Transcript Slide 1

K-5 Writing
Units of Study Training
September 13, 2013
Presentation Link: http://nwgaresa.com/resources/
Housekeeping Reminders
B
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TCRWP NUGGETS as we begin…
• A “think tank” for the past 30 years that is committed to
continually researching and improving their practices.
• Project staff that “stand on each other’s shoulders” each
Thursday to study together and gain shared knowledge.
• Long-lasting partners with schools in the US and the
world (500 schools now to 25,000 overall).
• Staff development organization founded and directed by
Lucy Calkins (also Professor of Children’s Literature,
Teachers College, Columbia University).
Introductory Activity
Table Talk about Writers Workshop
(5 min.)
Pig Trail
Gravel
Paved
Freeway
Activity: 4 Corners
• Instruction: Choose the corner that best fits your
current belief. Discuss and select a person in the
group to report out.
• I believe that children need to learn to read first.
• I believe that children need to learn to write first.
• I believe there is not an empirical order to the
acquisition of reading and writing.
• This thinking is new to me so I am not sure I know
what I believe and would like to know more.
Research Base
• Writing to Read
• Write First!
Recommendations
• Have students write
about the texts they
read.
• Teach students the
writing skills and
processes that go into
creating text.
• Increase how much
students write.
Funded by Carnegie Corporation Advancing Literacy
Yellow HANDOUT
Writing First! by Peter Elbow (5-7 min.)
• At your table, read the
article and find “why’s”
for the author’s belief
statement that “children
need to learn to write
first.”
• TTYP to compare your
findings and prepare to
share as a whole group.
Yellow HANDOUT
Instructional Shifts: CCGPS (ELA)
• Building knowledge through content-rich
nonfiction and informational texts
• Reading and writing grounded in evidence
from text
• Regular practice with complex text and its
academic vocabulary
Shift 1: Content and Nonfiction
What the Student Does . . .
•Become better readers by building
background knowledge.
What the Teacher Does . . .
• Shift identity: “I teach reading.”
• Treat the text itself as a source of
evidence.
• See the text itself as a source of
evidence (what did it say vs. what did
it not say?)
• Teach students to write about
evidence from the text.
• Apply strategies to reading
informational text (using details to
• Ask: “How do you know? Why do
make key points and summarize).
you think that? Show me in the text
where you see evidence for your
opinion.”
Shift 2: Evidence (Reading and Writing)
What the Student Does . . .
• Go back to text to find evidence to
support their argument in a
thoughtful, careful, precise way.
What the Teacher Does . . .
• Facilitate evidence based
conversations with students,
dependent on the text.
• Create own judgments and become • Provide students the opportunity to
scholars, rather than witnesses of the read the text more deeply and write
text.
from multiple sources about a single
topic.
• Begin to generate own
informational texts.
•Give students permission to start
having their own reactions and
drawing their own connections.
Shift 3: Practice and Language
What the Student Does . . .
What the Teacher Does . . .
• Be persistent despite challenges • Give students less to read and let them
when reading; good readers
re-read.
tolerate frustration.
• Provide experience with complex texts.
•Spend more time learning words
across “webs” and associating
• Engage students in rigorous
words with others instead of
conversation.
learning individual, isolated
vocabulary words.
• Provide scaffolding.
• Be strategic about the kind of
vocabulary you’re developing and figure
out which words fall into which categories
(tier 2 vs. tier 3).
Navigating and Using the Series
KIT
FOCUS
A Guide to the Common Core Writing
Workshop
Workshop Model (its architecture) and
Management System
Writing Pathways
Assessment System and Learning
Progressions
Four Common Core-aligned Units
Methods and Principles Affecting Classroom
If…Then…Curriculum: Assessment-based
Instruction
CD-ROM
Differentiation with 5-7 Alternate and
Additional Units
Additional Resources: sample student
writing, reproducible checklists, units, web
links
CD-ROM Folders
Digging Into the Materials
(Take 15…)
• How is the material
organized?
• What do you like?
• What features will
(already do) assist
you in teaching?
Writing:
Bottom Line Conditions
• Writing needs to be taught like any other basic skill,
with explicit instruction and ample opportunity for
practice.
• Children deserve to write for real purposes, to write
the kinds of texts that they see in the world and to
write for an audience of readers.
