TCRWP Home Grown Writing Institute (grades 3-5) Recap Day 1

The Rally

Day one of the Institute began with a rally where all K-5 participants came together. We were introduced to our Staff Developers- Gary Peterson and Cynthia Satterlee for grades 3-5, Sarah Isaacson and Sarah Picard Taylor for grades K-2.  They spent a bit of time giving us the why behind this work:

The Why

This work is done because we are passionate about kids and the teaching of kids. We know that learning never stops and that we can always outgrow ourselves as educators to do better for our students. The work we are engaging in this week will not only familiarize us with the philosophy and research behind The Units of Study, it will make us better teachers of writing and our students better writers. This week is a jumping off point from which so much learning will begin. Let's embrace it, lean into our colleagues, and push each other to stretch ourselves in our teaching.

Morning Session with Cynthia

We began by thinking about our own identities as writers. We asked ourselves, How has our life as a writer changed over the years? What were the high moments? What were the low moments? We then created a timeline of our writing lives and shared these.

Cynthia quickly walked us through the components of our unit boxes and then we jumped right into a workshop simulation. She modeled the workshop from beginning to end going through the mini lesson, conferring, mid-workshop teaching point, and the share. We, as her students, spent the time generating ideas for our personal narratives and receiving feedback from our "teacher". A few of us even moved onto drafting a piece.  

She then moved us onto studying student work (on demand writing) using a thin slicing data protocol. We called out what the students were approximating or doing well, as well as what they could work towards in the future.  The strengths we identified could be used as a compliment during a conference with our students. These build their writing identities and help us know what they can already do as a writer. The goals identified could become possible teaching points for mini lessons, small groups, or conferring. She encouraged us to look at the writing not only in our room but across the grade level and across the building. 

Afternoon Session with Gary

Gary laid out the bottom lines of workshop teaching:

1. Volume of Writing Matters:

• Students should be writing A LOT. Spend time reflecting upon the volume of writing happening in your workshop. Celebrate often and push the ones that need to increase their volume to do more.  

2. Environment is Key:

• Establish a meeting spot, place for charts, writing center, space for independent and partnership work, etc. Your room should be as much of a teacher as you are. If you have an outlier that can't do what you're expecting them to do in the environment, don't make a rule based on one! Make your routines and expectations based around what most of your class can do. 

3. Assessment Must Happen:

• Continuously read your students' work- while you're conferring, over their shoulder, in an on demand piece, etc- and use what you know to decide what to teach next. 

4. Talk Should be A Part of the Work:

• You can't write what you can't say.

5. Explicit Instruction is Always Occurring:

• Mini lessons address roughly 60-70% of your class
• Small groups and conferring is a place where you hit everyone and are working in their zone of proximal development <aka- where the magic happens!>
• Mid-Workshop teaching pushes them forward or gives a reminder
• The share helps to put the learning into their repertoire of skills

Next, We moved onto looking at the qualities of writing.

1. Writing has Meaning:

• In narrative that means this story means something to the writer. In informational that means the writer has something to teach the audience. In opinion that means the writer wants to show their audience their perspective and perhaps persuade them to feel the same way or reconsider their current thinking
• If the writing doesn't have meaning, then the students will lose their stamina and engagement. So if the writing lacks these qualities ask, "What does this moment, topic, issue, mean to you?"

2. Writing has Structure:

• If the story lacks structure it's like a body without bones or a house without a frame. It's going to flop. If you skip over this quality, nothing else will be able to come to fruition.

3. Writing is Developed:

• The writer and their craft begins to shine. This is where word choice, elaboration, movement through time, etc. come into play. 

4. Mechanics:

• These are what allows your reader to understand your story with the clarity you intended and to discern the meaning behind the writing. To promote mechanics, consider asking the question, "How can I help my reader understand the message that I am trying to communicate?"  

5. Writing hasVoice:

• This is where the piece is given a unique twist that is specific to the writer and the intended audience. This is a place where experimentation is expected and encouraged. 

Finally we discussed the writing process.

We are teachers of the writing process. Not teachers of a unit or teachers of an end product. Or goal is to get students good at moving through the process of writing. This process includes the following elements:

Generating ideas/Rehearsal -- Drafting -- Revising -- Editing -- Publishing/Celebration

This process is recursive. There is no set time to be in any one stage. The key is that students are constantly working. When they say, "I'm done!", we push them to shift towards asking, "What step will I move onto next?".

 My Big Takeaways:

• The work we are doing with our students will build their identities as writers. We can leave them with a broken down identity or one where they are empowered to write with engagement, take on new challenges, and believe they are a good writer.
• Engaging in the work we are asking our students to do gives us just as much understanding and perspective of our lessons and curriculum as teaching them does. Take time do to this periodically, especially when you see your students struggling with a concept.
• The purpose of giving an on demand writing assessment is not to spend hours "grading" them all. It is to learn about who are kids are as writers. We should find out about their strengths, their areas of growth, and use this data to help us plan an upcoming unit of study.
• We have to hold ourselves and our students to high standards. We are all...Going. To. Work. Hard...during the day and in the moment. But the payoff will be the knowledge we gain as teachers of writing, the understanding we have of our class, and the evenings that we can spend taking care of ourselves (instead of pouring over schoolwork).