The Common Core Standards

Our district had an early release day today and part of the time was spent considering critical points for using the Common Core State Standards. If you haven't had a chance to look at this in your district, you can check it out on the Maine state website. The online access is user friendly. Because there may be changes in the document, the state suggests waiting to copy the entire document until all changes have been made. Lee Anne Larsen suggested that districts study Appendix A before engaging in the Common Core State Standards (CCSS). Appendix A outlines the research behind the standards. Since there are standards for writing, I thought you might want to check this out.

My multigenre

I'm wondering if you, my writer friends, might like to take a few minutes and compose something of a quote - personal perspective - a word or phrase - whatever... to add to the cover of my multigenre collection. (The topic is MOTHER).
I would imagine this exact group of people will never be together as a whole body again, and I think it would be neat to capture that collective perspective...
Please don't feel pressured...
You are all such unique and amazing people, and I enjoyed listening to your work on Monday.
Angie

National Day on Writing

Does anyone have an idea of how to celebrate the National Day on Writing, October 20?

It counts!

Hi all,

It was wonderful sampling everyone's multigenre work on Monday night. Such a variety of topics, voices, and perspectives. And it all counts! :)

It sounds like you received valuable feedback from your writing groups during our last class. I am happy to look at any work you may have questions about or that you may wish to share. Feel free to email me ideas or drafts. It is entirely up to you. Take whatever space you need, but know that I am here to respond as you wish.

Have a great week!

Choiceliteracy

Another great resource for literacy is choiceliteracy.com. You can subscribe to the free newsletter which allows you to read articles on various literacy topics. There are several articles that you can access if you pay the full subscription price. However, the full subscription is costly and the free articles are very good.

Literacy Leaders' Network

You may view and download the registration form by accessing: www.maine.gov/education/rf/materials.html
POs are accepted for registration

Some hot topics this year:
The Common Core Standards
Vocabulary
Differentiated instruction
Informational texts
and more Professional texts

Thanks, all!

Good Evening -

I regret that I have not given enough in-class time to the development and discussion of your multigenre projects. There is much to do and the time we spend playing with various prompts and ideas is important in developing our writing - to include the multigenre. I hope you are thinking of your journal/writer's notebook as a place where ideas, phrases, scenes, voices can take shape while you work on the multigenre. Is there a piece you shared during out discussion of The Pocket Muse that may now become part of your multigenre?

Just as we encourage our students, remember that we are all writers, exploring and refining. I hope you all feel comfortable emailing me an idea or draft, even partial though it may be. I will give feedback without delay.

Have a great week. Thank you for all your efforts in ERL 540.

Metacognitive Writing Interview

A number of years ago, I regularly conducted Reading and Writing Interviews with my Kindergarten and First Grade students. It was helpful in developing an understanding of each student's understanding of the process and their attitudes about reading and writing. I cannot seem to locate this document in my seldom opened file cabinet. I have googled and googled. Does anyone have a copy of a similar interview that could be sent to me for our upcoming project? Thanks so much.
Barbara

NCTE Response

First, I would like to address standard number 2.  Not all people can learn by writing, as in the instance of my son.  He gets very frustrated and has an extreme problem with getting his thoughts even to the paper.  If he is allowed to talk to you and get his ideas out verbally, then he has a beginning point to start his thoughts, which then needs to be guided by a teacher to help him get started.  This process does work for most writers, but there are some students who are unable to learn through just writing more.  It becomes more of a hinderance than an educational learning experience.
Second, I would like to address standard number 11.  This is where as teachers and faculty, we can become very subjective and this can complicate our abilities to grade and critique a student's writing for the purpose of a grade or assessment.  What one teacher may see as a highly effective and motivating piece of writing, may be seem as only a moderately written piece by another.  I feel this has always been an area that I have struggled with when looking at the writing of my students and other teacher's students.  This is the subject with the most subjectivity and the most scrutinized.

# 8 Writing has a complex relationship to talk.

"Language leads learning."  So often we hear research to support this belief.  I attended a conference on Oracy with the self-proclaimed "King of Oral Language", Lance Gentile.  It was my expectation that this conference would focus on our youngest learners and their experiences with oral language leading their learning in the area of literacy.  I was pleasantly surprised that the conference was focused across grade levels and diversity of students.  Dr. Gentile really drew attention to the fact that students with the least experience in oral language would need interventions which help to close their gap in order to command expertise in other literate activities.  

