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.