Writing Best Practices
Writing is not simply a way for students to demonstrate what they know. It is a way to help them understand what they know.
What are the best practices? Why??
As Resource Teacher, I don’t spend any time teaching in the Writers Workshop. I tend to focus on the science of writing. Can the student write in complete sentences? Does it make sense? Spelling? Handwriting? What accommodations does the student need to do Workshop in class?
Over the last couple of weeks, I have had parents ask me about writing. I have never really thought about the best practices in writing and how to guide teachers to build them into their writing practices.
The effective teaching of writing involves all three of these learning experiences, with an emphasis on the writer’s craft, the use of high-quality writing exemplars, time for classroom writing practice and thoughtful reflection before, during, and after the writing.
5. Write regularly across the curriculum and grade levels by:
6.Arrange for students to have a constructive response to their writing and to offer a response to other writers by:
It is not that most students who just use a form cannot write; it is that they cannot write at the level that today’s businesses and colleges expect. Writing which is purposeful reflects insight into the writing situation and demonstrates a mature command of language.
While a formula may be useful for beginning writers who need scaffolding in organizational techniques and in the crafting of elaboration, it should not be an outcome expectation for student writers at any grade level.
Students need the art of writing to encourage student engagement with the text. This learning and practicing an array of organizational writing patterns also encourages higher order thinking. Teachers who teach a menu of organizational patterns, along with each pattern’s linking expressions and signal words, implicitly help students make sense of the ideas they want to express. Among these patterns are chronological order, comparison-contrast, description, concept/definition, and process/ cause-effect. Creative, thoughtful modes of writing may be developed through the use of these patterns– modes such as the personal essay, research report, autobiography, feature news article or editorial, as well as, the short story or poem.
Providing models of the art and craft of writing by excellent writers for student imitation is considered a best practice.
Like all Best Practices--it's about knowing your students and what they need to do their best work. With writing, the challenge is balancing the art and science of writing is required to create powerful, college ready writers.
Chat soon,
What are the best practices? Why??
As Resource Teacher, I don’t spend any time teaching in the Writers Workshop. I tend to focus on the science of writing. Can the student write in complete sentences? Does it make sense? Spelling? Handwriting? What accommodations does the student need to do Workshop in class?
Over the last couple of weeks, I have had parents ask me about writing. I have never really thought about the best practices in writing and how to guide teachers to build them into their writing practices.
The effective teaching of writing involves all three of these learning experiences, with an emphasis on the writer’s craft, the use of high-quality writing exemplars, time for classroom writing practice and thoughtful reflection before, during, and after the writing.
Best practices in Writing
1.Establish a positive atmosphere for writing, reading, and learning by:- Creating an inviting classroom with flexible seating, accessible resources, and attractive surroundings
- Modeling respect
- Sharing the teacher’s own writing with students
- Establishing routines and expectations
- Setting up a writing workshop routine which convenes every day of the week
- Using writer’s notebooks/portfolios
- Teaching writer’s craft techniques based on an understanding of the writing process and student writing needs
- Promoting student choice and ownership for both fiction and nonfiction writing
- Providing opportunities for authentic writing
- Giving reading an integral role in the writing classroom
- Providing diverse reading materials modeling the importance of craft and idea
5. Write regularly across the curriculum and grade levels by:
- Collaborating on assignments among content area teachers
- Sharing writing rubrics across grade levels and subject areas
6.Arrange for students to have a constructive response to their writing and to offer a response to other writers by:
- Making teacher and peer response a part of writing instruction
- Providing class time for revision
- Responding intermittently throughout the writing process, not only after the final draft
- Using many techniques to respond to student’s writing
- Using collaboration techniques such as furniture placement, modeling collaboration, providing checklists and forms, and organizing writing pairs or small groups
- Providing guidelines and demonstrations of appropriate student interactions and creating specific tasks for students to accomplish during their collaborations
- Choosing writer’s craft lessons that relate to students’ needs
- Structuring mini-lessons so students can observe, discuss, and simulate the targeted writing craft lessons or skills
- Providing specific responses to these simulated practices
How do I all of this in Workshop Model?
