Writing Residency

This week I am going to work with two teachers in our very own writing residency.  It is modelled after the amazing residency that has been going on at John de Graff for the past three years with Nancy McLean, a gifted literacy coach and associate of Regie Routman's.  I have been sharing all I have learned from Nancy with many of you in various formats, some that come very close to a residency.  But this is the first time I am going to co-teach in the same two classrooms every afternoon for a whole week!  Together, we will take the kids through the optimal learning model, every step of the way.  Can you tell I am excited?!  (This is a rhetorical question :) )

Just like Nancy, I have been emailing the teachers on and off for a month or so.  A couple of weeks ago, they decided on their writing genres.  One class will do free verse poetry and the other, book reviews.  Our next step was to decide on the audience we would be writing for and an authentic purpose for writing.  One of the key elements of Regie Routman's approach to writing is that there is an authentic purpose for writing and a real audience and both are shared with students from the outset.  When they know these two things, they care more about the writing and are therefore more engaged and committed to the project.
So here is what we have decided:

Grade 2
Genre: Free verse poetry
Purpose: Kids writing poetry for kids.  We think there is not enough of it in the world and believe that kids would like to read poetry written by other kids. We are going to publish a book of poetry for our classroom library and school library.
Audience: Students in our classroom and school.

Grade 3
Genre: Book reviews
Purpose: Our reviews are going to be published on a bulletin board near our classroom library.  We want to share great books we have read with others.
Audience: Students in our class.

Another key to Regie's approach is the importance of frontloading.  I think of this as experiences the writers will need in advance of actually writing themselves.  Both teachers have spent some time in the last week or two providing their students with some experiences that will set them up for success.

Grade 2
The teacher first asked students what they knew about poetry all ready.  I have not yet seen this chart but my hunch is that one of the things they knew was that poetry must rhyme.  Then she  read many free verse poems, written by both adults and children, to them.  And of course, they talked.

Grade 3
The teacher shared book reviews of some books she had used as Read Alouds and how they had helped her make book choices.  She also shared some student written reviews (spahettibookclub.org).  From these samples they began a list of what can be included in a book review which will become our criteria later in the week.  Each student has also selected two books that they might like to review.

Monday afternoon, the frontloading continues with a sharing of what they have already learned and the first stage of the Optimal Learning Model (OLM) ... the "I do it".  Think gradual release of responsibility and you will know that this is the modelling or demonstration done by the teacher.  This is not new, many of you have been writing in front of your students for years.  What is clearer to me now though, is that sharing my thinking as a writer is as important as doing the writing.  Showing them what a writer does and thinks, and why they do it.  Not just telling them.

In our email exchange today, I shared some goals I have for tomorrow:

Grade 2 writers will:

• know the audience and purpose of our writing
• see and talk about how poetry is different from other kinds of writing
• see how a writer thinks about choosing a topic for a poem
• see and talk about how you keep yourself going as a writer: stretching out words, checking word walls/personal dictionaries, trying it and moving on
• see that writers think and change their minds

Grade 3 writers will:

•  know the audience and purpose for our book reviews
• see a model of a book review written with a specific purpose and audience in mind
• see and hear that a writer thinks about their message and their audience
• see (and soon understand) that writers think and change their minds as they write
• talk about what they see
• notice what is important in a book review

Stay tuned.  My hope is that I write, even briefly, about what we do and learn each day.  

The Power of Words...and Pictures

I recently received an email from a friend who is also an educator.  The email included a link to a clip on You Tube.  I am sharing this clip with you in what will likely be my shortest post...ever.  After you see the clip, there will be no need for explanation or questions about connections you are making.

So that means I need to say what I want to say before you get to the clip.  :)   (I know, I know, you could skip the book and go straight to the movie) In a previous post, I wrote about Opening Minds by Peter Johnston. This book that has stayed with me all year.  Johnston describes language as the teacher's most valuable tool.  We can use it to open our student's minds, to help them see reading, writing, mathematics, art, music, physical activity, recess, friendship, even themselves, in a new way.

As this term, and this year, come to an end, I am asking myself if there are things, ideas, people that I might see in another way.  Can I use the power of words to make my life richer?  Can I use the power of words to help a student or a colleague?