If only I knew then what I knew now... when I taught middle school it was my belief that writing workshop needed to be quiet.  "Writing time" was quiet, only during conferencing was conversation allowed.  In some ways I think this met the needs of the average student.  Unfortunately, it did little to assist my most struggling students.  I would certainly incorporate many more opportunities for students to share their thinking and plan their writing with one another, if I knew then what I know now.

As a third grade teacher, it was my bias that talk would be incorporated in our writing workshop.  I came into writing workshop expecting this level of chatter with younger students.

We must model for students talking about writing, and talking through writing so that they will have this strategy for their own writing.

Where were you when the world stopped turning?

I've noticed that most of our posts have been specific to the NCTE beliefs, but I thought I might veer down another path.  If this is not the correct place, I apologize, and will unpost.  My thoughts, today are really in a yesterday - the day the world changed to me.

I remember clearly talking to Dustin, an eighth grader 4 inches taller than me, and only 8 years younger.  He was spreading apathy and attitude in a wake behind him, and being the ever wise 22 year old teacher I had decided I should take him aside.  I knew just enough to think I knew it all.  He and I were just about to have a breakthrough when the principal chicken-stepped into my room.  She was a wild haired, well-meaning and equally well-educated,  woman.  She dismissed Dustin, much to my annoyance and then whispered in my ear, at the same time handing me a piece of white typed paper.  Even as I had it in writing as well as in my ear, I was still in complete disbelief.  "A plane has crashed into the World Trade Center."  

What a shame, I thought! Those poor people!  I wonder if anyone has been hurt?  My naive little brain could not conceive of the possibility that this was an action plotted out purposefully.  

As the second plane crashed a sense of panic rose in me, and throughout our school.  What is going on? Where will they hit next? What is the point of this? Why would We, the mighty America, be a target?  

Parents began to show up, and call, clogging our hallways and our phone lines.  As with everyone in America I called everyone I cared about, knew and was related to.  

I stared in stunned silence at a TV placed on the table in the teacher's workroom searching for an answer which never streamed across the bottom in white letters.  

Later that day I heard that my friend April had given birth to a beautiful baby girl, and I thanked God that he brought a miracle into this world.  A blessing which helped our family and friends to redefine the horrific day as the day a precious perfect little girl was born.  

Writing Matters

I had one of those ahh hah moments when I was reading that part about teachers having to write along with there students and as part of teacher's meetings.  I had never thought about that point as a teacher.  In hindsight it make perfect sense!  If we are to teach writing, we should be the ones doing the writing along with our students so we can set the expected behaviors and outcomes.  This was such a profound moment of realization for me.  I have experienced two different reading curriculums, but never was made to write in a conference or teacher's meeting before.  This is a great idea, and I think should be part of training when implementing a new writing series or demand of our students.  If we don't experience the struggles for ourselves as a learner and writer, how are we ever going to be able to teach our students properly?

Writing is Never Mastered

NCTE Belief #3 Writing is a process

When I first read the above belief, I took it literally and remembered teaching "the writing process" when I was a sixth grade teacher. However, as I was reading Because Writing Matters, I began to think about this belief differently. Carl Nagin discussed how professional writers acknowledge the notion that writing is never mastered. It is a lifelong, communicative mode of learning used for different purposes. This is actually how I view the teaching profession. Learning to be a teacher is a process, a lifelong pursuit which is never fully mastered. Like writing,there is always more to learn about the craft.

Each writer has their own process and that process changes depending on the purpose for and the genre of the writing. So, I am wondering how we can help students/teachers embrace their journey as a writer and to accept the process as a lifelong endeavor. I don't know about you, but when I was in school, I waited for 'the moment' I arrived as a writer, the moment I had mastered writing. I am still waiting! Many of our students are waiting for that moment too. Maybe it is time to let them in on the secret.

Reciprocity

NCTE #2 Writing and reading are related.

Reading and writing certainly are related. In fact, teaching one produces reciprocal gains in the other. I see this in the students that I work with during literacy lessons as well as in the classroom. And students who struggle with reading tend to struggle with writing and vice versa. Unfortunately, we do not always devote the same amount of time to reading and writing in the classroom. As a literacy coach, I encounter many teachers who do not see themselves as writers and are often at a loss as to how to help their struggling writers. Both reading and writing need to be a priority and teachers need to provide their students with models of good writing and multiple opportunities to write.

