1. Presented by: Annette Hendry annette.hendry@nbed.nb.ca
Teaching Writing
Tying it all together!?
Presented by: Annette Hendry

2. Teaching Writing (Calkins)
Writing Standards
Units of Study for
Teaching Writing (Calkins)
"6 + 1 Traits"
"Writers Workshop"
Curriculum
" The Writing Process"
Assessment !

3. Reaction?
“We waste valuable time and energy fussing about the “trait” camp versus the “writing process” camp versus the “writing workshop” camp. We're all trying to do the same thing: help students learn to write well. When these three powerful ideas coexist in writing classrooms, both students and teachers win.” -Culham

4. The Writing Process What is the writing process?
What are the steps in the writing process?
Teachers work in partners to answer the two questions. Ask to tell what happens at each step of the writing process. Share answers.

5. What is the writing process?
A way of looking at writing instruction that shifts the emphasis from the finished product to what writers think and do as they write

6. What are the steps in the writing process?
Prewriting
Drafting
Revising
Editing
Publishing
Have participants write what activities students are doing at each stage

7. Prewriting Choosing a topic Gathering and organizing ideas
Considering the audience
Identifying the purpose
Choosing a genre
P 120 Best Practices in Writing
Value, Expect and encourage planning.
College students spend about ¼ of their writing time planning, whereas business executives may devote 2/3 of their writing time to this process.
Creating a written plan in advance of writing can be especially advantageous because it provides an external memory, where ideas can be stored without the risk of losing them and are readily available for inspection, reflection, and reconceptualization. Planning in advance can reduce the need to plan while writing, freeing needed resources to engage in other processes that demand attention, such as turning ideas into well crafted sentences.

8. Drafting Writing a rough draft
Emphasizing content rather than mechanics
Stamina and volume are important here

9. Revising Rereading for refining and clarifying Make changes
“Adding and subtracting time”
Emphasis is on clarifying and refining ideas.
Revision- to give writing clarity and power
Editing- To make writing mechanically correct, easier to read

10. Editing
Proofreading to locate errors
Correcting mechanical errors

11. Publishing Publishing writing in an appropriate form
Sharing finished writing with an appropriate audience
Read to class, share with parents and siblings, send it to a pen pal, produce a recording or video tape, read around party, etc
May Share p. 20 Lori Jamison’s Marvelous Minilessons for Teaching Beginning Writing: Writing process at different stages of development

12. Points to remember!
The writing process is not a linear process – but recursive; with labeling of the steps being useful for identifying and discussing writing activities.

13. Writing process is like a baseball diamond- prewriting is warm-up, 1st base-drafting, 2nd base –revising, 3rd base- edit, home-publish.
You don’t always get to home base – you have many partial runs before you score big. May need to backtrack on the bases….
You often need to play Little League first as well; we don’t all get to the majors, but we can have fun along the way!
p. 22 of 6 traits 3-5
It is important to remember that the writing process is a means to an end and not an end in itself – brainstorming and webbing on Monday , drafting on Tuesday, revising on Wednesday, editing on Thursday, recopying and submitting on Friday just isn’t effective. This kind of writing instruction is apt to create a whole generation of “pod-writers” They look like writers they appear to act like writers but they aren’t writers – they are task completers.

14. What about the Six Traits?
The new standards document evaluates writing based on the six traits.

15. What are the six traits? Ideas Organization Word Choice Voice
Sentence Fluency
Conventions
+ Presentation
Have teachers write what they think they are first.

16. Inspiring Ideas (terminology from Culham’s 6+1Traits/ Primary Grades-what we try to teach)
Clear, focused main idea
Intriguing, important details
No filler, no generalities
The trait is more about focus than quality of ideas. It is the crafting and the elaboration that brings strength to the idea. Ideas involves choosing a main idea, narrowing it down, and then adding strong details for support. General to specific, help children notice what others overlook.
Topic Tree Lesson- Lori Jamison p.50-53
Sticky Dot Details: Lori Jamison p. 57
Eventually the students will replace the sticky dots with periods.

