The Writing Process

My district dove into Common Core ELA last year with the introduction to Balanced Literacy and reading workshop.
Midway through the year, we introduced writing workshop through the fabulous training of Matt Glover.  Below you will find an image of Matt Glover and a couple books that he has written.
I have enjoyed my training and conversations with him and look forward to our district training that he is presenting this Friday.
Click on the image of Matt Glover to find more information about him and his books.

 

As you know from reading some of my most recent posts, I received training from the Teachers College Reading and Writing Project from New York.

What an experience that was!

And how lucky am I to be part of it!

Click on the images below to read more about Lucy Calkins and Natalie Louis (my presenter from TCWRP).

My training was geared more towards primary and my administrators was towards upper elementary.

A big topic during this time was the writing process.

In my training, Natalie referred to the writing process as Think, Plan, Write, Revise, Edit, Publish.

My principals heard it as Collecting, Developing, Drafting, Revising, Editing, Publishing/Celebrating.

In the world of Matt Glover, he talks of three stages during a unit: Immersion, Close Study, Writing Under the Influence.

On the internet, you most often hear of the process referred to as Prewriting, Drafting, Revising, Editing, Publishing.

Are these all the same process just a spin off of each other?  I mean you can't make money using the same thing as someone else.   You have to make it your own and name and describe it differently right?

As a Teaching and Learning Coach (known as an Instructional Coach to most people)  my job is to guide and instruct my teachers.

That's difficult when you are hearing so many different stories!

What is the "right" process?

With this in mind, I am almost finished with writing a unit on Vignette-style Memoirs.

I love learning knew things, but with fresh information in my brain, it makes revising this unit more difficult.

It makes me question what I have.

Every 5th grade teacher in my district will be using these.

I want them to be the best they can be.

So where do language standards fit into the writing process?

Do they fit at all?  Part of me thinks they should be incorporated into word study time.

At this point in the game, I have them in the revising and editing section.

We are incorporating CCSS L.5.1 and L.5.3 (varied sentence structure and verb tense in particular).

Are these revision lessons or editing lessons?

At first I had sentence structure as revision because you vary them to add to them meaning of your story.  For instance, short sentences can slow down a story and long run-on type sentences create a sense of urgency or excitement.

But now I am thinking now, that it should be editing because it is about structure (simple, compound, and complex sentences).

After spending some time researching on the internet, I found that no one seems to have a good answer to this.

Revising and editing have a blurred line between them.

I have verb tense as an editing lesson.  For the most part I feel good about this decision because it would fall under usage.

But at this point, I am questioning everything!

So what do you think?

What is the writing process to you?

Where does sentence structure fit in the process?

What about verb tense?

Thanks for you thoughts about this!

Antoinette

Teachers College, Writing Conferences, and a New Look For Me

I am EXTREMELY lucky to be a participant in training with the Teachers College Reading and Writing Project from New York!
Of course I would rather be in New York, but spending the week with Natalie Louis (one of the kindergarten co-writers of Lucy Calkin's new units of study) is definitely a privilege.

Natalie is quite the presenter.
She has made us laugh.
She had made us cry.
Not a bad cry of course...
A touching cry.

Click the image below to learn more about the Teachers College

One topic that we spent a lot of time on was conferring.
I loved it when Natalie said that even Lucy Calkins says you can spend your entire life learning how to confer.
It isn't easy!
And it definitely makes me feel better to hear Lucy say the same.

We discussed, in depth, the components of a conference.
Research
Compliment
Decide
Teach
Link

Research:
In Lucy's words, "All the power to get a person to learn something is in the research."
The key points to remember during the research component are to connect with the learner and ask more than one question.
Sample questions:
What are you trying as a writer?
Can you show what your trying in your writing?
Is there another place in your writing where you tried that?

Compliments:
Give genuine compliments.
Don't say things like...
You're a good writer!
This is a great piece!
Key points to remember in the compliment component are to name the specific thing you notice the student doing well, tell where you noticed it in the writing, and tell why it matters.

