Getting on the Write Road: Assessment,

Fluency, and WorkshopThe Next Chapter

Session 5Barb Mick - COOR ISD

Jackie Fry - COP ESD

Time for a roadmap check…

We’ve introduced assessment, thought about our literacy histories and those of our students, looked at the developmental progression of readers and how to determine the level of our students, and taken a deeper look at comprehension. Tonight we will be delving into writing.

Goals for Session 5

1. Understand writing fluency and why it is important

2. Learn about Writing Tracker and apply it at your grade level

3. Consider best practice for handwriting instruction and how it relates to writing instruction

4. Understand the grade level Writing Common Core Standards

5. Learn to use conferring as assessment

Your Turn…

1. Appoint a time-keeper at your table. (20 minutes total)

2. Spend time with your table group talking about your Close Reading lessons. How did the lessons go? How did each of your case study students do? What evidence do you have of NEW understanding? What was hard? What was successful?

3. Share your Retelling Rubric scores and talk about how that went.

4. Share your Summary Rubric scores and discuss what you did to move your students into Summary from Retelling.

5. Did the Close Reading improve the retelling and/or summary?

Quick Write

What do you feel strongly about regarding the teaching of writing?

(3 minutes)

Writing Tracker

Count the words you wrote

Record the number

How would you adapt this to K or 1st?

Trust the system

Trust your hands. Forget your brain for a while, and let your fingers do the writing. Your hand bones are connected to your brain bones. I had the vaguest sense of what I wanted to say in this essay until my hands taught me.

The Fluent Writer by Roy Peter Clark

Count Words!

Count everything. Don Murray’s favorite motto is “Never A Day Without a Line.” Not a hundred lines. For the fluent writer, every word counts. Learn to judge your own work by quantity, not quality.

The Fluent Writer by Roy Peter Clark

Let’s consider handwriting

If we are worried about writing fluency, then we must consider handwriting, which supports fluency but also adds legibility.

Jigsaw the article, “Want to Improve Children’s Writing? Don’t Neglect Their Handwriting”

Assign each section to a person at your table. Read your section, then share out at your table. You will have 15 minutes to complete the jigsaw.

And now another QuickWrite…

3 minutes to write…

Think about what we’ve presented so far. How does it apply to your classroom?Count your words, Record,

Compare to the previous ones

CCS Writing Standards

1. Individually (no sharing at this point!) write down your grade level’s Common Core Writing Standards. (10 minutes)

2. With a partner, compare your answers to the actual standards. (10 minutes)

3. Have a table discussion – How many did you remember? What ones are you really focusing on right now in your classroom? Which ones are hard for you to get to? (10 minutes)

And the research says…

JOHN HATTIE’s work, VISIBLE LEARNING, synthesizes over 800 meta-

analyses relating to student achievement.

This book is now considered to be “teaching’s Holy Grail”.

What does the research tell us about writer’s workshop?

Working together to plan, draft, revise, and edit .75

Setting clear and specific goals for what students are to accomplish with their writing product .70

Teaching students strategies to write increasingly complex sentences .50

The results show the power of teaching students the processes and strategies involved in writing, structuring the teaching of writing by having students work together in an organized fashion, and of setting clear and specific goals, especially to the purpose of each piece of writing.

And…

Workshop instructional treatments of writing .52

The common elements of what was successful in workshops were the use of teams, peer feedback, and collaborative

authorship.

Conferring

Feedback .73

However, the quality and type of feedback make a difference.

Caution…

For example, extrinsic rewards and task performance had a negative effect size (-.34);

tangible rewards significantly undermined motivation (-.68);

and feedback administered in a controlling manner (e.g., saying a student “should” have done it a particular way) resulted in a negative effect size (-.78).

Effective Feedback Answers Three Questions

FEED UP Where am I going? (the goals)

FEEDBACK How am I going?

FEED FORWARDWhere to next?

Let’s watch one expert

Another QuickWrite

Some helpful resources

How’s It Going? Carl Anderson (Heinemann, 2000)

Conferring With Boys Max Brand DVD set (Stenhouse, 2006)

The Art of Teaching Writing Lucy Calkins (Heinemann, 1994)

Conferring with Primary Writers Lucy Calkins, Amanda Hartman, Zoe Ryder White (Heinemann, 2004)

One to One Lucy Calkins, Amanda Hartmand, Zoe Ryder White (Heinemann, 2005)

In the Beginning Ralph Fletcher & JoAnn Poralupi (Stenhouse, 2004

Talking About Writing Ralph Fletcher & JoAnn Poralupi (Stenhouse, 2003)

This is just a partial list…

Your Assignment

1. Do several QuickWrites and record their results on a Writing Tracker graph.

2. Complete a Handwriting Rubric for your 3 case study students.

3. Compile your conferring notes for your case study students. Bring the writing you conferred on with you to the next session.

4. Fill out the Reflection for Session 5.

Ticket Out the Door & Wrap Up

Make sure to clean up your area and recycle your water bottles.

Please complete your Exit Ticket and turn it in as you leave.

Our next meeting will: Continuing Down the Writing Path: Genre, Craft, Conventions

Thank you for your hard work, thoughtful contributions, and professionalism.