17. Shaping Organization
Strong, compelling lead
Logical order for topic and purpose
Easy to follow-strong transitions
Conclusion provides closure
Putting information into an order that makes sense. It includes staying on topic, a good lead, details that work together to make a clear picture, and a strong ending or conclusion.
3-2-1 Planner- Lori Jamison
Think of organization as making a sub. Every part has to go on top of the previous addition. If you are careful, when the top piece of bread is placed on the sub it makes the tomatoes, lettuce and mayonnaise almost invisible. Organized ideas make a clear picture for the reader.
Many kinds of writing have beg mid and end format (sandwich), beginning is the position about the topic, the bottom piece of bread, the middle includes the reasons and/or examples, the meat, lettuce, tomatoes, and end is topic is restated, top piece of bread
Topic: Bears are wild animals Detail: They live in the forests and mountains. Detail: They sleep under logs, in a cave or a sheltered area. Detail: Sometimes you will see bears near places where humans live because they smell food. Conclusion: People should be careful when they see a bear because bears could be dangerous, especially if they are surprised or threatened.

18. Sparking Voice
Individual, striking, confident
Read-aloud appeal
Right for the audience and purpose
Full of energy, life, enthusiasm for the topic
One technique: Add some talking (Jamison) also imitating writer’s techniques: as ____ as___
Difficult to define, but easy to recognize
Judith Viorst: Alexander and the terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day. (Repetition as a technique)
Add how they felt, and what they were thinking.

19. Expanding Word Choice
Clear, precise words enhance meaning
Sensory details as needed
Strong verbs, no modifier overload
Concise and “clutter free”
The “right” words
Activities:
Million Dollar words as ongoing class activity, “Gift of a word”
Read aloud: Fancy Nancy- talk about how you could use it in their teaching
 Word Web activity –display big bed “put tired worn out adjectives to bed”, display sensory words, scary, words posters shape of poster assists students to remember the types of class- generated words on each poster, ( scary words on spider shaped poster).
Mad-angry, furious, enraged, annoyed, irate
Quick- fast, rapid, speedy, swift, hasty
Pretty- beautiful, attractive, good-looking, lovely, gorgeous
word webs

20. Do activity p. 99 Lori Jamison’s book Stretching sentences
Developing Sentence Fluency
Smooth, expressive, fluid to read aloud
Varied sentence beginnings
Varied sentence lengths
Do activity p. 99 Lori Jamison’s book Stretching sentences
Pass out handout, p.102

21. Strengthening Conventions (Spelling ideas-Clap syllables, give long word, team with closest gets points)
Clean copy
Edited for C-Capitalization, U-Usage, or grammar, P-Punctuation, S-Spelling (CUPS)
Ready to publish
Definition: the mechanical correctness (spelling, punctuation, capitalization, grammar, paragraphing, and usage). Students usually check for conventions in the editing stage of the writing process.
 Conventions are like sign posts; they help the reader enter familiar ground so they can concentrate on the information without distraction. They are aids to understanding
Graves (1994), Culham (2005)
Kinesthetic activity teach actions . ? ! , with poem the tooth fairy
Spelling: Clap syllables –each clap has a vowel
Game: Teams of students try to spell challenging words, the team closest gets point

22. “How does knowing the writing process help me teach the traits?”
Discuss answer. Talk about each step of the writing process and which trait would be involved at each step.
DisRuth Culham:
Refer to page 46 of Traits - Primary Guide – Traits predominant in each step of process
“The six traits represent a language that empowers students and teachers to communicate about qualities of writing.”
“The traits are the language of writing workshop.”
“The traits should unfold as lessons and activities embedded in the writing curriculum.”
“We use the terms consistently, teacher to teacher, year to year, to build understanding of what good writing looks like…”
“Use the traits to assess student writing to understand what students know and can do. “Culham
Using the same terminology from year to year is crucial for building deep understanding. Just as math teachers continue to use the terms addition and subtraction—instead of inventing new ones at different grade levels, like plusing and minusing—so should teachers of writing consistently use the same terms. Otherwise, students might think they're learning something new, which would surely lead to confusion.
tribute handout “Steps of the Writing Process” p Culham Discuss

23. Writing Workshop?
“So I understand about the Writing Process and how it fits with the traits….. Now what about the Writer’s Workshop?”

