Empowering WritersAs We Pursue the Common Core

Learning Standards

Angela StockmanWNY Education Associates

stockmanangela@gmail.com

PROGRAM OUTCOMES• Teachers will use the Common Core Learning

Standards as a starting point for our exploration of best practices for teaching and assessing writing.

• They will learn how to bundle standards together to create powerful writing experiences for learners.

• They will explore protocols for adapting the New York State Curriculum Modules and Domains in order to enrich writing experiences.

• They will use what is learned to draft one potential adaptation, which will be submitted for peer review.

Coming Together as a Community

Photo Credit: Used with Silvia Rosenthal Tolisano’s Permission

We Connect Through Our Stories

So…what’s your story?

We believe that all

people are born

writers and that

the act of writing

enables us to

communicate our

needs, raise our

voices, connect

and learn from

others, and heal

our lives as well as

the world. At

Studio, we learn

how to honor and

support the writer

in everyone,

because writers

make the world a

better place.

We are born writers.

http://tinyurl.com/27u6wa8

We use our words to leave our mark on the world.

http://tinyurl.com/28xbnyz

What is the difference between authentic writing

and….

http://www.flickr.com/photos/sean002/2510540027/

functional writing?

WHERE

DOYOU INVEST

THE MOST ENERGY?

THE MOST IMPORTANT

WRITINGINSTRUMENT

TOPUTIN

THEIRHANDS

BALANCEBUILDSBETTER

WRITERS

Being vs. Doing

How do we help students BECOMEwriters?

WE ACT AND WRITE WITH COURAGE

WE SEEK UNDERSTANDING BEFORE DOING

WE PERSEVERE

WE COLLABORATE

WE SHARE OUR EXPERTISE

WE GIVE OF OURSELVES AND ACT WITH KINDNESS

WE REFLECT ON WHERE WE’VE BEEN, WHERE WE ARE GOING, AND HOW WE PLAN TO GET THERE

WE KNOW THAT WRITING IS OFTEN A SLOW PROCESS

WE TRY TO DEVELOP BETTER AND BETTER AND BETTER STRATEGIES FOR IMPROVING OUR OWN WORK AND HELPING

OTHERS

WITHIN COMMUNITIES, WE ARE ALL WRITERS AND LEARNERS

AND ALL OF US MUST TEACH.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/jefield/1119389/

Writers, Writing, and Dispositions of Practice

http://www.flickr.com/photos/whatmegsaid/3172360305/

COURAGE

http://www.flickr.com/photos/notsogoodphotography/770557316/

UNDERSTANDING

PERSEVERANCE

REFLECTION

http://www.flickr.com/photos/tonythemisfit/3223459074/

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3461/3196112134_aa09fbfefa.jpg?v=0

EXPERTISE

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They are….CONNECTED

COLLABORATIVEENGAGED

Community Fellows Strive to Embody Certain

Dispositions

Which Support the

Writer's Process

Allowing for the Development of

Writer's Craft

•Courage and Initiative •Understanding•Perseverance•Reflection•Expertise•Cooperation and Collaboration

•Prewriting•Drafting•Peer-Review•Editing•Revising•Publishing

• Compelling Ideas• Engaging Voice• Effective Word Choice• Clear Organization• Fluent Sentences• Proper Use of Conventions

But Then…Where Do Process and Craft Fit In? Envisioning a Year of Writing Together

Unit 1

Big Idea:Courageous ideas are great ideas

Dispositions, Phases of the Process and Elements of Craft to Explore with Depth:

Pre-writingIdea DevelopmentCourage

Unit 2

Big Idea:We use mentor texts to seek understanding about organization

Dispositions, Phases of the Process and Elements of Craft to Explore with Depth:

Pre-writing DraftingOrganizationUnderstanding

Growing the Good

What do you currently do to support young writers well?

Consider:CurriculumInstructionAssessment

Management

Draw Your Writin

g Proce

ss

A WRITING PROCESS

PrewritingDrafting

Peer-ReviewRevisionEditing

Exhibition

Which parts of the process

show up most in your

classroom? Least?Why?

