Building Writing Fluency “Write, write and write some more. Think of writing as a muscle that needs lots of exercise.” -Jane Yolen Title Slide: Suggested

Outcomes Deepen understanding of the purpose of writing fluency and using the strategy to build student stamina in writing Obtain activities to build fluency and stamina daily in your classroom Required Slide

What is Writing Fluency? “Fluency is the ability to generate text-a lot of it- in a short period of time…This gives students something to work with when rereading, revising, and even editing.” Aimee Buckner “To get past ‘page fright’, writers need to experience the power of motion. Before we start a piece of writing, the page is blank. To get the ballpoint rolling, we must simply begin.” Jeff Anderson Required Slide Read page aloud NOTES: as fluency builds, students begin to think about the conventions about print at the same time.

Activity 1 Chocolate chip cookie Exercise NOTES: Teachers take out their journal. Choose one or both words. “Write as much as you can, as fast as you can, as well as you can in one minute. Go!” Call time. “Stop writing. Lift you pencil up in the air. Draw a line under what you just wrote. Count the number of words you wrote and record the word count under the line.” Record teachers’ number of words. Any volunteers to share.

Professional Development Travel NOTES: Repeat steps for power writing. Record results. Any volunteers to share.

Power Writing Jeff Anderson “The point of power writing is to get as many sentences down on the paper as they can.” “The words act as triggers. Emphasize that the writing won’t be perfect.” “Students enjoy sharing their power-writes, which reinforces that writing is for expression and communication.” NOTES: There is no way to mess it up.

Extending Power-Writes: “Toss Ins” Have students continue writing for another minute, but this time, the teacher will randomly “toss in” additions to include in their next minute’s writing. Example… “Add the number 1,000; add a superlative; add an appositive; add a social studies term.” Basically, you are “tossing in” specific items related to class learning Required Slide if you use slide 8- this is an add on to Power Writing – extend with your own activity if you wish. Facilitator: After teachers have written for one minute and have counted their words, tell them they are going to write for another minute. Tell them that this time, they can either continue where they ended. This time, though, tell them that you will “toss in” something. -Facilitators: You will show student examples of this after teachers have tried it.

“Fill your paper with the breathings Heart Map Read The Best Story by Eileen Spinelli Teacher models how to create a Heart Map. Students create their own Heart Map. Blank space in their Heart Map means that there is room to add more. “Fill your paper with the breathings of your heart.” -William Wordsworth NOTES: Similar to a writing from a list. *Show samples

Lift A Line “We are all a little weird and life’s a little weird, and when we find someone whose weirdness is compatible with ours, we join up with them and fall in mutual weirdness and call it love.” -Dr. Seuss “There isn’t any secret. You sit down and you start and that’s it.” -Elmore Leonard “Writing is an extreme privilege but it’s also a gift. It’s a gift to yourself and it’s a gift of giving a story to someone.” -Amy Tan Required Slide - Facilitators: Tell participants to choose one of the above quotes to copy directly into their notebook. The idea is to react to the quote in writing. -Tell participants that in their classrooms, students can use this strategy to choose a quote to write about a quote from a content area or to revise a piece of writing.

Share Your Best Practices As a table group share activities that you do in your classroom to build writing fluency. Required Slide NOTES: Teachers share each other’s great ideas. Facilitators chart good ideas.

Why Writing Fluency? “Everything we write today prepares us for the writing task of tomorrow.” Fluency = Building Writing Stamina Standard 10- Write routinely over extended time frames (time for research, reflection, and revision) and shorter time frames (a single sitting or a day or two) for a range of tasks, purposes, and audiences. Required Slide Why?

When Will I Fit This In??? Where can you find 15 minutes for your students to write and share every day? Discuss with your table group. (Remember, it can be in any content area, any time.) Required Slide

Three Things To Remember About Writing Fluency Students who write every day will become good writers. Fluency builds stamina. Fluency pushes students past writer’s block.

Resources Professional Texts: Notebook Know-How Aimee Buckner 10 Things Every Writer Needs to Know Jeff Anderson Writing Essentials Regie Routman Crafting Writers K-6 Elizabeth Hale Another Great Resource: www.writingfix.com