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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Since this section of reading had so much information in it, I decided to break my response down by chapter….to attempt to organize my thoughts….maybe.
ReplyDeleteChapter 7 had a lot of little “nuggets” that I related to. I feel like I unfortunately fall under the “jack of all trades…master of none” much of the time. I struggle with fitting it all in and am working on modifying my instruction so that I continue to pull away from the isolated skill work that takes up too much time. I like the jigsaw puzzle analogy. It really doesn’t make sense to present the parts without first seeing the whole. I think a change I’ll begin implementing immediately is working with my class to decide who their audience will be each time they write. I’m excited to see how much of a difference that alone will make for my class. I suspect it will have a huge impact. I think I will also photocopy the list of mini lessons that were included and keep them near my plan book. I also like the idea of raising expectations of spelling words correctly and putting the responsibility of correct spelling on the students so that their readers will be able to understand their writing.
(Chapter8) Budget cuts, a new administrator, and a daily specials schedule driven by the middle school we share the campus with forced me to change my schedule this year. For the past five years or so, my daily schedule was pretty predictable from year to year with Title One reading groups at a certain time, math at a set time based on schedule commonalities with three other teachers, etc. This fall though all of that was turned upside down and my current schedule looks nothing like it has in the past. While it has taken time to get used to it, I can see it’s really a good thing. It’s freed up an almost 90 minute block every morning for reading and writing instruction.
(Chapter9) I can see how doing a whole class share of a writing conference with a student can be an incredibly useful teaching tool. I will definitely try this out. It’s not something I’ve done before. I appreciate Regie’s comments about being “relentless” during a one-to-one editing conference with students and refusing to do for students what they can do on their own. I think I’ve tended to combine both content and editing when conferencing with kids…in the effort of trying to fit it all in and save time. All this has done has frustrated me and the students and lost sight of who they are amidst the sea of red marks on their papers. By making sure my instruction is quality and that the kids really understand expectations, etc. before they write I’ll have the time needed to be able to do content and editing with my students separately.
(Chapter10) A good reminder in this chapter to not overdo the use of writing rubrics and to spend ample time focusing on the child. I agree that with all the pressure on “passing the test” the joy has been taken out of students’ writing. I’ve been noticing this for several years now…students lack creativity and passion and have become more concerned with “how long does it need to be?” and “will this be scored?”. I enjoyed the example of “WandaWASL” and think I’ll create a similar character when I help my class visualize who will be scoring their writing tests this spring.
Thanks Sharon…you are right, this is a jammed packed section. I mentioned in an earlier post that shared writing was one of the biggest factors in increasing the quality of writing my students produced….the other two factors that had the biggest impact was asking my 4th graders to always consider their audience and purpose in writing. Somebody really does need to come up with a solution to the elementary syndrome, “Jack of all trades…master of none”. Elementary teachers are now not only asked to teach each and every subject area (with the expectation that all students meet benchmark), but are also now being asked to be intervention specialists in the areas of reading, math, and writing. It truly has become an impossible job!
ReplyDeleteChapter 7
ReplyDeleteThis chapter was definitely packed with much to think about when approaching and designing writing lessons. The pieces of advice that Regie offers that resonate the most with me include:
•Teaching whole-to-part-to-whole. This makes a whole lot of sense to me and I believe will make my teaching much easier. I also strongly believe that my students will internalize the writing lessons when they directly connect to a personal writing piece. I know this will be especially effective with my particular class I have this year. My students came to me with the writing skills of what the 4th grade state writing assessment requires: they are good at providing topic sentences (dare I say they are quite mechanic and lifeless??), they have a fairly strong sense of paragraphing (though they have had it drilled in their heads that each paragraph needs to be a minimum of 5 sentences long to “qualify” as a paragraph!), and they also have some basic understandings of what a closing paragraph or ending should sound like. Since many of my students can produce a “whole” piece of writing, I can focus my lessons with them on:
*Celebrating what they are doing well….noting their strengths!!
*The focus of quality: what is it and how do we recognize it??
*Understanding/knowing their audience
*Knowing what their voice is and understanding how important it is to help them make their writing more meaningful AND interesting
•The whole idea of LOTS of modeling and the thinking out loud of my own writing process is another idea that hits home with me. Especially when it comes to also modeling the whole revision process. I LOVE THIS! My personal writing process does include constant rereading and revision as I go, so I can model this/teach this with true authenticity and purpose. Slam dunk! ☺
•Speaking of the revision process, I also love what Regie says on pg. 159, that “when the writing matters to you, you are willing to do the time-consuming work of revising.” I think this is a golden nugget of thought that every student needs to learn, understand, and embrace. I keep telling my students that “Writing is work; it’s HARD work, but GOOD writers do the hard work. And you are all good writers, which means we are going to work hard!” I am hoping that my words are not empty rhetoric!