1.WRITING ALOUD- Teacher demonstrates
- Teacher models aloud what they are doing, thinking and rethinking while writing, rereading and revising a draft
- Teacher talks aloud about topics such as appropriate writing mode - narrative, expository, persuasive; spacing needs; organizational patterns and transition words; writer’s craft lessons such as persuasive details of statistics and expert opinion; effective repetition
- Teacher points out skills such as spelling conventions, punctuation needs, vocabulary choices, sentence structures, revision techniques
- Teacher and class compose aloud, collaboratively
- Both negotiate topics, purposes, and word choice with each other
- Teacher acts as scribe and encourages all students to participate
- Teacher provides explicit questioning and directions, encouraging high-level thinking on focus, support, organization, language use/ conventions, writer’s craft
- Core of the program – whole class, small group, or individualized
- Student writes and teacher guides
- Explicit teaching in form of mini-lessons for reinforcement of skills depicted in shared writing or for the introduction of new writer’s craft lessons
- Rubric development and review conferences take place along with peer response and sharing
- Writing may be responses to literature; authentic responses; relating to information/ reports; description of classroom experiences; personal reflections; writing to learn in content areas
- Writing activities are embedded each day
- Students work alone, using their current knowledge of writing process, often choosing own topics
- Occurs daily in writer’s workshop format
- Teacher and student monitor through daily log journals, conferences, teacher feedback
Balanced Writing Workshop?
How do these four components look in the classroom?- Reading-writing connection - tying together books being read aloud and/or studied in class to writing lessons and research reports/projects
- Meaningful print-rich environment – using labels, posters, captions where they catch student’s attention and serve a purpose for writing; literacy centers at K-5 such as post office, supermarket, bookstore, office, kitchen; real-world assignments
- Teacher modeling – regularly modeling aloud the drafting of narratives, leads, poetry, punctuation conventions, along with writing in response to reading assignments
- Real purposes and audiences – providing students time to write each day about topics they have knowledge of and care about, using rubrics which describe levels of achievement
- Writer’s craft – specifically teaching the techniques of writing such as the importance of audience, the use of dialogue, connotative and sensory language, parallel sentence structures
- Writing various genres – producing picture books, recipes, brochures, essays, social studies reports, movie reviews, website reviews, letters to the editor, book reviews, memoirs
- Emphasis on revision – revising pieces thoughtfully over time—not a new piece of writing each day
- Conferencing– keeping a log or portfolio on each student’s writing progress
- Spelling and vocabulary – connecting both to writing, reading and language use (Spelling should be part of writing)
- Sentence structure and conventions – practicing in context, using mini-lessons, not isolated skills sheets.
Caveats Regarding Two Teaching Practices
Teaching just the science of writing is the first area of concern. Too often, the science writing leads to mediocre, dull writing where student engagement with the text is absent.It is not that most students who just use a form cannot write; it is that they cannot write at the level that today’s businesses and colleges expect. Writing which is purposeful reflects insight into the writing situation and demonstrates a mature command of language.
While a formula may be useful for beginning writers who need scaffolding in organizational techniques and in the crafting of elaboration, it should not be an outcome expectation for student writers at any grade level.
Students need the art of writing to encourage student engagement with the text. This learning and practicing an array of organizational writing patterns also encourages higher order thinking. Teachers who teach a menu of organizational patterns, along with each pattern’s linking expressions and signal words, implicitly help students make sense of the ideas they want to express. Among these patterns are chronological order, comparison-contrast, description, concept/definition, and process/ cause-effect. Creative, thoughtful modes of writing may be developed through the use of these patterns– modes such as the personal essay, research report, autobiography, feature news article or editorial, as well as, the short story or poem.
Providing models of the art and craft of writing by excellent writers for student imitation is considered a best practice.
Like all Best Practices--it's about knowing your students and what they need to do their best work. With writing, the challenge is balancing the art and science of writing is required to create powerful, college ready writers.
Chat soon,
Intervention Over? Now What?
My students love when they set short-term goals. They love the thrill of the race. Of beating themselves. Of winning. These goals come from their IEP goals--broken down to a small chunk and most importantly student created. I also do six to eight weeks. It really depends on when our breaks are. This first one is 6 weeks and is rapidly coming to a close.
