There is a lot packed into this third section of the book, read and comment on what was most relevant to you. :-)
ASSIGNMENT FIVE: WRITTEN REFLECTION-Section Three- The Essential Writing Day Chapters 7-10
Chapter 7: Be Efficient and Integrate Basic Skills
• How might we integrate skill work into student writing rather than teaching it in isolation?
• Daily Oral Language exercises – THEY DON’T WORK!!!
• The importance of focusing on meaning and quality first
• All writing needs both a PURPOSE and an AUDIENCE
• How thinking aloud can make your teaching more explicit
• Teaching WRITING – not just the language of writing (process, process, process)
• What about writing standards? In your District and State?
• Key writing minilessons
• Revision – how to get students to care about it
• Letting kids in on the secret that – Yes! – Conventions do matter!
• How can we effectively use word walls?
In Chapter 7, suitably titled “Be Efficient and Integrate Basic Skills,” Regie gets to the heart of what so many teachers struggle with: “Fitting it all in!!!” Many of the elementary teachers that we work with are beginning to feel as though their personal motto is: “Jack of all trades; master of none.” We just don’t have the time to teach well what has to be taught. The only answer to this problem is to modify our instruction so it agrees with Regie’s stance that isolated skill work (such as Friday spelling tests, DOL, grammar worksheets…) will not help our students grow into writers (or readers.) On page 144, Regie shares four components for an integrated Writing Workshop:
1. Identify writing genres that would interest students (and meet district requirements)
2. Decide who the audience would be for each piece of writing.*
3. Model your own writing process and show students how you struggle.
4. Have students share writing regularly (for both celebration and great teaching moments.)
*This created the biggest change in my own class’s writing - once my students began to write with an audience in mind, the quality of writing shot right up!
Regie also gets to the heart of what writing with “voice” really is and addresses how to teach children to write with an honest voice in their own writing. She describes voice as “the writer’s unique personality on paper, his own melody in words, her ‘mark’ as an individual. To write with voice, the writer has to be interested in the writing.” We think that many teachers and students are unclear as to how to add true voice to their writing. Regie suggests, “Voice is in the details – but details that show the real person and story behind the words, not just details for the sake of adding more words…”
Integrating those isolated editing skills such as grammar, punctuation, and spelling into our writing will increase the efficiency of our instruction. Bottom line – if the students care about their writing, are writing for a specific audience, and understand that “the importance of editing (and spelling conventionally) is to make their message clear and easy to read for their audience – or reader, they take this job seriously and work hard at making their writing clear.”
Chapter 8: Organize for Daily Writing
• What is our definition of Writing Workshop? What does Regie say?
• How can we have student choice within a structure?
• The importance of writing talk (teachers and students)
• The ultimate nightmare for all of us…scheduling…finding the time to write everyday
• The importance of routines, organization and modeling expected behavior
• Genre study – why it’s important to have both school-wide and district-wide conversations
• The possibilities within genres
Figuring out a way to “fit it all in” is usually one of the most frustrating things many of us face. It starts at the beginning of the year as we first plan our daily schedule and continues throughout the remainder of the year. Considering how you will create your schedule to include a solid chunk of time for both reading and writing will probably be the most stressful piece to the start of your year.
Create a Comprehensive Literacy Framework: Play with your time and consider what changes you might make in your daily literacy framework for next year. Take a look at the samples that Regie provides on pages 185-187 for some possibilities. You do not have to post your schedule, but we believe this is a worthwhile activity to complete on your own.
Chapter 9: Conference with Students
• What is the purpose of a Writing Conference?
• What are the different types of Writing Conferences?
• How can Share be used effectively?
• How to conduct a productive conference
• What about management and routines?
We are so glad that this chapter talks about Share during Writer’s Workshop. Too often this component is skipped by teachers who feel there isn’t enough time in the day to “fit it all in.” However, it’s a vital piece of the workshop and beneficial to all the students. Share sessions are an additional time to teach. The teachers in my school are quite comfortable using Share as their mini-lesson if the need arises. Given the reality of daily schedules they were finding that they couldn’t have a mini-lesson, confer and share everyday. They then realized that their Shares sometimes were the minilessons. For more information about Share we recommend looking at Leah Mermelstein’s Don’t Forget To Share: The Crucial Last Step in the Writing Workshop. In this slim book, Leah explains in detail four types of Share: Content Share, Craft Share, Process Share and Progress Share.
The “Tips for Successful Whole-Class Shares and Conferences” on page 215 are excellent ones to keep in mind. The bottom line for Conferences and Shares is that students should feel successful and want to continue to write. Make sure what you say to the child encourages them to keep on writing. “The conference is secondary; the student as writer and confident learner is primary.”
Chapter 10: Make Assessment Count
• Understanding how rubrics work
• What about Test Prep? THE BEST TEST PREP IS EXCELLENT TEACHING!
• How can we collect reliable data on students’ writing throughout the day?
