Creating Writers

Creating WritersThinking about curriculum, instruction, and assessment

OUTCOMES▪ Teachers will consider the relationship between writing,

creativity, and learning▪ They will assess the quality of their writing curricula,

instructional practices, and assessments and determine their needs

▪ They will investigate a variety of materials and resources that support the best practices that might help them address their needs

▪ They will use what is learned from this work to enrich their writing curricula, instructional practices, and/or unit assessments

Getting writing right:what does this even look like?

Thinking about WRITING CURRICULA

ALIGNMENTREPRESENTATIO

N

CULTURE

SUSTAINABILITY

• STANDARDS MATTER, BUT WHAT IS YOUR GREATER VISION?

• WHO DOES YOUR WORK EFFECT THE MOST? ARE YOU ACCESSING THEIR VOICES AS YOU PLAN?

• WHAT MATTERS?• HOW CAN YOU ENSURE THAT

YOU BUILD SOMETHING THAT LASTS BEYOND THIS YEAR?

• WHAT VALUES, BEHAVIORS, SOCIAL SKILLS, HABITS, DISPOSITIONS DO YOU HOPE TO CULTIVATE?

Thinking about WRITING INSTRUCTION

• Most writing workshop days look a little like this:

•Mini-lessons (5-15 minutes)• Independent Writing (20-30 minutes)•Conferring (during independent writing)•Celebration (5-10 minutes)

• TOTAL WRITING WORKSHOP TIME: 30-55 minutes

▪ Are BRIEF▪ Arm writers with one SPECIFIC and PRACTICAL strategy that helps

them establish routines, develop craft, process, or dispositions▪ Make wide and varied use of rich, interesting mentor texts ▪ Uncover pathways for learners to “write like” these beloved authors▪ Enable learners to see the teacher as a writer, view their works in

progress, and listen to their very real stories of struggle and triumph over writing challenges

▪ Often result in the creation of anchor charts, which contain the learning of the lesson over time

▪ Are often designed in response to needs that emerge from student writing as they draft and confer with teachers

GREAT MINI-LESSONS

Assessment:From the Latin verb assidere, meaning “to sit beside.”

THINKING ABOUT ASSESSMENT TYPES AND PURPOSES

Assessment FOR Learning▪ Drafts of written works across

different modes/genres▪ Notebook tinkering▪ Reflections on learning, growth,

problems confronted and solved, dispositions

▪ Drafting, feedback, revision, editing, and publishing skills

▪ Digital writing and learning skills

Assessment OF Learning▪ Final copies of written works

across different modes/genres▪ Culminating tasks—final

revisions▪ Timed, on-demand writing

tasks▪ Benchmarks▪ NYS Assessments

WHAT MATTERS MOST WHEN IT COMES TO IMPROVING WRITING PERFORMANCE?

▪ Clear targets: standards/craft/process/dispositions▪ Multiple models and mentor texts that define

quality▪ Practice▪ Immediate, criteria-specific feedback that aligns

to target▪ Strategy coaching, aligned to target▪ Multiple revisions

shaping Your Writing Framework and nurturing your Professional Practice

• Curriculum • Instruction

• Assessment• Professional Inquiry• Reflection

CraftProcess

Dispositions

Mini-LessonWriting

ConferringCelebration

PurposeDefinition of QualityFeedback

Multiple Models

ReflectionRevision

Assessing Needs and Strategic Planning

What is good writing? What does it mean to become

a writer?

How does learning happen?

Photo by Silvia Tolisano

What I’m learning…..WE ACT AND WRITE WITH COURAGE

WE SEEK UNDERSTANDING BEFORE DOING

WE PERSEVERE

WE COLLABORATE

WE SHARE OUR EXPERTISE

WE GIVE OF OURSELVES AND ACT WITH KINDNESS

WE REFLECT ON WHERE WE’VE BEEN, WHERE WE ARE GOING, AND HOW WE PLAN TO GET THERE

WE KNOW THAT WRITING IS OFTEN A SLOW PROCESS

WE TRY TO DEVELOP BETTER AND BETTER AND BETTER STRATEGIES FOR IMPROVING OUR OWN WORK AND HELPING OTHERS

But what about performance?

http://www.flickr.com/photos/sean002/2510540027/

TAKING A TEST

BECOMING A WRITER

Which would YOU choose?http://www.flickr.com/photos/somemixedstuff/2403249501/

WHICH

DO YOU

CHOOSE?

THE MOST IMPORTANT

WRITINGINSTRUMEN

TTO

PUTIN

THEIRHANDS?

BALANCE

BUILDSBETTERWRITER

S

Community Fellows Strive to Embody Certain

Dispositions

• Courage and Initiative

• Understanding

• Perseverance

• Reflection

• Expertise

• Cooperation and Collaboration

Which Support the

Writer's Process

• Prewriting

• Drafting

• Peer-Review

• Editing

• Revising

• Publishing

Allowing for the Development of

Writer's Craft

• Compelling Ideas

• Engaging Voice

• Effective Word Choice

• Clear Organization

• Fluent Sentences

• Proper Use of Conventions

Writer’s Work

Writing is a RECURSIVE process

THE WRITING PROCESS

PrewritingDrafting

Peer-ReviewEditing

Publication

Which parts of the process show up most

in your classroom? Least?

