Raising Readers and Writers

Everyone should have a Dr. Bloome in their professional lives. Dave is the director of the Columbus Area Writing Project and he meets with our teacher writing group every month. I tag team with Dave for the meetings. I do the writing prompt and read around and Dave helps us move our thinking forward by talking about writing instruction. Tonight’s meeting was another one that took us a bit out of our comfort zones, but will only improve our teaching.

Dave challenged us to take a risk in our teaching. He explained that risk taking is at the heart of learning. Not all learning is safe and predictable, but we don’t grow unless we take risks. So, our assignment is to take a risk in our teaching of writing. We answered the following questions as we planned: What is the “risk” you are proposing to take? Why is this a risk? What do you hope to learn or accomplish by taking this “risk?” What do you need and need to do to prepare yourself to take this risk?

The people at my table shared their plans: A kindergarten ELL teacher wants to give her students more control over their writing. She’d like them to be able to make a decision about their writing and name the craft or mentor text they are using. Our literacy coach wants to be more present as a writer when she is doing instruction and share her own writing. A K-5 resource room teacher wants her students to be able to try some new genres and document their writing journeys. Her frustration lies in trying to meet everyone’s needs across all the grade levels. I want to work alongside my students to become more independent in publishing their work digitally. I just received The Digital Workshop, so that may give me some ideas. I’d also like to try Voice Threads…so we’ll see. I have a month to try something out.

Dave asked us to try the risk, see how it goes, and write about what we’ve learned. The important part is not whether or not the “risk” is successful, but what we learn from it.

On a side note, when we met with the technology teacher today to plan future projects, she told me that several teachers talked about “taking risks.” Should be interesting.

Tomorrow is our next teacher writing group meeting. After reading Franki’s article at Choice Literacy(if you’re not a member, consider looking into it) about books for President’s Day, I decided to use the book Our Children Can Soar: A Celebration of Rosa, Barak and the Pioneers of Changefor our writing prompt. I checked it out of the library, but it’s one that I must own (which is true of my relationship with most books!) The book’s simple text and snippets of biographical information paired with the rich illustrations give the reader a deeper understanding of those individuals who paved the way for the Civil Rights Movement. After reading the prompt, please feel free to share your own stories in the comments section.

Rosa sat so Martin could march. Martin marched so Barak could run. Barak ran so our children could fly.

This quote, sent via text message, became well-known last year right before the election. As a result, the idea for this book was born.

Our Children Can Soar focuses on 10 different individuals who led the way for the Civil Rights Movement including an unknown Civil War soldier, George Washington Carver, and Jesse Owens. Each of these people is highlighted on a 2-page spread illustrated by a different children’s book illustrator. The illustrations are spectacular and even though they differ in style, they weave the story together in seamless fashion. There are short biographies of each person in the back of the book as well as a brief message from each illustrator.

After reading the book:

This story weaves a message of hope. We are who we are because others have led the way. Our families, teachers, coaches, friends, hobbies, and maybe even books have affected us in some way. Spend some time now writing about those people and things that have given you hope and paved the way for you.

This book could be used in a variety of ways…poetry, biography, famous African-Americans, the use of endnotes, repetition of a phrase to tie a story together, or to launch a piece of writing about heroes, hope, or ways to change the world yourself.

I love when our teacher writing group meets!  Teachers from all grade levels (and even other schools) come together to write, share, think, collaborate, and have fun.  We’ve been focusing on writing about our classrooms, so the writing prompt continued along that theme.  I shared Jim Burke’s post about his belief on how all children can learn.  This is one of my core beliefs; one that is a non-negotiable.  Next, I shared this short clip called The Heart of a Teacher, a poem written by Paula Fox.  Be sure to check it out.  It’s very inspirational and a great way to rejuvenate yourself during this hectic time.  (I found this on Two Writing Teachers).

So the prompt…What do you believe no matter what?  What are the non-negotiables?  Write about these beliefs in your personal or professional lives.

We always do a read around after we write.  Here are just a few snippets that I jotted down as people read aloud.

…keep learning, no matter your age.

…all children feel and feel deeply.

…every child is a growing, loving, living being.

…each face you meet is a box overflowing with gifts.

…I believe in God.

