Lisa Pershan Middle School Units of Study in Writing January 20, 2016

Some reminders from Lucy:

What is a teacher’s job? 1980/NCLB 2015/CCSS Delivering facts Helping students synthesize information Making sense of all the information they are taking in daily Ensuring students are learning Over 50% is about writing Complex texts Using evidence Building knowledge Delivering facts Ensuring you were teaching Vocabulary Fluency Phonics Phonemic Awareness Comprehension

Planning your instruction What are your students’ individual needs? Your expectations should be high, but achievable. Make goals for how much your students should write in a day, a week, a month and a school year Don’t think of more pieces of writing, but more extensive writing 1 ½ - 2 pages in 30-45 minutes. Working towards a goal of 3 pages by the time they get to 8th grade Seed idea vs. seed story Seed story: Do not have the students write a word: Incorrect: Hiking with brother Correct: Hiking at Appalachian mountains with my brother and we got lost Digging a grave story Day 2: I taught you how to write about something that is important to you. Today I am going to teach you how to write about true stories. Make a true story and make it long. You are always ending the mini lessons with ‘you will be doing…’ remember to be explicit. Day 3. You already have strategies for writing but I am going to help you build the level of this writing.

Components of the Common core writing workshop Mini-lesson Conference

The mini-lesson Connection Teaching Active Engagement Link Engage your students. Today I want to teach you… Teaching Guided practice Explanation with an example Inquiry Active Engagement Students try the new strategy you just taught This can be done independently or with a demonstration text Link Students work on their own Remind them that they have already learned this type of writing

Conferencing Research Decision Phase Teach/Coach Link You need to understand what the writer has done You will be responsive to the child’s needs This is not a time to re-teach a skill or strategy Examples: “How’s it going?” Conferencing is “Pope-like” Decision Phase You must synthesize what you have learned and identify the most important coaching that this student needs. What can you teach that will make the most impact? Teach/Coach Name the areas of strengths Even if the student has not mastered the skills, they are working towards a goal Make sure you are clear and memorable Model the strategy before asking the student to go on their own This allows for gradual release of responsibility or scaffolding. Link When the writer continues working on their own Repeat your teaching point Remind your student they can continue to write on any of the pieces they have written

Flexible grouping Students need to work on their own and in small groups How comfortable are you with this? How can you start this? Think about patterns you see in the writing of your students Is there a group of students who all need help writing leads? Is there a group of students who all need help building tension? Is there a group of students who all need help connecting their reasons to evidence?

Grade 6 research unit What is the main thread of the unit? How many cycles of writing and publication does this unit recommend? How much writing will be expected of your students? Teaching points in each session How many of these are you already teaching? How can you build off what you are already teaching? How can you stretch yourself a little bit more? How would you plan your mini-lesson?

Next steps We will meet bi-weekly Bring your students’ samples weekly Keep notes about what is working and what you are struggling with This is a COMPLETELY new way of teaching. We WILL fall and have bumps along the road. The important thing is we are there to help each other get back up and walking again.