August Institute: Writing Institute 2014-15 Day 3

August Institute: Writing Institute
2014-15

Day 3 

        I'm here at Teachers' College Reading and Writing Project! Day 3- Ack, it's going so fast!

Writing to intensify reading Kate Roberts

Infographic pages

• Complicates/ multiplies thinking
• Engaging
• Springboards for more thinking

Ladder of abstraction   You need both big ideas and details!

Another idea: Mind map: external/internal pressures, Top five quotes, problems, ideas, Top three things about ____, Two worst things about ______, Time line, Power line, ____ vs. ______

Ranking: When is the character most ____ or worst ___, best _____, happiest ____, saddest _____

Looking at my infographic.  How would I rank the themes according to importance?  The theme that is most important in The One and Only Ivan is love.  Ivan loves Stella and Ruby and does what he can for them.  The friendship between Bob and Ivan is rooted in love.  Even Mack, a controversial character, loves Ivan.  He took him into his home.  When I van became too large and unwieldy, he put him into a cage thinking that would be a good home for him.  Julia demonstrates her love when she helps Ivan get out of the cage.  The second most important theme is animal cruelty.  It's the cruelty Mack shows Ruby that spurs Stella and Ivan into action.  Mack seems to be a good man who has fallen on hard times.  The third theme is perseverance.  Ivan has to persevere to find some way to save Ruby.

Infograhics can inspire us to...

1. Think in best and worsts, mosts and leasts (Ranking)
2. Make comparisons
3. Consider causes and effects
4. Pay attention to change
5. Find patterns
6. See causes and effects (use arrows)
7. Character relationships (within themselves and with each other)
8. Symbolism 
9. Author's craft

Looking at the bands of text complexity

• K, L, M    The Basics: Nate the Great, Junie B. Jones  The characters have traits that are always the same.  Relationships and problems stay the same. 
• N, O, P, Q     Change! Things tend to shift and you need to find the change.  Amber Brown. These are more dynamic-readers need to track the changes.
• R, S, T    Complexity.  Bridge to Terabithia  Characters are complex.
• U, V, W   Uncertainty.  Uncertain of traits or who they are.  Like Katniss from The Hunger games.  Students need to be reading like a detective.
• X, Y, Z   Literary.  Packed with literary devices: syntax, vocabulary, allusions.

Students are reading in the band but they're not doing the work of the bandUse the characteristics of the text complexity bands to think of what the work should be. Have kids come up with ways to track thinking.

Setting up a chart to track thinking
Three column chart:
Moments with Rosaura and Mother||| How they feel in this moment towards each other|||What this shows about their relationship

Charts to track thinking help because it sets a purpose for reading.
A two column chart:
Evidence||| My Thinking

Great tools to help thinking and discussion:
Narrative Writer's Use Techniques such as ...

Narrative Writers Aim Towards Goals such as...

Can use as bingo sheets or discussion starters or cut them up!


The Stolen Party
Modeled by Kate.  What is my job as an author's craft detective?  How many moves can I identify in this first paragraph?

• foreshadowing
• dialogue
• inner thinking
• symolism (monkey)

Next paragraph, on our own.  We saw:

• dialogue
• multiple points of view
• emotions
• tone
• inner thinking
• revealing action
• reader knows more than the character

Things we could use to create tools for writing about reading:

1. Student Facing Continuum: Character Traits
2. Post-its>> range of skills and/or levels of thinking
3. Post-it codes>>What are the codes>>where would they go>>jot off of it
4. Entries with thought prompts
5. Infographics
6. Charts
7. Craft entries off the grids pictured above

Conferring to move kids and generate curriculum       Carl Anderson

All-About writing/conferring

• What do you want to say here?
• Which parts get that across?
• Get rid of things that don't relate to that big idea.

Detail

• Details are the particulars or specifics of a piece of writing
• Writers write with a range of genre-specific details
• Specificity is an important dimension of leaning
• A sentence has at least one detail, a compound sentence has at least two details

STD's- snapshots (descriptions of characters, actions or setting), thought shots (what the character is thinking), dialogue (explicit and inner)

Look for patterns in their writing when you confer

What's the f word? Facts: informational, descriptive, action

When choosing a Mentor text, think of your kids needs first.  Scan/take a picture and put into your Dropbox.  Then you always have access on your iPad. Teaching at your fingertips.  Choose texts at their level and meet their needs.

