Professional Development ~ Writing

Unit Title: Professional Development ~ Writing

Session Title: The Writing Process

Essential Questions:

Ø  Why write?

Ø  Why do effective writers use the five-step writing process?

Ø  How does using the writing process help with descriptive, narrative, persuasive and informational writing in all grade levels and across all disciplines?

Ø  How does assessment drive better student writing?

Participants will KNOW:

Ø  The five steps of the writing process

Ø  How to use the writing process for a descriptive, narrative, persuasive and informational composition (content areas)

Ø  How to use classroom assessment for learning to improve writing

Participants will UNDERSTAND:

Ø  The writing process is not an option for your students but a necessity for predicting academic success and for participation in the global community.

Ø  Process writing involves many interwoven activities, including:

o  creating extended opportunities for writing

o  stressing ownership of writing

o  encouraging self-reflection and evaluation

o  emphasizing writing for authentic purposes

Participants will be able to DO:

Ø  Use a sorting activity to define the components of the writing process

Ø  Participate in prewriting, drafting, revising and editing strategies to learn about the components of the writing process

Ø  View practical applications of writing from Thinkfinity site

Ø  Assess writing using rubrics

Ø  Develop focused feedback through conferencing

Ø  Create a writing lesson for the classroom


Learning Plan and Notes

Sponge Activity: Admit Slip (Answer the question – Post on the wall)

Ask participants to take a Post-it note and write one example of how you use writing in your classroom. As one presenter continues with the welcome and introductions, other presenters will categorize the Post-it notes for the participants. Present this to participants after the introductions.

Welcome and Introduction of Presenters: (10 minutes) (Introductory slide- Slide 1)

Participant Introductions:

·  Take one object out of your purse or pocket. Introduce yourself to someone and talk about the importance of that object to you. (a prewriting activity)

·  Discuss the Sponge Activity-How are the participants using writing in their classrooms?

*Note to presenter: This is an optional activity.

Participants will KNOW: (Slide 2)

Ø  The five steps of the writing process

Ø  How to use the writing process for a descriptive, narrative, persuasive and informational composition (content areas)

Ø  How to use classroom assessment for learning to improve writing

Participants will be able to DO: (Slide 3)

Ø  Use a sorting activity to define the components of the writing process

Ø  Participate in prewriting, drafting, revising and editing strategies to learn about the components of the writing process

Ø  View practical applications of writing process with Thinkfinity

Ø  Assess writing using rubrics

Ø  Create a writing lesson for the content area classroom

Essential Questions: (Slide 4) Leave this slide up throughout Activating Prior Knowledge and Vocabulary

Activating Prior Knowledge: (15 minutes)

Imagine for a moment that you have to stop at the grocery store and pick up four or five items. Write yourself a reminder of what you have to buy. (Give out Post-it notes to do this) Now imagine that something has come up so you can’t do your shopping yourself. Someone else has to do your shopping for you. Make whatever changes you need in order to ensure that the person understands what you want. (Participants change list). Let’s look at the process of communication. Before you began, you probably made a decision- a kind of prewriting- to write the reminder in the form of a list. Lists serve a purpose: they provide the key information without extraneous detail. Next, you drafted your list. But when you realized someone else was going to use it; you began adding detail-changing your text to suit an outside audience-you were revising. Finally, you might have recopied the list, corrected careless spelling-editing. Publishing is when you share a piece with its intended audience. In this case you gave it to your friend/husband/child.

Skill Lesson through direct instruction and modeling:

The Writing Process (50 minutes)

1.  (Slide 5) Presenter will explain how the writing process moves along a continuum, from fluency to control and to precision and how pre-writing to publishing moves along the continuum but is also recursive. (follow notes on slide 3)

2.  Vocabulary Development: (03 Handout for vocabulary sort and answer key) Participants will identify the terminology of the writing process with a vocabulary word sort. In groups of 4, the presenter gives each group an envelope containing the 5 steps of the writing process and the definition or examples of each. The groups will complete the sorting activity by matching the component of the writing process to the definition or example. An answer key will be given to each group after the activity.

3.  Give each participant the writing process chart (04 Handout). The presenter(s) will choose a tool and model each component of the writing process.

Prewriting – The Cheese Stands Alone (narrowing the topic)

The participants will write three different reasons why they like summer vacation on three strips of paper (three strips of paper). Everyone stands. The presenter collects the reasons and reads a strip. The person who wrote the reason and anyone else that has the same reason will sit down. The presenter continues to do this until only one person is left standing. Discuss why this person is left standing (this topic has been narrowed so that no one else has the topic). Note: You might have to do this more than once with your class. Each time you do this activity, students will become aware of how they need to narrow their topics in order to be the “cheese.”

