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

Chartchums and Types of Anchor Charts

Do you use anchor charts in your classroom?
Do spend time on Pinterest looking for new chart ideas?
I know I do.

I have another resource for you all on anchor charts.
Chartchums...
Have you heard of this?
There is a website and a book.
Click the images below for more information on both.

I have only seen the Amazon glimpse into the book, but loved what I did see and read.
The book goes into why anchor charts are important to learning.
It goes into brain-based learning and visual literacy.
Section 1 goes into what to put on charts.
Section 2 goes into helping students use the charts independently.
Section 3 goes into assessing the success of charts.
I am thinking I am going to need to purchase this book!

The website has a slew of anchor charts.
Here are just a few examples:

There is also some great information to go along with the charts.  I have only looked at a couple so far but am looking forward to checking this site out more.

Did you know there are different types of anchor charts?
Here is what I learned from the Teachers College training:
Genre- purpose to define and give characteristics of genre currently being taught
Routine- purpose to teach and remind students of certain behaviors
Process- purpose is to break down a specific skill, idea, goal, etc into easy steps
Strategy- purpose is to provide students with a menu of options for a specific skill, idea, goal, etc
Exemplar (annotated text made by teacher, class, and/or student)- purpose is to show strategies in use

Do you use anchor charts in your classroom?

Antoinette :)

Lots of Learning with The Teachers College

I received some amazing training this past week.
As I included in an earlier post, I am in training with Natalie Louis from the Teachers College Reading and Writing Project.

One aha moment was Inquiry Lessons.
Have you heard of this?
This was my first time hearing of them and they are complete genius!
Which is to be expected from Lucy Calkins and the Teachers College.

Here is an example of one way you could use an inquiry lesson:

Inquiry Lessons These lessons happen about three times throughout a unit; approximately every eight days.  It is not considered a mini-lesson as it will take quite a bit longer.  The purpose is to assess student progress and monitor what learning from daily lessons they have and haven’t tried. First, the teacher reviews learning from the unit by looking over anchor charts created. Next, using his/her writing notebook, the teacher models rereading entries and evaluating what learning has been tried so far. Keeping the students together whole group, the teacher will encourage them to do the same with their notebooks.  The teacher walks around coaching students. Then have the students discuss what they have tried out with their writing partners. Next, the teacher will look over the charts and reread through notebook to determine what he/she has yet to try from the unit’s learning. After that, the teacher determines a goal as to what he/she would like to try in their writing. Keeping the students together whole group, the teacher will encourage them to do the same with their notebooks.   The teacher walks around coaching students. Last, the teacher will send the students off to work on achieving their goals. This lesson should be repeated about 8 days later and include additional learning since the last inquiry lesson.

In my earlier post, I included a video from Vimeo which the Teachers College shared.  Click here to read the post and view the video.  The Teachers College has 40+ videos on this site and the handful I have viewed are wonderful.  I am looking forward to watching many more.
If you haven't checked out the Teachers College Vimeo channel, you should put it top on you list of todos.  Click the image below to go to their channel.

On a side note- I am new to the world of Twitter and am extremely excited to say that I received a Tweet (I think that's what they're called lol) from the Teachers College, thanking 4321Teach for sharing their video!  I was so excited, that I took a screen shot of the Tweet to share with everyone! :)
I know... I'm a dork! lol

I want to share another Vimeo video from the Teachers College channel.
It is an inquiry lesson done slightly differently than what I described above.  This lesson's focus was to help students transfer learning from persuasive speech to writing a persuasive letter.  Same concept of reviewing and assessing previous learning though.

Hope you enjoy it!

Have you ever taught an inquiry lesson?  What do you do to involve your students in reviewing and assessing learning throughout a unit?

I would love to hear your ideas!

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 :)

It's Summer... Or is it??

Hey All-

Last Friday was my last day of school!
YEAH!!!
If it's not yours yet, I hope the last days goes by quickly for you!

So what have I been doing with my days off???
Let's see...
Monday- Revisions to 5th grade Writing- Launching Unit
This unit includes...
procedures for getting writing workshop off to a successful start.
Setting up writer's notebooks
Reading like a writer.
Building writing partnerships
Taking a piece through the writing process

Tuesday- Revisions to 5th grade Reading- Unit 2
This unit includes...
CCSS RL.5.1 and RI.5.1 Quote accurately from text when explaining what the text says explicitly and when drawing inferences from the text.
CCSS RL.5.3 Compare and contrast two or more characters, setting, or events in a story or drama, drawing specific details in the text.
CCSS RI.5.3 Explain the relationships or interactions between two or more individuals, events, ideas, or concepts in a historical, scientific, or technical text based on specific information in the text.

