Writing Instruction in the Curriculum: Strategies and Evaluation

1. Quote of the DayFor me, it is essential that children are deeply involved in writing, that they share their texts with others, and that they perceive themselves as authors. I believe these three things are interconnected. A sense of authorship comes from the struggle to put something big and vital into print, and from seeing one’s own printed words reach the hearts and minds of readers.~Lucy Calkins, 1986, p. 9

2. Week Thirteen Writing April 16, 2009

3. Objectives We will be able to: • Identify and describe the writing process • Identify and describe writing instruction • Describe how writing fits into the curriculum • Evaluate students’ writing strengths and challenges

4. Agenda • Agenda Overview (3 min) • Housekeeping (15 min) • Announcements; Participation Log and Final Notebook • Life in the field (20 min) • What does writing look like? • Elements of Writing (30 min) • Expert groups (10 min) • Jigsaw groups (20 min) • Writing Mini-Lecture (30 min) • Contexts; The writing process; Writer’s workshop • Break (10 min) • Evaluating Students (30 min) • Coming attractions (35 min)

5. Announcements • Final participation log due to Angel dropbox: Monday, 5/4 (deadline extended) • Remember to include: • A brief write-up of how you and your CT chose your focus student(s) • Reflections on how your small group lessons went • At least 2 small group lesson plans (even if you didn’t get to teach them) tacked on to the end of your participation log

6. Announcements • Final “Notebook” due to Angel dropbox: Friday, 5/1 (deadline extended) • Option #1: Reflective Writing • Just as you did when you wrote your mid-semester entry, revisit the writing you have been doing across the semester. Think about how you have engaged in the writing process since mid-semester, and the types of connections you have been making. Also consider how you interacted with your colleagues in noteblogging. Write a brief one-two page double-spaced, typed entry that UPDATES the ideas you expressed in your mid-semester entry. • What is new or different (regarding your writing process or insights gained) and what has stayed the same? • What do you now conclude are key learning areas in the course? • Be sure to discuss your learning. It's not just a list of connections, but a discussion of what has contributed to your learning and your connections.

7. Announcements • Final “Notebook” due to Angel dropbox: Friday, 5/1 (deadline extended) • Option #2: Action Plan • Reflecting on your learning over the year, this plan will allow you to plan some action steps for how you will enter into your internship year. • You will create concrete action steps for how you will get to know your students, school and community. • You will pinpoint an area of growth and determine what steps you will take to grow in that area • You will determine what you’ve learned over the course of the semester. • Show template

8. Agenda • Agenda Overview (3 min) • Housekeeping (15 min) • Announcements; Participation Log and Final Notebook • Life in the field (20 min) • What does writing look like? • Elements of Writing (30 min) • Expert groups (10 min) • Jigsaw groups (20 min) • Writing Mini-Lecture (30 min) • Contexts; The writing process; Writer’s workshop • Break (10 min) • Evaluating Students (30 min) • Coming attractions (35 min)

9. Life in the field • At your tables, discuss the following: • 1. How is writing used in your classroom to enhance learning? • 2. How is writing taught in your classroom? • 3. What kind of writers are your students? What do they know how to do? What do they struggle with?

10. Agenda • Agenda Overview (3 min) • Housekeeping (15 min) • Announcements; Participation Log and Final Notebook • Life in the field (20 min) • What does writing look like? • Elements of Writing (30 min) • Expert groups (10 min) • Jigsaw groups (20 min) • Writing Mini-Lecture (30 min) • Contexts; The writing process; Writer’s workshop • Break (10 min) • Evaluating Students (30 min) • Coming attractions (35 min)

11. Writing Jigsaw-Teaching the class • Step 1: In small expert groups: • Determine the key points to teach in your jigsaw group • Use the note taking template to help guide your summarization • Expert groups:

