Electronic Anecdotal Notes 2: A Sample Document

Yesterday I wrote about why I decided to switch over to electronic anecdotal notes. Below is a sample draft document. I actually have 8 separate documents breaking down reading and writing by language and grade level. I may eventually need to look into a system where I can just have one document per grade level with a way to filter the way I want to look at data at any given moment (such as Spanish writing or English reading). In this document I placed an example English and Spanish draft on the same page, but they are actually in separate documents. I will also tab to a new row for each date to easily navigate between dates.

At the top of the document I left a space for language goal with the target literacy skill. For example, some students are avid readers in English able to read from a wide variety of genres and lengths, while in Spanish they are still developing vocabulary and find realistic fiction to be their best fit books right now. While they are able to transfer their reading strategies between languages, unknown vocabulary in some genres such as fantasy, make it hard to access it in their second language. Yet, other students are still developing comprehension strategies in both languages. By having a language goal at the top I will be able to maintain a focus on each student's strenghts and weaknesses in each language. Then I have columns for date, type (with codes), notes and next step. In this reading document I will write information that I gain from conferences, reading response letters, book clubs, and blogging.

When I open any given document there is a table with a class list to record dates that I meet with each student. I found that with a general table although I might have been meeting with students in a balanced manner when looking at meetings in general I had some gaps when looking at it broken down by language. I am hoping to be more mindful of when I meet with students by filtering out by language. In addition, I plan on highlighting the names of students that I want to meet with for various reasons. For example, if I notice through a book letter that a student is struggling with a book, I can make note of what I discovered in their individual chart, and then highlight their name to remind myself to check their anecdotal notes and conference with them.

As with any new system, I am sure that I will be making at least some adjustments, but as I mentioned, I have high hopes that it will be what works for me long term. I am thankful to all of the authors and bloggers who inspired me along the way to develop my system, such as The Two Sisters, Patrick Allen, and Two Writing Teachers. By sharing their ideas I was able to try out different suggestions and then adjust and mold them into my current set-up.

Electronic Anecdotal Notes

Electronic Anecdotal Notes

This year as I have been experiencing my first ever full implementation of a workshop approach, deciding exactly which system will work for me to record information about student conferences has been key. Many of the books I have read emphasized that each person has to decide what works best, as one person's ideas will not necessarily work for other people. This is so true, as I have gathered and tried ideas from teaching blogs and books. I have also noticed while one author explained how writing on labels was a disaster, another wrote about it being her perfect system corraborating the idea that I cannot just take someone else's system and expect it to be perfect for me.

While I am fairly new to a workshop approach, I am not new to anecdotal records. Even when I was teaching in a position with a mandated scripted reading program where I felt I could do little adjustments based on my observations of students as individuals, I kept anecdotal records. The system that worked for me at the time was to have a clipboard with a page with a table for each student to record observations. This year I first tried to have a binder as recommended by The Two Sisters, but I quickly realized a couple of problems trying to use this system. Even though I had a binder for each class, they were filling up quickly. Also, it was too bulky and hard to take to where students were. I ended up switching back to my trusty clipboard. However, I did not want to have four clipboards (one for each class in both reading and writing), so I decided to have reading notes on one side of the pages and writing notes on the back. I thought I was so clever as I just flipped the stack of papers over when it was writing time. However, some students' pages filled up quickly on one side while the other was still just getting started.

Nonetheless, none of these systems worked great for me. I considered using a notebook with a few pages dedicated to each student as I had seen others do. One of the great benefits of reading education books is that ideas usually pop into mind, even if it is not directly linked to something the author said. While I was reading Middle School Readers an idea came to mind to use a laptop. I am able to log on as myself on a student laptop to have access to my files. Last week while on break I took advantage of some time allotted to prepare for the rest of the year to set up my anecdotal records electronically.

I am excited for many reasons and think that I may have finally found my ideal system, even though I will still have to test it out to know for sure. Here are some reasons why I think it will work great:

*I teach in a dual immersion setting, and I need to pay close attention to literacy in two langauges. I did not want to have multiple clipboards for each class, but I also realized that it is nice to have notes separated by language. With a laptop, I can have a document for each language and easily navigate between the two.

*I will be able to record my notes much faster. Just as typing my reading response letter replies on the computer has been an excellent timesaver, electronic notes should also help me make the best of the valuable amount of time that I can spend conferring with students.

*I gain valuable insights from students through multiple avenues. An electronic system of notes will facilitate keeping track of different sources of observations in one location.

I realized that this post was getting way to long, so check back tomorrow to see my example document with an explanation of how I will use it.

Bella at Midnight - Medieval Connections

I have been reading Bella at Midnight by Diane Stanley with a group of my 6th and 7th grade girls as part of a book club. With book clubs I have found that I love it most when I am reading the book for the first time along with my students, so that my comments are an authentic initial reaction, rather than rereading or trying to think back to a book that I read a while back. While I would not read aloud a book without first viewing it, I have come to see that it has been effective with book clubs. I had bought the book last year and did not have a chance to have a group read it yet.

It was a fun surprise as I started reading to notice that there were many connections to our social studies unit on Medieval Europe and even more exciting to see that the students brought up the link before I was even able to mention it. Many of the events and descriptions fit perfectly with our units on the structure of feudalism, daily life, chivalry, and the role of the church. The setting made the book even more engaging, as the students looked forward to picking up on these details while also discovering the direction the plot would go. The book would have been a fun read anyway, but I especially recommend it to other students who are studying Medieval Europe.

The Chet Gecko Mystery Series

I just posted a brief review about the latest book in Bruce Hale's Check Gecko series, Dial M for Mongoose on my review site. I wanted to add a few more thoughts on this blog. Aside from being a quick-paced, humorous read from a series that my students from a range of reading levels read and loved last year, I also noticed that the book has a plethora of similes and metaphors. For my students who already love the series, I am glad to know that I will be able to use that hook to point out these literary devices.

Here are just a few of the examples from this book, but I assume that a quick skim of any of the books in the series would result in many more:

"But by this time, the odor had tiptoed on its little stink-footed feet throughout the class" (5).

"He was a tough-looking mole with a nose like an exploded eggplant and paws like a pair of catcher's mitts" (40).

"The heat swallowed me like a hungry python after a fast" (61).

Middle School Readers

I have to admit, I bought Middle School Readers: Helping Them Read Widely, Helping Them Read Well by Nancy Allison without even reading that much about it. Seeing the title, knowing it was specifically about reading in middle school, as well as the fun picture was enough for me to click right over to Amazon and place my order. Though I knew the book would be focused on student choice in reading, I had no idea that it would be such a perfect fit for my personal professional development right now. With the first chapter I was ready to burst with excitement when I realized that the whole book was centered around the concept of supported independent reading. While Allison does not call it reading workshop, the concepts aligned with the components of workshop. She discussed scaffolding to help students make good decisions about the books they read, linking mini-lessons to conferences, reflections she has students do in their notebooks to practice strategies discussed in the mini-lessons.

