518+Agenda+-+2.11.15


 * Target:**
 * Articulate characteristics of a writing assignment that can support and hinder student engagement.
 * Identify a variety of ways "writing to learn" and "writing to show understanding" could be incorporated in my content area
 * I can provide a rationale for giving supportive feedback to student writing.

8:00 - 8:10 - Welcome (Agenda)
 * Notetaker: Henry

Discussion of our questions from last class
 * Writing to learn (formative) vs. writing to show understanding (summative)
 * Writing to learn activities: where you care more about the process and ideas (not necessarily the "correct" ideas)
 * Critical thinking essays (where they learn as they explore/research)
 * Journals
 * Warm up/exit slips
 * "Jot down three questions you have right now"
 * "Explain to a student who was absent today what we learned"
 * Writing to show understanding activities: where you care more about the final product
 * Process vs. content vs. product: what is focused on will change from activity to activity
 * What factors play into authenticity and student engagement?
 * Classroom culture
 * Knowledge of students
 * Teacher modeling and integrity
 * Challenging tasks with multiple paths to completion
 * Caring about the ideas and pushing for deep, meaningful ideas creates an authentic writing task
 * Choosing an audience that students want to dialogue with
 * Complexity that is appropriately contextualized is more easily understood than something that is completely broken down; writing is the same
 * For example, to understand To Kill A Mockingbird, we need to focus on the characters rather than focusing solely on the language

8:10 - 8:30 - Categorizing Writing (finish writing workshop)
 * Seven categories
 * Constructed response
 * Definition: A written response to a question
 * Example: As water boils, the arrangement
 * Response to literature
 * Definition: A response to a text
 * Example: How did Atticus Finch's character evolve over the course of a novel?
 * Narratives
 * Definition: Writing fiction or non-fiction stories and/or personal essays
 * Example: Describe a moment when you felt you could do anything
 * Argumentative writing
 * Definition: Take a position and support it with strong external evidence to create a logical argument; uses text evidence and carries some credibility outside of yourself
 * Example: Should the US have dropped the atomic bomb? Cite historical evidence to support your assertion
 * Persuasive writing
 * Definition: Writing to convince a reader with evidence, emotional, and personal appeal
 * Example: Should guns be permitted in school?
 * Informative/explanatory
 * Definition: Writing to demonstrate mastery of information
 * Example: Explain the process to solve a quadratic equation
 * Self-generated
 * Definition: Writing 'owned' by the student
 * Example: A student shares a blog post she created
 * Persuasive vs. Argumentative
 * Both convince the reader; require the writer to support the claim with facts/evidence
 * Persuasive writing
 * Includes anecdotal information and emotional appeal
 * Argumentative writing
 * Evidence grounded in logic
 * Attends to well-developed claims and counter-claims
 * Expects concrete and measurable evidence

8:30 - 9:00 - Discuss //Holler//, "What does it mean to take student writing seriously?"

9:00 - 9:40 - Workshop writing templates

9:40 - 9:55 - Break

9:55 - 10:45 - Giving feedback on writing
 * Key Principles Feedback
 * Attend to ideas first
 * In your feedback, communicate with the students that you are listening to them
 * Remember there is a real person behind the writing
 * Feedback must be focused
 * You cannot give feedback on everything; it is unhelpful and impractical
 * Transparent criteria and process
 * Let students know: "This is what I am focusing on and this is what my symbols mean"
 * Provide positive and negative feedback
 * ALWAYS include sincere recognition of what worked in this piece of writing
 * ALWAYS provide areas for improvement
 * Teach the feedback
 * Look for patterns of success and weakness that popped up over and over again
 * Show samples of strong and weak portions of student writing that are indicative of the whole class
 * In general, students need to have opportunities to revise and resubmit
 * Tips for feedback
 * Take a quick read through an entire set of papers (a single period) without a pen
 * Helps the grader come to the paper as a piece of writing to read rather than one to grade
 * Gives a quick sense of what was missed in teaching as well as the quality continuum of the papers
 * Gives a sense of pacing
 * Some form of elasticity must be had in grading
 * This will make sure all students are being pushed; if we grade only according to the standard, then some students will never be pushed and some students will always be set up for failure


 * Sample scoring guide - http://www.ode.state.or.us/wma/teachlearn/testing/scoring/guides/2011-12/wriscorguide_eng_no-dates.pdf
 * Title: “Fads in Technology”
 * Topic: Common fads or trends in music, clothing, and recreation come and go. Choose one fad or trend that is popular now and explain why it is popular and if you think its popularity will last.

10:45 - 10:50 - Closure


 * Housekeeping:**
 * Zwiers, chapter 9 (Text Talk: Henry, Mo)
 * Holler afterword
 * EdTPA Tasks!