•Finally, Regie’s words of advice about spelling really hit home with me. I do not believe in learning how to spell words in isolation. That is too time consuming and disconnected! But I have also been at a loss at just how to effectively teach spelling. Regie’s ideas in developing a strong spelling consciousness really struck a “teaching chord” within me. I have already begun to raise my expectations with my students when it comes to their spelling and have been using the phrases: “To show respect to your audience/reader, you MUST spell words correctly. No excuses! If you are not sure how to spell a word, your options are:”(and then I provide three options: ask a friend, ask a teacher, or consult a resource, such as a dictionary). Though I am still seeing some spelling errors (because they firmly believed their spelling was correct!), it is still early in the “game” of my bringing in these expectations to their writing, and I know they WILL continue to respond as the school year progresses.
Chapter 8
ReplyDeleteRegie really struck a chord within myself when she said, “We make time for what we value.” Also hitting home was that “Writing requires a daily commitment.” I couldn’t agree with her more, but now I need to put my beliefs into actions. As frustrated as I can get about my class schedule, it is what it is, so there is no use in expending precious energy on that which I CANNOT control. So, in a very careful examination of my schedule, I have found times where I WILL make more time for writing. I may not be able to do it every single day of the week, but I can do some continuous days, which Regie strongly recommends. Because I DO sincerely value writing, and because I DO want my students to grow as competent writers who actually enjoy writing, I have to make this work. NO EXCUSES!!
Also hitting home with me in this chapter was the importance of allowing students to choose worthwhile and meaningful topics to them. I do allow some freedoms within my writing lessons, but I have now learned how and why I need to allow for even more choices for my students. And within these choices, I definitely need to bring in time for conversations. The whole idea of talking with just one or two students about their writing while the whole class listens in is completely new to me, but I love it and plan to try it/use it. I also now understand the value of peer conversations as a form of prewriting…..another strategy I will immediately start using. I like it!
Finally, I also know I need to do a great deal more of modeling, modeling, modeling the writing process, accompanied by shared writing. I love the idea of “labeling” concepts, structures, rules, etc. AFTER a writing demonstration. That makes a great deal of sense!
Chapter 9
ReplyDeleteWhat another eye-opening chapter! I have this secret fantasy of Regie visiting my classroom for a week so that I could be the lucky recipient of seeing her work in action, and also receiving “in person” guidance from her on my instructional practices and techniques. Knowing this fantasy will probably remain just that: a fantasy, I give thanks for her books and her willingness to have published all of her knowledge and proven techniques earned through her years of hard work, practice, and consultations with others.
That being said, I am enormously grateful to learn that writing conferences can be “whole class” conferences. I am right on board when it comes to fully knowing that the ENTIRE class can/will benefit from directly addressing the writing needs of just one or two students in the classroom. I am 100% guilty of being a teacher who has had 10 students lined up to meet with me about their writing. I am also guilty of doing too much of the revising and editing for the student, simply because it saves precious time and because I’m exhausted of looking at so much writing that has not met my expectations. I have so many “Ah-ha’s!” from this chapter that have dawned me, which have inspired me to make IMMEDIATE changes. These changes include:
•Conducting writing conferences in a whole group format.
•Start doing roving conferences; I’ll start slow and work my up as I get better and more efficient at them. In my roving conferences I plan to offer at least two specific positive feedback comments and one writing suggestion. I also will make note of student needs to help plan those mini lessons.
•Work my way into those one-on-one conferences that are TIME EFFICIENT (time management is a constant area of self improvement for me!). I am going to have a timer available and hold myself to it (WITHOUT short changing my students!). I plan to create/copy a conference form as offered in the book to help both me and my student stay on track during our conference time.
•I will be much more specific in the teaching and modeling of the editing process. We will definitely create a class chart for editing expectations and I will absolutely hold my students accountable to them. I already know what a time saver this will be!
Truly, this chapter (EVERY chapter!) is packed with useful information to mull over, reread (at least two more times!!!) and implement. I have a whole new understanding of the various types of writing conferences, how to conduct them, what to say, and the needs they serve. Love it!!