I can not think of a better time that I could have picked up this book. I am a couple of school weeks away from completing the second quarter. It is a great time for me to reflect about what has been going well and what I want to improve. Over the break I am spending some time in my classroom to plan for the second half of the year for each content area. I had wanted to strengthen my reading mini-lessons. Allison gave me so many ideas on how I can do this, as well as how I can make sure that reflections and conferences are linked to the mini-lesson. What I love the most is that Allison advocates starting out conferences with a connection to the mini-lesson, but then of course it is individualized. If the student is already confident in the mini-lesson topic the teacher can push them further in their reading with whichever area they need. On the other hand if the teacher notices the need to go back and reteach, that is the direction the conference will take. It seems so obvious to have the mini-lesson as a starting point that as soon as I read it, it made perfect sense, but I had not been doing that intentionally with my conferences.

I thought the book complements other books I have been reading lately well, such as The Book Whisperer and Conferring. The three books read together each helped me delve deeper into the topic. While they have some conflicting views, such as Donalyn Miller (The Book Whisperer) being against reading logs and Allison advocating them, for the most part they support each others' ideas. I am actually leaning toward the benefits of logs and/or status of the class because they have given me valuable data about my students' reading habits that I might have missed otherwise. Reading the book also made me think about how I need to go back and revisit some of my favorite books on comprehension, such as I Read It, But I Don't Get It, When Kids Can't Read-What Teachers Can Do, and Mosaic of Thought.

The margins of the book are filled with notes of ideas that I want to implement in order to strengthen my existing reading block. I know that I will be revisiting this book often and that I will be a better teacher because of Allison's ideas that I will be able to easily weave into my classroom. Her ideas will help me weave together the different components of my reading workshop in order to help my students even more. I highly recommend this resource!

Blogging at 8!

Usually when I receive a comment from someone on a blog that I do not recognize, I click on their profile to see what they are blogging about. This morning by doing this I realized that a mom from my state has her own blog, as well as a blog for her 8 year old son. It looks like they have not been able to do any new posts since the summer, but I am still really impressed. Next quarter I am going to start blogging with a group of my middle school students. It is exciting to see that a parent (and I am sure there are more out there) is exposing her son to digital literacies from a young age. This might be something fun to start with my daughter, even if it was digital pictures of her writing, that usually goes along with a drawing.

The Break is Here

Today is my first official day of the break. Last night I watched my daughter and my students perform in their winter holiday performance. The set-up has evolved since I started a year ago, but I loved the format last night. One class danced on stage while two other classes were on the side stage risers singing the song. It is always fun to see the creativity of the dance teacher blended with student input on the choreography. There is always a mixture of traditional Mexican dances (the predominant culture of the families in our dual immersion school), with a wide variety of other styles. It was an excellent way to celebrate before going to break.

When we return we will have two weeks, and then second quarter will be over. With my students we will be having one week in English, followed by a week in Spanish. We will be wrapping up our unit on Medieval Europe before moving into one on The Rise of Islam. It is also time for the first round of state testing in reading, starting a little bit later than we did last year. In writing we will also be gearing up for the 7th grade state writing assessment and 6th grade writing work sample that will take place in Februrary. At the start of third quarter I will be moving into incorporating some student blogging and podcasting. There will be a lot going on upon arrival.

Over the break I will be dedicating some of my time to working in my classroom. I want to spend a day on each content: reading, writing, and social studies. I will start the day with an agenda to focus my planning and to make sure that I use my time productively. It will mainly be to organize myself and to set the framework for 2nd half of the year planning. Though I started the year with an annual plan, it is time to revisit it now that I have worked out many kinks, made adjustments, and learned from what has worked and what needs improvement.

Many pieces are starting to click together, and I am looking forward to spending part of my break getting organized for a successful rest of the year, while spending the other part of the time focusing on family.

Book Response Letters

I just completed my fourth week of book response letters, and I wanted to post about how it has been going. I previously mentioned that I did not start the letters sooner because I originally found the idea of responding to my 50 students on a weekly basis daunting, but I found a system that made the process feasible. While it is still time consuming and a bit stressful at times to keep up with, I also find that it is one of my most enjoyable non-student contact activities. I love having this added level of insight into my students as readers.

Here are some quick thoughts on my ponderings as I am still new to letters:

*It is helpful to have a web page open to Amazon while reading/responding. I can quickly look up a book a student is talking about or answer questions they have, such as whether there is a sequel. I also double check information about books that I want to mention to them.

*Some students automatically wrote with the level of insights that I want to guide all students toward, while others still mainly write a summary. I have had discussions with the class about what the letters should be like. I can see that they will be on-going discussions to continue to nudge students in the right direction. After mentioning to students that I wanted them to be writing about what they think about as readers, including strategies they use, some students started to write about strategies in a generic way. For example, they listed out different strategies without connecting them to a book they are reading. As I have more experience with book response letters I will know how to introduce the concept better.

*I am planning on having some students start their own blogs fairly soon after the winter break, and I will have them write book reviews, rather than a book response letter. While these will not be exactly the same, it will still require students to process information about their books. They will still have a response from me, as well as the added possibility of peer feedback.

The Digital Writing Workshop

I recently posted about buying four new books from Heinemann, including The Digital Writing Workshop by Troy Hicks, and I mentioned that I was excited to read each one for different reasons. Although I have not mentioned it at all on my blog yet, I am in the process of applying to a Ed.D. program that would allow me to continue teaching while pursuing my dream of continuing my education. When I met with the program coordinator, he mentioned that it is great if students start out the program knowing what they would like to be the topic of their dissertation because then assignments for different classes can contribute toward the dissertation or provide some initial research. After considering many different options, a few weeks ago I decided that I would like to focus on technology in reading and/or writing workshops. One week later I learned about Hicks' book, and I knew I had to order it right then!

When I received my books this week, I immediately started reading Hicks' book. It fueled my excitement for the topic. I had already been planning on starting up student blogs with a small group of students after winter break, so the book was an excellent resource to consider different ways that I can prepare in order to make the endeavor successful. Blogging is a technology that I feel comfortable and confident with, and this is my first year having a whole class blog. Mentoring students as bloggers is a natural next step.

He also opened me up to so many more digital possibilities that I am not familiar with, such as wikis and collaborative word processors, and reminded me that it is also time to layer in technologies that I am vaguely familiar with and have wanted to incorporate, such as podcasting. Best of all the book provides a wealth of links - sites (mostly free) that provide the digital tools he discusses, tutorials to understand the ins and outs of the tools, and example classroom projects. In addition Hicks has a blog, as well as a companion site for the book.

