NCTE Inbox - Writing Conferences

A Look at Conferencing 
For more ideas on conferencing in online environments, take a look at Preparing Educators for Online Writing Instruction: Principles and Processes. Beth Hewett and Christa Ehmann show how instructors can engage students in productive conversations about their writing with or without face-to-face contact. See also "Online Writing Instruction: No Longer a Novelty" from NCTE's Council Chronicle.

The following resources from NCTE and ReadWriteThink.org provide more tips and strategies for conferencing with students.

The Council Chronicle article “Formative Assessment: Helping Students Grow” (G) shares how teachers can measure how well their students are learning by implementing and responding to class discussions, quick writes, reader response journals, quizzes, and writing conferences.

"Conferring in the Writing Workshop" (E), a themed issue of School Talk, highlights advice from four experienced teachers of writing -- Ralph Fletcher, Carl Anderson, Joanne Hindley Salch, and Marianne Marino. They share responses that can be given to student writers in the classroom which have been found to enable students to stretch their ability as writers.

Two teachers reflect on their combined experiences in teaching middle school, teaching preservice teachers, and teaching online in order to adapt and apply strategies for bringing positive experiences in a computer-based environment to middle grade students in the Voices from the Middle article, “Lessons Learned from Integrating Technology in a Writer’s Workshop” (M). The result is five valuable lessons, each of which is explained theoretically and described practically through a writers’ workshop example, where teachers conference with their students.

The approach to conferencing and feedback outlined in the Classroom Notes Plus article “Reworking Conferencing for More Effective Writing Feedback” (S) draws upon some basic structures that exist in most writing workshop classrooms at both high school and college levels. But a few important adaptations improve the effectiveness of teacher feedback and student uptake of that feedback.

Teaching students how to talk about their writing and responses to other students’ writing may be key in improving their writing skills. In “Thank You for Sharing: Developing Students’ Social Skills to Improve Peer Writing Conferences” (S) from English Journal, the author suggests several activities that can help. The examples here show how students can conference with each other.

Stenhouse - Planning for writing instruction

“Writing is hard work,” says Mark Overmeyer in his book When Writing Workshop Isn’t Working. To make teaching writing easier, Mark answers the tough questions about writing workshop: How can I help students who don’t know what to write about? How can I help my students organize their writing? How do I manage writing conferences? And how do I plan for writing instruction. For this week’s Quick Tip, we pulled a section from Mark’s book where he talks about planning writing instruction for a school year.

Planning for a year

If certain units of study are going to be followed through the course of a year based on state, district, or school guidelines, setting deadlines for these units of study can be helpful when planning instruction.

For example, for many years when I taught fifth and sixth graders, my teammates and I ended the year with a unit that required students to create their own magazine. This project required students to use all of the writing strategies they had been working on all year, and the open-ended assignment allowed for maximum choice while still providing a tool for determining how much students had grown in the year. The magazine became a sort of community celebration as it continued over the years, and families looked forward to seeing what their students would create during this project. Since the magazine took approximately five weeks to complete, and it was one form of summative assessment, we placed it at the end of the school year. We worked backward from there, fitting in units that included research, narrative, memoir, and technical writing.

As we planned for the year, we noticed when we could fit writing in across the curriculum. For example, we could do a research unit closely connected to social studies topics. Students had a choice of what they wanted to research, but we connected it to our American history standards. Technical writing in the form of lab reports could happen in science class.Writing did not have to exist just in the domain of language arts, so if there were days when we would have to shorten our language arts block, we could plan accordingly and make sure to have writing happen in science or social studies.Writing in other content areas is not only a good idea in terms of planning and scheduling, but I think it is also good for students. Many of my reluctant writers in the past have loved science, and they were more than willing to write in the context of their favorite subject. They may have reluctantly completed a memoir, but then enthusiastically explained their thinking in science class.

Planning for a year is an excellent way to think backwards: once my teammates and I decided which type of writing would occur in each month, we could begin gathering our resources and planning for instruction.We knew what types of writing we would need to cover in order for students to be successful in each unit.

Though we knew we would have to adapt our ideas according to student need, having the plan created a strong scope and sequence that covered the requirements of our district curriculum. Organizing for the year ensured that we would give students ample opportunity to demonstrate their growth in writing.

An example of a yearlong plan is found in Appendix F.

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The Learning Network: Creative State of Mind: Focusing on the Writing Process

The Learning Network: Creative State of Mind: Focusing on the Writing Process: "Lesson Plan | Examining Jay-Z's lyrics, considering his writing process, and then starting writer's notebooks to record and develop writing ideas.

