It’s a snow day here in Michigan (along with many other parts of the country), so I’m using this opportunity to do some catching up.  One thing I did was register for the spring MRA (Michigan Reading Association) conference which, in my opinion, is such a bargain!  I’m looking forward to hearing some of the country’s leading literacy professionals and children’s book authors next month.  I’m most excited to hear Donalyn Miller the author of my new favorite book The Book Whisperer. Read more about this on my previous blogpost about her.

Another thing I did today was a little web surfing.  I found a site that I haven’t had time to fully explore yet, but just had to share it with you.  It’s called Not For Robots.  Under the title on the homepage is this caption: 

“Writing is hard. People for whom writing is not hard are robots and should go away. Thank you.” 

That alone enticed me to explore the site!  Yesterday I had a conversation with a teacher about how hard writing is for kids and how hard it is to teach writing.  Over the years I have definitely found some strategies that take the mystery out of writing for my students, but it’s still hard work.  Anyone who says otherwise is lying!  The Not for Robots site consists of a series of articles written by a professional writer.  She shares her secrets, insights, techniques, and frustrations with the writing process.  It’s an entertaining, informative, refreshing read about the real journey of a writer.  Lots of wisdom we can share with our young writing protégés in our classrooms. 

That got me thinking about some other great sources we can use to help our students get the inside scoop on the writing process and show them that, yes, writing is hard work, but persistence does pay off.  These are all picture books about the writing process:

A few weeks ago I adopted a 5th grade classroom for writing workshop.  The teacher has graciously agreed to share her class with me and allow me to team teach writing with her so that I can continue to hone my skills, try out new minilessons, and develop a relationship with students over the course of the school year.  On my first day with them I asked them to share with me their attitudes toward writing.  One precocious young man (I’ll call him John) was eager to inform me that he doesn’t dislike writing, he doesn’t hate writing, he LOATHES writing.  There was no reading between the lines that needed to be done there!  On subsequent days during our time together, this boy found a variety of ways to stall or avoid writing altogether.  But this past Monday something interesting happened during the minilesson.  I shared with the students a piece of student writing from one of the Calkins’ Units of Study in which a boy wrote about his grandfather’s funeral.  It is a very touching piece and difficult to read without tearing up.  After sharing this piece, I told them that it really resonated with me and reminded me of the last time I saw my grandma before she died.  I added the topic to my writer’s notebook and told them I will someday write about it.  I asked if any of them connected with it.  The room was silent but several students affirmed that it resonated with them as well.  After the minilesson I sent them off to work, but John stayed behind to ask if he could switch the topic for his narrative.  He had tears in his eyes and said he wanted to write about his uncle’s funeral.  He actually wanted to write.  To be honest, I wasn’t sure if he was just being dramatic and trying to get my attention or if the piece of writing was really affecting him that deeply.  In any event, I sent him off to start his new piece. 

Today (3 days later) I was conferring with students who are at various stages of work on their personal narratives.  I approached John’s desk and noticed that he was working intently.  As he looked up at me, I noticed that his eyes were again filled with tears.  He explained that he was at a really sad part in the story.  I asked if he thought he might ever be willing to share this piece with the class.  He replied honestly that he didn’t know because it was just so hard to talk about.  I said, “You know, that’s the neat thing about writing.  Sometimes you can get feelings out in your writing that you can’t yet put into spoken words.”  I left my teaching point at that, not wanting to ruin this moment with some lesson on writer’s craft or convention.  I asked his teacher if he often gets emotional or cries in class.  She said she has never seem him cry until writing workshop this week.  Only time will tell, but this may be a breakthrough for John who “loathes” writing.  As I reflect on this, I am reminded of how powerful writing workshop can be—not just for improving student writing but also for helping children make sense of their lives.  I am also reminded that it is children we teach, not just curriculum we cover.