Wednesday- Revisions to 5th grade Writing- Unit 2
This unit includes...
Writing feature articles
CCSS W.5.2 Write informative/explanatory texts to examine a topic and convey ideas and information clearly
CCSS W.5.5 With guidance and support from peers and adults, develop and strengthen writing as needed by planning, revising, editing, rewriting, or trying a new approach

Have you ever taught feature articles?
I would love to hear some of your great ideas!!
I found this website with amazing information.
Check it out if you are interested.
Feature Articles 3-6

So is it summer when I have worked every day so far this week?
I think not!
Maybe if the weather was nicer, my attitude would be more positive.

But...
I have tomorrow off and I am going to eat Indian food with Emily!
Exciting!!!
After that, I am going to hang out with my adorable nieces.
Love them!!!

On the positive side...
Tracy, my co-writer for the units of study, and I should be able to accomplish a ton by only meeting a couple times a week.
That's not too bad, right???
See- a little sunshine!
Wish mother nature would follow suit. lol
She seems to think Missouri is in desperate need of rain.
Rain, rain go away!!

Are you on summer break yet?
How are you enjoying your time off?

Antoinette :)

End of the Year and Summer Learning

Tomorrow is Emily and my last day of school!!!
FINALLY!!!
Our original last day was suppose to be last Friday.
But...
Missouri seemed to love the cold weather and especially SNOW!!!
So three and half additional days tacked on.
But Summer break is upon us...
FINALLY!!! lol

So summer plans for me???

June will involve a large amount of revising to the 5th grade reading and writing units that I co-created.
I am sure I mentioned in early posts about how I spent the last year or so writing units of study, based on the ELA Common Core Standards, for my district.
It has been such a tremendous learning experience and overall I am so happy I embraced this challenge.
But...
I am SOOO ready to be finished with them. lol
Not sure if they will ever truly be finished though because as I learn more about reading/writing workshop and Common Core, I want to change them for the better.
My friend Tracy, who is writing them with me, will probably want to or probably already has wanted to strangle me throughout this process. lol
(LOVE YOU TRACY!!!)
We finished the revisions to the launching unit for writing last night and I already texted her today about changes I want to make.
Haven't heard back from her yet...
Hmmm...
It's probably because it's the end of the year. lol

Here is what triggered today's desire to revise the unit...
once again:

I started reading Notebook Know-How Strategies for the Writer's Notebook by Aimee Buckner.

A friend of mine sent me this book today and of course it got my mind going.

It has some great information about why you should use notebooks and also some valuable lessons to use when launching your writer's workshop and notebook usage.

My district sent me Notebook Connections Strategies for the Reader's Notebooks to read and incorporate in the the reading unit revisions.

I absolutely LOVE this book.

I posted about it not too long ago after I had just started reading it- Reading Workshop- Notebook Connections.

So halfway through the book, my district asked the Teaching and Learning Coaches to write literacy related modules to use next school year, for professional development.
Guess what module I was chosen for???
One would hope reading notebooks because I was already reading Notebook Connections, right?
Not so much...
I was chosen to write the writer's notebook module.
Of course...
LOL
No worries!!!
Now I am reading Notebook Know-How.
I'm not writing the module until July.
So I am all good!
Plenty of time to get the writer's notebook one read. :)

I am halfway through chapter two.
Chapter One was titled Why Notebooks? and discussed just that.
It was great information and I have some wonderful quotes to use in my Powerpoint.
But the number one point I took from this chapter is what is a writer's notebook.
Here's what I read...
"A writer's notebook creates a place for students (and writers) to save their words--in the form of a memory, a reflection, a list, a rambling of thoughts, a sketch, or even a scrap of print taped on the page."
"It a place for students to practice writing."

I am not finished with chapter two yet but it is titled Launching the Notebook.
I had a huge AHA in this chapter.
Oral Storytelling...
So often students don't know what to write about or they feel they have "nothing valuable or of interest to others to say."
Aimee Buckner's first goal is to get her students to believe in themselves as writers.
She does this through oral storytelling.
Spend time right off the bat telling stories to the students and listening to their stories.
One story will trigger other students to connect through their own similar stories.
We all know this to be true.
One student tells about how he went to a water park and then suddenly 5 hands go up with similar stories.
This is the perfect time to introduce the notebook and send them off to tell their stories.