I started collecting the end of intervention data to review. I want to give you a closer look as to what I do and the decisions I make for the next intervention.
Step 1: Collate your data
If you remember, I get all the data for my interventions on a Google Sheet. (To catch how I set up this intervention click here) I start by going back to my original data and updating it with the new data.
As you can see, I added three new pieces of data, student's new baseline, the new gap, and the raw data change from the baseline.
In this case, I also color-coded the gap information. I did this to better see where the new gaps are and to see how well this intervention worked in closing those gaps.
Each student has their own graph. I also make sure I have up to date graph information.
Each graph has a trendline. By trendlines, I can see who over is activity closing their gaps faster than the goal line.
With these two pieces of data, I can make decisions about next steps.
Step 2: I've Got My Data--Now What
ALWAYS--Stick to FACT based statements, when talking about data. This helps me avoid student specific problems and opinions. (ie; they are slow, they are not working hard etc.)
*Students 1, 2, & 5 have gaps larger than 6.
*Students 1 & 2 had single-digit growth.
*Students 3, 4, 5, 6 had double-digit growth
*Everyone had growth.
*Average growth was 45 up from 32.
The Graphs:
*I look for trends: where is the score is (blue line) related to the trendline (pink line) and the Goal Line (yellow line).
I pay close attention to where these lines meet the Goal (red line). Is it before Week 19 or after?
*This matters, when determining if they are closing their gaps fast enough.
*Remember, the point is to move students more than a year. How long it may take them to close gaps is key to thinking about whether the intervention was successful for the student.
With this intervention, 3 students had great success, 2 students didn't, and 1 who it was moderately successful for.
Step 3: Analyze the Root Cause
(It takes at least five WHYs to get to a root cause) (You may find you need more information like a reading level, fluency data, etc. BUT stick to the FACTS.)
WHY: Student's need more encounters with sight words
WHY: Student's have the easy sight words but don't know what to do with the more difficult ones
WHY: Students are not connecting sight words from text to text
WHY: Sight word knowledge is not carrying over to Grade level Oral Reading Fluency
WHY: Students need more practice besides decodable repeated readings, individual flashcard rings, and instructional book reading.
Analysis:
*Keep intervention structure
*Change up: add extra practice to build the first 50 words
*Keep intervention cycle to 4 weeks
*Ensure Reading Mastery lessons are being completed with fidelity!
To Do over the next 4 weeks:
*Give all students a Phonics screener
*Complete an Error Analysis on Oral Reading Fluency
The why's are always hard but it helps you drill down to what needs to be changed. You also see--I have a list of things I need to do before the next cycle is over. These ideas fell out as I looked at the data--the big wondering "Is this a phonics thing?" Well, I don't have the right data to answer that question. If you find this to be your problem--then figure out your timeline to get the information you need and get it. But don't let it hold you up!! If you missed how I created this intervention you can check it out here.
Here is what the next four weeks of Sight Word Intervention:
*I will add an additional 4 weeks.
*I will add basic sight word books for the 3 students who made little growth.
*I will add exposure to more difficult sight words to all students based on the data from the grade level reading fluency.
*I will have a teammate come and observe a Reading Mastery lesson to ensure fidelity.
I hope you see how I work through my data at the end of an intervention and make changes to support students for the next four weeks. Send a shoutout on how your interventions are going and share any questions.
Chat Soon,
I started collecting the end of intervention data to review. I want to give you a closer look as to what I do and the decisions I make for the next intervention.
Step 1: Collate your data
As you can see, I added three new pieces of data, student's new baseline, the new gap, and the raw data change from the baseline.
In this case, I also color-coded the gap information. I did this to better see where the new gaps are and to see how well this intervention worked in closing those gaps.
Each student has their own graph. I also make sure I have up to date graph information.
Each graph has a trendline. By trendlines, I can see who over is activity closing their gaps faster than the goal line.
With these two pieces of data, I can make decisions about next steps.
Step 2: I've Got My Data--Now What
ALWAYS--Stick to FACT based statements, when talking about data. This helps me avoid student specific problems and opinions. (ie; they are slow, they are not working hard etc.)
