Jedi Writing

     I have been a bit behind in my blogging this month, but am getting back into the writing swing of things with a link up to DigiLit Sunday.  Margaret Simon posted here about using a Writing Notebook to share our lives, and it reminded me to write a post about our Jedi Writing experiment with +Lori Horne's 4th graders this year!

     Our school has been doing Writing Workshop for 3 years now, and we are working out the flaws a little more each year.  Workshop has helped us focus on genre of writing (namely expository, narrative, and opinion) but I have also seen a slide in kids just writing what matters to them no matter the genre.  I'm not talking about having a daily prompt, but just an independent application of what we have taught them in Workshop on their own timeline with their own ideas.  I had just seen Ralph Fletcher at a conference, and the idea of informal writing was just swimming in my head.  I had talked to him after his presentation, and his interest in the topic struck a chord with me. 

   I talked with Lori Horne and we started our "training."   Mrs. Horne's students know more about Star Wars than I thought humanly possible.  Jedi Writing Training was born.  First thing we did was made an anchor chart of all the types of writing they had learned so far this year.  We put small moments, narrative fiction, essays, and informational writing up first.  I then did a mini-lesson on how to make a list, and added that to the chart.  We handed them each a notebook, and said, "Go off and write any genre on that list about a topic you choose.  It just has to matter to YOU." 

  

    I came in every day after lunch for about 30 minutes at first, giving them a little mini lesson with either a new type of writing, or a mentor text to pull craft moves out of.  Every day, though, the choice was up to them to use those lessons, or to write from any genre on our growing list of writing styles about anything that mattered to them.  They wrote in their notebooks for about 10 minutes, and then they assessed themselves for Ideas and Effort.  They simply took a minute and wrote a capital I and E with a number at the top of their writing, while I walked around and snapped 2 pictures of writing to share.  We would then display it on the Apple TV, identify the genre they chose to write, and give them feedback.  If they wrote in a genre that wasn't on our chart, we added it.  

     Can I just say that this became my favorite part of the day?

     From a teacher's standpoint, I was really impressed that the kids started to notice the different genres, and started to use them purposely.  Some kids chose to use the same genres to write over and over again, but some had a variety of writing in their notebooks.  They also started to pick up craft moves from books we shared, and from EACH OTHER.  By sharing student samples everyday and giving feedback, I started to see the kids using each other's writing as inspiration.   

    From a human standpoint, I started to learn more about what matters to the kids as people.  Through their writing, it was clear that some kids struggle with things in life, whether at home or in school.  I started to see the things that interest them, and it connected me to them better as a teacher.  One thing about humans in general is wanting to feel success.  I saw real pride and success in their eyes when sharing with their classmates.  There were many days when I had to leave to go to my next class and kids were following me out to read their writing to me.  I have spent my whole career asking kids to read their own writing back to themselves, and here they were following me out the door to read it.  We ended up creating a KidBlog page to allow them to have a wider audience in the class.

     Was it the power of the Jedi?  There is something about creating a shared theme that is relevant to them.  But, the truth is, despite a few random mini lessons and some fun Star Wars t-shirt days arranged by Mrs. Horne, they didn't actually write about Star Wars.  Well, perhaps a few did.  I mean, we did tell them to write about what matters to them.  And, they did.  

fictional stories

poems of different varieties

stories inspired by authors

comic strips

personal narratives

scientific musings

lists

hybrid texts

      

     That last one was written about a black and white photo of a family taken in 1906.  It was my own ancestors from Ireland, so Spy Family was a personal favorite of mine.

     Another favorite thing to do was to read their blogs.  Once I wasn't able to go in to their class every day, their blogs gave me a constant window into their writing lives.  Most of their posts on the blogs were geared towards a classmate audience, but then you'd find poems like this.  Inspired.

     We gave them 10 minutes a day to practice writing in various genres about things that matter to them.  We didn't correct their spelling, or tell them that they had to choose something other than Batman to write about.  We let them have 10 minutes.  Sure, there were spelling mistakes and unfinished stories.  Punctuation was missing for sure.  We have other times in our day to fix those things.  But, the FORCE was with them for those 10 minutes.  They considered themselves writers.   

      Isn't that what matters?

     

Tech in the Writing Workshop

     I remember September... That time, not so long ago, when the school year was new and we were just getting to know our students.  We were developing routines in reading, and getting to know them as writers.  Most of the grade levels started with a narrative unit in writing, and teachers often start the year with struggles as kids try to write small moments. I have a few theories behind those struggles, but my job as a coach is to problem solve moving forward, not find the reasons they can't write.   Such is the case with first grade this last September.  Our team was mostly new to Hiawatha, and many of our students came back with summer slide, in addition to the fact that many are below grade level in reading and not all speak in complete sentences when they talk, let alone when they write.  But, these six years olds do have IDEAS.  We just need to find the write scaffolds for them to write.