Conventions

• Conventions include spelling, grammar and punctuation
• All writers make careless errors
• Some of the errors children make are signs of their growth as writer as they write sentences of growing complexity

There are patterns of development (in structure, development and conventions) in students writing as they develop in complexity.  Know your students.

Know your checklists!

Structure- Overall, Lead, Transitions, Ending, Organization

Development- Elaboration, Description

Conventions- Spelling, Punctuation

Tertiary questions- are questions that are much more specific once you have done the research.  Could be about the writing process, the checklist areas, the 6 traits etc.

Feedback- compliment first.  What is this child doing as a writer? The key is not to be random, try to compliment something you want to build on with your teaching point.

The cycle of writing about reading       Audra Robb

Exploring Writing about Reading

• Track thinking
• Push thinking
• Think and notice small details, Think and interpret towards big universal themes  (Think about the ladder of abstraction)

Using two column chart to track themes in a story and its development:

Evidence||| My Thinking

The Sacred by Stephen Dunn
Track your thinking- Students don't want to talk about something as private as a sacred place.  By definition, a sacred place is a place for reflection and being alone.  The car is a symbol, not only for being a private, sacred place but also for being a place that can take you away.

Charles Fishman  Good recipe for ways to track thinking

• Always searching for the little stories that would be worth telling (Detail)
• The big story
• The "good stuff"

Exploratory writing
There needs to be places for both types of writing

-for the self (notebook, blog etc.)

-with a group (posters, charts, Edmodo groups, collaborative Google docs)

Explanatory Writing/ Argument writing
-Towards an audience
-Needs Mentor texts
-Needs explicit teaching regarding craft

Teachers can use book reviews and movie reviews as examples of lit essays.

Think about using poetry to respond to literature

Great Explorations    Kate Roberts

There's Bo!  Adorable

Planning, reading, and you have expectations.  Expectations are not always met...  hight expectations don't have to be taken away, maybe just modified.

"Teaching is so much harder and so much more wonderful than you could have every expected."
Holding on too tightly to your expectations, it sucks the joy out.  You wind up feeling badly: anger, self-pity etc.

Some education expectations currently sucking the joy: using data all the time, challenging lit all the time, assessments all the time.

"I earned that 65 but it wasn't who I was." Grades/data don't make us who we are.

Sometimes the data is so broad that it's almost meaningless.  Looking at the assessments...sometimes, it's not the kids- it's the assessment.

Great analogy: sunset data doesn't catch what a sunset is.

Keeping our expectations humble

• Know what our expectations are good for-and what they are not
• Keep the kids at the center of all things.

When you teach with love, humor and compassion, kids remember you!
Teaching literary essays with love, humor and compassion
Finding the theme: First, find something engaging to the kids
Using "Let it go" sung by Idina Menzel
What phrases go with the theme: You should "Let it go"

• couldn't keep it in
• now they know
• let it go
• Turn away and slam the door
• I don't care what they are going to say
• The cold never bothered me anyway

Now we have some text evidence but how do we transform that into a deeper understanding?
Let's group!  What ideas go together?  Do they have a similar feeling /mood /tone?
Some other themes?  

• Lonely
• Explodes
• Angry

Idea for discussion: What happens when you don't let it go?

Make a decision and have fun!!!  It's a choice.

Always,

Lisa

Follow me on Twitter @Lisa_teacher for live tweets.  I'll be blogging every day this week.

Stay in touch!  Be sure to follow my blog, TPT store, and like my Facebook page for notification of new products and freebies!

August Institute: Writing Institute 2014-15 Day 2

August Institute: Writing Institute
2014-15

Day 2 

        I'm here at Teachers' College Reading and Writing Project! It's Day 2.

Writing to Intensify Reading: From Entries to Composition Books to Essays        Kate Roberts

kateandmaggie.com

Managing post-it annotations

-You want to keep the post-its that represent the best work.  Pick a day to download the best post-its into their readers' notebooks.  Pick a number.  "Pick your six best post its for the week.  Put them into your notebook." "Pick the three post-its that most closely represent the work of this week."- helps to tether them to the work of the classroom.  "Pick three you're proud of. Two you're wondering about. One you really need help on."

