I used to love teaching writing and writing workshop. I had about 100 students total (7th and 8th grade), but I had half of them every each day in 3 blocks, for 90 minutes at a time. We were productive, able to share our thoughts with each other, be creative and learn about good writing. I was able to get to know each of my students very well and could often work individually with them on a rotation. This year, due to cut-backs at our school, I now have 140 (ages 12 - 14) per day. I see ALL of them each day in 46 minute class sessions. I feel more like I am just "running cattle" in and out of my room all day. I don't have much time to spend with individual students, and due to larger class sizes, they don't work vey well in small groups anymore. (Crowd control is more difficult, and many are pulled off-task very easily when sharing or working in pairs or small groups.) I am dissapointed in my current ability to meet all their needs and am quickly becoming burnt out on trying to keep up with the assessment of writing for so many students on a daily basis. I no longer have as much time to offer suggestions, write responses on papers, etc. What is the typical number of total students that other middle school Langauge Arts teachers are in charge of teaching in a day's time? If your situation is similar to mine, how do you find that individual time with students? or to keep up with assessing and formal grades? _______________________________________________ The Literacy Workshop ListServ http://www.literacyworkshop.org
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