GROUP PRESENTATION BY:LISA HAUGEN, JENNIFER REED,

ANDREW DUNN, CHRISTINA CARPENTER, ANGELA MASSA

What You Know by Heart by Katie Wood Ray

Writing Like a Teacher of Writing

Write the way you are asking your students to write.

Remember writing is a process with many parts/steps.

Spend time thinking about what you want to write. Look at other author’s work, listen to other authors. Take the time to let the writing develop. Begin drafting: Envision words, craft, style, etc. Revise: Writers are always changing their work. Edit for publication.

(and all the little, but vital pieces in between)

Understandings vs. Strategies

Understandings- What a writer knows about writing. What a writer thinks about writing and why they think about these things.

Strategies- The process, parts or steps of writing. What kinds of things writers do and how and why they do them.

Developing Writing Curriculum

Similar to the thinking that goes into a craft study

NOTICE- (or) look at something you have done or thought about as a writer.

DESCRIBE – what you have done or thought about and why you did it or thought about it.

NAME – in some way what you did or thought. CONNECT – what you have done or thought about to

another writer's process. ENVISION- your students doing this or thinking this as

they write.

Developing Writing Curriculum

To develop this type of curriculum teachers need to dissect each aspect of writing into mini lessons. They need to think critically about everything that goes into each phase, and how they would present it to their students. They need to look at writing on two levels. 1) Is this something that I would want to write about, and 2) how can I teach these concepts to my students.

Developing Writing Curriculum

Each mini lesson concept has two levels: An understanding and a strategy.

The writing process is guided by a series of questions that move you through the piece.

Each question or concept, from growing an idea to publication, can be made into a curriculum chunks or mini lesson.

As teachers we need to know what mini lessons our students need.

Writer’s Notebook

The writer’s notebook is crucial

Main Ideas (Chapter #5)

This chapters focuses on how authors go about their work

Significant work occurs “away” from the writer’s office

We need to learn what that work is specifically

We also need to be mindful that powerful writing occurs well-before the actual drafting process

Studying Writers’ Office Work

1. What kind of things (routines, thoughts, practices, etc…) do writers do & why do they think about these occurrences?

2. What do writers do once how & why do they do them?

Two Questions we ask in our own Writing

Note that there are multiple steps & changes that occur between the time a topic is selected up through the drafting process

The author takes us through a labyrinth of ideas, questions, pondering thoughts which may lead to a totally new creation

The Writing Process

An abbreviated version of the scenario:A professor was caught in an ice storm & she decided to stop to get a bite to eat in a city called, Plain City. Unfortunately, she never did find the town nor the McDonald’s. Since then, a myriad of thoughts cross her mind about this “elusive” town every time she passes by.

An Example of an Author may Experience

                        

                     

Plain City, although a real place, becomes a fictional setting with characters & landmarks that may or may not fit the true description of the town.

Nonetheless, the author creates a segment of ideas that gives the city a separate identity.

Unlike inexperienced writers, the seasoned author is trained to generate ideas that have not fully been experienced (i.e., she never “discovered” the town)

An Example of an Author may Experience – Cont’d

Feelings & thoughts of bewilderment, awe, fear, & curiosity all play an interesting role in helping create strategies for writing.

These tactics can also be used by students in order to expand their personal writing style.

An Example of an Author may Experience – Cont’d

Robin offers a variety of strategies that many of us may have already practiced or implemented within our writing.

These methods show how Robin may come up with a specific topic such as through a conversation or targeting a publication.

Another Firsthand Experience

This may sound like common sense, but matching or altering your lifestyle may open the door to ideas for a particular work.

Writing for a certain type of audience may cause the work to be focused or concentrated for that group exclusively.

Further Examples ofFirsthand Experience

                       

                      

These strategies can be used for:-Mini lessons

-Writing Conferences

The Purpose of Strategies

Setting Deadlines on Projects Take notebook everywhere & be prepared to

take notes Asking rhetorical questions about ideas Creating Twists (Events) Finding Ideas Not being discouraged about revising

Techniques of Various Authors

                      

                       

This chapter will cover the importance of always being observant & keen on items that may be useful for your students.

Reading Like a Teacher of WritingMain Ideas – (Chapter #6)

                      

                       

As Mara is driving with her friends having a good time, she suddenly pulls off on the side of the road to retrieve a toolbox that she obviously saw in her peripheral vision.

This impulsive but cognitive nature is how we as teachers need to train our minds in order to find materials to teach our kids.

Reading How Mara Drives

Students are trained to turn ideas into a number of different writing styles:- poems- short stories - memoirs- essays

Training our Students

                      

                       

Consider the ways of a seamstress- Extreme Patience- Studies materials/fabrics meticulously- Examines the possibilities of patterns

**This approach is strikingly similar to the writer**

Seamstress & the Writer

                      

                       

                      

                       

Analyzing the author’s intentions Asking how the title connects to the story (Observing the beginning, middle,

ending) Examining wordplay including rhythm &

patterns

General Approaches to Writing

Chapter 7

In order to give good advice to your students about what to write and how to write, you must follow your own advice.

You, as the writing teacher, read for two purposes: 1) to find craft and structure and 2) for planning curriculum

In doing this, you can borrow and modify crafts and strategies of writing into your own style, then use them and teach them.

Practice what you Preach!

Chapter 8

You, as the teacher needs to decide what you want your writer’s to know and be able to apply within their writing as well as what your writer’s workshop time will look like.

A good teacher of writing never gives her students ideas or tells them how to write, but builds on what they are already writing.

Find and use musical lyrics, picture books, or other examples to show students how writer’s borrow different crafts to write for different purposes.

In order to help your students, you need a vision!

Chapter 9: “Looking Closely at Minilessons”

The key to a successful writer’s workshop is students creating many different types of texts.

Teachers need to supply students with the tools and resources to do this.

Students must attempt various strategies to determine what fits them best.

“If you’re not from the prairie,You don’t know the sun,You can’t know the sun. Diamonds that bounce off crisp winter winter

snow, Warm waters in dugouts and lakes that we know. The sun is our friend from when we were young, A child of the prairie is part of the

sun. If you’re not from the prairie, You don’t know the sun. (p.1)” “If you’re not from the prairie…” David Bouchard

What do you see?

“Rhythmic repetition of color and texture--gold rubeckias, feathery grasses--harmonizes the area beside the pool, where a multitude of tones would break the calm (p. 105).”

Taken from an article about landscaping written by Douglas Brenner ,Martha Stewart Living, March 2010.

“Sight an Eye for Tranquility”

Pronoun usage Repetition of ideas Probable reasons for writing Verb choices Punctuation usage What do you think would best with your

students? Do these texts trigger any examples for

you?

What minilessons can be derived from those texts?

Use authors to help teach students how to write well.

Choose authors you can work with and allow students to choose authors they like as well.

Choose authors whose writing represents what students are writing and can help students envision possibilities.

Chapter 10: “Letting Authors Co-teach the Curriculum of Products”

“Sorry, Mr. Shakespeare, you’re just not what I need right now.”

“Well, Mr. Peck, I think you might be just what we are looking for.”

“Mr.Paulson, I will definitely be seeing you again.”

Speed dating with professional authors…

Does the author use language and shape texts in interesting ways?

Can this author carry his or her teaching weight when assisting students in writing well?

Questions for prospective “writing” mates

Could the work of this one author be enough to satisfy the needs of my students if all other sources were not available?

Can the relationship go the distance?

Let students choose writers they love and admire.

Follow your heart…