-"Pick four that show _______ comprehension strategies."

Criteria for picking post-its:

• Best #
• The # that reflect the unit
• Best and worst
• A day in the life of a post -it (picking a day of post-its)
• A strategy
• A journey of thought in the book -where an idea began and where/how it moved
• Talk post-its- spurred thinking/conversation

How to motivate more post-its

• Teach kids when to stop. (Notice and Note, Beers and Probst)
• Allow students to mark important spots and then go back and think/talk/write       Marking for significance (!, ?, * etc.) - coding      What codes can you think of that might work for you/the lit you're reading.        ! -Big Idea ?-Question/Wonder  *-aha  circle,square-pattern  icons of depth and complexity  heart-emotions

• Setting a number collectively
• Set a purpose >>>talk >>>entries >>>Review on GoodReads, Blogs, Edmodo, Movie trailer  >>celebrate -post-it star chart, post-it party

Find a way to use the post-its in a purposeful manner in tour Reader's Workshop.

Reader's Notebook Entries

How do we get entries to generate more thinking/deeper thinking?  "Start off with a post-it and push your thinking.  Write long."  Do they end up with a thought better than they started with?

Foundation lesson for writing entries 

Thought prompts /sentence starters help kids pause and push their thinking

• This makes me think...
• ___ is like ____ but also like _____
• Or maybe
• At first I thought___ but now I think ____
• On the other hand ....
• Another way of saying this is ....
• This makes me realize ....
• The theme of ____ is similar to ____ because ______

Thought prompt model lesson:

Don't expect kids to just be able to write. Demonstrate the thinking behind using the thought prompt. Model how to use the thought prompts/ use a think aloud.  Start with a statement and have kids offer a thought prompt to you.  Model the thinking behind it.  Then do a different thought process.

"Rosaura is prideful. Which way should I go?" "This makes me think..." I could go with motivation, explanation, etc. "Rosaura is prideful.  This makes me think it's a porcupine pride...to protect herself."  "I realize"  "I could do character or the world. I realize that when people act egotistical, they might be scared."  "or maybe" "Or maybe she does change because she goes from ego to rage." BOOM!

Then have kids talk!!  After you model, have kids try it out!!

Thought prompts for an informational unit:

This helps me understand _____

I never knew ____

I used to think _____ but now I know _____

I agree/disagree with _____ because ______

Now I'm wondering about _______

____ is similar/dissimilar to ____ because ______

I can't believe that ______

The author's purpose for writing this is _____

The text says ____and makes me think _____

This text makes me feel _____ because _____

The author chose the word ____ because _____

What is worth writing long about?

The whole idea is to push their thinking. Some post-its are worth writing long about, others not so much.  Some are already good- you don't need to write long.  Which do you have more thoughts about?

• Ideas that feel like judgments
• Ideas that feel too simple (trait, emotion etc.)
• The start of a theory
• Questions that won't be answered in the text
• Anything that hunts at a theme or Big Idea
• Debate questions
• Different perspectives they're not familiar with
• Personal connections
• Tentative language/insecure entries

Notebook entries

• Infographic pages -graphic organizers, thinking maps, theme web, power map, internal/external pressures
• Writing long with post-its

Homework: write an entry using some thought prompts, a long jot and make an infographic page

The One and Only Ivan by Katherine PattersonWhy would it be difficult for a gorilla?"I Wonder"  I wonder where he lives that makes life difficult?"The text says____ which makes me think _____"  The text says the freeway ape which makes me think he lives near people so it's not in a forest"The author chose the word ____ because _____" The author chose the words waste, toss, rot because she really want to get the idea across of humans as wasteful.Entry:
The author chose the words waste, toss, rot because she really want to get the idea across of humans as wasteful. When I looked up wasteful, I found " using or expending something of value carelessly, " I think tat may be a theme in this book. Humans as careless. I think humans think they are taking care of the earth. You know, using reusable bags and recycling but if we looked at it from the perspective of the animals, they might find us extremely careless.  Some synonyms for careless: inattentive, incautious, remiss, negligent and cavalier. I wonder what Ivan has gone through in his life and what he's seen.  What have we done to them?

