Addressing The Three Modes of Writing

1. Addressing The Three Modes of Writing Tips for understanding the writing standards, instruction, assessment and practical classroom applications Erlanger-Elsmere School District Ruthie Staley Ruthie.staley@education.ky.gov www.ruthiestaley.net ELA Content Specialist – Kentucky Department of Education

2. Today’s Learning Targets • I can discuss the three modes of writing and begin to plan for their implementation at the grade level I teach. • I can discuss instructional tips that align with the three modes of writing. • I can align mentor text with the mode I am teaching. • I can design formative assessment using analysis of student work. • I can continue to plan, discuss and share things I have found successful with the three modes of writing with my grade level team.

3. The Three Modes of Writing • Guidebook contains: • Information about the writing standard • Instruction to support the teaching of the standards and assessment • Information about the formative assessment process • Embedded details about Kentucky’s on-demand writing administered in 5th , 6th, 8th 10th and 11th grades • Writing Standards 4 through 10 work together to support the three modes of writing

4. Section 1: OPinion/Argument • CCR Anchor Writing Standard #1: Write arguments to support claims in an analysis of substantive topics or texts, using valid reasoning and relevant and sufficient evidence. • Highlight the standard at your grade level • Discuss what that looks like at your grade level with an elbow partner • Beginning in kindergarten, students are asked to communicate their opinions – a building block to writing effective argument • Shift occurs in 6th grade from opinion to argumentation • Suggested Mentor Text: Articles, Expository Text, Digital Text

5. Section 1:Opinion/ARgumentation • Activity • Look over samples of student work • Discuss things that intermediate students would have an opinion at the grade level you teach; list and chart • Share out in large group

6. Tips for Instruction • Use best practices that encourage critical thinking skills • Provide time for discussion and inquiry • Involve students in what they care about • Provide opportunities to practice writing opinions/arguments • Practice using textual evidence to support the opinion/argument • Allow time for students to discuss their thinking and challenge others • Look periodically at writing models – either student work, teacher-generated text or professional writing (Marker Papers and Edsteps) • Practice writing in shorter time frames • Provide 10-15 minutes for quick writes, focusing on one topic

7. Bundling the Standards • How can the standards for this type of writing be bundled for: • Reading – Literary • Reading – Informational • Foundational skills • Speaking and Listening • Language Acquisition • Discuss and be ready to share out in large group.

8. Time to Reflect On Mode 1 • Take three minutes to write down what you want to remember about this Mode of Writing and some classroom applications you will try.

9. Section 2: Informational/ExplanaTOry • CCR Anchor Writing Standard #2: Write informational/explanatory texts to examine and convey complex ideas and information clearly and accurately through the effective selection, organization and analysis of content. • Highlight the standard at your grade level • Discuss what that looks like at your grade level with an elbow partner • Students must write to demonstrate understanding of the subjects they are studying • It’s purpose is the increase readers’ knowledge of a subject • Students draw not only from background knowledge, but from multiple print and non-print text • Suggested Mentor Text: articles, digital text, magazines, expository text, pictures

10. Alpha Boxes What do you know about whales? • Use the Alpha Box to add words or phrases that reflect your background knowledge about whales • Please fill out the background information individually • Take 5 minutes to complete your quick write • Share your list with a partner. Add words that you may not have from your partner’s list.

11. Alpha Boxes - continued Building schema about Whales Text about Whales Whales live in oceans. They are not fish. They are air-breathing warm-blooded mammals. Some are small, and others are huge. The world’s largest animals are whales. Scientists have learned there are about 100 different kinds of whales.

12. More About Whales – Text • The first ancestors of whales lived more than 50 million years ago. Scientists believe they are descended from creatures that live possibly on land, possibly the mesonchid. At some point, they began to stay in the oceans. Their bodies became more streamlined for easier swimming. Their fur was replaced by blubber to keep them warm.