The Power of Words

Stars and Steps

It is report card season.  I know this is not news to you.  I don't even really think you will read this until after... I just want you to remember that there is an after.  :)

 I am getting ready for the "after".  One of the ways I am preparing is returning my thinking to assessment for learning.  Helping me in this quest is the September issue of Educational Leadership magazine.  It is my current reading material for the often joked about, but true story, that I read magazine articles while blow drying my hair.  And some of you have asked how I fit everything in!

September's issue is called Feedback for Learning.  The article I read this morning was by Jan Chappuis and the title says it all, "How Am I Doing?" All of the articles (four) I have read so far make the point that the giving of feedback isn't what causes learning, it is the acting upon it. (Ames, 1992; Black & Wiliam, 1998; Hattie & Timperley, 2007)  The brain that does the most work does the most learning.

Chappuis describes five characteristics of effective feedback.  None of it is brand new to us but it is a nice, concise list:

1. Strengths are pointed out as well as specific information for improvement.
2. It is given during the learning, while changes can still be made.
3. Feedback doesn't work if the student has no understanding of the concept.  That requires more instruction.
4. It leaves thinking for the students to do.
5. It is limited to an amount the student can reasonably act on.

In writing about the first point, the author shares a new take on an old idea.  At least it is a new twist for me.  Remember 3 Stars and a Wish?  The word wish just never did it for me, or my students for that matter.  To them "wish" conjured up visions of winning the lottery or going to Disneyland.  Chappuis (Chappuis, Jan. Seven Strategies of assessment for learning (1st ed., p. 80), 2009) calls her form Stars and Stairs.  I am adapting this slightly to Stars and Steps.  I like the image of next steps and use that language with kids all the time.  The form in the magazine looks like this:

Anne Davies often says,"Adapt, don't adopt." Applying that adage, I would change the name as previously mentioned and I might just switch out the steps for a couple of cute little footprints!

The fourth point makes me think of something we have learned through our residency with Regie Routman and her associate, Nancy McLean.  Chappuis uses an example that Nancy also showed in editing conferences with our writers.  Instead of doing all of the work for them, show them where they need to do some editing, but leave them to figure out what needs to be changed.  Routman calls what she expects them to do "The Non-Negotiables".  It is a co-created list of the things she can reasonably expect most of them to take care of during the editing stage:

• Sentences beginning with capital letters
• Sentences ending with punctuation
• Words I expect you to know spelled correctly

When they bring writing that is to be published they must have tried these things first.  Then she makes dots like in the picture below to show them where they still have work to do.  Each dot represents one of the non-negotiables that they have not attended to.

                                                       (excerpted from the article)

And then, when she thinks each child has done what they can, Regie takes care of the rest.  She explains to them that all writers have an editor. (Even the writer of Captain Underpants!)

Just a note of thanks to Rod Epp who graciously helped me learn some new skills to use in this blog.  I try not to ask the same question twice but I seem to be a very curious person.  :)

What Counts?

Over the past couple of months, many of you have had conversations about what counts in your classrooms.  Fall is a time when we establish those routines and build the community that will sustain us through the year.  I have overheard and participated in many diverse conversations including:

• What counts in lining up, cleaning up or sitting on the carpet?
• What is important to us in working together?
• How do you choose a just right book?
• What kind of classroom community do we want to be?
• What counts in taking care of our classroom library?
• What counts in thinking like a reader, writer, mathematician... ?

As you co-construct these various criteria with your students you start to define quality for the year.  Quality in terms of the ways you will take care of each other, the ways in which you will think and learn together and quality in the way specific tasks and activities are done.

I no longer work on a daily basis with children.  I work with you.  Together we form communities of learners.  In many of our school-based professional learning communities (PLCs) we have co-constructed criteria for what counts in a PLC.  There are many variations but the following list gets at most of them.

What counts in a quality professional learning community?

