Students CAN WriteChanging the Narrative of a Deficit Model

Kevin English: Wayne Memorial High School - Wayne, MichiganKirsten Melise LeBlanc: St. Paul Catholic School - Grosse Pointe Farms, MichiganBeth Shaum: St. Frances Cabrini Middle School - Allen Park, Michigan

Students can’t write because…In the 1970s and 1980s: ...they’re spending too much time watching TV

In the 1990s and 2000s: …. they’re spending too much time online

In the 2000s and 2010s:… they’re texting and tweeting too much

Students can’t write. Says who? “The Media” Education “Reformers”ParentsTeachers who don’t write

The Need for DataStudents have to write a lot before we know what they can do.

“Any one-shot assessment procedure cannot capture the depth and breadth of information teachers have available to them. Even when a widely used, commercial test is administered, teachers must draw upon the full range of their knowledge about content and individual students to make sense of the limited information such a test provides.”-NCTE’s Standards for the Assessment of Reading and Writing

And who says what counts?Multiple choice assessments for writing do not show transfer or ability to write.

Students CAN WriteWhat exactly are we focusing on when we say students can't write?

Are we feeding them to the wolves and saying, “Go forth and write!” with no scaffolding, or are we giving students models of good writing to observe and emulate?

This is Just to SayI have eaten

the plums

that were in

the icebox

and which

you were probably

saving

for breakfast

Forgive me

they were delicious

so sweet

and so cold

- William Carlos Williams

Change our mindset…We can obsess over what our students are doing wrong, which is an exercise in futility because developing writers will ALWAYS make mistakes…

… or we can focus on what our students do well as an entrypoint for helping them improve.

“...good sixth grade writing may have more errors per word than good third grade writing. In a Piagetian sense, children do not master things for once and for all. A child who may appear to have mastered sentence sense in the fourth grade may suddenly begin making what adults call sentence errors all over again as he attempts to accommodate his knowledge of sentences to more complicated constructions.” - Roger McCaig (1977)

“... it is not unusual for people acquiring a skill to get ‘worse’ before they get better and for writers to err more as they venture more.” - Mina Shaughnessy (1977)

Errors are a sign your students are

learning!

"But their grammar is so bad!"● What exactly do we mean by this? ● What rules are we holding sacred?

○ Productive rules that help with clarity? ○ or arbitrary, prescriptive, archaic "rules"

A run-on/fragment in the first paragraph!

Oh really?

Are we encouraging risk-taking?

“But they have to know the rules before they can break them.”

How do our beliefs about writing influence the work students complete?

How we spend our time matters. If we only show students one genre of writing, i.e., the five-paragraph essay, then that’s all we can ever expect. There’s more to writing!

Subversion… it’s a Good Thing

Subversion… it’s a Good Thing

Subversion… it’s a Good ThingDear Big Fish from This is Not My Hat,

You are a mean-spirited and evil fish! The little fish did you a favor buddy. The hat you were wearing was way too small for you. How could you be so mean to Little Fish after you saw how cute he swam? He was adorable and you, I can't even talk to you right now...

You ate Little Fish! Have you no soul man! All Little Fish wanted to do was to look snazzy with a hat (that fit properly). Yes, I'll admit it was wrong of Little Fish to steal it, but it was worse of you to eat him! Now Big Fish, you sit down and think about what you have done.

Please don't get me started about that crab...

- Zoe, 8th grader (2012-2013)

Same writing, different students“I’ve read the same thing

150 times.”

I’ve yet to read a five-paragraph essay that gave me goosebumps.

Exposure matters!“I need more time to write because I often have multiple packets due in the same week.”

Nurturing an identity as writer

“Some people listen to music. I write. I feel like there is always someone listening. I can be as blunt as I want to be.”

Sacred Writing Time“There must be time for the seed of the idea to be nurtured in the mind.” -Don Murray

Three Rules:1. Write the entire

time.2. Ignore your

inner critic.3. Have fun!

Writing for you, not for me

"I just need to write today."

When a football player asks for time to write, you know you’re doing something right.

Community Building“I was never pushed out of my comfort zone in this class. It actually made me feel like I was a part of something. … Seeing others happy to read made me think that I could get excited and start to read on a normal basis.”

Feedback Matters● Have you thought about...?● I wonder what it would look like if...?● Think about WHEN you give feedback,

not just what that feedback is ○ is a final draft really the best time?

Find out their pasts

I wrote all those comments, and students just ignored them!

