State Testing Reflections - Writing Components Pondering

Aside from the regular reading and writing assessments, my students classified as English Language Learners also participate in our state's English Language Proficiency Assessment (ELPA). One test covers reading, writing, and listening, while a second has speaking. I had already reflected on the writing state assessment and the success of having a prompt writing genre, but as my students geared up for ELPA and I have been reflecting on the most essential pieces that I will make sure to integrate next year a thought came to mind regarding writer's notebooks that synthesized ideas from many sources.

Before I explain my idea, I am going to back up and give a quick overview of the influences that came together for the idea. Much of how I use writer's notebooks right now is inspired by Marsha Riddle Buly, a visiting professor that I had while on exchange in Mexico. She has been very influential in who I am as a writing teacher. She pointed me in the direction of starting to delve into so many areas that are key components of my classroom today, such as workshop in general, writer's notebooks, and word study. While writing feature articles, she showed us how utilizing notebooks to guide writers through lists, quick writes based on ideas from the lists, and experimenting with certain pieces of a work in progress (such as an introduction) can be very beneficial. I am certain utilizing writer's notebooks the way she modeled it will always be a big component of my workshop.

I am currently pondering others' ideas as well. This summer I saw how Mark Overmeyer emphasized the benefits of prompt writing and I later read his book to hear the full explanation. At the same time I was reading Jeff Anderson's ideas for instruction with editing and mechanics. Their thoughts have been in the back of my mind simmering away throughout the year as I have been implementing some of their ideas. This spring I read how Penny Kittle also incorporates a lot of quick writes in her classroom. 

I had been thinking about having my students write more quick-writes, including quick writes inspired by prompts, rather than just related to their current piece of writing in their notebooks next year. Inspired by the ideas from the various influences to give it a try, I also thought about how this would help my students when they come upon the extended answer responses on the ELPA. My thoughts right now are that I will also link my Everyday Editing lessons, inspired by Jeff Anderson's ideas (and the title of one of his books), to this practice in the notebook. I will be rethinking the scope and sequence of the teaching points I integrate taking into consideration not only my grade level language arts standards, but the English Language Proficiency standards. This again would help students score at higher levels on the ELPA writing portion.

Yet, I wanted to make sure that I was doing it for more than improved test scores. I was sifting through different rationales for the thought but leaning toward the benefits for my students as writers. Then I thought about the advice that YA author Sydney Satler mentioned to my class for one of our Author Tip Tuesdays about how practice writing unrelated to her novel each day helps her to become a better writer and impacts the quality of her novels. There's the rationale that gives me a real life authentic reason of how it can impact my students in becoming better writers, not just better ELPA extended answer writers, but better writers in general. I think I will give it a try.

Reflections

I can hardly believe that in just a few weeks I will already be at the end of the third quarter. This whole year I have been reflecting constantly about what is working and what I need to improve with language arts and social studies. Next year as our school grows I will only be teaching reading and writing because our third teacher that we will hire soon will be for social studies and science.

With that change my reflections have shifted a bit. I am still considering how I can improve in order to maximize student growth in social studies this year. For example, lately I have been scaffolding their abilities to write to learn. When I reflect I usually think about what is feasible for immediate implementation and what is a long term goal. Social studies still fills a lot of my short term thoughts, but my long term thoughts are language arts based with the exception of thinking how I will be able to at times do integrated units with the science/social studies teacher.

My main consideration for next year is deciding what my components will be knowing that the time configuration is going to be different. I am considering that I many need to alternate days having one day focus on reading, while the other focuses on writing even though I would want to have some aspects of both every day. That will give me plenty to mull over for quite a while, but I have a lot of ideas that I am excited about. I will be posting more details about certain aspects as I am able to integrate them (some later this spring and others next year).

A lot of my summer reflections/planning will be refining ideas that I tried this year. For example, I know that I want to improve with word study, my implementation of Anderson's ideas, my genre units, and my mini-lessons.

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.