Safe Place

·       Feeling safe to share ideas/concerns

·       Saying what you want…without ridicule

·       Taking risks

·       Encouragement

Reflection

·       Time to reflect

·       Risk-taking

·       Provide safe, loving environment

·       Comfort in participating

·       Supportive and welcoming

·       Review/reinforce/reflect

Respect

·       Respect for each other

·       Mutual respect for ideas

·       Respect others opinions

Teamwork

·       Passion for learning together

·       Collaboration – ask questions, share ideas

·       Collaboration

·       Humour

·       Collaboration and teamwork

Goal Oriented

·       Must have a clear goal

·       Relevance

·       Must be purposeful

Open Communication

·       Open communication

·       Active engaged listeners

·       Everyone has a voice

I have also done some reading into what research has to say about what contributes to quality professional learning.  Here is my list so far.

Quality professional learning :

• is responsive to teachers' needs and goals
• is sustained over time and involves a substantial number of hours
• is focussed on group participation; professional learning as a community and in a community
• is job-embedded: integrated into the daily life of the school
• is directly linked to student learning
• provides opportunities for teachers to become actively engaged
• is connected to a wider context: school goals, divisional priorities, provincial curriculum, validated practices
• encourages communication between teachers
• enhances knowledge and skills
• leads to change in classroom practice

My professional growth plan goal this year is to collect evidence that I facilitate or contribute to quality professional learning.  Before I can start collecting evidence, I need to clearly define quality. My professional inquiry questions are:

What counts in quality professional learning?
Which criteria apply to me as facilitator and co-learner?
What evidence might I collect to self-assess?

My next step is to look at the criteria various PLCs have created, consider what researchers have had to say, and then, categorize my final list.

Your input would be greatly appreciated.  If you know of something I should read, or if you want to pass on something that I should add to my list, please comment here or send me an email or tell me the next time I see you.

Summer Reading

Most of you know about my serious reading addiction.  As addictions go... it is relatively harmless.  The biggest casualties are sleep (as in sacrificing it for reading) and money.  And the fact that I can never change my hairstyle because I read magazine articles while I blow dry my hair. I did tell you it was a serious problem.

What better way to relaunch my blog than with a book talk about my favourite summer reads.  I know that we all make decisions about how we use our available time and I make no judgements about that.  I offer the following as recommendations from a co-learner, one who may have more time for reading than you do, one for whom reading and talking about books is pure joy, and one for whom learning starts between the covers of a book.  And, here's where you come in, one who needs to reflect, write and talk about her reading to really understand it.

Best Professional Read of the Summer

Opening Minds, Peter Johnston, 2012 

I can't, and maybe shouldn't, stop thinking about this book.  It was recommended by Regie Routman at a symposium I attended in June.  When Regie Routman recommends a book, I read it.  Like Johnston's

previous  book, Choice Words, this book is about what he describes as our most powerful teaching tool: language.  

The main premise of the book is that as educators our language choices have huge impact on children's learning and who they become.  Johnston describes how language contributes to the development of either a fixed learning frame or a dynamic learning frame.  If you know of psychologist Carol Dweck's research, this may sound familiar to you.  In her book Mindset, Dweck characterizes people as having either a fixed or a growth mindset.  

Both writers describe those with a fixed frame or mindset as believing that you are either smart, or not, able to regulate your own behaviour, or not, able to change, or not.  Those with a dynamic learning frame believe that with effort, practice and strategies they will grow, learn and change.  

Those with a fixed learning frame:

• Believe that when you do well you must be smart
• Avoid challenging tasks
• Abandon strategies that previously worked when faced with challenge
• End result is most important
• Only worthy when doing well

Those with a dynamic learning frame:

• Believe that when you do well you must have worked hard
• Embrace challenge
• Act and think strategically especially when difficulty is encountered
• Process is most important
• Worth not contingent upon always succeeding

After laying out this framework, Johnston poses a question:

How might we encourage a dynamic learning framework?

He has several answers to this question, most focussing on the language we use:

• How we give feedback.  He recommends using descriptive feedback rather than praise.  We have talked a lot about descriptive feedback in terms of assessment for  learning.  In chapter 4 he makes the case that it affects not only their understanding of the task or process they are getting the feedback on but their view of how learning works and their place within it.  
• How we frame activities.  Instead of All the Words I Know we write All the Words I Know Now. One small word with huge implications.
• Give the message over and over that we as people should expect to change.  In order to develop agency, the notion that they have some control over their learning and their lives, children must believe that things are changeable. 
• Ask questions like, "How did you know that?, "How did you do that?", and "What are you thinking?".  We've been doing this but from Johnston I have learned that it does way more that I could ever have hoped for.
• Chapters including: 

Any Other Ways to Think about That? Inquiry, Dialogue, Uncertainty and Difference

Social Imagination ( seeing behaviour through fixed and dynamic frames )

Moral Agency: Moral Development and Civic Engagement

Who might want to read this book?

