One of the steps in the Teacher’s College workshop process is called “Active Engagement.” This phase of the minilesson is one I think deserves more detailed thought and understanding by teachers new to workshop teaching. First of all, active engagement comes after the connection and the teaching of the strategy. It is the moment in the lesson when students actually try out what you’ve just taught. Sounds simple enough right? However, I think it is important to note how this step allows you to do 2 things:
Many teachers new to this approach are confused by the notion that they will teach a minilesson, but then the students might not be working on what was just taught when they head off for independent practice. The idea instead should be (on most days-of course there are exceptions) you teach a strategy, everyone tries it during the active engagement phase, then those who are ready to use the strategy do so, when they move away to write. As you conference around the room you can ask specific students to use the strategy if you believe it will lift the level of their writing.
Active engagement is an important part of a strong minilesson. Take the time to cultive it in your classroom.
Today I attended TCRWP Writing Institute for the first time. I am participating in the Principals Cohort as a Literacy Coach. (Which is interesting because in the literacy coach training I’ve had, there is a clear line between coaching and supervision.) Today I attended the Keynote address by Lucy Calkins, the large group session for grades 3-5 teachers, also led by Lucy, and finally, the first small group session for “supervisors” (principals and coaches) led by Cory Gillette, coauthor of the unit, Breathing Life Into Essays.
The final session was in many ways the most informative. Here is a brief synopsis of some of the topics we covered today:
Look for another update tomorrow.
Today is the last day of school. Tomorrow we will board a plane for the US. The year is officially OVER. My next posts will be from the TCRWP Institute in NYC June 29-July 3.
Until then, here is a look at my coaching space at ACS. It is, as always, a work in progress. In this video you will see how we have organized our DRA testing papers (cutting down on lines at the copy machines), big books, a large collection of leveled texts students can take for home reading, our leveled library, and professional books. The space is quite large and allows for demonstration teaching (lab sites) as well as plenty of room for teachers to meet for professional development. (I apologize for the way this video ends. I was surprised by another teacher and forgot to edit the end before I made it into a movie.)
Next year we will be receiving 1,000s of books to support our reading and writing workshops. When you are working from such a great distance, we have to be very careful that we know what supplies we have and what has been lost, so initially these books will be organized, inventoried, and stored by me.
If you have any ideas for organizing and managing books for teachers to check out and use, I would love to hear your thoughts.
I just facilitated the final Writing Workshop Implementation Celebration meeting for our 3-5 teachers. (Next year we will continue to meet following each unit to share vertically, but we will no longer be NEW at this.) We spent some time talking about mentor texts each grade level should use next year. It was exciting to hear teachers ready for this next step as it is so important for our differentiation of the LC units. As we were discussing the texts, I reminded teachers that we don’t need to get attached to texts, but rather we need to open our eyes to many, many possible texts for teaching the skills and strategies writer’s use. If we really do continue to grow as a workshop school, I hope we, as teachers, can read a text, recognize what the writer has done; then move to sharing what we see with our students. That means the expectation of “reading like a writer” is one each teacher must be capable of doing, not just our kids.
As a school we have walked 500 miles in Lucy Calkins’ shoes this year. We needed to jump-right-in- there and work at teaching like Lucy, if only to get a real sense of what this was all about. Next year, my role as a coach will be to pull teachers back from Lucy’s transcript and help them find their own words and ways within each unit. Being a mentor-text teacher is one of the best ways to do it. When teachers can see what a writer has done, they can highlight it for their kids. (And of course this is a transferable skill teachers can use with both reading and writing workshop.)
It has been a long, hard, worthwhile ride. I am definately getting on the plane (in 5 days) feeling like we accomplished something here. TCRWP- here we come!
Aren’t Wordle’s cool?
What is it about words, together in a space, but at different angles, sizes and colors that makes is seem more like ART than a list of words?
I love Wordle as a tool to use with kids. Simple, easy technology. Great for memories (or the cover of a Memoir- Kimmy), class name lists, group lists, favorite things about school lists… it just goes on and on!