Has the following ever happened to you?  You are conferring with a writer in your classroom.  You do your research by asking, "How’s it going?  What are you working on as a writer today?"  You pinpoint a teaching point that you would like to teach this writer.  Then you go blank.  You’re not sure how to teach it off the top of your head.  You know there must be a good mentor text you could use to demonstrate your teaching point, but you can’t put your hands on it at the moment or you don’t even have a title in mind.  So you make some half-hearted attempt to teach or you cop out all together and say, "Good job, keep working, thanks for sharing your writing with me today."  A wonderful teaching opportunity is lost.

I know I have been in this situation plenty of times.  Well, this week I learned about a technique that I can’t wait to try.  A literacy consultant shared this tip which she learned when she studied with Lucy Calkins and the Teachers College Reading and Writing Project in New York City.  It is called a Conferring Toolkit.  The toolkit is housed in an expandable file and contains a variety tools that can be used during the teaching portion of the conference.  Here are some of the items I plan to put in my Conferring Toolkit:

• mentor text picture books that are sticky noted with a variety of writer’s crafts
• my own writer’s notebook
• anchor papers from various genres (narrative, persuasive, poetry, expository, etc.)
• examples of both strong and weak papers (from previous students) that can be used to demonstrate various teaching points
• conferring prompts
• a list of teaching points for each genre of writing
• maybe a small white board and marker
• assessment sheets

The toolkit is portable, so it can be carried from table to table or student to student.  You could make a general toolkit or have a specific one for each unit of study.  In either case, the toolkit provides valuable teaching resources at your fingertips.  I’m excited to organize my toolkit and experiment with it in my upcoming writing conferences.  I’m thinking it will help me to be more prepared and to conduct more effective conferences.

Want more information about this?  I found a video of a teacher explaining her conferring toolkit.  I thought it was really helpful.  Click here to view.  If you have tried this technique, I would love to hear how it has worked for you.

For more tips and techniques on conferring with young writers, I highly recommend these two books by Carl Andersen and Lucy Calkins.

Happy conferring!

Yesterday I had the opportunity to observe a fabulous 3rd grade teacher present a writing minilesson on personal narratives.  Toward the end of her lesson she used a little technique that I hadn’t seen before.  She called it the “thumb thermometer”.  I have used “thumbs up/thumbs down” to engage my students in a lesson, but this was a little different than that.  After she had concluded the teaching portion of her minilesson, she asked her students to get out their “thumb thermometers” to show her how confident they felt about trying out the minilesson strategy in their own writing.  If they felt like they could do it on their own, they put a thumb up.  If they felt totally confused, they put a thumb down.  And if they weren’t sure or if they felt they needed some help to get started, they put their thumbs to the side, and some even shook their thumbs up and down a bit.  I thought this was a great way to encourage her students to do a little self-reflection and to monitor their own learning.  It also gave her a quick visual of who to possibly target in a conference that day.  I will definitely be adding this little tool to my bag of tricks and thought I’d pass it on to you.  Tomorrow I will share another handy tip that I learned this week—this one is a way to help writing conferences go more smoothly.

The individual writing conference is a powerful teaching tool that moves children toward independence in writing.  The writing conference is a time to meet with children one-on-one to celebrate successes and to provide individualized, developmentally appropriate instruction.  Learning cannot occur without feedback—the writing conference is a time to provide that feedback.

Providing feedback to emergent writers:

Providing feedback to early/developing writers:

• Read or have the student read the text aloud.
• Comment on the message.
• Show the student what s/he did right.
• Choose 1-2 teaching points to model problem-solving on something “used but confused.”
• If publishing the piece, quickly provide necessary corrections.
• If the piece will not be published, don’t worry about correcting every error—stick to 1-2 teaching points.
• Have the student reread the text.
• Record observations and anecdotal notes.

Questions that can help guide writers:

• How’s it coming so far?  What are you working on?
• Can you tell me about your story?
• How can I help you?
• Do you need to change your topic?
• Do you know the topic well enough to write about it?
• What would you like to change?
• Is there more than one story in this piece?
• What are your plans for this piece?

I keep track of my anecdotal notes by recording them in my Assessment Notebook.

In the writing section of the notebook I photocopy one of the following front-to-back forms for each student:

What are writing partners?

Writing partners are students who are paired together for an extended period of time to explore various aspects of writing.  Students learn to share their writing with a partner so they can be part of a community of learners.