Other components of the book that I was very excited about were:
*Sample permission letter to parents about using Google Docs (49)
*MAPS heuristic to always remind students that as digital writers they need to consider mode, media, audience, purpose, situation for the writer and situation of the writing (57-58)
*Traits for effective and ineffective digital writers to share with students (110-113)
*Ideas for applying the six traits to summative assessment of digital writing (115-116)
*Be a Blogger! matrix that will help guide me in creating clear expectations and provide support for my students (118-123)
*Questions from a variety of categories to consider as I set up my digital writing workshop (129-133)

I appreciate that Hicks emphasized throughout that it is important to not just have students do the same paper/pencil assignments with technology but to really know digital tools and appropriate ways to incorporate them into the classroom in authentic ways. While my workshop will definitely change as I integrate these pieces, all of his suggestions still aligned with my concept of quality writing instruction. Pedagogically it is an excellent fit. He even organized his book around core principals of the writing workshop approach, facilitating this sense of alignment.

I was already headed in the direction of layering in more technology to my workshop, and Hicks resource came at a perfect time. His expertise and knowledge in the field makes me feel more confident by having sufficient resources and support to successfully infuse my classroom with digital literacies. I will be frequently referring to Hicks book and joining his Ning group because I know that he will serve as a great mentor for effectively utilizing digital tools in the classroom.

Reading and Writing Conference Conversation

I was excited to see that Stenhouse authors Mark Overmeyer and Patrick Allen just started a Voice thread conversation about reading and writing conferences. Conferring continues to be a hot topic for me right now as I am trying to gain more confidence and become more effective. I encourage you to join the conversation and am excited to follow this conversation as it develops!

Small Group Intervention

I recently received a copy of Linda J. Dorn's and Carla Soffos' professional development resource, Small Group Intervention: Linking Word Study to Reading and Writing. I initially underestimated the possibilities for the video because it is only 15 minutes long. While the topic caught my attention (word study has been one of my focuses the last couple years), I was not sure how much I would learn from the brief segments on word assessment, setting a purpose, modeling, guided practice in reading, guided practice in writing, prompting for transfer in reading, and prompting for transfer in writing..

The resource comes with two discs, one DVD and one CD with additional resources. After watching the DVD and taking notes of new thoughts to consider on how I could make my word study even more beneficial, I popped in the CD. I loved what I saw and instantly realized how there was so much more to the resource than I thought. The CD contains a power point presentation for staff development in both PC and Mac versions. All of the video clips from the DVD are embedded right into the presentation, making it easier for presenters to share the concepts with ease.

The Power Point begins with background resources, a guiding question to open up the dialogue about the topic and direct learning, and background information. Then it moves into the individual clips with discussion questions. I quickly realized that while the clips alone were only 15 minutes, the actual structured presentation set up would entail much more than just viewing the video and reflecting on the concepts. As I am building more interest in staff development and literacy leadership, I especially enjoyed this resource. I look forward to eventually sharing the DVD with others to support literacy instruction development.

When Writing Workshop Isn't Working

After reading What Student Writing Teaches Us, I ordered Overmeyer's first book, When Writing Workshop Isn't Working: Answers to Ten Tough Questions Grades 2-5, because I enjoyed his writing style and expertise so much. In the introduction Overmeyer states, "This book is organized in a series of questions followed by some suggestions that I hope are practical for your classroom. I don't see the suggestions as definitive answers [...] It isn't about the answers; it's about learning. [...] I have always loved talking to teachers about what works for them, and I especially love talking to those who know that what works today may need to be adjusted tomorrow because each day is different" (3). This explains so well what I like about the style of writing in my favorite professional development books, authors who set the tone as a learner with thoughts to consider on a continual journey to improve and reflect.

Because I am teaching in a dual immersion school where all of my students are language learners, I especially appreciated that Overmeyer had sections focusing on considerations for English Language Learners in almost every chapter. I liked that described how he has successfully implemented his ideas and adjusted the level of scaffolding to best meet the needs of a range of language proficiency levels. I am able to apply all of the suggestions to my Spanish Language Learners as well.

This book provides a lot of practical advice to successfully launch and sustain a writers workshop, providing sufficient scaffolding for students to flourish. I will be integrating a lot of his ideas. For example, I loved his peer revision form (84) that guides students to taking ownership in the process, scaffolding revision with stacking the deck (93), and standardized testing preparation (105). I am trying out stacking the deck for the first time this week.

Overmeyer's book is yet another resource that I was able to connect to and write a lot of notes while reading. I am so excited about the plethora of quality resources available that are at my reach when planning, reflecting, and teaching.

The Unfinished Angel

I have not been posting as much about Teachable Moments in Literature as I had planned on when I first came up with the idea. I just finished reading The Unfinished Angel by one of my favorite authors Sharon Creech. I loved it just as much as I have loved all of Creech's books that I have read. I noticed that this book appears to be more accessible to students that are not reading at grade level than some of her other books. The book has short brief chapters but still leaves the reader with a lot to ponder.

Creech's craft leaves room for a lot of teaching points. In this book one that stands out is the use of onomatopoeia. Frequently throughout the book there are words to represent various sounds such as drums, a nail gun, a dog barking. As with many of Creech's books, it also uses some words from different languages. Since I work at a dual immersion school and students have a love of languages, I can show how Creech integrates different languages and what she does to help her readers who may not speak that particular language. The book is also an excellent opportunity to talk about moving a plot along and revealing the story bit by bit.

Intermediate CAFE in the Classroom

This summer I read about and was intrigued by the possibilities of using The CAFE Menu in my classroom. I started the year working out a plan to be able to build my menu board by introducing strategies one at a time throughout the year. I had to think of a way to be able to flip the signs so that they could reflect the language of the week in my immersion setting (link to see my writing menu with the same concept). As the year evolved I decided that my older students needs were mainly comprehension and ended up taking down the other three sections of my menu in order to save wall space. I have been trying to experiment and decide exactly what adaptations I need to make when using the CAFE menu concept in my 6th and 7th grade language arts classes.

Luckily, the instructional coach at my school was able to order the DVD, Intermediate CAFE in the Classroom: Helping Readers Thrive in Grades 3-6. The DVD came at a perfect time after I have already gotten my feet wet with the concept. It served as a good way to focus my reflections and reevaluate how I have been using it and how I can use it more effectively. The 117 minute video shows a wide variety of lessons. For example, it represents the different grade levels, different lesson configurations (whole group, small group, one on one), and different reading levels. I appreciated that through their examples I could see types of students. Through the needs of their students and the decisions they made based on individual needs, I could imagine how the same concepts would work with my own students.