The read around gives us the opportunity to share our writing as well as listen to what others have written.  As we all know, sometimes reading  our work aloud is difficult.  It comes from our hearts and it’s very personal.   Dr. Bloome then asked us to circle something we really liked in our writing.  It could be something sentimental, you liked the words, etc.  Then we shared with someone sitting close by.  This is another way to share our work.  It’s a little less intimidating to read our work in a small group and may be easier for students who don’t feel comfortable sharing with the whole group.

Dr. Bloome then summed it up perfectly…No matter how badly a child (or adult for that matter) writes, there is always some gem.  Having them find that gem gives kids ways to evolve as writers.  It is so important to pick out the brilliance.

I love that last statement.  It is so important to pick out the brilliance. We all know what it is like to sit down with a paper that is full of misspelled words, run-on sentences, little organization, etc. (it doesn’t matter how old the writer is) and feel overwhelmed with what is wrong with the piece.  But if our goal is to help writers grow, we need to look at what is right with the piece, find that bit of brilliance, and use it as a foundation to build our students up.  Here’s to building strong, resilient, writers, one gem at a time!

The teacher writing group met last week with the task of finalizing the revisions of our vision statement (first posted here).  I asked Dr. Bloome to please lead us in this endeavor.  He has the gift of leading us down the path of change in  a very positive, engaging way, which helps us think outside the box.   By the time we finished, we had a lot of feedback and everyone there had a part in making the changes.  Isn’t that integral to making a vision statement, or any kind of document for that matter,  successful?  Everyone needs to own it.  I’d like to explain the steps we went through.

Dave gave everyone a copy of the vision statement, which he had reformatted, so that people would have room to write on the document.  Then he told us, “Imagine that you were going to take this document seriously. (Insert chuckles here). How would it change you?” How many times do we scan through documents in front of courses of study, or other statements sent from “higher ups” that we don’t have any stake in?  It’s very easy to put these aside and never pay attention to them.  We do not want the vision statement to fall in this pile.  After we had time to write our responses to Dave’s prompt, we shared at our tables and then shared out what someone at our table had said.  Here are some of the responses (from the sketchy notes I took):

Use mentor texts and take them into own writing;  read a lot more books meant for people over the age of 12;  importance of communication between grade levels; collaboration between a community of writers in our classrooms; try to bring technology into own writing; take more risks with students as writers; and persue reading and writing as if they were brothers and sisters as opposed to cousins.

Next, Dave asked us what we wanted our vision statement to do for us, our classrooms, our school, and our school community.

For ourselves we said we wanted to:  raise the comfort level in sharing writing ideas among colleagues; have more open communication with colleagues about writing, hold ourselves accountable for writing in a variety of genres; focus on the value of writing; balance the components of writing; and writing more ourselves.

For our classrooms we said we wanted to:  have our students view themselves as writers; have focused talk like writers among our students; have our students’ self confidence grow in sharing their writing; model ourselves as writers.

For our school we wanted to:  bring teachers together so that we share a common language and are on the same page; collaborate and share more; have more authentic writing experiences; focus on where students are and where they are headed.

Finally, for our school community we wanted to:  see our students have a respect and joy for writing; create newsletters about writing; have a common language going back and forth between home and school; create a desire among our parents for more information; and bring families in more often to share writing experiences.

Our next task was to go through the vision statement and highlight words, phrases, and ideas that stand out as being very important. These phrases were deemed as having a strong impact:  our school fosters and environment where writing is encouraged and honored; use of technology; variety of genres; writing is meaningful; immersed in quality literature; read like writers and have conversations like writers; and students enjoy writing.

Then Dave asked us what we thought we might need to add to the vision statement. We thought it was most important to include bringing families in; having a common language, and knowing where students are and where they are going as writers.

Our last task was to go through the vision statement one more time to note any parts that made us uncomfortable.   One teacher was concerned about the statement of the teachers being a community of writers when not every staff member is involved in the after school writing group.  What do we do here?  Dave suggested that we change it to:  Our staff works hard to be a community of writers.

So where do we go from here?  Our principal, a few other teachers, and I will meet to go through and word smith the document.  Our principal, who has an artistic eye, has some great ideas to weave the information together into a document that will appeal to everyone.

