Six Traits Writing 3/28

Six Traits Writing can be beneficial in regards to teaching students how to write.  There are six traits that when combined can help students become successful in writing. The traits consist of Ideas, Organization, Voice, Word Choice, Sentence Fluency and Conventions. (The Components of Writing) When teaching about the Six Traits of writing, you can focus on one trait at a time and increase a student’s confidence.  It is kid-friendly and easily understood at a young age.  

The benefits of using Six Traits Writing is that it gives teachers and students a common language to use when conferencing about pieces.  Districts that adopt the program can form consistency between teacher to teacher or grade levels. It chunks up the writing process so that it become manageable.  Having a rubric that is scored by each trait helps students to know what is expected, or what is considered “quality” writing.  This also helps with building a solid foundation for revision and editing.  

I personally like the Six Traits Model because I find it encourages writers when they see they are evaluated by a trait rather than a holistic score.  Students can reflect on what part of their writing has strengths and what other pieces need improvement. As a teacher, I like to reflect on ideas, organization, and voice first.  It makes a great connection to main ideas, supporting details, and author’s purpose.

March 21

ELL’s Writing Development

In this week’s readings Fu teaches us how important it is to have our ELL students read and write in their first language while learning English.  Research has shown that “literacy transfers across languages” (Cummins 1979, 1981; Eelsky 1982; Morage e Silva 1988.) As with any student, teaching ELLs how to enjoy writing and making it meaningful for them, will help them transfer writing from their first language to English.  More importantly, Fu reminds us that time should be given or our ELL students to write in their first language to engage in meaningful writing. I have seen this become successful in my own classroom.  I also believe it shows my students that I believe their language and culture is important and respected.

When I first had ELL students integrated into my classroom, I too, was stuck on the idea that if they wrote in their first language, I wouldn’t be able to tell if their writing was correct. The amount of time it took for my Emergent ELLs to transfer information from their first language to English was daunting for them.  My heart would go out to them.  I knew from my previous training in ELL that teaching the content was important, and “dumbing down” the curriculum was not acceptable.  So, I continued to teach the content and translated it to their native language.  Due to time restraints, I decided to let them write in their first language and although I couldn’t read it myself, the time they took to write it decreased immensely. Eventually, I would rely on Google translate on I-Pads where students had the ability to change the keyboard into their first language and eventually copy and paste their work into google translate so I could understand what they were writing.  Google Translate is NOT the best for translation, but it gave me bits and pieces of ideas and content that I could define.  I knew if I could pull out those pieces, I could assess my student’s understanding of the material.  

The current ELL teacher in my building did not want the students relying too much on a translator, so I would try to balance the lessons as best as I could.  Now, after reading about ELL’s writing development, I see that it was acceptable to do.  “Letting them continue to write in their first language gives them the opportunity to further develop these skills.  If we make them wait to engage in meaningful writing until they develop their English proficiency, the lack of practice in writing (in thinking) would result in the loss or decline not only of their native language but also of their newly gained skills as writers.” (Fu, Chapter 3, Pg. 29) Personally, I knew if I didn’t let them write in their native language, they would become bored, possibly depressed, or extremely aggravated.  It was important to me that my students knew I wanted their academic growth to be like that of their English speaking classmates.  In order to do that, I had to learn to teach where my ELL’s were, and what they were able to do.  

Conceptualizing Artifactual Literacies:  A Framework

When I think of using artifacts from a student’s life and how it can motivate students to write as well as give us a window into a child’s history, or life or culture, it is pretty interesting.  The reading outlines that artifacts cannot only be physical, but can be created, found, carried, hidden, evoked in language or even worn.  Artifacts can involve people’s lives, stories, thoughts, communities, identities, and experiences.  These experiences can help us to connect to the part of our students we don’t always know.

Although the reading goes into detail about the different type of literacies, it states the importance of using literacy as power.  Using literacy as power, teachers can use their critical theory lens to connect to students lives and everyday experiences.  They can learn to write for justice.  “Students can bring their own ways of being, doing, and feeling-their acquired dispositions-into writing.” (Rowsell & Pahl, 2007)

Question #2 Quickwrite March 14, 2017

I greatly agree with Gallagher in making room in your curriculum to give many many opportunities for students to write.  I believe students should write EVERY day. Quick writes, annotated notes, responses to literature, different structures and genres, spelling sentences, daily prompts, etc. Writing also needs to be taught in other content areas like science, social studies, math, and health.  I also believe that it’s most effective when students’ writing is monitored and you have an opportunity to talk to them about the WHAT and WHY they are writing. (Author’ purpose and audience)

Modeling is a MUST.  We cannot expect our students to write if we do not model how it is to  be done.  Collaborating on it as a class, having students invest in their ideas is so important.  I like to use different color markers to revise and edit and encourage my students to do this as well.  There is no erasing allowed.  Only crossing out.  This way students see that writing takes time, and we are never done on the first draft.  My famous quote is “you’re not done, you’ve only just begun!”  (Can you see the eyes rolling now?)

I remember a time I modeled how to answer a comprehension question. Processes that were discussed and shared were things like, restating the question, answering the question with evidence to prove your answer, and adding elaboration to support it. (I still had students answering questions with a lowercase b and the word because….)  After working on it together, and seeing the things I changed and the different colors of revision, and modeling how to go back and reread questions to determine all parts, students referred to the process like answering a math word problem.  They were able to connect the process through another content area.

