I, too, struggled with this problem with middle school. All the suggestions are great and worth trying. I also might use the following bookmarks:
http://www.gifted.uconn.edu/SEMR/Bookmarks.pdf I would specifically ask students to discuss one of them based on mini lessons, especially if they seemed off topic. When I had a fairly difficult class, I would limit student conferences and then have all the students conference while I conferenced with students or with a group. It was definitely not ideal, but this class was just as you described. As soon as I worked with a student, they would be talking and definitely NOT about their writing. With other classes, all of the great suggestions worked if the classroom got too loud. Accountability was a great motivation for some students. I simply asked them at the end of the week to let me know how productive they were. We discussed the criteria and they had to defend their choice. It was another component I could use with parents. Carol _______________________________________________ Mosaic mailing list [email protected] To unsubscribe or modify your membership please go to http://literacyworkshop.org/mailman/options/mosaic_literacyworkshop.org. Search the MOSAIC archives at http://snipurl.com/MosaicArchive.