Infographic made with piktochart (free education account).  Lit response to The One and Only Ivan.

Conferring to move kids and generate curriculum               Carl Anderson

     First two teachers role-played being a teacher and student conferring. Then we role played at our desks.

     Carl recommends Randy Bomer -Building Adolescent Literacy in Today's English Classrooms to find info about notebooks and rubrics.

     

     As you confer with kids, it will become second nature.  BUT you need to be doing it right as "practice makes permanent" not "practice makes perfect".

     What are you looking for?  What lenses will you be using?  What do you value and why?

What do we want students to learn to do as writers?

• Initiate writing -write because it's meaningful/purpose and audience, who do we want to reach?
• Write well -they need to learn to write competently to be able to communicate well
• Develop a writing process that works for them -the child should have whatever works for them

What does initiative mean?

• Purpose
• Audience

What does it mean to write well? Qualities of writing (similar to 6 traits).

Experienced writers:

• Communicate meaning
• Structure their writing
• Write with detail
• Give their writing voice
• Use conventions

Aspects of process

• Rehearsal
• Drafting
• Revising
• Editing
• Publishing

It's all about focus and elaboration!

       To help with focus: Kids need to answer "What am I trying to say here?" before they even start their draft.

Tomorrow: patterns and tertiary questions.  Teaching points.
No Homework!

Using Technology to Boost Student Engagement

Cornelius Minor

Mindset:  Remember you are not teaching technology- simply using it as a tool The tool we are using to communicate ideas.

What place does it have in my classroom?  Tech is anything that helps us do our work better - stuff we use to create content.  Kids need to learn to be content creators.  Your economic behavior is set in your teenage years: you are either a consumer (use it) or producer (creators).  Consumers make less than producers.  What are you?

1. Need a mentor, preferably a kid.  You need 7 minutes every week. Become familiar with your mentors tools.
2. Make sure you have a smart phone.  You are not literate without one. Have an email outside of school (gmail). You need a Dropbox account- cloud based storage solution, it's like renting a storage unit.   Google drive- need an gmail account.  Twitter- his current favorite, your PLN helps you grow!

Need Mentor Texts!  Where can I get them?

1. Overdrive Media Console- connects to your local library, they download to your computer, you acquire texts for a couple weeks
2. Wattpad -If you read a book, you have to write a review.  It's not books that are already published.  Can use it to upload work and can search for free.
3. Genius Scan- download to smart phone $5.99  Turns camera on phone into a scanner.  Allows you to take a pic and save as a pdf. Really useful for Mentor Texts.

Tech squad!

1. A bossy girl     CEO
2. Expert at something    Doesn't matter in what! That means he's an organic researcher
3. Early bird    Super responsible
4. Class Diplomat

OK Tech squad, I need to make a digital library.  You need to stockpile texts.  What do you like to read? What web sites do you use to read about them?  Go to the web sites with the kids and bookmark the pages.  #3, your job is to cruise the sites and copy and paste into Word. #1, your job is to take the formatting and puts it into the appropriate folder in Dropbox or Google.  

In grades 4-8, pleasing the teacher no longer matters BUT social needs are big. They want to please peers.  What tools can I use?

1. Edublogs are very secure.  Can also use Wordpress, can add security levels.  Blogger is the most open though.
2. When students publish three items, they get cards that say: Name, writer   Mrs. Robles' Class,  Blog address
3. How does the community gather?  Print pictures, web addresses, QR codes and put on bulletin boards in those places.  The kids are famous!

The writing notebook is a construct where ideas live.  Three important ideas:  It doesn't have to be a physical notebook.  How do your ideas come to you?  Where are those ideas going to live?  How are you going to communicate that to me?  Could be Google docs, physical notebooks etc. How is the writing going to get to me?

Feedback:  From the teacher and from peers.  How do we share our work?

1. Edmodo: Facebook for kids.  Today'smeet.com   Poll everywhere- wide open to the world.

Google docs - so easy for writing

Go to:  http://kassandcorn.com/  
@misterminor

Always,

Lisa

Follow me on Twitter @Lisa_teacher for live tweets. I'll be blogging every day this week.