Writing is a Process

Make time for tinkering!

Traits to Focus on During Pre-Writing:

IDEAS

ORGANIZATION

IDEAS• Invite or inspire pre-writing activities.

• Come from our experiences, our connections, and our previous understandings.

• May be generated from artifacts, photographs, movement, music, conversation, guided brainstorming and more…..

• Require good writers to select appropriate MODES and to define their PURPOSES.

• Move readers from general to more refined topics.

• Inspire careful observation.

• Require independent use of higher level thought.

How Do We Help Writers Generate Their OWN

Innovative Ideas?

And how do we

intervene when

writers struggle

to generate their own

ideas?

Organization

“Organization is what you do

before you do something

so that when you do it

it’s not all mixed up.”

Winnie the Pooh

http://blog.wired.com/geekdad/books/index.html

ORGANIZATIONWHAT IT IS….

A lead that “hooks” reader and provokes questions.

A core that provides details in a logical manner and transitions between them smoothly.

An ending that satisfies the questions raised within the work.

Traits to Focus On As We Draft

IDEAS

ORGANIZATION

VOICE

VOICE• The “sound” of the writer or the

speaker.

• Tone that is appropriate to the task.

• Commitment to the piece—involvement.

• Attention to the topic.

Voice• Requires that writers shift the way they speak in

response to MODE and PURPOSE.

• Invites diversity and complexity.

• Built when students take RISKS.

• Thrives in a comfortable atmosphere.

• Suffers when we overemphasize formulaic processes or models.

WORD CHOICE

“The race in writing is not to the swift, but to the original.”

----William Zinsser

Word Choice• Original words

• Precise words

• Engaging words

• Varied words

• Attention to dialect and formality

Sentence fluency

• Fluent sentences appeal to the ear and the eye.

• They vary in length and structure.

• They convey character, emotion, and reveal voice.

• Rhythm, rhyme, and repetition of vowel and consonant sounds effect fluency.

CONVENTIONS: THE LAST CONVERSATION

• Attending to conventions happens at the END of the writing process.

• Effective writers understand why editing is necessary. Strong writers know that editing isn’t merely about “fixing up” writing.

• Edits are intentional, effective, and do not strip the work of voice, ideas, or fluency. They BUILD it.

Coaching Creative Theft

Find the Assessment

What Does Effective Assessment of Writing

Look Like?

What Makes for Adequate Practice?What Makes for Suitable Practice?

What’s your current reality?How did it come

to be?

Grappling with the Tension

Adopting, Adapting, or Ignoring Programs

Adapting Your Program

What it is….Pursuing alignment to content and literacy standards with VISION.

– Upgrading assessments to promote greater learning and authenticity.

– Differentiating instruction to attend to needs of learners surfaced from evidence.

– Attending to engagement.

– Balancing your literacy block.

What it isn’t…Pursing alignment to vision while evading content and literacy standards.

– Abandoning or replacing assessments without studying alignment.

– Differentiating or lowering expectations before gathering evidence of capacity and needs

– Confusing engagement and entertainment

Protocolsfor

Thoughtful Program Adaptation

Designing Powerful Writing

Experiences with the Common Core

ReferencesGray, Theresa (2006). Slideshare. Writing Frameworks. Retrieved January 21, 2009 from:

http://www.slideshare.net/TGray/writing-frameworks

Martin-Kniep, Giselle O. Communities That Lead, Learn, and Last: Building and Sustaining Educational Expertise. California: Jossey-Bass, 2008.

National Board for Professional Teacher Standards. “What Teachers Should Know and Be Able to Do: The Five Core Propositions.” Retrieved Aug. 21, 2008 from http://www.nbpts.org/the_standards/the_five_core_propositions

Stockman, Angela (2008-Present). WNY Young Writers’ Studio. Presented at Daemen College, Amherst, NY and the Kenan Center, Lockport, NY.

Unless otherwise noted, all photographs were taken by Angela Stockman, who was given permission to use them by the subject and parents, when necessary.