Nurturing Young Writers in Every Content Area:Dispositions, Process, and The Six Traits

Angela StockmanWNY Education Associates

stockmanangela@gmail.com

WELCOME!Growing the Good

What do you currently do to support young writers well?

Consider:

CurriculumInstructionAssessment

Management

Photo by Silvia Tolisano

TODAY’S AGENDA• Defining our guiding questions

about writing instruction• Understanding and nurturing a

writer’s dispositions• Strategies for supporting the

writing process and craft across the curriculum

• Connecting dispositions, process, and craft: planning a year, planning a unit

• Approaching assessment• Quality feedback• Rethinking rubrics

Please peruse today’s agenda.

What needs, questions, or concerns emerge?

How can I make this day more meaningful for you?

We Connect Through Our Stories

We All Need to Leave Our Mark on the World

http://tinyurl.com/27u6wa8

What Will Yours Be?

http://tinyurl.com/28xbnyz

What is the difference between real writing and….

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functional writing?

WHERE

DOYOU INVEST

THE MOST ENERGY?

THE MOST IMPORTANT

WRITINGINSTRUMENT

TOPUTIN

THEIRHANDS

BALANCEBUILDSBETTER

WRITERS

Being vs. Doing

What I’m learning about being a good writer:

WE ACT AND WRITE WITH COURAGE

WE SEEK UNDERSTANDING BEFORE DOING

WE PERSEVERE

WE COLLABORATE

WE SHARE OUR EXPERTISE

WE GIVE OF OURSELVES AND ACT WITH KINDNESS

WE REFLECT ON WHERE WE’VE BEEN, WHERE WE ARE GOING, AND HOW WE PLAN TO GET THERE

WE KNOW THAT WRITING IS OFTEN A SLOW PROCESS

WE TRY TO DEVELOP BETTER AND BETTER AND BETTER STRATEGIES FOR IMPROVING OUR OWN WORK AND HELPING

OTHERS

WE ARE ALL WRITERS AND LEARNERS

AND ALL OF US MUST TEACH.

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“Real Writers”and “Real Writing”

Have Certain Dispositions in Common....

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COURAGE

http://www.flickr.com/photos/notsogoodphotography/770557316/

UNDERSTANDING

PERSEVERANCE

REFLECTION

http://www.flickr.com/photos/tonythemisfit/3223459074/

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3461/3196112134_aa09fbfefa.jpg?v=0

EXPERTISE

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They are….CONNECTED

COLLABORATIVEENGAGED

Community Fellows Strive to Embody Certain

Dispositions

Which Support the

Writer's Process

Allowing for the Development of

Writer's Craft

•Courage and Initiative •Understanding•Perseverance•Reflection•Expertise•Cooperation and Collaboration

•Prewriting•Drafting•Peer-Review•Editing•Revising•Publishing

• Compelling Ideas• Engaging Voice• Effective Word Choice• Clear Organization• Fluent Sentences• Proper Use of Conventions

Where Do Process and Craft Fit In? Envisioning a Year of Writing Together

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Peer Review

Drafting

Prewriting

Publishing

Editing

Revision

IDEAS

ORGANIZATION

VOICE

WORD CHOICE

SENTENCE FLUENCY

CONVENTIONS

PRESENTATION CONNECTION/REFLECTION

EVOLUTION

THE WRITING PROCESS

PrewritingDrafting

Peer-ReviewEditing

Revision (throughout)Publication

Which parts of the process show up most

in your classroom? Least?Why?

Writing is a Process

PREWRITING

What does this look like?

Strategies for Support:

ProblemsLabs

Tasks to Reflect OnResearch Questions

Writing PromptsArtifactsPicturesMusicVideo

MovementEquations

RAFTSConversation

Web Tools

Traits to Focus on During Pre-Writing:

IDEAS

ORGANIZATION

IDEAS• Invite or inspire pre-writing activities.

• Come from our experiences, our connections, and our previous understandings.

• May be generated from problems to solve, dilemmas to consider, artifacts, photographs, movement, music, conversation, guided brainstorming and more…..

• Require good writers to select appropriate MODES and to define their PURPOSES.

• Move readers from general to more refined topics.

• Inspire careful observation.

• Require independent use of higher level thought.

• Require writers to use facts, evidence, and/or details in order to support

Considering MODES and PURPOSE

COMMON TEXT TYPES (MODES)

Narrative Text

Expository/Informational Text

Procedural Text

Poetic

Functional

Hybrid

COMMON PURPOSES FOR WRITING

To Persuade

To Describe

To Inform

To Think

To Connect/Collaborate

To Build Collective Intelligence

What is Digital Writing?• When we take our writing digital, we share ANY of those forms online.

Typically, they blend when we do so.

• This requires us to learn how to connect them to the ideas and work that others have shared.

• How does happen? – Linking– Curation– Social Networking and Social Learning

• Why is this important?– Collective Intelligence

How Do We Help Writers Generate Their OWN Innovative Ideas?

