2011 Southern Nevada Writing Project Summer Institute

Day Eight Agenda 1.Scribe Report 2.Ticket out the Door Review 3.Teaching Demonstration Debrief Discussion 4.Teaching Demonstration – Kurt Rice 5.LUNCH – Response Groups 6.Leid Library (Special Collections) visit 7.Ticket out the Door

2011 Southern Nevada Writing Project Summer Institute

Scribe Report  When you hear the word left pass the bag to the person on your left.  When you hear the word right pass the bag to the person on your right.  When you hear any form of the word write pass the bag two people to the right.

2011 Southern Nevada Writing Project Summer Institute

Draft Teaching Demo Debrief 1.Form four groups of three or more with one facilitator per team 2.Assign one team per lens for lenses 1 – 4, everyone responds to lens 5 3.Access Teaching Demo Debrief form on Google Docs 4.Teaching Demonstration begins while participants note “warm feedback” and make observations made through their specific lens 5.After Teaching Demonstration concludes, whole group shares “warm feedback” verbally with presenter

Draft Teaching Demo Debrief, cont. 6.Presenter completes self-reflection writing addressing each of the five lenses, keeps copy for debrief next day 7.Lens teams collaboratively write response for each lens on Google Doc 8.All teams respond to Lens 5: “Questions” 9.Facilitators save Google Doc as Word Document, print copies for presenter Reflection / Debrief (on the next day following the demo) 10.Presenter reflects on the collaborative, five lens debrief process (3 minutes) 11.Whole group discusses the process, makes recommendations for next steps.

2011 Southern Nevada Writing Project Summer Institute

Puzzle Pieces Exploring Reconstruction of Mentor Texts and Student Writing as a Method to Facilitate Understanding of Purpose and Structure

Dilemma Many of my students are able to identify purpose and can generally articulate organizational patterns Narrative, persuasive, expository, Instructional Cause and effect, compare and contrast, chronological Many of my students are unable to write to specific purpose in an organized manner Mostly reflective or loosely narrative Ideas seemingly placed at random Evidence non-existent or disconnected from main idea Is this a problem for anyone else?

Prior Instructional Assumptions Reading and writing are intertwined skills; one must always accompany the other. Using published, exemplary texts, also known in as “mentor texts,” is a good way to improve anyone’s writing. The best way to use mentor texts is to have students analyze them through disassembly. The two best methods of disassembly are dialectical journaling and text annotation Once students have shown they can disassemble a text, they can move on to writing their own purposeful, well- organized pieces. What was practical result of these assumptions? Students dutifully produced façades. They found It was not necessary to critically read the text to meet the assignment requirements

What’s the Problem? I reflected on my own assumptions and made the following observations: My instruction is almost exclusively directive My assignments are prescriptive and focused entirely on production of a gradeable artifact My assignments are all isolated, individual activities I drive all group discussion Take a few minutes to use Attachment 1: Instructional Obs Form, to comment on why these might be potential areas to investigate.

Proposed Solution There is a glaring lack of student intellectual engagement outside the narrow confines of the finished product. Even though I might need to address the way I approach journaling and annotation, I feel there is no need to discard them. I do need to try some form of facilitated, cooperative, self-directed deconstruction of text. Paradoxically enough, instead of disassembling textual puzzles, students will put the puzzles together.

Process Overview Part 1: Using Mentor Texts The teacher locates and disassembles a range of mentor texts that exemplify various types and purposes for writing. Students receive only a portion of a piece of writing and are then required as a class to work together to reassemble the mentor texts in correct order Student groups then read their text as the rest of the class listens and writes their conclusions about the topic of the piece, purpose, and key details in order of presentation. We will accomplish Part 1 today.

Process Overview Part 2: Using Student Writing Students choose or be assigned a purpose for writing from among those “reconstructed” mentor pieces. The writing should be of similar length to the mentor text and the final draft must be electronically stored. Students disassemble their own writing and then (preferably) another class will run through the same reconstruction process as was accomplished with the mentor texts. We will not accomplishPart 2, but will discuss implications at the end of the demonstration.

Puzzle Pieces You will each receive a portion of a larger, complete text. It is a “puzzle piece” that fits with other pieces to form a whole story or article. You will find the matching pieces, then put them in order as a group.

Puzzle Pieces: Orient the Text (5 mins) When you get your “piece,” write your name on the sheet in the top left corner above the printed text. Read the text and annotate. What type of writing it? Where might it go in the story or article? What might its purpose be?

Puzzle Pieces: Match and Build (15 mins) Move around the room to find other students who have the puzzle pieces that connect to yours. Form your team in one area of the room. As a team, put your entire puzzle in order. Give each sheet a number corresponding to its place in the larger written work. Write each sheet order number in the upper right corner across from your name.

Puzzle Pieces: How Close Did We Get? Teams will read their completed puzzles Those who are listening will respond using A2: Listener Response Form

Puzzle Pieces: How Well Would This Work? How will students be able to use this in their own writing? Why is Part 2 necessary? What is the application potential at various grade levels? What is the application potential for various subject areas? In what ways can this idea be extended? What scaffolding might need to be considered?

2011 Southern Nevada Writing Project Summer Institute

Ticket out the Door: