Quote of the Week:

“I tell them [her writing students] they’ll want to be really good right off, and they may not be, but they might be good someday if they just keep the faith and keep practicing. And they may even go from wanting to have written something to just wanting to be writing, wanting to be working on something, like they’d want to be playing the piano or tennis, because writing brings with it so much joy, so much challenge. It is work and play together.”
(Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life by Anne Lamott xxix)

Lessons:

This week teachers finished up their celebrations for the second unit Raising the Quality of Narrative Writing.

Reflection:

We are heading into a 10-day holiday. School will resume Dec. 6th. At that time I will be meeting with teams to walk them through the 3rd unit in the series: Breathing Life Into Essays, which we will launch after the Winter Holiday in January. Our year-long plan for teaching writer’s workshop left us with 2 weeks in December which need to be filled with a “mini-unit” of some sort. Teams have been asked to create these units and to independently put them into Atlas.

An option our teachers have been given comes from the series The Complete Four by Pam Allyn. One of the units offered in these grade specific books, is a 10-day unit with a focus on conventions. I am advocating using these lessons because they are targeted to each grade level, provide an extra burst of practice with very targeted skills, and follow the same structure and routine of a minilesson we’ve worked so hard to establish in our writer’s workshops. I will share what our teams decided to do in upcoming posts.

Next post- December 11th.

In an effort to share our hard work in literacy with parents, I have started a weekly column in The Link our school newspaper:

A little bit early, but with our holiday next week and the quick turn around in December it was necessary to get my news out now. Click here to open this document in Scribd.

Our lower elementary school teachers have been working to refine our reading instruction. The inclusion of units of study for reading has provided a much-needed framework for our teaching which spirals through the grades. (For more on information, see HERE.) That said, we are now trying to make sense of how the “parts” fit in to our 90 minute reading block:

• Conferencing/Conferring
• Guided Reading/Strategy Groups
• Read Aloud
• Shared Reading
• Centers
• Word Study
• Independent Reading Time

We determined as a group that we needed to “see” reading workshop in action with all of the components listed above. The result- I am going to work with Betsy, a wonderful, brave, and fantastic grade 1 teacher from start to finish on her unit titled: Making Meaning: Using Prediction to Further Our Thinking.

To communicate with teachers here and for others who are interested, I am going to chronicle our journey by posting daily blog write-ups. My hope is that we will make this process seem “doable”, while also modeling our thinking (which will change and improve) as we go.

Interested?

You can follow our work on my blog December 6-20 (our school week is Sunday-Thursday).

Comments and questions are of course welcome!

In the past few months I have worked with others here at my school to create some frameworks for reading and writing units of study. I have shared this work with people around the world and with teachers at international school schools like mine.

I have mainly done this for the following personal, selfish reasons:

1. When I leave this school (someday…) I will go to another international school and I want that school to at least be where we are now. Sharing these frameworks might help to make that happen.
2. When new students come to my international school from your international school and they are already ready to function in a workshop setting it makes my job easier. Sharing these frameworks might help to make that happen.
3. You might begin to use these frameworks at your  school and then realize how to improve them. When you do, you can share that information with me and I can learn from you. Collaboration between international schools! Sharing these frameworks might help to make that happen.

So imagine my surprise when I recently read this NYT article about teachers not sharing, but instead asking other teachers to buy their lessons, frameworks, and ideas. While I understand the rationale and believe these teachers are doing what is right for them, it is not the philosophy I want to live by.

I am happy to share if you are happy to share back.

Together we can finally get a wheel built, attached and used instead of recreating it over and over. Join me!

Reader’s Workshop

Those two words can mean so many things to so many people. Add to that the consistent turn-over of teachers in international schools and the lack of consistent PD and training (due mostly to our turn-over and our distance from major conferences) then the different definitions of reader’s workshop become understandable.

At my school, a group of teachers last year came together to work on developing consistency in reading practices K-3. This group, called the Reading Team determined we needed a framework, much like the framework we have for our writer’s workshop through the Lucy Calkins Units of Study series, to make our reader’s workshops come together.

Decisions, decisions… where to start?

After searching for a tool to help us develop lessons, unit plans, and year-long calendars, I came across Pam Allyn’s book The Complete 4 For Literacy. This book was a K-5 guide for developing units of study which were vertically aligned and offered a spiral of skills we could build on grade to grade. After deciding this was the direction we felt our school was ready to take, we purchased the grade specific books from Pam for each level. (See those on Amazon here.)