     I was having a conversation with one of our new teachers, +Kayla Kaczmarek, about how I used to teach my 2nd graders to write in a booklet.  I would show them how to talk their story across their hand before they picked up the pencil to write.  We talked about how their booklets could start with three pages only, and around a shared topic.  I had also shared with her that I used to use pictures of our playground to write a shared experience story using the image, but adding vocabulary labels to enhance the level of detail in their writing.

    The next day or so, when I had to cover her class for about an hour due to a meeting, she gave me a page of sub plans that rocked that writing scaffold world.

     She had taken her kids outside the day before, and had them take a picture with their own iPads of a part of the playground.  They had already made a web of the things they saw on the playground.  The plan for me that day was to use their iPads to VIDEOTAPE themselves talking the story across their hands, so that they could play it back and stop and start it while writing.  That way, as they wrote across their booklet pages, they wouldn't lose their story.

     So simple, yet so genius.  Just use the camera app on the iPad as a scaffold to enhance their ability to write a small moment story!  I have to admit, this was the first whole class lesson I had ever taught using all iPads, as I had been in a 1:1 Macbook rooms for 3 years.  I put my own nerves aside, and showed the first graders how I could record myself, with my hand in the video for easy viewing for playback, and told my story about going down a slide.  We didn't even try to write anything that day.  At the end of the lesson, they got to share their stories by taking a gallery walk around the room and playing their friends' videos.  It was over the next few days where they learned to play the stories back, using a booklet with 3 numbered pages, to touch and tell their story and then write it for others to read.

     This was a huge success, because it helped students not only remember their stories across pages, but it also got them to verbally practice telling it first.  They practiced speaking in complete sentences before trying to write, and this helped them as a storyteller.  It also then opened the door to future lessons on self editing and graduation to booklets that were not as scaffolded about a single topic.  

     I was thinking about this this week as our first graders published their nonfiction CHAPTER BOOKS using various apps on the iPad.  Somehow, over the course of the year, those struggling readers and writers became AUTHORS.

     I think part of it was seeing the tech they had access to as a way to scaffold their ideas, using the video feature of the iPad.

     I think part of it was using apps along the way to "publish" some of their writing, even if it wasn't typed.  They used their drafts to read their writing into apps like Tellagami and Chatterpix, bringing their words to life.

     I think part of it was, once they got to nonfiction, they used the iPad as a scaffold to the ideas they wanted to see in their writing.  Using apps like YouTube kids, Kiddle, MyOn and Blendspace allowed our first graders to learn content that was above their reading level.  They learned the vocabulary they needed to sound like experts in their non fiction writing.

     I think part of it was that our teachers never replaced drafting on paper.  Our first graders need to learn how to write on paper.  Their fine motor skills need to be developed.  But that does not mean tech can't be used in writing workshop.

    I think a huge part of it was that our teachers became writers themselves, actually discussing what they hoped our students would produce to create a single point rubric at the start of the units.  They did the work of their students.

    I think part of it was that students are treated like authors, and given an audience.

     Here we are, in March, and this was how they ended their non fiction writing unit.  They sent out a Google form to the kids, and allowed them to pick how they wanted to publish their chapter book about the seasons.  They then switched kids for a week between +Shianne Gillespie, +Amelia Sheers, +Melissa Alper, +Kayla Kaczmarek and +Vianney Sanchez and used those books to great digital books and/or movies with the content.

Here they are creating iBooks with Book Creator.

Here they are making newscasts with Telestory.

Some coded their story using Scratch Jr.

Others appsmashed with Tellagami and iMovie.

     I love how the first grade used tech this year as a way to ENHANCE their writing workshop.  They have used their iPads to facilitate idea collection, drafting and publishing in various ways throughout the year.  They never jumped right to the tech to produce something that didn't meet the writing standard they had hoped for.  They always had their writing goals first, and then used tech to scaffold to get there.

    Our first graders are WRITERS.

    #proudlitcoach

Reflections as a Writer

Day 31!  The last day!  Reflections on Writing

Well, if that's true, my writing this month was awesome.
You know... because I did it.  Most days.

     As a coach, one of the most common things I hear about writing are the problems.  Our kids don't write enough.  They don't have any craft.  They don't have enough ideas.  They don't like writing.  They struggle on the sentence level, so how can they write an essay.  The standards are too difficult to achieve.  They need too much support.  They can't work independently.

     The truth is, most of those statements can be true.  Writing, in my opinion, is the hardest thing that we ask our students to do.

     I did this Big Time Blogging challenge again this year, and the Slice of Life challenge earlier this year, simply to force myself to be a writer.  We ask our students to stop and write every day in class.  So, I figured I should do the same thing for myself.

     And, you know what?  It was hard.  I am capable of writing a complete sentence.  I am capable of writing with volume (and those of you who have gotten my looooong emails know that).  My craft is getting stronger.  There are no state standards to compare myself too at 38 years old, so I don't know if they are above my level.  But, I have the underlying ability to write well.  AND IT IS STILL HARD.  But, I have come to enjoy it.

