#SOL19: Writing Matters
Writing:
A connectedness
A relationship
An opportunity
A process
A product
Two sides of a coin.
Can be used to learn or
Can be used to demonstrate learning.
Is thinking out loud
Typically on paper.
Thoughts
Sometimes painfully etched
Sometimes spewing out voluminously
Faster than any ability to capture.
Can be long
Or short,
Traditional
Or creative,
Personal
Or public,
With form
Matching the purpose,
Reveling in the need
To create,
To rise like a phoenix,
To leave shadows,
Whispers in the wind,
Songs in the air.
Writing . . .
a compulsion
a living/breathing requirement
a necessary component of life
What purposes do writing serve?
Consider these:
- The Magna Carta
- The Articles of Confederation
- The Declaration of Independence
- The Constitution
- The Bill of Rights
What do they stand for?
Why were they written?
Why do they matter?
A survey of Americans resulted in a list of these Top 10 Milestones in US history. Do you agree?
Writing Matters.
In.So.Many.Ways
I am missing the #TCRWP Writing Institute. It’s hard to not have #TCRWPEnvy so I revisited some notes from last year’s Writing Institute to consider for my own writing this summer.
In last year’s keynote, Lucy Calkins addressed levels of writing workshop. Link
Where are you?
“Level 1: Start and Stop. Do a few days of minilessons. Do a few worksheets to ‘master the skill’, and then back to some stale writing. No investment. It feels like pulling teeth.”
“Level 2: The Good Student Writing Workshop filled with compliance. Open any notebook and you will find that students are doing the work. Safe work. They respond to all school assignments, but they never take any risks and share themselves.”
“Level 3: Passion and intensity flow through the notebook, drafts and published writing. There are notebook entries that do not come from a response to day to day instruction. Students want to write. It’s an ALL IN Writing Workshop.”
What level was your 2018-19 workshop?
What is your goal for 2019-20 workshop?
Where will you begin?
(And don’t forget to follow #TCRWP this week for highlights from 1200+ Writing Institute participants!)
(#cyberPD – Welcome to Writing Workshop by Stacey Shubitz and Lynne Dorfman)
Celebrate that your journey has begun and focus on Learning!
Thank you, Betsy, Beth, Deb, Kathleen, Kelsey, Lanny, Melanie, and Stacey for this weekly forum from Two Writing Teachers. Check out the writers and readers here.
#WhyIWrite
Why I write:
To think
To reveal
To process
To deepen my understanding
To check my understanding
To analyze my thinking
To share my learning
To wonder
To share
To be a model for teachers and students and
To experience the JOY of a community . . .
Those are some of the reasons I write.
(And as soon as I hit “publish” I will think of at least 10 other “better”reasons that I wish I had thought of during the three days that I worked on this draft!)
Planning
Drafting
Revising
Conferencing
Revising
Publishing
Do these steps look familiar?
But do they match your current reality in your writing?
Do they match your current reality in your writing instruction?
I’ve been spying on my writing for over a year . . . literally in search of patterns that I could identify in my own writing. Trying to decide on that next big goal for myself – ambitious or “doable”? . . . lofty or practical?
Unfortunately, it’s not as easy as finding a pattern, setting up some demos and “off you go” because writing is complicated.
Steps are added or revised . . .
If I have to stop and research.
If I have to completely scrap my draft because it is really so pathetic.
If I have to continue my “search for a topic”.
If I have to . . .
So here are some resources,
Quite literally, some food for thought!
Because all of these relate to just one simple standard in writing and yet this standard (and its intent) are often overlooked in a search for a priority or a way to reduce/simplify the writing standards!
“CCR. W.5. Develop and strengthen writing as needed by planning, revising, editing, rewriting, or trying a new approach.”
A previous blog post that connected to this standard is in the 2014 archives here!
