Strategic Writing Instruction for Teachers (SWIFT)

1. Strategic Writing Instruction for Teachers (SWIFT) Writing Your Way to Wisdom

2. Welcome! • Strategic Writing Instruction for Teachers www.swiftpens.com “Reading proficiency is just half of the literacy picture, we have to widen the literacy forum to include writing.”– Writing Next

3. Goals and Focus • Expose teachers to the various writing structures by highlighting the elements of effective writing instruction for persuasive writing, constructed responses, and essays. • Increase teacher understanding of how to create writing lessons which include strategy instruction, prior knowledge triggers, guided practice, monitoring and adjusting techniques, collaborative inquiry, and formative assessment. • Increase teacher understanding of how to provide timely and explicit feedback that encourages student confidence and promotes their continued focus on the writing process. • Provide teachers with tools to establish baseline data of their students’ writing skills as measured against the HSCE, GLCE, MME, and MEAP to use for lesson planning purposes. • Provide teachers with a venue for examining the written work of their students to formatively assess the level of students’ thinking and expertise. Teachers will be exposed to rubrics to help them navigate this process. • Effectively use technology to teach writing and enhance classroom instruction.

4. Logistics • Oakland Credit • SB-CEUS • Working Agreements • Parking Lot • Agenda

5. Urgency: 21st Century Literacy “Literacy in the 21st century will mean the ability to find information, decode it, critically evaluate it, organize it into personal digital libraries and find meaningful ways to share it with others. Information is a raw material students will need to learn to build with it.” From: The World is Flat by Thomas Friedman

6. Who ARE We? • Name • School • Assignment • Training Expectation

7. Road Map for today’s work Welcome and Introductions Reflection and Digital Organization Writing to Learn: Journals and Blogging Break What the research says: Writing Next Kelly Gallagher’s Pillars of Writing Success - Teaching Adolescent Writers Lunch More than a Temporary Acquaintance(continued) Learning-to-Write (Prewriting, Draft Writing, Revising, and Edition) Assessment, Rubrics, and Graphic Organizers Closing

8. Materials • Notebook • Teaching Adolescent Writers by Kelly Gallagher • 30 Ideas for Teaching Writing by the National Writing Project • www.swiftpens.com

9. Day 1 - Toolbox • Reflective Prompts and Rubrics • Delicious • More Than a Familiar Acquaintance • One-sentence Summary • Quickwrite • Synectic Metaphor • STAR • RAFT • Writing Websites

10. Day 2 - Toolbox • Anchor Papers • Graphic Organizers • Great Debate • MME/MEAP Prep Tools • Book Marks • Revision Rummy • 30 National Writing Strategies

11. Day 3 - Toolbox • Digital Storytelling • Weebly • Blog Website • Graphic Organizers • Student Portfolios • Weebly Website

12. Reflective Prompt Think about the way you write. How has it changed since you were in school? What is different? What has stayed the same?

13. Introduction - SWIFTPENS Website • Getting Organized Digitally www.swiftpens.com

14. 21st Century Literacy Skills The C's of Change Competency with technology Collaboration  Critical Thinking Creativity Communication Self Control

15. Writing to Learn – Module 1 What is Writing-to-Learn? • Generally, writing-to-learn activities are short, impromptu or otherwise informal writing tasks that help students think through key concepts or ideas presented in a course. • Often, these writing tasks are limited to less than five minutes of class time or are assigned as brief, out-of-class assignments. Two Strategies: Journaling Blogging

16. Writing-to-Learn • Writing to learn differs from other types of writing because it is not a process piece that will go through multiple refinements toward an intended final product. • Instead, it is meant to be a catalyst for further learning---an opportunity for students to recall, clarify, and question what they know and what they still wonder about. • In other words, writing provides students an opportunity to clarify their own thinking.

17. Writing-to-LearnContinued • Writing also provides teachers an opportunity to gauge students’ understanding of content. • Writing-to-learn “involves getting students to think about and to find the words to explain what they are learning, how they understand that learning, and what their own processes of learning involve” (Mitchell, 1996, p. 93).

18. BIGQUESTION Are you grading this work or are you providing feedback to let students know where they need to focus their attention or learning? Have a 3-minute dialogue at your tables about this question.

19. Journal Writing as a POWERFUL Classroom Tool Cognitive Activities in Journal Entries (things to put in your journals) Observations: describing what is visible, summarizing, and interpreting details, or recalling key ideas Questioning: formulating and recording personal doubts, academic queries, validity of information, and theory. Speculation: free to wonder about the meaning of events, issues, facts, readings, interpretations, problems, and solutions. Self-Awareness: become conscious about what they stand for and how they are different from others. Digression: departs from the subject to connect to something that "comes to mind." Synthesis: Organize ideas and find relations and connections between topics.

20. TEACHERReflective Prompt Module 1 Page 3 How might using tools like delicious support student writing? Support teaching learning? Class Journal Rubric: Effort

21. Additional Rubrics Module 1 Pages 4-8 • Class Journal Rubric • Analytic Rubric for Logs and Journal Writing • Rubrics Assessing Journals • Holistic Rubric for Lab Write-up

22. Blogging: Learning to Write Module 1 Page 10-13 Blogging for Educators (handout) Today’s students want to blog, so we as educators need to focus their learning in ways that use technology to increase student engagement.

23. BLOGGING WEB + LOG = BLOG A blog is a website where entries are written in chronological order. They are commonly displayed in reverse chronological order. Usually they are narrative in fashion.

