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Tuesday, February 26, 2013
Example of Writing with Your Students
I tried to write with my students frequently. This is an example of revising. I put up various drafts of the same piece with different class periods over several days and revised aloud as they watched. I did everything as usual, excepting that I thought aloud. Sometimes I'd ask for student input as an example of conferencing, and other times I just modeled. The pictures below are overhead transparencies. I like to revise by hand on a typed copy, so this method worked well. You could also use a Smart Board. I encourage you to show your students how a writer works by sharing what you do. After you've done this several times, you can invite students to take a turn revising or conferencing in front of the class.
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Wednesday, February 20, 2013
Peer Revision Guidelines
What is peer revision?
Peer revision is when a peer (a classmate, sibling, or friend) reads over your work giving you advice on what you should change to make it better as well as complimenting what is done well. An adult isn’t your peer, so adult comments don’t count as peer revision.
How are peer editing and peer revision different?
Peer revision is more than just looking at spelling and grammar. A computer can do most of that for you. But a computer cannot think about what you wrote and suggest how to make it clearer or more interesting. A person can do that. So, peer revision focuses on revision changes, such as idea development, word choice, organization, and clarity, while peer editing focuses on only editing.
What does your peer do during revision?
Your peer reads your paper several times over. The peer writes you comments on your paper about revision and editing changes. You peers will also fill out a sheet with some specific questions, including a question you write. Lastly, you peer will discuss his or her suggestions with you.
What do you do during revision?
You provide your peer with a question or area that you would like him or her to pay particular attention to. After that, you follow the same steps with your partner’s paper.
Are you eligible for peer revision?
To peer revise you must have your draft with you in class. So, you cannot peer workshop someone else’s paper if you do not have one for them to read. You also must have revised your essay on your own before you can have a peer read it for peer revision credit.
What is a FCA?
A FCA, or focus correction area, is a topic that you would like to improve on. It is an area that you are focusing on correcting. Before you swap papers, you will write down a FCA for your paper that your peer will look at closely while reading. You can choose a FCA that you feel you need to improve on the most overall or that is troubling you about the assignment in particular. Avoid vague FCA’s such as “writing better” or “better grammar.” Also avoid using only editing skills, such as spelling or capitalization.
The Steps:
1. Determine if you are ready to peer revise.
2. Get a copy of the peer revision sheet.
3. Set a FCA.
4. Swap papers with your peer.
5. Get a writing utensil that is a different color than your peer used to write his or her draft.
6. Read the whole draft once and only mark places that confuse you.
7. Read the whole draft again this time looking at the draft with more detail. This is the time to use the revision sheet to look for different areas to improve. As you do so, note any editing changes you happen to notice.
8. Fill out the peer revision guide for the piece.
9. Give paper back to the writer and discuss your comments and suggestions.
Writing Workshop Guidelines
1. Bring writing to class everyday. Bring writing home or to study hall as necessary.
2. The first 5-10 minutes will be for silent writing. This allows everyone to gather thoughts and re-enter their writing without distraction. Everyone writes during this time.
3. Each day you will have a menu of options for what you can work on. When I do the status of the class, you will commit to one or two of these tasks and a piece you will work on.
4. Choose topics and genres that interest you. Consult your writing territories and genre list for ideas. However, a few times over the course of the year you will assign you a genre or topic.
5. Not all pieces are meant to be published. You can abandon a piece for good or decide to just put it aside for a while.
6. Not all pieces need every step of the writing process. However, I suggest that all pieces are edited.
7. Not all pieces need a conference and some may need more than one.
8. You set the purposes, goals, and questions for conferences on your writing.
9. When conferencing a fellow writer's work, make suggestions. Do not rewrite.
10. Do as much as you can.
11. Do nothing that distracts others.
Reading Workshop Guidelines
Guidelines for Reading Workshop
1. Come to class with enough reading material to last you the whole time. Reading time is not for browsing the classroom or school library. Remember, you can get passes to use those places or use them before or after school. Also remember to bring home enough reading material, particularly for longer periods like weekends.
2. You must read a book. The only exception is on a day when you finished your book as homework and have not yet had time to get a new one. On these days, you may read a magazine or cartoon collection. The rest of the time, you need to read a book because shorter pieces of text don't develop your reading skills.
3. Don't read a book you don't like! Don't waste time with a book you don't enjoy when there are so many awesome titles to try. Create your own criteria and system for abandoning an unsatisfying book. When you abandon a book, write a few notes or a short journal about why you are abandoning it.
4. If you don't like your book, find another. Check out the lists and displays in the classroom. Check your someday list. Browse the class and school library shelves. Ask me, the librarian, or a friend for a recommendation. You can also bring in books from home or browse a bookstore.
5. It's okay to reread a book you love. This is something good readers do. But, you should not only reread the same book over and over; you need new experiences, too.
6. Skimming or skipping parts of a book if you get bored or stuck is something good readers do this sometimes. However, if you are skimming and skipping more than you are reading straight through, you might want to abandon the book for something you find more interesting.
7. In your notebook, record the title of every book you finish or abandon, its genre and author, the date, and your rating of 1 to 5 stars. Collecting this data about yourself as a reader will help you look for patterns and take satisfaction in your accomplishments.
8. Understand that reading is thinking. Not only is this important for understanding and improving how you read, but also to keep a proper reading environment. Try to do nothing that distracts others from “the reading zone.” When you talk with me about your reading, use as soft a voice as I use when I talk to you: whisper.
9. Take care of our books. Sign out each book you borrow with the book slips posted on the bookshelves. Be careful to copy the information neatly and correctly. Put completed slips in the designated box. When you finish with a book, return it to me and I will destroy your slip as long as the information on the slip and book match. If you damage a book, don't stress over it. Most of the time, the book is still readable. If not, well, it gives me a reason to go to the bookstore for new books.
10. Read the whole time during reading workshop (unless you are conferencing with me).
11. Read as much as you can.
1. Come to class with enough reading material to last you the whole time. Reading time is not for browsing the classroom or school library. Remember, you can get passes to use those places or use them before or after school. Also remember to bring home enough reading material, particularly for longer periods like weekends.
2. You must read a book. The only exception is on a day when you finished your book as homework and have not yet had time to get a new one. On these days, you may read a magazine or cartoon collection. The rest of the time, you need to read a book because shorter pieces of text don't develop your reading skills.
3. Don't read a book you don't like! Don't waste time with a book you don't enjoy when there are so many awesome titles to try. Create your own criteria and system for abandoning an unsatisfying book. When you abandon a book, write a few notes or a short journal about why you are abandoning it.
4. If you don't like your book, find another. Check out the lists and displays in the classroom. Check your someday list. Browse the class and school library shelves. Ask me, the librarian, or a friend for a recommendation. You can also bring in books from home or browse a bookstore.
5. It's okay to reread a book you love. This is something good readers do. But, you should not only reread the same book over and over; you need new experiences, too.
6. Skimming or skipping parts of a book if you get bored or stuck is something good readers do this sometimes. However, if you are skimming and skipping more than you are reading straight through, you might want to abandon the book for something you find more interesting.
7. In your notebook, record the title of every book you finish or abandon, its genre and author, the date, and your rating of 1 to 5 stars. Collecting this data about yourself as a reader will help you look for patterns and take satisfaction in your accomplishments.
8. Understand that reading is thinking. Not only is this important for understanding and improving how you read, but also to keep a proper reading environment. Try to do nothing that distracts others from “the reading zone.” When you talk with me about your reading, use as soft a voice as I use when I talk to you: whisper.
9. Take care of our books. Sign out each book you borrow with the book slips posted on the bookshelves. Be careful to copy the information neatly and correctly. Put completed slips in the designated box. When you finish with a book, return it to me and I will destroy your slip as long as the information on the slip and book match. If you damage a book, don't stress over it. Most of the time, the book is still readable. If not, well, it gives me a reason to go to the bookstore for new books.
10. Read the whole time during reading workshop (unless you are conferencing with me).
11. Read as much as you can.
Research on Writing Workshop
This is the write up for first hand research I did for my Master's in Literacy Education. Upon reading it, I'm wondering where my final draft is because this isn't it! The lit review seems to be missing some, and there are obvious places I wrote notes to myself on more info to add later. I can't seem to find the file for the final draft, though. I'll tidy this up sometime in the future. I had charts, too, but I can't seem to get those to transfer over. Come to think of it, this was the final paper I asked my professor to mail back to me, but he never bothered (even though I sent postage) because he was removed from the university staff. Its possible that I have no final copy available to me. What is even more sad is that I turned in all my raw data as part of a binder, so I can't even look back on it to fill in the gaps. :(
Introduction
Back in 2003, my student teaching adviser forced all her advisees to read Nancie Atwell's quintessential text In the Middle. I hated it. Atwell's ideas were pie-in-the-sky. Of course, this workshop system worked for her when she worked in her own school and developed the class structures and procedures herself. How date my adviser make me read this text when this system could never work in a real school, with read students, and real accountability? Yet, when I revisited the text this semester and her words reemerged in my memory, I saw my experiences from the last four years in Atwell's narration.
I feel I can sympathize with Dianne Dodsworth who wrote a short piece titled “Nancy, you lied!” She explained how she excitedly jumped into writing workshop expecting to follow In The Middle like a cookbook. Yet, as she went, she realized that she had to adapt the information provided by Atwell to fit her teaching style as well as her student's experiences. I could identify to this very much. I was ready to give all these ideas a try, but was not sure how they would work in reality. Her comments made me feel very secure in having asked my students about their writing pasts. Just like Dodsworth's students, some of my students have never experienced writing workshop, and I needed to know that information if I was going to fully understand what was happening in my class and how best to modify my teaching to support my students.
