1. K-5 Writing Units of Study
August 2014
Presentation Link:
(Go to Resources Tab – Then K-5 Units of Study)

2. “This is the graduate writing course you never had.”
Anne Marie Johnston, TCRWP Trainer
TODAY’S TOPICS
Minilesson
Resources
Assessment

3. Architecture of the Minilesson
…YOUR TURN…

4. Minilesson Videos Grade Level Link K-2
(K-2 on spelling patterns)
(K-2 on small group closure)
3-5
(Narrative)
(Informational)

5. Minilesson Cheat Sheet
“…intervals (10 minutes long) for explicit, brief instruction in skills and strategies that then become part of a writer’s ongoing repertoire to be drawn on as needed.”
(Guide, Chapter 7, p )
Connection
“Writers, yesterday we…”
Teaching Point: “Today, I want to teach you…” (what + how)
Teaching
Teach: “Watch me…”
Active Engagement
“Now it’s your turn to try…”
Link
“Today and every day, remember you can…”

6. Connection Teaching Active Engagement Link
Kindergarten Minilesson We Are All Writers: Putting Ideas on Paper with Pictures and Words
Connection
Teaching
Active Engagement
Link
Why go to the carpet? (Or Huddle? Or Circle Time?) Engaging Focus Purpose Movement, Physical Intimate On-task

7. Connection The “huddle”
Show the children different kinds of books, pointing out that writers wrote them all. Tell all children that this year, they will write too.
Name the Teaching Point: So, writers, today what I want to teach you is that it is not just grown-ups who write to teach people what they know. You can do that as well. You think of something you know about, and then with drawings and writing, you put what you know on the paper.

8. Teaching
Watch me!! Demonstrate how you go about making a teaching text--coming up with topics, picturing those topics, and getting ready to put what you know on the page. Example: What does my grandmother’s garden look like?

9. Active Engagement
Channel writers to think of a topic they could teach others and to tell what they might put on their page.
What could I teach others about gardening?
Now it’s your turn to try. Right now, think of what you know about that you could teach others. Picture it. Tell the people near you what you will draw and write about in your teaching piece.

10. Link
Remind students that they can write to teach people things, just like grown-ups.
Today and every day, remember you can be a writer and teach others.

11. After the Minilesson… Writing Conferring (individual and small group)
Mid-workshop Teaching
Share
WW Expectation Guide Handout

12. Writing Workshop Tips Establish routines.
Pay attention to “getting ready.”
Get prepared.
Make focus of minilessons narrow (all set up same way).
Try to get through three sessions in a week but know it’s okay to break up a session into two days.
Shorten the connection and add your own personal stories, analogies, and metaphors.
Know that YOU DO NOT HAVE TO USE LUCY’S SCRIPT.
Refer to WW Expectation Guide Handout

13. Reminders Teacher’s Job Student’s Job Teach one thing Keep it mini
Give time to practice
Student’s Job
Hyper-focus
Turn and Talk
Hold your questions

14. Understandings about Writing

15. Writing: Key Conceptual Understandings
Writing needs to be explicitly taught with ample opportunity for children to practice and cycle through the writing process.
Children invest themselves in their writing when they choose topics that are important to them.
To write well, children need opportunities to read and to hear texts read, and to read as writers.
Children need clear goals and frequent feedback.
BOTTOM LINE CONDITIONS (CH. 3)
Kit Source: A Guide to the Common Core Writing Workshop (Chapter 3, p. 23)

16. Understandings…Digging Deeper
Teach the WRITER, not the WRITING.
Study and emulate REAL writers.
Teach kids to EXPLODE the moment.
Keep multiple pieces of writing “in progress” (flash drafts).
Know that students do not have to finish every piece of writing and every piece does not have to be graded.
Don’t sweat the small stuff.

17. Understandings…Digging Deeper
Start each year with Narrative Writing.
Teach students the power of VOLUME and INDEPENDENCE.
Write with students.
Write for REAL purposes.
Don’t expect significant impact unless writing is a SCHOOLWIDE PRIORITY.

18. Small Group Conferencing

19. Conferencing Tips To make effective…
Know that small groups can be led like one-on-one conferences so try not to fret over it.
Use the architecture of the conference and assessment tools as resources (learning progressions, checklists, etc.)
Coach while allowing students to work most of the time.
Be direct in letting students know “why” they are called together.
Teach toward a goal or two (not perfect writing).
Make sure references to mentor texts are familiar to students.

20. Conferencing Videos Grade Level Link K-2
(K-2) or
(K-2)
3-5
(3-5) or
(5-8)

21. Tips for Teaching Units

22. Tips for Teaching Units
Know that the units are already “multi-leveled.”
Use conferring and small group instruction for responsive teaching.
Remember that “early in the school year” students are realistically working at standards “one year below” (allow full school year for meeting current grade level standards).
Call the students writers, scientists, historians, etc. based on the unit you are teaching.
Know that writing is a messy process. The writer’s notebook is messy. Finished products for publishing are pretty.
Use the writer’s notebook as a tool for thinking, brainstorming, and jotting down notes. It can be a journal, lab book, book of facts, etc. depending on the kind of writing.

