building better writers through strong minilessons...building better writers through strong...
TRANSCRIPT
Building Better Writers Through Strong Minilessons
Presented by
Betsey Kennedy-Olotka [email protected]
Elizabeth Marsili [email protected]
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.