Kathryn Roberts, Ph.D.

Wayne State University

COMMON CORE STANDARDS ON WRITING IN ACTION: 3-5

Writing Instruction

We write to communicate to the hearts and minds of others what's burning inside us. And we edit to let the fire show through the smoke.

~Arthur Polotnik

Plan for the Session •Overview of the differences between the Common

Core Standards and GLCEs

•Writing using “new” literacies

•What research says about writing instruction for elementary-aged children: Best practices

Michigan’s CCS Timeline

About the CCSs… •Remember that these are a baseline and you can

teach beyond them.

• It’s a little tricky because some of the standards are under “Writing”, while others are under “Language”.

What are (some of) the Differences?

• Includes specific genres (e.g., fantasy, personal narrative) within broad categories

• Focus on print conventions (e.g., spaces, directionality)

• Focus on voice & personal style

• Cursive

• Disposition & attitudes toward writing

• Focuses on broad genre categories (narrative, opinion/persuasive, expository)

• Strong focus on critical literacy- forming & supporting an opinion

• Earlier introduction of digital media

• Stronger focus on collaborative writing

• Focus on writing both quick pieces & pieces that are a process over the span of days (3-5)

GLCEs CCSs

So, what does this mean? •We need to get kids on computers early and have

them using them as a tool, much like they use pencils and paper.

•Access to information is fast and relatively easy, so we need to teach them to be good digital consumers.

•The CCSs are a bit more generic, at times, so we have to be sure that we are providing kids with varied experiences, especially when it comes to genres

• In general, we need to follow what we know are best practices in the teaching of writing to young children.

New Ways of Writing •Classroom twitter feed (Kist et al., 2010)

Blogging •“…an editable webpage with posts or entries in

reverse chronological order.” (Zawilinski, 2009, p.650)

•Providers:

•www.Edublogs.org

•www.21classes.com

•www.epals.com/products/esb

•www.classblogmeister.com

Four Types of Blogs (Zawilinski, 2009)

•Classroom News Blog

•Mirror Blogs

•Showcase Blogs

•Literature Response Blogs

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•Kids can even see where the authentic audience comes from,

• And are motivated to keep contributing high-quality work.

Standards, and Tweeting, and Blogs, Oh My! • Text Types and Purposes:

• W. #. 2…write informative texts that convey information clearly, grouping related information and including illustrations when useful for comprehension

• Production and Distribution of Writing:

• W.#.5- …with guidance and support from peers and adults, develop and strengthen writing as needed by planning, revising, and editing

• W.#6- …with support, use technology, including the internet to publish, interact, and collaborate. Type 1-2 pages in a sitting (4th & 5th)

•Range of Writing

• W.#.10- write routinely for a range of discipline-specific tasks, purposes, and audiences

Digital Sources: A Blessing or a Curse?

• More GOOD information is easily accessible to kids

• Less demanding in terms of the physical act of writing

• Easy to find a lot of sources

• Hyperlinks can help make spatial connections and mental maps

• Differences in layouts can push kids to think about the relationships between information

• More BAD information is easily accessible to kids

• Easy to just cut and paste without having to summarize for notes

• Easy to lose track of source information

• Non-traditional text layouts don’t provide mentor texts for more traditional student texts

• Kids have to find ways to synthesize and organize information from multiple sources

Blessings… Curses…

Comprehension Windows (Bass & Woo, 2008):

One Way to Address Source Issues

• involves a strategy and prop to help students read and write informational text

•Writing and reading informational text is interwoven into both Language Arts and content area standards

•Getting beyond the facts to deep, critical comprehension seems to be a problem

•Getting beyond (unintentional) plagiarizing also seems to be a problem

What are the advantages?

•CWS:

• Facilitates growth of content knowledge bases

• Organizes facts

• Motivates students to be active as they read and write

• Supports critical thinking

• Introduces the idea of crediting sources

How it Works (1) • Gather a few texts or other sources of information on a topic.

• As you find an interesting fact, make a brief (paraphrased) note about it on a sticky note.

• Record the bibliographic information requested on the reference sheet.

• Mark your sticky note with the number next to the appropriate reference on the reference sheet.

• Once several pieces of information are collected, group them according to common themes. The theme is written on a sticky note and place on one flap of the prop, the sticky notes with information are placed behind it.