13. Whales - Continued • Whales tails are called flukes. They don’t look like fish tails. Whales push themselves through the water by moving their flukes up and down. They use their flippers for balance and turning. • Whales can’t stay under water like fish. Beneath the surface they must hold their breath. Before diving , whales breathe fresh air into their lungs through one or two nostrils on top of their heads. They are called blowholes. When whales surface they blow out their wet, warm breath, making a spout.

14. Whales Continued • When whales can’t see in the dark and murky waters, they make clicking sounds. The sound waves bounce The sound waves travel and bounce off objects. Then they come back to the whales’ ears. This is called sonar or echolocation. • Some whales travel to cold water to feed and live the summer. Often they travel in groups or pods. In the winter they go back to warmer waters. This traveling is called migration.

15. Two Main Kinds of Whales Toothed Whales called Odontoceti Whales without Teeth Called Baleen or Mysticeti Pygmy Right Whale Minke Whale Gray Whale • Dolphins and Porpoises • Pilot Whale • Beluga Whale • Narwhal • Sperm Whale • Killer Whale or Orca

16. Time to Write About Whales Writing Standard Two • 1, Use your alphabox and write what you know about whales. • 2. When you are finished, share your writing with someone at another table.

17. Add Descriptive Words to Non-Fiction Writing • Whales • Blowing • Echoing • Diving • Traveling • The largest animals on Earth • Whales • Now you try it!

18. Compound Descriptors – Tools that Make Non-Fiction Writing Powerful • Words that are linked by a hyphen that modify a noun: (Add ing or er) • Baleen Whales • Toothless – singing • Plant- eating • Two blowhole – swimming • Creature – loving • Baleen Whales • Now you try it!

19. Tips for Instruction • Provide opportunities where students write about what they read • Teach students the writing skills that go into creating text • Increase time that students write

20. Practical Suggestions • Journaling – Free write • Learning Log – What did you learn about whales today? • Letter Writing - Write a letter to someone in a different class telling them what you learned about whales • Labeled diagrams – Think about the parts of the whales body; label appropriately • Time lines – What did you learn about how whales evolved? • Collaborative Writing – Put together a flip book about whales • The One-Pager – Quick Write - Alphaboxes • Extended Writing – “I wonder Questions/” - What else do you want to learn about whales? • Utilize non – print sources - Pictures of whales • Collect “Dash Facts” on a Topic - Whales • Writing Alphabet Informational Books - The ABC’s of Whales • Observation as a tool - movies/United Streaming about Whales/National Geographic/Time for Kids • Designing a Question and Answer Book - What is a baby whale called? How many people could stand on a blue whale’s tongue? • Talking about your research – think Speaking and Listening Standards/Author’s Chair/Gallery Walk

21. Bundling the Standards • How can the standards for this type of writing be bundled for: • Reading – Literary • Reading – Informational • Foundational skills • Speaking and Listening • Language Acquisition • Discuss and be ready to share out in large group.

22. Time to Reflect On Mode 1 • Take three minutes to write down what you want to remember about this Mode of Writing and some classroom applications you will try.

23. Section 3: Narrative Writing • CCR Anchor Writing Standard 3: Write narratives to develop real or imagined experiences or events using techniques, well-chose details and well-structured event sequences • Proficient writers recognize the importance of communicating clearly with an audience • Narrative writing conveys experience, either real or imaginary, and uses time as its deep structure • Personal narrative is only one form of narrative • Narratives can also take the form of creative fictional stories, memoirs, anecdotes and autobiographies • Narrative can be used for many purposes including: • 1. Inform • 2. Instruct • 3. Persuade • 4. Entertain • Suggested Mentor Text: poems, stories, plays, digital text, autobiographies

24. Section 3: Narrative Writing • Activity: • Design a mask that focuses on one of the things I am reading about in the book Up North at the Cabin (a smart angler, a loon, a great, gray dolphin, an acrobat, a fearless voyageur., a river, a bull moose, an armored beetle, a daredevil, an angry northern pike • Write through your mask the story these things might tell in the setting of this story. • Think about how writing through a mask might help your students write more about something than a personal narrative or memoir • Create a unique way of celebrating this writing