Planning
Planning – Where does an idea come from? – my blog post
Celebrate Celebrating – a blog post from Julieanne Harmatz (grade 5)
Learn by Writing – Lynne Dorfman’s blog post
Helping Students Plan their Writing – a blog post by Melanie Meehan
Using Technology for a Kindergartner’s Writing Process – a blog post by Melanie Meehan
Writing Goals
Introducing a Hierarchy of Writing Goals – a blog post by Jennifer Serravallo
Goal Setting – my blog post
Drafting: Beginnings (somewhere – trying more than just one beginning – trying a new approach
21 of the Best Opening Lines in Children’s Books
The Beginning – my blog post
Strong Leads – Jennifer Wagner (2nd grade)
Drafting – Endings
Behind the Books: The Perfect Ending – blog post by Melissa Stewart
The Ending – my blog post
Drafting – Telling a Story Bit by Bit
Celebrating Story – blog post by Julieanne Harmatz
Drafting – Organization, Elaboration, and Craft
Elaboration Strategies for Information Writing Dig- Two Writing Teachers
Text Structures – blog post by Melissa Stewart
Specific Examples of the Power of Three – Stacey Shubitz
First Graders Get Crafty – Dana Murphy
DigiLit Sunday: Craft – blog post by Margaret Simon
Revising
Revising as part of the Process – blog post by Melanie Meehan
No Monkeys, No Chocolate: 10 year Revision Timeline – blog post by Melissa Stewart
Editing as a part of publication
Your Turn Lesson: The Colon – A blog post by Diane and Lynne
Editing Sticks – my blog post
Editing – my blog post
- Editing stations for upper grades – Shana Frazin informed
- Daily light editing – Shanna Schwartz informed
Revising or Editing? – my blog post
Fun tool – Eye Finger Puppets (Amazon or craft stores) – Make editing time special and reminds the reader and the writer to pay close attention to the work!
Reading Units of Study Mini-Lessons
MiniLessons are strong invitations to learning! (TCRWP_
Reading and Planning MiniLessons – Rachel Tassler
A Short and Sweet MiniLesson Format – Two Writing Teachers
How to Plan a MiniLesson from Scratch – Two Writing Teachers
There are More Ways than One to Plan a MiniLesson – Two Writing Teachers
How to Read a Unit of Study – Two Writing Teachers
Fundamentals of Writing Workshop – Two Writing Teachers Blog Series August 2017
Share Time in Writing Workshop – Lynne Dorfman’s blog
Choice in Writing Workshop – blog post by Tara Smith
(Almost) Everything I Ever Needed to Know About Partnerships I Learned in Kindergarten – blog post by Shana Frazin
Why I Write – Stenhouse Blog
Writing is Not a Linear Process
Mentor Texts – Books that would be nice to have as Resources
Craft Moves: Lesson Sets for Teaching Writing with Mentor Texts – Stacey Shubitz (Stenhouse)
Writers are Readers: Flipping Reading Instruction into Writing Opportunities – Lester Laminack (Heinemann)
Mentor Texts: Teaching Writing Through Children’s Literature (2nd etition)- Dorfman & Cappelli (Stenhouse)
Learning from Classmates: Using Student Writing as Mentor Texts – Lisa Eicholdt (Heinemann)
What;s Your Plan?
What are you going to do NEXT?
Today’s best draft, (Kelly Gallager)
this post,
This post I wrote to organize!
#DigiLitSunday: Craft
Check out the links to other DigiLit Sunday posts at Margaret Simon’s blog here.
Craft: What is it?
A woodworker has many tools that may range from hand tools like chisels. planes and mallets to power tools like saws, drills, and presses that can aid the process of turning out finely crafted projects.
Is the craft in the “Doing” or is the craft in the “Final Product”?
In writing there are many sources of craft. Some of my favorites are:
Lucy Calkins,
Ralph Fletcher,
Lester Laminack, and
Stacey Shubitz to name just a few.
So many sources of craft information exist. Do I need craft information along the way as I draft or do I need the information as I revise and improve the clarity, anticipate a reader’s questions, and add additional information to make the work more interesting? I believe that writers need both skills. The more that a writer knows and anticipates in the drafting process, perhaps the revision will become less burdensome.
What is a teacher to do? Where should the teacher begin?
