518+-+Agenda+-+2.8.16


 * Learning Goals: **
 * 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

8:00 - 8:15 - Welcome & Agenda
 * Notetaker:
 * Show & Tell: Text Projects!
 * Marcy: Mob Mentality Text
 * Read the text and apply it to the literature they are engaged with currently
 * Set up: watch the video about the Ferguson riots
 * Talk about their previous knowledge
 * Kala: Epidemic/ pandemic text (fliers)
 * Newspaper articles- science involved in the articles about virus
 * Find the part in the text where they are interested and then re-phrase it in summary form
 * MLA format guide at the end
 * Tiered text: Cluster of texts that are about the same topic, start with more accessible texts and in the process you build background knowledge and interest
 * Sarah: Eyesight text
 * Entry: Do eye tests and write down their observations
 * Watch a video and do a reading on near sighed vs. far sighted and the physics behind it
 * Lab report to write about what is going on in the eye in academic language
 * Rob: Technology and it's influence
 * Math in an english class
 * Numeracy- cross disciplinary ideas
 * Connects to the book they are reading
 * Melissa: Logical fallacies
 * Groups of three with sheets of paper- sort into categories
 * How did you know? point to language?
 * Logical fallacy as "this doesn't make sense" to transfer the academic language into BICS

8:15 - 8:30 - Discuss Zwiers, chapter 8/ Michie
 * (Did it make a difference that you didn't have a specific task or prompt?)
 * The organizer (p.235)
 * Like this for when they have opinions but they need to find a way to have evidence-based reasoning
 * Someone else might have the argument so you need to have a counter-claim and evidence based arguments
 * Students have a hard time with evidence that supports their own side
 * Goes back to: How do you make them care? How do you make it more than a grade- the minimum?
 * Learning Logs
 * Student reflection is huge
 * The process of writing, getting them to write to think
 * Getting students to write the full time we give them
 * Creating assignments that are worth their time
 * Never want them to feel "worthless" assignments
 * What is the point of what they are doing?
 * Standards based grading-
 * Steering away from open-ended questions but also giving them autonomy
 * Want to make it authentic into what they are doing- don't force writing where it shouldn't be
 * Periodic table writing?
 * Enough with the lame excuses- how to make it appeal to them?
 * Writing doesn't always have to mean essays- word webs, brainstorms, "unorganized"
 * Can be more than an essay

8:30 - 9:15 - Writing Workshop, Part 1 Why Write? Obstacles to writing Writing Tasks:
 * [[file:content-area writing overview.pptx]]
 * [[file:writing handout.docx]]
 * To relay understanding- an assessment vehicle
 * To engage in the discipline
 * To express your feelings and thoughts and explore our thinking
 * To question, share, remember
 * To consider and reflect on what you are doing
 * Grades: concerned about their grade more than the process
 * hard to reframe this idea, "we have created these monsters"
 * Writing is a school thing mentality
 * Lack of vocabulary
 * ELL students- hard to communicate what they want to express
 * Translations into standard and organized English
 * Handwriting and permutation
 * "Describe a moment when you felt you could do anything" **(Narrative)-** personal essay non fiction or fiction
 * "A student shares a blog post" **(Self-generated)** The student owns something
 * "Should the US have dropped the bomb.. support" **(argumentative)-** take a position and support it with **external** evidence
 * "Explain the process to solve this equation" **(explanatory)** writing to show understanding
 * "How did Atticus Finch's character evolve" **(response** to **literature)**
 * "As water boils, the arrangement and behavior of the water molecules changes, describe the changes" **(Constructed response)-** asking students to respond to a question in a specific way
 * "Should guns be allowed in school?" **(persuasive)-** Writing to convince a reader with evidence, personal or emotional appeal

"Teaching is something the teacher does, learning is something the student does"- If we want them to learn we have to allow them to practice and writing is one of the best ways to allow students to participate in this.

9:15 - 9:25 - Break

9:25 - 10:00 - Writing Workshop, continued
 * Barriers to Writing PP:
 * Generating ideas "I don't want to do this"
 * Writing for grades "How will I be graded"
 * Handwriting "Who cares!"
 * Purpose "I don't have anything to say"
 * Removing barriers to writing
 * Why Am I Doing This?
 * Trapped and confined into this box
 * I'm just stuck, what is the purpose
 * No visibility to what is on the other side of the fence
 * Solution:
 * **Together** establish a compelling reason for the task
 * Not just why you think it is worthwhile, but the students have to understand it too
 * "This will help you learn" is **not** compelling to them
 * Invite the students to give feedback about an assignment
 * Sometimes the why will have to be that this is required and that is part of life
 * What do I say, I don't have anything to say?
 * Scared of taking a risk and saying what they want to
 * You have something to say, but is it what the teacher wants to hear? Taking on the opinion of the teacher
 * Need someones help to get started
 * Writing is what we can't know until we write it
 * Pre-writing task is 85% of the process
 * Brainstorming
 * graphic organizers
 * discussions
 * free writing
 * If kids have something to say and they feel safe to say it- the writing is secondary
 * Spend time on the process
 * Who cares? Who are my readers?
 * Establish an audience- they need you to guide them to that
 * There is a greater audience than just you
 * Audience is a powerful motivator- becomes a conversation instead of a grade based activity

10:00 - 10:30 - Brainstorm a writing task for your class
 * [[file:writingactivitytemplate.docx]]
 * http://gonzagateach.wikispaces.com/Writing+Across+the+Curriculum

>
 * Housekeeping:**
 * DUE on Wed: Zwiers, chapter 9-10
 * DUE on Wed: Contribute to Professional Toolbox - Writing
 * DUE 2/13 - Writing Activity
 * Provide evidence demonstrating your ability to effectively use writing to support content learning and literacy development.
 * Evidence options:
 * Design complete curriculum materials for a writing task -- directions, handouts, rubric etc. (Think of this as curriculum that could be used by other teachers.) [[file:writingactivitytemplate.docx]]
 * Design a new lesson plan that includes writing to learn or writing to show understanding.
 * Revise an existing plan to incorporate writing or significantly improve the way you worked with writing originally. Submit the original plan and the "new and improved" plan with changes clearly indicated. Also, write a 1/2-1 page commentary explaining your rationale for the changes supported by professional knowledge. (Directly connect your changes to course content.)
 * Submit a teaching video (10-15 minutes) showing you teaching writing. Write a 1 page reflection analyzing the lesson, focusing specifically on how you supported writing.
 * Grading Criteria:
 * Necessary components - Includes meaningful and engaging pre-, during-, and post- writing scaffolding.
 * Adequacy of evidence (i.e. curriculum includes all necessary materials, lesson plan is fully developed for an outside reader, lesson plan revisions are substantial and commentary is well thought out and sufficiently detailed and developed, teaching reflection demonstrates careful analysis and connection to professional knowledge)
 * Quality of evidence

(Bonus track: Writing to learn in math and AL - https://www.teachingchannel.org/videos/statistical-analysis-lesson)