25. Other Practical Suggestions • Artifact Museum • Diary entries • That was then, this is now • A time when piece….. • Writing a No Time Narrative

26. Tips for Instruction • Emphasize that stories are a powerful tool • Teach dialogue and descriptive language • Utilize authentic student work that effectively utilizes the strategies taught and allows student to analyze and discuss student work • Provide students with a writing prompt asking for a response – For example: “You’ve heard the old saying, never judge a book by its cover.” Have you ever judged someone based on appearance? Have you ever been in a situation where you decided you didn’t like something before you gave it a proper chance? (like a class or food) ? Write about a time when you prematurely judged someone or something. Be sure to tell what you learned from the situation.

27. Bundling the Standards • How can the standards for this type of writing be bundled for: • Reading – Literary • Reading – Informational • Foundational skills • Speaking and Listening • Language Acquisition • Discuss and be ready to share out in large group.

28. Time to Reflect On Mode 1 • Take three minutes to write down what you want to remember about this Mode of Writing and some classroom applications you will try.

29. Tips for Instruction • Consider teaching students to use narrative writing to strengthen other modes. • Use prompts that are relevant. - “ a time when piece”

30. Other Tips that Enhance All Modes • Use music as a way to enhance the writing experience. Classical Musical in particular is soothing and relaxes the writer. Listen as I read Seymor Simon’s Wolves. Consider playing it softly at the Writing Work Station.

31. Mentor Text – Reading With A writer’s Eye • Mentor Text., also called Anchor Text and Touch Tone Text help to craft a writing lesson by honing in a particular craft being taught. Consider the following when using Mentor Text. • Be very strategic when selecting the Mentor Text. I chose books and articles today that reflected a craft found in the Mode of Writing being taught. • Mentor text provides the foundation from which students learn the writing form. The craft might include structure, symbolism, theme, imagery and tone. • When selecting text for Mode 2, be intentional about the text illustrations. The more realistic, the better. • Model Think Aloud when reading a Mentor Text. Modeling your thinking helps to clarify. • You, as the teacher, should create your own Mentor Text. For example, a time when piece would be very effective if you wrote the piece and then shared with your students. • Keep Mentor Text in the classroom library. As students create pieces of writing, their own work can serve as the Mentor Text. For example: The ABC’s of Whales written by a student or a group of students would be very appropriate to celebrate in the Classroom Library. • Consider digital text as a possibility for Mentor Text..Seymor Simon has written 300 books that are available digitally! • www.teachmentortexts.com

32. Next Steps • Come up with an Action Plan on how you will address the Three Modes of Writing in your classroom/grade level • Decide how you will bridge reading and writing • Plan how you will formatively assess your students • Discuss and then plan how technology will be incorporated into your Action Plan • Think about the Speaking and Listening Standards, how will you incorporate them in your writing? • Create a way you will celebrate student writing

33. 3- 2 - 1 Reflection • List three best practices that you learned today that will impact writing instruction in your classroom. • 1. • 2. • 3. • Name 2 things you will try in the next few weeks of school. • 1. • 2. • Name 1 questions you still have about today’s professional development, The Three Modes of Writing or the new common core. • 1.

34. Tips for Instruction • Consider teaching students to use narrative writing to strengthen other modes. • Use prompts that are relevant. - “ a time when piece”

35. Time to Reflect • Inside Outside Circle • Count off by 2’s • If you are a 1 come to the area for the inside of the circle • If you are a 2 come to the outside of the circle facing a partner who is a one • Listen as the facilitator asks a reflective question • Discuss the question with your partner • The facilitator will give you time to reflect with your partner • When the conversation is complete, 2’s will move to the right and secure a new partner and get ready for the next question • Think about this activity as one that fosters the Speaking and Listening Standards of the Common Core

36. Contact me IF you need Additional Assistance • Ruthie Staley • English Language Arts Content Specialist • Kentucky Department of Education • Ruthie.staley@education.ky.gov • (859) 609-7958