• Use the sorted notes to create a product (e.g., a paragraph could be written using the theme as a title sentence and the notes behind it as detail sentences), referencing sources as appropriate.

How it Works (2) • Gather a few texts or other sources of information on a topic.

• Students are given categories of information to find (e.g., habitat, distinguishing features, other interesting information), and use these categories to label the flaps of the prop.

• As they find interesting facts, they make a brief (paraphrased) notes about them on a sticky notes.

• Then, students record the bibliographic information requested on the reference sheet.

• Students mark their sticky with the number next to the appropriate reference on the reference sheet.

• Students then decide which category the piece of information fits in, and place the sticky note behind the corresponding flap.

• Students then use the sorted notes to create a product (e.g., each category may be a section of an informational book), referencing sources as appropriate.

CWS in the Classroom 1. Model- reading texts, making notes, writing

references, choosing categories, sorting the notes, and turning the notes into a finished product.

2. Guided Practice- Students either contribute to a group effort that the teacher facilitates or work alone or with peers with teacher supervision and support.

3. Cooperative Practice- Some students may benefit from cooperative practice, in which peers can work together to support each other.

4. Independent Practice- Students use the process in their independent reading and writing.

You Write What You Read: Mentor Texts as Genre Models •The big three from the CCSs:

• Opinion

• Informative/Explanatory

• Narrative

•What’s not included?

•What does that mean for teachers?

Opinion Piece Mentor Text

Kindergarten-Grade 3- What should have been a perfect summer for one young boy is ruined when Jeremy Ross moves in and becomes number one on the narrator’s enemy list. Fortunately, his father has a secret recipe for a pie that is guaranteed to help get rid of enemies. While dad works on mixing the ingredients and baking the pie, he explains his son’s role in the plan: “-You need to spend a day with your enemy. Even worse, you have to be nice to him.” It sounds tough, but the boy decides to give it a try. Predictably, between throwing water balloons at the girls, playing basketball, and hiding out in the tree house, he decides that Jeremy is not so bad after all. There’s still the problem of the pie, however. When his father serves up the dessert, the young protagonist decides to warn Jeremy that it is “poisonous or something.” However, it seems that both his father and his new friend are just fine, and what’s more, the pie is delicious. This is a clever tale with an effective message about how to handle relationships and conflict. King’s stylized and humorous illustrations, done in colored pencil and pastel, will work well with a group. Roxanne Burg, Thousand Oaks Library, CA

Kindergarten-Grade 3- What should have been a perfect summer for one young boy is ruined when Jeremy Ross moves in and becomes number one on the narrator’s enemy list. Fortunately, his father has a secret recipe for a pie that is guaranteed to help get rid of enemies. While dad works on mixing the ingredients and baking the pie, he explains his son’s role in the plan: “-You need to spend a day with your enemy. Even worse, you have to be nice to him.” It sounds tough, but the boy decides to give it a try. Predictably, between throwing water balloons at the girls, playing basketball, and hiding out in the tree house, he decides that Jeremy is not so bad after all. There’s still the problem of the pie, however. When his father serves up the dessert, the young protagonist decides to warn Jeremy that it is “poisonous or something.” However, it seems that both his father and his new friend are just fine, and what’s more, the pie is delicious. This is a clever tale with an effective message about how to handle relationships and conflict. King’s stylized and humorous illustrations, done in colored pencil and pastel, will work well with a group. Roxanne Burg, Thousand Oaks Library, CA

Grades of Interest

Summary of the Problem and a Few Events

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An Adjective to Describe the Story;

What We Should Learn

Something about the Pictures; Who

Would Like it

Reviewer’s Name Reviewer’s Location

Try it… • With a partner or small group, choose and interesting page

spread.

• Make a generic map of it.

• Take a topic that you know a lot about (for kids, they would do research, but we don’t have time to do that, today) and make a version of your map specific to that content.

• Talk about what you had to know and be able to do in order to

• A) Use the model to make a generic map

• B) Apply the generic to the specific

• This is the list of lessons you would need to take children through (modeling, supporting, and facilitating independent practice, along the way).

• This is one form of using mentor texts (more on that in a minute)

How do you teach writing?

How do you teach writing?