The Best Quotes About Education

by Larry Ferlazzo
The Best Quotes About Education — Contribute Your Own Favorites: "

As regular readers know, I’m a member of the Teacher Leaders Network. A year ago, TLN members began to contribute their favorite education-related quotations. John Norton from TLN gave me permission to pick some of them to share here. Please contribute your own in the comments section, and I’ll post a “Part Two” of this list at the end of the year.

Here is a beginning list of The Best Quotes About Education (contributors names are in parentheses):

This is my personal favorite: “When one is building a ship, one does not begin with gathering timber and cutting planks, but rather by arousing in people the yearning for the great wide sea.” — Antoine de St. Exupery

The Learning Network: 55 Questions for Students

The Learning Network: 55 Questions for Students

via NYT > Education by By KATHERINE SCHULTEN on 11/16/10

A list of 55 Student Opinion questions we've asked since the school year began. Invite your students to come and post comments on any of them!

Important Research For Writing Persuasive Essays

Important Research For Writing Persuasive Essays

via Larry Ferlazzo's Websites of the Day... by Larry Ferlazzo on 11/8/10

When having students write persuasive essays, I've always found the most difficult issue is teaching the idea and importance of including opposing views and counter-arguments. In fact, on occasion I'll admit to having decided that it is more trouble than it's worth, and skipped that step entirely.
No more, however.
A survey of over one hundred studies in the last fifty years now concludes that arguments that include opposing views with counter-arguments are more persuasive. Here are some excerpts on a report about the study:
…if we bring up opposing arguments, then shoot them down, not only is the audience more likely to be swayed, we also see a boost in our credibility.
Overall this is a nice conclusion, in that not only is a balanced argument more appealing morally, it is also more persuasive. And it doesn't matter whether counter-arguments are introduced at the start, the end, or mixed in; as long as they are refuted, we are more likely to persuade the audience.

The Learning Network: Going Into Detail: Developing Proofreading Skills

The Learning Network: Going Into Detail: Developing Proofreading Skills

via NYT > Education by By SHANNON DOYNE and HOLLY EPSTEIN OJALVO on 11/8/10

Lesson Plan | Using strategies for finding and fixing mechanical and grammatical errors.

Stenhouse: New Writing Workshop Book Free Preview Online!

Refining Writing Workshop Through 180 Days of Reflective Practice 
Ruth Ayres and Stacey Shubitz • Foreword by Carl Anderson 
328 pp • Grades K-6 • $28.00 • Available early November 
http://www.stenhouse.com/0809.asp?r=n200 

Teaching writing in a workshop setting is hard work. To plan mini-lessons, understand the diverse needs of a classroom of writers, and lift the level of each writer, while at the same time building confidence, is a tall order.

Ruth Ayers and Stacey Shubitz, creators of the popular blogTwo Writing Teachers, have translated years of wisdom on writing instruction into a cornucopia of practical advice in their new book, Day by Day. Ruth and Stacey provide encouragement and manageable, bite-sized "discussions" that teachers can review daily to continuously improve their practice.

The 180 discussions are organized into 18 "cycles," which in turn are grouped into chapters for each of the pillars of writing workshop: routines, mini-lessons, choice, mentors, conferring, and assessment. The book can be used as a quick reference for inspiration, as intensive professional development on a particular topic, or as a day-by-day guide to teaching writing workshop throughout the year. Questions throughout encourage reflective practice.

As Carl Anderson writes in the foreword, "This is a book that asks readers to take an active stance toward their learning, a stance that will reward them with new knowledge, new teaching points, and new techniques that become a part of their teaching repertoire."

Print copies of Day by Day will start shipping early next month, and you can now preview the entire book online:

http://www.stenhouse.com/0809.asp?r=n200 

The Learning Network: Rounding Up the Usual Suspects: Interpreting Famous Qu...

The Learning Network: Rounding Up the Usual Suspects: Interpreting Famous Quotations

via NYT > Education by By SHANNON DOYNE and KATHERINE SCHULTEN on 10/22/10

Lesson Plan | Using memorable lines from film, history and literature as writing prompts.

Tween Teacher - Blogging with Middle Schoolers: Frontloading and First Steps

Blogging with Middle Schoolers: Frontloading and First Steps: "
So I just finished introducing blogging to my middle school classes. They are hooked, as each year before them was hooked. I use it as a substitute for Reading Logs, that dreaded love-of-reading killer which causes eye rolls in many a Language Arts class. Rather than simply log the quantity of books, perhaps embellishing with a short summary or bibliographical entry, I have them discuss quality.