These books have been an invaluable tool for developing our initial units of study.

The process we follow is this:

1. In August, we started off by using the year-long curriculum calendar in each book to plot out our year of units of study in each grade. (This calendar was helpful in determining the length of the units. We decided to end and begin units thinking about our sometimes lengthy holiday breaks.)
2. As the literacy coach, I work through each unit, for each grade level, developing a set of daily lessons. (This is an incredible amount of work, but one which I think is making all the difference. Teachers now have a starting place which is mapped out in an easy to use format and can be modified and improved upon as they dig in and teach the lessons.)
3. Our curriculum coordinator helps to link these units to our standards and benchmarks and put them all up on Atlas.
4. Through the Reading Team, these units are dispersed to teachers at monthly meetings. Each meeting offers us the opportunity to collaborate as a vertical group. The units are the framework through which we can discuss our teaching in relation to our standards and benchmarks and to our students needs.
5. We have placed an order through Booksource to make sure we have available books to use as mentor texts to teach these units. (I emailed Booksource and they bundled all the texts recommended in the C4 books into one easy order. I can’t say enough about this company!)
6. As we move forward, the goal will be to capture the changes teachers make to these units (mentor texts, pacing, reading response ideas, assessment tools, etc.) so we can better modify the work to suit our school goals and the needs of our students.

This is a work in progress which I feel is truly progressing. That said, improvements both to the unit frameworks themselves and to our collaborative efforts as a group are happening. If you would like to view a sample from one of these units, please click HERE.

One more thing… I have read both Growing Readers by Kathy Collins and The Art of Teaching Reading by Lucy Calkins. I am a fan, a huge, huge fan. However, because of where we are at my school (our zone of proximal development if you will) developing daily lessons from those books was more work than we could tackle. Now though, four months into this, I am able to see how those books can make these units richer. Once through this process we will be using professional books like these to raise the level of our reading units. The lesson for me though is we had to have a clearer place to start.

Not only has my school started a journey in writer’s workshop, we are also deeply involved in implementing reader’s workshop through new units of study.

Our work this year has been divided between the upper and lower elementary grades (with grade 3 involved in both). Beginning in August, grades 3-5 began a collaborative implementation of writer’s workhop using the Lucy Calkins Units of Study series. (Weekly posts about that journey are available on my blog or by clicking here.)

In addition, kindergarten- grade 3 teachers began working on units of study in reading based on the Complete 4 series by Pam Allyn.
Although I’ve spent most of my time blogging about our writer’s workshop, there have been significant changes (and celebrations) in the area of reading too.
So, beginning this week, be on the look out for a new series of posts detailing our work in the area of reading.

Comments as always are welcome!

Quote of the Week:

“If a teacher told me to revise, I thought that meant my writing was a broken-down car that needed to go to the repair shop. I felt insulted. I didn’t realize the teacher was saying, “Make it shine. It’s worth it.” Now I see revision as a beautiful word of hope. It’s a new vision of something. It means you don’t have to be perfect the first time. What a relief!” By Naomi Shihab Nye

Lessons:

All grades (3-5) worked to revise, edit and/or publish this week.

Reflection:

Grades 3-5 teachers are preparing for celebrating our students’ hard work. To continue our own professional learning, all teachers met with me this week to celebrate completing this unit.

We collaborated in both grade level teams and in vertical teams by reflecting on:

1. The process so far, including what is going well and things we want to continue to work on.
2. Charts and mentor texts. Teachers shared those which were particularly effective for them during this unit.
3. Student work, both the final products (narrative pieces) and the process work (notebooks).

Hints/Tips:

When You’re Done You’ve Just Begun. Although this phrase was intended to help children with the “I’m dones!” it is also helpful for us as teachers to realize we will continue to get better at this work, too. In fact, I recently read this description on the blog WYN Education Associates that celebrates the reflective nature of this best-practice model:

“I’m learning a great deal about what it takes to improve writing instruction this year as I talk with those who feel comfortable and effective in their roles as writing teachers…and those who do not. Each of these groups seem to have distinct commonalities. The teachers who feel most comfortable distinguish themselves as writers and avid readers. They also place themselves in positions where they can learn more about writing practice, craft, instruction, and assessment. They know that their learning will never be done, and they know that their work will always be imperfect. Despite this, they continue to establish their own support networks around this, seek out opportunities to learn, and question their own practice. They are also very enthusiastic about teaching writing, despite the complex nature of doing so, which they also speak to.”