24. Blogging for Educators Edugblog and Weebly • Explore website • http://swiftp.weebly.com/ “Building a Literary Learning Community with Technology”

25. Post Your CommentOne Minute Impression Respond to this question How might you use Del.icio.us in your classroom? orHow do you use journaling and quickwrites in the classroom?

26. Blogging Rubrics for the Classroom: MODULE 1 Ends • Blogging Rubric • Blog Evaluation • Blogging Assessment Rubric Module 1 p. 13-15

27. Writing Next - Module 2

28. 11 Effective Elements: Strategies that Work Add to Bookmark What are you currently doing?

29. Synectic Metaphor • William Gordon created the notions of Synectics as a process for creative thinking. It helps people understand a more abstract concept by linking it to something they already know. It taps into both hemispheres of the brain and stretches their thinking. • Resources: American Rhetoric

30. Synectic Metaphor When you think about the writing process for students, does it feel more like: Custom Puppies OR A Plate of Hors D’oeuvres?

31. Module 3 -LEARNING-to-Write Shifting Gears: We will focus our attention toward helping students become better writers.

32. Kelly Gallagher’sTeachingAdolescentWriters READING MINUTE “Running with the Literacy Stampede” Pg. 3

33. Righting Writing Wrongs: The SIX Pillars of Writing Success • Students need a lot more writing practice. • Students need teachers who modelgood writing. • Students need the opportunity to read and study other writers. • Students need choicewhen it comes to writing topics. • Students need to write for authentic purposes and for authentic audiences. • Students need meaningful feedback from both the teacher and their peers.

34. pg. 14 The Pillars of Writing Success Students need teachers who model good writing. Students need the opportunity to read and study other writers. Students need meaningful feedback from both the teacher and their peers. Students need a lot more writing practice. Students need to write for authentic purpose and to authentic audiences. Students need choice when it comes to writing topics.

35. SIX Pillars of Writing • Each of these pillars plays an INTEGRAL ROLE in building strong writers; take one pillar away and the structure might still stand, but it will be weakened. • It is the COMBINED strength of these pillars that serves to build a strong writing foundation.

36. Five Assumptions about Writing Instruction Teachers Time Strategies STUDENT Technology Assessment

37. More than a Temporary AcquaintanceTeaching Adolescent Writers • Read, skim, and highlight the key points of your assigned chapter. • Discuss key points • Chart key ideas and strategies that help address your particular assumption Include page #’s (time, teacher, strategy, or assessment) • Share Out

38. Activity pgs. 10-11 Chapter 2 (Time) page 25 Chapter 3 (Teacher) page 47 Chapter 4 (Strategies) page 73 Chapter 7 (Assessment) page 141

39. Expert Jigsaw GroupsThinking Map • Group #1 (Chapter 2) – pages 25 to 35 • Group #2 (Chapter 2) – pages 36 to 46 • Group #3 (Chapter 3) – pages 47 to 58 • Group #4 (Chapter 3) – pages 58 to 71 • Group #5 (Chapter 4) – all (page 73-89) • Group #6 (Chapter 7) – pages 141- 152 • Group #7 (Chapter 7) – pages 152-167

40. The Role of Time - Chapter 2 Marzano defines time in classrooms as: Allocated time: the time in the school day specifically set aside for instruction, such as classes, as opposed to non-instructional activities, such as recess, lunch, passing time and the like. Instructional time: the in-class time that a teacher devotes to instruction (as opposed to management-oriented activities). Engaged time: the portion of instructional time during which students are actually paying attention to the content being presented. Academic learning time: the proportion of engaged time during which students are successful at the task they are engaged in.

41. The Role of the TeacherChapter 3 Prewriting Conditions These conditions encourage students to “fuel up” on information. With a “full tank” they are more prepared to pour their newfound knowledge onto a page. • Reading • Dialogue • Inquiry • Personal Interest

42. The Role StrategiesChapter 4Help Organize your students’ THINKING • Freewriting • Loop writing and looping • Brainstorming/listing • Clustering/Mapping • SDQR Chart • Movie Writing • Prewriting THINK Sheet

43. The Role of AssessmentChapter 7

44. Using Writing Assignments for Assessment writing-to- learn learning-to-write SUPPORT Building Content Knowledge

45. UNCOVER the Curriculum vs. COVER the Curriculum • Teaching writers requires that we create extended writing time in our classes. • If we create extended writing time to truly teach students how to write, doesn’t that mean other parts of the curriculum will have to be sacrificed? In a word, YES.

46. OFFENSE Classroom Culture Norms Resources Opportunities to Write DEFENSE Scaffolding Instruction Modeling Writing Providing Feedback Using Thinking Maps Peer Evaluating How Can Teachers Help?

47. The Role of Technology THINGS TO THINK ABOUT Am I using available technology to the fullest extent possible in my classroom? How do I know when software applications are appropriate and have real instructional value? How can I use technology in my lesson planning and instruction? What changes can I expect in my students, my classroom, and myself when I increase my use of technology?

48. Online Graphic Organizers help Students Organize and Hold their THINKING • http://web000.greece.k12.ny.us/instruction/ela/6-12/Writing/Index.htm • http://www.internet4classrooms.com/index.htm

49. 11 Minute Essay STEP ONE Develop a starting point prompt. This could be a statement such as: “We can learn lessons from the people around us. They often demonstrate how to be honorable, loyal, and brave.” Pictures make excellent prompts, such as this picture of a soldier working with an aroused cobra.

50. Module 4 Learning-to-Write Toolbox Toolbox for Learning-to-WritePrewriting Draft Writing: Revising and EditingRubricsGraphic Organizers and Thinking Skills Check out the website: Module 4