Notes and Demos from Tuesday, June 26th

Maria Remey Kaufman's demo: Maria Remey Kaufman's Research Question: Research Question: What strategies can I employ to develop and activate schema and vocabulary to enhance student’s writing in my first grade classroom? Several strategies may be employed to encourage the development of vocabulary and activate schema with emergent writers. Two of the strategies found in my research were utilizing drawing and writing as a unified system for making meaning, and shared writing to create community and meaningful writing experiences. Research shows a strong relationship between emergent writing and drawing in studies conducted starting in 1991 all the way to 2009. While children’s experience with print prior to school will be varied, most children come to school with the ability to talk, play, tell stories and draw (Genishi & Dyson). Equipped with this information, teachers may prioritize and encourage drawing and writing as part of the same communication process during the first months of school. To begin the year in kindergarten and first grade with emphasis on letters, words, print conventions and spelling accuracy makes writing unnecessarily difficult for most children. During writing time teachers can invite students to draw a picture and write about their picture, or write a story first then draw a picture. Students would be left to make the choice. In the beginning the teacher should scaffold the process by modeling drawings and discussing them with the students. Then they can choose what to write about, which builds on the drawing and discussions. Teachers may also model how to edit the picture by going back and adding details as well as showing students how to prepare drawings for publication. Students can conduct artist’s circles where children share and talk about their drawings. Talking about the pictures helps elicit the activation of prior knowledge and creates an opportunity to develop vocabulary related to the subject. Words related to the topic can be put on a word wall for students to use during their writing. In-school mini field trips and other in-school activities could also be used to provide a common experience and initiate drawing and writing opportunities. Students could keep a drawing/writing journal in which to record all these experiences. A variety of subjects can be explored as in-school field trips during the year. Students could explore a favorite place at school, a tree or pond in the school, the butterfly garden, the playground, their classroom, or the library. Organized activities that take place during the year would also offer great opportunities for shared drawing and writing like blowing bubbles at recess, tracing their shadows, field day, and the fall festival. Students may view writing pieces as a product to be corrected and graded, not as a piece to read or communicate. When we use informal writing and sharing in our classrooms, we shift some of the focus from writing as an evaluative tool to writing as a tool for living - and thus for learning (Dean and Warren 2012). Sharing informal writing as a means of learning makes writing feel purposeful. One way to write informally and share our writing is called walk-and-write. This approach gets students writing away from their desks by walking around the school in small groups and finding places to stop, write, and share. Teachers will need to develop norms of behavior for sharing and responding. All sharing is celebrated, not only for the writing but for the acknowledgement of the writer’s willingness to share. Students are told to say “thank you for sharing” and nothing else. This creates a supportive climate and puts each writer on an equal footing. The kind of writing that students engage in should be something they want to write about but also want to share. Prompts should be open ended and inspire ideas. At the beginning of the year students may choose to draw and share their drawings. Informal writing can be kept in a scribble journal. This writing is meant to be shared and enjoyed, and it is not graded. Writers should see it as an opportunity to be creative and to communicate. The prompts used can be: write about your favorite candy, what is your favorite activity at recess? It is in the sharing of our writing that we create a community of writers that learn to respect and appreciate each other.

Karen DiBella's Demo Lesson: Karen DiBella believes in the importance of a readers’ ability to make text connections. She sees that reading teachers are cultivating lifelong readers through the literacy pedagogy utilized within their classrooms. An active and engaged reader is one that will make meaning from the text and be able to think critically. Making text connections is one way that allows a reader to become more engaged with the text. There are three ways that readers make connections to text; they are text-to-self, text-to-text, and text-to-world. The appropriate way to introduce this concept is through modeling. A teacher will choose a text and throughout the reading, the teacher will model thinking aloud by saying, “this reminds me of or this makes me think of”. Here, students are offered the opportunity to see how this task is completed and share in the process. Once the skill has been taught, the students will break into groups of three and be given a piece of text. Each member of the group will draw either a person, book, or globe from the bag and that will be the connection that they will be required to make. All groups will then have the opportunity to share a summary of their text and explain the connections that each member made. This provides students with various perspectives, which further develops their comprehension. These connections are then glued to a wooden stick and can be used as a bookmark, which serves as a continual reminder to be an active and engaged reader.

Karen DiBella's Research Question: ResearchQuestion: What writing strategiescan be implemented to improve critical thinking through non-fiction texts? Although we continually hear about STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics), reading and writing continue to be a strong focus in the educational system. Quite simply put, one must be able to read and write in order to be successful in all content areas. Reading and Writing are the fundamental skills necessary for all students to achieve greater academic success. Mathis (2004) stated the importance of being truly literate is the act of reading independently, responsively, critically, and more importantly, because it is one’s innate desire. Writing serves as the personal response to reading and writing and reading certainly work simultaneously in helping students achieve greater academic success. With the onset of the Common Core Standards, we see a shift in greater text complexity as well as the shift for more significant non-fiction or informational texts. Bogard &McMackin (2012) acknowledged the best methodology for teachers to use is to empower writers to be able to transform their thoughts into well-developed and organized written texts. To best achieve this, teachers need to model active reading as well as scaffold critical thinking and engaged writing. Teacher’s need to model reading strategies during the three criticaltime periods: before reading,during reading, and after reading. Prior to reading, especially informational text, a teacher needs to build background knowledge in order to better prepare all students for the text. This strategy sets the tone and helps provide students with the knowledge they need to better understand the text. During reading, a teacher will model think alouds, which allow students to see how to interact with the text as one reads. Finally, a teacher typically engages in writing to assess a students’ comprehension. This assessment is primarily done after reading. A teacher will engage the student in various writing activities as well as dialogue to gauge a student’s mastery of the content. Here, a teacher will utilize various writing strategies such as story mapping, creating a timeline, responding to characters, plot, and setting, as well as utilizing formal writing assignments. For me, I personally do not panic at the thought of the Common Core Standards. I see them merely as a shift in focus,not a change in pedagogy. I firmly believe that it is our job as teachers to do what is best to help our students become independent readers and critical thinkers. We need to continuously implement our best practices to better engage our students. Whether we increase the text complexity or change the focus from fiction to informational texts, the teaching methodology stays the same. We need to model the appropriate strategies and provide scaffolding during the learning process. Additionally, we need to allow for dialogue in the classroom to enhance learning and provide a cohesive learning community. From my experience in the National Writing Project, I have learned many new ways to implement writing, which will better serve my students. I have learned how to incorporate drawing, mapping, and sharing as significant strategies to better help students learn and work collaboratively. I know the importance of brainstorming and working collaboratively to enhance student learning. In fact, Bush(2009) stated that encouraging or creating a culture of inquiry through meaningful discussion, writing, and reader response does not take additional time;it just takes a change in our perception and planning. I agree with this statement whole-heartedly. It is our planning and approach to encouraging our students to read and write that will make them more critical thinkers and independent learners.