Our kids are writers. One of the most important discussions I sat in on at our celebration was between the grade 5 teachers who shared their students’ final typed drafts. The conversation seemed applicable to all grade levels when considering student writers. This is what I heard these teachers reflecting on:

• Even in grade 5, a child’s age effects his ability to dig deep and write about “meaningful” topics. For example, our younger grade 5 students were writing about topics such as “fluffy cute cats” while our older writers were attempting to write about grander topics like “losing a loved one”. As teachers, recognizing our student’s developmental differences—even in the upper elementary—is important.
• That said, we need to be aware of what is meaningful to each individual student and respond to that need/interest. For example, writing about playing a new DS game might not seem lofty or interesting to us, but it is important and has meaning for the writer. Our job as teachers is to help the children write about their topics in ways that draw readers in.
• The writing and teaching we are engaged in now is going to be different next year for two important reasons. First, we as teachers will have already worked through each unit in the Lucy Calkins series and will be better prepared. Secondly, the students we receive will be in the 2nd year of this spiral. They will bring more to the process and we will need to be ready to respond to their increased ability.

Collaboration is vital when creating a culture where this work will flourish. As I listened in on vertical discussions between grades 3, 4 and 5 teachers, I was reminded of how powerful a learning community can be. As one teacher listed his frustrations teaching this unit, other teachers from other grades were there to offer support and ideas. I mentioned then, and I want to reiterate it now: No one is in this alone. Through our (sometimes forced) collaboration within grade levels and across grades, we are supporting each other on this journey. We are building a culture where discussing our kids, as opposed to my kids is the norm. By doing this, we are strengthening the learning and teaching experience for ALL members of our community.

Next step: Bringing parents into this work, more on that in January.

Quote(s) of the Week:

“The only man who behaves sensibly is my tailor; he takes my measurements anew every time he sees me, while all the rest go on with their old measurements and expect me to fit them.” – George Bernard Shaw

“When you’re done you’ve just begun.” Lucy Calkins (Primary Units of Study)

“When you are through changing you are through.” Martha Stewart (Vanity Fair, November, 2009)

Lessons:

The teachers in grades 3, 4, and 5 are all working their way through Raising the Quality of Writing. They are in different places and on different lessons, but all working toward ending this unit before our Eid holiday break, November 26th. This week I coached into a 5th grade class. My job was to walk the substitute through “Ending Stories” Session 12 and “Editing: The Power of Commas” Session 13. Also, I facilitated a 1/2-day meeting with our writing team representatives at these grade levels to talk about this work and plan for next steps.

Reflection:

This week I have something to celebrate. I believe the substitute in grade 5 was successfully able to teach the sessions after we met and walked through them. This is what we did: According to the plans left by the teacher, we knew that the last 2 teaching sessions were to be taught at the beginning of the week, and that the end of the week would involve students revising, editing, and typing on the computers. So both mornings, I came to the classroom and we talked through the lesson using this “Sub Sheet” (Click to view.) I made this 3-part lesson template to help distill the lesson into manageable parts. The goal was to keep it simple and most importantly DOABLE. So, we looked over the session pages in Raising the Quality, we looked over the one-page write-ups we have for each session*; then we talked about how the lesson would go in 3-parts:

1. Teaching (with the sub leading the discussion and telling kids one specific point identified from the unit)
2. Independent practice (the students might be working on that one point, if not, they would be writing or reading mentor texts like a writer; the sub would be moving around the room talking to students about their work)
3. Share (the sub would lead the share by mentioning two-three things she noticed going well; then she would move into having the students share in a “turn and talk”)

Hints/Tips:

We need to begin seeing this as DOABLE. When I first met with the sub this week she wasn’t sure she could teach/manage this work. However, after our work to keep it simple (and therefore successful for her) on that first day, she was much more confident. I believe we have a duty to demystify this teaching. Substitutes can teach these lessons. However, they might not be able to bring in all the complicated moves you would use if you were there. But what is the goal? To me, the goal is to teach one skill, give the kids time to write, and to maintain the structure of the minilesson by ending with a share time. Keeping it simple allows the work to continue. Similarly, the tone we use to approach this work is important. If we tell a substitute that this is going to be confusing, impossible, or that she can’t do it… that is exactly what will happen.