     What does that mean for our students?  They don't always have the underlying ability to write at their benchmark level.  Should we make them write?

      YES.

     Change some of the variables.  Increase their support.  Find them an audience.  Change the genres.  Allow for mistakes.  Celebrate their writing.  Help them find a voice.

     Give yourself permission to be a writer in your own classroom. 

     Thanks, +Michelle Brezek, for your challenge.  I did it {most days}!

     

Narrative Writing Standard Annotating

     What are those fantastic teachers looking at so intently, you ask?  Writing samples from the Calkins Units of Study.  They are exploring narrative writing samples in a collaborative effort to find the "bar" when it comes to narrative writing.

     Our school district purchased the Units of Study in writing last year, and this year the Writing Core Leaders are asking that we gather samples of student work that meets or exceeds the standards for every grade, with the purpose of sharing those across the schools as student work examples.  The question is, what does it look like to meet or exceed on the Common Core standard?  It might be easy enough for us to look around our own classroom and pick out the best writing samples, but are those really meeting the CCSS standard?

     In an attempt to find out, we spent a building meeting where we took the on-demand narrative samples from Lucy Calkin's units and blew them up onto a poster.  That way, we had samples that she  feels meets the standard for each grade level, but the story is always a story about a girl named Sarah and her dog.  It was easy to see the progression of writing development from K to 5th grade.

     Before they got started, I had a team member from each grade level get up and hold up Standard 3 from their grade level writing standards.  We could see from where we were sitting just how complex the standard gets as it moves along the grade levels.  We told them to read the standard as a team, and then use the standard and find evidence of it in their grade level writing sample.  Mark it up, code it, etc.

     When they were finished, we had them hang up their writing sample and their standard on the wall.  We then did a gallery walk where they were able to look at the samples across the grades, and notice any patterns and make observations.  

     What did we notice?  Well, our conversation made us aware of a few issues.  Our students still need to work on their volume of writing.  While we have a few students at each grade level who can produce samples like those, many cannot.  We, as a staff, will have to continue to brainstorm ways to increase their stamina and volume.  We also need to focus on purpose and audience when writing within the genre, and less on the small details included on all those checklists and rubrics.  If our students write a great lead, but have no idea why they are writing a narrative in the first place, then they will never create samples like this on their own.  

     Here are the samples, marked up by the Hiawatha teachers.  

*Some grade levels did not finish in time, so they are a work in progress.

Beautiful Oops

     Have you ever made a mistake?

     So, I think we can all agree that we have made a mistake here and there.  It's life.  Mistakes happen.  I always reference my favorite line from Breakfast Club when something happens that I didn't expect.

     Well, now I have a new reference to make to the mistakes that happen in my life, but with an optimistic spin.  In reality, mistakes happen to us all.  I wrote a blog post about a spilled cup of coffee and the silver linings that happened because of it, and the great and wonderful Bazz sent me a mindset shifting book.  It is called Beautiful Oops, by Barney Saltzberg, and it is truly beautiful.

     "Every spill has lots and lots of possibilities!"

    The truth is, since we all make mistakes, then they are part of life.  If we take the time to learn from our mistakes, and see the possibilities they bring, then perhaps we would be more forgiving of ourselves.  In an artsy, 3D way (you have got to see this book in person!) the book says:

"A torn piece of paper is just the beginning!

Every spill has lots and lots of possibilities!

Bent paper is something to celebrate!

A little drip of paint lets your imagination run wild.

A scrap of paper can be fun to play with.

A smudge and a smear can make magic appear."

     I found this wonderful gift in my mailbox months ago, but I was compelled to blog about it now because Lauren Hogel and I are planning a PD session on formative assessment in the writing workshop.  Doesn't that section of text above just scream mentor text for our young writers in the fall?  Our students are often reluctant writers, afraid to make mistakes and sometimes choose not to write at all in an attempt to avoid making them.  This book would be an excellent lesson for them to realize that we ALL make mistakes, and that they can be celebrated.  The quote below is the ending of the book.  Beauty is found in all our kids writing.  They just have to see it. 

     It also reminded me that I need to allow myself to make mistakes.  This was a new year for me as a Literacy Coach, and sometimes I sit and think about how it went, and I start to list the 500 things I would have done differently.  But, when I sit and think about the value in some of those mistakes, I also see the benefits to them.  The outcomes, while not intended, were often a blessing in disguise.  This year, because I made mistakes, I discovered...

My friends have comforting words.

My coworkers are huge resources.

Our students are resilient, and I am too.

Having a voice matters, but how we use it matters too.

     Before the next year begins, I suggest taking some time to think about some of the things you would do differently next year.  Don't see them as things you need to change, but see them as the opportunities they were.   How did you become a stronger teacher/ person because of those mistakes?  Take some time to celebrate those beautiful oopses in your life.

FYI: 
Diona Bazz Iacobazzi is a beautiful person.  
That is all.