• Guidelines for grading and providing evidence for parents, administrators and the public
“There is lots of writing assessment going on these days, but little of it actually improves the quality of students’ writing.” As Regie continues she points out that this ‘assessment’ “is seldom used to improve daily instruction.” This chapter is about becoming more knowledgeable about assessments. Regie notes, that unless teachers know how to teach writing well, it can be a waste of time to examine students’ writing and place students on a writing continuum. She encourages you, as a staff to “write together, study together, converse together, gather school-wide data, analyze these data and set goals for improving writing instruction. There is no shortcut to helping students become effective writers and there is no program you can buy that will do it for you.”
Remember to use rubrics judiciously and not overdo it. They should be “used as an evaluation tool, not as the driving instructional force.” “Use professional common sense. It is not advisable to apply rubrics to ALL writing nor to score ALL writing. Just as our students need lots of practice reading many texts without the expectation that they will be assessed on everything they read, they need lots of practice writing without being assessed on everything they write.” (Page 243)
Have your students do a lot of writing! “Extensive writing across the curriculum as part of an excellent writing program is the best preparation for doing well on (standardized) tests. Readers have to read avidly to become readers and the same holds true for writers. Kids who write a lot develop higher-order thinking and understanding that translates to higher achievement on all types of tests.” Be sure to check out “Try It Apply It” on page 246 and throughout the chapter for ideas to incorporate into your program.
As Regie points out in this chapter, “The joy has gone out of writing.” We need to “concentrate on developing kids as learners rather than kids as test takers.”
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Chapter 7 According to Regie you can integrate skill work into writing by teaching whole to part and back to part again. In other words get the students writing and then go back and label it. This is a new way of teaching conventions for me. It will require me to be creative in coming up with ways to do this during the writing process. One idea is to purposefully leave out punctuation as I am writing a story in front of the whole class and and work through with the students what they observed and how the story sounded.
ReplyDeleteIt is important to teach that all writing needs a purpose and audience. When writers learn to do this the quality of their work will improve.
As I said before I am not used to thinking ut loud as a way of teaching. I used it the other day when I substituted in a 4th grade class during journal writing time. The students seemed to be more engaged.
Many of Regie's points can be summarized by getting the students writing with purpose and audience and then use their writing to teach the skills.
Chapter 7 (continued) According to Regie you can integrate skill work into writing by teaching whole to part and back to whole. In other words get the students writing and during the process go back and label the skills. This is a new way of looking at teaching writing skills for me. It will require me to be more creative in developing ways to label skills in authenic writing. One idea as I am writing in front of the class I leave out periods and capital letters and then have a discussion with the students on how this impacted my story. Regie wants us to teach writing not just the process. It is important to teach that all writing has a purpose and an audience. Writing will improve when the students realized that they are writing not for a process or the teacher but for anyone who will be reading their writing. Celebrating their writing by publishing it and sharing it with others will help establish this.
ReplyDeleteAs I have said before I am not used to thinking out loud as a way of teaching. It is different to me than modeling. I tried it with a fourth grade class during a mini lesson before they started writing in their journals. They were much more engaged and eager to write.
To meet writing standards Regie feels that this can be accomplished by reading alot, hearing good literature aloud, and writing for a purpose and an audience. Along with this I need to make sure that is happening. To accomplish I need to teach meaningful mini lessons. Regie provided a list on pag. 155.
I used to think revising and editing were the same. By revising Regie means looking as our writing piece again to make it the best it can be with our audience and purpose in mind. I think editing looks at the conventions of writing. The importance of revision can be taught as I model as I write. The more students understand their purpose and audience for writing the more important revision will become for them.
Since I am used to giving standarized spelling tests I appreciated the ideas from Regie on how to make spelling happen without them. I especially liked the idea of creating word walls based off words that the students commonly use.
Chapter 8 When I was teaching first grade my school implemented "writers workshop" as part of our daily literacy block. This time included a mini lesson, independent writing time (biggest portion), mid-workshop mini-lesson, conferencing, and author's chair. However, I also integrated writing into content subjects and math journals. I think that this comes pretty close to Regie's definition.
ReplyDeleteIn order for students to have success as a writer it makes sense that they chose what they want to write about. Something that they know something about and care about. Repeated modeling of how to make a choice will help them make these daily choices.
Along with modeling writing by me it is important to let my students talk about their writing before they write. Sometimes I will ask a student to share what they are going to write about and get them to start telling it. Also, I have them close their eyes and think about their story before they start writing. As students tell me about something going on with them and make note of it and if they get "stuck" I remind them of that.
My school district has established when different genres are taught. I agree that the hardest part of teaching a required genre is how to present it that will get the students involved and excited. The framework for teaching writing genres on pages 196 and 197 will be a valuable tool for me.
