Members of the MiddleWeb Discussion List and other interested
teachers are joining together to explore the Writing Workshop
and other ideas about supporting young adolescent writers and
readers. Juli Kendall, a reading-writing teacher/coach in Long
Beach, California, is helping moderate the discussion. Last year,
Juli kept a weekly journal from her Reading Workshop.
This year, Juli is continuing her journals, but this time she's
focusing on her Writing Workshop. Find out more about our project
at our Reading/Writing Workshop homepage.
You'll find Juli's background article here.
Links to many of the tools created by Juli and her colleagues
are embedded in these journals. Most often, when you click on
them, a PDF file will begin to download. You'll find a list of
the downloads here.
If you'd like to join the daily discussion that parallels Juli's
Journals, find out how here.
Grammar is not a time of waste.
Grammar is not a time of waste.
Grammar is not a time of waste.
-- Written on the blackboard by Bart Simpson during after-school detention (Blackboard Gag, "Like Father Like Clown," Episode AABF10, Original Airdate: 2/21/99)
Most fans of The Simpsons, an animated sitcom, know that
a "clip show" is not the best format for getting your
message out to the audience. What's a clip show? It's a collection
of short moments from many shows held together by a plot line.
For example, the infamous episode, "So It's Come to This:
A Simpsons Clip Show," contains nineteen different clips.
The story goes something like this: "When Homer gets seriously
injured from Bart's practical joke, the Simpsons recall various
moments from past episodes while waiting at the hospital."
[Aired April 1, 1993]
Every time the show's writers choose the clip show format there's
big trouble. Fans go crazy. They accuse The Simpsons of
a lack of creativity for reusing material and including scenes,
or clips, from previous shows.
The show's creator, Matt Groening (recently quoted in Rolling
Stone magazine), sees it differently. "Though Groening
leaves the writing to the writers and the animating to the animators,
he still makes certain that The Simpsons stays true to
the original spirit: 'It has to be a celebration,'" he says
in the interview.
Faced with the opportunity to "consider the half year that's
passed" in Writing Workshop, I succumb to reusing material
and including sections from previous journals (the "clip
show" format). By filling in gaps and rethinking some things,
I hope to gain new insights and a vision of where we go from here.
And some reasons to celebrate!
So it's come to this: A Writing Workshop Journal Clip Show
Clip #1: Week 2, "Exploring Some Questions about Writing
Workshop"
What I wrote in the journal: "As we begin this
school year, things are changing about how we do business in writing
workshop. And change means that we have lots of questions about
structure, management, organization and tone. But we're not the
only ones with questions."
My current thinking: Our questions have changed. Now we
have questions about what to teach in mini lessons, how to get
kids writing the "next" piece, how best to confer with
our writers. Working with our own grade level, as well as across
grade levels, we're sharing lessons that have worked in our classrooms.
We've also found some resources that will help.
Nancy Atwell, Lessons
That Change Writers, Heinemann
Carl Anderson, How's
It Going?: A Practical Guide to Conferring with Student Writers,
Heinemann
Clip #2: Week 4, "Two Students, One Goal: Pass the Benchmark
Test"
What I wrote in the journal: "Sophanna and Manuel
have been placed in our Reading and Writing Workshop because they
are at risk of not going on to 6th grade next year."
My current thinking: Sophanna and Manuel made progress
on both their reading benchmarks and their Writing Workshop pieces.
I need to go back, make copies of their work, and document their
progress. Then I can look at the work and decide "next steps"
for them instructionally. The records of our reading and writing
conferences will also help.
Clip #3: Week 7, "How We Help Our Writers With Spelling"
What I wrote in the journal: "In addition,
we have some ideas for managing spelling during Independent Writing.
The key to success with this is having lots of different ways
to support spelling during Writing Workshop. No one way seems
to work for all kids. Flexibility is the secret."
My current thinking: I hear less of "How do you spell
--------?" and more "Where are the Post-its?" Our
sticky note usage grows as the kids get more comfortable with
the "Give it a try!" strategy for spelling words. It's
working!
Clip #4: Week 10, "'Craft' Begins with Learning to Read like
a Writer"
What I wrote in the journal: "To help our writers
learn to 'read like writers,' we'll focus on one aspect of craft.