Many strategies and craft moves can be and are taught, but at some point the choices used by writers will come down to the individual authors. Strategic use of those moves needs to fit within the piece of writing that the author has undertaken. A wide repertoire of moves that fit into a grade level range of writing will come from mentor texts. Those mentor texts are often published texts, teacher written texts or student written texts. What a student will use will depend on the applicability to this piece. Teaching students to “self-assess” and even to “self-reflect” on their use of craft will be important. That’s one of the reasons why I believe these items in a fifth grade opinion writing checklist that students can use are absolutely critical!
Writers make many decisions as they draft and revise about their own writing. Tools with visible examples that students can use when talking about their writing or matching to a checklist or a rubric will put the power of writing choices in the hands of students.
Have you equipped your students to be able to make their own decisions about writing craft? What low-tech and digital tools have been helpful?
How do you make decisions about your own craft moves in your writing?
#SOL16: Remembering 9/11
Sharing a Collection of Resources today after the 15 year anniversay:
In the news
On Facebook from the Westport Library, “We are live streaming “Healing through Art & Words” with authors Nora Raleigh Baskin, Gae Polisner, Jewell Parker Rhodes, Wendy Mills, and Lauren Tarshis.” (Description here)
New Books
Interviews:
Two Writing Teachers – Stacey Shubitz – Remembrance Ideas
What to Read Aloud? Sally says for 3rd grade . . . Seven and a half tons of Steel
Nerdy Bookcast – Episode 3
NCTE online – Dear Teachers – Letters to Another Hero (found on Twitter)
From my sister who lost a dear friend. . .
Quilt squares created by friends/family of Nina Bell, RIP 9/11
A story about the quilt “in the making” from Sherry. “Remembering 9/11. RIP Nina Bell. I was fortunate to find an archive of an article on a quilt that my mother, Mary Marek, made. It was created with pictures, thoughts, impressions of Nina’s friends across the US and abroad. The article was written by my sister-in-law, Mary Marek, who used to write for the Kalona News in Iowa.
From my blog post archives
9/11 In Remembrance (The Museum and a Song)
Reading and Writing Instruction: Paired Mentor Texts
What do you remember from 9/11?
Why is it important to remember?
Thank you, Betsy, Beth, Dana, Deb, Kathleen, Lisa, Melanie, and Stacey for this weekly forum. Check out the writers, readers and teachers here.
Today, I just needed a place to “collect and store my ideas” and not write long about any of them!
Also, love this picture – I wanted to add it to the comments – more study needed to figure that out! Hartford, CT Flag of Honor with every person’s name . . .
#SOL16: Chatting about Mentor Texts
#TWTBlog had these questions for their #Twitter Chat about “Teaching Writing with Mentor Texts”. Were you there? Which questions/answers really helped you grow in your thinking about mentor texts?
This chat was a culmination of a week long series about Mentor Texts and in case you missed it, here are the links:
“Tuesday, May 3: Reading Like a Writer, Step-By-Step by Elizabeth Moore (that’s me!)
Wednesday, May 4: Student-Written Mentor Texts by Deb Frazier
Thursday, May 5: How to Choose and Mine Mentor Texts for Craft Moves by Stacey Shubitz
Friday, May 6: Digital Mentor Texts for Blogs by Kathleen Neagle Sokolowski
Saturday, May 7: Create Your Own Text by Dana Murphy
Sunday, May 8: When to Use Mentor Texts by Betsy Hubbard” (5/9/16 link)
Previously I’ve written about mentor texts here, here, here, here, and here.
So why on earth am I writing about Mentor Texts again?
Well, there are whole books about Mentor Texts that include ten of my favorites below and Stacey Shubitz’s Craft Moves: Lesson Sets for Teaching Writing with Mentor Texts that will ship from Stenhouse in June of 2016! (You can purchase it here.) And I was just lucky enough, with my friend, Melanie Meehan, to win a FREE copy last night as a participant in the chat!
So, if I have 10 of these 11 books (soon to be 11 of 11) about Mentor Texts, why am I writing about them again?