The discussions are rich, organic, and run themselves. All I needed to do was have the patience to set it up right. So I’ve pulled together some steps that I’ve been working on for the past couple of years that help introduce students to the art of blogging without neglecting the science of building community and collaboration.

Writing Workshop: A Primer

This post points toward resources that describe the essence of the writer's workshop as well as models for how it may play out over the course of a year or a unit.

Essential Books
**Nancie Atwell, In The Middle | Atwell basically invented the idea of the writing workshop and reading this book is the best way to understand the theory and workings behind it. She also provides a wealth of mini-lessons and strategies for making it work.

**Murray, A Writer Teaches Writing | Considered by many to be one of the original gurus of teaching writing, Murray provides an essential framework for thinking about how students actually learn to write.

Other Books / More Specific Books
**Heather Lattimer, Thinking Through Genre | Lattimer describes in detail several reading/writing workshop units of study that are extremely helpful for seeing how a unit plays out. Such units include editorial, feature article, and memoir.

**Bomer & Bomer, For A Better World | This one focuses on writing workshop with a bend toward social justice.

**Karen Caine, Writing to Persuade | We received this at our workshop this summer. Caine lays out a very clear and organized lesson / unit structure for writing workshop focused on persuasive writing. I think the lessons need some serious adaptation, but it provides a good blueprint.

**Janet Angelillo, Writing About Reading | This one focuses on units that engage students in writing significant responses to their independent reading.

Sample Units and Other Resources
This link takes you to a privately shared folder on Google Docs that has examples of past units created by our school when we worked with Teacher's College. Included also are outlines and chapters of helpful books.

Huffington Post - Can New 'Apostrophe Song' Cure The Apostrophe Crisis? (VIDEO)

Can New 'Apostrophe Song' Cure The Apostrophe Crisis? (VIDEO): "Arianna has griped about its misuse before and, frankly, the number of misplaced apostrophe's -- oops, we mean apostrophes -- out there has become downright frightening.



Thankfully, the people over at CoolRules.com have made light of the situation by recording 'The Apostrophe Song.'



A sort of 'Schoolhouse Rock!' for the internet age, 'The Apostrophe Song' comes in four different flavors: 'Hip Hop,' 'Pop/Dance,' 'Rock' and 'Acoustic,' available at the Cool Rules website. Only one, so far as we can tell, comes with its own outstanding video.



What do you think? Will this video cure the case of the erroneous apostrophe? Or will it just make you chuckle?



WATCH:


Read more: Style Guide, Writing Style Guide, Apostrophe Crisis, Education, Educational Video, Writing Tips, Style, Writing, Learning Tools, Grammar, Teaching Tools, Apostrophe, Grammar Mistakes, Apostrophe Mistake, Apostrophe Misuse, Books News
"

Writing Routines

Help Students Set Up an Effective Writing Routine
In his Edutopia blog, NCTE member Todd Finley offers strategies, including the rituals of well-known authors, for helping students establish writing routines. (from NCTE Inbox)

Ideas and Examples from the NYTimes for Sparking Ideas in the Writer's Notebook

More great stuff from The Learning Network, these ideas can help students find something to write about in their notebooks. You can also use some of the suggestions to model how it sparks your own thinking...

Types of News Articles from the NYTimes

This is a cool resource from the Times, which describes the different types of news articles presented in the paper. It is a "customer service guide" for Times readers. Helpful for defining and finding exemplars for model writing in our workshop and SS blocks.

NCTE Inbox - Creating Community Through Writing

(from NCTE)

As students begin their return to the classroom, they need to feel that they own the space and the learning that takes place in it. Foreground such ownership for students by collaboratively writing an owner's manual that describes the classroom's areas and procedures. The ReadWriteThink.org lesson Our Classroom: Writing an Owner's Manual (E) has everything you need to get started.

Younger elementary students who are just learning to write can build community as they collaborate to establish classroom guidelines. The ReadWriteThink.org lesson Creating Class Rules: A Beginning to Creating Community (E) focuses on a simple shared-writing activity to bring students together as they decide upon the structures for the classroom.

Getting to know one another is a fundamental step for community building. Check out the ReadWriteThink.org lesson plan Introducing Each Other: Interviews, Memoirs, Photos, and Internet Research (M) for a get-acquainted activity that invites pairs of students to learn about each other and share their findings with the rest of the class.