Question
Thus this year, I made the decision to teach all my courses using reading and writing workshops. Two factors manifested this change. First, the lowest and middle levels at my school were combined so that I would have a wide range of abilities and motivation in a single class. My old method of telling students what to read and write and when would not work with such a diverse group. This course adjustment alone would not have brought about the changes in teaching. My course work for my master's over the past year focused a lot on providing choice for students and authentic reading and writing situations. Slowly, my aversion to Atwell's approaches changed, and by the end of the summer, I dedicated myself to giving students reading and writing in class daily as well as free reign to choose what and how they completed these activities.
Once the year has started, the reading portion of my class ran well. Student's commented in reflections that they are learning about what they like to read and how to choose and abandon books. The library return pile at the back of my room often overflows the bin and I'm having a hard time keeping up with end of book conferences.
However, the writing portion of class was a different story. I feel that often other elements of class run over into writing time and that the directions I am giving are confusing to the students. While they seem to understand the idea of choosing anything they want to read, many are having a hard time choosing from any topic about which to write. As a result, I have some very silly writing pieces, some boring writing pieces, and also some nonexistent writing pieces of students who are stuck or overwhelmed. When I give the students time to write, I don't feel that much writing is actually taking place and I'm not sure why.
I want to investigate what is actually occurring during my writing workshop time. Are students writing? How many students are sitting there lost or stuck? How many of those conversations are about writing? Is more “work” occurring during the silent time versus the time they are allowed to talk?
Context and Sample
Leavitt Area High School is in a rural area. When I first moved here from a Boston suburb, I had a lot to learn about how this area of Maine differed from where I grew up. Not only did I have learn about four wheeling, hunting, and different types of skiing, I had to realize that in a rural community the students have fewer college options, less wealthy families, and longer distances to get to “town.” Over my four years at Leavitt, I have learned that we have all ranges of students from Special Education students with heavy modifications to valedictorians that go on to Harvard; in my current class load, I have representatives of the whole range.
I teach five freshmen classes (91 students total); two of these classes are “academic” (36 students) and three are “advanced” (55 students). Seven of the academic freshmen are really sophomores or juniors who are repeating, only one of which had me last year. I also have one class of “advanced” sophomores (14 students), all of whom I had last year, one of which moved up a level. Of these students, I have two Latino student and one African American student. Eight of my students have Special Education modifications. Sixteen of my students are the younger sibling of a student I had in a previous year.
With this as a possible sample, it was challenge to decide which students to focus on for my study. Using the full sample would be too much for the time span of my course, but any one class wouldn't show accurately the the range of students I teach. In the end, I decided to go with my top group of advanced freshmen and one group of my academic student. The advanced class was an easy choice since it contained some of the top caliber students I've encountered at Leavitt (as well as some very involved parents). Meanwhile, the the academic class contained three students with special education modifications and three students repeating the course, each for very different reasons. In both classes, some student were better at the subject of English than others, preferred the subject more than others, or were more motivated than others. I also wound up with a range of personalities from shy to talkative, leaders to followers, inquisitive to disinterested. These two classes also met on the same day, which I thought would help me in planning around my observations. The advanced class met first period and thus I will refer to them as Group 1 for the duration of the study; the academic group was my second class of the day, though met third period after my prep, and they thus will be referred to as Group 2.
At Leavitt, we have 80 minute class periods every other day. When I decided to start free choice reading and writing workshop, I needed to break up the period. I followed the time table Atwell shares in The Reading Zone and gave more time to writing than to reading based on her assertion that more reading will get done at home than writing. Thus, I started each period with 20 minutes of time to read, followed by 30 minutes for teacher led instruction, and wrapped class up with 30 minutes of time for writing, the first third of which I asked to be silent. There were problems with this set up from the get go. I often had trouble completing what I needed to and still have 30 minutes for writing. Sometimes I would fall behind due to my own over planning; other times it was because the students were unfocused slowing down my lessons. Still on other occasions, we were delayed by students' unexpected questions or problems. Another problem I encountered was the problem I had when I used to teacher our semester long essay writing course for freshmen, Writing Lab. I would give my lesson about writing, tell the students what I wanted them to work on, and then make myself available to conference with students, but no students would want to conference. Thus, almost all the period for almost the whole course was spent with the students working on their writing. Not only did this leave me feeling I wasn't teaching, which I wasn't, but the students quickly got bored with the predictable structure. I soon found what I was falling into my old patterns with class writing time.
Literature Review
Since my central question was to discover what was happening in my classroom so that I could then modify the structure and my teaching to enhance student productivity and products, I primarily researched how other teachers structured their writing workshops.
The next text I referenced was The Nine Rights of Every Writer. I read this as part of Denis Enrico's course on the Writing Process. That course was the first stepping stone in my decision to try writing workshop. The author outlines nine rights of writers spending a chapter explaining how each one is necessary.
I then began to think about what it was that I needed to teach. What should these mini-lessons be about? I had my school's curriculum to guide me, but it was so cold a document. So disconnected from the actuality of teaching. So, while searching for articles, I kept coming across Katie Wood Roy's text What You Know by Heart: How to Develop Curriculum for Your Writing Workshop. Roy describes how writing teachers can use their own experiences as readers and writer's as curriculum for their classrooms. She recommends telling the story of a writing experience. Each of these experiences can be molded into a stories that teach multiple understandings and experiences about writing.
Roy's text lead me to Breathing In, Breathing Out: Keeping a Writer's Notebook by Ralph Flectcher. This short text gave a lot of information on the tricky task of helping students generate ideas to write about.
Data Collection
I first decided to observe my students. How were the students interacting with each other? How were they tackling the task of writing? I thought being able to stop and watch and listen to what the students were doing, instead of all the other teacher duties, would allow me to see this part of my class in a new light. But before I started observations, I had students answer two questions: What do you think is going well in this class? and What do you think is not going well in this class? This data allowed me to focus my observations on the silent time of writing workshop because the biggest complaint was that silent time wasn't actually silent and students were distracted.
Since the short questionnaire worked well, I decided to give my students a longer survey to complete around the same time I started observations. (See survey at the end of the post). At the suggestion of my professor, I asked my students many questions about their past experiences with writing, which I hoped would provide insight now how they adapted to my class. I also asked my students several questions that asked for feedback on their current opinions on how they write. All put one survey that went out came back in. Only one additional student didn't complete the survey because she was absent when it was given. From their answers, it appeared that students understood the questions quite well. I only noticed one survey with answers that didn't match what the question asked.
With survey completed, I started observing. I observed Group 1 four times on November 3rd, 14th ?, 12th, and 18th. Meanwhile, I observed Group 2 of students on November 3rd, 5th, 7th, 12th, 14th, and 18th for a total of six times. I realized that it was harder for me to remember to do the observations first period in the morning and thus completely forgot to observe the students working on two occasions. On the first occasion, the discussion the students held before writing time ran over into the allotted time.
When I observed, I sat at my desk and watched and listened to the students as they were asked to work silently at the beginning of their writing time. The way my room is organized, I could see all students sitting at the desks clearly. Students who moved to sit on the floor to write were partially obstructed by students in the seats or by the table at the back of the room. (insert pictures of my classroom). My observations usually lasted for ten minutes, which was usually the portion of writing time that was silent, but I often would jot down another note or two after a few more minutes.
I ran into two additional complications with observing. I found that students had a hard time not coming up and talking to me while I was trying to observe. This was hard for several students in Group 1 who often need to ask questions. In Group 2, there were a couple of students who needed to ask questions, but more often it was two students who wanted to talk with me because they didn't fit in with their classmates. After addressing this problem with the students and asking them to hold their questions and comments until the end of the ten minutes, it improved.
My second obstacle was that I found I could not exactly tell what students were doing or saying from where I was sitting. I worked on this problem in a few ways. During a few observations, I made a cycle around the room to see what students were doing. On another occasion, I asked students to put in writing what they had been working on. Mostly though, I started to watch the students who sat closest to my desk to see and hear their actions. This lack of knowledge about their actions also led to my decision to analyze work samples. I wanted to now look at what they had been doing while I watched previously.
I originally planned to conduct interviews of several students who stood out during observations. However, I realized that looking at actual samples of student work created over the observation period would be more interesting. The students completed two assignments during the period I was working on my study. The first was a rewrite of a piece they did first quarter or in middle school. the second was their third free choice writing piece.
The largest complication with this collection of data was unfortunate, yet very predictable. For the rewrite assignments due November 20th, all but one student in Group 1 turned in the work; this student forget the assignment at home in her rush to catch the bus. However, in Group 2 only seven students turned in the work. As part of another class procedure that works on helping students turn in all their work, I had students with missing work tell me in writing why the work wasn't completed. There was a wide variety of reasons from note having a printer, not being finished, losing the original piece of work, forgetting to do the assignment, forgetting to bring in the assignment. Two additional students did not hand in the assignment; one was absent that day from class and the other was a transfer student who had joined class too late in the assignment to catch up by the due date and was thus exempt. This happened again with the free choice writing assignment due on December 5th. This time Group 1 had three missing assignments and Group 2 had eleven missing assignments.