Decide:
Based on the research, it is time to make a decision about what to teach during the conference as well as how to teach it.
Key points to remember during the decide component are to think about area of growth which you noticed during the research or stretch a strength that you mentioned during the compliment.
"A student's growth is in the stretch." - Natalie Louis
Quick jump from Teachers College to Matt Glover-
Think of one thing to nudge the writer.  Yes we know there are many things we can teach, but choose one thing which the writer will most benefit from.

Teach:
Teach the writer what the can and should do.
Teach the writer not the writing.
Key points to remember during the teach are to one way or another, demonstrate or show a good quality of writing and then give the student a chance to try it out in front of you.
Also, take notes.
In Natalie's words, "There is no expectation for how good your notes need to be.  They are for you!"
You are the one who needs to use these notes to help stretch your students' writing.  So write down whatever you need to help your students grow from conference to conference.

Link:
This is what you leave the learner with, based on your teach.  The goal the student will work on independently as a writer.  What you will watch for as you monitor and assess the student in the day-to-day writing.  You could do this in a variety of ways.  You could ask the student what they think their goal should be.  You could jot it down for them on a post-it note.  The students can write it down in their journals.
Whatever way you decide to go with, the key points in the link component are to keep track of the goal in your notes and monitor the students progress toward mastering the goal.

My goal this year as a Teaching and Learning Coach is to confer with students more when I am observing in a classroom.
I want to give the teachers the opportunity to watch and learn from my conferences (the good and the bad).


Now on to a COMPLETELY different topic!
Me!!! LOL
I have been itching to chop my hair off and finally took the plunge!
After 10 inches which will be donated, here is a pic of my new look!

Hope you found this information useful!  I am loving all the learning I am receiving from the Teachers College Reading and Writing Project.

What does your conference look like?  Let's learn from each other!

Antoinette :)

Writing Workshop, Matt Glover, and Spring Break Pics

I was lucky enough to get another opportunity to receive PD from Matt Glover.
Yup... Very exciting.
He is such an inspirational speaker.
I learn so much from him every time I hear him speak.
Click the following link to read a post regarding another PD session with Matt Glover.

One of the sessions I attended was primarily over reading like a writer.
Wow was this a great experience for myself and the teachers of my district!
We started with a more primary text.
This could totally be used in the upper grades also, though.
Bat Loves the Night by Nicola Davies

Our focus was to "read as a writer".

As Matt read the book to use, we were suppose to think about ways we could use this book to teach writing.

So often, we think that there are only a few ways to use a book.

Boy did we see how wrong that is!

I think we found close to 30 ways this book could be used to teach writing.

Here are just a few...

Descriptive vocabulary

Use of different fonts

Story starts and ends the same (1st line and last are the same)

Written poetically (similes, metaphors, personification, etc.)

Tone (use of pronouns, interesting verbs, names the bat, colors)

Use of punctuation (ellipses, exclamation points, etc)

I could seriously keep going... on and on and on lol

We did this same activity with a upper elementary text and had quite similar results.

"Bat Loves the Night" is a great book.  If you haven't read it, you should really check it out.

I look forward to more PD with Matt Glover and continuing my learning journey as an educator of writing.

NOW...

THE LONG AWAITED CALIFORNIA PICS!

So sorry it has taken so long to get posted.

Just been busy, busy, busy!

Pre-vacation shopping fun...

                                  

                                                               

   

The place were we stayed was up in the foothills.

My brother kept saying our place was up in the "hills".

I was like, "Umm... Anth, those are not what we call hills in Missouri!"

LOL

Temecula is a valley.

Here's some gorgeous mountain pics!!!

Now for our place...

Can you say, AMAZING!!!

This was the pool in back! OMG!! AMAZING!!

The slide to the pool!

 The slide in the above picture leads into the pool!
Although the temperature outside was absolutely amazing,
the water was absolutely FREEZING!!!
Did that stop us???
NOPE!!
Polar Plunge, baby!