Chapter 9 The purpose of the writing conference is to discuss student's work. This includes listening, affirming, reinforcing, assiessing, teaching, scaffolding and setting goals. The different kinds of writing conferences are whole class shares, quickshares, roving, on-the-run conferences, one-on-one formal conferences and peer conferences. It was a good reminder to me that a conference does not always mean a one-on-one formal conference.
ReplyDeleteShare times are valuable to teach listening skills and when I use these times to teach a mini-lesson.
Conferences need to be productive. Regies has provided tips on how to do this. In order for conferences to succeed expectations of behavior must be established during these times. Those expectations need to be modeled, practiced and revisited. One requirement that I had was that I could not be disturbed while I was conferencing with another student. At the first of the year my class made a chart what writers workshop (and conferencing) looked like and what it sounded like. Daily I would asked the students what they did well and what they thought they could do better during that time.
Chapter 10 Since I only have taught one year in my own classroom I feel I still have much to learn in the area of assessment so I appreciate this chapter. The reminder to keep rubrics in perspective is valid. I especially like the idea on how to create child friendly rubric. I really hate to see all the time that is spent in my district on the state reading tests. The writing prompts looking at the students writing against the rubrics. Regie states "the best test preparation is excellent teaching". I know many teachers and administrators don't believe this as well. I'm not sure I believe I believe it either. I do know that their must be a better way. I think Regie is presenting one when she says to aim for fluency. The "Try It Apply It" on page 246 gives concrete steps on how to do this.
I think the best way to collect useful data on my students is to showcase their work and keep portfolios. Portfolios document progress from the beginning of the year to the end. One of my favorite times is when I showed my first graders what they had written at the beginning of the year to what they were doing now. The comments they made about their progress was priceless.
Chapter 7
ReplyDeleteIntegrating skill work into the students’ writing will look different from year to year, depending on the class’s needs. Teaching mini-lessons whole-class based on what I see in their writing is most effective. However, lessons I often use each year are writing active beginnings, effective endings, and using interesting words.
For years, I used daily oral language as part of my morning work, and never did I see students transfer it into their writing. I finally quit using it about four years ago.
I got two big ideas from this chapter. First, always know who your audience is and keep them in mind while you are writing. The authors will care more about that which they are writing. Second, reread, reread, reread while modeling my writing and revise as I go. I share my thinking out loud as a reader, but rarely have I done that while writing. Already I see a huge difference in my students’ abilities since I began doing this.
I loved her example on how she made students aware of the spelling mistakes in their published newspaper. Her wording with students is excellent, done in just the right way to make students WANT to have it perfect. The editing for any published work has to be exact if we are going to showcase it in our school.
Chapter 8
Writing workshop is writing. That is basically the definition with students mostly choosing their topics and making sure there is a meaningful audience. Adding in conferences and a lot of talking about their writing before publishing completes the process.
Students can have choice within the topic if there is a ton of modeling on how to do so. All of the ideas Regie lists are great. I plan on using many of them next year and want to try at least one before the end of the year. I especially like the idea on what fifth graders need to do in order to be successful for middle school.
Scheduling is definitely a nightmare every year. It is hard to set anything definite, as we often do not know when our specials will be before the beginning of the following year. My biggest goal for next year, and one I plan on working towards this summer, is incorporating more writing into all of my content areas. We adopted the Bridges math curriculum this year and it has quite a bit of writing within its structure. We also use the History Alive! Social studies program where students always have a two processing pages to complete before and after the unit of study. What I like about those is that each one is often in a different format of writing: letters, brochures, billboards, etc. Also, the audience is always made clear. However, there is not a lot of choice for students as the topic is narrowly defined.
I always spend a lot of time at the beginning of the year modeling and practicing all of our routines. Lining up at the door, when and how to ask to use the restroom, sharpening pencils, etc., are just some of the routines we practice. However, it only became clear to me after the first year or two of teaching.
Writing has become a large topic of interest at our school as the pressure for students to do well on the writing test in fourth grade continues to build. However, it does seem to be a free for all in our building. I have no idea what the primary teachers are covering. I think I will bring this idea Regie outlines for having the building conversations to my principal.
Chapter 9
ReplyDeleteThe purpose of writing conferences is to celebrate students’ writing, set goals for them to work on (either individually or whole class), keep them moving forward, and to encourage them while writing. I really like how she stresses the various formats for the conferences, how they are not just one-on-one. Using them as whole class, small groups, and student led, or public for guided practice makes it certainly seem more doable. The “teacher talk” she lists on pages 230-231 will be most helpful. The biggest “aha” I get from this chapter is making sure that the content is always put first. Not looking at the paper as the student initially reads it is brilliant. It is often very difficult to not notice the editing errors, which makes it difficult to focus on the content of the piece.
Chapter 10
Assessment in writing has always seemed a bit subjective to me. I have spent years teaching the traits and state rubrics, having my class each year put the guidelines in to language they can understand. It seems that most everything I have done the last few years, actions that were “researched based”, is wrong, at least according to this book. Most of what she writes makes sense and it is definitely more authentic, but I am having a hard time wrapping my head around some of it, especially at this time of the year.