This evening, with the help of a glass of red wine, I made a list of all the things I said/did this school year. I knew it was a bunch, but going back through old calendars made me feel like my exhaustion is warrented.
Below is my 2009-2010 Reflective Wordle. As a celebration, teachers are going to start with mine and add in words of their own to create grade level “LOOK AT WHAT WE DID IN 2009-2010″ Wordles tomorrow at our ERD meeting.
“Remember that our goals always extend beyond the reading and writing workshop. It is important to teach writing in part because writing is a powerful tool for thought. This session goes a long way towards helping children use writing as a tool for growing ideas on the page. We’re explicitly teaching children to say more and think more, to extend their first thoughts, and to know what it is to see new ideas emerge from the tips of their pens. This is important!” (Breathing Life Into Essays p. 47)
This was one of those amazingly busy weeks! However, teachers worked to move their students into sessions 8-12 which focus on selecting a thesis, refining it and making sure you really know enough to write about it, and moving into writing strong, personal narratives which support the essay points.
This was one of those weeks. You know what I mean… visiting authors, report cards were due, assemblies (you heard me… more than one!), and the kids collectively, were acting out (we had a fight, bullying issues, accidental falls, tears, etc.). In the midst of it all I had a meeting with the grade level writing team reps, which seemed like a bad idea… until we started talking about writing. The flood gates opened with all the ways this wasn’t working, but we moved into why we are moving our teaching this way, how much we value the vertical collaboration, ways we know we can improve this work today, in the next unit, and next year. The meeting was the highlight of my week.
Our main goal this year was for each grade (3-5) to work through every unit in the Units of Study series. To do that, we first created a year-long plan. We gave each unit roughly 20 days. Even with our holidays and breaks we were able to fit in all the units. The next step was to make monthly calendars for each unit. At first, I worked with a rep from each level to make these calendars. By Unit 3 however, we released the calendar creation to the teams so they could collaborate.
What we’ve learned, is teaching writing daily is critical to student success. However, realistically teachers need a buffer day in the week to catch up/reteach. Beginning with Unit 3, we have decided to provide for that. Interestingly, it doesn’t alter our month calendar much. What might need to be changed are the “product” days at the end. Which fits with what we are trying to do anyway- focus on the process and less on the pretty, perfect, final product. Regardless, teachers are finding ways to fit this in, try the units on, and learn from the process so we can improve our work next year.
What should a thesis look like in grade 3? Grade 4? Grade 5? I wrote about this last week in my weekly post, but it came up in our writing team meeting, so I’ll add some notes here. Basically, there is no right answer, no magic formula based on age or grade, and no way for me to outline a perfect scenario. What I can do is remind teachers that it will depend on two very important factors:
To me, a good thesis then, is one a student feels strongly about and can back up with writing from his own heart/mind.
Value the process. As Lucy describes on p. 110, “…hold to the principle that minilessons are occasions for teaching a strategy or an idea children can use often.” The work in this unit provides students with a voice they can use over and over again when they are taking a stance or giving their opinions. This unit also helps children understand the value of organizing thoughts and points, in order to select what is most powerful. How exciting to have an 8 or 10 year old considering his words and sifting through his thoughts to find those that are best suited for advancing his position on something!
The process of considering what you want to say and how best to say it is something students can use in many school subjects. Similarly, teaching children how to think about what they are saying (writing)- that evaluation- is something we hope they will do as adults.
In my last weekly write up I mentioned I would post one collection idea useful in session 9. (Click Here.) This is just one way children can collect and organize their ideas and thoughts. The goal of session 9, besides having them get organized is to teach them that organization leads to increased productivity and better writing. If you have a student who has been doing this kind of writing for years (your school is more secure in the spiral) then it might be appropriate for him to use a collection process, which works for him. However, if your children are new to this, asking them all to collect using the same strategies is a worthwhile, whole-class goal.
