Welcome Professional Learning Community …PLC! Facilitated by Theron Blakeslee, Laura Colligan, Lori Torres, Libby Quade, and Nancy Theis

A little background on todays meeting Agenda Welcome to the PLC Math Discussions on Interventions with Theron and Laura Questions, comments and discussions Break Writing…why now Overview of research and evidenced based strategies Foundational skills

What is a PLC….learning together…not experts! A “professional learning community” engages the entire group of professionals in coming together for learning within a supportive, self-created community. This PLC hopes share research, best practices and what is going on throughout the county in writing in order to create some common knowledge and direction for future work.

A little to chew on in your spare time!

PLC…know thy neighbors! Getting to know your resources! Introduce yourself to someone in the room you do not know. Share what your role is in your building. How does your work relate to today’s topics of math and reading

Details to know… To prepare for future work we will be collecting areas of interest and questions to address in future PD. Please post questions, comments and direction for future PD on yellow sticky notes. Put sticky notes on chart paper in back of room. Don’t be shy…the more we look at the research, the more important it seems to address writing in our MTSS system.

MATH…WHAT’S UP Theron Blakeslee Laura Colligan

Break

Changing with the Times….

WRITING….WHAT’S UP PLC Facilitators: Lori Handl Libby Quade Nancy Theis

Is this a writing crisis? Data suggests… Media report many students are not able to write at even the most basic level required for participation in today’s economy. The class of 2012 attained an average score of 488 on the writing portion of the SAT, the lowest score since the assessment was introduced in The National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) tells a similar story: In 2011, only 27% of 8th and 12th grade students scored at or above proficient on the writing portion of the NAEP. In the same assessment, 20% of 8th graders and 21% of 12th graders scored “below basic,” meaning they are unable to perform at even the minimum standard for their grade level.

Why Writing….Now? Interview with Dr. Steve Graham: Interview with Dr. Steve Graham:

Learning Outcomes Lori….

Activating Prior Knowledge…what do we know? A little quiz…. Think and answer the questions individually…by yourself! Introduce yourself to someone you do not know and share your answers! Collaborate….and decide the answers to post on the chart paper. Be prepared to talk about your thinking

Activating Prior Knowledge…what do we know? 1. What is a meta-analysis? 2. What is an effect size? 3. Please rank order the listed evidence based practices from highest effect size to lowest?

Evidence-Based Writing Strategies Please rank order from greatest to least effect size. Pre-Writing Activities Sentence Combining Study of Models Teaching Summarization Inquiry Process Approach Peer Assistance Writing as Tool for Learning Setting Product Goals Word Processing *Strategy Instruction

And the Research Says! What is the Research? Writing Next (2007) by Graham and Perin Writing to Read (2010) by Graham and Herbert Best Practices in Writing Instruction-Second Edition by Steve Graham EdD, Charles A. MacArthur PhD and Jill Fitzgerald PhD (Mar 29, 2013) Writing Next conducted meta-analysis of over 120 writing instruction studies for students in Grades 4 to 12 Identified 11 specific instructional practices that improved the quality of writing of both students with and without disabilities

Meta Analysis and Effect Size Method for synthesizing experimental studies using statistical procedures -- produces a standard index for the findings from each study Helps determine whether an instructional technique, strategy, or intervention is effective across a body of studies Effect Size provides a standardized measure of the quantitative differences between two treatments, providing information on both the direction and magnitude of this difference

RULE OF THUMB Effect sizes OF.80 is LARGE (Moon) Effect Size of.50 is MODERATE (Empire State Building) Effect size of.25 is SMALL (Street)

Evidence-Based Writing Strategies Strategy Instruction (ES =.82) Teaching Summarization (ES =.82) Peer Assistance (ES =.75) Setting Product Goals (ES =.70) Word Processing (ES =.55) *Sentence Combining (ES =.50) Process Approach (ES =.32) Pre-Writing Activities (ES =.32) Inquiry (ES =.32) Study of Models (ES =.25) Writing as Tool for Learning (ES =.23)

Let’s look at a John Hopkins research summary 1. Read the short article and highlight 5 key ideas or important points 2. Share at your table your 5 key ideas and chart them on the paper at the table. 3. Please discuss how this relates to the current practices in your buildings and RECORD ideas on the chart paper. 4. Whole group discussion of key ideas.

Changing Landscape….Common Core " Writing today is not a frill for the few, but an essential skill for the many." The Neglected "R": The Need for a Writing Revolution

A deeper dive… Lori’s slides…on strategies Lori….I put some hidden slides in that I found on strategy instruction if you want to use anything…just if you like anything!

Summary…Big ideas from Dr. Graham!

The Big Picture….