23. Unit Overviews

24. Reminders
Review the “Welcome to the Unit” so that you will have a big picture of the unit. This will help you understand the intentions of the unit.
Before teaching a unit, carefully look at the unit overview. You will decide if there are lessons that will not be taught based on a lack of time and if there are lessons that need to be added based on assessments.

25. Unit Overview (K-2)
Overview Handouts

26. Unit Overview (3-5)
Overview Handouts

27. Resources

28. Navigating and Using the Series
KIT
FOCUS
Four Common Core-aligned Units
Methods and Principles Affecting Classroom
A Guide to the Common Core Writing Workshop
Workshop Model (its architecture) and Management System
If…Then…Curriculum: Assessment-based Instruction
Differentiation with 5-7 Alternate and Additional Units
CD-ROM
Additional Resources: sample student writing, reproducible checklists, units, web links
Writing Pathways
Assessment System and Learning Progressions
Unit 1

29. CD-ROM: Start Up Windows Users:
Insert the CD-ROM into the CD-ROM or DVD-ROM drive.
Double-click on My Computer, and then on "UOS" (CD-ROM).
Double-click on "start.html."
Mac Users:
Double-click on the CD icon (named "UOS") on your desktop.
Double-click on "start.html.”

30. CD-ROM Learning Progressions Student Writing Leveled Exemplars
Rubrics for Teacher Use
Checklists for Student Use
Teacher and Student Planning Forms
Teaching Charts
….AND…much more!!

31. Writing Pathways: Assessment Tools “a powerfully practical resource”
13 chapters about the Assessment System (very important guidance)
On-Demand Assessment Prompts (located behind each learning progression)
Assessment Rubrics
Writing Checklists
Student Writing Samples (per and across grade levels)
Learning Progressions

32. Assessment System

33. Learning Progressions . . .
Allow the teacher to zoom in on one or more skills so that teaching can have the greatest impact on performance.
Are used to drive instruction.
Determine the student’s strengths and weaknesses so that instructional time is used efficiently.
Serve as a “security blanket” when conferring.
Learning Progression Handout

34. On-Demand Assessments
Give as pre-assessments at start of start and end of each unit to collect baseline data and calibrate teaching.
Provide crystal clear demonstration of what students learn to do without assistance.
Are simple to administer and score using the rubric.
Show effectiveness of teaching.
Provide opportunities for goal setting and feedback.
Writing Pathways (chapter 2)
On Demand Handout

35. Boot Camp
After scoring on-demand assessments, teachers analyze the writing to determine areas that need additional instruction.
Additional instruction can become a two-day intensive course known as a “boot camp” where students revise their writing.
Boot camps give students a blast of targeted instruction as well as opportunities for repeated practice addressing skills they need to develop right away.
Writing Pathways: pages 21 and 34

36. Examples of Boot Camp Topics Use On-demand Assessments to Select Topics
Unit 1
Transitions
Spelling Patterns
Unit 2
Dialogue and Quotation Marks
Leads
Unit 3
Citing Information
Revising and Editing
Unit 4

37. Norming Meetings

38. Norming Payoffs Norming is the process of looking at student work.
Conducting norming work together helps create a plan for scoring student work that informs teaching.
Norming uses learning progressions, benchmark pieces, and rubrics to help teachers work with each other and their students to accelerate progress.
Writing Pathways (chapter 3, page 31)

39. Getting Ready Become familiar with rubric(s) before norming begins.
Set aside two-period blocks of time for the first meeting.
Collect and bring recent on-demand writing pieces that match writing for the unit.
Make sure the collection reflects varied levels of student work and are engaging pieces.
Be sure pieces are kept anonymous (white out students’ names).
Writing Pathways (chapter 3)

40. Norming Steps
Norming Handout

41. Step 3 Ready
“An important goal in a process like this is for the group to align itself. If after doing this work with five papers of different levels, the group finds that it can come to a consensus, the group can consider itself normed, and people can now score papers individually.”
Writing Pathways, (Chapter 3, pp )

42. Planning Calendars
Know you have flexibility to move the units around like a puzzle.
Allow six weeks per unit and “lop off” a bend if needed.
Determine if there are any units in the If…Then…Curriculum guide that you would like to use.
Decide if there are units from a different grade (usually a lower grade) that will be used.

43. Map Out the “Training” Year
TIME FRAME
TOPIC OR FOCUS
PERSON RESPONSIBLE
August 11-12, 2014
Map out the “teaching” year and
Prepare for administering On-Demand Assessment and Unit One (Narrative)
Instructional Coach and Grade Level Teachers
August 2014
Lead discussion on Norming Meetings (chapter 3) Writing Pathways
Model Architecture of Minilesson
Instructional Coach
September 2014
Analyze Student Work via On-Demand Assessments by conducting norming sessions
Calendar Handout

44. Map Out the “Teaching” Year
UNIT
TIME
DATES
CONTENT
2 Weeks
On-Demand Assessments (Baseline Data)
Classroom Expectations for the Writing Workshop
Unit 1
6 Weeks
Prepare for Next Unit and Conduct Boot Camp
Unit 2
Unit 3
Unit 4
On Demand Assessments (End of Year Assessment)
Reverse Side of Calendar Handout

45. Other Web Resources
Teachers College Reading and Writing Project (Check Facebook and Twitter for latest updates/webinars.)
Heinemann
National Writing Project
ReadWriteThink
Teaching Channel