Watch Organizing for Essays. A short video detailing the organizational tool we used to help students during the unit: Breathing Life into Essays by Lucy Calkins. (It takes a minute for the movie to load, however it will begin playing automatically.)
“It is very important to notice that minilessons are not a vehicle for doling out the daily assignment. Instead of saying, “Today, I’d like you to each make a two column chart. On the top of the left column, write…” I say, “Another system I sometimes use is…” The goal of a minilesson is to add to students’ repertoire of skills and strategies, not to dole out that day’s assignment.” (From Breathing Life into Essays by Lucy Calkins p. 17)
All of the grades basically worked through sessions 3-7 this week. These lessons continued to show children how to generate ideas, however they also began to work on the ever-important “framing” of this work, what Lucy calls: Boxes and Bullets. Prep work for next week should include getting the materials ready for collecting stories for each topic idea (bullet) students decide on for their thesis. (See my example of a collection system we are planning to use in every grade this year Here.)
Again, as a coach, I’m not feeling that I’m offering solid support to teachers implementing this unit. (But sometimes that happens.) I’m not scheduled to coach in with any classes, and I’m beginning to feel like I’m out of touch with what is going on. So, I’ve requested teachers try to keep me in the loop. This is what I just sent out to them:
Don’t worry if your students aren’t selecting strong essay topics… yet. Part of the joy in teaching this unit for me, was in watching students develop a voice of authority or an expert stance in their writing. For example, last year a third grader wrote a compelling essay titled: Shawarma is the best food. While at first glance his teacher and I thought this wasn’t a strong enough topic for an essay, we soon learned that the child had strong thoughts about the topic, and that was what was important in crafting a solid piece of writing. My advice, try not to judge the topic. Instead when you are helping students in these early lessons to see if their topics are strong enough to be developed into essays, focus on whether or not the student has enough to say about the topic. Of course, our older students will probably develop more profound topics. However, if you are at the same implementation stage as we are at my school (all grades working through these units for the first time), then fifth graders might also write strong about simpler ideas. We are all learning.
Conferring and sharing: The heart of writing workshop. Just as you were doing in the past units, pulling alongside these young writers and asking “How’s it going?” is the key to moving each student, small groups of students, and ultimately the whole class forward. If you imagine your job during independent writing time is similar to being a journalist embedded into an army unit during a battle, conferencing is the key to understanding what is happening out there “in the field.” It is when you learn what is really going on, and not what you are being told is happening. In this unit, sharing what you see, hear and learn during a conference will have real power. I’m not referring to a student sharing his/her work here. Instead I’m thinking about you, the teacher, talking about what smart idea you’ve just read or smart writing move you learned a student used. Highlight what you see and explain why it is so smart. Just as the content of a minilesson isn’t a task you expect students to complete all together, at the same time, during independent writing; sharing the smart things you see is simply planting the seed for other students to pick up on… tomorrow, or better yet, when they are ready. (Pages 42-43 in Breathing Life Into Essays for more on this.)
Connect the learning back. Although we aren’t doing it deliberately yet, my school will eventually discuss how this work directly relates and connects to moves we want students to make in reading. The “conversational prompts” introduced in session 4 to push thinking forward are amazing tools to introduce into other curriculum areas. Whenever you are asking students to deeply think, write or discuss something, these prompts can help. The more practice students have in phrasing their thinking and layering it like this, the better they will become at it. However, one caution, as Lucy reminds us in her coaching notes on p. 47: “… When children begin to bring these phrases into their writing, you’ll notice a child may write a phrase such as “This makes me realize…” without begin aware of the meaning in that phrase…” My advice? Don’t expect students to memorize or become experts at using these phrases. Instead, allow them to try them on, attempt to use them, and help them understand how they work. The perfect place to do this? During your conferences.
Important Reading: An FYI. The writes up on pages 71 and 83 at the beginning of sessions 6 and 7 are important to read and digest. Sessions 7-9 introduce deep, slow, deliberate work. In fact, I find them to be different from any other sessions Lucy presents.