12. Writing Jigsaw-Teaching the class • Step 2: In jigsaw groups: • Teach the key points to your group • Help your group fill out the note taking template • Discuss what writing would look like in a classroom that incorporates ideas from all four readings in a balanced way

13. Break • Return at: 2:12

14. Agenda • Agenda Overview (3 min) • Housekeeping (15 min) • Announcements; Participation Log and Final Notebook • Life in the field (20 min) • What does writing look like? • Elements of Writing (30 min) • Expert groups (10 min) • Jigsaw groups (20 min) • Writing Mini-Lecture (30 min) • Contexts; The writing process; Writer’s workshop • Break (10 min) • Evaluating Students (30 min) • Coming attractions (35 min)

15. Take a moment to order the following activities from most teacher directed to least teacher directed. Contexts for Teaching Writing • 1. The teacher uses input from students to write a first draft of a narrative about a class trip to the zoo. • 2. In his writer’s notebook, a student records a list of possible research questions about his favorite zoo animal. • 3. While the students observe, the teacher cuts and pastes his first draft (written on chart paper) in order to change the sequence of his paragraphs and create more space to add supporting details. • 4. The teacher asks students to think about the most fascinating animal they saw at the zoo in order to write an “I wonder about” chart. The teacher invites individual students to write the name of the animal they are wondering about on the chart paper, using their sound spelling cards to help them spell. • 5. The teacher instructs a small group of students in how to use a checklist to edit their writing. As students practice using the checklist, the teacher circulates around the table, stopping to give feedback to individual students.

16. Contexts for Teaching Writing • 1. The teacher uses input from students to write a first draft of a narrative about a class trip to the zoo. • 2. In his writer’s notebook, a student records a list of possible research questions about his favorite zoo animal. • 3. While the students observe, the teacher cuts and pastes his first draft (written on chart paper) in order to change the sequence of his paragraphs and create more space to add supporting details. • 4. The teacher asks students to think about the most fascinating animal they saw at the zoo in order to write an “I wonder about” chart. The teacher invites individual students to write the name of the animal they are wondering about on the chart paper, using their sound spelling cards to help them spell. • 5. The teacher instructs a small group of students in how to use a checklist to edit their writing. As students practice using the checklist, the teacher circulates around the table, stopping to give feedback to individual students.

17. The Writing Process -A way to remember The Email • What do you want to say? - Prewrite • Get it all out - Draft • Create the perfect message - Revise • Check for mistakes - Edit • Hit send! - Publish • Publishing examples

18. Writing Workshop • Mini-Lessons • Connect, teach, active engagement, link • Lessons on Craft: Writing leads, adding details, dialogue, genre structure • Lessons on Conventions: capitalization, punctuation, editing • Writing • Independent and personal • Teacher conferences • Sharing • Author’s chair • Share something specific from the day’s lesson • Publishing

19. Model Lesson From Lucy Calkins, Units of Study for Writer’s Workshop • Objective: TLW identify a small moment in their life and write a small moment narrative by stretching it out across several pages. • Procedures: • Connect: Remind students of the small moments we’ve been reading and learning about (name specific texts). Ask for examples of small moments that students are using. • Teach: Read aloud Mortimer by Robert Munsch. Introduce the story by telling students that the author stretches out one small moment, a little boy going to bed, across several pages to tell the story. This is what good authors do - they take something small and stretch it out long so that the people reading about it can feel like they were there, like they were part of the moment. (Activate some prior knowledge by asking them about wanting to stay up late) • Active engagement: Model taking a small moment (meeting my niece for the first time) and stretching it out over several pages - do this out loud and model touching each page to plan my story • Have students talk in pairs about what they noticed (hopefully they’ll notice how I touched each page and planned my story by thinking out loud) • Link: Send students off to work on their writing independently and plan their story like I did • During conferences: Look for students who are using the procedure from the mini-lesson • Share: Have a child share and explain that when she stretched her story out on paper, she could include more details and make her story more vivid

20. Conferencing • Video • http://www.learner.org/resources/series205.html • Program 10 • Program 9 is also helpful • What do you notice? • How would you define conferencing based on that video?