I was also able to reflect on how the one on one conferences fit with the ideas of others that I have been reading lately, especially Patrick Allen's Conferring and Donalyn Miller's The Book Whisperer. I especially loved seeing how "The Sisters" guided students from different reading levels in selecting goals and setting up plans. The students left with a sense of ownership in the process.

I always love to see ideas that I read about in action. I took pages of notes while viewing the video. I will immediately be implementing some changes, as well as reflecting on the big picture, what I will start to do different in future years with the introduction and set-up. For example, I love that they do not necessarily build the board from scratch with older students. This would work so well in my classroom. There were many points in the video such as this that made me pause and wonder if they had not mentioned that in the book or if I did read it and just was not at the right stage in the process to have that idea register. I am planning on taking a day during winter break to reflect about reading, and the notes I took during the video will be a key component in my considerations.

Conferring Walk-Aways Wrap-Up

My posts about Conferring walk-aways were only a glimpse into the information that I took from Allen's book. When I was originally listing out possible topics to include, I quickly realized that I could continue posting for a long time on this one book. I imagine that I will often revisit the book as I gain more experience with conferring to once again reevaluate my progress and areas where I would still like to improve.

Here is a list of some of the areas that I did not write posts about to give you an idea of other topics the book addresses that I found helpful:
*The rationale for sitting side by side when conferring. I had heard this often before but had been pondering what was the most feasible with the layout of my classroom. I had considered going to students without actually sitting down versus having students come to me and being able to sit side by side. After reading Allen's book I realized how essential it is to go to students and sit side by side. I was able to figure out a way to make this happen with my present lay out.

*Knowing students as readers through conferences.

*All readers need conferences; there is not a stage where they are so proficient that they no longer need to confer.

*Small groups versus conferring

*Networking with colleagues and personal professional development

*Jumping in too fast

*The ins and outs of finding a record system that works for each individual teacher

*Being able to explain the benefits of conferring to others

Conferring Walk-Aways Parent/Staff Involvement

Last year our school started to have grade-level meetings throughout the year to talk to parents about specific academic areas. I am still planning out our meetings with my teaching partner for this year. Last year my parent meetings ended up being about new technology in the classroom and my students' first ever over-night field trip to visit a college. This year I want to make sure that in addition to these types of meetings I also include topics specifically related to language arts.

One of my favorite sections in Conferring was "Lingering Questions and Answers About Conferring with Readers". It concisely reviewed concepts that he had mentioned at various points in the book, as well as some new thoughts. I was particularly interested in his answer to how teachers can utilize parents and staff members. He gave many specific tips on where parents should start when conferring and what types of information they can note about their children, as well as questions they can ask. He concluded by saying, "It is important that we teach parent volunteers and support staff how to confer with readers. Knowing how to confer makes their work with students more purposeful and meaningful" (184).

I realized that Allen was probably talking about parents as volunteers, but he got me to think about how this could be a powerful parent meeting topic. Our parents who are able to often ask about how they can help their students at home. Many of the parents read and discuss books with their children. Allen's suggestions give me so many ideas on how I could provide support for parents to confer with their children if they are not already doing so. It is also a great way for them to understand our workshop model in class.

His comments also gave me new ideas on how to support my instructional assistant in conferring with readers. Earlier this year I had asked a question at Two Writing Teachers if they had suggestions for best utilizing instructional assistants in the workshop. One of them had mentioned the benefits of having them confer (I tried to find the post so I could link it but didn't). I loved the idea, but I quickly realized that since I was so new to conferring and did not have my own system down yet, it was hard to explain what I wanted my assistant to do. Now that I am getting more comfortable I am getting to a point where I can add in this piece utilizing Allen's ideas for starting points.

Can't Resist

My stack of professional development reading that I just can't wait to get to keeps on building, including: Middle School Readers, Reading for Their Life, Writing Circles, and How's it Going (in progress) from Heinemann and Metaphors & Analogies from Stenhouse. I have plenty to read and process, so why did I just order four more books from Heinemann? Simple, I could not resist their promotion of 30% off and free shipping.

I only ordered from the new releases. I did not even want to skim the older titles in order to keep myself from buying more than I already was. As it was, I almost bough Penny Kittle's Write Beside Them since it is featured as an English Companion Book Club right now, but I forgot to order before checkout. I considered starting another order, but the disucssion is already underway. I don't think I would get it in time now.

Here is what I did buy, and I can't wait to read all of them for different reasons:

The Digital Writing Workshop


Writing Between Languages


Adolescent Literacy and Differentiated Instruction


The Essential Don Murray


I feel very fortunate to have so many high quality professional development resources at my fingertips!

I am thankful...

*for all of my students (past and present) and the joy that comes from watching them grow and improve, along with all the steps along the way to achieve those changes.

*for my very first teaching placement and the inspiration and leadership that my two co-principals provided. That quick year will forever influence me as a teacher, and I am grateful for all the seeds they planted.

*to be working at my dream school with a leadership that allows for synthesizing ideas from many sources to fine tune my concept of best practice, rather than having my position defined by a specific program.

*to work with a collaborative group of teachers who are always ready to try something new, improve what is already working so that it is even more effective, problem solve our challenges, share our successes, and laugh together.

*to have a teaching partner with whom I can discuss ideas, plan, problem-solve, and share successes.

*for professional books written by authors who make the reading experience feel like I am sitting down and having a conversation with a colleague and mentor.

*for the wonderful blogosphere opening up so many new opportunities to learn from teachers.

Conferring Walk-Aways The Student's Role

It makes me laugh when I think back to my recent first attempts at conferring and starting up with comments such as "How's it going?" It was easy for me to see the validity to this type of approach in order to allow students to do most of the talking during the conference. However, I had not thought of one key component - not all students will naturally begin a detailed conversation providing insights into themselves as a reader when they are not sure what their role is in conferring. With Allen's book I had an aha that I needed to be more intentional in talking to students about why we were conferring, what their role is, and how I would like to see them progress as they get more comfortable with conferring.

I made a note to myself to check in with my students. It was not a very long check-in, but I noticed a huge change automatically. From time to time I will talk to my students as a group to redefine and guide students to taking their conferring comments to the next level as I notice the need. For now, just having a simple conversation has helped prepared students to be ready to do the talking, rather than giving me confused looks or expressions that let me know they are wondering what the purpose is when I sit down to confer with them. While some students were able to naturally open up about themselves as readers without having discussions about conferring as a whole class, I am so glad that Allen's book made me realize that it is necessary for overall success for the whole class.

Conferring Walk-Aways Useful Data

Data has become a huge area of focus in my school, as it has in so many schools in this age of high-stakes testing. I loved the way that Allen mentioned ways to specifically use information gathered from conferences to use as valuable data. He emphasizes that by keeping anecdotal records of each conference, teachers are able to analyze notes to see emerging trends and notice what we learn about our students as readers over time (15). Without records that anecdotal notes provide, it would be easy to not have a specific trend or aha moment about a student click with a teacher. It is powerful to reflect on notes and skim over the last conference before beginning a new one. It helps teachers be more intentional and also confirms other forms of more standardized data or helps us to dig deeper if results do not match up with what we have observed on a day to day basis.

