Donna Herold, Spokane Public Schools ASCD Understanding by Design Cadre / Faculty Member 2502T & 3115T Saturday, Ju

1. ® Writing the UbD Way: Ends-based Modeling, Coaching, and Conferencing in the Writing-Centered Secondary Classroom Donna Herold, Spokane Public Schools ASCD Understanding by Design Cadre / Faculty Member 2502T & 3115T Saturday, Jun. 27, 2009, 2:00 p.m.-4:00 p.m. Sunday, Jun. 28, 2009, 8:00-10:00 a.m -------------------------------------------------------------------- ASCD Summer Conference Differentiating Instruction, Understanding by Design, and What Works in Schools:

2. Objectives • Context • Why writing instruction matters • Criteria • Four characteristics of effective writing assignments • Alignment (models and practice) • Creating assignments aligning skills, understandings, and criteria • Action items: • 21st century literacy, modeling, and rubrics

3. National Commission on Writing: • We must DOUBLE the writing kids are doing in ALL content areas • Students must write more out of school • Writing must be taught in all subjects and at all grade levels • Writing and School Reform, including ‘The Neglected ‘R,’ The College Board. May 2006

4. Consider then discuss: • Do your students write enough? • Do they write across all classes and all curricular areas? Reasons? • Do they write enough at home? Reasons? • In your school, have teachers, across all disciplines and grade levels, been given the necessary training to provide writing instruction for students? Reasons?

5. One answer: • “Children don’t get many opportunities to write. In one recent study in grades one, three, and five, only 15% of the schools day was spent in any kind of writing activity.” • --R.C. Anderson, Becoming a Nation of Readers: The Report of the Commission on Reading.

6. Source: Balog, David, Ed. The Dana Source Book of Brain Science: Resources for Teachers and Students 4 th edition. Dana Press, c2006.

7. Source: Balog, David, Ed. The Dana Source Book of Brain Science: Resources for Teachers and Students 4 th edition. Dana Press, c2006.

8. Understanding by Design’s A M T • Acquisition– • A fact is a fact; a skill is a skill. We acquire each in turn. • Acquisition does not yield understanding; it is necessary but not sufficient. • If I have a bunch of skills and facts, that does not mean I understand, but I cannot understand without those skills and facts. • Making Meaning • What do these facts imply? • What is their sense, import, value? • Transferring– • How should I apply my prior facts, skills, and ideas effectively in this particular situation? • The situation must be new and uncharted.

9. A M T Example Students practice tying their shoes A Students draw/speak the steps of lace tying M Students discuss the pros and cons of laces vs. Velcro, and different methods of tying M Students teach others how to tie their shoes T

10. Writing as recursive process: and Stage Three’s A M T Learning to Write--Acquisition Writing toLearn- Making Meaning Writing the UbD Way Writing to exhibit and shift Understanding --Transfer

11. Consider: A: A time when you asked a student to ACQUIRE a new writing skill and/or assimilate new knowledge through writing? M: A time when your students MADE MEANING of an essential question when writing? T: A time when your students TRANSFERRED their understanding in a writing task?

12. Effective Writing Assignments: • Content and Scope: • “[An effective writing assignment] engages students in a series of cognitive processes, such as reflection, analysis, and synthesis, so that they are required to transform the information from the reading material in order to complete the writing assignment.” • --Nagin, Carl and the National Writing Project. Because Writing Matters: Improving Student Writing in our Schools. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass. 2006. p. 47.

13. Possible Writing Prompt

14. Cognitive Process: Synthesis/Analysis

15. Effective Writing Assignments: • Organization and Development: • “An effective assignment gives students a framework for developing ideas and organizational guidelines that help them analyze and synthesize the information with which they are working.” • -Nagin, Carl and the National Writing Project. Because Writing Matters: Improving Student Writing in our Schools. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass. 2006. p. 47.

16. Possible Writing Prompt

17. It may not always feel good, but it always feels right. What is it? Courage. Compare the story of the time I jumped off of the rock into the lake to Jem taking Dill’s dare What is courage? Can our definition of courage change as we grow? Courage is doing what is right, without having to be told Use the quote about Atticus saying not to judge someone until you’ve walked a mile in their shoes The dare Tim Johnson Dubose He changes throughout each experience All times when Jem thought about bravery or courage He grows up—learns from others It may be that we need other people to teach us courage—or to be role models for us How Jem grows up and learns to see others (himself, too) in a different way Using three chapters—his dare, Shooting Tim Johnson, and Mrs. Dubose Jem learns to stop worrying about what others think and to start doing things for the right reasons. He learns this from Mrs. Dubose and Atticus In Harper Lee’s ‘To Kill a Mockingbird,’ Jem redefines his views of courage by studying the actions of others. As he does so, he learns that courage is about doing what is right, not worrying about what others think of him. Handout pages 13-32

18. Effective Writing Assignments: • Audience and Communication: • “An effective assignment goes beyond the use of a ‘pretend’ audience and offers the student a genuine opportunity [to inform, entertain, or persuade].” • --Nagin, Carl and the National Writing Project. Because Writing Matters: Improving Student Writing in our Schools. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass. 2006. p. 48.