I agree that the best test prep is excellent teaching. Nothing can replace that. It is easy to forget, however, with all the pressure of making AYP. From my very first year of teaching, I have always believed that in order to truly assess students in any subject area, you must rely on multiple assessments, not just one. I think that is common sense and most teachers would agree with me. After all, we as professionals are judged on our daily performance, not just one observation once during the school year. The only reliable data I use is keeping student portfolios through out the year. Nothing shows more progress than a sampling of students’ writing from September through June, marking the growth and improved skills of each individual. Whoever looks at children’s work can easily see how they have grown as authors, whether it is parents, next year’s teacher, or most importantly, the child himself.
Ch 7
ReplyDeleteOne point that struck me in Chapter 7 was the section on reducing the isolated skills work. My school is very direct in their approach to teach all the isolated skills needed to pass the state tests. Each month focuses on a different area and it becomes the key phrase for the month. One month it may be word choice, and then next sentence structured, so I can see how that would turn a student off. I feel that writing is so broken down that students are missing the enjoyment and getting stuck on all of the conventions.
Hoping to be a Language Arts and Social Studies teacher next year I found it refreshing to see the “New Writing Skills” list. I am already picturing myself in the classroom looking at all of the writing goals and wondering how I am going to make it happen. Changing the outlook from language based words to concrete lessons makes it more manageable. It shows me the direct link from the goals to the process.
One last piece I found moving was on page 149. It talked about engaging the student in the writing and having them care about the reader. I feel that caring about the reader is often left out. Students write the required amount and try to write everything they are required, but they don’t put heart into it. They aren’t committed to their writing and they aren’t concerned about the reader. I truly feel that finding right topics and having the students aware of the audience makes all the difference.
Ch 8
This is an example of a schedule that I may try next year if I am teaching 7th grade LA/SS.
7:45-8:00 Breakfast in the classroom.
8:00-8:10 Morning opener; something basic to get them going. This could be an alalogy, or a problem to solve.
8:10-8:55 Language Arts- Integrated Writing Time. This could be a minilesson, or something that we already started. It will depend on the day.The students will have the optimal model used during this time. I will initiate and model, then move on to demonstrate and explain, followed by guided practice, and then finishing with the students writing on their own. I will also make sure that I leave time for the students to share with the class or with a partner.
8:55-9:00- Quick break
9:00-9:45 Social Studies- Integrated Reading Time. Depending on the day and the lesson this would include a reading time where the students would be read an assigned text in a group and then have share time about the reading. The last ten minutes of the class could also be left to the teacher reading a book to the class.
After 9:45 the block switches and the classes are repeated.
I in the afternoon I would teach two classes that are set up to improve writing skills. I am not sure what the classes would be but I would follow a similar schedule to the Language Arts.
Ch9
ReplyDeleteChapter 9 had a lot of information about conferencing that I had never been aware of. While I am currently teaching Spanish we do a lot of writing practice. I feel that I am able to take the Model from Reggie and apply it in Spanish class. When it comes to conferencing I feel that I most often use the quick shares and roving conferences. Time is always of the essence and it’s just hard to fit in all of the conferencing types. After reading the chapter I will try to make sure that I provide more one-on-one conference, but I will now be more attentive as to where the students are at before the conference and what I expect of them.
Ch10
I found a lot of great ideas in Chapter 10 that I hope to use next year. I was inspired by all of the “try it and apply it” ideas on page 247, and plan to copy the list down and keep it in my desk next year. I often get caught up in the daily routine and forget things that impacted me and made me want to be a better teacher.
As for the assessments I have to say that reducing text anxiety is a big deal in my school. We have some students testing multiple times and they come to school with a lot of anxiety. I will do my best to reduce their anxiety and make them into confident prepared writers. I also found the idea of having students assess their own writing exciting. I think it would provide deeper analyzing and understanding skills for the students. They would be seeing the writing from the reader’s point of view.
One issue I have always thought about with writing is that every student is coming from a different level. My school has a lot of ELL students, and many of them do not pass the writing tests. I feel that while assessing in my classroom I will look at progression, and not just a score.
Ch. 7:
ReplyDeleteMy biggest A-ha for this chapter is when Regie is talking about how writing is like a jigsaw puzzle when it's taught and not being able to see the whole picture. I admit that I have really been focusing on skill lessons when I teach writing and not focusing on looking at writing as "The Big Picture". It really made sense to me when she put it in terms of a puzzle and not being able to see the picture on the box. I also like the idea of intergrating skill lessons based on what I see in their writing or what I'm not seeing in their writing. I do this but as whole class lessons and I need to integrate more individualized lessons/feedback for students. (Through all those conferences!)