There was a very powerful excerpt where Allen reflects on data and programs from his point of view as a parent. "When I sit down with my child's teacher, I do not want to see a number on a piece of paper about her being in the ninety-eighth percentile for this or that, unless the teacher can explain how that affects my daughter's interactions with text. I do not want to see a graph showing me that my child reads a passage quickly and moves along a continuum, unless the teacher can explain how she varies her rate and prosody when she is reading aloud and how the miscues she is making may be interfering with her comprehension. [...] I want my child's teacher to tell me what strategy she is working on in reading or what writer's craft she is studying. I want to know what she is thinking about when she's doing it, and how she is sharing that learning with her teacher and the rest of her classmates" (139). These are two of my most favorite paragraphs out of the whole book. I highly recommend that anyone pondering data specifically linked to workshops should get a copy of the book to read the full two paragraphs. Afterward, Allen shifts back to himself as a teacher and how we must also use standardized measures to demonstrate growth.

Toward the end of the book Allen reiterates different ways that anecdotal notes from conferences can be powerful for teachers (184-185). Through his comments I have been able to better define the importance of conferring and how it will help me with a wide variety of purposes: getting to know my students as readers, recognizing trends over time, helping me to better communicate with parents, provide the necessary piece to triangulate data and know readers from different angles.

Even though I feel like I am just barely getting the hang of conferring and it is starting to feel more natural, I can already see how rich the data that I am recording about my students is. I am excited for the way that conferring is going to impact how I know my students as readers and the information it is providing to be a more mindful teacher.

Celebrations

I have so many posts rolling around in my head and just need to find the time to type them up! Until then, here is a quick glimpse into reasons for excitement this week...

1) I started weekly book response letters. It was a great feeling to respond to my students and to have that individualized interaction with them. It is going to be a great record of their growth as readers. At first I found the idea of responding to all 50 of my students on a weekly basis daunting. However, I figured out a system that works for me.
*I looked at my 6th and 7th grade class lists side by side and figured out how I could break up the alphabet in order to have a manageable amount of students hand in their reader's notebooks. Looking at the lists helped me to tailer it specifically to my students this year, rather than choosing arbitrary points in the alphabet.
*Rather than writing my responses to my students, I decided to type them notes. This is not only more time efficient but it also helps students to understand my comments better. They have often said that they can not read my handwriting since they are not as familiar with cursive writing. I have tried printing before, but it is hard to print for an extended length. Typing the responses will work out great. I staple them to their letter page.
*If students are participating in a book club for the week, they will not write me a book response letter. The letters are the same format as their book club book responses, so I will give them credit for their weekly response letters based on their book club response. This is both fair for students and again helps it to be manageable time-wise for me.

2) I am quickly gaining confidence with conferring. I will be posting a lot more about this with my Conferring Walk-Aways posts. The mixture of conferring and book response letters is going to provide me with such valuable information about my students as readers, in order to better communicate to parents and help move them along to the next level to extend their reading abilities.

3) I started my first ever on-line book club this week. Everything went fairly smoothly, and I am excited about the possibilities with this new piece. I will be relflecting on this in more detail later as well.

Conferring Walk-Aways Practice, Practice, Practice

I always tell myself that I need to have patience along this journey of classroom improvement. I know that implementing new ideas and the process of continual improvement always takes time; however, it is easy to still have those creeping thoughts of wanting to get there a little bit faster. Ironically, when having conversations with a new teacher at my school, I often mention that she needs to remember that everything will not fall into place and be perfect all at once and to not be too hard on herself. Yet, I sometimes fall into the temporary trap of feeling overwhelmed with all I want to do.

It is nice to have seasoned teachers such as Allen who have more than 20 years experience working on refining and improving say it is okay to work through the process. Even though I already know that and have read it in various other books, it is still refreshing to hear it one more time. Throughout Conferring: The Keystone of Reader's Workshop Allen has recurring comments about the patience, practice, and time it takes to be a good conferrer.

From the beginning he commented on a common reaction he has with teachers who feel like they could not confer like he does, "Yes, you can. Take it slowly. Experiment. Get your hands dirty. Strengthen your foundation" (13). This reminder helps put it into perspective for me to celebrate the beginning of my journey and that I have started the process of building a foundation, rather than worrying too much on how far I have to go until I too am a master conferrer.

The following are more quotes from the book that I will revisit often, especially any time that I feel myself forgetting to focus on those small celebrations:

"Conferring takes time to explore, time to practice, and time to reflect upon as a conferrer [...] but when you spend time and intention on an instructional practice the benefits are well worth the effort" (19).

"I don't specifically remember learning to confer. [...] I do know it has taken hard work, practice, and reflection" (29).

"So, it is through hard work and practice that we get better at conferring--managing our time, gathering information about readers, knowing which path a conference will take--and doing it well" (180).

Keeping Allen's words of encouragement in mind, as well as his candid comments about his own beginnings with conferring, including ideas that did not work out too well, will help me maintain my focus on the spirit of being a life-long learner, always striving to improve. Most importantly, he reminded me that even though my earliest efforts are not where I eventually want to be, they are still valuable from his comment about his own early experiences, "What I saw on videotape was not horrible, but it was proof that my conferences today are much more engaging and certainly much more intimate than they were in the past" (149). Finally, Allen reminded me to never be afraid to try again, "And if need be... start again" (115).

Conferring Walk-Aways Introduction

It has been so exciting having the opportunity and flexibility to have a workshop model in my classroom this year. While in previous years I had components of workshop I never felt like I could consider it a true workshop because of various factors that limited my ability to have the full structure. One of my common themes that I have mentioned multiple times this year is that it is always a great feeling to be able to implement ideas that I have read about. However, as with anything new, I have a lot to adjust and improve. After working out some of the initial kinks, conferring is my current largest area of focus. That is why I was so excited for the release of Patrick Allen’s Conferring: The Keystone of Reader’s Workshop.

I had already read general ideas about reading and writing conferences, but I was ready for books specifically addressing conferring in each area to deepen my knowledge in the area. Reading Allen’s book fulfilled that need, and I feel much more confident and capable to successfully confer with intention in my classroom. As I read, I realized that I have already started doing some of his suggestions; however, I had stumbled upon them and now I have a stronger sense of why and how to do it even better. Allen talked a lot about walk-aways, learning teachers/students walk away with after conferences. In the spirit of this concept I will be doing a series of posts on my personal walk-aways from the book, ways that I will be a better teacher and conferrer because of Conferring: The Keystone of Reader’s Workshop. However, my posts will just be a glimpse into all that I took away from the book because in doing initial reflecting on walk-aways I could include the list was getting pretty long and many of the topics had many sub areas to develop.