Mechanically Inclined

After reading Jeff Anderson's Everyday Editing, I could not wait to read his first book, Mechanically Inclined: Building Grammar, Usage, and Style into Writer's Workshop. Luckily, I already had it on order before I even started Everyday Editing.

Initially, I thought that there would not be a whole lot new as far as background information. I wanted the book for the additional lesson ideas; however, there actually was a lot of additional information as well. Part One of the book contains four chapters of introductory and background information on Anderson's ideas and how to make them work. Then part two has six sections of topics with 4-6 lessons each, and the appendix has example student support documents that accompany the lessons.

Early in the book Anderson discussed how teachers often talk about their students' lack of ability to edit, revise, and self-correct, but in actuality it is a result of teachers not teaching their students with sufficient exposure. He also provides a list of questions for teachers to ask themselves when students are not as successful with grammar and mechanics as teachers would have hoped (10-11). I can closely relate to this because I noticed certain trends in student errors last year with my 6th graders and I provided some support to improve; however, I knew that I needed to be doing more. I just was not sure how. I did not feel equipped to support my students in making the necessary improvements. That is why I am so excited about Anderson's ideas and already have plans to regularly integrate them throughout the whole year. It will be especially exciting to see the change in student writing for those who according to our state writing rubric meet in every area except conventions, which is double weighted.

Anderson advocates brief (5-10 minutes) daily grammar instruction in order for students to internalize the structures. He emphasizes why it is more beneficial to highlight what is right in sentences, rather than a traditional Daily Oral Language program that does not transfer over into students' everyday writing (15-19).

There were many recurring themes throughout the whole book that I loved. For example, instead of getting frustrated with student errors, Anderson pointed out what to celebrate in the error and then how to move the student forward. They were typically a result of students expanding the complexity of their writing and just not knowing how to properly punctuate their new higher level of thinking. In addition, he provided many scaffolding and supports that reminded me of suggestions for English Language Learners, such as sentence frames. This again makes for a seamless transition into integrating his concepts into our dual immersion context where all students are learning an additional language. Most importantly, he is always explaining the spirit of language play in the classroom, making the lessons come alive in order to engage students. Since I am still fairly new to incorporating writer's notebooks in my classroom, I appreciated his explanation of how he sets his up (30).

I am so excited to see the positive changes Anderson's ideas will bring for my students. I love the format of the book which provides sufficient information and modeling for me to picture how to incorporate these ideas into my class. A lot of the mentor texts he mentioned are already in my classroom library, making it even easier. I also want to share the idea with other teachers at my school.

Literacy Menus

One of the projects I have been working on while I am gearing up for the new school year is my literacy menus. While I know that I will adapt and adjust as needed, I am planning on jumping right in and trying out the concept.

For reading I am using The CAFE menu, although I decided to just call it Reading Menu since the acronym does not end up being the same in Spanish and so that it complements the writing menu title better. I highly recommend The CAFE Book to learn more about the reading menu. I already created the poster headers for the menu, as well as each individual strategy that I will add on to the wall visual as the year progresses and they are introduced through mini-lessons. This is one place where I strayed from the book, I am pre-making the visuals rather than having students write them on sentence strips. When I was reading the book I got the idea of also creating a writing menu.

I am using our state writing rubric and guide to revision as the basis of my writing menu. It was easier to translate to Spanish because the state already provides the rubric in English and Spanish. Because part of my plan is for students to become more familiar with the state's rubric, I decided to stick closely to the language they use when introducing concepts. In the conventions area, there is not always a direct translation since the rules are not always the same between the two languages.

Below is my rough draft writing menu in English and Spanish. I may end up changing some of the wording, but at least I have a starting point. I will be introducing most of these concepts with Jeff Anderson's ideas/format. While I want to stay closely aligned to the writing rubric language, I may alter it at times if the current language does not fit the mini-lessons I see necessary to move my writers forward.

Writing Menu Handout

Searching for sentences

When reading Jeff Anderson's book Everyday Editing, I remember him mentioning that we should not have students looking for example sentences as they are reading a section of their books for the first time. It would be too distracting. Instead, we should direct them to skim sections they have already read when we ask them to search for examples.