*Students 1 & 2 had single-digit growth.
*Students 3, 4, 5, 6 had double-digit growth
*Everyone had growth.
*Average growth was 45 up from 32.
The Graphs:
*I look for trends: where is the score is (blue line) related to the trendline (pink line) and the Goal Line (yellow line).
I pay close attention to where these lines meet the Goal (red line). Is it before Week 19 or after?
*This matters, when determining if they are closing their gaps fast enough.
*Remember, the point is to move students more than a year. How long it may take them to close gaps is key to thinking about whether the intervention was successful for the student.
With this intervention, 3 students had great success, 2 students didn't, and 1 who it was moderately successful for.
Step 3: Analyze the Root Cause
(It takes at least five WHYs to get to a root cause) (You may find you need more information like a reading level, fluency data, etc. BUT stick to the FACTS.)
WHY: Student's need more encounters with sight words
WHY: Student's have the easy sight words but don't know what to do with the more difficult ones
WHY: Students are not connecting sight words from text to text
WHY: Sight word knowledge is not carrying over to Grade level Oral Reading Fluency
WHY: Students need more practice besides decodable repeated readings, individual flashcard rings, and instructional book reading.
Analysis:
*Keep intervention structure
*Change up: add extra practice to build the first 50 words
*Keep intervention cycle to 4 weeks
*Ensure Reading Mastery lessons are being completed with fidelity!
To Do over the next 4 weeks:
*Give all students a Phonics screener
*Complete an Error Analysis on Oral Reading Fluency
The why's are always hard but it helps you drill down to what needs to be changed. You also see--I have a list of things I need to do before the next cycle is over. These ideas fell out as I looked at the data--the big wondering "Is this a phonics thing?" Well, I don't have the right data to answer that question. If you find this to be your problem--then figure out your timeline to get the information you need and get it. But don't let it hold you up!! If you missed how I created this intervention you can check it out here.
Here is what the next four weeks of Sight Word Intervention:
*I will add an additional 4 weeks.
*I will add basic sight word books for the 3 students who made little growth.
*I will add exposure to more difficult sight words to all students based on the data from the grade level reading fluency.
*I will have a teammate come and observe a Reading Mastery lesson to ensure fidelity.
I hope you see how I work through my data at the end of an intervention and make changes to support students for the next four weeks. Send a shoutout on how your interventions are going and share any questions.
Chat Soon,
How I Use John Hattie to Create Interventions?
I have come to love John Hattie's work on student achievement. It makes creating small group interventions super easy and effective. Its a resource a have come to use more and more as my budget gets smaller and helps me create something super specific to meet the needs of my ever-changing students with ease.
John Hattie has done the heavy lifting--researching some 200 influences on student achievement. The key is to look for ideas and not get caught up in the everything. You're looking for ideas that have been found to have the greatest effect size (the closer to 1 the better)
When I use Hattie to create interventions, I keep a couple of ideas in mind. I keep the ideas from Hattie to no more than 5, the intervention to 6 to 8 weeks, and very specific data collection.
Ideas from Hattie:
These 4 influences play different roles in my intervention. Direct Instruction comes from SRA's Reading Mastery--this is the backbone of my instruction (bonus here is its research-based). Goals are set in two different ways-1) learning targets are a building requirement and 2) everyone set a SMART goal for sight words and reading fluency before the intervention started.
The nature of Reading Mastery is the immediate and actionable feedback is a lesson given but where does it come for sight words and reading fluency. For both, it is tied to repeated readings. After cold reads, students practice with an adult model before being timed each day.
Intervention:
This intervention is only set for six weeks. Why? It's long enough to make a couple of changes but short enough not to let half the year go by without seeing if its closing gaps.
Data Collection:
This intervention has four data points. Some data is collected daily and others once a week.
Sight word data is collected daily--as a repeated reading and as an exit ticket. The exit ticket words are reviewed weekly to see if students are progressing towards their goal.
Sight word data is also collected when they play games to see what carryover looks like.
Goal Line is IEP goal not the student set goal.