24. What is “Writer’s Workshop”?
A organizational structure for allowing the writing process to happen in the classroom setting. It replicates the practices of professional writers as they take a piece of writing from conception to publication.

25. “The traits are the language of writing workshop.”
“The six traits represent a language that empowers students and teachers to communicate about qualities of writing.”
Ruth Culham

26. Writer’s Workshop Minilesson “Work Time” Sharing
A organizational structure for allowing the writing process to happen in the classroom setting. It replicates the practices of professional writers as they take a piece of writing from conception to publication.

27. Writer’s Workshop Minilesson- “Work Time” Sharing
Modelled Writing\Direct Teaching
“Work Time”
Students write independently
Teacher conferences with individuals and/or small groups (“Guided Writing”)
Sharing
Reinforces or makes the teaching point again
A organizational structure for allowing the writing process to happen in the classroom setting. It replicates the practices of professional writers as they take a piece of writing from conception to publication.

28. Minilesson components
Connection
Teaching
Demonstration
Explicitly tell and show an example
Inquiry
Guided practice
Active Engagement
Link
Topics covered in minilessons deal with:
Procedures (how to participate in groups, use graphic organizer, edit with a partner….)
Craft (generate a good lead sentence, show, not tell, vivid verbs…..)
Strategies and skills (generate ideas, proofread, combining sentences….)
Pass out sheet with components and purpose of each - discuss

29. “What is happening during each component?”
Using your Minilesson planning sheet and a lesson from Lucy Calkins Resource jot some notes for each component of the minilesson.
“What is happening during each component?”
Grades 3-5 use lesson 6 form book 1 Launching – choosing a seed idea
K-2 – use session 2 from book 2 – discovering one small moment

30. Use Book 2 of your Units set to search for instances where the traits are covered.
Pick any of the other units you wish to also look for instances where the traits are covered.
Weaves the traits into the writing workshop, builds up from ideas to presentation in each unit – we get to peek into her classroom and watch an “expert” teacher at work and read her mind while she is at it.

31. Ruth Culham:
“Think of the traits not as a set of discrete lessons to be taught each day, but a way of thinking , shaping responses to writing, and talking about the writing. The traits are the writing process at the revision and editing stages. They don’t stand alone in the writer’s world; they shouldn’t be taught in isolation; they shouldn’t be portioned out by grade level.”

32. What about the standards documents?
Summative assessment
Formative assessment to drive instruction
Liken to Guided Reading – assess where student need is, find lesson content, teach whole group, small group, or individual as need dictates
80% formative
20% summative

33. Standards identify: The end of grade level of achievement for:
Writing strategies and behaviors
Traits
Highlight a key word or phrase for each bullet for:
1.Strategies and behaviours
2.Traits

34. Also pass out the Traits of writing exploration sheet

35. Research shows writers need:
Time to write
Choices
Feedback\response
Models of fine writing

36. “Success in writing directly relates to the amount of writing and rewriting a person does.”
-Lucy Calkins
Importance of practice – Outliers – Gladwell

37. References
Culham, R. (2005) 6+1 Traits of writing the complete guide for the primary grades. New York: Scholastic
Culham, R. (2003) 6+1 Traits of writing the complete guide for Grades 3 and Up. New York: Scholastic
Calkins, L. et al (2003) Units of Study for Primary Writing: A Yearlong Curriculum, Portsmouth: Heinemann,
Calkins, L. et al (2006) Units of Study for Grades 3-5, Portsmouth: Heinemann,
Graham, S. (Ed) (2007) Best Practices in Writing Instruction, New York: The Guilford Press