We need to begin to see this is DOABLE for ourselves too. At our 1/2-day writing team meeting, we talked about how hard this shift has been, but then we also discussed how much better we are getting at teaching it. I’m thinking we will all eventually do what I did with the 5th grade sub… Just as you might watch a dancer do a move, then step away and try it on your own, I suggest we—

• Read over Lucy’s lesson, think about the most important parts
• Use our one-page write ups* to help us plan how the lesson will go for our kids
• Teach

Again, the Units of Study materials are not scripts. No one wants you to say exactly what Lucy says. However, at times it helps to do just that. At times, it is important that you can visualize how this should go. In the spiraled curriculum, staying within these lessons is important. If we begin to plan and execute lessons as I described above, then we will be responding to the needs of our kids. This will change these lessons in a good way: ensuring differentiation and providing assessment driven instruction, while still maintaining the spiral.

*Please contact me if you are interested in seeing our one-page write-ups for each session in the Lucy Calkins Units of Study series.

Quote of the Week:

“I notice that you use plain, simple language, short words and brief sentences. That is the way to write English – it is the modern way and the best way. Stick to it; don’t let fluff and flowers and verbosity creep in. When you catch an adjective, kill it. No, I don’t mean utterly, but kill most of them – then the rest will be valuable. They weaken when they are close together. They give strength when they are wide apart. An adjective habit, or a wordy, diffuse, flowery habit, once fastened upon a person, is as hard to get rid of as any other vice.” By Mark Twain

Lessons:

This week I helped out in grade 4 with lessons on generating ideas (Session 3) and asking, “What Am I Really Trying to Say?” (Session 6). I was also involved in many conversations about this whole process. Everything from: How can we possibly fit this in? to Using the mentor text Peter’s Chair to teach about the story arc just confused the kids- why did Lucy do that? (see p. 92 in Raising the Quality of Narrative Writing for a bit of an answer)

Reflection:

We are past Halloween. We have finished and sent out report cards. We are nearly done with parent teacher conferences. How many times have I said, we are very, very busy? And yet…

• I heard from a teacher this week “I taught a great lesson. It went very smoothly: my minilesson is getting shorter and I was able to really move a few kids one step forward during the conference.”
• In another room I witnessed the power of charting as students reminded me that what they had learned was right over there, where they could read it and review it as necessary.
• A fifth-grade student showed up in my office wondering if we could talk about his writing. He is working on a chapter book outside of class, but has found that many of the lessons he’s learning from his teacher is making his chapter book stronger. He said, “I have been looking at my scenes and thinking that each one of them is a small moment. In each chapter there might be 1, 2, or 3 scenes, so I’m thinking that I want them to be powerful small moment stories all put together.” Yes, my jaw dropped too. He ended with, “I am just realizing I am a writer.”
• A fourth grader stopped me in the hallway to tell me she had the best thing happen yesterday and how it would make a great personal narrative.
• My daughter, a third-grader, reminded me after we dropped off the neighbor’s dog, rescued from the middle of the street… this will be a great seed story to write about!
• Yesterday a teacher told me that 8 out of 9 of his student-led conferences involved students happy with and celebrating their work in writer’s workshop. “I was surprised at how they were really using the language we’ve been teaching,” he said.

I share the celebrations above because I feel like we are at a crossroads.

The work is hard. The preparation, the teaching, the marking, all of it is hard—because it is new for us. However, we are also seeing results. We are beginning to develop students who see themselves as writers, who realize they have stories in their lives, and who with increasing confidence, will apply and use the strategies we are teaching every time they pick up a pencil or put fingers to a keyboard. We are also beginning to develop transferable teaching skills. Skills we can use in reader’s workshop and later we can apply to our other teaching.

Last year I had the opportunity to work with a group of teachers who didn’t want to do this. However, they went along with me and waded into the LC pool. They were feeling much the same as teachers are now. However, there was also a moment when they recognized this was better teaching, and they just had to push through and get better at it. Once that happened, I knew we would make it. In fact, last year as we neared the fourth unit, I encouraged them to take a break and to just stop there. (Truth be told, they weren’t required to be doing this…) Would you believe, after all the worry and stress they refused to stop? “This is the hardest, best thing we’ve ever done!” they told me. “We can’t stop now!”

Hints/Tips:

We can’t stop now! Keep moving forward. Continue to reflect on what you are trying to do and how it is going. Work with colleagues to celebrate what is going well and to articulate what isn’t working well… yet. If you really, still believe…

1. This is not working or going to work
2. It is too much work for you and/or for the kids
3. Parents are not going to like it
4. Etc…

Come see me or post a comment here. I’m eager to hear what your plans are for teaching writing. If you have a better idea, I’m listening.