One of my Tier III students who sees the reading specialist for ELA, came back one day after this lesson and told me the reading specialist asked him to read me his answer to the question he had that day. Long story short, he had answered the question by restating it, answering it, used evidence from the text, and elaborated on his answer.  The reading specialist was so impressed with his response, she pulled me aside to share her enthusiasm.  What was more important though, is that we both made a big deal about how well he wrote ,which made an impression on the student and his perception of how he was as a writer.  

In conclusion, even if it’s only 10 minutes, I try to get my students to write every day.  Modeling and creating anchor charts of models is key.  As Gallagher says, we can’t expect students to play in a basketball game, if they have never been taught to understand the game.

March 14

THE POLITICS OF THE PARAGRAPH

Paragraph essay formulas are often used to teach students structures of how an essay is to be written.  It is made with good intentions to help a student learn how to organize their paper.  I am guilty of this as my acronym for writing an essay is ANSWER.  A = Analyze the question, N = Make a Note Plan, S = Skim, read and select, W = Write the response, and finally, ER = End by revising.(www.keystoliteracy.com) What is really more important than students trying to memorize this acronym is what each of these letters actually means.  Modeling and teaching what each letter truly represents is key.  For example:  Analyzing a question means that the student has to determine the essential question and task of which is being asked.  As readers, they need to determine what kind of evidence is required. I believe with the time constraints of the fast paced world of education we live in, many teachers are not modeling or writing with their students as much as they need.  After reading this article by Kenney, I too, realize I am guilty of this as well.

 I agree with Kenney when she writes how “systems like these encourage students to produce shallow, fast-food versions of paragraphs that don’t allow much elbow room for creativity or critical thinking, yet lend themselves to speed grading by a standardized test scorer or an overworked instructor only 50 essays into a stack of 160 on a Sunday night.”  I find this true.  For example, when my students fill out their answer template and move on to their writing, many of them put their notes together and piece them to make sentences. They sound listy, rushed, and are missing the concept of a structured paragraph with a main idea and supporting details. They still ask me, “Is this enough?”  They still turn their font to 24 to make a sentence or two appear to look like a paragraph. Our students are being asked to create essays with multiple paragraphs when they still truly don’t understand what components make up a paragraph.

I also agree with the author when she states that “Formulaic Writing is NOT Engaged Writing.” I can tell you every time I tell my students we will be working on an opinion piece or some type of essay writing, I ALWAYS get moans and groans.  After reading Kenney’s article, I am hoping I can change that by modeling more and finding ways to pull out their creativity.  I might even take the ANSWER template away and ask them to write on their own without worrying so much about having a certain structure and see what happens!

GALLAGHER CHAPTERS 2-4

In Gallagher’s three readings this week, he mainly talks about “The Neglected R” not having enough time to write, Teachers as a Writing Model, and Using Real-World Models to elevate student writing.  

In Chapter 2, Gallagher expresses the need for writing to be taught and evaluated in all content areas. This is something my district has always made important.  We write in ELA, Writing, Social Studies, Health, and Science.  We try our best to incorporate research skills into other content areas as well.  I was shocked to see that Langer and Applebee revealed that 97 percent of elementary school students write less than three hours a week and that 75 percent of high school seniors are never given writing assignments in social studies.(Gallagher, Ch 2, pg. 8) Am I to think that other content teachers are assuming that it is the English teacher’s job? Wow!  

Overall the chapter helped me realize how much our students need to practice their writing.  Gallagher relates this to not sending a student to play basketball if he/she has never been trained in it.  It’s a logical thought to believe the same of writing skills. When people are going out to college and the work force not being able to write, we are doing a disservice to our youth.  When companies are paying money to send their employees for writing instruction, a Writing Revolution is definitely in order!

What I took most from Chapter 3 was that when I model writing, my students need to see my struggles.  Often times, I produce an example or model for them to refer to when they haven’t seen the process beforehand. If students see how I think out loud, change a phrase, revise a sentence, add details, etc, they will see how much work it actually is.  This makes total sense!  No wonder some of my students don’t think they are good writers.  From their viewpoint, they are probably wondering why the process takes them so long and want to be able to get it right away. I feel I want to try this to see if my student’s anxiety in writing will decrease.

Chapter 4 reminded me of the importance of linking reading and writing together to make my students better writers.  I like how Gallagher refers to the lengths of writing having to be as long as a string.  Cutting it when the writer sees fit.  It never fails, no matter how many times I say it, “it will be as long as you need to prove to me your understanding, etc, they still ask. “How long does it have to be?”  I want to teach my students how to be creative and informative without thinking of a certain criteria is has to fit into.  Using models from the outside world and having students discover main ideas and supporting details can definitely help them create their paragraphs and opinions in a more complete manner. From restaurant menus, newspapers, magazines, and movie reviews, students can study and take notes on writings that connect to the real world.  Gallaher started the chapter by saying “If you want to be a writer, you must do two things above all else: read a lot and write a lot.”  I understand it is my job as an educator to make sure my students do just that.  Most importantly I need to show them the purpose behind what they are writing and how it will help them in and out of the classroom.  My take away from these three chapters is I need to MODEL more!