• An individual or group wanting a book study guaranteed to provoke thought and conversation
• An individual or group with an interest in assessment for learning
• An individual or group with an interest in social responsibility or social justice
• An individual or group with an interest in literacy
• An individual or group with an interest in inquiry

I know what you're thinking.  

You're thinking, " How could one 124 page book reach that many groups?".  

My answer would be that this book is now in my top 3, all-time, must-read, life-altering (makes me think  about my own kids differently), foundational- to -my -beliefs, books.  

And yes... you can borrow my copy. 

Celebration of the Year That Was

Have you been asked yet if the year has started to wind down?

Of course to be asked this question you must have connections with people who are not in education.  No one in the business would ask you this.  They already know that it doesn't wind down.  It speeds up and spits you out on June 30, throwing you  against a brick wall that it takes most of the first week of July to peel yourself off of.

Trust me, I am not complaining.  I wouldn't dare.  My husband of 28 years (and we dated for 5!)  is still bitter that I get the summer off.  I love the summer and have not worked one since I was 21, but I am quiet about that.  It is a gift of epic and biblical proportions (source Sandra Herbst) ... I know that.  I also know that the ebb and flow of the school year, the start and stop that we do is both the greatest thing about being a teacher and one of the worst things about being a teacher.  The great thing is that we get to start all over again next year. The terrifying thing is that  we get to start all over again next year.  But before we do that, let's celebrate this year.  Let's really give this year it's due before we figure out how we're going to do it so much better next year.

So as the 2010-11 school year comes to a close, what are you celebrating?  Here are some of the things I am celebrating:

• Collaboration: When  I started teaching you shut your door and did your job. At least you hoped you were doing your job. And you wondered what others might be doing behind their closed doors.  Now, if we can only embrace it, we can actually learn from colleagues.  We can talk in PLCs, observe each other and learn together.  

• The great books I have found and shared this year: I can't thank you enough for indulging my passion for reading aloud.  You let me read to your kids and you let me read to you and for that I am eternally grateful.  From Lucy Calkins I learned that part of my calling is to care so much for great literature that others will care too.  

• Book Cafe: For seven years a group of teachers has come together once a month, after school to talk informally about a professional book.  The group membership has varied a bit from year to year, has had very small numbers to astounding numbers, has read literacy books, math books, inquiry books and books focused on the importance of play.  But even the custodians know, when you see those checkered tablecloths, something important is happening.  :) 

• The math conversation has changed:  We are not having the same conversations we had five years ago.  Together we have figured out what teaching through problem solving looks like.

• The excitement many of you are expressing about the Daily 5:  We must get you together.  Such a range of teachers has been inspired by this book.  So many of you have come together to talk about this and to share ideas and to question.  

• The Regie Routman Writing Project:  We began with four schools, Polson, SMP, Prince Edward and John de Graff and lots of talk about the reading/writing connection.  The learnings about what the gradual release of responsibility really looked like in writing... I do it, we do it, we do it, we do it...you do it  really inspired our teaching.

• The writing residency we had at John de Graff: Nancy McLean, a colleague of Regie Routman's and a big part of my last post, showed us what writing for real purpose and audience did for young writers.  She also demonstrated the power of celebrating writers.  

• Reading Recovery:  We have two training groups at our training site next year and many more teachers in classrooms with this training.  This can only mean good things for our youngest learners.

• ENIP:  Our second year in all 27 schools and all Kindergarten and Grade 1 students given the opportunity to have extra help in developing number sense.  

• Andrea:  The best partner a person could have.  Someone who has your back, finishes your sentences and extends your thinking.

• All of you:  You allow me to participate, eavesdrop and sometimes lead your professional conversations.  It is an honour and a privilege to work alongside you.  You know I love books so many of you share children's books, professional books and personal reading materials with me.  You invite me into your classrooms,  you ask my opinion, you ask me questions.  You don't expect me to have all the answers.  You just accept that I am a co-learner who cares about you and your kids.  What a job.  