Stay in touch!  Be sure to follow my blog, TPT store, and like my Facebook page for notification of new products and freebies!

Creating a toolkit by Kristen Smith **Bonus**

Creating a toolkit by Kristen Smith  

Day 1- TCRWP

**Bonus**

Ways to organize it:

• A notebook -transportable but limiting to growth
• A folder
• A binder - can grow -add sheet protectors
• Notecards  -can use for mini-charts -front: teaching point, back: mentor text (add author and title)
• Digital notebook (Penultimate app)  -can create books for each genre, add pictures of charts and annotate

Which works best for you?

Structure:

• Writing Process

Writing Process:

Collect/GenerateRehearsal/Developing Drafting Revision Editing Publishing Celebration

• Writing Skills

If...then...

Structure, Development, Language and conventions

• Combination of process and skills

Her system: Mentor text, Collecting, Structure, Development, Language and conventions, Checklists, Partnership work, Conferring templates

My plan:

Digital portfolio

What materials will you include in your toolkit?

• Checklists (various grade level rubrics, vocabulary bookmark, editing checklist)
• Mentor texts (excerpts for different grade levels, Connect chart to Mentor text (Excerpt, entire story/book- marked by structure, elaboration and language conventions, color coded in mentor text, Mirror writing-taking student writing to demonstrate the teaching point, show them what they're doing and then show them how that piece could be elevated)
• Mini-charts (Many charts are on the Units of Study CD already, Use the checklist language to create you own charts and you can include Mentor excerpts if you like)
• Conferring sheets

Work on your own:

Make a mini-chart, Fireflies

I wrote a beginning in which I showed what was happening and where, getting the readers into the world of the story

Shows place/setting, shows action, introduced time:evening/season

How to write an effective lead...  

Writer's:

-hint at a larger theme

-set time

-set place

How to write an effective lead...

Writer's:

-show what is happening

-show where something is happening (time, place)

-get reader's into the world of the story

Always,

Lisa

Follow me on Twitter @Lisa_teacher for live tweets. I'll be blogging every day this week.

Stay in touch!  Be sure to follow my blog, TPT store, and like my Facebook page for notification of new products and freebies!

Teachers' College August Writing Workshop- Day 1

August Institute: Writing Institute
2014-15

Day 1 

        I'm here at Teachers' College Reading and Writing Project! I've signed in already and am at Riverside Church to listen to the keynote by Lucy Calkins.

Keynote: Lucy Calkins Achieving a reset

 "Think about how far we've come...
-am eighth grade blogger brought Pearson to its' knees
-Twitter bringing us together
-using checklists to help guide writers
-hottest research topic in schools today: Should we serve chocolate milk in public schools?
-writing and taking a position as early as Kindergarten (argumentation)

        We can detect that this writing is influenced by the Common Core. TCRWP has been with the CCSS since the beginning- Pathways to the Common Core is Number one on the best-seller's list. Lately, CCSS has been under attack- testing in particular. In the early years, it did create motivation and excitement. Today, not so much. (Personal opinion: I like the standards, the testing- NOT. Test is just written badly and is extremely difficult). How can we reset to get back to the spirit of the CCSS? We need to help each other to bring ourselves closer to the work of CCSS. The goal is to give kids world-class writing instruction.
     One of the great themes in life: we need to be our own author.  Human beings are the beings that mark history and our lives. Writing takes time: we read, write, question, fear, love, live and make something of them.  Pearling: taking a moment of your life and pearling it, making something grow out of it , making significance out of experience, growing significance out of the detail (idea of Katherine Paterson).  The story is not in the big events but the synapses between them.  Those moments when you stop and reflect. 
     I'm for the Common Core plus.  Adopt the standards that you believe in plus ten percent.  It's you bringing your life themes to your teaching. Each of us needs to bring our passions, life themes, deepest purposes to our life's work of teaching.   Great teachers call students out of hiding.  Every student comes out of their shell and develops come out, come out where ever you are!  Bring your life theme to the Common Core.
     This is how we achieve a reset.  How can I bring all of me to this work to energize the CCSS?  It is OK to say this is where we want to end up (CCSS) but it is critical that every school get find their own pathway.  These shifts need to be locally controlled. Remember, teachers should not be doing the hardest work- the kids should be engaging in more productive struggle.  What are your best practices? You need to bring it to the school and make it better.
     The tendency to douse hope with fear.  Instead of saying "I have to because..." say "I can do this by..."   Do work you believe in.  Turn your school into a place where you bring passion to your work. This writing work will help students be better friends, better community members, better citizens. Writing can teach us the mindset: "I can take this moment and make something out of it."  Meaning isn't delivered to you on a silver platter.  Being engaged in your work is being human.  It's what we're called to do.  We are each the mother of our story."
     