Drafting –SEEPS (support/organization) (Slide 6-8)

S-Statement

E-Explanation

E-Elaboration

P-Personal Tidbit

S-so

The participants will learn and practice the SEEPS support for writing. The presenter will model SEEP and then participants will rewrite and SEEP a paragraph. In groups, use chart paper to rewrite the paragraph and post on wall. Have a spokesperson from each group read the revised paragraph and tell how they used SEEP.

Revising – Rainbow Revision (need colored pencils or highlighters)

·  Start with a short draft from each student.

·  Ask the writer to underline the best part of their writing, using a red colored pencil.

·  Rotate papers to the right.

·  Read the new paper in front of you. Using a yellow pencil or marker, underline what you think is the best part.

·  Rotations continue around the rainbow.

·  When you get your own paper back, the part that has no color is the part you should revise.

·  Now add, subtract or change something!

The participants will learn and practice Rainbow Revision. The presenter will model this process. Participants will practice Rainbow Revision using a seventh-grade paper (or any grade) with multiple paragraphs.

Editing – (Slide 9) CUPS is an acronym to remind students that when they edit, they should look for errors in Capitalization, Usage, Punctuation and Spelling. The presenters model the process by looking at one aspect at a time. Using a sample piece of writing and four different colors of editing pens, model the process. First, use one color to note capitalization errors. Then skim the text again, marking errors in word usage with a different-colored pen. Go through a third time looking for missing or incorrect punctuation, and a fourth time noting and fixing spelling errors, each time with a different color. Participants will use a piece of writing to practice CUPS.

Practical Application: (15 minutes) (Slide10)

Presenter will show how process writing is an integral part of teaching in the content area. Take participants to Thinkfinity lesson using the link on Slide 7. Briefly review the content of the lesson. Take participants to the “Closing” section online and give each participant the UbD lesson plan (05 Handout). Using the 05 handout as a model, participants are to talk in pairs or groups as to how the five-step writing process is used in this plan. Using the Process Writing Chart (06 Handout) participants will fill in the last column of the chart

Next, have pairs work with 1 or 2 other pairs to compare and contrast their sponge activity responses with the Thinkfinity activity on a compare/contrast graphic organizer (07 Handout) Groups will share responses.

Assessing Writing (slide 9-15) (35 minutes)

Assessment and instruction – Slide 11 – The presenter will explain Stiggins’ quotes and make connections to training on the session on Process Writing and how writing is used to assess comprehension and demonstrate learning and real-world connections as explained at the bottom on the slide in the notes page.

RAFT Explanation – Slide 12 – The presenter using notes page on slide, defines and explains what a RAFT is and how it can be used across content areas to produce a product that demonstrates learning and real-world connections.

RAFT Activity – Slide 13 – The presenter will ask the audience to select one of the four content specific RAFT writing activities and complete a short exercise as they think a student would complete it. (10 minutes) (need paper and pencil)

RAFT Activity Rubric – Slide 14 – The presenter will ask the audience to pair-up and exchange their RAFT activity and use this rubric to evaluate the other person’s writing. (5 minutes)

Writing Rubrics – Slide 15 – The presenter will use the Internet to view various websites devoted to the creation and development of rubrics. (10 minutes)

Thinkfinity Lesson Rubric – Slide 16 – The presenter will have the audience look at the RAFT assignment (this is from the UbD lesson 05 Handout). Compose a rubric that you could use with this RAFT assignment. (10 minutes)

*Note to the presenter: Participants can use a word processor or chart paper to do this activity.

Conferencing – Slide 17– The presenter will use notes at the bottom of PP to explain the importance of appropriate and detailed feedback as an introduction to the PQP slide.

PQP – Slide 18 – Using notes page on slide, the presenter will define and explain PQP – Praise – Question – Polish as explained in detail on the notes page under the slide.

Active Literacy: (50 minutes) (Slide 19)

Participants will take an example from the sponge, an on line lesson, or a lesson that they will be teaching soon and use the Understanding by Design (UbD) template (08 and 09 Handout) to design a process writing lesson. Participants may work together in groups of 3 or fewer or may work alone. If the facilities are available, participants should be asked to produce the plans electronically (flash drive).

Post Literacy: (10 minutes)

Using the flash drive, participants will share their ideas and/or finished product.

Reflection: (Slide 20) (10 minutes)

Participants will answer the question from the slide and share them in their group.

MATERIALS:

Post It note pads

Three strips of paper for Prewriting Activity

Chart paper

Markers

Highlighters (several colors)

Paper and pencils for writing (PCs are even better)

Student paper (multi-paragraphs)