Focus on Foundational Skills Basic Mechanics and Conventions Handwriting, Spelling and Sentence construction Anita Archer materials and training presentations-MIBLSI website Steve Graham article….on the subject 7sCo2lGbwg 7sCo2lGbwg

29 Writing Foundations - Spelling - Importance Writers who must think too hard about how to spell use valuable cognitive resources needed for higher level aspects of composition. (Singer & Bashir, 2004) 80% of employment applications doomed if poorly written. 15 to 20 minutes a day

A good investment!

34 New thinking about old topics! Teaching Skills and Strategies Writing Foundations Handwriting Letter Formation Handwriting Fluency Spelling Spelling - Regular Words Spelling - Irregular Words Spelling rules Sentences Sentence Expansion Sentence Combining Punctuation and Capitalization Guidelines

35 Teaching Skills and Strategies Emerging writers need: Explicit instruction on writing skills and strategies Opportunities to respond in lessons Positive, corrective feedback on performance

36 Teaching Skills and Strategies ModelI do it. PromptWe do it. CheckYou do it.

Taking a pulse…what going on here! Share at your table what is your district doing for writing instruction. Record conversation on chart paper at your table. Share with the group!

Article

Technology Word Processing Text to Speech Speech to Text Word Prediction Planning Software Automated Scoring Interconnected Writing Systems Electronic Sharing

Mode of Writing Involves having students use word processing and related software to write. ES = 0.47 (grs 1-6; 10 studies) – 18 percentile jump ES = 0.55 (grs 4-12; 18 studies) – 21 percentile jump

Writing to Read A Meta-Analysis of the Impact of Writing and Writing Instruction on Reading STEVE GRAHAM AND MICHAEL HEBERT Reading is critical to students’ success in and out of school. One potential means for improving students’ reading is writing. In this meta-analysis of true and quasi- experiments, Graham and Herbert present evidence that writing about material read improves students’ comprehension of it; that teaching students how to write improves their reading comprehension, reading fluency, and word reading; and that increasing how much students write enhances their reading comprehension. These findings provide empirical support for long-standing beliefs about the power of writing to facilitate reading.

EDUCATOR’S PRACTICE GUIDE WHAT WORKS CLEARINGHOUSE

2013 Resource….great summary It All Starts Here Fixing Our National Writing Crisis From the Foundation By Steve Graham, Ed.D.

Writing Next

45 Teaching Skills and Strategies Model (I do it.) “My turn.” Show Proceed step-by-step. Exaggerate the steps. Tell Tell students what you are doing. Tell students what you are thinking. Gain Responses Ask for responses.

46 Teaching Skills and Strategies Prompt. We do it. (“Let’s _____ together.) Prompt by performing the behavior at the same time as your students. Prompt physically. Prompt verbally. - Guide students through the strategy. Step - do - Step - do - Step - do - Step - do Gradually fade your prompt.

47 Teaching Skills and Strategies. Check. You do it. (“Your turn.) Check for understanding. Verify students’ understanding before independent work is given. Carefully monitor students’ responses.

48 Writing Foundations - Handwriting - Importance “Children who experience difficulty mastering this skill may avoid writing and develop a mindset that they cannot write, leading to arrested writing development.” (Graham, Harris, & Fink, 2000) If students have to struggle to remember letter forms, their ability to express themselves suffers. Handwriting must be automatic. (Graham, 2007)

49 Writing Foundations - Handwriting - Importance Fluent, accurate letter formation and spelling are associated with students' production of longer and better-organized compositions. (Berninger, Vaughan, Abbott, Abbott, Brooks, Rogan, Reed, & Graham, S.,1997) Measures of handwriting speed among elementary students are good predictors of quality and quantity of written products in middle school. (Peverly, 2007) Students benefit from explicit instruction on how to form and fluently write letters of alphabet. Accuracy PLUS Fluency

50 Writing Foundations - Handwriting - Letter Formations (See Example 1) Introduction of letter form I do it. Model the letter formation. Stress orientation to the lines. (Hair line. Belt line. Foot line.) Model letter formation a number of times. Use verbal prompts. Watch me make a lower case p. I start at the belt line. Touch down. Touch around. Watch again. Touch down. Touch around. Say it as I write a lower case p. Touch down. Touch around.

51 Writing Foundations - Handwriting - Letter Formations (See Example 1) We do it. Guide students in forming the letter using verbal prompts. (“Touch down. Touch around.”) Monitor the students letter formation. You do it. Have students continue writing the letter as they say the prompt OR the letter sound. Continue until the letters are consistently formed correctly.

52 Writing Foundations - Handwriting - Letter Formations (See Example 1) Carefully monitor handwriting practice. Provide feedback. Teacher feedback. This is your best letter p. It starts at the beltline and goes straight down and then around. Self-evaluation. Model the process. Watch me examine my letters. (Circle your best p.) This is my best p. It starts at the beltline, goes straight down and goes around. Have students evaluate their work and circle their best formed letters.