I learned a lot from this experience.  Even though I gave the original vision statement to several people for revisions, I only got positive reviews.  The document was still essentially mine (and I held on tight to that…it was my baby).  After going through this process with Dave and the rest of the group, it now feels like it’s ours. I like that feeling a lot better!  I feel very lucky to work with such dedicated teachers who share a common vision!

It’s finally done and ready to be presented to our staff!  I’ve fretted, gone back over notes,  researched, looked for other writing vision statements (because that’s what Katie Wood Ray would do), and then just sat myself down and started to type.  What has caused all of this angst?  Our school’s writing vision statment.  Our small teacher writing group worked on defining our beliefs last year, got input from the staff, and ended the school year with this project still looming.  It nagged at me all summer, but never loud enough for me to do something about it.  Of course, I waited until I was in full swing of the new school year before I decided to pull all of our information together into an official vision statement (when will I learn to balance things a little better?).  I’ve given it to other members of our committee for suggestions on revisions and it is finally ready to be given to my principal and the rest of the staff.  It feels so good to have that done.  In fact, I had such a feeling of elation, that I finally (I’m using that word a lot tonight!) got the information ready to send out to fourth and fifth grade students for our after school writing club.  I can’t wait to get started with them, but more about that later! So, below you will find our Model Writing School Vision Statement.  We want everyone to know that if you come to our school, you will be a writer.  What do you think?

Writing Vision Statement for Avery Elementary School

Our school vision has three dimensions, learning to write, learning about writing, and writing to learn. We believe that Avery is a community of writers that includes both teachers and students. We have a trusting environment where students and teachers feel safe to take risks. Writing is meaningful and important in all areas of the curriculum. Our teachers are a community of writers themselves, which helps them better understand the process our student writers go through.

Our school fosters an environment where writing is encouraged and honored. Students have access to a variety of writing supplies, charts with student thinking hang in our rooms and hallways, and students are encouraged to publish their writing in a variety of ways including the use of technology. Halls and classrooms are filled with authentic writing in a variety of genres that includes a many types of informational writing.

The teachers at Avery recognize that in order for students to become better writers, they themselves need to write a lot. As a result, our teachers are committed to providing many opportunities for students to write not only in school, but also outside of school. It is here that our students develop the habits of life long writers. They learn to write by using writer’s notebooks, observation journals, and completing inquiry projects where they research, analyze, and interpret information. Students use writing to explore new ideas. They learn about writing by being immersed in quality literature where they read like writers and have conversations with other writers. Our students collaborate throughout the pre-writing, drafting, revision, and editing stages to make decisions about their writing, get a sense of audience, and develop voice.

Our students are given the unique opportunities to write in an after school writing club, publish books in our parent-run publishing shop, and celebrate writing on a regular basis with other classes, parents and community members. Avery teachers collaborate across grade levels to push for excellence for all of our students. As a result, students at Avery Elementary enjoy writing, see it as purposeful, and gain confidence in themselves as writers.

Writer’s notebooks and pens in hand,  14 teachers and our principal met for our first teacher writing group last week.  As the teachers gathered, an  overwhelming feeling of excitement  came over me.  It was like a family reunion where you get to see all of your favorite people that you haven’t been able to see in awhile.  Seven of the teachers had participated last year, and I was so glad that our community was growing to include more teachers.  I just kind of stepped back and enjoyed the atmosphere, feeling like a proud mom.

Our group is unique in that we are a group of teachers who meet regularly to write together, share our writing, and collaborate in order to better understand the process writers go through.  This understanding helps us better understand how our students feel in our writing classrooms, which in turn, helps us be better teachers of writing.

Dr. Bloome, the director of the Columbus Area Writing Project, led us in our first writing prompt which  was created by Robin Holland, “prompt creator extraordinaire,” from CAWP.   He read from Frank McCourt’s Teacher Man, citing the chapter titles and excerpts from a couple of chapters.  Then he asked us to reflect on our teaching lives and imagine we were writing our memoirs.  Our task:  create a list of chapters to form a table of contents, decide on what words would be in the index, and finally, write a chapter to go with one of our chapter titles.