NCTE Beliefs

NCTE Belief: Writing and reading are related. I see this every year with my students. My Kindergarten students begin to learn to read, and their writing improves. I show them new techniques and tools they can use in their writing, and their reading improves. I see my students creating different types of books during writing that are similar to those that they have read with me. These two things are so interconnected that I think we really need to try and find time to spend on them both, growth in these areas are directly related to it. I can't wait until we begin guided reading groups in my class so I can see that spurt of growth in my students writing!

Yikes!

NCTE Belief #2: People learn to write by writing.

Can you believe that according to data collected in 1998 69% of 4th Grade Teachers reported spending 90 minutes OR LESS on writing activities per WEEK!? (Page 12 in Because Writing Matters) That is embarrassing-an average of 15 minutes a day! 1998 wasn't that long ago. What was that all about? Now that we are a bit wiser, it stands to reason that it is more like 90 minutes per day spent on writing activities or at least I certainly hope so. Daily writing must be a priority among our mounting responsibilities. How can you get through a day without writing?

Organizing

As you continue to respond to the NCTE Beliefs, please label your posts as "NCTE Beliefs." This way, we will have a distinction between this discussion and our other thoughts and drafts. If you haven't included labels - no worries.

Writing and relationships

9. Literate practices are embedded in complicated social relationships...

My grandfather had only a 6th grade education and couldn't read or write. He learned what he needed to know for his woodworking and for his oil delivery job, but besides that, my grandmother has always taken care of everything. My grandfather, who now is suffering from late stage dimentia, never really had close relationships. He kept everyone at a distance. He never really talked much. Now looking back, I think he was insecure with himself and worried about being judged. And, although I have often wondered if his lack of literacy contributed to his lack of close relationships, I have never really thought about the basic connection between literate practices and social relationships.

As I am writing this, I am listening to my four year-old daughter and her friend of the same age as they are creating books together. "What do you really like?," my daughter asks her friend, "mermaids or pirates?" They are creating books for each other with pictures of mermaids and pirates by drawing pictures and writing letters that in their minds tell stories. And, so the connection between words and social relationships begin. Before I know it, these two girls will be sending text messages and emails to each other!

Anyway, as I think of the lack of relationships my grandfather had in his lifetime, I cannot help but think of our students. We need to give our kids the gift of literacy - and the gift of being able to write. And since #2 says, "People learn to write by writing," we have to get those kids writing! The disadvantages facing students who do not have the tool of writing are tremendous. But, on the other hand, we have the opportunity to give them that advantage and that confidence and that chance to form/build upon social relationships.

I guess I write more than I thought....

I thought focusing my attention on something other than the heat might cool me down. So, I took a look at the NCTE Beliefs. As I read down through them, I was thinking of which one I would like to comment on. As soon as I came to #10, I stopped and thought, "It really does!"

NCTE Belief #8: Composing occurs in different modalities and technologies.

Sitting in class on Monday, I was thinking that I NEVER write. I read all the time and can't get enough of it, but when I was thinking about the last time I wrote I could only think of classwork. When I read this belief I realized how much I actually do write! I write every single day! I write emails concerning work and relations. I text message friends to wish a happy birthday or a thinking of you message. I write a morning message to my students. I respond in journals to my students. I leave notes for my husband. These are things that I do everyday and never think twice about! When I first thought about my writing, I didn't consider those instances "writing". But just like the NCTE belief says, writing happens in many different modalities and technologies! So, I guess I write more than I thought!

How Shall You Spend Your Days?

The possibilities that writing brings to one's life is boundless. Writing feeds my creative soul while it becomes my companion in good and bad times. So why does one not engage in this activity on a daily basis? Why does it not become habit and thus extraordinarily ordinary overtime? Priorities. Recently in attending a convention I heard a dynamic speaker, a guru of sorts in time management who made a simple statement, "Everyone has the same 24 hours." How are you going to spend yours?
I have unfinished journals scattered throughout my house. (Talk about unfinished tasks?!) Today my newest journal goes by my bedside as a reminder of my priorities. I am happiest when my daily activities reflect what I value. I am a writer and it is important that I write daily, simply for the sake of writing. (This is an affirmation of sorts....and a public commitment!)