Increasingly Focused Writing Unit

I'm looking to create a unit that focusses on current events and nonfiction, persuasive writing. My plan is to follow the format of one of the teachers from an Annenberg Learner video we were required to view for class. The unit will give students choice in what they write. As the teacher from the video said, "Choice creates excitement, and excitement creates the product." The unit will involve political discussion and other current events.

The following is taken from Annenberg Workshop Numero Two:

• Students pick an article, give a brief summary, including evidence, and then students shares why they chose the article. Then students vote on which articles they found to be the most interesting. The top three vote getters will receive further exploration. Next day, class will go to lab to do further research. Teacher attempts to broaden topics so there’s more to research the next day. Class will get broken into three groups, and each group will take one of the articles.
• Students accumulate articles related to their topic, and then independently post the articles on a discussion board along with a description of what they found. Each group decides which article to use as the focus for individual letters to the editor.
• Students bring in drafts of their letters to the editor. Volunteers share their letters, and students discuss.

At this point, I guess I haven't figured out what else I am going to do. I'm not sure how many days these three bullets will span. I think I'd like to follow a similar format for other areas of the unit, but change the purpose/the audience. This could involve at least one lesson on audience and word choice. This is all I have for now.

Writing Unit

http://www.educationoasis.com/curriculum/LP/LA/creative_writing_unit.htm

Here's the link to a writing unit that focuses on multicultural literature. The unit has students reading poems and short stories from writers of color. It then has students creating their own poems, editing peers' work, writing analytically about the pieces of literature, and they will write creatively with similar themes from the literature read in the unit.

The unit is fairly thorough. It seems like it would be engaging, and has a nice variety of reading a writing. There's a nice balance of teacher led class time, individual time to work on material, and group/partner work to help with editing and revision. The themes of the unit, I believe, would speak to the lives of all students, not just students in an urban environment.

This is not the kind of unit plan I would like to create for my writing unit, but I could see myself implementing all or part of this in the future. It has rigor, and I think students would be engaged throughout.

The Power of Revision

Well, I hate to be cynical, but unless my school district starts to value education the way they should, or I get a job in a district that does, my class sizes will never look the way the first two teachers do. Conferencing with students one on one is wonderful. The first teacher has Kelly read her entire piece, and then he asks her questions essentially about the placement of her persuasive statements. The conference lasts roughly 3-5 minutes. If I did this in my classroom for an entire class period, I would get to 1/4 of my class, and that's only if I keep each meeting under five minutes, and I am on a constant move for 60 straight minutes. The level of conferencing in which these teachers are partaking is unrealistic in a classroom of 41 students.

Ok - now that I have that out, I really like how the teacher from St. Paul has the reluctant writer trace his hand and then try to come up with different descriptions for what a soccer practice is like. She focussed on the different senses the student experienced during practice in order to get him writing, and to make his writing more descriptive. I like this. She, and the teacher before her, always have notes on the board to which they're referring. They ask the students questions that are reinforced on the board.

"Once you make one change, other changes become much easier."

It's funny that he recommends starting with a question. I try to tell my students to start a piece with a question, ONLY if it's a good question. Questions can be a powerful way to open up a paper, but if it's a weak question, it has the opposite effect.

He does a nice job of showing multiple examples of openers for a persuasive speech. He points out multiple tools, and then has students write two separate intros with two different opening techniques. I like the idea of having them do two intros.

Students have to make three changes to a written piece. He picks three so students can at least get their foot in the door. He says it's critical that students don't feel overwhelmed, but once they change three things, they'll realize there's much more that should/could revise.

Students read their before and after of their paper in order to see the drastic changes.

Essential to show different techniques and conventions in writing during mini lessons, and then they need to try it in their own writing.

Students listen to model essays, and then they make a chart that focusses on different features of the paper that made it engaging. After that, the teacher makes a master copy of the techniques the students came up with, and then they have to incorporate it into their own writing. This is just another tool that takes the place of the mini lesson. I like this idea because the students are generating the mini lesson instead of the teacher. If I'm talking for more that five minutes, I start to lose my students--especially if I'm talking about writing techniques. After students make their changes, she has them take their revisions and exemplars of introductions and dialogue, and students worked on typing out their revisions.