The role of feedbackRecently a student wrote, “I know I should read your feedback because that’s another thing that can help me, but I’m too scared to do it.”

Repositioning StudentsStudents are writers in the room, too!

They know what they need!“I need to know what other words I could use except ‘he said’ and ‘she said.’ I need more descriptive words.”

“I’m not sure how to end it, or even how to lead to the end. Does it need dialogue?”

And they know how to help!“Other people like my work,

but they said I needed

more details about Chuck

and if he got in trouble by

the store.”

“My peers wanted me to

explain more about Danny.

I only mentioned his name.”

“People seemed to like

how I played with colors… but they also

said I need to go deeper into her goals

and hopes.”

Write Beside ThemSo…

What we discover when we write with our students is that this writing thing is HARD...

… and we begin to show a little empathy toward our students’ plight.

Write Beside Them"For years I had expected my students to go on swimming without me while I barked orders from my chaise lounge." - Penny Kittle

Visit the EMWP website:http://emichwp.org/wp/

A place to start writing beside them

“Writing is how we think our way into a subject and make it our own.”

~ William Zinsser

Students Can’t Write in Math...● Writing has no place in the math

curriculum.

● Elementary students are too young to express their thoughts in writing.

● It’s too hard.

Are We Sure About That?!

“If I can think about it, I can talk about it. If I can talk about it, I can write about it.”

~ Lucy Calkins

In Order to Own the Concept...

Students need to be given time to:

REFLECTDISCUSSWRITE

about the concept at hand, in their own words.

Let Me Think About ThatThoughtful reflection is an integral part of the math classroom.

Let’s Talk Math!A meaningful discussion leads to in-depth writing.

Write Now...A Window to their ThoughtsWrap up discussion with written responses. Allow students to apply, analyze, evaluate

and create!

Writing Samples…Direct from a 3rd Grade Math Class

The Progression of Learning “Tell me and I forget. Teach me and I remember. Involve me and I learn.”

~ Benjamin Franklin

“I don’t know.” “I don’t get this.” “Do you mean…?

“No, wait...I got this…!”

I Got This!● Created a multistep

story problem.

● Identified strategies needed to solve it.

● Broke it down into manageable diagrams.

● Solved with detailed explanation of thought process.

● Presented final answer in a sentence.

Portfolio Assessments

Collegial ConversationsThe LAST (Looking at Students’ Thinking) Protocol you’ll ever need…

“There will always be an error, a refusal, an inadequate paragraph. Student writing will never be perfect. We live among the mess. We can choose to wallow in the doom. Or we can choose joy.” - Ruth Ayers

Contact usFind this presentation on Slideshare

Kevin English - kevinmenglish@gmail.comKirsten Melise LeBlanc - keleblanc92@gmail.comBeth Shaum - bethshaum@gmail.com

BibliographyAyres, R., & Overman, C. (2013). Celebrating writers: from possibilities through publication. Portland, Maine: Stenhouse.

Kittle, P. (2008). Write beside them: risk, voice, and clarity in high school writing. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.

McCaig, R.A. (1977). What research and evaluation tell us about teaching written expression in the elementary school. In C. Weaver and R. Douma (Eds.), The language arts teacher in action (pp. 46-56). Kalamazoo, MI: Western Michigan University. Distributed by the National Council of Teachers of English.

Shaughnessy, M.P. (1977). Errors and expectations: A guide for the teacher of basic writing. New York: Oxford University Press.

Sheils, M. (1975, December 8). Why johnny can't write. Newsweek, p. 58.

Weaver, C. (1996). Teaching grammar in context. Portsmouth, NH: Boynton/Cook Publishers.

Bibliography - Math ReferencesChapin, S., O’Connor, C. & Anderson, N. (2009). Classroom Discussions Using Math Talk to Help Students Learn. Sausalito, CA: Math Solutions.

Smith, M. & Stein, M. (2011). 5 Practices for Orchestrating Productive Mathematics Discussions. Reston, VA: The National Council of Teachers of Mathematics.

Van de Walle, J. & Lovin, L. (2006). Teaching Student Centered Mathematics Grades 3-5. Boston, MA: Pearson Education Inc.

Trade Books ReferencedGaiman, N., & Young, S. (2013). Fortunately, the milk. New York: Harper.

Levine, G. C. (2012). Forgive me, I meant to do it: false apology poems. New York: Harper.

Lloyd, N. (2014). A snicker of magic. New York: Scholastic.

Winter, J. (2011). The watcher: Jane Goodall's life with the chimps. New York: Schwartz & Wade Books.