As the study continued on, I asked students to submit an exit note stating a writing strategy they used as well as a short informal reflection on the piece of work submitted at the end of the observation period. I asked for these pieces to get more immediate information on to inform my teaching as well as to make sure that the students were thinking about what were they were doing during writing time and holding themselves accountable for producing some results. I affixed the exit note to the reflection and photocopied them in order to analyze them looking for patterns. These reflections will guide me as I look at the product the student submitted. In the end, I decided to use the exit notes and reflections as my third piece of data collection because the products (rewrites and third free choice piece) were just too much information to analyze properly given the time scope of my study and too many assignments were missing.
Data Analysis
I started my analysis with the easiest pieces to process: The surveys. I found the percentages of students who answered each question each way for the multiple choice questions. Some of this data met my expectations. For example, most students were not used to being expected to write for an extended period every class. Only 32%, or eleven students, said they wrote every class in the past. For the open answer question about how the teacher structure writing time, five students had comments that supported the low percentage of students who wrote every class in middle school. There were also six students who answered stating that the writing time in middle school was inconsistent. Overall, I now know that the majority of my students are not used to writing for thirty minutes every class. In addition, I began to wonder if it was possible that the students didn't understand how their writing time was structured; could what seemed inconsistent to the students, have been a plan to the teacher?
While there were other items I did not expect, such as that 56% of my students were used to have writing pieces met a couple times a quarter, some data fell in the middle. For example, when I asked students if they thought they were writers or not, a little over half said no, about a third said yes, the the remainder said something in-between. I wasn't expecting the in-between comments. (Share some comments). Another interesting fact was that before I mixed the two groups of surveys, I happened to look at this question and I discovered that all but three students in Group 2 felt that they were not writers.
After computing the percentages for the multiple choice questions, I coded the data from the open answer questions. The clearest pattern arouse when comparing the lists of areas about which students felt confident or uncertain. Five categories dominated their answers: Finding topics, different genres, parts of a piece, steps of the writing process, and grammar or mechanics. All of the comments on confident areas fell into these five areas except for two students that said they were confident in all areas, one student who said the amount of time to write created confidence, and a last comment simply said “the easy stuff.” Likewise, almost all the answers about which areas students felt uncertain fell into the same five categories. Outlying answers included two students who said they were uncertain of most areas, one student who didn't know, and one comment on making writing interesting. What was most surprising to me was that these answers didn't show exact deficiencies across the board. Instead, the needs of the two classes were very diverse. Also, 88% of my students were able to clearly identify an area of weakness and strength.
Next, I coded the reflection and exit notes I received from students. I found three reoccurring categories. Many students said they were surprised at the amount of revision they did. Many students confused revision and editing or focused on fixing mistakes. Many students mentioned that working with a peer was very helpful.
Lastly, I coded my observations. I noticed a few small items, such as that I didn't really keep track of how long students were in the bathroom, but mostly I discovered three big items. Ordinarily, when I am at my desk, I don't just stand around watching because it is boring and awkward. I don't like hovering over students because I feel it invades their space. Yet, when I work at my desk, I noticed that I miss out on a lot of data from the students. I wind up checking them out in order to get small tasks done. I also realized that most of my students have specific body language that they engage in when they are writing. This furthered my feeling that hovering over the students would invade their space. Lastly, I realized with my academic students, it wasn't so much that it took them a very long time to settle in to work, but that they would always pack up five or more minutes before the bell. For many students, this meant that they would only write with any focus for two or three minutes. Group 2 had this problem far worse than Group 1. In fact, most of Group 1 didn't notice the time. I am not sure if this is because Group 1 has more motivated student or more students who enjoy writing or if it is because Group 2 goes to lunch following my class.
Further Research
This study has left me curious in a few areas.
I want to explore further how students view themselves as writers. How would the students define a writer? What kind of writing does a writer do?
I also want to further explore how students perceive the structures teachers put in place. What do the students think about how much time they are given to work? About the requirements they are given? The freedoms they are given?
Implications
I had hoped that my research would give me insight into one large area. Instead, I have many small findings that I now can apply to my classroom practices.
First of all, I am more prepared for helping my students to assimilate into my workshop now that I know the types of experiences they have down at the middle school. I can call upon the fact that these students are used to frequent pieces being due, but also provide more support to help them know how to use their time to write and how to select topics and genres where they didn't have much choice in the past.
Additionally, I need to help the confidence my students have in themselves as writers. It was staggering that so few of my Group 2 students didn't believe they were writers and that overall only about half of my students saw themselves as a writer. I want to have more students who see themselves as this individual: (quote). Next year, I want to work more on discussing early on what makes a person a writer and what qualifies as writing.
The students are using the language of a writer to describe their strengths, weakness, and their experience with writing. I need to further encourage this practice by talking to students in that language and introducing more terms to them as we go. Furthermore, I should include more opportunities for them to reflect on their work, either during or after completion, so that they can continue to make this language their own.
However, I also need to do more work to make sure that there is meaning behind the language students use. The reflections showed me places where students may be parroting back what I expect (that revision brought about surprising amounts of change) or where terms are still not fully understood (that revision and editing are synonymous).
I also need to work on a plan so that I can address more fully the individual strengths and needs of my students as writers. The pressure of my top students has made this a concern in my mind all year, yet I was resistant because of the attacking approach used by the parents. This data now makes it clear to me that part of writing workshop is finding a way to get the individual needs of all students, not just the top ones with pushy parents, met. This could be a useful item to work on in my network as other teachers teach our heterogeneously grouped Writing Lab course as well as the mixed ability Academic courses. Having a plan in place would also allow me to remediate the skills I teach throughout the year, such as revision isn't editing and run-on sentences, to students who need it during class time without boring those who have it.
One way to provide this instruction is perhaps the easiest accommodation to make based on my data: Start giving the students instruction on how to use different types of writing manuals and handbooks. This will help them to work on their own individual needs, both remediation and further challenge, while also making them independent learners. I have already started this step by pulling different reference books, making a display for them as I do our reading books, and sharing this display with the students. (more description and add pics).
Lastly, I need to pay more attention to how I interact with student during writing workshop. In the past, I wanted to give students space during this time. I understood that students need time to think, talk, and work through their writing. But, I would wind up preoccupying myself with all the other tasks that can overwhelm me as a teacher, such as tidying up the room, responding to emails, or grading. Sitting down and watching my students work has allowed me to see how they work more as individuals and a group. I can see who is just shuffling papers and not really writing, who is staring off into space, who is just talking the whole time, and who is really invested in their work. I plan to make observation of my students working a regular part of my classroom practices. However, I have also learned that it appears my feeling about giving students space is well founded. I can see how protective the body language students have of their work is. Also, I can see how when they are really into their writing, they pull into themselves and their own world that doesn't need me intruding or hovering over them. Observing from my desk will allow me to discover which students need redirection, guidance, or space.
Works Cited
Atwell, N. (1998). In the Middle: new Understandings About Writing, Reading, and Learning. 2nd ed. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.
Fletcher, R. (1996). Breathing In, Breathing Out: Keeping a Writer's Journal. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.
Ingalls, B. (1999). “Learning School / Learning to Write.” Teacher – Researchers at Work. Berkley, CA: National Writing Project.
Painter, D. (1999). “What Happens When Students Engage in Peer Interaction During the Writing Process.” Teacher – Researchers at Work. Berkley, CA: National Writing Project.
Ray, K. (2002). What You Know by Heart: How to Develop Curriculum for Your Writing Workshop. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.
Spandel, V. (2005). The 9 Rights of Every Writer. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.
Survey
1. Circle the one that best describes your past experiences. In the past, my teachers gave me ...
3. If you were given guidelines, star the one above your teacher emphasized the most.
4. Do you like guidelines or having free choice? Explain why.
5. In the past, were you given class time to work on writing? Yes No
6. If yes to #4, explain how did your teachers structure your time to write?
7. How often did you have to turn in a big piece of writing?
8. How often did you work on a big piece of writing in class?
Introduction
Back in 2003, my student teaching adviser forced all her advisees to read Nancie Atwell's quintessential text In the Middle. I hated it. Atwell's ideas were pie-in-the-sky. Of course, this workshop system worked for her when she worked in her own school and developed the class structures and procedures herself. How date my adviser make me read this text when this system could never work in a real school, with read students, and real accountability? Yet, when I revisited the text this semester and her words reemerged in my memory, I saw my experiences from the last four years in Atwell's narration.
I feel I can sympathize with Dianne Dodsworth who wrote a short piece titled “Nancy, you lied!” She explained how she excitedly jumped into writing workshop expecting to follow In The Middle like a cookbook. Yet, as she went, she realized that she had to adapt the information provided by Atwell to fit her teaching style as well as her student's experiences. I could identify to this very much. I was ready to give all these ideas a try, but was not sure how they would work in reality. Her comments made me feel very secure in having asked my students about their writing pasts. Just like Dodsworth's students, some of my students have never experienced writing workshop, and I needed to know that information if I was going to fully understand what was happening in my class and how best to modify my teaching to support my students.
Question
Thus this year, I made the decision to teach all my courses using reading and writing workshops. Two factors manifested this change. First, the lowest and middle levels at my school were combined so that I would have a wide range of abilities and motivation in a single class. My old method of telling students what to read and write and when would not work with such a diverse group. This course adjustment alone would not have brought about the changes in teaching. My course work for my master's over the past year focused a lot on providing choice for students and authentic reading and writing situations. Slowly, my aversion to Atwell's approaches changed, and by the end of the summer, I dedicated myself to giving students reading and writing in class daily as well as free reign to choose what and how they completed these activities.