I also do trendlines more for me than my students. But having everything in graphs means I can look at it and see if they are moving up or if I need to change things up.
I also collect reading fluency data. The grade level data is graphed. The repeated reading data is kept in their binders as they collect it and maintain the data. These goal lines make sense as they are working toward IEP goals.
I have all this data now what?
Reflect.
Reflect on the positives. Look at what needs to be changed.
Often you don't need to toss out the whole kitchen sink when putting the trashing the bin will work.
This intervention has at least 5 more weeks before it ends. Which gives me time to change things up if I need to.
Repeated Reading tell me if a student needs to spend more time with specific sight words. The same is true with the repeated readings they do with sight word heavy decodable text--if it needs to be more challenging.
Or if I need to look at an error analysis to see what changes need to be made to the overall intervention.
I'd love to hear how you set up your small group interventions. Where are your successes? Where do you need some help? I'd love to hear about your interventions.
Chat soon,
John Hattie has done the heavy lifting--researching some 200 influences on student achievement. The key is to look for ideas and not get caught up in the everything. You're looking for ideas that have been found to have the greatest effect size (the closer to 1 the better)
When I use Hattie to create interventions, I keep a couple of ideas in mind. I keep the ideas from Hattie to no more than 5, the intervention to 6 to 8 weeks, and very specific data collection.
Welcome to my Classroom
Here's a view of how I created an intervention to meet sight word and reading fluency goals.Ideas from Hattie:
- Direct Instruction
- Feedback
- Repeated Reading
- Goals
These 4 influences play different roles in my intervention. Direct Instruction comes from SRA's Reading Mastery--this is the backbone of my instruction (bonus here is its research-based). Goals are set in two different ways-1) learning targets are a building requirement and 2) everyone set a SMART goal for sight words and reading fluency before the intervention started.
The nature of Reading Mastery is the immediate and actionable feedback is a lesson given but where does it come for sight words and reading fluency. For both, it is tied to repeated readings. After cold reads, students practice with an adult model before being timed each day.
Intervention:
This intervention is only set for six weeks. Why? It's long enough to make a couple of changes but short enough not to let half the year go by without seeing if its closing gaps.
Data Collection:
This intervention has four data points. Some data is collected daily and others once a week.
Sight word data is collected daily--as a repeated reading and as an exit ticket. The exit ticket words are reviewed weekly to see if students are progressing towards their goal.
Sight word data is also collected when they play games to see what carryover looks like.
Goal Line is IEP goal not the student set goal.
I also do trendlines more for me than my students. But having everything in graphs means I can look at it and see if they are moving up or if I need to change things up.
I have all this data now what?
Reflect.
Reflect on the positives. Look at what needs to be changed.
Often you don't need to toss out the whole kitchen sink when putting the trashing the bin will work.
This intervention has at least 5 more weeks before it ends. Which gives me time to change things up if I need to.
Repeated Reading tell me if a student needs to spend more time with specific sight words. The same is true with the repeated readings they do with sight word heavy decodable text--if it needs to be more challenging.
Or if I need to look at an error analysis to see what changes need to be made to the overall intervention.
I'd love to hear how you set up your small group interventions. Where are your successes? Where do you need some help? I'd love to hear about your interventions.
Chat soon,
Classroom Strategies to Increase Student Achivement
Last year at a PLC with our RTI Coordinator and a grade level team, we began a dive into John Hattie. If you don’t know his research it’s like Robert Marzano but (I think) way, way cooler. (You can find out more about him from his book Visible Learning; he does tons with student achievement.) The data is super cool and geared towards finding strategies that give teachers the most bang for their buck when it comes to academic achievement.
In fact, Hattie found that most teachers have some degree of impact on their students’ learning. His strategies can be used regardless of the classroom. The impact is real and the greater the degree of impact the larger the results. These ideas are meant to become part of your classroom and become embedded into your classroom. (aka these take time and in some cases a whole year or more to see the results--but they work!) The closer to 1.0 the stronger the strategies.
Here are 8 Strategies that BOTH John Hattie and Robert Marzano agree with.
In your class, it looks like posted Learning Targets.
