Tag: writing workshop

Essay, that’s what I say

These are a fraction of books about writing I have collected over the years.

Great conversations happening regarding writing and the teaching of writing — here are some of my current noticings/wonderings, and attempts at supporting students craft their writing lives.

Every student who asks, “How many sentences does it have to be?” has been exposed to either Jane Schaffer or another prescriptive writing curriculum. There is nothing inherently good or bad in Schaffer’s program: some need a paint-by-number mode of writing instruction, and the product serves the purposes. But we teachers, and I mean all teachers, will be forever stuck in the siloing of teaching writing poorly across content areas. And when I say “writing,” I don’t necessarily mean typing out lengthy tomes: writing can be many forms and avenues. Across content areas, teachers should focus on the Role of the writer, audience, the form, the topic, and strong word choices.

Here are some Sunday-morning-I’m-still-sleepy resources:

Moving to the comprehensive high school, I’m currently teaching two periods of 10th grade, one 9th grade honors ELA, (and yes, have already had a debate with one young student about the merits of the What It Says graphic organizer– my sweet summer child, I know you), and two periods of 9th grade ELA. And yes, after being somewhat scolded about how they’ve used Jane Schaffer forever, I had another deeper conversation with my evaluator about how it was okay that I looked and researched the materials, and then collaborate with my PLC about instructional methods. Cool, cool, I can do that. I totally can. And, I can also go back through my previous blog posts and share them again, along with other resources:

focus/writing advice from Jason Reynolds
Writing: Voice
Dismantling Essays: essays in the wild
Summer Series of Saves: Written Reminders
Writers’ Workshop

Again, this is just a fraction of resources, and it can be overwhelming. My instructional advice is to start with fostering students’ ideas; ultimately, this is what serves them and their creative growth. You may find a different path that meets your students’ needs, and that’s the joy of this process.

Hugo House and Writing Communities

This summer I read Why They Can’t Write by John Warner and attended a Hugo House event called Write-O-Rama. Often the most valuable professional development include those we do for ourselves, not necessarily as teachers but for our identities and passions that sustain us outside of the classroom, too.

I have been wanted to dismantle/disrupt the five-paragraph essay for some time now--look for other formats/mediums for students to consider instead of the strict, unresponsive format of the five paragraph essay. As Warner states:

The worst of those training wheels is the five-paragraph essay. If you do not know the form, ask the closest school-aged child or, indeed, anyone who has been through school in the past twenty or so years:

  1. Paragraph of introduction ending in a thesis statement that previews the body paragraphs.
  2. 2–4.  Body paragraphs of evidence supporting the thesis.
  3. Conclusion that restates the thesis, almost always starting with, “In conclusion.”
    Warner, John. Why They Can’t Write (Kindle Locations 121-127). Johns Hopkins University Press. Kindle Edition.

I’ll share what others offered during the Write-O-Rama. There are so many great ideas provided by Hugo House: if you have a resource like this in your area, I strongly recommend attending some sessions. We all want to be better teachers of writing, and oftentimes we’re overwhelmed and don’t know where to start. We feel inadequate about our own writing, and writing is, a lot. A lot a lot.

Write-O-Rama at Hugo House has different conference rooms and times so you can attend several of the sessions, but usually not all. Copyright Hugo House.
The class descriptions give a preview so one can choose. Copyright Hugo House
Background on the instructors: and what a great writing exercise for students! To write their own bios and expertise!

I attended these five:

  • Character Development
  • Dialogue Tricks
  • Plotting with Index Cards
  • Better Sentences
  • Write Your Novel Now

I took notes on each class using Evernote. Just re-reading them, in this moment, my note-taking skills need to improve. But I’ll attempt to give the gist of each session:

  • Character Development: study characters in mentor texts and describe what makes them memorable, and keep them centered in the plot.
  • Dialogue Tricks: no exposition in dialogue: “when writing dialogue keep in mind to have the the conflict sustained quickly” – in other words, no adverbs in dialogue
  • Plotting with Index Cards: use index cards to storyboard a piece of writing. Each card is an atom.
My random notes on plotting with index cards

Here are a few more images from the session:

Novel writing
Novel Writing
Sentence Writing
Sentence Writing

If you want to brainstorm or think of applications of these ideas in your classroom please do not hesitate to contact me. These have direct writing instruction for ourselves and our students of writing. We can go far beyond the five-paragraph essay.

