TE802SWATsample1

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 * HERE IS MY SWAT PAPER (BELOW!):**

[| TE 802 - SWAT 1.doc]


 * Directly below is my sample of student work. It will open as a 2-page PDF.**

[| Carrie.pdf]


 * __Context/Background of work sample:__**

The above piece of writing is an assignment that all of my students created within the first few days of school. My mentor teacher and I wanted to work on community building in our classroom before we got into teaching curriculum because we feel that this is extremely important. As a result, we had all of the students write an "I am From" poem modeled after the poem "Where I'm From" by George Ella Lyon. We first analyzed Lyon's "Where I'm From" as an entire class and thought about what she included in her poem, and why it was important enough to include. Students then received a list of brainstorming ideas in order to formulate what they might want to include in their poems. The list had things on it like: family names, foods, vacation spots, pets, childhood memories, phrases you always heard (like, "If you can't say something nice, don't say it at all", etc.). Students then wrote their poems over the course of a few days, shared them with others (only if they wanted to), and eventually several students volunteered to read their poems for the entire class!

The sample of student work above, is an "I am From" poem written by an 11th grade male, who is supposed to have "trouble with writing" according to his IEP. This student was eager to share his poem with me, and was one of the volunteers who read the poem aloud to the class. While this student may have trouble with writing, he did a great job with this poem, maybe because it was a less structured writing assignment and he had less pressure to get things like spelling and grammar correct. It is clear to see that he put a lot of time and effort into his poem, and really took a risk by including so much personal, and at times touchy, information. I feel that this writing assignment really shows that students are excited to write about themselves and they feel a part of the community when given a chance to show who they are and where they are from.