Once the year has started, the reading portion of my class ran well. Student's commented in reflections that they are learning about what they like to read and how to choose and abandon books. The library return pile at the back of my room often overflows the bin and I'm having a hard time keeping up with end of book conferences.
However, the writing portion of class was a different story. I feel that often other elements of class run over into writing time and that the directions I am giving are confusing to the students. While they seem to understand the idea of choosing anything they want to read, many are having a hard time choosing from any topic about which to write. As a result, I have some very silly writing pieces, some boring writing pieces, and also some nonexistent writing pieces of students who are stuck or overwhelmed. When I give the students time to write, I don't feel that much writing is actually taking place and I'm not sure why.
I want to investigate what is actually occurring during my writing workshop time. Are students writing? How many students are sitting there lost or stuck? How many of those conversations are about writing? Is more “work” occurring during the silent time versus the time they are allowed to talk?
Context and Sample
Leavitt Area High School is in a rural area. When I first moved here from a Boston suburb, I had a lot to learn about how this area of Maine differed from where I grew up. Not only did I have learn about four wheeling, hunting, and different types of skiing, I had to realize that in a rural community the students have fewer college options, less wealthy families, and longer distances to get to “town.” Over my four years at Leavitt, I have learned that we have all ranges of students from Special Education students with heavy modifications to valedictorians that go on to Harvard; in my current class load, I have representatives of the whole range.
I teach five freshmen classes (91 students total); two of these classes are “academic” (36 students) and three are “advanced” (55 students). Seven of the academic freshmen are really sophomores or juniors who are repeating, only one of which had me last year. I also have one class of “advanced” sophomores (14 students), all of whom I had last year, one of which moved up a level. Of these students, I have two Latino student and one African American student. Eight of my students have Special Education modifications. Sixteen of my students are the younger sibling of a student I had in a previous year.
With this as a possible sample, it was challenge to decide which students to focus on for my study. Using the full sample would be too much for the time span of my course, but any one class wouldn't show accurately the the range of students I teach. In the end, I decided to go with my top group of advanced freshmen and one group of my academic student. The advanced class was an easy choice since it contained some of the top caliber students I've encountered at Leavitt (as well as some very involved parents). Meanwhile, the the academic class contained three students with special education modifications and three students repeating the course, each for very different reasons. In both classes, some student were better at the subject of English than others, preferred the subject more than others, or were more motivated than others. I also wound up with a range of personalities from shy to talkative, leaders to followers, inquisitive to disinterested. These two classes also met on the same day, which I thought would help me in planning around my observations. The advanced class met first period and thus I will refer to them as Group 1 for the duration of the study; the academic group was my second class of the day, though met third period after my prep, and they thus will be referred to as Group 2.
At Leavitt, we have 80 minute class periods every other day. When I decided to start free choice reading and writing workshop, I needed to break up the period. I followed the time table Atwell shares in The Reading Zone and gave more time to writing than to reading based on her assertion that more reading will get done at home than writing. Thus, I started each period with 20 minutes of time to read, followed by 30 minutes for teacher led instruction, and wrapped class up with 30 minutes of time for writing, the first third of which I asked to be silent. There were problems with this set up from the get go. I often had trouble completing what I needed to and still have 30 minutes for writing. Sometimes I would fall behind due to my own over planning; other times it was because the students were unfocused slowing down my lessons. Still on other occasions, we were delayed by students' unexpected questions or problems. Another problem I encountered was the problem I had when I used to teacher our semester long essay writing course for freshmen, Writing Lab. I would give my lesson about writing, tell the students what I wanted them to work on, and then make myself available to conference with students, but no students would want to conference. Thus, almost all the period for almost the whole course was spent with the students working on their writing. Not only did this leave me feeling I wasn't teaching, which I wasn't, but the students quickly got bored with the predictable structure. I soon found what I was falling into my old patterns with class writing time.
Literature Review
Since my central question was to discover what was happening in my classroom so that I could then modify the structure and my teaching to enhance student productivity and products, I primarily researched how other teachers structured their writing workshops.
The next text I referenced was The Nine Rights of Every Writer. I read this as part of Denis Enrico's course on the Writing Process. That course was the first stepping stone in my decision to try writing workshop. The author outlines nine rights of writers spending a chapter explaining how each one is necessary.
I then began to think about what it was that I needed to teach. What should these mini-lessons be about? I had my school's curriculum to guide me, but it was so cold a document. So disconnected from the actuality of teaching. So, while searching for articles, I kept coming across Katie Wood Roy's text What You Know by Heart: How to Develop Curriculum for Your Writing Workshop. Roy describes how writing teachers can use their own experiences as readers and writer's as curriculum for their classrooms. She recommends telling the story of a writing experience. Each of these experiences can be molded into a stories that teach multiple understandings and experiences about writing.
Roy's text lead me to Breathing In, Breathing Out: Keeping a Writer's Notebook by Ralph Flectcher. This short text gave a lot of information on the tricky task of helping students generate ideas to write about.
Data Collection
I first decided to observe my students. How were the students interacting with each other? How were they tackling the task of writing? I thought being able to stop and watch and listen to what the students were doing, instead of all the other teacher duties, would allow me to see this part of my class in a new light. But before I started observations, I had students answer two questions: What do you think is going well in this class? and What do you think is not going well in this class? This data allowed me to focus my observations on the silent time of writing workshop because the biggest complaint was that silent time wasn't actually silent and students were distracted.
Since the short questionnaire worked well, I decided to give my students a longer survey to complete around the same time I started observations. (See survey at the end of the post). At the suggestion of my professor, I asked my students many questions about their past experiences with writing, which I hoped would provide insight now how they adapted to my class. I also asked my students several questions that asked for feedback on their current opinions on how they write. All put one survey that went out came back in. Only one additional student didn't complete the survey because she was absent when it was given. From their answers, it appeared that students understood the questions quite well. I only noticed one survey with answers that didn't match what the question asked.
With survey completed, I started observing. I observed Group 1 four times on November 3rd, 14th ?, 12th, and 18th. Meanwhile, I observed Group 2 of students on November 3rd, 5th, 7th, 12th, 14th, and 18th for a total of six times. I realized that it was harder for me to remember to do the observations first period in the morning and thus completely forgot to observe the students working on two occasions. On the first occasion, the discussion the students held before writing time ran over into the allotted time.
When I observed, I sat at my desk and watched and listened to the students as they were asked to work silently at the beginning of their writing time. The way my room is organized, I could see all students sitting at the desks clearly. Students who moved to sit on the floor to write were partially obstructed by students in the seats or by the table at the back of the room. (insert pictures of my classroom). My observations usually lasted for ten minutes, which was usually the portion of writing time that was silent, but I often would jot down another note or two after a few more minutes.
I ran into two additional complications with observing. I found that students had a hard time not coming up and talking to me while I was trying to observe. This was hard for several students in Group 1 who often need to ask questions. In Group 2, there were a couple of students who needed to ask questions, but more often it was two students who wanted to talk with me because they didn't fit in with their classmates. After addressing this problem with the students and asking them to hold their questions and comments until the end of the ten minutes, it improved.
My second obstacle was that I found I could not exactly tell what students were doing or saying from where I was sitting. I worked on this problem in a few ways. During a few observations, I made a cycle around the room to see what students were doing. On another occasion, I asked students to put in writing what they had been working on. Mostly though, I started to watch the students who sat closest to my desk to see and hear their actions. This lack of knowledge about their actions also led to my decision to analyze work samples. I wanted to now look at what they had been doing while I watched previously.
I originally planned to conduct interviews of several students who stood out during observations. However, I realized that looking at actual samples of student work created over the observation period would be more interesting. The students completed two assignments during the period I was working on my study. The first was a rewrite of a piece they did first quarter or in middle school. the second was their third free choice writing piece.
The largest complication with this collection of data was unfortunate, yet very predictable. For the rewrite assignments due November 20th, all but one student in Group 1 turned in the work; this student forget the assignment at home in her rush to catch the bus. However, in Group 2 only seven students turned in the work. As part of another class procedure that works on helping students turn in all their work, I had students with missing work tell me in writing why the work wasn't completed. There was a wide variety of reasons from note having a printer, not being finished, losing the original piece of work, forgetting to do the assignment, forgetting to bring in the assignment. Two additional students did not hand in the assignment; one was absent that day from class and the other was a transfer student who had joined class too late in the assignment to catch up by the due date and was thus exempt. This happened again with the free choice writing assignment due on December 5th. This time Group 1 had three missing assignments and Group 2 had eleven missing assignments.
As the study continued on, I asked students to submit an exit note stating a writing strategy they used as well as a short informal reflection on the piece of work submitted at the end of the observation period. I asked for these pieces to get more immediate information on to inform my teaching as well as to make sure that the students were thinking about what were they were doing during writing time and holding themselves accountable for producing some results. I affixed the exit note to the reflection and photocopied them in order to analyze them looking for patterns. These reflections will guide me as I look at the product the student submitted. In the end, I decided to use the exit notes and reflections as my third piece of data collection because the products (rewrites and third free choice piece) were just too much information to analyze properly given the time scope of my study and too many assignments were missing.
Data Analysis
I started my analysis with the easiest pieces to process: The surveys. I found the percentages of students who answered each question each way for the multiple choice questions. Some of this data met my expectations. For example, most students were not used to being expected to write for an extended period every class. Only 32%, or eleven students, said they wrote every class in the past. For the open answer question about how the teacher structure writing time, five students had comments that supported the low percentage of students who wrote every class in middle school. There were also six students who answered stating that the writing time in middle school was inconsistent. Overall, I now know that the majority of my students are not used to writing for thirty minutes every class. In addition, I began to wonder if it was possible that the students didn't understand how their writing time was structured; could what seemed inconsistent to the students, have been a plan to the teacher?