Writers’ Workshop

A quick overview and resources from writing workshop via @writingproject and my work with the Puget Sound Writing Project. I attended the PSWP in 2009 and 2015, and have taken these methods and practices to my classroom and helped others, too. After reading Why They Can’t Write by John Warner this summer, and attending a Hugo House workshop (more to follow on this), I am more convinced and determined that writing will be at the core of my ELL instruction next year. Everything I’ve done here I’ve done with adults in a learning space, and then with students, side by side.

This tweet inspired me to revise and update (and more importantly remind myself):

https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js

Protocols:

  • Determining student writing groups takes some practice and emotional intelligence (something I need to practice): anonymously ask writers what kinds of working conditions and feedback levels they wish to receive, and put like-minded personalities together as much as possible. Change as necessary. Groups should be no larger than four students.
  • Explain the procedure of feedback:
  • *First read: nothing in the listener’s hands. No feedback form, pen, etc.
  • *Second read: listen and fill out feedback form
  • *Writer’s role: after receiving the verbal and written feedback, just say “thank you.”
  • This is key: remind the writers in the room they have the agency and power to control their writing–they can accept or dismiss the feedback as they see fit. Oftentimes we feel defensive and overly self-critical of our work: the process of just saying “thank you” allows the writer to value the time the listener took while still maintaining control and agency of their work.
  • The feedback forms are located under resources. They take some time to practice with them, and usually model my own writing with a student volunteer.

Potential issues:

  • A writer may not be ready with their work. Then they don’t get to participate that day. No shame, but they can go work a piece while others are in workshop. If the writer is frequently unprepared, it’s time for a conference to help uncover obstacles.
  • Not every piece is sacred: writers determine if they will continue a piece or not.
  • Consider providing a suite of writing at the culmination of workshop: everyone contributes their favorite piece to a collection for the class

Resources:

Feedback form: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1lsoFd-UVtsBrpfNY7X6CQCV9vnQWDVPI/view?usp=sharing

Writing Workshop Protocols (made by my mentor/friend, Holly: revised and updated: https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1jfItyBwAwuKbmmyUn4kPVPk9Ry9EpK6jMykG-uqRa1M/edit?usp=sharing

I’ll follow up this post with the writing workshop classes from Hugo House and others soon!

The Work in Workshop…

Throwing this out there: I need a writing group. I need the accountability and presence of other ideas. I am wondering if my lack of writing with any regularity, except for this blog, is a result of no structure, the end of PSWP, and not finding another NWP. Writing Workshop works. It is an exceptional means to help students grow as readers and writers. I’ve tried to sell colleagues on it, and because they haven’t been to the mountaintop and met with gurus of enlightenment like my friends Holly Stein and Kim Norton, they don’t believe me.

So I just have to make sure it fits with my students, and keep proving it, time and again.

https://prezi.com/embed/r64pi1l1eltr/?bgcolor=ffffff&lock_to_path=0&autoplay=0&autohide_ctrls=0&landing_data=bHVZZmNaNDBIWnNjdEVENDRhZDFNZGNIUE43MHdLNWpsdFJLb2ZHanI0cnRuUTFGYmJKQ2EvZTFNSFNGYkQyT0JRPT0&landing_sign=n1OQSWFxLCntpTBaExaMfducioMHsnoIaaGWvdWKGY4

Our school is trying to do many things in a hurry to get students at grade level: PLC work is the big focus, and for math and ELA, the district provides rough ‘frameworks’ but at least for the ELA group, they’re never done, or if they are, there is a conflict or confusion between the PLC created Common Formative Assessments and the district created ones. These are not mutually exclusive, but nor does this jive with the spirit of a PLC, and that is to be agile and responsive to student needs in an intentional means. Assessments that might be best for students at one middle school in the district may not be what’s most needed for ours.