Workshop Reflections: Assessments

This year has been going by so quickly and I have spent a lot of energy trying to get my workshop to run smoothly and the way I imagine it should be based on resources about workshops. It has been fun getting different components to work for me, as well as challenging to work through so many different pieces. I always want my classroom to be the way it "should" be from the start, but getting some major new components, such as workshops, in place takes time. Lately I have been starting to see glimpses of what is to come in the future, and that is what keeps me going, knowing that I am making progress. I will be reflecting about what I have been learning this year about workshop, starting with assessment.

ASSESSMENTS
Assessments was one of my biggest challenges first quarter. Students were required to hand in four published pieces for the first quarter (two in English and two in Spanish) that I assessed using our state writing rubric, and I felt comfortable with that. However, I was not as pleased with other grades that I was putting in the grade book. At the start of the year I knew that I wanted a system that would allow for flexibility since students would not always be at the same place at the same time. I came up with a rubric outlining the expectations for workshop and different grades according to how they performed in workshop. From the beginning I was not 100% sure about this being the best way to go, but I did not have any better ideas. Over time it seemed like the grades did not necessarily demonstrate what I wanted them to. Improving in this area moved to the forefront of my reflections.

With the start of second quarter I am much more comfortable with the direction I am moving with assessment in workshop. Toward the end of last quarter I finally started implementing status of the class. It has been great to have a written record of students' reading and writing behaviors. Reading Mark Overmeyer's What Student Writing Teaches Us and reading his responses to some of my questions got the gears turning to start looking at assessment from new angles. Being exposed to his thoughts came at a perfect time. I was ready for the information since I had already worked through some of the start-up challenges with workshop in general.

From the time I read Overmeyer's book, I knew that I wanted my gradebook to be more standards based, rather than a huge chunk of the grades reflecting effort/participation that my workshop grade ended up being. I just needed time to process and consider how to make this happen. I knew right away that the grade for the published pieces based on the state writing rubric needed to carry more weight in their grades.

In his Q&A with me Overmeyer mentioned that he gives points for generating ideas for personal narratives. A couple of weeks after I first read this, the way I could implement his comments finally sunk in. I realized how I want to set up my gradebook this quarter. Now, rather than trying to assign workshop grade, I will give grades based on completing specific steps in the workshop process that are directly related to the standard that we are focusing on at the time. I have the same expectations for workshop that I previously watched for in order to evaluate and assign a workshop grades, but now I have more specific requirements that I will assess. For example, we are focusing on Ideas and Content right now because I observed that it was an area that many of my students need to continue developing. In a two week block of time students are required to complete a high/low chart that we did together, gather ideas about two of the events from their charts, and then write two rough drafts. If they finish everything, then they will continue gathering ideas or writing drafts. They can either work on more personal narratives or they can write slice of life stories or articles, the two genres that we have already worked on this year. Expectations such as these will make it clearer for the students of the minimum of what they should accomplish during a time frame.

I am still processing how I can improve in the way that I am assessing in reading workshop, and I am still considering ideas from Donalyn Miller's book when thinking about that area. Her reply to my questions on her book discussion were also very helpful. I also noticed another reply that she did to a teacher stating that she only uses status of the class at the beginning, and I can see how I may move in that direction as well. In writing I think that I am almost to the point where I can make that transition.

I am excited for the way that my workshop practices are improving and know that I still have many more discoveries awaiting me the rest of this year. Every year I will always be looking for some other way to improve, but I feel like I will have so much more figured out by the start of next year that I will be fine-tuning rather than figuring out the basic design.

Catching My Breath

The school year is in full swing, and October was a particularly busy month at school. We have a couple of annual committments that we sign up for at the start of the year, and mine ended up both being in October. When I signed up for them I did not think about how it was also the same month as the end of the first quarter and the start of a block of time at our school called language development where we mix our 4th-7th graders into proficiency levels in either Spanish or English for 40 minutes. I also did not think about how I would still have so much to adjust and improve as I am implementing a workshop approach for the first time, as well as a new social studies curriculum. Needless to say, at the end of September I realized how I would need to gear up for a stressful month.

Now I am looking forward to a hopefully calmer November. I feel much more confident about my workshop approach and the set-up that I have created and adjusted throughout the first quarter. I have also made additional adaptions to accomodate the special education pull out schedule at different times throughout the day that will be a lot smoother than last quarter.

The TOSA at our school who will be meeting with small groups of students to provide additional reading support will be starting on Monday. I am very excited because this year she will be able to do a push-in model, rather than a pull-out. She was able to accomodate my schedule so that she will provide her support during reading workshop, so it will be a seamless integration. There will still be a little bit of time for me to check in with those students as well. In addition, that group will also be flexible so as we identify the need for adjustments in grouping throughout the year we will be able to make the changes. While it will not be as flexible as my groups because they will not change as frequently, it is nice to know that they are not set for the whole year. I am so excited for this new set-up and the collaboration that we will be able to do in order to better support our readers.

Although October was stressful, there was so much to celebrate with first quarter. I have noticed so many gains in my 7th graders that I had last year, as well as improvements in my 6th graders in just one quarter. Seeing student growth always reminds me of why I wanted to become a teacher.

There is a lot to look forward to in November. I am excited to move into this time of the year with more tranquility. Later I will post on the changes that I made in my workshop block for this quarter and how they are going. My goal area for improvement for this quarter is to improve with my conferring. I just received Carl Anderson's How's It Going? I have heard so much about this book/author when conferring comes up. I am also excited for a forethcoming book from Stenhouse called Conferring: The Keystone of Reader's Workshop, which is already available on line. I feel so lucky to have access to quality books that focus on conferring in both reading and writing.

A Place for Wonder

Although I often read books that are from younger age groups, knowing that I can adapt ideas to older grades, they are typically k-5 books. The last time (maybe even the only time) I remember reading a book targeted at the primary grades was because it was a required text for my reading endorsement coursework a couple of years ago. However, when I saw information about Georgia Heard and Jennifer McDonough's new book, A Place for Wonder: Reading and Writing Nonfiction in the Primary Grades, my interest was piqued.

I loved Georgia Heard's Awakening the Heart, and my students just finished making their own heart maps. I was eager to read more from her. Also, my oldest daughter is in first grade now, so I thought it would be fun to see insights into her literacy learning and stage of development. The book gave me plenty of inspiring ideas on how I can continue to foster and nurture the curiosity that is characteristic of my daughter's age.