Direct Instruction involves explicitly teaching a carefully sequenced curriculum, with built-in cumulative practice.
Examples: SRA Reading Mastery or Fisher & Frey's Gradual Release of Responsibility
While it is essential to actively teach students what they need to know and be able to do, they also need to be actively engaged with the content.
Marzano and Hattie agree that this starts with students actively linking your newly provided information with their prior knowledge of the topic. Students need to engage with the content as soon as they hear it by:
This is your lesson plan flow. Using Exit Tickets to determine what they know and what you need to reteach.
It is important that you give your students feedback after they engage with any new material. This:
AKA: repeated readings, consistently review material, consistently practicing material
AKA: Project Based Learning, Student Voice & Choice on how they demonstrate their learning, Bloom's, Webb's Depth of Knowledge
The work of Hattie and Marzano have changed the way I create interventions. They are considered by many to have unique insights into what it takes to have a huge impact on student learning and best practices. Want more high yield strategies--check out this.
Like with all interventions, their ideas take time to see results in the classroom and need data to support putting them in place. Let me know what whole class interventions you have put in place to get big changes.
Chat Soon,
In fact, Hattie found that most teachers have some degree of impact on their students’ learning. His strategies can be used regardless of the classroom. The impact is real and the greater the degree of impact the larger the results. These ideas are meant to become part of your classroom and become embedded into your classroom. (aka these take time and in some cases a whole year or more to see the results--but they work!) The closer to 1.0 the stronger the strategies.
Here are 8 Strategies that BOTH John Hattie and Robert Marzano agree with.
Strategy 1: A Clear Focus for the Lesson
Both Hattie and Marzano highlight how important it is for you (and your students) to be clear about what you want them to learn in each lesson. According to Hattie, teacher clarity is one of the most potent influences on student achievement.In your class, it looks like posted Learning Targets.
Strategy 2: Offer Overt Instruction
AKA Direct InstructionDirect Instruction involves explicitly teaching a carefully sequenced curriculum, with built-in cumulative practice.
Examples: SRA Reading Mastery or Fisher & Frey's Gradual Release of Responsibility
Strategy 3: Get the Students to Engage With the Content
While it is essential to actively teach students what they need to know and be able to do, they also need to be actively engaged with the content.
Marzano and Hattie agree that this starts with students actively linking your newly provided information with their prior knowledge of the topic. Students need to engage with the content as soon as they hear it by:
- Adding it to what they already know, or
- Using it to clarify some of the faulty assumptions they currently hold
This is your lesson plan flow. Using Exit Tickets to determine what they know and what you need to reteach.
Strategy 4: Give Feedback
It is important that you give your students feedback after they engage with any new material. This:
- Highlighting what is right and wrong, or good and bad about their work
- Helping students to see how they can improve
Strategy 5: Multiple Exposures
If you want students to internalize new information, you need to expose them to it several times.AKA: repeated readings, consistently review material, consistently practicing material
Strategy 6: Have Students Apply Their Knowledge
Robert Marzano found that helping students apply their knowledge deepens their understanding.AKA: Project Based Learning, Student Voice & Choice on how they demonstrate their learning, Bloom's, Webb's Depth of Knowledge
Strategy 7: Get Students Working Together
Both agree that getting students to work with each other helps them to achieve better results. The use of cooperative learning groups adds value to whole-class instruction (d = 0.41) and to individual work (d = 0.59-0.78). (The closer to 1.0 the stronger the intervention)Strategy 8: Build Students’ Self-Efficacy
Self-efficacy refers to a student’s belief about their ability to successfully complete a task. It is situation specific. For example, a student may feel confident that they can dance well on stage but be insecure about public speaking or something they can't do yet! Build and support a Growth Mindset. I use picture books throughout the year to support growth mindsets. I love "Giraffes Can't Dance."The work of Hattie and Marzano have changed the way I create interventions. They are considered by many to have unique insights into what it takes to have a huge impact on student learning and best practices. Want more high yield strategies--check out this.
Like with all interventions, their ideas take time to see results in the classroom and need data to support putting them in place. Let me know what whole class interventions you have put in place to get big changes.
Chat Soon,
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