53 Writing Foundations - Handwriting - Letter Formations After mass practice to obtain accuracy, provide on-going practice that is distributive and cumulative. Dictate sounds. Have students write letters on slates (with permanent lines) or paper. Provide review worksheets with recently taught letters PLUS review letters. Remember: Mastery plus review = retention

54 Writing Foundations - Handwriting - Fluency Handwriting fluency can be increased by Having students write frequently. Involving students in “repeated writings”. (Graham, Harris, & Fink, 2000)

55 Writing Foundations - Handwriting - Fluency (See Example 2) Repeated Writing Student writes the same paragraph or material on consecutive days. Materials - Paragraph in reader. Adages, proverbs, sayings Tries to increase the number of letters or words written in a 2 to 5 minute session. Student graphs number of letters or words written.

56 Writing Foundations - Handwriting (See Example 3) Stress appearance of work Appearance DOES make a difference in terms of grades received and response of teachers and others. Teach “How should your paper look?”

57 Writing Foundations - Spelling - Importance Strong relationship between spelling and writing. Learning to read and spell rely on much of the same underlying knowledge (letter-sounds, affixes,etc.) (Moats, 2007) Spelling instruction can be designed to help children better understand key knowledge resulting in better reading. (Ehri, 2000)

58 Writing Foundations - Spelling - Regular Words Regular Words 400,000 words in dictionary Only 13% are truly irregular (memorize) Focus spelling instruction on patterns that generalize.

59 Writing Foundations - Spelling - Regular Words Letter-sound associations Single syllable patterns (e.g., cvc, ccvc, cvcc, cvvc, cvce) Multisyllabic words Inflectional endings Prefixes, suffixes, common roots Rules for combining forms

60 Writing Foundations - Spelling - Regular Words Spelling - Regular Words Selection of words Words that will be used in writing. Words taught in decoding strand of reading program. Words taught in spelling program. Caution - The word lists are the strength of most spelling programs. Many of the practice exercises in spelling books have debatable value.

61 Writing Foundations - Spelling Video and Example 4 Good practices noted in video

62 Writing Foundations - Spelling Alternatives to traditional spelling worksheets Teacher dictation of words (See example 4a) Partner dictation of words (See example 4b)

63 Writing Foundations - Spelling Rules Example 5 and 6 Introduce high frequency rules (See Example 5) Teach rules explicitly. 1. Introduce rule. 2. Illustrate rule with examples and non-examples. (I do it.) 3. Guide students in applying the rule to examples and non-examples. (We do it.) 4. Check understanding using examples and non- examples. (You do it.)

64 Writing Foundations - Spelling - Irregular Words Example 7 Irregular words Teach 3 to 5 per week Focus on the most common (Moats, 2003)

65 Writing Foundations - Spelling - Irregular Words Teach students a strategy for independently studying irregular words. Copy, Cover, Write, Check

66 Writing Foundations - Spelling - Independent Writing Teach students how to attack the spelling of unknown words when writing. See Example 8. When monitoring students as they write, give feedback on spelling words visually (e.g., Write the word down for the student.)

67 Writing Foundations - Sentences Example 9 Sentence Expansion Activities Students can learn the structure of sentences and gain “sentence sense” though sentence expansion exercises. Students add words or phrases to sentences that answer questions such as when, where, why, and how.

68 Writing Foundations - Sentences Sentence-Combining Activities Recommended in Writing Next (Graham & Perin, 2007) Have positive effect on students’ writing. (Evans, Venotozzi, Bundrick, & McWilliams, 1988; Howie, 1979; Kanellas, Carifio & Dagostino, 1998; Pedersen, 1977; Saddler & Graham, 2005; Stoddard, 1982)

69 Writing Foundations - Sentences Example 10 Sentence-Combining Activities (Rewards Writing - Sentence Refinement published by Sopris) Students start with a stem sentence and combine it with one to four other sentences. Turn to Example 10. Try out the following items with your partner.

70 Writing Foundations - Sentences Example 11 Primary Sequence 1. Join two or more subjects 2. Join two or more verbs 3. Join two or more predicate adjectives 4. Join two or more direct objects 5. Join two or more adjectives

71 Writing Foundations Punctuation and Capitalization Rules Example 12 When teaching punctuation and capitalization rules, follow the instructional format for rules. 1. Introduce rule. 2. Illustrate rule with examples and non-examples. (I do it.) 3. Guide students in applying the rule to examples and non-examples. (We do it.) 4. Check understanding using examples and non- examples. (You do it.)

Resources galore!