I realized that as a teacher looking for example sentences, I want to do the same. As I read when I think about stopping to make note of the page and enough to remind me of the section, it becomes too much of a distraction, just as I discovered that recording my thinking process as reading a full novel for the first time pulled me out of the reading zone.

I recently read Wintergirls, and I saw so many excellent examples. Laurie Halse Anderson is an outstanding author. Then a thought came to me that I can always skim recently read books when I am looking for a specific type of sentence, but I can also have some core authors to skim. For example, I have always loved Halse Anderson, Sharon Creech, and Pam Muñoz Ryan. I can also think back to books that have really stuck with me, and it is a guarantee that they will be goldmines for excellent examples to share with students. This way I can have my cake and eat it too - I can enjoy great middle grade and YA literature without the distraction of stopping to take notes, but I will also know where to look when I need to find sentences for instruction.

Everday Editing blog

Before I read Everyday Editing, I had looked at Jeff Anderson's website and followed the link to a blog, Notable Sentences...for Imitation and Creation, featuring great sentences that model various aspects of grammar to promote discussion and learning with students. Originally I thought it was Anderson's blog, but later realized that Lauren Wolter, was the mastermind behind the blog, creating a resource to help teachers network to compile sentences to then facilitate easier implementation of Anderson's ideas.

As I was reading Everyday Editing and saw how Anderson emphasized celebrating student discoveries and writing and then posting them around the room, I thought about how it would be empowering to add a section to also post them on our classroom blog. It would also be a working writing resource for students, as there will not be enough wall space to leave up what we post on the walls year round. This summer when I create our Edublog, I am thinking that I will have a tab with a framework similar to Wolter's where students can leave comments of sentences they find or create. I will start it out pretty basic and add in types of sentences as we introduce them in class. However, from the beginning I will have a category along the lines of amazing sentences so that students have a place to record sentences that really stand out to them even if it is not necessarily modeling one of the areas that we have discussed in class. This ties in well with the literature circles role of literary luminary.

There are so many reasons to be excited for the new school year!

Everyday Editing

Everyday Editing: Inviting Students to Develop Skill and Craft in Writer's Workshop by Jeff Anderson is another gold mine from Stenhouse. Luckily, since I had high hopes for the book I ordered his other one, Mechanically Inclined, before even starting to read Everyday Editing. Now I won't have to wait as long for it to come in the mail, since it ended up exceeding my high expectations.

As with most of the resources that I have been so excited about, it is a perfect fit for my vision of what a literacy block should be like. I chose the book because this year I noticed a trend that a group of my students still lacked command of areas such as sentences and paragraphing, and many changed very little between drafts. While they made improvements throughout the year, it was an area where I wanted to improve as a teacher. The strategies that I had in place were not comprehensive enough to produce the results I desired.

Because of the inclusion of editing in the title and the subsections listed in the chapters I was expecting this book to mainly cover conventions. However, as I started reading I realized that Jeff's concept of focusing on good sentences to teach grammar ends up encompassing so much more. My excitement built as this realization hit me early on in the book. I started to write a note off to the side listing the other areas of our state writing rubric that his ideas would positively impact: voice, word choice, sentence fluency, conventions... Then I started to laugh realizing that I was basically writing down all the areas on the rubric, and that is how right at page 10 I knew that I had found an invaluable resource. Further reading through the book confirmed this initial feeling for me.

Another aspect that stood out to me was the way Jeff made grammar so much fun. I could tell that his ideas would inspire long-lasting grammar learning and a fascination with language, rather than dread. I already have a lot of ideas in mind on how I am going to implement his ideas in the classroom both on English and Spanish weeks. While the book provided me with many ideas to use in English, I am going to work on developing some in Spanish over the summer. Of course, there are some that he explains in English that can be covered in the same manner in Spanish.

Jeff Anderson's ideas will be a huge piece to my writing workshop puzzle, and I feel so fortunate to have found out about his ideas.