them a sense of pride and ownership in their writing activities and in their lives. I would hope that professional dialogue, both with my colleagues at school and in my action research support group triggered ideas and connections that have made us all more reflective practitioners. I would hope that staff and students at my school benefited from activities which occurred as a result of my research. It is also my hope that my community was able to enjoy their glimpse into the window of my Grade 3 world and have a deeper understanding and appreciation of children at this stage of life. In conclusion, it is my hope through this publication that school systems and the teaching profession in general will benefit in some small way from this research.
Upon looking back upon my year of action research, I am reminded of a quote by Donald Graves: "Each child has a place and a purpose in the total fabric of the room." I am reminded of the classroom quilt we made at the beginning of Term 2. It symbolized the sense of community I had been hoping to achieve. Each child was unique and equal. Each individual quilt square was special, but when sewn together it became stronger and more functional. It was a work of art to be shared and appreciated. Together, we were able to collaborate, cooperate and communicate and in the process became a community-a community of writers.
References
Delong, Jacqueline. (2004) . Action Research Implemented in the Grand Erie District School Board: Impact on Teacher Development, Improvement and the Support System .
Fountas , Irene and Pinnell , Gay. (2001). Guided Readers and Writers: Grades 3-6 . Portsmouth , N.H. Heinemann.
Graves, Donald. (2003). Writing: Teachers and Children at Work . Portsmouth , N.H. Heinemann.
Ontario Ministry of Education. (2005). Education for All . Toronto : Queen's Printer.
Stead, Tony. (2002). Is That a Fact? Teaching Nonfiction Writing K-3 . Portmouth , MN . Stenhouse .
Biographical Note:
After working for a number of years as a nurse in critical care units and the Victorian Order of Nurses, Maureen McCarty Murray started a new career in teaching in 2002. In addition to her 23 students at school, she also shares many activities with her son and four daughters. With her husband, she plays stringed instruments in several orchestras, quartets and individual performances. In May of 2004, she started her M.Ed. programme at Nipissing University . She can be reached through the Grand Erie District School Board office at 349 Erie Avenue, Brantford , Ontario , N3T 5V3 .