Effective Writing Strategies for Academic Success

1. Southeast Halifax High School WICR Strategies Professional Development Wednesday, October 13, 2010

2. Writing encompasses • almost anything you want • your students to put in • print form. • It can be scientific writing, • creative writing, prewriting, • poetry, rhymes, definitions, • vocabulary, equations, quick • writing, question-writing, • journaling, etc.

3. Writing is basic to thinking, learning, and growth. It allows your students to think in complex ways, building critical thinking skills, and developing knowledge of oneself and the outside world, with which he/she exists.

4. Writing also helps clarify and order experiences, while simultaneously demonstrating how much one knows about any given topic. The more fluent the writer, the ore successfully one Can compete academically.

5. The basic writing strategies promoted in AVID • are: • Class and Textbook notes (Cornell Notes) • Responsive Writing • Learning Logs and Journals • The Writing Process: • Pre-write • Draft • Revising • Editing • Final Draft

6. Quickwrite – What is it? The Quick Write is a literacy strategy that is designed to give students the opportunity to reflect upon their learning. This writing assignment can be used at the beginning, middle, or end of a lesson and takes only about three to five minutes. Short, open-ended statements are usually given. For example, students are asked to write about what they learned, problems they encountered, what they liked (or did not like) about the lesson, and about how well they understood the concepts. In content teaching, the integration of reading and writing reinforces meaning construction as both activities use similar processing skills.

7. Quickwrite – What is it? The Quick Write open-ended statements can be recorded in journals, on note cards, on the computer, or at the bottom of assignment sheets. Feel free to ask your students their opinions in this easy, non - threatening manner—they have much to share!

8. Quickwrite Activity Do a quickwrite about what you think your role should be in an AVID School. Share using the “Whip Around” Technique

9. Inquiry is: • Uncovering one’s understanding • Asking critical questions • Engaging in thinking, learning, and discussion

11. Students who inquire: • Analyze and synthesize materials or ideas • Clarify their own learning • Probe others’ thinking • Work through ambiguity

12. The AVID curriculum supports inquiry through: • Skilled questioning techniques • Costa’s Levels of Thinking • Socratic Seminars • Tutorials • Investigations • Questions that guide research

13. Inquiry Method Engage in skillful questioning Higher Level Thinking Respectful dialogue

14. Inquiry Activity: The Three-Story Intellect Costa’s Level of Questioning Salvador Late or Early by Sandra Cisneros

15. Collaboration

16. AVID Inspired Classroom • Groups are referred to as collaborative • Purpose • Bring students together • Ask • Explore • Answer questions (student ownership)

17. Become better • Listeners • Thinkers • Readers • Writers • Discover ideas and • remember them

18. Why Collaborative Learning Groups? Research shows that students learn best when they are actively manipulating materials through making inferences and then generalizing from those inferences.

19. Collaborative Learning Groups • Positive interdependence • Individual accountability • Heterogeneous • Shared leadership • Social skills necessary for task completion • Teacher/tutor observes and intervenes • Groups process their effectiveness

20. Collaborative Activities • Tutorials • Jigsaws • Group projects • Read-arounds

21. Preparing • Students experience the process of learning • The “how” as well as the “what” • Teacher/tutor carefully guide the group • Encourage members to share their ideas • Explore and respect the ideas of others • Group must constantly probe until ideas are precise and clear

22. Group Selection • No fixed way • Teacher-determined • Self-selected • Spatial • Randomly selected • groups

23. Preparing Students • Non-threatening experiences • Gradually increase tasks demands and duration • Discuss before beginning: • Group etiquette • Stereotyping • Group dynamics • Review what a productive group “looks and sounds like”

24. Reflection • Students write and discuss: • What went well? • What can be improved?

25. Avoiding Mayhem • Careful instructions and simple directions before moving into groups • Establish a specific route for moving into groups • Have students move their desks close together to prevent loud talking and to create a conducive atmosphere to share ideas. • Establish a reasonable time limit.

26. I use to … But now I…

27. Read Around • Using a piece of Cornell Note paper, we will respond to the following topic: • Round 1 You will respond to the prompt and write for two minutes • Round 2 You will send your paper to your left and the next person will read what you wrote and continue answering based on what they read • Round 3 Repeat Round 2 • Round 4 Reread what is written and create a summary for the page

28. Reading –insert WICR

29. Read Around • How can students having electronic devices in school impact your classroom?

30. Reading strategies in your content areas • The Write Path content area curriculum guides • AVID Weekly Lessons and strategies from Critical Reading

31. Philosophical Chairs • Understand central statement or topic before discussion • Listen carefully when others speak • Wait for mediator to recognize your before you speak • Summarize briefly the previous speaker’s argument

32. Rules of Engagement • If you have spoken on your side, you must wait until three other people on your side speak before speaking again • Be sure to address the idea, not the person stating them • Keep an open mind and move to the other side or the undecided section if you feel that someone made a good argument or opinion is swayed. • Support the mediator by maintaining order • Debrief students before students leave class.

33. Topic for Philosophical Chairs Should teachers make the decision whether electronic devices are allowed in individual classrooms?

34. NCSCOS AND THE AVIDCONNECTION Interactive Cornell Notes NINTH GRADE WORLD HISTORY COMPETENCY GOAL 8: PATTERNS OF HISTORY- THE LEARNER WILL ASSESS THE INFLUENCE OF IDEALS, VALUES, BELIEFS, AND TRADITIONS ON CURRENT GLOBAL EVENTS AND ISSUES 8.01 Trace developments in literary, artistic, and religious traditions over time as legacies or past societies or as cultural innovations ELEVENTH GRADE UNTIED STATES HISTORY COMPETENCY GOAL 5: BECOMING AN INDUSTRIAL SOCIETY (1877-1900) THE LEARNER WILL DESCRIBE INNOVATIONS IN TECHNOLOGY AND BUSINESS PRACTICES AND ASSESS THEIR IMPACT ON ECONOMIC, POLITICAL, AND SOCIAL LIFE IN AMERICA 5.03 Assess the impact of labor unions on industry and the lives of workers Modified DBQ’s AP WORLD HISTORY COMPETENCY GOAL 3: Emerging Monarchies and Empires—The learner will investigate significant events, people, and conditions in the growth of monarchical and imperial systems, 600 CE- 145 CE 3.04 Trace social, political, economic, and cultural changes associated with the Renaissance, Reformation, the rise of nation-states and absolutism

35. PUTTING IT ALL TOGETHER THE SITE TEAM AND THE NC TEACHER EVALUATION PROCESS

36. NC AVID High School WebEx Opportunities Math Session 2 10/26/2010 Science Session 2 10/26/2010 History/Social Sciences Session 2 11/4/2010 English Language Arts Session 2 11/9/2010

37. Presenters Felicia Booker – SIG Instructional Coach Stacey Bush – North Carolina AVID Program Manager Cynthia Seabrook – Assistant Principal Alfreda Smith – SIG Technology Facilitator