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.

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!

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.

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.

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.

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.

Thank You Mark Overmeyer

Mark Overmeyer recently did a blog tour for his book What Student Writing Teaches Us that is available for review on-line on the Stenhouse site. I really enjoyed the sections that I read on-line and cannot wait to get a hard copy since I do not like to read full texts on-line.

On his blog tour I asked questions at most of the stops, and Mark provided thorough, in depth and helpful questions. I will be referring back to his responses frequently.

Here's a recap of the tour:
1) The first stop at Creative Literacy has an interview with Mark as well as answers to questions from two readers about daily oral language and on-line writing scoring.

2) Next Mark stopped over at The Reading Zone and answered a question about managing writing assessments with a large number of students in middle school, and my question about improving students' conventions without taking away from other areas in writing.

3) At Teaching that Sticks he answered four questions about a variety of topics, and gave me a lot of helpful advice for a question that I had about planning for my writing block over the summer.

4) He concluded the tour at Two Writing Teachers. They explained that he wrote both of his books in 15-30 minute chunks of time over many months. I was encouraged by this comment and can see how writing his books not only provide us the benefit of having a glimpse into his knowledge, but I would imagine it also positively impacted him being a reflective teacher.

He also answered my question about grading. Coincidentally my director, partner teacher, and I had just been discussing grading as we build our middle school program. I had forgotten that I submitted the question. His response gave me important thoughts to consider not only for grading in writing, but for all of my classes. It came at a perfect time and I forwarded his comments onto our team so that we can discuss them together.

I appreciate how Mark gave so many insights along the tour and look forward to reading What Student Writing Teaches Us in its entirety.