Best Practices in the Teaching of Writing

Herb Budden, ITW Writing Project

 To understand Writer’s Workshop  To enable you to begin to design WW approaches for your classroom

Norms for the day…  What do you need in order to get things done?

Text Protocol—the 4 “A’s”  What A ssumptions does the author of this text hold?  What do you A gree with in the text?  What do you want to A rgue with in the text?  What parts of the text do you want to A spire to?

FAQs about writing instruction:  What about 4 square?  Writing process? What method should be used?  Should 6 Traits be taught all together or individually? How do they fit with the process?  How can I motivate kids to write?  How can I follow up on 6 traits when they’re mastered?  What about revision vs. editing?  What about writing on demand?  How do we make sense of all this and the demands of our curriculum? (grades in sp, etc)

Improving Writing in School:

Typical Components of WW, regardless of grade level:  1. Minilessons 5-15  2. Status of the Class 2-3  3. Writing / Conferring Time  4. Sharing / Author’s Chair 5-10

1. Minilesson: a short piece of direct instruction. (5-15 min)  Procedures. A lesson on what needs to be done to participate in the workshop, like how to store and organize papers, how to request a conference, etc.  Strategies Writers Use –”Craft”. Things like “how do I pick a topic?” or “how do I write a good lead?” Best focused on the writing process.  Qualities of Good Writing “Craft and Conventions”. These lessons let students see how to judge writing. 6 Trait time!  PS—YOU DON’T NEED A MINI EVERY TIME!

Minis work best when:  They are suggested by students  They are taught in the context of authentic student writing  The teacher models for students as the lesson is delivered

2. Status of the Class: a quick way of finding out what students will be working on. (2-3 min)  Out loud: students tell what they’ll be working on…writing process stage is most helpful  Visually: Students indicate on chart what they’re working on  Recorded on paper: a sheet is circulated or teacher records

Status of the Class works best when:  if you do it out loud  everyone can hear everyone else  students choose their own topics, forms, and genres and manage their own way through the writing process

3. Writing Time… the centerpiece of the workshop; the teacher: (20-40 min)  Models…work on your own writing; an extremely valuable thing to do!  Confers with students…this is the most valuable teaching time  Conducts small-group conferences

Writing Time works best when:  Students have internalized effective classroom procedures  Students write frequently and for longer periods of time on a regular schedule  You write with your students for at least a few minutes during most WW.

Conferring… working individually with students..keys are good management (during writing time)  Management: Students need to be able to know when the teacher is available for conference; how to request a conference in an appropriate way; how to be specific about what they want help with; have all materials ready  Execution: Conferences are brief! Model conferences; ask questions before making recommendations; work on one thing at a time; make sure the student knows what to do when leaving a conference

Conferring works best when:  Students know how to do it  You stay focused on one thing at a time  Conferences are less than 5 minutes  You check back with students from time to time to see if they’re following up on what you conferred about

More advice on conferring: Don’t correct…  Inspect the writing closely  Detect those parts that work and those that don’t  Reflect on why some things work and some don’t  Connect reactions to author’s intent  Respect the writer’s reactions  Perfect the communication between author and audience  Expect to repeat the process

4. Sharing/Author’s Chair : a chance to address a real audience for feedback (5-10 min)  Whole Class: gives authors good feedback, but takes a lot of time. Great tool for building community  Small Group: Time efficient, but harder to manage. Monitor each group’s members for participation  Partner: Most time efficient, but feedback may be less helpful

Sharing works best when:  It is voluntary  The author asks the audience to listen for or help with something specific  Kids with long pieces read only a short section  Students make constructive comments using common language from 6 Traits  Everyone knows that all comments, even the teacher’s, are suggestions only  Students ask mostly questions instead of making comments

General TIPS:  Concentrate on classroom management by focusing on procedural minilessons at the beginning of the year  If you have less than 40 minutes, drop the minilesson and sharing. Do a quick SOC and then go right to writing time.  Teach students to run their own WW so you don’t have to  Keep a list of things from your reading program that students like, and use it as basis for minilessons  Encourage shy kids to share by asking if you can share for them  Keep an in-class library of published student work for students to read  Have fun every day

