LITERACY-BASED DISTRICT- WIDE PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT Aiken County Public School District January 15, 2016 LEADERS IN LITERACY CONFERENCE

Letting Students Take the Lead Writing with Independence

Presenters April Gattis First Grade Teacher Aiken Elementary Angela Clifford Kindergarten Teacher Aiken Elementary

Essential Question How can we help students become more independent with writing?

Presentation Highlights We will discuss how to plan writing instruction that helps students…. Write with independence, meaning, and engagement. Take ownership through writing about what they know and care about. Plan their writing using their own ideas in a variety of ways.

Turn and Talk What opportunities do your students have for independent writing? What choices do they have about topics? Do they work at their own pace or do you set up a time of when it needs to be completed? How much time do you spend in guided writing lessons?

Kindergarten Writing Standards Use a combination of drawing, dictating, and writing to state the topic and communicate an opinion about it. Use a combination of drawing, dictating, and writing to compose informative/explanatory texts that name and supply information about the topic. Use a combination of drawing, dictating, and writing to narrate a single event or several loosely linked events, to tell about the events in the order in which they occurred, and to provide a reaction to what happened. With guidance and support, plan, revise, and edit building on personal ideas and the ideas of others to strengthen writing.

Kindergarten Writing Standards continued… With guidance and support, use nouns, use verbs, use adjectives, use prepositional phrases, use conjunctions, form regular plural nouns orally by adding /s/ or /es/, and understand and use interrogatives,. Produce and expand complete sentences. Capitalize the first word in a sentence and the pronoun I. Recognize and name end punctuation. Write letter(s) for familiar consonant and vowel sounds. Spell simple words phonetically. Consult print and multimedia resources to check and correct spellings.

Kindergarten Writing Standards continued…again With guidance and support, write routinely and persevere in writing tasks for a variety of purposes and audiences. Print upper-and lower-case letters. Recognize that print moves from left to right and that there are spaces between words. Locate letter keys on an electronic device.

Writing in Kindergarten Foundational Lessons (Letter and Sound Knowledge) Sentence Structure (Parts of a sentence, nouns, verbs, and adjectives) Workshop Process and Procedures (Steps of writer’s workshop) Planning and Writing (mini-lessons based on observations)

Turn and Talk What are some mini-lessons you do to teach the different stages of writing? Kindergarten Beginning Stages Sentence Structure First Grade Organizers Parts of writing: Topic Sentence/Details/Closing Sentence

Foundational Lessons in Kindergarten Predictable charts: I see…, We see..., We go to..., We can go to..., I can..., I like the..., Look! My...is/are (color) Visualization starts here! The difference between a letter and a word Sounds in Motion Supporting literacy station activities, morning messages, dramatic play, etc.

Sentence Structure in Kindergarten Letters  words  sentences Predictable charts Parts of a sentence (naming words, action words, describing words) Capitalization, punctuation, spaces Dramatize punctuation, try to read a sentence without spaces Supporting literacy station activities, morning messages (capitalization, etc.)

Writer’s Workshop in Kindergarten Procedures: What Do Writer’s Do? Think about something you know and care about Close your eyes and visualize Draw a picture Label it Use your label to write a sentence

Planning and Writing in Kindergarten After visualizing, Draw and label with writing buddies Draw, label, and write a sentence with writing buddies Write in a book (1 or 2 sentences per page) Add pages as needed Author’s share

Planning and Writing in Kindergarten Why little books? “Displaying their work alongside professionally published books in your classroom library reinforces the idea that their written words and images are powerful and carry messages meant to be read by others. Students need to experience personally the power writing can hold to develop a positive connection to writing (McKay & Teale, p. 54).” ~~Rebecca McKay and William Teale, No More Teaching a Letter a Week

Examples of mini-lessons in response to observations: Creating a title Staying on topic When you need help choosing an idea Adding details and describing words (I know I’m osm, but what else?) Connecting illustrations to words Revising What are the most important things that need to be labeled? Planning and Writing in Kindergarten

First Grade Standards Write opinion pieces that introduce the topic, state an opinion, give a reason for the opinion, and provide a sense of closure. Write informative/explanatory texts that name a topic, supply facts about the topic, and provide a sense of closure. Write narratives that recount two or more sequenced events, include details, use temporal words to signal event order, and provide a sense of closure. Plan, revise, and edit building on personal ideas and the ideas of others to strengthen writing.

Writing in First Grade My goal is to help them organize their writing in order to write about a topic or create a story of their choice. The writing process includes planning, drafting, revising, and editing. Write to inform, explain, convince/argue, and entertain. Interact and collaborate with peers and adults to develop and strengthen writing.

Beginning First Grade Sentence Structure Capital letters Punctuation Who? did What? * Guided Writing August-September

First Grade: Steps to becoming independent Choose a topic Decide on what kind of writing they want to write (informative, persuasive, narrative) Organize using the correct organizer Refer to guide Begin writing

Turn and Talk What organizers do you use? Do you use different ones for different genres?

Independent Writing Notebook Hamburger Checklist Topics Guides October

Independent Writing Notebook

Mini-lesson Informative Writing Trade Book (any nonfiction text) Anchor Chart Organizer: Tree Map Topic/Closing Sentence Chart Writing Whole Group Notebook Practice How to… October

Informative Writing October

Mini-Lesson Persuasive Writing Trade Book (Convince: I Wanna Iguana, I Wanna New Room) Anchor Chart Organizer: Flow Map Topic/Closing Sentence Chart Writing Whole Group Notebook Practice Opinion November

Persuasive Writing November

Mini-lesson Narrative Writing Trade Book (fiction story) Anchor Chart Organizer: Circle Map Topic/Closing Sentence Chart Writing Whole Group Notebook Practice Make up a story December-January

Narrative Writing December-January

Turn and Talk What trade books do you use to introduce writing?

Partner Checks Read your story Planning Page * Did they plan? Writing Page * Topic Sentence (Check Guide) * Details (Check capital letters, punctuation) * Closing Sentence (Check Guide)

One more quote “The self-initiated writing children do when they make their own books is where the rubber meets the road. All the other activities we plan to help them learn the alphabet and develop phonological awareness mean nothing unless the children use their growing knowledge to make meaning (McKay & Teale, p.52).” ~Rebecca McKay and William Teale, No More Teaching a Letter a Week

Essential Question How can we help students become more independent with writing? *Folders *Turn and Talk Sheets