While there were other items I did not expect, such as that 56% of my students were used to have writing pieces met a couple times a quarter, some data fell in the middle. For example, when I asked students if they thought they were writers or not, a little over half said no, about a third said yes, the the remainder said something in-between. I wasn't expecting the in-between comments. (Share some comments). Another interesting fact was that before I mixed the two groups of surveys, I happened to look at this question and I discovered that all but three students in Group 2 felt that they were not writers.
After computing the percentages for the multiple choice questions, I coded the data from the open answer questions. The clearest pattern arouse when comparing the lists of areas about which students felt confident or uncertain. Five categories dominated their answers: Finding topics, different genres, parts of a piece, steps of the writing process, and grammar or mechanics. All of the comments on confident areas fell into these five areas except for two students that said they were confident in all areas, one student who said the amount of time to write created confidence, and a last comment simply said “the easy stuff.” Likewise, almost all the answers about which areas students felt uncertain fell into the same five categories. Outlying answers included two students who said they were uncertain of most areas, one student who didn't know, and one comment on making writing interesting. What was most surprising to me was that these answers didn't show exact deficiencies across the board. Instead, the needs of the two classes were very diverse. Also, 88% of my students were able to clearly identify an area of weakness and strength.
Next, I coded the reflection and exit notes I received from students. I found three reoccurring categories. Many students said they were surprised at the amount of revision they did. Many students confused revision and editing or focused on fixing mistakes. Many students mentioned that working with a peer was very helpful.
Lastly, I coded my observations. I noticed a few small items, such as that I didn't really keep track of how long students were in the bathroom, but mostly I discovered three big items. Ordinarily, when I am at my desk, I don't just stand around watching because it is boring and awkward. I don't like hovering over students because I feel it invades their space. Yet, when I work at my desk, I noticed that I miss out on a lot of data from the students. I wind up checking them out in order to get small tasks done. I also realized that most of my students have specific body language that they engage in when they are writing. This furthered my feeling that hovering over the students would invade their space. Lastly, I realized with my academic students, it wasn't so much that it took them a very long time to settle in to work, but that they would always pack up five or more minutes before the bell. For many students, this meant that they would only write with any focus for two or three minutes. Group 2 had this problem far worse than Group 1. In fact, most of Group 1 didn't notice the time. I am not sure if this is because Group 1 has more motivated student or more students who enjoy writing or if it is because Group 2 goes to lunch following my class.
Further Research
This study has left me curious in a few areas.
I want to explore further how students view themselves as writers. How would the students define a writer? What kind of writing does a writer do?
I also want to further explore how students perceive the structures teachers put in place. What do the students think about how much time they are given to work? About the requirements they are given? The freedoms they are given?
Implications
I had hoped that my research would give me insight into one large area. Instead, I have many small findings that I now can apply to my classroom practices.
First of all, I am more prepared for helping my students to assimilate into my workshop now that I know the types of experiences they have down at the middle school. I can call upon the fact that these students are used to frequent pieces being due, but also provide more support to help them know how to use their time to write and how to select topics and genres where they didn't have much choice in the past.
Additionally, I need to help the confidence my students have in themselves as writers. It was staggering that so few of my Group 2 students didn't believe they were writers and that overall only about half of my students saw themselves as a writer. I want to have more students who see themselves as this individual: (quote). Next year, I want to work more on discussing early on what makes a person a writer and what qualifies as writing.
The students are using the language of a writer to describe their strengths, weakness, and their experience with writing. I need to further encourage this practice by talking to students in that language and introducing more terms to them as we go. Furthermore, I should include more opportunities for them to reflect on their work, either during or after completion, so that they can continue to make this language their own.
However, I also need to do more work to make sure that there is meaning behind the language students use. The reflections showed me places where students may be parroting back what I expect (that revision brought about surprising amounts of change) or where terms are still not fully understood (that revision and editing are synonymous).
I also need to work on a plan so that I can address more fully the individual strengths and needs of my students as writers. The pressure of my top students has made this a concern in my mind all year, yet I was resistant because of the attacking approach used by the parents. This data now makes it clear to me that part of writing workshop is finding a way to get the individual needs of all students, not just the top ones with pushy parents, met. This could be a useful item to work on in my network as other teachers teach our heterogeneously grouped Writing Lab course as well as the mixed ability Academic courses. Having a plan in place would also allow me to remediate the skills I teach throughout the year, such as revision isn't editing and run-on sentences, to students who need it during class time without boring those who have it.
One way to provide this instruction is perhaps the easiest accommodation to make based on my data: Start giving the students instruction on how to use different types of writing manuals and handbooks. This will help them to work on their own individual needs, both remediation and further challenge, while also making them independent learners. I have already started this step by pulling different reference books, making a display for them as I do our reading books, and sharing this display with the students. (more description and add pics).
Lastly, I need to pay more attention to how I interact with student during writing workshop. In the past, I wanted to give students space during this time. I understood that students need time to think, talk, and work through their writing. But, I would wind up preoccupying myself with all the other tasks that can overwhelm me as a teacher, such as tidying up the room, responding to emails, or grading. Sitting down and watching my students work has allowed me to see how they work more as individuals and a group. I can see who is just shuffling papers and not really writing, who is staring off into space, who is just talking the whole time, and who is really invested in their work. I plan to make observation of my students working a regular part of my classroom practices. However, I have also learned that it appears my feeling about giving students space is well founded. I can see how protective the body language students have of their work is. Also, I can see how when they are really into their writing, they pull into themselves and their own world that doesn't need me intruding or hovering over them. Observing from my desk will allow me to discover which students need redirection, guidance, or space.
Works Cited
Atwell, N. (1998). In the Middle: new Understandings About Writing, Reading, and Learning. 2nd ed. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.
Fletcher, R. (1996). Breathing In, Breathing Out: Keeping a Writer's Journal. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.
Ingalls, B. (1999). “Learning School / Learning to Write.” Teacher – Researchers at Work. Berkley, CA: National Writing Project.
Painter, D. (1999). “What Happens When Students Engage in Peer Interaction During the Writing Process.” Teacher – Researchers at Work. Berkley, CA: National Writing Project.
Ray, K. (2002). What You Know by Heart: How to Develop Curriculum for Your Writing Workshop. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.
Spandel, V. (2005). The 9 Rights of Every Writer. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.
Survey
1. Circle the one that best describes your past experiences. In the past, my teachers gave me ...
- total free choice on what to write
- free choice with a couple guidelines
- a whole bunch of guidelines with a little bit of choice
- all guidelines and no choice
- topic
- format / genre
- length
- grammar, mechanics
- appropriateness of content
- appearance
3. If you were given guidelines, star the one above your teacher emphasized the most.
4. Do you like guidelines or having free choice? Explain why.
5. In the past, were you given class time to work on writing? Yes No
6. If yes to #4, explain how did your teachers structure your time to write?
7. How often did you have to turn in a big piece of writing?
- All the time! Something was due every three or four weeks.
- Occasionally. We had something due once or twice a quarter / trimester.
- Rarely. We did only a couple of pieces over the course of the year.
8. How often did you work on a big piece of writing in class?
- Every class.
- About once a week.
- We'd work for a few days in a row ever month or so.
- Rarely.
- Never. All writing was homework.
What Makes a Good (or Great) Reading Conference?
This is a handout I gave my students to help them understand reading workshop conferencing.
The Basics:
- Show that you know what's happening in your book THEN go beyond the plot.
- Show me you are thinking!
- Back up what you say with references to specific things in the book.
When to ask for a conference:
When you are stuck
When you finish a book
When you are not sure if you should abandon a book
When you have a question about reading
When you have an exciting idea
When you feel like I might being over looking you (Sorry!)
What to say about plot:
- When I ask you what is happening in your book, tell me concisely. Focus on the most important events or characters. I don't need a blow by blow recap.
- Answer my questions about the plot. If you can't answer, tell me why.
- Remember that I want to know more than the plot, I want to know what your thinking. If you take a ton of time just retelling plot, we don't have time left for me to hear about or ask questions about your thinking.
What to talk about in a conference:
- Tell me why you like or don't like the book you are reading
- Explain how things like flashbacks, point of view switches, breaks in the text, use of italics or punctuation affect the book and / or your experience reading it
- Describe the author's writing style and explain how it affects the book and / or your experience reading it
- Explain how the format of the book (poems, short stories, letters, IMs, emails, etc) affects the book and / or your experience reading it
- Explain how literature or poetic devices affect the book and / or your experience reading it
- Tell me why you are stuck
- Explain to me how you got unstuck
- Share with me questions you have about the book (whether you think I can answer them or not)
- Share predictions with me and why you have them
- Share if your predictions are right or wrong
- Make connections to your book between your experiences, other books you've read, or real world events past or present
- Explain to me the significance of the title or cover of your book
- Explain to me why you chose your book
- Explain to me if a book is meeting your expectations or not
- Explain to me why you chose to abandon a book
- Share with me new things you learned from your book (not just for non-fiction!)
- Share with me what you got out of the book overall
- Explain to me what you think the author's message or purpose was for the book
- Tell me if the book changed how you think
- Tell me if the book changed or questioned your values or beliefs
- If it is a frequently challenged book, share your thoughts on that with me
- Compare and contrast the book to its film adaptation
When in doubt, refer to the rubric for the quarter!