MANAGEMENT STRATEGIES FOR WW  Remember that WW is flexible!  The essence of WW is not what you teach, but how you teach it. If most of your writing time includes kids writing on their own topics, if you participate as a fellow writer, if everyone shares writing regularly, and if you follow the kids and teach to their needs instead of a pre- planned curriculum, you’re doing WW

Four Approaches to WW:  “Traditional”-- includes mini, status, writing/conferring, sharing in that order… Most people start this way—is most similar to traditional teaching…use to exert control, to set the stage for lesson content or an important goal, or to start everyone off on a specific type of project. Some people use this format every day.

 “Share First”– Sharing, Mini, Status, Writing Time… Kids love sharing first; teacher gets a chance to collect thoughts…as kids share, listen for specific things to work on…then ask kids if they’d like a lesson on it.

 “No Lesson”-- includes only status of class, writing time, and sharing. Good approach when short on time or don’t have a lesson you want to give. It’s good to do this regularly because it lets kids know they have to get right down to business. Good to use later in the year when everyone knows the procedures.

 “Dynamic” – you do any of the components in any order only when you judge them important… Good to change the tempo of the class, switching can help settle kids down, allows the most flexibility

LOGISTICS– Keeping Writing Organized  Organizing student writing Gr K-2: Use wide-ruled notebook of some sort for pre-writing and drafting plus a simple tw0- pocket folder. On one side of the folder, students keep writing ideas and teacher handouts. On the other, they keep on-going work. The teacher keeps a third set of files for each student to store published work.

 Organizing student writing Gr 3-up:  Many teachers use a Writer’s Notebook-Draft Folder-Showcase Folder system  Some teachers use a 3-ring binder with divider sections named for each stage of the writing process. As students move a piece through the process, they store their work in the appropriate section

 Desks and seating: Many teachers prefer a semi-circular arrangement where all students have an unobstructed view of the sharing and teaching positons. Rows & columns are not good! Many teachers have writing resources and conferring ‘stations’ or designated areas in the room.

Scaffolding the WW Generating Story Ideas by writing /drawing to a prompt Thinking about writer’s craft Natalie Goldberg’s Writers Marathon: A Variation

Let’s list places that are special to us…  Remember—special places can be as tiny as a favorite chair or corner in a room… they don’t have to be big, splashy public places!

What do we notice about each person’s place to love in the book? Why is that? What makes a place special to someone?

Describe YOUR special places, using text, art, or both. You can dictate, create poems, draw pictures…whatever works. See p. 195 in Seeing with New Eyes

Sharing stories with pictures: How do we know what this story is about?

We read wordless stories by:  Examining the pictures carefully  Making up the words in our heads to fill in the story How might this activity help our students to think about the CRAFT of writing? What role does metacognition play in learning?

How should I begin my story…?

CRAFT Modeling: A possible beginning (lead): “Want to play golf with the president?” I heard my brother say on the other end of the line.

 Another possible beginning: The president. Meet the president. Could it be?

 Another possible lead: The long entrance through the estate’s tree- lined loomed ahead of me through the iron gates. Big black SUV’s were parked just beyond. An unsmiling man in a dark suit, sunglasses and radio headset approached my car. The day was warm, and my palms were sweating. See Jackson/Pillow The Reading-Writing Workshop: Getting Started, p. 109

YOUR OWN WRITING IS IMPORTANT! W H Y?  SERVES AS A MODEL  ALLOWS YOU TO EXPERIENCE THE WRITING PROCESS FIRST HAND, NOT JUST AS A TEACHER  WHAT TO WRITE ABOUT??

Keep your own portfolio! MY YEAR-- some good prompts: Predict what the year will be like… Reflect on a favorite book, film, play, piece of art, or something you’ve learned from teaching, a student, a favorite moment, something you’d do differently, the joy (or agony) of a field trip, a personal goal, a person (or film or book) that influenced you. Keep your work from classroom modeling. See pp in Seeing With New Eyes

WHAT DO YOU NEED TO DO IN ORDER TO BEGIN A WW IN YOUR CLASSROOM?