Mitzi Hoback ESU 4 Nebraska City Public Schools October 19, 2012

Thomas Jefferson, a Virgin, and Benjamin Franklin were singers of the Declaration of Independence. Franklin discovered electricity by rubbing cats backwards and declared, “A horse divided against itself cannot stand alone.” Franklin died and is still dead.

 Miguel Cervantes wrote Donkey Hote. The next great author was John Milton. Milton wrote Paradise Lost. Then his wife died. And he wrote Paradise Regained.  Voltaire invented electricity. Gravity was invented by him. It is chiefly noticeable in the autumn when the apples are falling off the trees.  Louis Pasteur discovered a cure for rabbis.  Charles Darwin was a naturalist who wrote the Organ of Species.  Madman Curie discovered radio.  Karl Marx became one of the Marx brothers.

 Review the importance of writing instruction in ALL classrooms.  Know and understand the changes in NeSA- Writing and how every teacher can support student achievement in writing.  Learn practical strategies for teaching writing across the content areas.

 I teach 4 th grade writing.  I teach 8 th grade writing.  I teach 11 th grade writing.  I teach students HOW to write in my classroom.  I USE writing to help students learn in my classroom.

 Find your “Elbow Partner”  Tell them on a scale of one to five how much you enjoy teaching writing.

On your notes page, write two facts you know about NeSA-Writing.

 Changes have been made to the 4 th, 8 th and 11 th grade rubrics.  The rubrics were changed to analytic rubrics in the fall of 2010 from the previous holistic rubrics.  The content of each new rubric has been tightened, and although most of the previous criteria remain, they have been redistributed into fewer domains. 18

 The domains of the rubrics are weighted as follows:  Content/Ideas – 35%  Organization – 25%  Word Choice/Voice/Tone – 20%  Sentence Fluency/Conventions - 20% 19

 Students wrote using the computer  On Demand Writing  Single Day  Untimed

In April NDE conducted a standard setting for grades 8 and 11. The results of the process were presented to the State Board, resulting in new cut scores for these grades. The quality of writing did not decline but rather the board--after discussion over a two day period- raised the requirements for Meets the Standards.

 The analytic rubric is a 4-point rubric – each domain will receive a score from 1-4.  In 2012, to be proficient at 8 th and 11 th grade, students needed a score of “3” in ideas/content and organization.  It is anticipated 4 th grade in 2013 will need scores of “3” in ideas/content and organization to be proficient.

Commit to data analysis as a continuous process, not an event. (Reeves, 2009)

 Writing is a “threshold skill” for both employment and promotion, particularly for salaried employees.  People who cannot write and communicate clearly will not be hired and are unlikely to last long enough to be considered for promotion.  2/3 of salaried employees in large American companies have some writing responsibility.  80% or more of the companies in the service, finance, insurance, and real estate sectors assess writing during hiring.  Half of all companies take writing into account when making promotion decisions. “You can’t move up without writing skills.”

 Writing is everyone’s business!  state and local curriculum guidelines should require writing in every curriculum area and at all grade levels.  Writing opportunities should be provided to every student  from the earliest years through secondary school and into college.

 Read the research statements.  Mark one or two that you find interesting, important, or intriguing.  Discuss the statements you marked with someone sitting near you—NOT your elbow partner!

“ The evidence is clear: writing can be a vehicle for improving reading.” Writing to Read: Evidence for How Writing Can Improve Reading A Report from the Carnegie Corporation Steve Graham and Michael Hebert Vanderbilt University, 2010

 Writing is a highly complex act that demands the analysis and synthesis of many levels of thinking.  Writing, more than any other subject, can lead to personal breakthroughs in learning.  ALL teachers can use writing to improve content learning.

 Jot down one thing you heard or read that supports teaching/using writing in your classroom.  Share with your elbow partner.

We write to remember. We remember what we write. Sharon Bowman, 2011

 The act of writing plays a role in remembering what we write.  When learners write, they process information three times:  Hearing it  Thinking about it  Translating it into written form Sharon Bowman, 2011

 Writing stimulates memory.  Writing is kinesthetic.  Writing is visual spatial.  Writing grabs attention.  Bottom Line: Learners remember what they write better than what you write. Sharon Bowman, 2011

“Writing has never been accorded the cultural respect or the support that reading has enjoyed, in part because through reading, society could control its citizens, whereas through writing, citizens might exercise their own control.” Writing in the 21 st Century, NCTE, 2010

 Today, people write as never before, in print and online.  With digital technology and especially Web 2.0, writers are everywhere:  Chat rooms  Bulletin boards  s  Text messages  Blogs  Audiences are everywhere.

 Poor writing skills cost businesses $3.1 billion annually (National Commission on Writing, 2004).  Only one out of four twelfth-grade students is a proficient writer (Salahu-Din, Persky, and Miller, 2008).

 How will writing be different?  Not just English Language Arts  Include reading and writing about Science and Social Studies  Responding to texts of certain complexity.  Ability to draw evidence from text.

 Read from David Macaulay’s Cathedral: The Story of its Construction. Integrate the technical information expressed in the text with the information conveyed by the diagrams and models Macaulay provides. Explain how Macaulay’s text, and the visual representations accompanying his descriptions, reveal distinctive traits or Gothic architecture.  Sub-score for ability to comprehend and draw evidence from texts.  Grade 6

 Think about the information presented  On your notes page, write for 2 minutes, silently and nonstop, about what you’re thinking about teaching/using writing in your classroom.  We’ll debrief as a whole group after 2 minutes.

 Ellen Stokebrand and I will continue the conversation about writing, after a short break!  We will provide information and practical strategies you can use in your classroom.