Some family pics...

My brother, Anthony (Father of the Bride)

My great, nephews and niece!

Making Italian cookies for the wedding...

Wedding Day...

The Bride!!!

First dance...

My brother and family

My sister, Theresa, and I.

St. Paddy's day fun!!!

Heading home...

We went from 80 plus degree weather to 30's upon returning home.

The next week brought more snow!

Ugh!!!

But at least I got to enjoy gorgeous weather during my spring break and got to come home with a great tan! :)

Hope you enjoyed the Matt Glover information and the spring break pics!

Antoinette :)

Research projects and Spring Break WOO HOO!!!

Where has the past week gone??
I have been MIA again and besides being super busy with work and preparing for Vacay, I really don't have a good excuse. lol

So one of my big projects this past week had to do with compiling resources for my teachers on research projects.
They are working on standards RI5.4, RI5.7 and RI5.9
These standards include:
*  Determine the meaning of general academic and domain-specific words and phrases in a text relevant to agrade 5 topic or subject area
*  Draw on information from multiple print or digital sources, demonstrating the ability to locate an answer to a question quickly or to solve a problem efficiently.
*  Integrate information from several texts on the same topic in order to write or speak about the subject knowledgeably.

Thus the research project...

Where a curve ball comes into play is incorporating the writing piece into this.
Our district has adopted Matt Glover's philosophy on writing workshop.
Do you know who Matt Glover is?
He is a truly inspirational presenter.
My teachers who were lucky enough to listen to him present left truly inspired to make changes to what they were currently doing.
I left completely missing teaching writing workshop.
Below is a screen shot of the book some of my K-1 teachers are reading.

To briefly sum up Matt Glover's philosphy, I have include a blurb from the Heinemann website.

Click on the image below to get more information.

In Engaging Young Writers, Matt Glover (coauthor of Already Ready) presents ways to encourage students to pick up the pen and share their remarkable thinking. With multiple entry points for writers, he helps you match your teaching to children’s individual interests and patterns of learning. Glover shows how you can:

• nudge writers into action through meaning, choice, and purpose
• invite preschool children to write through conversation and invite primary students through units of study
• spark imaginative writing through read-aloud and dramatic play
• inspire kids to write stories from personal experiences
• give students the chance to share their passions and interests through nonfiction writing.

Engaging Young Writers features teaching tested in real classrooms and the student samples to back it up. Glover takes special care to address how his ideas can be applied to the unique developmental needs of writers in preschool, kindergarten, and grade one.

Inside every child is a writer. Inside you is the desire to give children a great start. Inside Engaging Young Writers is the teaching to help you create that wonderful moment when your students decide to become the writer within.

With that philosophy in mind, as well as how strongly Matt Glover feels about providing the students with a vision of what they are writing through exposure to mentor texts, research projects just got trickier.

Matt believes that if you are asking children to write something, you need to provide them with a vision of what the final project looks like.

For instance, if I want my students to write a narrative, then I spend the first 2-3 immersing them into what good narratives look and sound like.

During this immersion, I would read them a variety of published narratives giving them exposure to what the end product would look like.

So if I am reading picture books, then my students will be writing picture books.

This is where research reports get tricky.

Matt Glover himself says that you can't find a "stack" of research reports because that is not what published authors write.

So the task is what vision can we provide our students for their end product of a research report?

One group of 5th grade teachers is doing state projects.

The students get to choose a state to research.

That sounds easy enough...

Travel Brochures

Another group of 5th grade teachers are allowing the children to have complete choice (which is another part of Matt Glover's philosophy).

They are to write about something they have questions about or a problem situation.

I am absolutely behind giving them choice.

If I was in the classroom, I would leave it open to them also.

The problem lies in the vision we provide them with...

What mentor texts do we put into our "stacks"?

At this point, we are going with writing nonfiction books which would mean exposing them into a variety of styles.

We had a difficult time coming up with a vision.

Do you all have any suggestions?