• Writers write to put meaning on a page. Children
invest themselves in their writing when they choose
topics that are important to them.
Kit Source: A Guide to the Common Core Writing Workshop
Chapter 3 – p. 23
Writing:
Bottom Line Conditions
• Children deserve to be explicitly taught how to write.
• Children deserve the opportunity and instruction to
cycle through the writing process.
• To write well, children need opportunities to read
and to hear texts read, and to read as writers.
• Children need clear goals and frequent feedback.
Understandings…Digging Deeper
• Teach the WRITER, not the WRITING.
• Study and emulate REAL writers.
• Teach kids to EXPLODE the moment.
• Keep multiple pieces of writing “in progress”
(flash drafts).
• Don’t sweat the small stuff.
Understandings…Digging Deeper
• Start each year with Narrative Writing.
• Teach students the power of VOLUME and
INDEPENDENCE.
• Write with students.
• Write for REAL purposes.
• Don’t expect significant impact unless writing
is a SCHOOLWIDE PRIORITY.
Whole Group Discussion
Big Ideas…
Critical Nature of Writing
Instructional Shifts…
CCGPS
Reflection Activity: Take a few…(5 min.)
• Create a timeline of memorable points from
your life…as a WRITER!
• Using phrases or key words, place the +
points above the line and – points below the
line.
Now write…(5 min.)
• Using your timeline, choose one + or - point
from your timeline and begin a personal
narrative piece of writing.
• Quick Talk with a Partner – Write – Pair/Share
• EXPLODE the moment!
Importance of the Teacher’s WNB
“Write with Students”
Be a Ski Instructor!
Let the children see you
as an author as well.
* DOING
* Enthusiasm
* Language
(failure/strengths)
* Tools
Writing Workshop The Essential Guide
By Fletcher & Portalupi page 4
Let’s take a peek inside a teacher’s
writing notebook…
• http://www.youtube.com/
watch?v=AZE3_j6a59w
Approaches to Writing Activity
• Instructions: Read about the
three approaches listed
below. Then remove graphic
organizer from handout (last
page) and do individually for
a “turn and talk partner”
discussion at tables.
Volunteers to share out.
– “free to be me” approach
– “assigned task” approach
– “demonstrate, scaffold,
release to write” approach
Pink HANDOUT
DSR Emphasis
• Helps students develop repertoire of skills for
each stage of the writing process:
– Demonstrate process writers use depending on
type of writing studied
– Scaffold students to practice steps in the process
– Release students for independently using
repertoire of strategies by writing without support
• Provides opportunities for differentiation.
Harvesting Info to Differentiate
Writing Pathways, Chapter 4
• Collect baseline data (on demand assessments)
to study where students are and where they need
to go.
• Have norming meetings to assess student work
and use what is learned to inform teaching.
• Adjust teaching based on data and know that
minilessons are “already multilevel.”
• Teach responsively to address problems
(conferring and small group instruction).
The Writing Process (3-5 min.)
• On a sticky note, create YOUR visual of the
writing process.
• Then table share.
• Prepare to whole group share.
The Writing Process (3-5)
•
•
•
•
•
•
Rehearsal/Prewriting
Drafting
Revision
Editing
Publishing
Celebrating
Kit Source: A Guide to the Common Core Writing Workshop
Chapter 4 – pp. 32-37
Rehearsal and The Writing Process
• Vary approach by genre and focus:
– Literary (read with questions in mind)
– Narrative (think of a person, place, or thing)
• Teach strategies for generating ideas.
• Weigh possible structures:
– Narrative: mentally replay event and capture initial
action or dialogue
– Informational: tour guide of topics with overview to
help readers anticipate where tour will lead
• Can become writing recycled from revision.
Drafting and The Writing Process
•
•
•
•
Is an “early” product.
Is less strategic.
Is “playing in clay, not inscribing in marble.”
Impacts powerful writing when “full of one’s
subject and keeping one’s eye on that
subject.”
• Is a trial effort and when written quickly,
fosters a writer’s willingness to revise.
Revision and The Writing Process
• Is an “improved” product.
• Means to “resee and reconsider” through
various lenses.
• Look at writer’s goals.
• Look for qualities (from studying a mentor
text) brought into writing.
• Note: Not much productive revision in grade
3 but by grade 5 students mull over questions
and use graphic organizers.