One other thing that I'm really going to focus my intstruction on in the last month of school and for next year is teaching to an audience. I guess I've always assumed that I was the audience since I was going to be the one reading the paper and grading it. I need to teach how to write to all kinds of audiences not just myself. The purpose part I believe goes hand-in-hand with revision and how to get kids to care about their writing. If they have a purpose that they care about then they will spend more time thinking and changing and caring about their writing.
Ch. 8:
After looking at my schedule for this year, I have realized that their is a lot more time to write than what was originally designated as my writing block. I'm also working on integrating writing in all content areas.
Ch. 9:
I always considered conferencing with students only meeting with them one on one. So when Regie started to describe all the different ways that a teacher can conference that is not so time intensive, it made me realize that some of it I'm already doing. Like roaming conferences. I usually walk around the room and look for great examples of writing and have the students share with the rest of the class. One thing that I found out really quickly is that kids aren't used to sharing their writing and they were kind of embarrassed to read at first. One type of conference that I don't do, and would like to start trying is the share conferences. What a great way to model the great things that I'm seeing in their writing and a few things that need to be worked on. And how this benefits many students, not just the one whose piece I'm reading from.
Ch. 10:
I think that the best part of this chapter is on the last page where it talks about how students should be asking themselves: Did I do enough? Have I done my best?, and so on. I believe that if I teach students to be able to evaluate themselves based on those basic questions then I have taught them to become effective writers.
I beleive that up to this point in my teaching, I have put too much of an emphasis on the 6 traits of writing focusing most of my lessons on Organization, Sentence Fluency, conventions and Ideas and Content. Because our school has chosen those four to become the focus for our teaching of writing, we have lost the importance and love of the content of the writing. This is one thing I would like to change. Instead, address those issues as they come up in individual pieces of writing.
Assignment #5:
ReplyDeleteI have students write on topics studied in class and how they relate to their personal lives. I then correct their writing and spelling. In some cases when the student has made a major grammatical error, I will highlight it and have a conversation with them individually. This has been my most effective tool in getting the students excited about writing and helping them with it.
One of the conventions that I stress the most with my high school students is proofreading and editing their paper. I believe that most students that reach the high school level have the basics in place to be good writers. I think that these students omit the proof-reading stage and therefore miss out on a very important skill in writing. Drawing from my own experiences, I know that my writing is not complete after my first draft. I use the first draft to simply put down all my ideas in a partially organized fashion. Once I read this first draft, I truly focus on the conventions of successful writing.
My approach to writing is that no one piece of writing is any more important than any other. I want students to create every piece of their writing using the same standard. Each piece that I read is a reflection on them and their abilities. Somewhere along the way it seems that my students have created a hierarchy in their writing. Essays for school rank highest, followed by short answer assignments and free writes. I strive for students to realize the same standard for all of their writing, no matter what the grading value.
I like Regie's ideas about a writing workshop. Something she wrote on the matter struck me. The suggestion that writing needs to be such a large part of the student's school week was an eye opener. I think of all of the poor quality writing that I have seen at all levels of high school and I wonder about the amount of time students spend learning to write. I also think back to my high school days and remember the amount of instruction and application time I spent on writing. I agree wholeheartedly that more is better in this case.
Writing everyday is a serious challenge. With all of the skills we are trying to teach students, writing everyday can be difficult. One of the things I use to promote writing daily is a journal. I like to have students write a few sentences everyday about the most interesting thing they learned that day. It isn't much, but it makes the students write about a topic they are interested in in a non-threatening way.
ReplyDeleteI like to think that I conference with my students on their writing on a regular basis. This is one-on-one time in which I can compliment, correct, and instruct students towards better writing. I have no formal way of having conferences, I just follow up with students as time permits. My goal is always to have an informal conference with at least 10 students a week. This way I speak to the whole class individually every three weeks. Another tactic that I like to use is to pair students and conference amongst themselves. This has worked very well for me, since students can very often resolve the problem with just a bit of help from a peer.
I feel fortunate that I do not directly teach students towards testing. I feel this gives me the freedom to critique their writing as a real-world piece. I am less interested in the quality of their work against a rubric, as to the quality of their overall writing. I have students that have come into my class and said they are able to be so much more creative in their writing for my class than their english class because they are not writing towards a standard. I keep reminding them that they should not consider the two mutually exclusive. They normally look at me like I am from another planet when I say that!
I think I do a good job of collecting reliable data on students' writing on a daily basis. They are constantly handing in materials that I look at and assess the improvement in the quality of their work. Even though I teach health services, one of the most rewarding parts of my job as an educator is to watch students' writing improve. When I see a high quality of writing from a student, I know they will be successful in their future.
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ReplyDeleteChapter 7:
ReplyDeleteIt is interesting how, in reflection of my own teaching practice, quality has taken a back seat to skill development. So often I will hand back reading response questions and have the student edit punctuation and fragments before I even look at the paper. After receiving the paper, I’ll glance over the edits and if they’re all done I’ll pass the assignment. Really, I should be looking at the overall meaning of their response first. Focusing on quality and meaningfulness in writing assignments are driven by who the audience/readers are. I am excited to work backwards and see how it changes students’ writing.