#1 By Helping Them Establish AND Maintain a Writing Territories List

Strategies to Try:• Loop and Zoom• Exploring the Estate• Listing• What Do You Think? Why Do You Think That?• What Did You Write? Why Did You Write That?

How can we intervene when writers struggle to

generate their own ideas?

Directed Writing vs. Choice

The Power of Reflection

Creating a Container

Inquiry-Style Writing

Organization“Organization is what you do

before you do something so that when you do it

it’s not all mixed up.”

Winnie the Poohhttp://blog.wired.com/geekdad/books/index.html

Organization• Requires that writers develop an INVITING lead for that provokes questioning

and curiosity.

• Inspires a body of work that attends to these questions and curiosities in a logical manner.

• Purposeful sequencing is critical.

• Relies upon smooth transitions and the articulation of turning points and resolutions.

• Requires a conclusion that satisfies the questions and curiosities provoked by the lead and may inspire new ones. It does not, however, introduce new information.

ORGANIZATION

WHAT IT IS….

A lead that “hooks” reader and provokes questions.

A core that provides details in a logical manner and transitions between them smoothly.

An ending that satisfies the questions raised within the work.

HOW WE SUPPORT IT…

Models and mentor texts

Consuming and “Mapping” Text

Story boards

Graphic organizers

Traits to Focus On As We Draft

IDEAS

ORGANIZATION

VOICE

VOICE• The “sound” of the writer or the speaker.

• Tone that is appropriate to the task.

• Commitment to the piece—involvement.

• Attention to the topic.

Voice• Requires that writers shift the way they speak in

response to MODE and PURPOSE.

• Invites diversity and complexity.

• Built when students take RISKS.

• Thrives in a comfortable atmosphere.

• Suffers when we overemphasize formulaic processes or models.

Exploring mentor texts

leads

endings

in-betweens

Writers Need STRATEGIES That Help Them CRAFT Voice

• Hearing Voices

• Give-Aways:

• Add-Ons

• Messing With Sentences

WORD CHOICE

“The race in writing is not to the swift, but to the original.”

----William Zinsser

Word Choice• Original words

• Precise words

• Engaging words

• Varied words

• Attention to dialect and formality

GIVE THEM WORDS!

• Sentence Frames

• Smart Words

• Word Walls

• Playing with Precision

Post-It Poetry

Sentence fluency

• Fluent sentences appeal to the ear and the eye.

• They vary in length and structure.

• They convey character, emotion, and reveal voice.

• Rhythm, rhyme, and repetition of vowel and consonant sounds effect fluency.

Beyond Peer-Conferencing:

Peer Review

ProcessesModeling With Fishbowl

AssessmentIntervention

Coaching With Push/Pause

Traits to Focus On During Peer-Review

IDEAS

VOICE

ORGANIZATION

WORD CHOICE

SENTENCE FLUENCY

EDITING

How are YOU strong as an editor?

Differentiating the peer-editing process

Traits to Focus On As We Edit

IDEAS

VOICE

ORGANIZATION

WORD CHOICE

SENTENCE FLUENCY

CONVENTIONS

CONVENTIONS: THE LAST CONVERSATION

• Attending to conventions happens at the END of the writing process.

• Effective writers understand why editing is necessary. Strong writers know that editing isn’t merely about “fixing up” writing.

• Edits are intentional, effective, and do not strip the work of voice, ideas, or fluency. They BUILD it.

PUBLISHING

What does this mean to

you?

How is the definition shifting?

What opportunities are available?

Approaching Assessment

What Does Effective Assessment of Writing Look Like?

What Does it Feel Like?

What Makes for Adequate Practice?What Makes for Suitable Practice?

Providing Quality Feedback: Criteria and a Protocol

Rethinking Rubrics

Popular Practice vs. Promising Practice

Let’s PlayUse the materials provided to explore and

design instructional approaches that will meet the needs of your students.

Be prepared to share your work during peer-review, gather feedback from your

colleagues, and share your growing expertise with others.

ReferencesCulham, Ruth. 6 + 1 Traits of Writing: The Complete Guide, Grades 3 and Up. New York: Scholastic, 2003.

Gray, Theresa (2006). Slideshare. Writing Frameworks. Retrieved January 21, 2009 from: http://www.slideshare.net/TGray/writing-frameworks

Martin-Kniep, Giselle O. Communities That Lead, Learn, and Last: Building and Sustaining Educational Expertise. California: Jossey-Bass, 2008.

National Board for Professional Teacher Standards. “What Teachers Should Know and Be Able to Do: The Five Core Propositions.” Retrieved Aug. 21, 2008 from http://www.nbpts.org/the_standards/the_five_core_propositions

Peha, Steve. “Writing Across the Content Areas.” Retrieved August 1, 2012 from http://ttms.org/

Stockman, Angela (2008-Present). WNY Young Writers’ Studio. Presented at Daemen College, Amherst, NY and the Kenan Center, Lockport, NY.

Unless otherwise noted, all photographs were taken by Angela Stockman, who was given permission to use them by the subject and parents.