Teaching+Adolescent+Writers

Meeting 4/18/13 Chapters 6 and 7 Present: King, Snyder, Rehrig, Bowerman, Kutz, Ansel, Wertz Kutz: I like the schedule where you hit all of the different purposes and the scavenger hunt? Snyder: I wonder how many people consider the audience in pieces that they are reading? I don't remember ever being asked about that as a young writer myelf. Ansel: I learned about it when I was a reading specialist. It is one of the focuses in middle school. King: I like the idea when they wrote something and then they rewrote it with a different purpose. Ansel: It is hard for the kids to get the idea of how to write to audience. Writing eulogies. Rehrig: I don't think a whole lot about the audience. I have three students share each time. I think it is a good idea to create an anthology. I save samples to show them. Kutz: I think it is a good idea to share good examples. Or share those that have been rewritten. King: Modeling thinking process. Talking them through it grammatically. Kutz: This goes to the cross-curricular where the students have writing time in all classes. King: They write every day and I'm walking around and talking to them individually. Kutz: limited time next year. You won't see the growth in progress that you see now. Snyder: We may be able to manage the paperwork better by using some of the ideas. Such as only grading the first six grammatical errors. Bowerman: I like the idea of having the students add two items to their own rubric. King: Spelling demons. Snyder: Peer editing is horse hockey. Bowerman: It doesn't work for editing, but it could be useful for ideas, weeding out confusion. King: There are benefits to reading it aloud. Snyder: Two copies. The person listening follows along and makes notes of things that do not make sense. Wertz; I liked the idea of the reading chair and the golden lines. My kids love to get up and read before kids after they get used to it. They overcome being self-conscious. Ansel: That is why I'm doing the eulogy. I want them to get up in front of each other and talk about themselves. King: I do something similar in French, but to avoid the death thing we do it for a fictional character. Wertz: Sucker punch grading made me rethink how I'm going to grade in the future. King: Avoid sucker punch grading by having the conferences. After the conferencing they should be done with the piece. It really works.

Meeting 3/21/13 Chapter 5 Present: Bowerman, Snyder, Rehrig, Kutz, Blauch, Dorsey Kutz: I like the idea of choice. I look at Level 2s and low levels and how you get them to buy in. Has to be done in increments and not all at once in the high school. Rehrig: By the time they get here to ninth grade, how interested are they in writing? Kutz: They don't care about writing at that point. You need to break down their barriers. Rehrig: Going to try find the fib today. Snyder: Giving them choice. Bowemran: Need to get through curriculum. Rushing to get through so we can get to things they might find more relevant. Kutz: Many of these students have questionable work ethics. Bowerman: Myth of Boring topic - student questions can work. Tried in grad class last summer to narrow topic and make it more applicable. Dorsey: Who, What, When, Where, Why? They get stuck on what else to say. Once they have an idea it is easier to get going. Blauch: They don't get a choice or to do draft in Spanish AP. They read an authentic piece and need to write about it. The topic blast might help them to get ideas before they start writing when they hear the thing. Bowerman: Many of the topics (good ideas/bad ideas) will work on creative writing. Kutz: It needs to be cross-curricularly supported - not just done in English class. A writing center would be nice. Help them expand. I helped one student for a HACC class. The kids would have to buy in. Rehrig: Like Jesus paper. Recent assignemnt: Had to describe walking through catacombs using four of five sensory images. Specifics of being told to use the senses. Snyder: and you only said four so there was choice. Rehrig: I was surprised that he handed each kid a dollar. And glad the took the dollar back. Snyder: Choice is a good idea, but it comes up time and time again; not original idea. Practical steps for choice are useful in this book.