Burke: 180-202

Journals "provide students with a space where they can take risks; think differently; and, at times, write more honestly than they could if their thinking were public" (181). I couldn't agree more with Burke here. I don' t know why, but I had students write in journals for my first three years of teaching, and since then I quite the requirement. Students were very good about writing in their journals--they liked writing in their journals, and I think this is because of the reasons Burke lists above. Without the journal, in many cases, students would not be doing much writing. My experience with it, though, was that students enjoyed it, and therefore, they didn't see the experience as homework. On collection day, I would tell students they had to submit their journal in one of two piles. The first pile was the pile I would read, and the other pile meant I would only look to see that they completed their journals. Most students put their journal in the read pile. This was very meaningful for students and me, but the fact that there were so many in this pile probably had something to do with the fact that I quit having student complete them; it took a lot of time to read and comment. So much of what I was reading required more than just a sentence or two comment, too. The pros far outweighed the cons, and therefore I should definitely come back to them.

The Six Traits Analytical Writing Rubric:

I don't get how this fits in with all the discussion about journals. The idea of the journal is that it provides students with a place to write freely, without worry about criticism or critique. I don't see how the rubric fits in.

Mandated Reporting: On page 187, Burke talks about how he wants his students to use the journal as their outlet to the world. "Be willing to be honest in your thinking or emotions when you write." I, too, have come across incidents in the journal that needed to be reported. I'm very clear with students that I am required by law to report anything related to physical or mental abuse, or drug or alcohol abuse. Usually students are well aware of this when they write, and when they do post things like this, they are either looking for help, or other people, like counselors already know what's going on.

What to write:

This section got me thinking about writing prompts I provide for students. I, like Burke, have my students write everyday, at the beginning of the hour, or, right after independent reading. I usually try to post a prompt that is relative to the lives of my students to get them thinking about some of the themes for the day's lesson. A lot of the time, what I post is a bit of a stretch, though. I think if I took a different approach, and gave them more freedom in what to write about, or provided them with more variety, students would find it more meaningful. Burke talks about introducing intriguing current events to students and having them respond to that. He also mentions putting a picture on the board, a poem, or a word, and having them respond to one of those. The idea should be that students are writing. If they're given more freedom, they'll be more likely to write more, which means their writing skills are growing. Some ways for students to use their journals:

• Make lists (of words, ideas, characters)
• Draw (images, scenes, clusters)
• Include quotes (from the radio, books, friends)
• Write poems
• Write sketches (from life, art, books)
• Incorporate lyrics (their own, or others)
• Ask questions (of themselves, the teacher, characters)
• Make observations (about life, people, books)

Teachers should model journaling (190). I know this is best practice, but with 40 students in my classroom, in most cases, it's just not going to happen.

See page 99 for prompts to help students get their pens moving.

Reader Response: Burke doesn't exactly lay out what this is, but my understanding is that on one side of a journal/piece of paper, the students writes a quote, or an important piece of information from something being read in class. On the other side, the student writes a response to it. Never mind--this is the double entry journal, which I guess is a form of reader response. Anyway, Burke says, "Unfortunately, many kids burn out on this methoed when it is the habitual practicce of their teacher; teachers need to find ways to mix the exercise up a bit" (194). I couldn't agree with him more. I know many teachers love to giver their students packets to answer while they're reading a piece of lit. Students hate packets! I have found that doing something like a double entry journal is much more meaningful for them. However, like Burke says, you need variety. Therefore, switch up the method of reader response.

Reader Response Writing Options: See pag194-197

I guess I can see how you can use all these different methods of teaching to tie in the six traits, but Burke isn't very specific about how that would be done. It seems as though I need to make the connection on my own, which is fine, I guess. This section was practical, in the sense that there are many ideas and options in here to try out with students.