19. Relevance and authenticity • The March, 2009 NCTE report, ‘Writing Between the Lines,’ cites a 2008 study: • 86% of teenagers stated that they believed writing well was important to success in life, • But 73% believe online writing does not relate to school writing. • While only 17% enjoy school writing ‘a great deal’ (the highest indicator)—49% enjoy non-school writing ‘a great deal’

20. Possible Writing Prompt

22. Authentic Audience:Classroom Publishing www.Lulu.com

23. Authentic Audience:Blogging • http://Gatsbyblog5.21classes.com

24. Effective Writing Assignments: • Engagement and choice: • “. . . An effective assignment avoids the pitfalls of offering the student too much choice or none at all. Restricting the range of decisions that the student is asked to make is a way for her to increase engagement in the assignment.” --Nagin, Carl and the National Writing Project. Because Writing Matters: Improving Student Writing in our Schools. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass. 2006. p. 48.

25. Possible Writing Prompt

26. In what sense does this assignment balance ‘choice’ and information requested of the student? http://pages.sbcglobal.net/cdefreese/foldables/ http://kitchentablemath.blogspot.com/search/label/foldables

27. Writing Essential Questions focusing on writing skills: • What are the essentials that you would take out of a burning house? What can you not live without? What could you not replace? • What essential writing skills must a professional in your discipline possess? • What is the purpose or value of the writing skill? • When will students use the skill? • What must your students know, understand, and be able to do? • What distinguishes an effective writing performance from an ineffective one?

28. Developing Writing Prompts • Brainstorm a couple of essential questions for your content and prompts that would correspond to them.

29. NCTE’s definition of 21st century literacy: • Develop proficiency with the tools of technology • Build relationships with others to pose and solve problems collaboratively and cross-culturally • Design and share information for global communities to meet a variety of purposes • Manage, analyze, and synthesize multiple streams of simultaneous information • Create, critique, analyze, and evaluate multi-media texts • Attend to the ethical responsibilities required by these complex environments • March, 2009 NCTE report, ‘Writing Between the Lines’

30. Stage One and P21 Core Themes and skills • THEMES: • Global Awareness • Financial, economic, business, and entrepreneurial literacy • Civic literacy, and • Health literacy • SKILLS: • Creativity and Innovation • Information, Media, and Technology Skills • Life and Career Skills

31. 3DEssays • How will you change the world? • Elementary Service Project • Transcendentalism • Final Lit. Reflection—Society v. Individual

32. Modeling, Coaching, Conferencing to improve Writing Skills “[W]riting . . . is an art, and should be taught more like art. Think about piano or violin. We expect wrong notes. We expect awkward expression . . .” • Andrew Pudewa, Director, http://www.excellenceinwriting.com/

33. Modeling, Coaching, Conferencing to improve Writing Skills “. . .but through a process of modeling, listening, practicing and reviewing specific, graded techniques, anyone can learn to play violin or piano. Writing is similar.Modeling when teaching [an] art is not only effective, but absolutely necessary.” • Andrew Pudewa, Director, http://www.excellenceinwriting.com/

34. Ways to model • Integrate ‘sneezes’ and ‘down/up’ writing • Write with students—compose visibly • Chunks—i.e.—thesis, introduction • Whole process—timed writes • Read your writing to them • Analyze papers ‘on the spot’ on overhead, document camera • Have students examine exemplars/score • In one-on-one conferences (Jing)

35. Assessment • “Many state writing assessments run the risk of undercutting good writing by scoring only for focus, organization, style, and mechanics without once asking judges to consider whether the writing is powerful, memorable, provocative, or moving (all impact related criteria, and all at the heart of why people read what others write.)” • Grant Wiggins, Educative Assessment, San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 1998. p. 67.

36. Basic Writing Rubric

37. Rubrics A GREAT TOOL: http://rubistar.4teachers.org/index.php • Use the blank rubric in your packet to brainstorm categories and descriptors for your rubric.

38. National Day on Writing • NCTE working to establish October 20, 2009 as the National Day on writing • To draw attention to “who writes, why we write, and how we all might write a little better.” • Creating a digital archive called the ‘National Gallery of Writing.’

39. Final words from NCTE . . . • “ Perhaps students are right and there is little correlation between writing one does for academic purposes and everyday literacy practices outside of school. But is that is true, we are missing an opportunity.” • March, 2009 NCTE report, ‘Writing Between the Lines’

40. To contact me: • http://www.21stcenturyschoolteacher.com/ • Email: • Donnaher@spokaneschools.org • toddndonnaherold@comcast.net