In addition, I was pleasantly surprised by the amount of ideas that would also positively impact my 6th and 7th graders. My margins are filled with notes intermixing ideas to use with my daughter and with my students. At home I now have fresh ideas on how to connect literacy and her love of nature. Each spring birds come to build nests in our porch, and we have always watched with curiosity as a family as the bird prepares, takes care of her babies, and when they are ready to fly off on their own. The nest is right in front of a big window in our door which can serve as a perfect observation window. In addition, she loves to look outside the front window to see animals such as squirrels. At school this quarter we will be working more on developing ideas. Last quarter we talked about the benefits of using sensory details but it is an area where my students could use more support. So many of the activities in the book will help foster this sense of tuning in to the senses as well as everyday details.

In addition, the book sparked more ideas on helping students develop research writing and the sense of wonder reminded me of Cris Tovani's lessons about wonder from her book I Read It But I Don't Get It. This led me to think about how the elements of wonder in Heard's book could also benefit reading comprehension.

I am excited to see the endless possibilities that Heard & McDonough's book offer with my daughter and students. I also look forward to sharing the book with my daughter's teacher, as I can imagine that she would be excited to see the ideas specifically targeted to her class. They ideas match the philosophy of our school and I can picture them being seemlessly integrated into her classroom set-up.

Standards-Based Grading Q&A with Mark Overmeyer

A couple of weeks ago when I read Mark Overmeyer's What Student Writing Teaches Us , it sparked an interest in standards-based grading. However, I was left with many questions on how to successfully use the concept in the classroom. Mark was generous enough to participate in a Q&A for my blog on the topic.

He began his comments with some thoughts to keep in mind when reading his responses:

Please note that all comments below are based on the premise that the standards used are strong standards. A standards-based grading system is only as strong as the standards themselves.

Overall, I think the standards used by my district are strong (and when they don't work, I use the NCTE / IRA standards).

With your experience with standards-based grading do teachers do a combination of daily assignments and standards assignments, or is it more beneficial to have the whole grade composed of standards based assignments?

My own experience with standards-based grades had been most successful when I connect every single assignment to one or more standards. I do less grading, and pay much more attention to my daily assignments. I no longer add assignments just to get more points in the gradebook. One assignment can span one or more standards: If I ask students to summarize their understanding of a science concept, I can score them on the science standard addressed, and also on the writing standard that requires them to concisely summarize a topic.

Using standards-based grading, how do teachers communicate progress in courses? Rather than progress reports with an overall average of assignments would it be a progress report with current demonstrations of work toward a standard that parents/students know they will be able to improve if they demonstrate a higher level of mastery throughout the quarter?

It is not that much different from my regular work with parents - perhaps just more clear. Remember that I said I always connect an assignment to a standard. My gradebook is organized into categories based on standards, and the assignments are not organized just by date. So, when I print grades, everything is printed according to the standard addressed. One assignment (as mentioned above) might list points for more than one standard. Averaging is a tricky question - there are whole books about grading (My favorite is Fair Isn't Always Equal by Wormeli), so this is not easy to address in a short space. But, I can determine how well students are doing, using a point system, and still use standards. For example, I may give students 5 points maximum for a list of possibilities they develop for their upcoming personal narratives. This addresses the standard about developing an effective writing process. Effective writers often come up with more than one idea so that they do not abandon the writing process when their first idea does not work. It seems fair to give 5 points to any student who has 2 - 5 ideas for the personal narrative. As students develop their pieces, I might give points for strong leads, points for specific supporting details, and points for structuring narratives effectively. These points can be given along the way - and when students take their piece to a more "final" copy, I can score it on a rubric and give them an overall score. Parents can chart progress in the same way they always do - I am just categorizing assignments intentionally by standard rather than by the date I give the assignment. Again - this works best when I never grade an assignment that is not based on standards.

How many grades would a teacher typically have for a quarter/semester? (Just one for each standard addressed in the grading period or more?)

I give fewer grades now. But, if I keep in mind that the practice I give students should pay off, I do not want to wait three to four weeks to give some points, because then I have no way of measuring progress along the way. So, many teachers I know give 1 to 2 grades per week, based on standards, and based on what students need to practice to get better at what we are actually writing.

How many standards do you typically address in a grading period?

When I am speaking about writing, based on my state standards, I would address all standards in all grading periods, because there are two main standards: Writing for various purposes, and Conventions.

Was standards-based grading a school-wide decision in your experience or a teacher to teacher decision?

I began standards-based grading systems for myself in the mid-1990s. Now, my entire district has standards based report cards for all elementary schools.

My students currently have some regular assignments, such as word study, an at home reading log, and reading and writing workshop participation. When students are absent they have to read/write for the equivalent amount of time that they would have done in workshop for the day in order to earn their workshop points. If I switched to standards-based grading would it be typical to not record such assignments in the grade book and communicate to students that they are beneficial in order to work toward demonstrating competency in the standards but will not count in the grade book?

I only grade based on standards. So, if I can address a standards for writing and reading on their in class work, how does this connect to a standard? It might connect in some way to comprehension, or to some type of writing process mentioned in standards - but if I cannot connect this practice to a specific standard, I do not grade it. I think writing and reading every day are very, very important - but the only way I know if this practice of reading and writing every day pays off is to connect this practice to a standard. (but see caveat above - this only works if the standards themselves are strong)

Do you report standards based grades as a letter grade on report cards or use a numbering system?

On the current report card, both are reported - numbers (4,3,2,1) and grades.

I appreciate Mark's insights. I already have plans for some changes to my grading practices for the start of the second quarter based on his comments and those of others. Reading his book and comments came at a perfect time for me, as I was already reflecting on the best way to assess and grade with a workshop model.

Writing Circles

The Heinemann emails always lure me in to want to buy more books. The lastest book I can't wait to read that goes along perfectly with my self-directed professional development is Jim Vopat's Writing Circles. I enjoyed hearing the podcast conversation between Vopat and Harvey Daniels. It confirms that the book will have a lot to offer as I continue to develop and discover what will work best for my students in a workshop setting.

Word Study Organization

I have mentioned word study frequently on my blog, and it appears to be an area that shows up often as searches that people do that lead them to this site. I thought some readers would be interested in seeing how my set-up looks.

 

I create all of my whole-group word sorts on sentence strips. I put heading words on a different colored sentence strip with a card on the front that abbreviates the level of word study and sort number (that correlates with the pre-made sort books that I bought). I still have not completed this on every sort yet, but I want to write notes on the back of every title card with any details that I need to remember about the sort. Then I clip each sort with a binder clip. I have a shoe box sized storage box for each category of sorts. This is what my Within Word Patterns (WWP) sort box looks like.

 

My cabinet right next to the area where I meet for small group introductions is where I keep all of the boxes, as well as clipboards for students to do their weekly spell checks.