Chapter 10
ReplyDeleteIn reflection, I have to be honest and admit that I have taken myself “off the hook” when it comes to concerning myself about writing state assessments. This is because in Oregon, the state writing assessment is first conducted in the 4th grade, and then again in 7th grade. The state writing assessment USED to be in 5th grade, and trust me when I say I did one gigantic “happy dance” when the state test was taken off of my plate and moved to 4th grade. I hated that test! (Please know that I do not use the word “hate” on a casual basis, for it is such a strong word.) But to be honest, NOT having the state test on my plate has “allowed” me (truthfully, I’ve allowed myself) to be a little more lax in my writing instruction. After reading chapter 10, I am confronted with a truth that I have known all along: with or without the state assessment happening in my classroom, I have to do my part to help my students become competent, joyous writers so that when they are confronted with any type of writing assessment or expectation, ¬¬they are ready to do so successfully! What I will take and apply from this chapter are the ideas of creating student friendly scoring rubrics, created WITH my students. I also want to teach them how to effectively self-assess/self-evaluate their writing against our created rubric. Staying focused on effective writing and providing LOTS of time to do so is definitely my top priority. I want my students to enjoy a “comfort” of knowing they need not worry about having their work constantly graded, but WILL be held accountable for what’s being taught and how they are using their writing time (accountability). I also like the ideas of aiming for fluency (again, LOTS of writing time needs to be provided, which will be something I have to constantly strive for and work on!), as well as having students visualize a reader/scorer (a wonderful and creative idea by Kari Oosterveeen with “Wanda WASL”!!). Finally, I love the idea of maintaining a writing portfolio for each of our students. What an effective way to track growth, strengths, needs, etc. for each of our students. Many of the students in my school are with us K-5 and continue to stay in the district right through high school graduation. Having so many students that stay within our district for their entire K-12 education provides a perfect opportunity for cumulative writing portfolios. Perhaps this is a movement I can attempt to get started in my district?!
Chapter 7
ReplyDeleteIntegrating skill work in student writing teaching it in isolation is ideal. It helps manage time efficiency. Engaging students with topics they are interested in, having them write with purpose and a specific audience will help narrow down each student’s unique needs as they practice skill work. Daily oral language does help some students, but those students do not transfer those skills over into their writing. Therefore, it’s clear that I must start with modeling how to find something meaningful to write about. When the writing piece is meaningful, there is a natural desire to do quality work. In general, people are much more successful and happy about doing an activity, task, ect., when they see the value and purpose. Why should it be any different about how we teach? Personality and voice come out naturally in writing when students have a desired audience other than me. Children want to impress their audience, so it’s helpful to use that as a teaching advantage. When excellent teaching of writing occurs, including teaching the value and purpose, technically I should be hitting strong points of writing the writing standards. Writing for my students is such an arduous process. It’s easy to spend a lot of time on one minilesson. Writing is most of my students’ biggest weakness and they definitely feel overwhelmed with the writing process. Minilessons often don’t feel “mini” for me. There is so much my special education writers need to know. It seems that their low expectations interfere with their readiness to learn and are veryresistant. My goal will be to keep my minilessons 15 minutes or under and to teach into my students needs. I think my student may be more invested with revisions if I cut back on modeling conventions. Like minilessons, I want to them to get conventions ingrained in their head. Instead, I should model more content and fluidity techniques. Conventions will always be concept that will be the most challenging for me to teach because even when my students are excited about what they write, they will continue to have poor conventions. Word walls can be helpful to my students when there aren’t too many words and
when they suggest words.
Chapter 8
Regie describes writing workshop as a continual process sustained across all curriculum, with an authentic purpose and audience that students value, as well as practice by playing with language and conferring with each student. Workshop should also include teaching students explicitly what they need to know and how to write it fluently, accurately and engaging to publish for a real audience. It is important to let student have a choice of their writing topic because they will choose to write something they know about and invested in. Writing talk by teachers models what high quality writing looks like and sounds. Kids are engage when they choose their topic, which increases writing ideas and can help create a safe environment for risk taking. When student do writing talk, it is an example of gradual release of responsibility. Finding time to fit writing in the schedule isn’t an issue for me, luckily. Since I am a Learning Specialist, my writing groups are required to see me for the minimal amount of time listed on their IEP. However, I do see how classroom teachers write across the curriculum content areas. Having an organized, consistent routine helps all students and teachers with accountability and expectations. Having structure gradually releases responsibility to students in becoming independent thinkers and authors. School buildings need to be organized about what genres and modes being taught at each grade level. Teachers will be more intentional with their genre and mode if that is focus for their grade.
Chapter 9
ReplyDeleteThere are a number of purposes of a writing conference. The main idea is to discuss a student’s work. The purpose can take place before, during and after writing by listening, affirming and reinforcing the strong points or attempts, assessing, teaching scaffolding and setting goals with the students’ input. Writing conferences can be structured for the whole class, quickshares, roving, one-on-one and with a peer. I like the teaching tip, on page 214, about how to maximize sharing with large groups and minimal time by having students only share their most surprising, funniest, ect. To manage whole class sharing effectively, write suggestions for students, limit compliments and avoid false praise, teach and model on the spot, help students with where to go next. Structure makes conferences productive. For the students, outline a criteria for the piece that includes essentials for the piece, sit side by side, have the author read the piece twice, listen for the strengths, respond in a helpfully, narrow the teaching focus to one or two major points, use sticky notes to edit and have authors repeat what he did, said and will do. Management of behavior and expectations also need to be explicitly taught. Posting expectations of what students are exactly supposed to do while you are engaged in a conference will help manage their behavior and decrease idleness.