Revision Video Link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RBKqgOvmJ8w
Editing and The Writing Process
• Is a “final” product.
• Is done along the way via minilessons, midworkshop teachings, share sessions, and
homework assignments.
Publishing and The Writing Process
• Calls for decision making by teacher
– Am I a copy editor making all corrections?
– PRO: easier for others to read
– CON: not a reflection on writer’s independence
• Reminder: Put “next-to-final draft” in portfolio
Teaching Channel Video Clip: “Making Students into Better Writers”
https://www.teachingchannel.org/videos/improving-student-writing
Celebrating and The Writing Process
• Make public by spotlighting
– Gallery Walk
– Small Group Fridays (students as teaching experts)
• Use precise and specific compliments
The Writing Cycle
“I want children to plan and draft their writing,
anticipating the day they’ll revise it and, better yet,
anticipating the day they’ll send the text out into
the world. …I look for indications that the version of
the writing process that I imagine for them matches
what they can do with only a little support. I want
to see that children are productive, engaged, and
purposeful throughout the entire process.”
Lucy Calkins
A Guide to the Common Core Writing Workshop, Intermediate Grades, p. 37
Writing Pathways: Assessment Tools
“a powerfully practical resource”
• 13 chapters about the
Assessment System
(important guidance)
• On-Demand Assessment
Prompts
• Writing Checklists
• Student Writing Samples
• Learning Progressions
Speaking of Learning Progressions…
An Activity
• Refer to pp. 178-181 in Writing Pathways
(Grades K-5) from your kit (also as a handout)
z
.
• At your table, read the sample student writing and
use the Narrative Learning Progression Chart
(handout or in Writing Pathways’ book) to:
– assess the student’s writing development
– Answer the question: “How are learning progressions
different from scope and sequence documents?”
• Prepare to share with table partners.
Narrative LP Chart/Sample Student Writing Handout
Why learning progressions?
“What students are expected to know and be able to
do at a given grade and content area describes
learning horizontally. Learning progressions, on the
other hand, describe learning vertically and show a
sequence along which students can move from
beginning learner to advanced learner. Consequently,
student learning is viewed as a progression along a
path that connects knowledge, concepts, and skills or
the big ideas—the essence of concepts/processes.”
Bellwood-Antis School District Bellwood, PA
http://www.blwd.k12.pa.us/district_info/curriculum/Shared%20Documents/SAS%20Resources/SA
S%20Learning%20Progressions_6-02-10%20(2).docx.
As compared to Scope and Sequence
• Scope is defined as “a clearly stated set of K-12 learning
objectives that reflects local, state, and national expectations.
Sequence is the order in which those objectives are taught.”
(Nichols, Shidaker, Johnson, & Singer, 2006)
•Often scope and sequence will provide information as to what
students should master at each grade for a given content area;
however, scope and sequence charts do not always provide
information designed to help teachers understand where students
are in their learning relative to the curricular aim or goal.
•In addition scope and sequence charts may not always be
organized in such a way that teachers can clearly visualize the
intersections along the road to learning.
LP Continued . . . Take Home
• Information (pp. 124-127)
• Opinion(pp. 82-85)
http://vimeo.com/55951746
Kit Source:
Writing Pathways (Grades K-5), Performance Assessments and Learning Progressions
Provisioning a Writing Workshop
“Routines and Rituals”
 Dedicated Writing Time
 Four days a week for 45-60 min.
 Room Arrangements
 Meeting Area : “Huddles” on the rug for mini-lessons
(with chart paper and anchor charts)
 Work Area (writing and conferring):
• Teacher teaching (10 min.)
• Students writing (40 min.)
• Supports “long stretches of writing” by students; movement among
each other to confer; tables forgo chairs; clustering to leave space;
partners sitting beside each other
 Writing Center: Resources (i.e., books on writing well,
grammar guides, dictionaries, thesauruses)
A Guide to the Common Core Writing Workshop, Chapter 5
Provisioning a Writing Workshop (cont.)
Materials
 Notebooks: vary and leave choice to children, steer away
from spirals (“required” feel), personalize (collages)
 Folders and Paper: 2-pocket for storing materials, first
half of unit writing in notebook and second half on draft
paper, use one side of paper only, white lined paper, after
celebration clean out folder for next unit study
 Writing Utensils: pens but have pencils around and
toolboxes to replenish on tables, date work and have
stamps on hand, post-it notes, colored pens, staples,
stapler, tape
Provisioning – Materials (cont.)