Chapter 8:
One activity I’m very fond of doing with my students is on Monday mornings or Friday afternoons we will have written conversation on the overhead. I will ask something like “How was your day?”, students respond on their own paper and then I call on a student to come up to the overhead and answer the question, then they can ask a new one. It creates a “check-in” conference with the entire class where I have everybody’s full attention. When doing are written check-in, students almost always have perfect conventions- without prompting! I consider the activity our weekly class workshop.
When considering a daily literacy framework, it feels overwhelming. Some of the changes I would like to make to my current class schedule are to include at least 15 minutes of any type of writing per day. I think it will take more studying and time to think about how I will structure (or not structure) that 15 minutes.
Chapter 9:
Next year, in my first unit’s writing assignment I will be conferencing with each student. It would be a great opportunity to share responsibility in the student’s piece of writing. I would start by having the student read their paper aloud and then I would follow Regie’s tips on page 215.
Chapter 10:
The English teacher at my school has students help create rubrics for writing assignments. I believe this strategy helps students understand what the expectation is- because they helped design it! Also, on page 249 Regie has excellent recommendations on helping students to become “test-wise”. My favorite strategy is having students take a practice test and have them score it against the state rubric.
Writing Essentials
ReplyDeleteLesson 5
Chapter 7
With our new reading curriculum we were given spelling workbooks as well as writing and grammar books. The spelling books I don’t mind. I see very little benefit but for some reason parents love to see spelling lessons being done. The grammar book is a pain. I hate it and so do most of the kids. It is true what she said in previous chapters that the only kids that like it are the ones that need it the least. I am very resistant to using it and now I know why. Daily oral language I threw out years ago because it was so ineffective. I do so much better with integrating the skills into mini-lessons with whole group instruction. I enjoy it more and the students get it. It is a way more affective way of teaching.
This chapter really helped reinforce the idea of integration as well as modeling. I also liked her examples of how to word things in order to be most affective in getting students to improve their skills in editing. Students do need to know that if they want their work published it needs to meet a very high standard. Again, she emphasizes that if you set the standard high the students will rise up to meet it.
I liked her definition of voice and will use it with my students: “the writer’s unique personality on paper, his own melody in words, her “mark” as an individual. To write with voice, the writer has to be interested in the writing….Voice is in the details….” This is such a great explanation that I will definitely use.
Chapter 8
I think the idea of having a conversation as a building to see what each grade level is teaching is a must. I think the same thing happens in writing that sometimes happens in math and that is that our curriculum is a mile wide and an inch deep. We need to reverse that. I think with the idea of integrating more writing into the core curriculum areas solves the problem of time. The only time we have a problem with time is when we think we have to follow the same old regiment every time we write. She gave me a lot of good creative ideas on using our time wisely.
I liked the different ideas of scheduling because it is true that you never seem to have enough time in the day, and it seems we are continually fighting to protect precious class time. I do try to organize it so there are little to no interruptions during this time. The office is very good at getting us messages just before lunch or just before school lets out. Students are required to have supplies at their desks and sharpen pencils just before school or at break.
Chapter 9
This chapter was a chapter I needed to read. I always feel guilty because I never feel I am doing enough writing conferences. But with her explanation of what a true writing conference is, I realize I truly am doing writing conferences on a daily basis. I found her what to focus on… lists very helpful. These are great checklists for quick reminders of what is important. I also liked the idea of just listen first before you ever look at the paper; this really does help with gaining some understanding of the student’s content and not right away focusing on spelling, grammar, handwriting, etc….
Chapter 10
This chapter really makes me rethink some of the pieces of my writing program. With so much emphasis on the 6 traits and assessment it is true that the writing does become very hollow at times. I see this a lot as a 5th grade teacher when students have been prepared all year long in the 4th grade for state tests. It is certainly not the fault of those teachers because they are under enormous pressure for their students to perform. I believe the system has sucked a lot of the creativity out of our best writers. What we have ended up with is a lot of mediocre writers. I believe the 6 traits have helped in knowing how to assess writing but certainly haven’t helped with knowing how to teach writing. I think the Aim High section on the last page is wonderful!!!!
Chapter 7 – I agree with the very first sentence in this chapter, “we’ve made writing too complicated by breaking it into pieces.” It seems like there are so many books and exercises for teaching all the different parts of writing and the skills that they aren’t left with much motivation to just write and write. I’ve seen it many times where they are given lots of practice writing sentences and paragraphs, but yet their writing doesn’t improve. It’s funny – when I got my reading endorsement years ago, my instructor told me to just let the students write and then to teach the skills based on what their writing indicated they needed to learn. Then along came different ideas and curriculum saying how to teach the skills. But what Regie is saying is exactly what I learned many years ago.