Okay... Enough with school talk. lol

I am on SPRING BREAK!!!!!!!!!

I leave Wednesday morning for Temecula, California.

Have you ever been there?

Wednesday and Thursday are mostly relaxing and enjoying the beautiful area.

We also will be helping out with my niece's wedding craziness prep some during those two days. lol

Friday and Saturday will be wedding fun!

Below is a screen shot of where Temecula is located.

Be prepared for some more exciting photos upon return! :)

The weather is suppose to be high 70's/low 80's!
I CAN'T WAIT!!!

What are your plans for spring break?

Antoinette :)

Common Core- Multimedia?? Photo Essays??

Does your district have a curriculum based on the Common Core?  Are you trying to figure out the standards all on your own?

I don't know if I have told you this, but I am currently writing the reading and writing curriculum for the 5th grade teachers in my school district.

Your first thought is probably, "Wow, that is so cool!"
And it is...
Really!!!
BUT...
It can also be quite frustrating and stressful.

Are you a 5th grade teacher??
Do you use multimedia presentations in your classroom??
If so, I would LUUUVVVE to hear from you about 
CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RL.5.7 Analyze how visual and multimedia elements contribute to the meaning, tone, or beauty of a text (e.g., graphic novel, multimedia presentation of fiction, folktale, myth, poem).

CCR: Integrate and evaluate content presented in diverse formats and media, including visually and quantitatively, as well as in words.

Here is the standard vertically:

At first, we were thinking multimedia meant movies.
Movies??
With Common Core 5th grade??
Surely not...
So we decided to look up multimedia.
That helped... 

"As the name implies, multimedia is the integration of multiple forms of media. This includes text, graphics, audio, video, etc."

-techterms.com

Our reading and writing units of study are closely linked together.  In writing, the standard is narratives.

We want to do something more than just write a personal narrative or a memoir.

So after listening to Matt Glover present on writing workshop tonight he mentioned something that was completely unknown to me.

Photo Essays...  Have you heard of this?  Have you used this?

I understand what they are, I guess. Lol  

This is a definition I found from Digital Photography School website.

A photo essay is very simply a collection of images that are placed in a specific order to tell the progression of events, emotions, and concepts.

Since we are working with literature in reading, we were thinking we could make the writing fictional photo essays, but we are having a difficult time find samples.

And Matt Glover is all about the "Stacks" to create a vision for the students to write.

There is just a lot of unknown...

Have you taught this standard yet?

Have any suggestions for me?

I would love to hear what you all are doing with this.

Thank you :)
Antoinette

Reading and Writing Workshop- 3 Teacher Resources

Balanced Literacy is new to my district and we are learning so many wonderful things to use in our schools.  The first step in implementation was getting the structure going in our day-to-day schedules.  Teachers from the district wrote units of study based on the Common Core State Standards which are being used throughout the elementary schools.  This step, I feel, has been achieved for the most part.

Now that the structure is in place, it is time to deepen our understanding of reading and writing workshop.  So 3 teacher resources have been recommended to me and I would love to here all of your thoughts on them.

First...  Engaging Young Writers by Matt Glover.  I was lucky enough to be able to sit through a half day session with Matt Glover and it was so inspirational.  This book would be for K-1.

Have any of you read this book?  If so, what are your thoughts on it?

Second... Wondrous Words by Katy Wood Ray.  I owned this books YEARS ago and am pretty sure I read it.  Unfortunately, I don't remember it.  This would be for upper elementary teachers.

Any thoughts on this book?

Third... Reading with Meaning by Debbie Miller.  Once again, I have been lucky enough to sit through several sessions with Debbie Miller.  She is an amazing person.

How about this one?

I would love to hear your thoughts on any of these books.  My principal is interested in purchasing some for the teachers in my building and has asked my thoughts.  Of course she knows I haven't read them (or can't remember the one I have lol) but I would love to have some insight before giving my opinion.

Thanks so much!  Look forward to hearing you all's thoughts. :)

Antoinette