 Partners: not ability based,
designate Partner 1 and
Partner 2 (or Buddy 1 and
Buddy 2) as audience for
each other’s work, new
partner at start of new unit
 Exemplar Texts: “Writers
need to read widely, deeply,
ravenously, and closely.”
 Read aloud can be used for
dozens of minilessons.
 Word Walls: encourages
spelling correctly, add 5 new
words each week, can be
moved on/off, source of
phonetic lessons
 Charts: anchor charts
(teaching points), one day
charts, make with students,
use big skill or goal as
“heading” names, use visuals,
keep charts current and up for
reference by students
The Architecture of the MiniLesson
“…intervals (10 minutes long) for explicit, brief instruction in skills and strategies
that then become part of a writer’s ongoing repertoire to be drawn on as needed.”
(Guide, Chapter 7, p. 60-61)
•
•
•
•
Connection
Teaching
Active Engagement
Link
VIDEO (MiniLesson)
Grade Level
Link
K
http://vimeo.com/55954401 (K-2 on spelling patterns) or
http://vimeo.com/55951305 (K-2 on small group closure)
1-2
http://vimeo.com/55954401 (K-2 on spelling patterns) or
http://vimeo.com/55951305 (K-2 on small group closure)
3
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TKY_7AhnS3o (Narrative)
4-5
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TKY_7AhnS3o (Narrative)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PCA0EY_8lhU (Informational)
CONNECTION: What did you notice?
Connection (The MiniLesson)
• Rally the students for the lesson.
• Recruit students to recall work that they have done prior
to this lesson, which provides context for the lesson.
• Share tiny excerpts of student work and vignettes from
working with students.
• Share a story that becomes a metaphor for the lesson.
• End with a CLEAR Teaching Point:
– “what” (content) and “how” (strategy)
– Example: Today we are going to talk about…
• Apply cautionary advice:
– Avoid barrage of questions to students
– Avoid assigning (i.e., “Today I want you to do…”)
TEACHING: What did you notice?
Teaching (The MiniLesson)
• Demonstration
– Sequentially structured like a “how to text” or “step-by-step process”
– “Write/Think” in real time
– Used in 80% of minilessons
• Guided Practice
– Walk through a process so coaching allows students to do same
without support
• Explanation/Example
– State strategy and show example
– Use Mentor Texts/Read Alouds
• Inquiry
– Starts with question
– Use in studying example of good work
– Use in contrasting effective and ineffective examples
ACTIVE ENGAGEMENT:
What did you notice?
Active Engagement (The MiniLesson)
•
•
•
•
Must be 100%.
Give students chance to practice what’s taught.
Be specific about what students are trying out.
Make sure prompts are simple:
– What happened first?
– What do you see?
• Encourage students to do both (speak and listen) in
“turn and talk.”
• Avoid predictable problems:
– Teacher: the minilesson becomes a maxilesson
– Student: the real work doesn’t get done
LINK:: What did you notice?
Link (The MiniLesson)
• Is shortest part
– Reiterates teaching point
– Links to previous learning
– Refers students to their toolkit of strategies
(use anchor chart)
– Time to release students with “off you go”
Management System
“Who doesn’t have trouble with classroom
management? How could it not be tricky to build
an environment in which 20 or 30 youngsters each
pursues his or her own important project as a
writer, working within the confines of a small
room, each needing his or her own mix of silence
and collaboration, time and deadlines, resources,
and one another?”
Managing the Minilesson
• Convening for . . . attention getting signal,
countdown with compliment as transition (up to 3 min.)
• Management during. . .
– Connection: invitation to talk
– Demonstration: imagine in own minds as they “watch”
– Active Engagement: have write in the air, turn and talk with
partner
– Note: Conduct explicit teaching about expectations
(students knowing “their jobs”)
• Sending students off . . . with variations like
disperse one cluster at a time, have start writing on rug, or
assign writing spots where students return to write.
Architecture of the Conference
• TYPES
–Individual
• Aim for 3 a day
(4-5 min. each)
–Small Groups
• Varies
• Improvise based
on student signals
Refer to Chapter 8, pp. 70-72 in Guide.