Along with the PLC work, the administration wants us to focus on our grading practices, and the discussion is open and collaborative. It has always been my personal policy not to mark things down for being ‘late.’ Convoluted systems and make-up work tangles up the process, so I make it simple: there is a due date, and the assignment will ‘close’ a week afterward. It’s marked zero and missing to affect grades because if it’s not, the student isn’t aware it’s missing. These are middle school kids, remember. Once it’s done, I give it full credit. If it’s an assignment that is rubric based, they have time to redo it for a better grade. Assessments for our PLC and district are scored accordingly, but marked as “no count.”

Recently Ethical ELA posted an article about flexibility and student learning:

Deadlines and “Late” Work: The Potential of the Provisional

http://www.ethicalela.com/deadlines/

The writer used my favorite quote that I use as my tagline, and this–this is a fantastic idea:

What will you do with your one precious life? They reflected on their values, dreamed about what, who, and where they wanted to be, took a career quiz, read biographies, explored opportunities in high school, looked into part-time jobs, explored colleges, searched apartments, created a budget, read about philanthropic options, developed mottos, wrote a speech to synthesize the research in the voice of their future self (see an example below), and created a slideshow with images to support the content (e.g., Slides, A Life as an Artist, also see below). I set up a schedule for three students to be “guest speakers” each Friday through January, February, and March.

I may start off with my ‘ambassador of the table’ and then move to the guest speaker idea.

Before the break, the well-laid plans included a quick version of Greek mythology, then onto Box of Destiny! Ah, well. Add three snow days, a studio teacher workshop for the ELA department, the ‘no immigrants’ protest day, things did not go as planned. Do they ever? So, instead of the full-blown BoD presentations, I asked them to focus on just the story of their character from first-person perspective. Developmentally, this shift is very difficult for some students, and that makes it all the more valuable. Many had their stories done, many had them started, and many couldn’t get out of the starting gate, with all the scaffolds available. We did a modified writing workshop protocol on Friday, and I took the papers home to write feedback for one and all. Between my hand-written and typed feedback in Canvas, I hope to see some growth for the next project.

Life is not linear, that’s for sure. Maybe that’s why whenever I watch a Marzano or other expert they always use a math example, not an ELA or social studies one, because reading, writing, and history are messy indeed. But that’s okay: I know other experts to draw from, including my own knowledge and experience. If you want to come to the mountaintop with me, I’ll take you there.

Writers Reading Writing Week.

No, I do not have hero-worship of Neil Gaiman. (Liar.)

Ever have one of those units of study that just globs along in the back of your mind? Well, after reading aloud this week* this thought inspired me: Why not create a mini-unit of writers reading their reading? I am constantly stressing to my students that writing is talking: and they can all do that. We are just beginning to really dig into the writer’s workshop protocols. I was asked two days’ ago what “writer’s workshop” model I use – I didn’t have a prescribed answer. I use the one from the Puget Sound Writing Project, part of the National Writing Project. It’s designed to create, first and foremost, a safe place for writers. I am so comfortable with it, I supposed, because of my fine art’s background. Throwing a painting in progress or sketch up on the wall for your peers to see is risky: I developed my diplomatic critiquing style from these days.

So: I need to throw this idea up on the wall and see if it sticks: Each day for two weeks (yes, there’s an assembly on Friday, earthquake drill, [not taken lightly – we do live in a dangerous geographical area] I will continue to read out loud, and have students listen to other writers reading out loud. We will continue to work on annotating text, and the text will be in conjunction with author’s voices. How would you approach this? Would you have them read the text cold, as a pre-assessment of comprehension, and check for their understanding after they hear the writer? I’m thinking Neil Gaiman reading Instructions would be especially good. (Wonder if I can find a version of him reading Chivalry, one of my favorite short stories? Or should I just put on black T-shirt and speak in a British accent?)

Ultimately, I want them to find their own voices. And since that is the big questions: “What are you trying to say, in your own words?”, they will write and then — speak.

Not quite sure what that rubric should matrix*, though.

What we say and feel doesn’t always fit in a box.

*Comments from students the past few weeks: This class is easy, it’s fun, do we have to go to our next class? I’m not trying to cause divisiveness; I just love reading and writing–dang, I love my job.

*Did I just make matrix into a verb? I am so confused.