I know that it’s a total shock to some of my readers, but I must admit that I am a bibliophile. There are very few books that I’ve met that are NOT my immediate friends (except for the fantasy, scifi, vampire type books that I often just AVOID)!
Collecting samples of mentor texts has been helpful in my study of the craft of writing. Each of these books leads me to other authors, books, and even publishers that allow me to deepen my knowledge of author’s craft. I’ve been a writer, off and on, for decades. But during that writing time, I have NOT always studied writing. Instead I was playing at writing and sometimes only “practicing” writing. I trusted the authors above to choose texts that would surely be magical mentors for either myself or my students.
Recently my study of writing has been more reflective and my goal has been to define the elements that work (as well as WHY) and YET sometimes I STILL totally miss the mark! The books above provided a safety net because I did NOT trust my own judgement of mentor texts. I knew there was no “magic list” and YET I still thought there was often something magical about these books that FAMOUS AUTHORS had placed on their lists of Mentor Texts. Reading through their choices was like Intro to Mentor Texts 101. I could see what they chose and why and try to imitate that.
What did I learn from tonight’s chat?
The chat was just like “Field of Dreams” . . . “Build it and they will come!”
Stars on the Twitter Red Carpet #TWTBlog included:
- Ralph Fletcher
- Lynne Dorfman
- Rose Cappelli
- Ruth Culham
- Kim Yaris
- Jan Miller Burkins
- Lisa Eickholdt
- Shana Frazin
- Cornelius Minor
- Emily Butler Smith
- Dr. Mary Howard
- Tara Smith
- Catherine Flynn
- Melanie Meehan
- Jessie Miller
- Leigh Anne Eck
- Lisa Keeler
- Margaret Simon
- TWT Team – Betsy, Beth, Dana, Deb, Kathleen, and Stacey
But here are a couple of my favorite tweets that I am still thinking about in response to Q5) “Why are teacher-written mentor texts important? How do you use them?” . . .
and this all important one from Dana on Q1 about reading mentor texts:
The conversations last night were rich. I will be reviewing the storify as I know I missed some. And like any great texts, some tweets will need to be revisited!
Who are your writing mentors?
What are your favorite mentor texts?
How would we know?
Thank you, Betsy, Beth, Dana, Deb, Kathleen, and Stacey. Check out the writers, readers and teachers here. Thank you for this weekly forum!
#SOL16: What are you planning to read?
New professional books in the field of literacy are headed your way this spring from the following authors: Stacey Shubitz; Jan Miller Burkins and Kim Yaris; Kate and Maggie Roberts, Dana Johanson and Sonja Cherry-Paul; and Doug Fisher, Nancy Frey and John Hattie. Get ready for some amazing learning!
Stacey, Two Writing Teachers, has this book out from Stenhouse this spring: Craft Moves: Lesson Sets for Teaching Writing with Mentor Texts. Stacey blogged about her book here.
Jan and Kim’s book (available May 2nd from Stenhouse):
Kate and Maggie’s book (available April from Heinemann):
Dana and Sonja’s book also available in April from Heinemann :
And from Doug, Nancy and John (March, Corwin Press):
Coming later this year a new book from Vickie Vinton . . .
Waiting is so hard . . . sometimes waiting on “new friends” is harder than waiting on Christmas.
Where will you start?
What books are on your professional reading list?
Do you share “your reading plans” with your students?
(*Truth: I have some 2015 books to finish soon to clear the decks for spring break reading!)
Addendum:
Tuesday is the day to share a “Slice of Life” with Two Writing Teachers. Thank you, Anna, Betsy, Beth, Dana, Deb, Kathleen, Stacey, and Tara. Check out the writers, readers and teachers here. Get ready to share your writerly life in one week with the March Slice of Life Challenge!
#SOL15: Where do you find “Teaching Points”?
What is a teaching point?
In literacy, a “teaching point” is often that behavior/learning that the teacher will demonstrate and then ask the students to use in their own work. Examples might include:
- Readers use punctuation to express meaning when reading.
- Readers think about how this book may be like another book they have read.
