Welcome to #TeachWriting, the bi-weekly chat about writing instruction! It's our first chat of the 2018-19 school year! We're starting with a shorter-than-usual chat - 30 min - hope it's packed with great tips and info!
We're going to follow a traditional Q1/A1 format - that means that questions will start with Q1 - please begin your answer with A1, A2, or whatever matches the question (you get it, right?) And be sure to include the hashtag in your response! #TeachWriting
#TeachWriting needs guest moderators! If you've led a chat, or if you're interested in starting, please consider leading one of our bi-weekly chats! We could use your help! https://t.co/DgTOStap8P
#teachwriting I'm Rhonda, a 7th & 8th grade ELA teacher in Ontario, Canada. This summer I purchased @LindaMRief 's new book and started doing some of the quick writes I'll ask Ss to do this fall.
Q1 - What are some strategies/ lessons/ tools/ materials you use to get kids writing and developing good habits at the beginning of the year? #TeachWriting
#teachwriting - Yes! She uses 100 Mentor Texts to spark quick writes. For each mentor texts, there's also a set of questions to help students get started.
A1: organize a writer’s notebook, write based on a prompt every day, collaborate with fellow classmates, use a common language to talk about writing, allow students to write about something that interests them. #teachwriting
Q1 - What are some strategies/ lessons/ tools/ materials you use to get kids writing and developing good habits at the beginning of the year? #TeachWriting
A1 - We do a lot of "getting to know you" activities like Heart Maps or Positive-Negative Graphs or whatever, and we hold on to them. These tools can be useful later for topics, or as a way to spur more writing. We need artifacts, and almost anything we do helps. #TeachWriting
A1 - #teachwriting At the beginning of the year, I want Ss to feel confident. I always start with quick writes because they're low stakes and they make it clear that Ss DO have something to say!
A1 Here are my favorites: annotation (Q, C, V - Questions, Comments Vocabulary), Burke's Thesis Generator, concept mapping. Giving Ss opportunities to peel away the layers in any way they can #TeachWriting
A1 - It's also really important that kids feel like they can be successful at writing. The beginning of the year is a good time for easy, short, manageable, useful writing tasks that kids can hit a home run on - then you can start building a POSITIVE connection. #TeachWriting
#TeachWriting needs guest moderators! If you've led a chat, or if you're interested in starting, please consider taking the lead for one of our bi-weekly chats this fall! We could use your help! https://t.co/DgTOStap8P
It's a Georgia Heard thing - I can't find the link, but I'll try to share that with you later - kids decide what matters, then draw/label parts of a heart outline like a map - important stuff is bigger, less important is smaller, etc. #TeachWriting
#teachwriting - A heart map is a list of brainstormed topics that are close to your heart - ideas for future reference. I've asked Ss to draw a huge heart on their page and fill in with ideas.
Our helpful page for this #TeachWriting chat Writing Resources page https://t.co/VsLlYCxG92 Just finished handwriting letters to my five grandchildren (who are in 1st 5th 8th 9th and Freshman in college).
A2: Get them up and writing — on the whiteboard, on paper posted on the wall! Have them write the abc’s until they think of something better to write, have them annotate the #CCSS writing standards so they understand what they’re supposed to write! #teachwriting
A2 - This is hard -and I think it's hard for a lot of teachers. Some kids come to you loving writing on Day 1. Some are opposite. I think we need to start with the realization that kids aren't usually starting their writing life completely new. As we might like. #TeachWriting
A2 Create stations of learning: an annotation station where Ss annotate the text; next is the collaborative station where Ss talk over their annotations. Next stations is writing brainstorming. Final station is revising brainstorming. And we keep going... #TeachWriting
A2 - I think the goal is like what I learned when I was in sales - meet kids where they are, and push them as far as you can, and do your best for every kid. If you get a kid who hates writing to open his/her mind to writing as "fun," you win. #TeachWriting
Q3 - How do you manage the paper load early in the year? How do you provide meaningful feedback whenever reasonable without driving yourself crazy? #TeachWriting
A2 - I think a variety of writing styles, lengths, genres, etc. helps, too. Some kids are really good at one kind and not another. Giving them a lot of different chances at a lot of different things helps, too. And let them choose. Choice is HUGE. #TeachWriting
#teachwriting - Such an important point. Making the writing less scary for those who struggle is so important. Writing about something they know (like themselves) may be easier for those students.
A3 - It sounds obvious, but you have to really plan for what you want to collect and respond to. Sometimes you don't need to collect something - you need a kid to write it, and keep it somewhere, but you don't need to spend 18 hours reading it at that moment. #TeachWriting
A3 - Sometimes kids really want you to read everything they write. And we all want to be able to do that. But there can be so much! Sometimes it's a matter of having a really effective conference. Sometimes it's a portfolio, or a journal. #TeachWriting
A3 - Some of you have heard me say this a bunch of times, but many well-known writing guru types say that your students should be writing more than you can reasonably read/respond to/grade. And that's okay. #TeachWriting
A3 - Conferences can be a good way to give some quick feedback without taking a stack home. Also deciding to just comment in writing & not grade some things can give students useful feedback in a low stakes way. #teachwriting
A3 - Sometimes kids write great stuff that they don't want to share, or that you read and might not need to offer more feedback than, "Wow." That's possible, too. At some point, the best thing is, "What do you think you need the most help with?" #TeachWriting
Q4 - What do you think is the most important thing to focus on early in the school year to help kids write and grow as writers all year long? #TeachWriting
#TeachWriting needs guest moderators! If you've led a chat, or if you're interested in starting, please think about leading one of our bi-weekly chats this fall! We could use your help! https://t.co/DgTOSts00n
Thanks so much for your time tonight! We appreciate it! Hope to see you again in two weeks! Watch this hashtag for the archive soon from @bkuhl2you! Have a good night! #TeachWriting
