1. 1 Intro to ELA: Writing & Grammar Session #2 October Saturday, October13, 2012

2. 22 Did you….  do more collaborative planning with an ELA-friend from Sept to Oct Pro Sat?  feel more confident breaking down a text & making decisions about your planning? Did your students…  get to experience holistic literacy with text analysis & writing & independent reading?  know where they are & how they’re doing as readers, writers, thinkers, & speakers? C EL EBR A TIONS !

3. 3 Diagnosing Selves ELA-Pre-Work: Consider… 1.How do you decide which grammar rules to teach your students? How do you decide what the focus of your writing lessons should be? 2.To what extent are students developing writing habits and mindsets? What have your students written that you are the most proud of? What have your students written that wasn’t effective writing? What held them back? Why? Have a discussion with a partner in your group. In your discussion, seek… 1.Commonalities? 2.Shared successes? 3.Shared frustrations?

4. 4 AGENDA & GOALS for this time: ELA teachers will reflect on the quality, effectiveness, & meaningfulness of writing & grammar that their students have been doing. ELA teachers will deeply believe that for students to become powerful writers & excellent wielders of grammar, they need to do both a LOT. ELA teachers will consider an upcoming mini-unit or lesson in light of discussion & observations of writing & grammar lessons. AGENDA 10 Reflection & Self-Diagnosis 5 Agenda, Objectives 20 Consider a grammar lesson. CMs pull out principles. 20 Consider a writing lesson. CMs pull out principles. 25 Unit plan revising or lesson planning 5 Reflection Discussion: How are you different after this experience? What do you want differently for your students?

5. 5 Zoom in on a single day for GRAMMAR!

6. 6 What are the key principles of GRAMMAR lessons? 1 st Read through a lesson pertaining to a grammar mini-lesson with the following objective: Students will be able to correct their grammar tests by applying & talking about the 5 grammar rules from the past 2 weeks. 2 nd Consider the following questions while you’re watching a clip of the lesson. What are students actually doing during this lesson? What are they thinking about? What habits & skills are they learning? What is the teacher doing during this lesson? What must the teacher have needed to do in planning to prepare for this lesson? Handout 1 Ashley Riggio, ’06 New Orleans, now teaching 9 th grade in Chicago.

7. 7 What are the key principles of GRAMMAR lessons? DEBRIEF 1 st Discuss with a partner or group of 3: 2 nd Let’s clarify our own definitions. HOW SHOULD STUDENTS LEARN GRAMMAR? HOW SHOULD WE PLAN FOR GRAMMAR? What are students actually doing during this lesson? What are they thinking about? What habits & skills are they learning? What is the teacher doing during this lesson? What must the teacher have needed to do in planning to prepare for this lesson? Ashley Riggio, ’06 New Orleans, now teaching 9 th grade in Chicago.

8. 8 Zoom in on a single day for WRITING/ COMPOSING!

9. 9 What are the key principles of WRITING/ COMPOSING lessons? 1 st Read through a lesson pertaining to planning & drafting an essay with the following prompt: Analyze how & why Mathilde from “The Necklace” experiences a significant change. You must use textual evidence as you analyze how & why this happens. Consider the following questions: How is the character at the beginning of the text? How is she at the end of the text? What causes this change? 2 nd Consider the following questions while you’re watching a clip of the lesson. What are students actually doing during this lesson? What are they thinking about? What habits & skills are they learning? What is the teacher doing during this lesson? What must the teacher have needed to do in planning to prepare for this lesson? Handout 1 Ashley Riggio, ’06 New Orleans, now teaching 9 th grade in Chicago.

10. 10 What are the key principles of WRITING/ COMPOSING lessons? DEBRIEF 1 st Discuss with a partner or group of 3: 2 nd Let’s clarify our own definitions. HOW SHOULD STUDENTS LEARN TO WRITE? HOW SHOULD WE PLAN TO TEACH OUR STUDENTS TO WRITE? What are students actually doing during this lesson? What are they thinking about? What habits & skills are they learning? What is the teacher doing during this lesson? What must the teacher have needed to do in planning to prepare for this lesson? Ashley Riggio, ’06 New Orleans, now teaching 9 th grade in Chicago.

11. 11 CHOOSE YOUR OWN ADVENTURE : Work Time 1 st : Figure out an outcome to an upcoming GRAMMAR or WRITING mini- lesson by… -Considering your unit plan. You already isolated an outcome for an upcoming lesson? Great! Choose this one! -Considering your students’ gaps. Which of your students’ bite-sized grammar or composing gaps could you address in a future lesson? If you’re ready to apply the principles of grammar-planning or composing-planning to an upcoming lesson independently, then throw your headphones in and get to work. Work Time Goal: Sketch out your key points and aligned student-practice-procedures & steps for one lesson. Bonus! Determine which students you’ll want to target to work with one-on-one during student work time. If you’re almost ready to apply the principles of grammar-planning or composing- planning to an upcoming lesson, but you’d like to talk it out with an ELA-friend first, do this to find an ELA-partner. Work Time Goal: In groups of 2 sketch out key points & aligned student-practice & procedures for one lesson. Figure out where the overlap is for the person who didn’t get to sketch out a future lesson. If you’re feeling a little paralyzed still because you aren’t sure how writing or grammar fits into an upcoming mini-unit, join this group where I’ll be able to support you more fully. Work Time Goal: Everyone in the group will have prioritized 1 day’s objective to write a grammar or composing lesson for. Everyone understands how the grammar/ composing lessons supports the over-arching goal of the mini-unit.

12. 12 C EL ebr A te! And reflect. Celebrate someone who made this work more enjoyable or moved the group forward. Reflect in writing for us & for yourself: 1. How has this discussion and viewing of lesson plans & videos shifted what you want for your students in a single lesson shifted, if at all? 2. How has this discussion and viewing of lesson plans & videos shifted your approach to grammar or writing lesson planning, if at all? 3. What student-actions or habits should we prioritize discussing in future sessions?