 

This is the counter right above the cupboard shown in the second photo. I have all of my pre-made sort books as well as an organizer where I keep small pieces of paper and pens to jot down quick notes, markers, extra pieces of cut up sentence strips, paper clips, and binder clips. Then I also have a clipboard with the different groups by grade-level. I always set out the current weeks' sorts as well as the student sort copies and the word study form that I assign to my students each week.

Is there anything else you would like to know about how I implement word study?

Wall Space

As Stacey previously mentioned, I have a lot of wall space to display student work. I was excited to display some of their work Friday evening. I had a long day at the school by staying late, but I left energized knowing that my students' work was finally up.

(Picture temporarily down - I realized that the photo I took shows one of the Heart Maps with the students name clearly showing in the picture, so I am going to take a different picture to add later.)
I put all of their heart maps above the counter/shelving. I wanted to have them in a location where they were very visible, yet not down low where someone might accidentally bump them. Students put a lot of thought into their heart maps, and I did not want them to get torn or scuffed up inadvertently.

 

Originally I was going to create our bulletin board for social studies, but then I thought about how it was a perfect opportunity for students to be involved with the creation. For each section, I post an essential question. Then students create visuals for areas that I direct them to represent key concepts from our chapters. The first one shows an introductory geography challenge to start out our unit. I created a lot of this, but a couple of students filled in the map.

The second section is a better representation of what it will usually look like. Students created a visual for four main areas that we studied in which the Roman Empire continues to influence modern life. They completed the visuals in small groups.

I look forward to utilizing other areas of wall space to display more student work. Friday I also set up an outline for our time line and students will be creating different dates to add to the time line as we move through our unit.

The Book Whisperer

I heard a lot about Donalyn Miller's The Book Whisperer: Awakening the Inner Reader in Every Child earlier this year when it was released. When I saw that there would be a discussion with Miller about the book on EC Ning, I went straight to Amazon to order it. Miller has been leading a great discussion, inspiring feedback from a large group of educators.

The whole book emphasizes the goal of reading programs as inspiring students to be life-long readers and her personal journey to reaching a set-up for "awakening" all of a passion for reading in all of her students. There were many comments that I underlined and starred for various reasons, such as they perfectly aligned with my philosophy or they shared a perspective that I would want to remember later to defend authentic reading programs.

One quote that resonated with me was, "Even with her extensive knowledge of reading and writing practices, Susie was always searching for methods to improve the literacy instruction in her classroom and still struggling to get it 'right'" (14). I extensively read about literacy. However, as soon as I start to feel like I am smoothly implementing one idea in a general sense, I start to investigate multiple questions that pop into mind about different components.

I enjoyed that the book gave me a lot to consider. In some areas it supported what I already do and in other areas such as reading logs, it caused me to revisit yet again whether or not I really want to continue that practice. (I even commented about this on the discussion, 4th comment down).

Above all, I appreciated this book in the same way that I appreciated Readicide. Miller has a well-developed rationale for best practices in literacy instruction. It inspires me to continue working through the bumps along the way as I am finding out what will work best for my students. It also reaffirms why I chose to teach in a school where I am able to have a workshop approach in my classroom, rather than being restricted to a canned program.

What Student Writing Teaches Us

This summer I loved the glimpses of Mark Overmeyer's What Student Writing Teaches Us through skimming sections of the on-line version available through Stenhouse and comments on the blog tour. I knew that eventually I wanted to read the full book. This weekend my copy arrived, and I could hardly put it down once I got started. As soon as I finished I got on-line and ordered Overmeyer's first book, as well as Carl Anderson's How's It Going?, two books I had heard a lot about.

With chapter two I was pondering the question Mark proposed, "How much time do I set aside for my students to meaningfully write each day?" (15). In this section Overmeyer commented on the value of quick writes in some settings. Lately I have been trying to re-think my writing block for my students who are pulled from my classroom to received additional writing support through special education services. Typically they are in class for word study, they are pulled out for most of workshop, and they return for our Everday Editing lessons (I decided to call all of my lessons inspired by Jeff Anderson Everyday Editing lessons because of the catchy title of one of his books). However, when it comes to the Everyday Editing phase where students look at their own writing rather than observing the writing of others, the students who were pulled out from my classroom do not have many writing samples. I wanted to see how they could get some meaningful writing in the short time frame when they are in my classroom. I loved the possibilities of quick writes to help these students to consistently produce writing even if they are not in my class for the whole writer's workshop.

In addition, this summer during the blog tour Overmeyer mentioned the value of prompts and quick writes, so I had an idea to have Free Flowing Friday where students would write from a prompt each Friday. I have not been able to layer this into my writing block yet, but the book reminded me that it could be a very beneficial portion of my instruction. I appreciate Overmeyer's distinction of "framed" choice promps where "there are many possibilities within the story idea" (19). I will keep this concept in mind as I develop prompts for my students, whether they are for students returning from pull-outs or for Free Flowing Friday.

When discussing rubrics and possible pitfalls, Overmeyer stated, "As with so many issues in education, the tool is not the problem or the solution. Great tools can be misused, and marginal tools can elevate thinking in a well-run classroom," (47). I loved this reminder of the importance of always being cognizant about why we have the practices we do and making sure that we are utilizing our resources (including valuable instructional time) in the best way possible.

Many of what Overmeyer suggests reminds me of the philosophy of my university writing lab. When I first took the course to become a writing tutor I had no idea how influential it would be in my formation as a writing teacher. It was heavily emphasized to first comment on an improvement students could make globally (such as ideas, content, organization) and then move on to a local issue (such as conventions) in later drafts. The key of not pointing out every mistake/place where there was room for improvement was also emphasized. Overmeyer said, "When I read student work, I notice something to praise, and I look for something to wonder about, and then I look for teaching points," (48). Later he mentioned, "I chose to tell him what he was doing well and to pinpoint one thing he could work on," (86). I always love comments that remind me of the essentials I learned through the writing lab.

The chapter that stuck with me the most and that is really making me consider how I can improve was about grading. This quarter my students' language arts grades are mainly composed of workshop participation (rubric), home reading log, writing samples, Everyday Editing activities, word study, book clubs, and small group assignments. However, I am not completely satisfied with how student scores average out and translate into grades. Overmeyer's comments about standards-based grading sparked an interest to dig deeper into the topic and to consider possibilities for improving in this area. I appreciate how standards-based grades provide more clarity about where students are at according to state standards, as well as providing multiple opportunities throughout the marking period to demonstrate competencies. Another important focus of the chapter was fostering a community of writers that focus more on improving as writers than on their grades (91). In one way or another I will definitely be adjusting my grading practices next quarter to incorporate standards-based concepts.

There were so many great ideas in Overmeyer's book. I was excited to see the Stenhouse post announcing access to a webcast Overmeyer did earlier this year focusing on his key concept of admiring student work. I cannot wait to see it. I will be referring back to the book in the future to reevaluate my practice and refocus as needed.