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Secret Agents in the service of Her Majesty?

Nope...writing teachers in the service of their school district.

AGENTS of CHANGE

It was our charge this year as an Elementary Writing Advisory Team to take steps toward the development of a district-wide Framework for Assessment to align with our Units of Study at each grade level; K-5. Just prior to and through the process, our district adopted several initiatives. These included a move toward National Standards in Math and English Language Arts, Partnership for 21st Century Skills, Charlotte Danielson's Framework for Teaching, and Seven Strategies of Assessment for Learning. And through the process, we also had to learn about and have professional conversations on the topics of summative and formative assessment, responsive assessment and grading. Our book study, What Student Writing Teaches Us from Mark Overmeyer, lead us into serious discussions on rubrics; their applications and development. Finally, we started to look down the road instead of right in front of us and composed skills that we wanted our students to know and be able to implement into their writing by grade level. This comprehensive list will now serve as a guide for the team in the development of the Framework during our summer work. I didn't even include the discussions surrounding the pilot and roll-out or the technology integration that we focused on!

What does all this covert action have in common with Agents of Change? Everything.

To be a change agent in schools, teachers need to have an active roll in the design and implementation of the process or product being changed. In this case, an assessment framework for writing. They need to be equipped with knowledge and supported with skills. They need to develop and maintain positive, professional relationships with their peers. And, they need to see beyond the "excuses" and believe in the change themselves.

I couldn't be more proud of the work that this team of agents...I mean, teachers...put forth. Certainly, their expertise will support and maintain a change in our assessment of writing to the benefit of our students.

If It's Tuesday, It Must Be Al Gore

Greetings again from IRA! I had the privilege of hearing Al Gore speak to the General Assembly this morning. He gave an impressive overview of the history of the written word in relation to critical literacy. "Children need to be able to read in order to think critically to make decisions that affect their own lives," he said. Powerful words and an even more powerful charge to the teachers who were his audience.

This Nobel Prize winner and former Vice President of the United States believes that the classroom teacher is integral to the process of providing our children with the tools needed to communicate through the written and spoken word. He supported our thinking and practice of 21st Century Learning; that it involves more than consuming information. Information should flow both to and from our students.

This was echoed in the term "Search-Based Curriculum." Mr. Gore believes that students will, and should, search and discover, then interact with information. Critical Literacy. Finally, "Empowered with the knowledge about the truth...children can change the world."

IRA 2010 in Chicago

Imagine my surprise when I sat down at my first workshop of the conference and saw that I would be in the company of Tony Stead, Sharon Taberski, Gail Boushey and Joan Moser (The Sisters), Gail Saunders-Smith, Seymour Simon, Michael Shoulders and Linda Hoyt! The name of this workshop, Informational Literacy: Making It Intentional, Connected, and Engaging, was what attracted me...didn't read the course selections far enough to see who was presenting when registering!
Much of what was shared by this talented group centered around nonfiction and its importance as mentor texts for our students to build comprehension and to serve as models for writing. Tony shared that the real world is the world that interests our students the most. Writing workshop should be about active investigating...it should be alive. He went so far as to say that, "All writing needs to be fueled by some sort of research." These students need to be exposed to multiple texts. "Exposure, exposure, exposure."
Sharon warned us that we are starting too early with strategies for comprehension. She charges us as teachers to build background knowledge first. "Background knowledge not only makes children smarter, it makes them exponentially smarter." She calls background knowledge the "missing piece of the comprehension puzzle." The Super Strategy? Inferring. "We need to show students how to use what they know to figure out what they don't." Short informational text is a perfect venue for this.
There is SO much more I could share just from today but here is the last bit. On the shuttle bus back to the hotel, Gail Saunders-Smith sat next to me. She was one of the presenters in this session. We had a great talk about her new book, coming out soon on guided writing, technology in writing, and a new book I am reading on the digital writing workshop. I happen to have the book with me and was able to share a new resource with this wonderful college professor and writer.
I'll close with a quote from Seymour Simon..."Let's, as teachers, start being as social as our students are. Share what you are doing well in your classrooms with other teachers via the internet." And you know what to do when "Simon Says," don't you?

Rethinking Rubrics

I have long struggled with the importance placed on rubrics in the writing classroom. They took off in my district with the adoption of The Six Traits of Writing (NWREL). While the traits (ideas, organization, voice, word choice, sentence fluency, conventions) certainly gave both my students and me a common language with which to discuss their writing, it was not curriculum (a shock to some teachers, I'm sure) or a comprehensive list of the qualities of good writing. I became a reluctant rubric participant in the assessment of my students' writing.