- Readers notice when something does not make sense. They may reread the
sentence to help them. - Writers use figurative language to make their point.
- Poets use line breaks to change the pace of a poem.
- Authors think about their audience and how the audience will respond.
Not to oversimplify, but quality teaching points include work that is transferable to real life, the reason WHY students need to know/do this, AND demonstrate HOW to do the work. The teachers who are masterful at crafting teaching points have practiced the use of those skills in their own reading and writing so that demonstrations clearly explain how the work moves readers or writers forward. Check out this post by Stacey Shubitz of Two Writing Teachers for some quality information on teaching points.
Teaching points in classrooms are often easy to spot. But what about “Teaching Points” in the rest of our lives . . .
Where have I found “Teaching Points”?
businessfinder.oregonlive.com
At my local tire shop . . .
“Tires need to be rotated and balanced so they wear more evenly . . . ”
medypal.com
At the hospital . . .
“Hand sanitizer needs to be completely dry on your hands before touching baby’s skin so the alcohol doesn’t transfer . .”
forbes.com
At the bank . . .
“Informing us of your location makes it easier for use to check on validity of transactions . . .”
Where, in life, do you find “Teaching Points”?
Where, in life, are you creating “Teaching Points”?
Check out the writers, readers and teachers who are “slicing” here. Thanks to Stacey, Anna, Beth, Tara, Dana and Betsy at “Two Writing Teachers” for creating a place to share our work. So grateful for this entire community of writers who also read, write and support each other!
#SOL15: March Challenge Day 2
Check out the writers, readers and teachers here. Thanks to Stacey, Anna, Beth, Tara, Dana and Betsy at “Two Writing Teachers” for creating a place for us to share our work. Stacey’s post calling for slices included this Elizabeth Gilbert quote.
Image retrieved from https://twowritingteachers.wordpress.com/2015/03/02/sol15-day2/
Writing
At least try . . .
Never too late!
Writing will get better
as YOU
get older and wiser.
Write something beautiful
to be discovered
and placed on the bookshelves of the world.
At least try . . .
Found Poem
Today I wrote a found poem. The words in Elizabeth Gilbert’s quote called out to me. I originally began with “At least try” but then I found myself back at the beginning focusing on pulling out specific images. New to “found poetry”? You can find additional information and examples here.
Welcome to Day 2! What poem is calling out to you?
Slice of Life 30: Thank You!
(During March, I am blogging daily as a part of the Slice of Life Story Challenge!) Special thanks to the hosts of the Slice of Life Challenge: Stacey, Tara, Dana, Betsy, Anna and Beth. More Slice of Life posts can be found at Two Writing Teachers .
Kudos to the fabulous team at Two Writing Teachers and all the support that they assembled for this challenge! Being a part of a community like this makes it “easier” to continue on each day! Thanks to both Stacey Shubitz, SOLSC14, and Anna Gratz Cockerille, Classroom SOLSC14, for their great “Be Inspired” ideas! Thanks to the support team as well. I had many questions for Elsie and her supportive responses soothed my apprehensions!
I jumped into this challenge because of two twitter friends, Julieanne Harmatz (AKA @jarhartz ) who blogs at “To Read To Write To Be” and Catherine Flynn (AKA @flynn_catherine) who blogs at “Reading to the Core.” Check out the past slices on the blogs of these two talented ladies!
Thanks to all “Slicers” who read and commented on my blog during the “Slice of Life Challenge.” Special thanks to those who commented a LOT including: Julieanne, Tara, Catherine, Anna, Elsie, Stacey and Carol.
Writing every day for a month has helped me continue to work on my own writing. I will reflect on forms and topics tomorrow in my final post for the month. It’s possible that I will join “Slice of Life Tuesday” or another regular weekly posting. I must do some work on my calendar to determine feasibility over the next couple of months as I modify an online graduate course and also plan for summer work. This month has shown me, again, how important it is to both respond to other bloggers and/or tweet out their links. The connections in the community are THE BEST!
But most importantly, this Slice of Life Challenge has confirmed my belief that teachers of writing must also be writers!
Resource - Full 