VIDEO (Conference)
Grade Level
Link
K
http://vimeo.com/55954402 (K-2) or
http://vimeo.com/55951305 (K-2)
1-2
http://vimeo.com/55954402 (K-2) or
http://vimeo.com/55951305 (K-2)
3
http://vimeo.com/55966096 (3-5)
4-5
http://vimeo.com/55966096 (3-5) or
http://vimeo.com/55966102 (5-8)
The Architecture of a Conference
• Research
• Decide
• Teach
• Link
Green HANDOUT
Research (The Conference)
• Begin with an open ended question to invite the
student to talk.
• Look at the student’s writing to gain a deeper
understanding.
• Learn what the student as writer plans to do
next.
• Help the child articulate and explain his or her
intentions.
• Make sure to pursue more than one line of
questioning.
Decide (The Conference)
• Choose one teaching point that will help the
writer become better.
• Teach every student to become someone who
has intentions for his or her writing, assesses,
sets a course, and acts deliberately.
• Try to rally the child to take on a new intention
and then equip the child to realize that intention.
• Teach toward growth always—and eventual
independence.
Teach (The Conference)
• Follow the architecture of a minilesson
– Connect: Be explicit.
– Teach: Use one of four methods.
– Active Involvement: Nudge student to begin.
– Jot conferring notes as you go.
• Teach and coach, reducing the scaffolding as
you work together.
Link (The Conference)
• Step back and name what the writer has done
that can be replicated in the draft and another
piece of writing.
• Clarify the work the writer still needs to do.
• Repeat the teaching point.
• Make sure the writer leaves wanting to write.
Unwrapping the Units (Vertical)
• Looking at expectations for student writers
across the K-5 Continuum
White Handout
(Partial Unit Table of Contents)
“Although it is entirely reasonable to plan a detour
in your unit of study, I want to advise you against
stretching out a unit to longer than six weeks. That
is, if you do bring some supportive instruction into
a unit, lop off the last bend. Always, the most
sophisticated work in a unit is what comes in the
final stretch. Youngsters need to be finished with a
chunk of work and to have the chance to get a
fresh start on some new work.”
Writing Pathways, Chapter 4, p. 34
Narrative Writing: Unit 1 Bends
Grade 4
Collect and develop ideas with
focus on characters’ external
and internal traits.
Grade 5
Revisit narrative writing
(draw on repertoire of
strategies).
Use story arc with scenes that
Choose seed idea to take
show character, plot, and
through the writing process.
setting changes over the course
of a story.
Develop, plan, and produce an
independent fiction project.
Begin anew with a third
personal narrative.
Unwrapping the Unit (Grade Level)
Activity
• Take a look at the first unit of your grade level for the
following:
❸… ❷...❶
a-ha moments or new learning
points of validation
question or concern
• As a table group, identify your 3-2-1’s and have a
volunteer jot these down to share.
Web Resources to Support the
K-5 Writing Units of Study
• Teachers College Reading and Writing Project
(Check Facebook and Twitter for latest updates/webinars.)
– http://readingandwritingproject.com/
• Heinemann
– http://www.heinemann.com/authors/430.aspx
• National Writing Project
– http://www.nwp.org/cs/public/print/resource_topic/teaching_
writing
• ReadWriteThink
– http://www.readwritethink.org/
• Teaching Channel
– https://www.teachingchannel.org
Needs Assessment/Evaluation
NEEDS ASSESSMENT: Topics for Future Training Sessions
Lucy Calkins’ Units of Study for Teaching Writing
Based on the first training session, review the list of topics below and place checks by those you would like additional
professional learning and support for in the future.
Topics
Priority/ Need
(Place check in column.)
Orientation to Materials (kits with guides/units and CD-ROM)
Management System (routines and rituals)
Architecture of the Minilesson
(connection, teaching, active engagement, link)
Kinds of Teaching
(demonstration, guided practice, examples, inquiry)
Types of Writing (information, opinion, narrative)
Type: ______________________
Differentiation (individuals/small groups/ELLs)
Student Checklists for Reflection
Scoring Rubrics to Evaluate Student Writing
Student Conferences
Charts
Learning Progressions
Assessments
Other:
Top 3 Priorities:
(from above)
____________________________
1st
_______________________________
2nd
Blue Handout
_________________________________
3rd