Meeting 2/21/13 Chapter 4 Present: Bowerman, Kutz, Snyder, King, Dorsey, Ansel Chapter 4 Kutz: I liked how they introduced various styles of writing. First have the kids write and then show a professional version for the revision. It could be done at so many different levels, focusing on more complex writing style. King: I liked his informal research. I have kids who can put a complex sentence together in French. Interesting that they don't just get it by osmosis. Kutz: Thomas is a writer but not a reader, so contradicts ideas. King: Does he read online? My daughter was forced to read and practiced. Kutz: This does allow for different types of practice. King: You need to teach these skills because it comes natural to some students but not to others. Bowerman: Film reviews with hooks are interesting. I also think it would work with music. Bowerman, Kutz, and King: Magazines and newspapers are becoming less available as examples. Kutz: RAGS seems like a good idea since it is anonymous. Snyder: The anonymous part works well. They claim their own code. They only read three of the essays. It's not all of them as in this book. With the one to two minute thing it could work out okay. King: It says you have a focus point, so it could be done in a minute or two. Snyder: I give Dorsey: Page 75 talked about kids who don't know how to edit what they've written. It is up to the teacher to show how those changes really do need to take place. It doesn't mean that they are finished. Bowerman: We're doing peer sharing today mostly to get the kids to read things out loud.

Meeting 12/13/12 Chapter 3 Present: Snyder, Bowerman, Kutz, Dorsey, Wertz, Blauch, Ansell, Rehrig Kutz: Sentence building neat idea. It was done in five minutes and taught vocabulary and expanding sentence structure. Bowerman: STAR revising strategy useful Kutz: good graphic organizer on page 55 gives a good structure for Romeo and Juliet. Wertz: Pg 70 Cutting the papers to organize. When I cut it up, some of them have started to cry. At the end when they are finished, they are okay with it. It is emotional for them. Kutz: To read and write someone's college essay does not give a true picture of what their college success will be like. Snyder: How do we structure this to get the kids to do this on their own. Dorsey: I have them read the paper to me and ask questions to make them so they have confidence. They need to know how they are writing. Wertz: I am totally hands off everything except for writing. Writing is one of the places that you have to have the most modeling. Mr Malone would sit with us one on one and edit everything we wrote for publication. Ansell: If I don't do that they won't do anything. Difference between copying and modeling Wertz: I can see them growing as writers. I'm so excited that these students who couldn't write a sentence can write a paragraph. Kutz: Talking it through is a good way to start. Writing on a daily basis is helpful. Wertz: How can a regular teacher do 30 kids to teach writing? I schedule times to talk with them. Ansell: I've had a line up to my desk. Not the most effective. Bowerman: Branch idea takes the Spivey stuff a little further. Wertz: Which piece is better? Dumb - two totally different styles of writing. How can we compare? Are we doing anything to prepare students for the Keystone tests? Bowerman: The one on the left is a better Keystone prep example. Snyder: They claim they will be able to gauge the kids writing ability within the other tests. We are teaching more nonfiction for preparation for reading test: Thomas Paine, Ben Franklin. Dorsey: I've been doing nonfiction in the benchmarks to compare to fiction and within nonfiction works. Snyder: There is more of a conscious effort to pair the nonfiction with the fiction works. Bowerman: Texture and context texts in Common Core. Snyder: Infographics being introduced in Comp Comm. Most of the speeches are gone. Ansell: Connecting text to self, family, community, world. There is so much stuff to do with kids and it is all I can do to get them interested in one idea. Blauch: What I do is more on-demand writing. Ansell: I'm glad that I can tell them that as you write you can think of things to write. Rehrig: I like the chapter but because I have two classes with almost 30 kids, it is difficult to assign writing and keep them on track and take the time with each one. I love the idea of giving a lot more writing, but it is time consuming. Student kept going to Wertz for help on research paper and was looking for someone to tell him to what to write. When he realized he wasn't going to get someone to tell him, he finally go it and put it together on his own. Wertz: I was modeling for him and he wanted someone to do it for him. King: Too many of them are wanting someone to do it for them. King: My favorite part is revision through sentence branching. We do this with really simple sentences in French with adding adjectives and more different words.