•Lucy Calkins •Writer’s Workshop •Shared Writing •Guided Writing •DOL • Independent Journaling •Response to Prompts •Strategy Instruction •For authentic purposes •Process Writing •Setting concrete goals •Use of mentor texts

•Collaborative or Cooperative Writing (with peers or teachers) •Embedded with reading

in literacy instruction • In the content areas •Conferencing and

feedback •Handwriting instruction •Using word processors •Environmental models

Which practices are proven to work for elementary children?

•Lucy Calkins •Writer’s Workshop •Shared Writing •Guided Writing •DOL • Independent Journaling •Response to Prompts •Strategy Instruction •For authentic purposes •Process Writing •Setting concrete goals •Use of mentor texts

•Collaborative or Cooperative Writing (with peers or teachers) •Embedded with reading

in literacy instruction • In the content areas •Conferencing and

feedback (from peers) •Handwriting instruction •Using word processors •Environmental models G

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Strategies

•Strategies- processes intentionally used by writers to produce a piece of writing

• Picking ideas

• Brainstorming

• Organizing notes/thoughts

• Making a plan for writing

• Modifying plans during writing

• Saying more- expanding a thought

• Setting writing goals and monitoring them

• Focusing on story (or other genre) structures/grammar

• Setting concrete goals

An Example of Organizing Notes/Thoughts from readwritethink.org

What doe the animal look like?

How does it move? What sounds does it make?

What Self-Regulation Does

•Builds self-efficacy through…

•Self-Statements- • OK, I have my idea. What is the next step?

• This sentence doesn’t sound right. What strategy can I use to fix it up?

•Goal Setting (specific, attainable, proximal) • Goal- I will include five story elements in my next piece of

writing.

• Plan- I will use a graphic organizer before I write, and check my work against it when I revise.

• Evaluation- I will fill in a reading rocket chart (pp. 188-189) when I review my finished product.

What Strategy Instruction Does:

•Helps students produce longer, more complete, and qualitatively better compositions (Graham, Harris, & Mason,

2003; 2006)

•Can transfer (Graham, Harris, & Mason, 2006)

• Across genres

• Across instructional settings

• Across time

Writing Process Defined

•Process writing is the practice of writing or writing instruction that involves a recursive, five-part cycle which includes prewriting or planning, drafting, editing, revising and publishing.

•This idea originated in the 1950’s-- So there’s some history here.

•Looking at writing as a product instead of a process fails to illuminate the real work of good writing.

Writing Process

•Writing is not prescriptive. Rather a writer traverses back and forth among steps as will and need dictate. Different writers do this in different ways.

•Mini lessons on each step of the process, including small whole and small group lesson structures

•Variation in genre to allow experience for changes in process due to changes in genre.

•TIME

Conferring with Peers • What this means is teaching kids to read the work of others as

writers and give constructive feedback.

• Benefits—better writing, more sustainable, more frequent feedback

• Making it work:

• DO NOT skip steps in the scaffolding process (modeled, shared, guided, and THEN independent)

• Provide a lot of structure (e.g., specific things to look for, sentence starters for providing feedback)

• Observe and coach

• Continue to teach process lessons as issues arrise

Not Surprisingly

•A survey of primary grades teachers’ instructional adaptations for struggling writers conducted with teachers across the United States found the most common adaptation that teachers made when teaching writing was scaffolding of the writing processes - including explicit instruction of steps such as planning and revising (Graham, Harris, Fink-Chorzempa, & MacArthur, 2003).

What Process Writing Does:

•Students composing via process writing produced significantly higher quality text (Berninger, Graham, et al., 2002).

•Third graders who received direct instruction in

process writing outperformed the control group in the organization of their writing and depth of ideas (Stevens et al., 1987).

•A writing process approach holds promise for

addressing the diverse writing achievement needs of all students in the regular classroom (Zaragoza & Vaughn, 1992).

Collaborative Writing Defined

•Any writing practice or instruction that involves students working together or teachers working side-by–side with students to create or edit a piece of writing.

•Collaborative writing may take on two different forms in primary grades classrooms: • Shared writing, which features the teacher leading an

individual, small group or whole class in an act of authorship

• Peer writing, in which two or more students work together on a piece of writing.