21. Conferencing • Sit side-by-side so you can look at the paper together • Ask writer if she has any specific questions or if there is something in the paper with which she wants help • Have writer read piece (or portion) aloud or read it aloud yourself • Make sure that the student is holding a pen or pencil • Do not write on student’s paper without permission - it’s their work Tips:

22. Conferencing Tips: • Focus on a few key areas for feedback • For grammar and spelling, focus on patterns, not something that happens once • Use "I" language in your comments • Ask the writer to restate or explain confusing sections and encourage him to include this new information in his writing • Have a system for keeping track of conferences • Name of student, date, what you talked about, plans for future writing

23. Conferencing Possible topics for writing conferences: • Generating Ideas • Word Choice • Details/Elaboration • Organization • Repetition • Confusing parts • Mechanics Some writing resources: Avery, C. (1993). …And With a Light Touch: Learning about Reading, Writing, and Teaching with First Graders. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann Calkins, L. (1986). The Art of Teaching Writing. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann Calkins, L., Hartman, A., & White, Z. (2005). One to One: The Art of Conferring with Young Writers. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann Fletcher, R. & Portalupi, J. (1998). Craft Lessons: Teaching Writing K-8. Portland, ME: Stenhouse

24. Agenda • Agenda Overview (3 min) • Housekeeping (15 min) • Announcements; Participation Log and Final Notebook • Life in the field (20 min) • What does writing look like? • Elements of Writing (30 min) • Expert groups (10 min) • Jigsaw groups (20 min) • Writing Mini-Lecture (30 min) • Contexts; The writing process; Writer’s workshop • Break (10 min) • Evaluating Students (30 min) • Coming attractions (35 min)

25. Looking at Student Work - Making a Plan • Choose a piece of writing - examine it on your own or with a partner • Take a look at the piece of student writing you have • What do you notice about this student’s writing? Strengths? Areas for growth? • Does the writing make sense on its own? • Use the chart on p. 75 of Gibbons to help organize your thoughts or the Six Traits in Tompkins, p. 69 • Develop a plan to conference with this student. What would you target? What would you celebrate? • Prepare to share your thoughts with the class

26. Coming Attractions - Week 13: Working with Basal Texts and Resource Investigation • Everyone reads: • Tompkins, Chapter 10, Teaching with Basal Reading Textbooks, pp. 332-353 • In the Field: • Continue working with your focus students • Remember to record your activities and reflections on your participation log and attach any lesson plans you use (templates on Angel under handouts) • Due Monday, 4/20: • Two blog options: • Option #1: If you have time, examine one to two writing samples of one student in your field placement. What are their strengths? What are their challenges? How would you characterize them as a writer? If you could have a writing conference with them, what would you do? • Option #2: Think about writing instruction and writing to learn in your classroom. What’s working? What’s not working? What elements of writing might you add to your classroom? • Upcoming due dates • Final notebook entry: Friday, May 1 • Final participation log: Monday, May 4

27. Coming Attractions - Week 13: Working with Basal Texts and Resource Investigation Resource Investigation - IN CLASS ACTVITY: Phasing out of TE 402 and phasing into your future teaching career • Goal: To develop a Literacy Resources wiki that you can use in your internship and future teaching. The objectives of this in class investigation are to: • Navigate the internet, reflect on readings and field experiences to find educational resources • Evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of the educational websites and other resources • Share resources with colleagues, explicating the strengths and cautions/limitations • Gain resources from colleagues. • ***The wiki will be available to you throughout your career. Please feel free to share it with others. Please feel free to add to it. We will be sharing it with others ourselves. • http://msuresourcesforteaching.pbwiki.com/ • Choose your groups of 3-4 • Choose your topic and sign up on white board