Favorite Revision and Editing Tricks
As I've said in other posts, writing as a process is a topic I stress with my students. Here are my favorite six revision and editing tricks.
- Use color. When revising on a printed document (which really should be tip number 7), always use a colorful writing utensil. If you revisit the same draft more than once, change colors. Lastly, when you go through your printed draft to copy the changes on to the computer, use a colored pen or marker to cross them off as you go. When working directly on the computer, use the highlight function to make problem areas stand out for later attention. Examples include citations you need to look up, notes to yourself about material to add, or anything that sounds off, but you can't fix immediately.
- Read it backwards. Reading an essay backwards is strictly an editing trick. Reading the words out of context interrupts your memory of what the text was meant to say. That allows you to focus on individual words and punctuation marks. This trick helps find typos, misspellings, capitalization errors, incorrect punctuation, and citation errors.
- Read it out loud to yourself. An AP teacher in my building used to make all the students circle the room facing the wall. They then read their papers aloud simultaneously. Reading aloud forces you to listen to how the words sound rather than just remembering what you meant. This helps with editing and revision problems involving grammar, punctuation, word choice - all the problems that lead to the vague teacher comment "awkward."
- Use find to look for specific errors. Using the find function in a word processing program can target specific problems. A student could search for trouble words. With my dyslexia, I would always search for my common mistakes that formed real words (form / from, who / how). This is an easy way to check words on the commonly confused list, such as effect / affect or the three there's. A student can use it to add variety to word choice by searching the over used word and substituting synonyms. Also, synonyms could be swapped out for vague or weak words. Lastly, it can be used as a citation checker by searching parenthesis or quotation marks.
- Have someone read it to you. Ideally, I would ask my students to read their partner's work aloud to them during peer work shopping, but time and volume level requirements often didn't allow it. Listening to how your writing sounds without reading along can bring those awkward problems to the surface. Students realize words are left out or in a strange order. Suddenly, the pronoun references are no longer clear. Or, maybe the flow between ideas or quotations is now noticeably awkward.
- Distance. I give my students enough time to work on their writing so that they can put it away for a night or two to get the objectivity time and space offer. (That is not to say that students budget their time to make use of this opportunity). Putting a piece of writing away for even just one day offers a fresh light. The results are very similar to hearing your writing read aloud. Distance is my favorite trick because it empowers the student to revise and edit independently, and provides the best situation for the student to dive into serious revision. When someone else is holding the paper, the student can't rip it away to tear a paragraph a part.
Tuesday, February 12, 2013
Resume / Portfolio Brainstorming
Resume:
I've done some looking into resumes with unique formatting. I have a while to decide, but I do think it would be a positive. I feel like I don't have much to say on a resume. I only taught for five years and I used that time to discover myself as a teacher, including getting my master's. I did not do any extra committee work or advising. Anything to say about my classroom, I feel is redundant. Superintendents and principals know what it means to teach a full course load, do I really need to itemize it into bullets?
Portfolio:
I'm a bit jaded about portfolios. I went through A LOT of work to make one right out of college, and when I was interviewed it wasn't even handed to the interviewer.
I'm also going back and forth about a traditional binder or digital. I like the idea of digital quite a bit, especially if it is published for prospective employers to see before interviewing, but I think that it being digital might be hard to deal with during an interview. I wouldn't be able to just flip to a page and slide it across the table.
I also think I need to work on making my portfolio items more visual. I like how my current writing about what I do with Natalie is embedded with pictures. I don't have that for my teaching experinces.
I'm strongly considering adding a section for my work with my kids and our mom's group. It would show what I've been doing while away from teaching, and it would show the direction I want to take for blogging in my classroom for transparency with parents and a reference system for students.
I'm wondering what to do for a section that represents my education - particularly my master's and the special ed course I just finished. Also, it could include where I want to go with my education: A second Master's from USM in special education in the program that blends gifted and talented with special education courses. I also am interested in teaching teachers. This section might be able to be a document or two rather than artifacts.
The one traditional piece I know I need is a philosophy statement. I worry about this though, because I want to be honest, yet I don't want to alienate myself from getting a job.
I want to give an accurate picture of myself. What would the items I want to include show as a picture of me? My blog shows I write myself avidly and wanting to communicate what I do with others (be them parents, absent students, administrators, or other teachers). Information about what I've been doing recently shows that I haven't been letting my craft get rusty, and my interest in education in general - in life long learning. I also think that my presented work would show interest in using technology. But a large part of who I am as an educator is my belief in how I want to run my classroom to best benefit students individual needs. I am at present fully dedicated to standards based assessment and would prefer to not give traditional scores at all. I believe in student directed learning in a workshop setting. I no longer believe in homework, excepting reading and completing writing from class.
Thursday, February 7, 2013
Rubric-mania!
In the ninth grade, my two humanities teachers introduced our class to rubrics. I might have understood a little bit at the time, but not fully. It wasn't until I was using rubrics to grade in my open classroom almost ten years later that I understood rubrics. And even then, it was still another couple years before I felt comfortable writing my own. By the time I left teaching to have my first child, I wrote my own rubrics for everything. In fact, I would have preferred to simply send home a rubric each quarter than a numerical score.
What is a rubric?
A rubric is an assessment tool. In actuality, it is a chart with standards typically down the first column and scores across the top row. The individual boxes contain text that describes student work.
Why use rubrics?
I love rubrics for a few reasons.
How to create a rubric:
First, you must decided what skills or knowledge you are assessing. As you choose, remember to ask yourself, how will I know the student has meet this standard? You'll need to have documented evidence.
EX. I can't choose appreciation of the writing process. How will I see that the students appreciate it? But I can assess use of the writing process to improve writing.
Next, I start by writing a description of what meets the standard. Ask yourself, what exactly do I want my students to know or be able to do?
EX. Student uses revision to improve writing as seen through additions, removals, substitutions, and / or reorganizing text.
From there, describe what is above and beyond (4), what is almost there (2), and what needs lots of work (1). Depending on your content, using Bloom's taxonomy may be helpful at this stage.
EX.
4 - Student revision greatly improves writing (i.e. idea development, clarity, organization, etc). Student uses additions, removals, substitutions, and reorganizing text effectively to create meaningful changes. Student may experiment with various techniques on the same passage to choose the best outcome.
3 - Student uses revision to improve writing (i.e. idea development, clarity, organization, etc). as seen through additions, removals, substitutions, and / or reorganizing text.
2 - Student uses at least one revision technique (additions, removals, substitutions, and / or reorganizing text). Some improvement to writing (i.e. idea development, clarity, organization, etc) results, but mostly revision outcomes match original draft. Student may only use one technique, but use it frequently and effectively.
1 - Student does not use revision techniques (additions, removals, substitutions, and / or reorganizing text) to create meaningful change. Only surfaces changes evident.
Could I even be more specific? Yes, I could say how many times I want to see each technique used. Or, I could say how many places must be improved to achieve each score. I have left this undefined to give me some room to work. Sometimes a student will do amazing work, but if a rubric is too strict, there is no room for it to score high. Even with the wiggle room, my objective is achieved. Students know I want to see meaningful change, not just editing or change for change's sake. And students know the four techniques I am looking for on their drafts. Students also have an idea of what their revision should improve. When I grade, these statements will help me focus. And when I plan, I know what material I needs instruction and practice time.
I also include zero (or N/A) on my rubrics. I use zero for when no evidence of a skill is present. There is a difference between a student who tried, but really didn't get it, and one who completely skipped over part of an assignment. I started to include zero mostly because of grading policies, so see more about this below.
EX
0 - No evidence of revision. Most changes from draft are editing (i.e. spelling, grammar, formatting, etc). Student may not have turned any work except a final draft.
Translating a rubric score into a traditional score:
 |
| A humorous rubric. |
What is a rubric?
A rubric is an assessment tool. In actuality, it is a chart with standards typically down the first column and scores across the top row. The individual boxes contain text that describes student work.
Why use rubrics?
I love rubrics for a few reasons.
- Fairness. A well written rubric leaves little room for you to accidentally be swayed by your personal knowledge about a student as your grade. It also covers you from students accusing you of such behavior.
- Easy to use. Once you are used to them, it is easy to circle the descriptors that match the work and then calculate the score.
- Focus correction areas, Rubrics help teachers focus on specific skills while grading. It can be overwhelming to grade a project since there are so many factors at play. A rubric forces focus on just the areas listed on the rubric. For me, this is a huge time saver when grading.
- Transparency. You can give students a rubric right on the day the work is assigned leaving no guesses about how they will be graded.
- Great planning tool. Writing the rubric as I create the assignment forces me to make sure I keep up my end. Rubrics help me keep the end result in mind as I plan how to use our class time.
- Self Assessment. Rubrics provide great opportunity for students to assess themselves. This could occur at the end of a project when students score themselves. Yet, even more potent, students can assess their progress frequently along the way to the final assessment.
How to create a rubric:
First, you must decided what skills or knowledge you are assessing. As you choose, remember to ask yourself, how will I know the student has meet this standard? You'll need to have documented evidence.
EX. I can't choose appreciation of the writing process. How will I see that the students appreciate it? But I can assess use of the writing process to improve writing.
Next, I start by writing a description of what meets the standard. Ask yourself, what exactly do I want my students to know or be able to do?
EX. Student uses revision to improve writing as seen through additions, removals, substitutions, and / or reorganizing text.
