Q & A
The following are questions on the writing process generated by the 8/18 and 8/19 workshop at Cesar Chavez Elementary, Richmond:
1. I want to know how to apply the writing process in Social Science. The writing process can be addressed through experimentation with the genres of biography, historical fiction (Have you ever disputed your mom's version of your childhood?), and essay. Since reading and writing cannot be separated, strategic reading is a great strategy that can be used to rehearse and ultimately complete writing assignments in each of these genres. A modeled, guided and independent version of the features of those genres and what they look like in social studies is what the teacher turns into writing lessons.
2. Do I really need to go through the whole process to be successful? Yes, if by successful you mean that every student demonstrates progress in writing ability.
3. How to solve the time problem? Many teachers solve the time problem by integrating several goals and subjects in their lessons. Others tacke OCR's blue section through the writer's workshop minilessons. Others double-up the OCR time so they can have a chance to spend a decent chunk of time on writing. Others write accross the content areas. Others push their literacy coach into a corner and demand time to writing instruction.
4. How do I get students to think outside the box, to think creatively, to visualize… I think the best way to do this is to model and try out new things consistently enough that children begin to see creativity as a way of life. Try out a new idea, it can be as simple as putting food coloring on the glue they will use for an activity, but the ultimate message, if repeated often enough, is powerful. I will never forget the day I asked my students to "listen" to what the plants in the garden were telling them, and got some of the best, least stilted writing of that year.
5. How do you edit the work of a large group of students without going completely mad? This isssue gets progressively more challenging the younger the students are. Let's just assume you have a class of 20 first graders, and you're working on their one to two-sentence responses to a literature piece from OCR. You are by yourself, there's no aide. We know that the only way that editing is effective is when the student is right there with you. You'll need a minimum of 30 minutes at least three times a week to go over the entire class. Set up the class as centers and have one of those centers be the one where you sit to edit, with a class list in hand to ensure you see everyone. If the students are in grades 2-6, then it is possible to set up response groups that will work independently while you edit with 5-6 students per session.
6. How do I teach students with low reading skills to write complete, coherent sentences? One of the problems in this new age of teaching is that the pace at which we are being required to teach excludes time for modeling and guided practice. And we really need to do a lot of those two for the struggling students. Learning to write complete, coherent sentences happens best in the classroom, in a whole group or small group setting, and in context. Pulling out these students, unless done by the RSP teacher with content derived from the materials being covered in class, only serves to further confuse and isolate struggling readers and writers. One mistake beginning teachers make is to toss a multitude of exercises at the struggling writer, in the hope that "increased practice" will do the trick of bringing them up to speed. That does not happen, because the struggling writer needs focused exposure to high-quality examples of complete sentences, opportunities for guided practice, and the modeling of strategies he or she should then be encouraged to use. The use of authentic literature or personal experiences as a trigger for the creation of relevant sentences is the most effective content you can use.
7. What books, people, do you recommend for teaching writing as a first year teacher? For a new teacher, I would recommend focusing on one aspect of your writing program at a time, and to have the realistic expectation that you will not be able to immediately integrate writing accross the curriculum. Do try to have one period of time, if possible daily, where your students can write uninterruptedly. Lucy Calkins's seminal piece, The Art of Teaching Writing, is a great way to read about ways to get children to write and ways to model such writing for them. If you're more of a "hands on" teacher and would like to spend money on a book that takes you directly from the why to the how, Gary R. Muschla's Writing Workshop Survival Kit will work great with the upper grades. If you teach the primary grades, Let's Write, by Nancy Areglado and Mary Dill, is the ticket. Step-By-Step Strategies for Teaching Expository Writing by Barbara Mariconda is one of my all time favorites. I've probably tried every lesson in this book. Use it to help you plan for those district assessments. Click here for a complete list.
8. How often should a published work be expected? Althought the expectations vary enormously from school to school and district to district, I have been able to publish at least two one-page pieces per student per semester for grades 4-6, and the same amount but shorter pieces for the primary grades.
9. Is it always necessary to get to the publishing part? I strongly believe children should be given the opportunity, every once in a while, to decide which pieces would they like to publish. So no, it is not necesssary or helpful to insist on them publishing every piece. We are patterning our approach on the way professional writers produce high-quality work.
10. Can I send you questions on how to do certain things? Yes! My e-mail in in this site's home page.
11. How do we use test results to drive the writing instruction? We work in a corporate model, test-driven system. This system, as you know, works best for students who already have writing skills. Test-driven instruction has not been shown to effectively teach students to read better or drive better, but I am assuming you mean how do we analyze the test results and use those results to improve our instruction of writing. The good news is that the SCOE and school district writing assessments are useful tools to help a classroom teacher plan future writing instruction. The "bad" news is that this in-depth analysis requires time.
I would start by looking at the writing standards and checking out how those assessments cover the standards. I would look at each student's sample with a checklist in hand. When the student fails to meet a benchmark, do we know why, or do we automatically assume they did not put enough effort into it? When a group of students misses a skill, do we decide to modify instruction, or do we make plans to re-shuffle them to another teacher? With my class, I looked at patterns as well as individual explanations for student performance. I then prioritized my lessons to reflect the writing standards, and the need to write accross grade levels and accross genres. Finally, I looked at how much would be suficient, in each area, to spark improvement.
12. Will the transition into English writing be as easy as it seems to sound like? Transitions into an English-only environment, because they are happening years before the period shown by research to be effective, are always difficult. These research studies all support the notion that transition into English-only should not happen in second or third grade:
Ramirez, J. D. (1992). Longitudinal study of structured English immersion strategy, early-exit and late-exit transitional bilingual education programs for language minority children (Executive summary). Bilingual Research Journal, 16 (1 & 2), 1-62
Berman, P., Chambers, J., Gandara, P., McLaughlin, B., Minicucci, C., Nelson, B., Olson, L., & Parrish, T. (1992). Meeting the challenge of language diversity: An evaluation of programs for pupils with limited English proficiency (Executive summary, Volume I). Berkeley, CA: BW Associates.
Gersten, R. (1996). Literacy instruction for language minority students: The Transition years. Elementary School Journal, 96(3), 227-244.
I recommend teachers in the primary grades push their district to receive professional development on effective strategies to use in first language instruction. The higher the quality of instruction in the primary language, the better prepared will the students be to transfer those skills into English.
13. Will my students have enough English vocabulary development in January so that they can write? The short answer is no. It is up to you, as a third grade teacher, to ensure they do. Basing writing activities in real experiences, providing meaningful contexts, reading a lot and teaching vocabulary-development strategies (beyond introducing the vocabulary at the beginning of the lesson) are all great ways to help them use the words they learn in their writing.
14. How do I make the time to integrate more writing? You'll need to get your principal, OCR coach, and RSP teachers on board. They know writing is important, but they need several teachers to make the case. I also think it really helps to think of writing more like writing accross the curriculum and less as a self-contained subject. Lucy Calkins in The Art of Writing, says: "Learning is regarded not as acquiring and reciting someone else’s information but as making representations—making maps—of that information. When students do short stints of writing, it can switch their brains from 'off' to 'on.' It can nudge them to question, summarize, notice, categorize." If we can show that our students will be doing some of this during writing, then we've won half of the battle.