Writing is a Process

Considering MODES and PURPOSECOMMON TEXT TYPES

(MODES)

Narrative TextInformational Text

Persuasive TextClaims

Procedural TextPoetic

FunctionalHybrid

COMMON PURPOSES FOR WRITING

To EntertainTo Inform

To DescribeTo Advocate

To ThinkTo Connect/Collaborate

To Build Collective Intelligence

PREWRITING

Strategies for Support:

PromptsArtifactsPicturesMusicVideo

MovementEquations

RAFTSConversation

Web Tools

Traits to Focus on During Pre-Writing:

IDEASVOICE

▪ Invite or inspire pre-writing activities.

▪ Come from our experiences, our connections, and our previous understandings.

▪ May be generated from artifacts, photographs, movement, music, conversation, guided brainstorming and more…..

▪ Require good writers to select appropriate MODES and to define their PURPOSES.

▪ Move readers from general to more refined topics.

▪ Inspire careful observation.

▪ Require independent use of higher level thought.

IDEAS

VOICE▪ The “sound” of the writer or the speaker.

▪ Tone that is appropriate to the task.

▪ Commitment to the piece—involvement.

▪ Attention to the topic.

Voice▪ Requires that writers shift the way they speak in response to MODE and

PURPOSE.

▪ Invites diversity and complexity.

▪ Built when students take RISKS.

▪ Thrives in a comfortable atmosphere.

▪ Suffers when we overemphasize formulaic processes or models.

Drafting

▪ The importance of understanding MODES and the

power of MENTOR TEXT.

▪ Approaching topics from varied

angles.

▪ Writing beside them.

Traits to Focus On As We Draft

IDEAS

VOICE

ORGANIZATION

Organization“Organization is what you do

before you do something so that when you do it it’s not all mixed up.”

Winnie the Pooh

http://blog.wired.com/geekdad/books/index.html

Organization▪ Requires that writers develop an INVITING lead for that provokes

questioning and curiosity.

▪ Inspires a body of work that attends to these questions and curiosities in a logical manner.

▪ Relies upon smooth transitions and the articulation of turning points and resolutions.

▪ Requires a conclusion that satisfies the questions and curiosities provoked by the lead and may inspire new ones. It does not, however, introduce new information.

ORGANIZATIONWHAT IT IS….

A lead that “hooks” reader and provokes questions.

A core that provides details in a logical manner and transitions between them smoothly.

An ending that satisfies the questions raised within the work.

HOW WE SUPPORT IT…

Models and mentor texts

Story boards

Graphic organizers

Exploring mentor texts

leads

endings

in-betweens

Beyond Peer-Conferencing:

Peer Review

ProcessesModeling With Fishbowl

Coaching With Push/PauseAssessmentEvaluation

Traits to Focus On During Peer-Review

IDEAS

VOICE

ORGANIZATION

WORD CHOICE

SENTENCE FLUENCY

WORD CHOICE

“The race in writing is not to the swift, but to the original.”

----William Zinsser

Word Choice▪ Original words

▪ Precise words

▪ Engaging words

▪ Varied words

▪ Attention to dialect and formality

Sentence fluency▪ Fluent sentences appeal to the ear and the

eye.

▪ They vary in length and structure.

▪ They convey character, emotion, and reveal voice.

▪ Rhythm, rhyme, and repetition of vowel and consonant sounds effect fluency.

EDITING

How are YOU strong as an

editor?

Differentiating the peer-editing

process.

Traits to Focus On As We Edit IDEAS

VOICE

ORGANIZATION

WORD CHOICE

SENTENCE FLUENCY

CONVENTIONS

CONVENTIONS: THE LAST CONVERSATION

▪ Attending to conventions happens at the END of the writing process.

▪ Effective writers understand why editing is necessary. Strong writers know that editing isn’t merely about “fixing up” writing.

▪ Edits are intentional, effective, and do not strip the work of voice, ideas, or fluency. They BUILD it.

PUBLISHING

What does this mean to you?

How is the definition shifting?

What opportunities are available?

Approaching InstructionTeach Craft Inside the Process: One at a Time

– Activate Background Knowledge Artifacts, Music, Video, Movement, Manipulatives

– Define the Trait– Model With Mentor Text– Anchor With Rubric– Provide Guided Practice– Formatively Assess/Reteach

Fold Into the Process

Link Back to the Dispositions

Find the Assessment

ReferencesGray, Theresa (2006). Slideshare. Writing Frameworks. Retrieved January 21,

2009 from: http://www.slideshare.net/TGray/writing-frameworks

Martin-Kniep, Giselle O. Communities That Lead, Learn, and Last: Building and Sustaining Educational Expertise. California: Jossey-Bass, 2008.

National Board for Professional Teacher Standards. “What Teachers Should Know and Be Able to Do: The Five Core Propositions.” Retrieved Aug. 21, 2008 from http://www.nbpts.org/the_standards/the_five_core_propositions

Stockman, Angela (2008-2013). WNY Young Writers’ Summer Studio. Presented at 3062 Delaware Avenue, Kenmore NY 14217.