ReplyDeleteChapter 8 – Since I only see kids 30 minutes a day, I don’t do Writer’s Workshop. But I do have them write often. I don’t plan a set schedule for when we are going to do writing, because I like to let the students’ interest level play a part in when I move on. And different groups go in different directions. For example, one year when the second grade group had a leveled reader about sunken ships, they became fascinated with the Titanic. So we did lots of reading and lots of writing about the Titanic. But this year, the second graders weren’t much interested at all. So we spent more time on other topics. I’ve been trying to bring in more read alouds relating to their topic also. I do try to find ways to incorporate writing with every topic, however. I’m also bringing in mentor texts to teach certain conventions or aspects of writing, and I try to find mentor texts that relate to the book they are currently reading. All of this plays a part in when and how much I do writing. It’s not every day, but it is often. And it’s in addition to the writing they are getting in their classroom, so they’re actually getting more writing instruction than their classmates. Next year I plan on incorporating many of the ideas on page 198 and 199 of the book.
Chapter 9 – Because I don’t do Writer’s Workshop, I’ve never really done a formal writing conference. I’ve done many of the things suggested in Regie’s Purposes of a Writing Conference on p. 206. I like her other kinds of writing conferences and have started doing some quickshares and roving conferences, although both have been very quick and simple. I’ve always focused on what the writer did well, but now I need to teach the kids how to listen and myself on how to ask more questions. I think the group conference would work really well with my small groups. I also need to teach the students how to read their paper twice, because they often make many tense errors, which would keep them from exiting ELD, but if they read twice, they might hear their mistakes and make corrections.
Chapter 10 – What I do for test preparation is to ask the teachers what they’re working on and do some support of that with my groups. But I think the kids will get better in writing if they are allowed to write and write and write without trying to focus on how to pass the test. I know that some teachers say they work really hard to prepare the kids, and they still don’t do well. I feel lucky that I don’t feel the pressure to teach to the test.
Wow, a lot of thoughtful comments for these chapters. :-)
ReplyDeleteColleen, it’s good to see that your school last year used writer’s workshop and had the most time dedicated to actual writing! Also, as you and others mentioned, incorporating writing into the content areas and across the curriculum is the only way to increase our students’ time for writing. Again, choice for our students is so important in helping them develop their writing skills. It’s difficult for us, as adults and teachers, to write well on topics that we are not interested in, just think how hard this must be for our students. It is much easier for students to learn to write about things they know and experience rather than prescribed or vague prompts that teachers or editors develop. Especially for our younger students, writing about things they have experienced is much easier…a field trip to a farm or the day the class rabbit escaped it’s cage often will produce a higher quality piece than trying to write about a special place you like to go to. Events that the students experience at school also allow the teacher to prompt and assist the students with their writing.
Another point that Colleen brought up is about behavior expectations during workshop time. Primary teachers often are very explicit with the students about the required expectations. The key is to model, practice and revisit as needed. Sometimes, in the upper grades teachers will clearly express the acceptable behavior expectations early in the year but forget to revisit throughout the year. Students in all grades do well with the reminders of what it should look like and sound like; especially before and after breaks and vacations.
Jennifer, an idea that popped in my head, which you may already do, is to use great picture books to support your lessons on leads, effective endings and powerful language. Pull some books that have great leads- examples could be: one’s that start with dialogue, a question, quote, a flashback, an action or exciting event, or character’s thoughts… Read,Write,Think’s website has some lessons for teaching leads. You can do the same thing for effective endings.
ReplyDeleteI also have to agree with you, I never did see the value in DOL and one year I just stopped doing it. I felt it was a waste of time and created extra work for me since I did not see evidence of students transferring the skills into their writing.
Scheduling at our school is also a nightmare; as I imagine it is across the country. I think the demands of Reading First and additions to the day like foreign languages and trying to fit specials in combined with not increasing the school day is a recipe for watered down programs and strained and stressed teachers. All of this can only hamper the effectiveness of our instruction.
Our teachers are in their second year of the Bridges math program and really like it. I haven’t heard of History Alive! It sounds interesting, but I wonder if you could tweak it a little to allow more choice for the students.
Good for you for considering initiating building wide conversations about how writing happens at your school. I would suggest that you might want to let teachers discuss this in their teams first and then have them come ready to a staff meeting. Some things you might want to have them bring are: their curriculum, state standards, areas that they struggle with, rubrics that are used for scoring state tests, examples of grade level student writing that meet and exceed the standard, and ideas or thoughts of areas that the previous grade could develop that would help them in their instruction. If available, using a document camera to share rubrics and the student work is a great idea.
There is a lot in these chapters to consider! We feel that Regie would tell you take the pieces that make sense for you now and work with that. We highly recommend re-reading this text as you will take away even more the next time you do. We aren’t all going to be a master teacher like Regie is, but we can strive to continually improve our craft and reflect on what is working and what is not.
Hi Lisa,
ReplyDeleteWe’ve had a few foreign language teachers in our class and they also felt they would be able to take Regie’s ideas and implement them in their program.