Writing to Intensify Reading: From Entries to Composition Books to EssaysKate Roberts

Trouble with writing about reading:

• We hate it (Engagement)
• It's not worth it (Quality growth)
• It's useless, we do it because we were told to (Busy work)
• Dependent on someone else (It's an assignment)

Remember, writing about reading is worth it!

• It represents thinking
• Integral school move
• Assessment
• Reflection: It helps kids reflect on what they've read

Working on:

• annotations and post its
• entries
• companion books
• literature essays

What we naturally do when we write about reading:

• Relate it to personal experience
• Restate what the line was saying
• Thought about big idea or theme
• Envision- bring the line to life
• Connect to other texts
• Questioning

Natural experience- using post-its

It's not about the post-it, its about annotating our thoughts as we read.  What do you see in he annotation? Personal connection, Inferences, Comparisons, etc

What should we be looking for in the annotations?

• Range/repertoire
• Skill
• Level/Rigor

Short story: "The Stolen Party"  Read Aloud -author Liliana Heker

My annotations:  (Free form prompt)

Rosaura feels she's friends with the girl.  Mother worries she'll get hurt because she doesn't know her "place."

"Rich people go to heaven too."  Different world views.

Directed jot:  Take a side.  Rosario should (or not) have gone to the party.  (Debate prompt)

Rosaura should not have gone to the party.  She's going to get hurt because the other children will not accept her as the maid's daughter.  People may laugh at her.  She's "hiding" who she is and that's not healthy for her.

How has the author built up suspense?  Created a mood?  (Strategy prompt)

• The warnings from the mother
• The ways Rosaura keeps saying how wonderful it was
• Being singled out by the magician

What is this author trying to teach us?  (Strategy prompt)

• Don't expect too much (friendship)
• Understand your "place"
• "or maybe" Rules of society

Sometimes your fist thought is not always your best...  Use "or maybe" to rethink it (Thought prompt)

Ways to prompt annotation

• Free form -write what you want
• Debate -take a side
• Strategy prompt -think about a strategy
• Thought prompt -way to push your thinking "or maybe"

How do we get students to internalize these and go deeper?  The teacher shouldn't be the hardest worker in the room!

Level 7 (Fourth grade)

When asked to talk about the characters, drawing on details that seem important, the reader is apt to generate ideas mostly about the main character's traits, in some depth, using more than a single word to do this, either producing a few synonyms or using phrases or sentences to capture a trait. The reader may say a lot but struggle to get at what exactly he or she means.  With nudging, the reader can clarify these thoughts.

Important to model how to push thinking...expand. Make it explicit.

From "she is sad" (third grade) to "she if prideful person who is also really afraid of her place" (fourth grade) to "Rosaura wants affirmation: She is made at her mom because she teases her but when she is proud, she goes to her mom." (Fifth grade)

Make a chart that says "Ways to move my thinking"

Name emotion >>>Focus on trait

Name a trait >>> Tries to say more about the trait

The purpose of post-its is not to write.  It's to stop and jot.  Use them as starting points for later writing or discussions.

Tomorrow...creating a system for annotating, when do we stop and jot

Conferring to move kids and generate curriculumCarl Anderson

carlanderson1@mac.com

Conferring concerns:

• getting around to all the kids
• effective system for documentation
• making sure kids apply what we conferred upon, follow through (embracing your inner Lucy Van Pelt)
• applying conferences to small groups or fishbowls (cheat codes because of logistics aka large class size)
• how to prioritize
• addressing specific deficits

You're conferring and don't know what to say...just say "Great conference.  It was good talking to you." 