This week Betsy and I started our journey to incorporate all the elements of a best practice approach to her reader’s workshop block: a minilesson, independent reading time (allowing the students to read, read, read and allowing the teacher to conference and hold small group sessions), share time, read aloud, shared reading, and word study. So far… so good.
Betsy and I spent time planning her new block before the break. The change was in how Betsy was structuring both her guided groups and her word study. Instead of running the kids through a center-type system which allowed one center to be a word study stop and one to be a guided reading point, we planned to have a simpler structure aimed at the kids having more time to read. (All the research says time spent reading is the deciding factor in reading achievement.)
The minilesson, including independent practice time would kick-off the reading period. From there we would confer with students and determine when/how to share. Allowing 30 minutes for a word study session would provide time to teach (with shared reading, read aloud and modeling) then students would have 15-20 minutes to work with words before a share.
Throughout this time we will be using the daily lessons from the unit of study: Using Prediction to Further Our Thinking based on Pam Allyn’s book The Complete Four in Reading and Writing for Grade 1, and word study lessons from Fountas and Pinnell’s book.
It was decided that I would observe Betsy teach the focus lesson; then I would model conferring with students in the independent reading time. We would pull them back to the meeting spot to transition into partner reading. I would continue to confer while Betsy pulled a group together for a guided reading session. Then we would return to the floor to share our work. Following that I would teach the word study lesson.
Debrief: We wanted to conference with students to learn what they were doing “in the field.” Instead of approaching the child and asking “What was your prediction?” We instead approached with “What are you working on?” then lead into a compliment and a recommendation. The amazing thing with this method, was we learned that most of the children were not using predictions. However, some of the compliments we did note were students: thinking aloud and picture walking, using multiple decoding strategies, and reading for a longer period of time than was originally expected. Anecdotal notes were invaluble to our learning.
Day 2 was the identification stage of the unit which is written based on a gradual-release model. In Day 1, the students were immersed in reading and told to notice if they were predicting. In Day 2, Betsy named what predicting looked like and what it does. For my part, I again modeled conferencing with students while her teaching assistant shadowed me. Finally, Betsy decided she would pull two guided groups after she conferenced with readers for about 10 minutes during the independent practice time.
Debrief: As we met to discuss the day’s work, Betsy mentioned she felt like we accomplished a great deal. The students read either independently, with a partner, and/or with Betsy in a small group for 30 minutes. In her small groups, Betsy was able to get to the teaching she wanted to do as well. As I moved around the room, Ms. F, Betsy’s teaching assistant followed me, listening in and reading over my shoulder as I conferred with children and wrote anecdotal notes and next steps. This was a new task for Ms. F, and it required she approach the children not so much as a teacher giving directions, but instead like a doctor interviewing a patient- asking questions, taking notes, and mulling over next steps. I applaud her effort to learn this valuable skill.
Today we flipped things a bit and I took over the teaching of the reading minilesson and Betsy planned to teach the word study lesson. Ms. F would take notes side-by-side with me as we continued to practice conferring. Again, two groups were pulled for guided sessions during the independent practice time. Laura, another grade 1 teacher observed the entire block and agreed to sit in on our debrief.
Debrief: After another successful day we reviewed the anecdotal notes and discussed how the children were doing. Today I charted 3 guidelines for the independent practice time which helped to focus their work:
At all times these guidelines were what the children were to be working on (in addition to their first day of guided practice with prediction). This focus helped with stamina and gave the independent time a sense of purpose. Laura, Betsy and I discussed different ways to pull flexible groups based on the evidence gathered in our anecdotal notes and even talked about using what we are seeing in the word study sessions to help identify children who need more support. Ms. F tried conferring on her own and helped students feel that this time and reading in general is supposed to be enjoyable.
More to come… a wonderful start. I hope my colleagues will add their insights to this post.
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:
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.
You can follow our work on my blog December 6-20 (our school week is Sunday-Thursday).
Comments and questions are of course welcome!