The next take-away from this chapter is taking the time to teach students strategies for finding things to write about.
Now this is nothing new to me.
I've done this in my launching units over and over...
But not the way Aimee does it.
In my launching, I would spend a day, maybe two, collecting writing ideas.

When I first started Balanced Literacy, it was simply jotting down idea after idea after idea.
Similar to this...
sports
family
hobbies
school
etc.

Then I moved to writing territories which looked more like this...
Sports
- baseball
- KC Royals
- Not a Cardinals fan (sorry St. Louis people lol)
Family
- one of ten kids
- noisy Italians
- my dad passing away
etc.

I liked my second approach much better and still do not feel it is a bad way to collect writing ideas.
But I really liked the way Aimee uses strategies for finding writing ideas and spent longer than a day or two to teach them.
Her first lesson is talking about the History of a Name.
She read the book Chrysanthemum and then discussed the role of the main character's name in the book.
The importance of it...
She then has the students write about their names.
Maybe why their parents chose that name
Nicknames
special meanings
etc.
This could lead to how pets were named, names they wish they had, or characters' names in books.

The second strategy is so far my favorite.
(I haven't read any others, though because my mind took off after this one and I began taking notes all over the draft of my launching unit.  I also wrote a sample lesson for launching, based on this strategy.)
This strategy is called Writing from a List.
In this lesson, the students create lists (quite similar to my writing territories) on individual topics.
These could be things they are experts on, best/worst events in their lives, favorite words, hobbies, etc.
Now for how Aimee's takes what I did to the next level.
Next the students star or highlight things on their list they could write more about.
So simple...
Yet a duh moment for me, lol.
From here, the students choose something from the list to write more about.
Now that part I did do. ;)

She spends time teaching them strategies, like writing from a list, to come up with things to write about.
It is not something she does in a day or two.
Since it is something she wants them to continue to use throughout the year, she takes her time with it.

I look forward to reading the rest of the book.
I actually have to post this, so I can read some before bed.
So I must say goodbye! :)

Are you on summer break yet?
Do you have plans for some summer learning?

Antoinette :)

Reading Workshop- Notebook Connections

Have you read Notebook Connections Strategies for the Reader's Notebook by Aimee Buckner?
It is a MUST READ!!!

I am currently reading it (amongst many other professional resources) and am LOVING it!

I want to share with you some of the great things I have learned just in the first chapter.

Chapter 1- Reading, Writing, and Harvesting Hope

This chapter, at first, talks about the bridge between reading and writing.
This is SO true!

"The reading-writing connection is a bridge of understanding that helps the reader write more reflectively about his or her reading and the writer write more purposefully for his or her reader.  Taking time to focus on this bridge gives students the opportunity to think both as a reader and a writer."

- Aimee Buckner

In a writer's notebook, students can collect their ideas and thoughts about what they are writing.

In a reader's notebook, students can collect their ideas and thoughts about other people's writing.

Aimee was looking for a way to challenge her students to really think while reading.
But more than that, she wants them to think beyond reading...
To become lifelong readers and writers.
She decided notebooks was the perfect way to take this "from hope to reality".

Why Notebooks?

Here's what Aimee has to say:
- It is a tool which can capture student thinking and understanding of the text.
- It allows students to generate and elaborate on responses to text.
- It is a book of strategies students can rely on- from book to book, from genre to genre.
- It pushes their thinking beyond retelling a story.
- It is flexible enough for students to respond in a variety of ways, yet structured enough to provide explicit instruction.


Aimee Buckner has another book which she wrote prior to Notebook Connections.
It is called Notebook Know-How Strategies for the Writer's Notebook.
I haven't read it yet; probably should have read it first.
But I am too into Notebook Connections to stop now. lol

I can't wait to tell you more about this amazing book.
It is an easy read with information that will make you want to change the way you think about, and teach, reading and writing.

Do you use, or are interested in using, reader's notebooks?
Have you read Notebook Connections?
If so, I'd love to hear your thoughts about the book and how you use notebooks in your classroom.

Your long lost friend (since I have been MIA for quite sometime),
Antoinette :)

Hey, it's Emily.  I don't usually hop on to the end of Antoinette's posts, but I couldn't help myself.  I LOVE Aimee Buckner!  More about Notebook Connections to come.  Happy Friday! :)

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 :)