Catechism: We are teaching the writer, not the writing." -Lucy Calkins

To me this means, you talk to the students.  What does this story/essay mean to them?  What else can they add.  Stay away from conventions!  Get to the deeper meaning of the story and what it means to the writer.  Why did they choose this topic? Every student is different and has different needs- work from their individual base.  

Carl's view: The point of a conference is to make the kids become better writers.  It might be a strategy, a quality, an aspect of language- I teach only one thing. Keep the conference focused on one thing. It's about adding to their repertoire. 

Teacher as editor! Noooo. Only accomplished writer's have editors.  Their goal correct to make the product better.  It's not fair to be an editor for your kids. You need to be their teacher!  The larger goal is to make them better writers.

Assessment comes from assidere- to sit down.  Conferring is to sit beside the student and talk.

Identity is critical to being successful.  Do your students see themselves as writers? Writer's talk about: genre, their process, what they're trying to say, problems they're having as writers, ways they're crafting their text, purpose for writing a text, writing goals

Be clear-talk is a necessity.  Shrugs, "fine" and "good" are not acceptable.

New book coming out by Dan Feigelson on Conferring.  Carl likes it!  He suggests- ask students to "tell me more" at least twice during the conference.

Writing is essentially about making meaning and communicating.

Due to "pressures", teachers are not talking to students anymore. That's imperative.  If you're not talking, you and your kids are losing out! It should be fun for you and the kids.

Talk the talk of writers!  Mini-lessons are crucial to demonstrating the talk of writers. Talk about purpose, meaning, structure, craft...

Questioning techniques are very important in conferring.  First, cast a wide net "What's going on?"  "How's it going?" "What's up?" "How's writing going?"(Primary questions). Ways of talking in a conference: "Are you having any problems?"  "How can I help you?" "What are you trying to say in this piece?" "Where are you in the writing process?" "What's your next step?" "What are your writing goals?" "What genre are you writing in?" "Why are you writing this?" "What craft techniques are you using?" "What are you doing to make this better?"(Secondary questioning).   

Next time... (Tertiary questioning).

Always,

Lisa

Follow me on Twitter @Lisa_teacher for live tweets.  I'll be blogging every day this week.

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Reflecting on Feedback and Exit Slips

Feedback
By
Lisa Robles

     So I wen to a district pd on Friday about the new teacher evaluation system.  It calls for a lot more reflection on my part.  That'sok, I'm udes to that after becoming an NBCT.  One of the areas teachers need to focus on is using assessment in instruction to advance student learning.  
     After careful reflection, I feel one area I need to get better at is providing feedback.  In order to be considered highly effective, teachers need to meet the following requirements:
"Teacher’s feedback to students is timely, frequent, relevant, accurate, and aligned to the instructional 
outcome. Students make use of specific feedback to revise and improve their work. Students work collaboratively with peers to provide each other with actionable feedback."
     So first I need to take that apart and focus on the key words: timely, frequent, relevant, accurate, aligned to the instructional outcome, students use the feedback to revise work, students provide each other with actionable feedback.
    In order for students to be able to use the feedback to revise work, it must be goal referenced.  Did students understand the purpose of the lesson?  If not, it is very hard for them to achieve the goal.
     Actionable feedback has to be clear and specific.  "Good job" doesn't do it.  Instead, "your lead here really drew the reader in.  However the closing, leaves the reader hanging.  Remember, closing sentences need to wrap it with a bow. How can you create a more effective closing for this text?"

Exit tickets

     In order to provide effective feedback, I need to know where my students are in terms of their understanding.  So, I'm going to be using exit slips more consistently this year.  I'm going to make a chart labeled "Twitter Feed."  

     Then using this cute freebie from Presto Plans, my students can tweet about a lesson- no more than 140 characters, please. Sometimes, I may ask them to reflect on their understanding of the content, their effort, the instructional strategy used or the materials used.  If I'm in a rush, I may ask them to just rate their understanding: 4-I got this!, 3-Pretty Good, 2-Developing, 1-I don't get it.

     I'll keep you posted on my progress on using the exit slips consistently (at least once a week) and providing effective feedback to my students.  Wish me luck!  School starts in two weeks!

Always,

Lisa

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