Meeting 11/29/12 Chapter 2 Present: Bowerman, Kutz, Snyder, King, Rehrig, Dorsey, Wertz Blauch comments: Since all of my writing assignments are OnDemand, I found this section most useful. I liked the idea of eliminating the unnecessary parts of the prompt so that they could concentrate on the important part of the prompt and not get distracted. Also circling the words that tell you what to do is important because many times they may compare but not contrast. This will force them to concentrate on the instructions. Brainstorming ideas sounds logical but many times they forget to do it. Then by organizing their ideas they will have more organized compositions Checking their compositions for errors is something that I always tell them to do but sometimes it is hard to see your own errors. Does anyone have any ideas that I can give them to help them find their own errors? Bowerman: Used Pass-the-Reflection yesterday. Students realized their own confusion as they were passing the papers and commenting. Kutz: Trying to figure out how to use these activities with remedial writing, but the stories do not seem to relate to real life. Snyder: Perhaps connect writing to one of the supporting details. Kutz: Only have a short time over the flex. Rehrig: Learned about ampersand. Snyder: Is it still English that is doing most of the writing - per the background before the activities. Kutz: Thomas wrote a lot in AP English and in Gehosky's class. I like the portfolio of the writing samples. It would allow us as educators to reflect on what needs to be taught. Kutz: Teaching the writer rather than the writing seemed like a good way to reach kids to help them be better writers. King: I've had luxury of demanding writing every single day, but how much time will we have for that in the shorter courses for only one semester. Unless watching them write, it is unknown if they use the translator. Snyder: How are we going to have people in other curricula have kids writing more? Kutz: It needs to come from different perspectives. Thomas is writing them for his HACC classes. Snyder: different styles of APA/Chicago in addition to MLA would be helpful to have kids know that. Snyder: I catch myself not giving them thinking time before they write. I have to constantly remind myself that they are teaching complex texts and I need to give more time for that. King: I thought it was interesting that Kelly Gallagher shows clips and having them write notes. Notetaking skills - with specific details. Snyder: Coming in the common core. Rehrig: I liked the chart as they have them set up. SDQR chart would work for Their Eyes Were Watching God. King: I like the ABCD for on-demand writing. Kutz: I liked how they condensed the directions. It got to the point of what they were supposed to be doing. Snyder: Keystones will gage writing based on responses to the other tests. Kutz: The students will not necessarily attack them correctly. Wertz: Fairness: Just because you don't know biology or algebra, doesn't mean you can't write. Kutz: Composition test in 2014. Is there something we could use as a district as a benchmark to see how they are progressing. Bowerman: SAT scores in writing seem low. Kutz: Is that just because they are fried by that portion of the test. King: Changes in the middle school? Dorsey: I do a practice benchmark once every two weeks. On each multiple choice question, they need to provide an explanation. Write in journal: two strengths and weaknesses. They have trouble getting what is in their head onto paper. Trios write and tell what each other are saying. Snyder: When we ask the kids to write, they think they have to write a lot. What I read is limited to 50 word response or 500 word response. Dorsey: Limit it to 10 words, they really need to focus. Snyder: Sentence construction Bowerman and Wertz: Spivey - sentence constructions using the six techniques. Wertz: Back to Cursive article - Kathy Alford sent it. Really interesting

Meeting 10/18/12 Chapter 1 Present: Bowerman, Snyder, Blauch, Rehrig, Kutz, Wertz, Dorsey, King Blauch: Practice is useful. Rehrig: Timed writing needs to be used Snyder: Writing is hard. Kids don't buy into needing practice Blauch: World Language does more grammar than English Wertz: Support more grammar. Snyder: Worksheets seem to be where we are. Kutz: Students get a crash course in grammar in the 11th grade year. Dorsey: Grammar in writing, antecedent agreement, etc. Wertz: Reasons for writing posters would be useful to have on posters for classrooms Blauch: Relating to work is important Wertz: Relating it to impression is huge Kutz: To see examples of good writing is really useful Wertz: My kids can produce products, but we have to put a ton of effort into it. It takes a tremendous amount of time that needs to be done in class to be effective. They need an actual audience. Bowerman: Teacher modeling, writing with the kids. Dorsey: Even the honors class, many of them were not writing effectively. I had to take a full week step by step to show them what they had to do. Wertz: Conferencing takes time but it helps. If they don't think they can write, they can if they take time. Kutz: tiome constraints. King: has students write everyday; begin with a subject and a verb; then add an adverb, etc. - TAKE IT IN SMALL STEPS; more doable then Dorsey: expectations for level 2 students should be the same as level 1, although they may take longer Wertz: has noticed the social studies dept is adding quite a bit more writing Kutz: cross-curricular - it would help to collaborate - English teachers look at the grammar; social studies, etc. look for content