Collaborative Writing

•Use teacher-led collaborative writing to model craft lessons or authentic writing purposes.

•Pair students purposefully with distinct roles and tasks.

•Structure opportunities for peer revision and editing

Not Surprisingly

•Peer groups and collaboration support writing by offering:

• a non-threatening audience (with proper structuring)

• immediate feedback

• experience with a wide range of writing abilities

• reduced writing apprehension

• development of positive attitudes about writing

• increased motivation to revise

• development of cooperation and interpersonal skills (Hillocks, 1986; Pritchard & Honeycutt, 2007).

What it does:

•“Struggling” second graders wrote longer and higher quality stories featuring more of the instructed elements; in addition, the peer support condition facilitated the transfer of skills to the regular classroom (Harris, Graham, Mason, 2006).

•“Partner checks,” where students review their partner’s work for appropriate conventions (e.g. spelling and punctuation) and ideas (e.g. story telling), resulted in significantly better organization (Slavin and Farnish, 1987).

Remember this list?

•Lucy Calkins •Writer’s Workshop •Shared Writing •Guided Writing •DOL • Independent Journaling •Response to Prompts •Strategy Instruction •For authentic purposes •Process Writing •Setting concrete goals •Use of mentor texts

•Collaborative or Cooperative Writing (with peers or teachers) •Embedded with reading

in literacy instruction • In the content areas •Conferencing and

feedback (from peers) •Handwriting instruction •Using word processors •Environmental models G

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Remember this list?

• Lucy Calkins • Writer’s Workshop (IF used

with process writing) • Shared Writing • Guided Writing • DOL • Independent Journaling • Response to Prompts • Strategy Instruction • For authentic purposes • Process Writing • Setting concrete goals • Use of mentor texts

• Collaborative or Cooperative Writing (with peers or teachers)

• Embedded with reading in literacy instruction

• In the content areas • Conferencing and feedback

(from peers) • Handwriting instruction • Using word processors • Environmental models

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Literate Environment

•A literate environment is cultivated by the implicit and explicit meaning-making she structures moment by moment.

•Exposure to writing includes:

• Dramatic Play (e.g. pretend “writing” in print-rich settings such as restaurants or libraries)

• shared reading (e.g. big books)

• modeled writing

• reading aloud a variety of genres and text

• writing daily with “real” audiences and purposes (Coker, 2007;

Morrow, 1990).

Writing for Authentic Purposes

•Authentic Texts- texts that occur naturally in the world outside of the classroom walls and that are read and written for purposes beyond learning to read or write (Duke, Purcell-Gates, Hall, & Tower, 2006/2007)

•Texts are used to communicate

•Examples: directions, invitations, letters and notes, stories and other texts written to entertain or inform

What works?

•This list of practices is not exhaustive and doesn’t constitute a stand-alone curriculum.

•Find out what works for you- likely a combination of instructional strategies and structures.

•Pay attention to what works and what doesn’t.

Try it…

• Read through the standards for writing and language.

• Highlight or mark any standards that haven’t gotten much attention in the past or are new.

• Which ones are going to be most necessary for your students to access content and fully participate in learning?

• These are the ones that you’re going to really have to be intentional about teaching.

• Concentrated focus on one or a few things at a time is much more effective than trying to change everything at once

• We often learn through hands on practice—which means we expect to make mistakes and we view them like we tell our kids to view them: as windows into what we need to learn

• We need to think, not just do. We plan (what we’re going to do), do (it), and review (how it went, how we know, what we need to tweak, when we’ll do it next)

What we Know about Learning New Things:

•For very challenging things, gradual release of control can help. First, watch someone else do it (even if they aren’t perfect and perhaps via video if you can’t make it work in person), then do it with someone else (or at least plan with someone else, if you can’t physically do it with someone else), then try it on your own.

•Don’t be afraid to make mistakes because they make for powerful learning tools.

What we Know about Learning New Things:

• Start small. Pick one standard or new instructional technique that you want to work on.

• Think about the smaller steps along the way that you will need to complete (e.g., find texts, make a list of resources, assess students, talk to an administrator about the possibility for blogging, find a place for it in the curriculum, teach component skills, etc.)

• Pick a goal date for getting it done

• Post it prominently by your desk (:

Wrap-Up: Goal Setting