1. Lisa Pershan Middle School Units of Study in Writing January 20, 2016

2. Some reminders from Lucy:

3. What is a teacher’s job? 1980/NCLB 2015/CCSS Delivering facts
Helping students synthesize information
Making sense of all the information they are taking in daily
Ensuring students are learning
Over 50% is about writing
Complex texts
Using evidence
Building knowledge
Delivering facts
Ensuring you were teaching
Vocabulary
Fluency
Phonics
Phonemic Awareness
Comprehension

4. Planning your instruction
What are your students’ individual needs?
Your expectations should be high, but achievable.
Make goals for how much your students should write in a day, a week, a month and a school year
Don’t think of more pieces of writing, but more extensive writing
1 ½ - 2 pages in minutes. Working towards a goal of 3 pages by the time they get to 8th grade
Seed idea vs. seed story
Seed story: Do not have the students write a word:
Incorrect: Hiking with brother
Correct: Hiking at Appalachian mountains with my brother and we got lost
Digging a grave story
Day 2: I taught you how to write about something that is important to you. Today I am going to teach you how to write about true stories. Make a true story and make it long.
You are always ending the mini lessons with ‘you will be doing…’ remember to be explicit.
Day 3. You already have strategies for writing but I am going to help you build the level of this writing.

5. Components of the Common core writing workshop
Mini-lesson
Conference

6. The mini-lesson Connection Teaching Active Engagement Link
Engage your students.
Today I want to teach you…
Teaching
Guided practice
Explanation with an example
Inquiry
Active Engagement
Students try the new strategy you just taught
This can be done independently or with a demonstration text
Link
Students work on their own
Remind them that they have already learned this type of writing

7. Conferencing Research Decision Phase Teach/Coach Link
You need to understand what the writer has done
You will be responsive to the child’s needs
This is not a time to re-teach a skill or strategy
Examples: “How’s it going?”
Conferencing is “Pope-like”
Decision Phase
You must synthesize what you have learned and identify the most important coaching that this student needs.
What can you teach that will make the most impact?
Teach/Coach
Name the areas of strengths
Even if the student has not mastered the skills, they are working towards a goal
Make sure you are clear and memorable
Model the strategy before asking the student to go on their own
This allows for gradual release of responsibility or scaffolding.
Link
When the writer continues working on their own
Repeat your teaching point
Remind your student they can continue to write on any of the pieces they have written

8. Flexible grouping
Students need to work on their own and in small groups
How comfortable are you with this?
How can you start this?
Think about patterns you see in the writing of your students
Is there a group of students who all need help writing leads?
Is there a group of students who all need help building tension?
Is there a group of students who all need help connecting their reasons to evidence?

9. Grade 6 research unit What is the main thread of the unit?
How many cycles of writing and publication does this unit recommend?
How much writing will be expected of your students?
Teaching points in each session
How many of these are you already teaching?
How can you build off what you are already teaching?
How can you stretch yourself a little bit more?
How would you plan your mini-lesson?

10. Next steps We will meet bi-weekly Bring your students’ samples weekly
Keep notes about what is working and what you are struggling with
This is a COMPLETELY new way of teaching. We WILL fall and have bumps along the road. The important thing is we are there to help each other get back up and walking again.