Thick Descriptions

I have been making a lot of informal observations of my focal group students with The Daily Five and have found the concept of thick descriptions to be especially helpful in fully describing and making sense of my observations. Below are a couple of thick descriptions I created from my thin description in my field notes.

C's work from the Writing center of The Daily Five (see thick description below)

It is 12:40 and student have just returned from recess and restroom break. C is completing the Writing portion of The Daily Five. He walks to the folder at the back of the room with ideas for writing prompts, one of which asks about their favorite pet. C decides on this one and begins writing about how dogs are great animals and then goes into describing his dog. C stays focused on his work and generates 7 sentences and begins on the 8th sentence when I call for the groups to change. I have inserted a picture of his work in this post. After analyzing his work, it is apparent he is using quality work expectations including writing complete sentences with a subject and predicate and using appropriate capitalization, spelling, and punctuation. It is obvious this is his best work and he has put a lot of effort into his writing. He smiles as he turns his work into me at the end of his writing time.

It is 9:55 on Monday, September 17 and students are completing The Daily Five at a different time than normal because of a special event.  E is completing the Word Work portion of The Daily Five. He immediately gets out his Daily Five guide, which is a helpful tool I created to help students remember the expectations and options for each of the five rotations. He decides on the bumpy words activity and gets a piece of paper, a crayon, and the bumpy sheet (intended for use with crocheting). As I walk by, I notice him struggling writing his spelling word "about". It is not that he cannot spell the word, but he does not like the way his letters are looking with the bumpy texture. He turns and notices I am behind him and then says, "I don't know what to do." I reply with, "You are exactly on the right track. It looks great." He keeps going with another word, but is frowning, as he still does not like the result of what his bumpy words look like. He then says, "I can't do this." I reply to him, "You're doing exactly what you should be doing. It looks like it is supposed to. Keep it up!" Then, I walked away and noticed he continued to work without the frown this time. E was very engaged throughout the process because he was being very meticulous about what his work looks like. Looking back in my student interviews, E said he liked all parts of The Daily Five. I am anxious to see if E does bumpy words again as part of Word Work.