building better writers through strong minilessons...building better writers through strong...

Building Better Writers Through Strong Minilessons

Presented by

Betsey Kennedy-Olotka Elizabeth.Kennedy@cobbk12.org

Elizabeth Marsili Elizabeth.Marsili@cobbk12.org

Essential Questions

• What are the key components of a strong minilesson?

• How do I design minilessons that impact writers in brief amounts of time?

Writing Workshop Instructional Framework

Minilesson Closing

Work Session

• 5-10 minutes • Whole Class • Teacher-led • Specific Teaching Point • Mentor Text • Develop Teaching

Charts/Anchor Charts

The 5 W’s of Minilessons

• Who?

• When?

• Where?

• What?

• Why? Explicit instruction

Authentic Learning

Attention Spans

Community

Gradual Release

The Big Question:

A Closer Look at the Architecture of a Minilesson

1. The Connection

2. The Teaching Component

3. Active Involvement

4. The Link

The Connection

• First 2-3 minutes

• Connect to the ongoing work

• Intimacy and Immediacy – Personal Stories/Student Examples

– Work is important today and everyday

• Specific Teaching Point & Procedure – “Today I’m going to teach you ____,

by ________.”

Teaching Component

• Revisit familiar read-alouds

• Demonstrate (Think Aloud)

• Teach small

• Have students think along with you

• Remind students that they should try this too

Active Involvement • 2-3 minutes of practice

• Children may be asked to: – Continue the work on the next part of the

demonstration text – Try the strategy on another text – Try the strategy on their own writing – Find and mark a place in their own writing

where they could try the strategy

• Every child is actively involved, not just listening

The Link

• Restate what children should have learned

• Remind students that this will always be important for writing

• Add teaching point to anchor chart

• “Off you go.”

Keeping the Minilesson Mini • Keep your topic focused

• Avoid asking questions to the whole class and calling on students to answer

• Assign long-term minilesson/closing partners to students for Turn-and-Talk

• If you model writing, keep it very short

• Don’t read entire texts, choose carefully

• Accept that you will only be able to listen in on one or two partnerships during the active engagement

How do I know what to teach? Think about your own writing

How do I know what to teach? Read your students’ writing

How do I know what to teach? Issues we notice during writing conferences

How do I know what to teach? Read mentor texts and think about teaching points

How do I know what to teach? Consider Cobb County’s writing rubrics and

learning progressions

How do I know what to teach? Consider Units of Study genre checklists

How do I know what to teach? Consider other resources

Units of Study in Argument, Information, and Narrative Writing

PICASSO Units

Craft Lessons by Ralph Fletcher

The No-Nonsense Guide to

Teaching Writing

Developing Ideas for Minilessons Examine one of the following:

• Sample student writing

• Units of Study genre checklist

• Cobb writing rubric, writing progression

Make a list of minilessons that could be taught based

on what you saw.