Tracey and Patrick, you have similar points that we need to help our students enjoy the writing process if we want to see improved results. It’s hard to do anything well if we don’t like what we are doing.
Emily, I think you will be well pleased with the students’ progress as you work “backwards” to look at the overall content of a piece rather than the edits first. Your written conversation on the overhead is a great idea and I bet the students look forward to it each week.
Hi Vickie,
You have touched on a point that continues to go around and around in my head… the mile wide, inch deep approach to curriculum. It just doesn’t work. Your comments about the need to have conversations with each other are so true. I went to Massachusetts with some teachers to visit a school this year, and I commented to the District PBS (Positive Behaviors Supports) Coordinator that they were so creative with some of their ideas and solutions. His comment to me was that when times are good and things are easy, there usually isn’t a need to be innovative; it’s in the difficult times when we need to reflect, adjust and re-evaluate our programs where exciting changes can occur. As you said, we need to let go of some things in order to make room for new things to try. It’s uncomfortable to get out of our safe little boxes, but great things can happen when we do.
Diane, it’s funny and a little frustrating how the pendulum keeps swinging in education. Your comment is a good way to end this section. If the kids are allowed to write, write, write, their writing will improve.
Last summer I spent a lot of time focusing on how I was going to improve my writing block, and literacy time. I knew it was a subject that I struggled with during my first year of teaching, and I really wanted to have more of a plan for the future. My plan was to make sure I covered the six traits of writing, the various forms of writing, and incorporate a daily writing journal along with in class assignments. For the most part I believe I did a good job of sticking to my plan, although towards the end of the year we've been focusing on larger projects.
ReplyDeleteDuring my morning writing and grammar time I typically teach 1 or 2 mini lessons and then have the students put that lesson into practice. The writing and grammar lessons are based around the six traits or a specific grammar focus. I'll typically spend 3 - 4 weeks on a specific trait, but vary the activities so they don't get bored or overwhelmed with them.
In September, I began by focusing on voice and encouraged students to find their inner self when writing. The focus was not on fixing their mistakes, rather it focused on learning about how to write to a specific audience and how to use their own voice to describes things. In order to make this happen, I began by displaying pictures on the board. I used personal photographs that I had taken and paintings that I checked out from the library. I asked the students to describe what they saw in the paintings to their table groups and then asked them to share to the whole class. The point of this was to get them talking; and talk they did.
The students found it very easy to talk about the pictures, but found it difficult to write about different pictures I had placed on the board. When I asked them why, they came to the conclusion that they're so use to talking about stuff and not writing about it. Once I realized they understood the importance of frequent writing, it became much easier to teach.
The writing that was going on in class at this time was focused on what students were interested in. I asked them to come up with their own writing prompts that I used for one of my scored writing pieces and found that they invested a lot more into them. Having a topic they are excited about really made a difference.
One thing that I tried differently this year was having the students write in journals. These journals were taken home each day and they would write a reflection on their day, or write about a topic of their choice. The best part about this was that I got to know my students very well and I could provide daily feedback to each of them. I found that the more feedback I provided, the better their next journal entry would be. I could tell they were taking my comments constructively and were putting them into practice.
The downside of this was that I rarely met with students one on one to conference. I'm not sure why I didn't spend more time with them as individuals, but in hindsight I have a feeling it was due to our crammed schedule. I also believe it was due to the improvements I was seeing from my written comments.
Derek
Hi Derek,
ReplyDeleteGreat job getting the kids to realize that they need to write more to be better writers. In primary grades the oral rehersal is a huge help getting the little ones to write with more description and oraganization. I think it def. would be of use with the upper elem. grades. I'd teach it as a strategy they could use to help them organize their thoughts for their writing. Choice and interest def. lead to higher quality work. The more we can work this into our writing curriculum the better.
Assignment five
ReplyDeleteThe two things that stood out for me the most in this long section were finding a students voice and making assessments count. In addressing student voices, it takes me a long time to convince students that I do not want them to sound like the encyclopedia or God forbid Wikipedia. I want them to sound like themselves. I have students who try to plagiarize other work because they ‘like the way it sounds better than the way they say it’. Of course it sounds more professional but not necessarily better. I love the Amy Tan quote it is so true. I like the idea of writing ‘out loud’. I have tried what I call the Virginia Wolff Way, hat is writing in stream of conscience style. Sometimes this really helps students find out who they are as well as exactly how they sound.
I also struggle with assessments. I do hand out an assignment sheet so that expectations are clear. I also allow and expect many rewrites to be turned in before the due date. This seems to help both the student and myself to know which direction we are taking. I have also introduced peer editing. This has been more successful than I anticipated. Once the embarrassment of sharing their work wears off they jump right in. I have found the more I do this the more relaxed they are about sharing their papers with others. This has lead them to ask more people to read and assess their papers therefore they are getting more feedback, and their writing has improved.