Have a great summer.  Take care of yourself and the people you love.  

As they say in the song, see you in September.

Oh What a Week...

Last week I saw the transformative power of writing. I saw kids learning that writing has the power to change the world. I saw teachers exploring the power of students writing for real purposes and audiences. In a nutshell, I saw power.

And I want you to see it too.

Four of our schools have been engaged in the Regie Routman Project. A project that started in March 2010 with a session given by Regie Routman, renowned literacy teacher, coach and writer. Since then, the four schools have been meeting regularly in professional learning communities (PLCs) to view videos of Regie Routman teaching writing, trying out her process, sharing student writing and what they are trying in their classes. The piece de la resistance occurred during the week of May 22 when we had Regie and two of her colleagues in Winnipeg for a residency.

John de Graff School was the hub school for our division.

For four days they hosted Nancy McLean, a literacy coach from Colorado mentored by Regie

Routman.

For four days they welcomed visitors from the other schools in the project to observe Nancy
teaching poetry writing in Grade 2 and persuasive writing in Grade 4/3.(Thanks to the
participants in our June Combined Classes Network who taught me to say it this way!)

For four days we were immersed in the power writing has to transform the students sitting in
front of us.

It was a magical four days.

What made it magical?

Nancy McLean, a most beautiful,skilled,respectful and generous teacher. I think it took all of five minutes for us... students, teachers, administrators and visitors, to fall in love with her.

John de Graff School for creating such a wonderful, welcoming and collaborative climate for us all. We laughed, we cried, we learned.

Ruth Gauvreau and Heather Fraser, the two teachers who shared their classrooms, their community of writers and their learning and thinking with us. Thank you.

The amazing Grade two poets who listened with poet ears and saw with poet eyes (their words, not mine)and wrote with an audience of twenty plus teachers.

The Grade 4/3 writers who wrote persuasive letters on topics of deep consequence to them... and granted us the privilege of listening in, in fact, were so engaged in those topics that they appeared to forget we were even there. More than twenty of us.

Most magical of all was watching Nancy with the children. Three things really stood out for me:

Having real purpose and real audience to write for is not as hard as I thought and is so much more valuable than I ever imagined.

Before the students began writing, Nancy told them that they were going to make a poetry anthology. She then asked them who they wanted to give a copy of the anthology to. They made a list that included teachers in the school, their parents, Grade 2 students from Colorado (Nancy's home)and libraries around the world. When you are writing for that kind of audience, you do not ask how long it should be. You just write.

In Heather's class they were writing persuasive letters on something they really cared about. The topics ranged from the personal to the global and will be mailed to the person or organization most directly. When you are writing to persuade someone to build more shelters for the homeless or to your grandmother to tell her how much you love her and wish she would stop smoking, a great lead, word choice and getting your sentences in the right order really matter.


A public scaffolded conference is another "we do it"

Regie Routman uses what she calls the Optimal Learning Model in her teaching. Our Balanced Literacy Framework was informed by her model and both are based on the gradual release of responsibility. Regie describes it as "I do it", "we do it, we do it, we do it..." , "you do it." After modeling a poem for the students, Nancy had a public scaffolded conference with one student. In this conference she asked the student what she thought she might write a poem about. She asked questions to help the writer focus more clearly on what she wanted to say and she jotted a few notes down on a sticky to help her remember. The whole time she kept asking the others if they were thinking about what they might write about or if they were getting ideas they might try.

Celebrating writers is not something you dabble in.

Before seeing Nancy, I thought I celebrated children and their writing. Now I know I was a mere amateur. When Nancy celebrates your writing you know you have been celebrated. After students had written their first pieces with her she began the next session with 3-4 celebration conferences. She read each piece four to six times and celebrated line by line. The writers were practically levitating in the chair next to her. Quoting Regie, Nancy told us you can't celebrate too much. She also pointed out that you are teaching while you celebrate, drawing attention to all of the things you want your writers to do.

The young writers at John de Graff learned about the transformative power of writing in that week. The power of writing to change the world.

I learned about the power of the writing teacher to transform the writer.