From there, describe what is above and beyond (4), what is almost there (2), and what needs lots of work (1). Depending on your content, using Bloom's taxonomy may be helpful at this stage.
EX.
4 - Student revision greatly improves writing (i.e. idea development, clarity, organization, etc). Student uses additions, removals, substitutions, and reorganizing text effectively to create meaningful changes. Student may experiment with various techniques on the same passage to choose the best outcome.
3 - Student uses revision to improve writing (i.e. idea development, clarity, organization, etc). as seen through additions, removals, substitutions, and / or reorganizing text.
2 - Student uses at least one revision technique (additions, removals, substitutions, and / or reorganizing text). Some improvement to writing (i.e. idea development, clarity, organization, etc) results, but mostly revision outcomes match original draft. Student may only use one technique, but use it frequently and effectively.
1 - Student does not use revision techniques (additions, removals, substitutions, and / or reorganizing text) to create meaningful change. Only surfaces changes evident.
Could I even be more specific? Yes, I could say how many times I want to see each technique used. Or, I could say how many places must be improved to achieve each score. I have left this undefined to give me some room to work. Sometimes a student will do amazing work, but if a rubric is too strict, there is no room for it to score high. Even with the wiggle room, my objective is achieved. Students know I want to see meaningful change, not just editing or change for change's sake. And students know the four techniques I am looking for on their drafts. Students also have an idea of what their revision should improve. When I grade, these statements will help me focus. And when I plan, I know what material I needs instruction and practice time.
I also include zero (or N/A) on my rubrics. I use zero for when no evidence of a skill is present. There is a difference between a student who tried, but really didn't get it, and one who completely skipped over part of an assignment. I started to include zero mostly because of grading policies, so see more about this below.
EX
0 - No evidence of revision. Most changes from draft are editing (i.e. spelling, grammar, formatting, etc). Student may not have turned any work except a final draft.
Translating a rubric score into a traditional score:
Students and parents are not usually satisfied with a 1-4 score. They want to know if the work earned an A or a C. Rubric scores do not translate easily into traditional letter grades.
The first approach a lot of students and parents take is to look at the rubric like a spelling test. They say, for example, "Well, there are four standards and you can get four points on each, which equally 16." Sounds good, until you divide out what meeting the standard gets for a score. 12/16=75%. Depending on where you teach, that could be a solid C or it could be a D. And, of course, that makes no sense. A student who has done exactly what you asked should not earn a D, and most would also agree not a C (though some folks do hold on to the notion that C is average). So, just a traditional average doesn't work.
You might think, well 4=A, 3=B, 2=C, and 1=D. It looks pretty good -- but a student has to have a perfect 4 to get an A. I rarely got perfect assignments, even from my most excellent students.
My first step to the solution was to give partial credit. Often, a piece of work fits descriptors from different boxes. So, I highlighted what matched and averaged it. So a student might get a 2.5 or a 3.3 on a standard. The highlighting on the rubric would show the student exactly why to provide specific feedback and transparency. Using my example above, maybe a student's overall essay had meaningful change, but that student really showed evidence of hard work on the introduction. That student ripped it apart and rewrote it many times using all the techniques, and the end result was tremendous change. I would give that student a 3.5 for that standard.
I never limited myself to just 1, 2, 3, and 4 for a final score. I averaged the scores of the individual standards.
EX
Prewriting and drafting - 3
Revision - 3.5
Idea development - 3
Citations - 4
Average - 3.4
But now how do you decide what score goes with these averages? What traditional score corresponds to a 3.4 rubric average?
A fellow teacher in my department had a math major friend help her create a conversion chart. In the end, it turns out it was easy to remember. Multiply by ten (or move the decimal point one place to the right) and add 60. 3.4=94. Most places that is a low A. And since this student exceeded the standard in a few places, that seems right to me.
Now, where I ran into problems was the low scores. Students realized that if they just turned in something, anything, they would score all ones. 1 x 10 + 60 = 70. Where I was teaching, a 70 was the lowest passing grade. A full 70 points higher than if they did nothing. Well, let me tell you, a 70 versus a zero averaged into the grade book makes a huge difference. Does a student who just turned in a crumpled, half finished draft deserve a 70?
I wasn't okay with this. Here some students were doing the work and struggling to receive a passing score and others made it into a mockery. So, I added the zero. Now when averaged, you could score below a one and thus fail. However, I made sure that my zero descriptors were for students who deserved them. This box was for students who did not do the assignment correctly at all, such as being completely off topic or showing no evidence of the skills being scored.
Tuesday, February 5, 2013
Academic Language (i.e. Banned Words)
There aren't many things I used my first year of teaching that stuck around by my fifth year of teaching. One that remained was a list of "banned" words. While I got the term banned from a fellow teacher, I already had a list going on my own. The banned word list helped condense many small pieces of revision advise into one document.
This list is intended for academic writing, not creative or informal writing. The last four were for more advanced students, while the top of the list was mandatory for all students
Banned words include:
- thing, stuff
- you
- I (especially "I think," "I feel," and "I believe")
- like (when not used in a direct comparison)
- good, bad, nice
- slang (including profanity) and texting abbreviations
- announcement sentences ("This paragraph is about..." or "This paper will discuss...")
- contractions
- vague pronouns
- "There is" and "It was" and other variations at the start of a sentence
- is _______ing, was ______ing
- all forms of "to be" (remove as many as possible)
- adverbs including very, really, and suffix -ly
Usually with the first essay, we go through the list in class and the students mark all their banned words. Often, it becomes a game as students compare who has the most of a certain word.
A new lesson I'd like to add in the future would be a different way of introducing the list.
First, I'll show the students a paragraph using many of the banned words. Then, I'll show the same paragraph revised to remove the offenders. After they've read both and shared their initial reactions, we'll put them up side by side and discuss the changes.
Students could then revise an old piece of writing of their own, individually or in pairs, removing the banned words. Debrief on how it changed the writing, possibly sharing examples.
I recommend teaching students how to use the find function in a word processing program to make this step less cumbersome.
Banned words are part of the revision process. Drafting should be a time to get ideas on the page. Students should not get bogged down in rules like these during that critical phase. All errors are acceptable in a first draft. Some students will need a lot of help letting go of rules in order to draft.
Teacher Supply List
I like lists. I also like school supplies. Why not a list of school supplies?
I've made two categories. In the first list are the items you want your district to pay because are used up every year or so. the second category is items you'd want to keep if you leave your position, so you really should pay for them yourself.
Items you want the school to pay for:
Ruled paper
Blank paper
Construction paper
Glue sticks
Masking tape
Scotch tape
Staples
Stapler (to let the kids use)
Three hole punch (to let the kids use)
Pencil sharpener (they break every couple years)
Dry erase markers
Overhead sheets
Board cleaner
Index cards
Post-its
Pens (for kids)
Pencils (for kids)
Markers (for kids)
Highlighters (for kids)
Push pins
Paperclips
File folders
Tissues
Hand sanitizer
Items you should buy:
Good stapler (just for teacher) (consider a second heavy duty)
Good hole punch (just for teacher) (consider a second heavy duty)
Bulletin board boarders
Posters
Scissors (class set)
Rulers (class set)
Yard stick
Stickers
Clip boards
Binders
Classroom library books
Stool
Storage containers of all sizes
I've made two categories. In the first list are the items you want your district to pay because are used up every year or so. the second category is items you'd want to keep if you leave your position, so you really should pay for them yourself.
Items you want the school to pay for:
Ruled paper
Blank paper
Construction paper
Glue sticks
Masking tape
Scotch tape
Staples
Stapler (to let the kids use)
Three hole punch (to let the kids use)
Pencil sharpener (they break every couple years)
Dry erase markers
Overhead sheets
Board cleaner
Index cards
Post-its
Pens (for kids)
Pencils (for kids)
Markers (for kids)
Highlighters (for kids)
Push pins
Paperclips
File folders
Tissues
Hand sanitizer
Items you should buy:
Good stapler (just for teacher) (consider a second heavy duty)
Good hole punch (just for teacher) (consider a second heavy duty)
Bulletin board boarders
Posters
Scissors (class set)
Rulers (class set)
Yard stick
Stickers
Clip boards
Binders
Classroom library books
Stool
Storage containers of all sizes
- Vertical and / or horizontal file holder
- Desk trays
- Small containers for paperclips, pins, etc
- Pencil boxes
- "Milk creates" to hang files
- Big plastic tubs
- Poster holder
- Bookcase(s) (your room might have enough)
- File cabinet(s) (your room might have enough)
Monday, February 4, 2013
Managing Late Work
There are three major camps about late work and the grades that should be assigned to it.
By the end of my fifth year of teaching, I moved from believing in a slide scale of credit to giving full credit. What changed my mind was standards based grading. When I saw that a student had met goals, it was hard to then slash the grade for lateness. If my grade was meant to represent what the student had learned, then reducing it for lateness would be a false representation. So, I started to give assignments their full credit. But, this didn't seem fully fair. Allowing late work made my job more difficult and isn't a realistic representation of a real world work place or of most higher education courses. Part of me still believed that the student who did work on the correct time schedule deserved a higher grade than the one who turned in everything late. I know this is my own schooling nagging me, as well as me picturing my students' fairness detectors alarming, but I'm sticking with it anyway, at least for now. The way I work it out is that on my quarter grade rubric, I have a standard which is basically class citizenship. It covers items like attendance and staying on task. It is here that I included turning work in on time. I designed it so that meeting the standard was having a couple assignments a little late. This worked well with the grading system used at my school; we did not have a standards based report card or effort / conduct grades.