While teachers shared their writing (called a “Read Around”), laughter filled the room when certain titles were read (my first chapter was called, “What to Do…Playboy Bunny or Teacher”), as well as moments of silence as people shared some poignant memories (“Where Creativity is Not to Be Honored”).  Herein lies the magic of our group.   Sharing our writing takes a level of trust.  We put ourselves out there for others to judge our work…Will it be good enough?  What will others think if I share this?  Will someone else’s be better?  I can’t even begin to explain the feeling that enveloped the media center during the read around.  You could feel the bonds begin to grow.  We learned things we didn’t know about the people we work with every day.

Then teachers began to talk about how they felt when they were writing.  They were excited!   They didn’t want to stop!  They were having fun!  This converstion led us to how important it is to develop that envirnoment in our classrooms.  We want our students to know that their voices matter and that writing is one way to be heard.   We want them to develop the life-long habits of writers.

I know this year is going to give us many more opportunities to experience the joys and frustrations of being writers and teachers of writers.    I also know that we will grow in ways we could never imagine.  I am looking forward to every step!

I have been doing a lot of reading and thinking about the teaching of writing and how technology has impacted our classrooms.  And as I get ready to write another grant to continue work on creating a Model Writing School, I am trying to get my arms around what is most important.  Whenever I sit down to write, I am faced with the daunting task of “where to start,” and that’s where I am right now.  Some of the things I am reading include Will Richardson’s Blogs, Wiki, Podcasts, and Other Powerful Webtools for Classrooms. I am going slowly through this book as I try some of the things he suggests.  In the first section of the book, Richardson expresses the immediate need to bridge the gap between what our students know and can do on the web as compared to what they are exposed to in school.  I see this conundrum in my own personal and professional life.  My own children are intuitive learners when it comes to anything new with technology.  My oldest daughter, who is majoring in Digital Design is building her portfolio online.  I know that if I’m stuck on something at school, one of my first graders is sure to be able to help me.    Since getting a new iPhone for my birthday, I am slowly learning all of the different features available to me and thinking about how I can use that knowledge in my classroom.  Sometimes it’s mind boggling!

I also checked out NCTE’s website to read their Policy Recearch Briefs, Writing Now and 21st  Literacies.  Some information that I want to be sure to include in my grant proposal is  the importance that writing instruction be holistic, authentic and varied.  I’ve written before about my core beliefs that writing needs to have a purpose and students need to be able to have choice in their work.  We need to give them many opportunities to write in a variety of genres in elementary school so that they have a firm foundation on which to build.  Grammar and mechanics instruction should be interwoven within writing workshop instead of asking students to fill in the blank on multiple worksheets (a personal pet peeve of  mine…ok, off my soapbox).  Our goal as writing teachers is to produce life-long writers who can move seamlessly between writing for home, school, and their jobs.  One of the goals of the grant will be to create a common vision of what authentic writing looks like in our building.

Another goal is how to use technology in writing instruction.  I was talking with our technology teacher last week about moving into the digital world.  She mentioned the importance of teachers making the shift from creating the same traditional projects on the computer, to exploring all of the possibilities available to us now.  Research shows that students who are able to compose on the computer are more engaged and produce works of greater length and higher quality.  I see that in my own 16 year old son who had been a struggling writer.  When he was finally allowed to compose on the computer in upper elementary, the whole world of writing changed for him.  To this day, he does very little writing with pen and paper.

I also have to think about the integration of visual information along with the written word that digital technology allows.  And what about working collaboratively with others beyond our classroom walls?  Blogs, podcasts, and voicethreads, are only a few ways that students can interact with each other.  I would love for my after school writing club to be able to share their work with other students to get feedback.  As noted in the 21st Century Literacies Brief, many teachers who use the computer at home for word processing, researching lesson plans, recording grades, etc. feel unprepared when it comes to using technology  in their teaching.  (I am definitely one of those teachers!)  For that reason, I want to incorporate some professional development that focuses specifically on digital composition in the grant proposal.

I have learned a lot this summer as I have ventured into blogging, digital storytelling,  and podcasting.  And I know that I haven’t even begun to touch the surface of all there is to know.  I still have a long way to go.   I am looking forward to continuing this journey with my colleagues as we explore how to create an authentic writing environment withing our new and growing digital landscape.