For a similar activity for older students, try the ReadWriteThink.org lesson The Feature Story -- Fifteen Minutes (and 500 Words) of Fame! (S), which asks students to write a newspaper profile of a classmate, with a particular focus on a talent, interest, or passion of that classmate.

To learn more about students as writers, try the ReadWriteThink.org lesson Writing about Writing: An Extended Metaphor Assignment (S-C), which uses Richard Wilbur's poem "The Writer" as an inspiration for students' own descriptions of their writing practices.

For even more activities and resources, check out the Back to School Resources (G), which includes lesson plans and additional articles to help get your year off to a great start.

Our Writing Program
Based on the research we have been reading, we will undertake the following actions to improve our students’ writing and academic success:
1. Students will write more. A lot more. They will get a lot more writing practice.
2. Teachers will model good writing. Writing will be taught, not just assigned.
3. Students will have grammar instruction.
4. Students will read and study other writers.
5. Students will have practice with timed writing instruction and test prompts.
6. Students will have choice when it comes to writing topics.
7. Students will write for authentic purposes and for authentic audiences.
8. Students will get meaningful feedback from their teachers and their peers.

Students often don’t get why they have to write so much. We will be teaching them the following eight reasons for writing:
1. Writing is hard, but “hard” is rewarding.
2. Writing helps you sort things out.
3. Writing helps to persuade others.
4. Writing helps to fight oppression.
5. Writing makes you a better reader.
6. Writing makes you smarter.
7. Writing helps you get into and through college.
8. Writing prepares you for the world of work.

Throughout the year we will be focusing on four types of student writing, which we describe below. All four types are essential for developing students’ writing and thinking skills.
1. Writing to Learn: Students will write everyday in a variety of modes to extend their thinking and learning about reading, history, social issues, and their own learning. Writing to learn takes such forms as:
· Note-taking
· Book Letters and reading responses
· Social Studies Skits / Drama
· Social Studies Projects
· Journal Responses to social studies topics or readings
· Graphic Organizers
· Self-Assessments
· All other writing

2. The Writer’s Notebook / Independent Writing: Students will experiment with and practice their writing on a weekly basis. We will teach students how to become independent writers, to use brainstorming techniques, and how to generate and extend ideas. This is the place where students will have the most choice and freedom.
· 5 pages per week will be due
· Mondays (60 minutes)
o 20 minutes – Writer’s Notebook Minilesson and Teacher Modeling
o 20 minutes – Independent Writing + Conferencing
o 20 minutes – Partner and Class Sharing
· Wednesdays (30 minutes)
o 5 minutes – Writer’s Notebook Check-in Minilesson
o 15-20 minutes – Independent Writing + Conferencing
o 5-10 minutes – Partner and Class Sharing
· All of this writing will be the source for larger writing projects (esp. MultiG)


3. On-Demand/Prompt Writing: Students will learn how to develop and organize clear and meaningful short essays in response to academic prompts like they will see on standardized tests, college applications, etc…
· 1 timed, on-demand essay per week (In the first quarter we will scaffold up to this, teaching how to “attack the prompts” before we get into the actual writings.). The lesson and writing assignment will usually be on Fridays for 30 minutes. This will be connected to Humanities content.
· During test-prep, this will become more intensive.

4. Extended Writing Projects: Students will go through the writing process to develop real world modes of writing in mandated discourses, such as expository, persuasive, narrative, and instructional. We will teach students the craft of writing through revision, including voice, organization, clarity of ideas, sentence fluency, presentation, and word choice. We will also teach students how to edit the conventions of their writing.
· We will have 1 – 2 extended writing projects per unit…
o A Narrative Account: Students will write a narrative account from the perspective of a turn-of-the-century immigrant as an “immigrant journal”.
o A Persuasive Essay: Students will write a persuasive essay related to the topic of war and questions about why we fight and if it’s ever worth it.
o A Functional Document: Students will write an instruction manual for sixth graders on an aspect of good test-taking.
o A Comparative Literary Analysis: Students will write a literary analysis comparing two short pieces of literature. This will be test-prep based.
o A Literary Response / Book Review: Students will write a book review or literary response to a work of historical fiction about the Holocaust.
o A Social Action Letter: Students will write a letter to someone in the community related to a civil rights issue of their choosing.
o A Multigenre Paper: The culminating writing project will be a multigenre paper of roughly 10 to 15 pages, in which students explore a social issue of their choosing.

· Minilessons and time to write for extended writing projects will take place throughout the unit, but will become more intensive toward the ends of each unit to support the completion of each unit’s performance task, which will be writing-based.