So, if you are going to accept that late work, how to you manage it all?
First of all, you have to have a system so that you don't misplace any assignments. Ever. By my third year of teaching, I felt confident telling students that I don't lose work. If I didn't have it, then there was another reason than "the teacher lost it." Having this reputation made my life easier. If you ask students, a huge complaint they have about teachers is when a teacher loses their work, blames them for not doing it, and then makes them redo it. Here is how I only misplaced one assignment in five years.
If you want the late work to come in, make it easier for the kids to get it to you. I allowed students to turn in work at the main office for the secretary to put in my mail box. I also put a folder on my door so that students could place work in there and not interrupt my class.
For a couple years, I used what I called Homework Club to required students to stay after to make up work. It works well if you assign a lot of homework that builds upon itself, but it is very time consuming. I'll be posting about just Homework Club soon. When I do, I'll add a link directly to that post. For now, the basic premise is that you set a couple afternoons a week to hold Homework Club. When an assignment is missing, the student has until the next Homework Club to turn it in, or he is required to stay for Homework Club to complete the assignment. If the student doesn't show up, you follow up with the office for a formal detention and with the parents.
- No credit. Teachers who fall in this category can have a different reasons. Some of them believe that if a student doesn't give an assignment the attention it deserves when assigned, then it isn't worth doing. Sometimes this is true, given the actual assignment, but if there isn't merit in doing most of your assignments late, I would question their merit overall. There is also a percentage of teachers who won't accept late work due to respect. These teachers see late work as an insult to their course (or even themselves personally). Basically, if the student isn't respectfully enough to do the work when asked, then the teachers won't accept it. Other teachers give no credit for late work purely as a motivator. These teachers, often veterans tired of dealing with late work, have discovered that if they give no credit for late work, a much higher percentage of kids do the work on time. Students make this work a priority because it can't be made up later. Its a double edged sword, though. Those kids who don't get the assignments done, now have no motivation to go back and do them, thus depriving them of practice and both of you of feedback opportunities.
- Slide scale. In my experience, most teachers fall into this category. The later the assignment, the less credit it gets until it gets half or no credit. I used this grading method for four years. It did motivate students to do the late work, but not to do it well. Why bust your butt if the highest you can expect is not what your effort deserves? Usually students with missing work are frequent offenders, so it was not unusual to have one student turn in five assignments the last week of the quarter. Mathematically, turning all the zeroes into even 50's can make a huge impact on a student's quarter grade, but are students fulfilling the purposes of those assignments? Usually, no. The practice is now out of context, and the big assessments can not guide instruction that has already occurred! Not to mention, all those late assignments at the end of the quarter make an already busy time more chaotic for teachers. If you do use this method, make sure it is very clear: One day late is not the same as one class late if you have a rotating schedule.
- Full credit. For teachers who give full credit for late work, the primary concern is if students are meeting the curriculum goals, not if they are doing so on a specific time table. If the goal of a unit is to learn X, Y, and Z, then does when the student proves he has learned X, Y, and Z really matter? Often teachers with this belief also believe in giving students many opportunities to meet a goal, such as offering retakes on tests.
By the end of my fifth year of teaching, I moved from believing in a slide scale of credit to giving full credit. What changed my mind was standards based grading. When I saw that a student had met goals, it was hard to then slash the grade for lateness. If my grade was meant to represent what the student had learned, then reducing it for lateness would be a false representation. So, I started to give assignments their full credit. But, this didn't seem fully fair. Allowing late work made my job more difficult and isn't a realistic representation of a real world work place or of most higher education courses. Part of me still believed that the student who did work on the correct time schedule deserved a higher grade than the one who turned in everything late. I know this is my own schooling nagging me, as well as me picturing my students' fairness detectors alarming, but I'm sticking with it anyway, at least for now. The way I work it out is that on my quarter grade rubric, I have a standard which is basically class citizenship. It covers items like attendance and staying on task. It is here that I included turning work in on time. I designed it so that meeting the standard was having a couple assignments a little late. This worked well with the grading system used at my school; we did not have a standards based report card or effort / conduct grades.
So, if you are going to accept that late work, how to you manage it all?
First of all, you have to have a system so that you don't misplace any assignments. Ever. By my third year of teaching, I felt confident telling students that I don't lose work. If I didn't have it, then there was another reason than "the teacher lost it." Having this reputation made my life easier. If you ask students, a huge complaint they have about teachers is when a teacher loses their work, blames them for not doing it, and then makes them redo it. Here is how I only misplaced one assignment in five years.
- When you collect work, have a designated place you put it. For me, that was color coded folders for each class. I liked these because they were portable and the groupings matched my gradebook.
- If an item comes in after you have handed the on-times items back, put it in a late work folder, or in a folder with your next assignment to correct.
- File all papers immediately! Don't let them sit around on your desk! The wind could blow it on the floor and then it could wind up in the trash. It could be accidentally picked up with other papers on your desk. Stop what you are doing and put it where it belongs. If you really can't do that, paperclip it inside your gradebook.
- Mark in your gradebook who has and hasn't turned in a big assignemnt.
- Write the date at the top of assignments when turned in. For big groups of assignments, I'll use a date stamper and do a whole stack at once. When the late ones trickle in, I'll jot the date on the top before filing it.
If you want the late work to come in, make it easier for the kids to get it to you. I allowed students to turn in work at the main office for the secretary to put in my mail box. I also put a folder on my door so that students could place work in there and not interrupt my class.
For a couple years, I used what I called Homework Club to required students to stay after to make up work. It works well if you assign a lot of homework that builds upon itself, but it is very time consuming. I'll be posting about just Homework Club soon. When I do, I'll add a link directly to that post. For now, the basic premise is that you set a couple afternoons a week to hold Homework Club. When an assignment is missing, the student has until the next Homework Club to turn it in, or he is required to stay for Homework Club to complete the assignment. If the student doesn't show up, you follow up with the office for a formal detention and with the parents.
Saturday, February 2, 2013
Time Saver: No Staples!
It sounds silly, but when my students hand in essays, I don't allow staples. They are only allowed to paperclip.
Here's why.
One of the most important aspects of writing to me is the process. No matter the skill level of my students, we spend a lot of time using the writing process to improve writing. I give class time and homework time to use the steps of the writing process. I give mini lessons and model. Thus, I expect to see my students use the writing process to its fullest extent and I assess the results in their writing.
To assess pre-writing, drafting, revision, and editing, I need to take the various drafts and artifacts handed in and compare them. That is hard to do if my students staple everything together. Picture this: You want to closely compare the document at the back of a packet to the one at the front. What must you do? Flip back and forth using your short term memory to remember the differences. After a while, I found myself removing the staples to spread everything out, sometimes even lining sheets up line by line.
Removing staples in an annoying task. Either you are prying the teeth open with your finger nails or a pen tip, or you use that remover tool to bite at it. Then, you have to put the removed staple somewhere so you don't step on it later. Its a hassle. A time wasting hassle. Because it isn't just the time wasted prying that sucker out of the paper, but its time wasted getting out of your grading groove.
I also ask students to put their papers in a certain order when they paperclip them. I like the final draft on top, and then ideally all other work to go backwards. So, pre-writing is at the back with the first draft on top of that, then revised drafts on top of that. But, the kids don't always remember to do that. If they have stapled, then I'm stuck with everything in the order they put it. Paperclips let me reorganize easily. Also, using paperclips, I can have students stick a rubric with their essay, yet I can still remove the rubric and look at the essay and rubric simultaneously. Having a rubric already with the essay also saves me a tiny bit of time per essay.
Furthermore, have you seen how some kids staple? A larger percentage of high school kids than you think cannot staple correctly. They staple too close to the edge or two inches into the document. They use five staples!
Lastly, since I have to staple the rubric on to the back of the essay anyway, there really is no need for the students to staple. This way, we save at least one staple per essay. That's at least a box of staples a year.
To assess pre-writing, drafting, revision, and editing, I need to take the various drafts and artifacts handed in and compare them. That is hard to do if my students staple everything together. Picture this: You want to closely compare the document at the back of a packet to the one at the front. What must you do? Flip back and forth using your short term memory to remember the differences. After a while, I found myself removing the staples to spread everything out, sometimes even lining sheets up line by line.
Removing staples in an annoying task. Either you are prying the teeth open with your finger nails or a pen tip, or you use that remover tool to bite at it. Then, you have to put the removed staple somewhere so you don't step on it later. Its a hassle. A time wasting hassle. Because it isn't just the time wasted prying that sucker out of the paper, but its time wasted getting out of your grading groove.
I also ask students to put their papers in a certain order when they paperclip them. I like the final draft on top, and then ideally all other work to go backwards. So, pre-writing is at the back with the first draft on top of that, then revised drafts on top of that. But, the kids don't always remember to do that. If they have stapled, then I'm stuck with everything in the order they put it. Paperclips let me reorganize easily. Also, using paperclips, I can have students stick a rubric with their essay, yet I can still remove the rubric and look at the essay and rubric simultaneously. Having a rubric already with the essay also saves me a tiny bit of time per essay.
Furthermore, have you seen how some kids staple? A larger percentage of high school kids than you think cannot staple correctly. They staple too close to the edge or two inches into the document. They use five staples!
Lastly, since I have to staple the rubric on to the back of the essay anyway, there really is no need for the students to staple. This way, we save at least one staple per essay. That's at least a box of staples a year.
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