I've chosen leads, ways to begin writing, based on my past teaching
experiences and our first look at examples of our students' work.
Frequently, kids who struggle with writing need assistance with
how to get started. Knowing different ways to begin their writing,
using different leads, can help them during the writing process."
My current thinking: There's additional help for teaching
leads in Ruth Culham's new book from Scholastic, 6+1
Traits of Writing (subtitled "The Complete Guide Grades
3 and Up, Everything You need to Teach and Assess Student Writing
With This Powerful Model"). Pages 87-99 cover "Teaching
the Organization Trait" and include "Writing the Introduction."
I especially like the list of "Techniques to Begin a Piece
of Writing." Here are a few:
* A thought-provoking question to make the reader wonder
* A little "sip" of the conclusion to get the reader's attention and pique his or her interest
* A funny story or personal anecdote to set a humorous or individual tone
The next step is to find touchstone texts that use these kinds
of leads as a model for our writers. That takes us back around
to "learning to read like a writer."
Clip #5: Week 12, "The Year of Punctuating Dangerously"
What I wrote in the journal: "Janet Angelillo's
Plan for a Year of Study in Punctuation (p. 36) suggests four
units."
1. First unit of study (October to November)
2. Follow up unit of study (January to February)--study within genre, of an author, of a specific mark
3. Review unit-testing (March to April)--using punctuation in formal ways
4. Advanced unit of study (June)--grows from student interests
My current thinking: We're getting ready for the second
step in a year of punctuation study, a "Follow up unit of
study" at the end of January. For this, I'm planning a study
of punctuation with one author, Patricia Polacco. Time to start
gathering books together.
Clip #6: Week 13, "Searching for a Student Friendly Rubric"
What I wrote in the journal: "With help from the
MiddleWeb Writing and Reading Workshop Project listserv and Google,
I found amazing help for creating a rubric -- the Rubric Machine
at thinkinggear.com. I used this site to build a Student Friendly
Rubric for Writing Workshop. My draft will go through many revisions
by students and teachers in the next few months."
My current thinking: I've finished the next
draft of this student friendly rubric, and the rubric has
changed. Reading about the 6+1 traits of writing has really helped
me. Their assessments are pared down, straight forward and user
friendly. Now I just need to sort out the traits (ideas, organization,
voice, word choice, sentence fluency, conventions and presentation).
While working on the rubric, I'm also reading Judith Langer's
new book, Effective
Literacy Instruction: Building Successful Reading and Writing
Programs, from NCTE. Finding 4, on page 28, talks about
"explicit differences in how teachers teach students strategies."
It's helping me think about how to help students "reflect
on and monitor their own learning."
Finding 4 -- In effective schools, students in English language arts classes are overtly taught strategies for thinking as well as doing. In contrast, in typical schools, the focus is on the content or skill, without overtly teaching the overarching strategies for planning, organizing, completing, or reflecting on the content or activity.
Now, after all this reflection, my resolution for next year follows
along with Bart Simpson's line of thinking:
I will finish what I sta.
I will finish what I sta.
I will finish what I sta.
Bart Simpson's Blackboard Gag from "Like Father Like Clown,"
Episode 8F05, Original Airdate:10/24/91
To learn more about The Simpsons:
1. The Simpsons, A Complete Guide to Our Favorite Family
created by Matt Groening, edited by Ray Richmond and Antonia Coffman,
Harper Perennial, 1997
2. The Simpsons Forever!, A Complete Guide to Our Favorite
FamilyContinued, created by Matt Groening, edited by Scott
Gimple, Harper Perennial, 1999
3. The Simpsons Beyond Forever!, A Complete Guide to Our Favorite
FamilyStill Continued, created by Matt Groening, edited by
Jesse McCann, Harper Perennial, 2002
4. "The First Family of Rock," Rolling Stone
magazine, November 28, 2002, p. 50-58
Editor's Note: In her last journal
before the holidays, Juli posted the first draft of her Student-Friendly
Writing Rubric. She's sent along her second
draft, with this comment: "It looks nothing likethe first.
Even though I've written lots of rubrics over the years, I have
a really steep learning curve on this student friendly, generic
writing rubric. I'm learning so much about writing this year!"
Read next week's journal
Read last week's journal
Read Juli's backgrounder about her work
Back to Juli's journal index
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