Why use them?

By having students talk to partners during the engagement portion of the mini-lesson, I can get more students involved.  When I ask a question, I will often say, “Turn and talk to your partner about…”  Each partner has time to share.  This prevents the phenomenon of a few students doing all of the talking and others sitting back and letting them.  My students know that they are all expected to think and share during the mini-lessons.  Establish writing partnerships help the writing workshop run more smoothly—when students know exactly who to turn and talk to, there is much less time off task and this ensures that every child has a partner. 

Selecting Writing Partners

I ask my students to write their names on a slip of paper and list the names of four students  with whom they might like to work.   Then I lay all of the slips out and try as hard as possible to match students with someone on the list.  I tell them that it may not be possible to match everyone,and if they do not get someone from their list this time, I guarantee that they will the next time.  I also try to match students of  fairly similar ability.

How long do they stay together?

This is up to your professional judgment.  I usually change the partnerships at the beginning of each new grading period.  I know teachers who keep the same partnerships for the entire school year.  Certainly if a partnership is not working, it is time to make the change.

Mentor Texts to Introduce Writing Partnerships

Cowgirl Kate and Cocoa series by Erica Silverman
Frog and Toad Series by Arnold Lobel
Henry and Mudge Series by Cynthia Rylant

Introducing Writing Partners

I found this lesson for introducing writing partners to primary students  at this website by Jessica Meacham:  Writing Partners.  Check out her website for an entire unit on launching the writing workshop.

1. Read a chapter from Cowgirl Kate and Cocoa: Partners by Erica Silverman.
2. After reading the book, facilitate a discussion about how Cowgirl Kate and Cocoa helped one another.
3. Lead students to the understanding that partnerships are beneficial – we need partnerships.
4. Throughout the week, continue reading from the book Cowgirl Kate and Cocoa: Partners.
5. Ask students how having a writing partner can be helpful to them.
6. Discuss good ways of helping and improper ways of helping.
7. Share with students that during Writer’s Workshop, they will be sitting next to a writing buddy (partner).
8. Share that writing buddies help one another in good ways.
9. Share that if help is needed, students should ask their writing buddy for help.
10. Ask, “What are some ways we need help during Writer’s Workshop?” (crayon color, spelling, pencil, mini office)
11. Ask, “If your writing buddy doesn’t know how to help you, or can’t, what could you do next?”

Many writers like to keep writer’s notebooks handy so they can jot down “seed” ideas whenever they pop into their heads.  I encourage students to do the same. The writer’s notebook is a staple in my writing classroom, probably our most important writing tool.  It is a place for my students to free write on mostly self-selected topics, a place for them to explore seed ideas which may later be taken to publication.  It is also a place for my students to practice revising their writing using the craft techniques we learn through mentor text mini-lessons.

In his book Mechanically Inclined Jeff Anderson (2005) describes the writer’s notebook as a “playground for writing”. He says “I let students have recess on the page, the sweet freedom to romp with thoughts, cavort with commas, and monkey around with syntax.  What better playground do we have than the writer’s notebook?  This is the repository, the organizer, the placeholder, the idea catcher, the canvas to experiment and create , the place to be wrong and to be wrong boldly.  It is a place to return—to mine and refine, polish and relish, reread and rewrite.”

To get students excited about using the notebooks, I read aloud or paraphrase portions of Ralph Fletcher’s A Writer’s Notebook: Unlocking the Writer Within You.  Fletcher explains that “writers are like other people, except for at least one important difference.  Other people have daily thoughts and feelings, notice this sky or that smell, but they don’t do much about it.  All those thoughts, feelings, sensations, and opinions pass through them like the air they breathe.  Not writers.  Writers react.” (Ralph Fletcher, 1996).

Benefits of Notebook Writing:

• Promotes fluency in writing and reading
• Encourages risk taking
• Provides opportunities for reflection
• Validates personal experiences and feelings
• Promotes thinking and makes it visible
• Promotes development of written language conventions
• Provides a vehicle for evaluation
• Provides a written record of students’ literacy learning