Maja Wilson, in her book Rethinking Rubrics in Writing Assessment, warns teachers about the misuses of rubrics in writing assessment. She says, "When our purpose in reading student work is to defend a grade, we do not apply any of our natural responses to text." "In our search for mistakes," she goes on to share, "we often miss potential." Rubrics, not carefully constructed and appropriately administered, or used in isolation of any other means of assessment, will cause us to look for mistakes, often missing the potential that lies in our students' work. "We should never assume that student papers will be perfect; our job is to help students realize what they cannot yet do."


The Golden Rule of Assessment: Assess others the way you would be assessed.


Just three years ago, our district implemented a Units of Study (Ray) approach to the teaching of writing at the elementary level. Through this, I was able to collaborate with my students in the development of a rubric that was based on our list of "noticings" about a particular genre when their writing was assessed. With the direction of Kelly Gallagher, Teaching Adolescent Writers, I also understand that it is important to leave room for each student to enter individual goals related to their work as a writer on this rubric as well.


This is still a learning process for me: to make the assessment of writing a valuable learning experience for my students and for me, to learn how to best support them in their efforts to become the writer they want to be.

Reflection

KEEP CALM AND CARRY ON

vs

NOW PANIC AND FREAK OUT

This is a photo of my son, Christian, at work with CB2 in Chicago. The carpet that greets patrons to the store is from WWII propaganda offered up by Great Britain to help citizens with the stress that was prevalent during this time in history. His shirt is the antithesis to that message. The crown at the top of the shirt is even upsidedown to represent this. The question I am asking myself in my reflection of the read/write web and my venturing into it is the same; do I keep calm and carry on, or is this the time to panic and freak out?

I had the privilege to visit many sites this week that were posted to assist teachers with their practice of the teaching of writing. Two sites that I chose to respond to were "Two Writing Teachers" at http://twowritingteachers.wordpress.com/ and "Raising Readers and Writers" at http://raisingreadersandwriters.com/. A wealth of support was offered at both these sites. One, from "Two Writing Teachers" lead me to a new resource; Troy Hick's, The Digital Writing Workshop, which I immediately ordered through the Amazon link embedded in the blog posting.

I will continue to visit these blogs for further assistance and links to other information that will aid me in my own learning and in providing valuable resources for teachers.

On the receiving end...it was wonderful to have my very first post to my very first blog from my daughter, Erica. She, being a writer herself, understands the importance of teaching it. I was also encouraged by my web-classmates' postings. I respect their perspectives as teachers who are currently practicing their craft. Through this experience, I am beginning to understand just how much I have yet to learn - that's where the panic comes from.

The calmness comes from knowing that I am further along than I was just a week ago in terms of my journey with the integration of technology (21st Century Skills) and the teaching of writing. In this sense, I am going to "carry on" with my learning.

I am truly becoming less and less afraid of what I don't know and more and more excited to learn. What a blessing!

Two Steps Forward, One Step Back

I am feeling a sense of urgency (or is it emergency) after spending some time with middle school language arts teachers this week. Here's me: Novice 21st Century Skills Girl trying to light a fire under educators with my new found love of technology and the powerful tool it is when used to enhance student writing. But I'm not finding the kindling to ignite.

There are probably more than a couple of reasons for this:

• their own discomfort with the use of technology in the classroom
• the availability of resources for teachers to access technology
• a pedagogy of teaching that doesn't easily embrace change
• staff development opportunities that have yet to demonstrate the necessity for implementation
• a lack of time for planning that impedes implementation of a "different" product for measuring student understanding and competencies

So, my two steps forward have caused me to take a step back and evaluate how to create a safe place for teachers to grow into the 21st Century. I have some ideas...my steps forward are now baby steps.

A Writer's Work

Because the language of technology is an integral part of students' lives, it must also be part of our own...even we immigrants to 21st Century Skills. The language of technology still sounds foreign to me, but I am learning to understand and communicate with it.

Recently, I made my first movie with Windows Movie Maker and my first digital story with Photo Story 3. What amazed me most about these projects, outside of the multimedia I could use to express my ideas, was the process I used as a writer to create them. Through images, movement, and music I was finally able to "write" a piece that has been germinating in my writer's notebook for a few years, that of the seeds planted in my life by my grandparents.

Editing and revising, the work of a writer, turned into an interactive experience. I was able to manipulate the images; focusing in on portions I wanted to highlight. I changed the color, tone, and characteristics of the images to create mood and unify my project. I easily changed the order and deleted images to add impact and order to my work. More powerful was the sound of my own voice telling the story over music chosen specifically to support the story. A rewarding experience even if I was the only audience to see it. Still, knowing that others would be viewing it, I was very motivated as a writer and wanted my "readers" to understand what I was trying to communicate.

In my writer's notebook, I write with a green gel pen on lined pages. Now, with the integration of technology, those green words and ideas have a chance to grow into something others can connect to. Beautiful!