Chapter 10
A writing rubric can be used simplistically, like a criterion for what should be included in a writing piece. It can also be used in a more complex fashion that separates qualities of a writing piece in a delineate way. High stakes Test Prep is stressful on everyone. Students are robbed from organically choosing a writing topic, ultimately being stifled from writing freely. I do see the importance of keeping students’ skills to a standard. I just wish there was a holistic standardized assessment process. Staying organized by keeping a journal/notebook of students’ learning via conferences or sharing will help keep track of what needs to be taught. A rubric is a concrete, visual example for parents, administrators and students of what is skills are being graded in a writing piece. Rubrics can be created by students and given as a self-assessment. The guidelines for what goes on the rubric need to be reachable for students to feel successful.
Thanks Mardy and Andrea…I enjoyed reading your comments regarding section 3.
ReplyDeleteMardy – I feel your pain (as I think many of us do….the pre-packaged programs written to get kids to “pass” state writing assessments. If I read another prompt that begins with sound words, I’ll scream :) “Boom, crash, pop went the………”). I don’t think that your words will be empty rhetoric….writing is hard…but should be enjoyable as they choose the purpose and audience! Yeah to more writing and figuring out ways to make what IS important fit into your schedule (and I do understand that the biggest nightmare in being a classroom elementary teacher is picking and choosing what you actually have time for in the curriculum!!!). You mentioned having Regie come into your classroom…they do have the “Regie Routman in Residence” professional development program which is available through Heinemann. Unfortunately, it wouldn’t actually be Regie, but additional DVDs and support. Maybe you could convince someone at your district level to purchase this product and you could even “host” a study group in return…??? Just a thought:) I also love the idea of beginning cumulative writing portfolios that will stay with the student for their entire academic careers…how amazing would it be to see the growth continuum – what a gift!
Andrea – Great point: “In general, people are much more successful and happy about doing an activity, task, ect., when they see the value and purpose.” This is so very true, and should really be in the back of our minds every time we sit down to plan instruction for our students! Trying to stick to one teaching point in both the minilesson and in conferences is the single most important factor in achieving brevity. I’m right up there with the best of them when you are teaching a lesson, and the ever present “teachable moment” continually appears and the next thing you know, it’s over a half hour (or longer) that you’ve had the students gathered in front of you on the rug. A timer can be your best friend in helping you stay focused and in these situations. You definitely seemed to pick up some great conferring tips from Regie in this chapter. I do think that flexibility in meeting students’ needs to be at the forefront as you plan instruction, and she does provide a variety of efficient ways to best try and meet student needs. I also completely agree with the importance of children having student friendly rubrics available. Knowing what the expectations are, and what they are responsible for to succeed and reach these expectations, will make it more likely that they will rise to the challenge. Thanks for sharing!
Jackie and Mary,
ReplyDeleteThank you so much for your helpful feedback. I think I do need to start setting a timer to keep me on track! I appreciate your knowledgeable advice.
CH 8
ReplyDeleteIt feels like Regie’s definition of writing workshop emphasizes things like: sustained, daily, flexible, purposeful, and real.
Allowing students to have choice within a predetermined is vital to getting students plugged in and engaged. Kids are most engaged when they have active part to play in the process of creation. However, teaching them the skills of choosing a topic is also very important. I agree with Regie’s way to teach kids how to choose “worthwhile topics”. So often, kids will tell me “I don’t know what to write about”, as if they should immediately be able to come up with a topic immediately. Exploring ideas is part of what writing is.
Scheduling is the biggest challenge I have as a learning center teacher. I work with students from 1st-5th grade, which makes pull out and/or push support for writing a huge undertaking. I often times have to rely on paraeducators to simply carry out lesson plans. I am fully aware of the disservice of this. I try my best to see each student once a week, and am aware that this is not enough time to cultivate good writing with students already struggling.
Teacher modeling is emphasized throughout the book, and I couldn’t agree more. Taking students through the whole process is so important. And then slowing releasing them to independence takes time and patience.
Amy – Scheduling is probably the biggest nightmare for all elementary teachers regardless of what you teach. It is just impossible to meet the needs of all the individuals that we are teaching AND teach the “curriculum” that is being asked of us by the state. Therefore, the best we can do is make smart teaching choices using best practices during the times that we are with the students. It definitely sounds as though you are working to do that with your students within your time limitations!!!
ReplyDelete