Day 2October 18, 2011

WRITING STANDARDS WORKSHOP FOR HIGH

SCHOOL

Examine a rigorous lesson using the Writing Standards Instructional Procedure.

Demonstrate, step-by-step, techniques for developing a strong persuasive response using the Writing Process.

Explore several sentence-manipulating mini-lessons.

Mini-lessons “Who Says that Middle School Writing Can’t Be Fun?”

OBJECTIVES

Reflection on NCTE Policy Brief Due October 18

Provide a short reflection on ways you will incorporate and implement what you have learned about effective writing practices.

Things that make you go Ummmm!??!

How will this policy brief impact your writing instruction?

FOLLOW-UP ASSIGNMENT

REVIEW OF BEST PRACTICES FOR TEACHING WRITING

1. Create an inviting classroom.2. Establish Writing Workshop routines that meet everyday.

3. Teach Writer’s Craft techniques using the Writing Process and students’ developmental writing

needs.

4. Provide opportunities for authentic writing.

5. Provide diverse reading materials modeling the importance of craft and ideas (mentor or stimulus text). 4

REVIEW OF BEST PRACTICES FOR TEACHING WRITING

7. Make teacher and peer response an ongoing and integral part of writing instruction.

8. Provide opportunities for discussions including conferences, peer conferences and author’s chair.

9. Students should revise after conferring with peer readers.

10. Create a safe environment for students to

share their work.

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THE BEST OF THE BEST…

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Conduct effective writing mini-lessons on a targeted craft or skill by structuring it so that students may:

• Observe• Discuss• Simulate

ACTIVITY: WRITING NOTEBOOK OR FOLDER

Where are student folders stored?

How is evidence of the writing process shown in student work?

How is the work graded or assessed?

DEVELOPING A RIGOROUS WRITING LESSON

Changes to FCAT Writing

2012

NGSSS Writing

Application

NGSSSConventions

NGSSS Writing Process

DEVELOPING A RIGOROUS WRITING LESSON

NGSSS End Products

NGSSS Writing Process put into practice

Resources

Vicki Spandel (2005) coined the phrase “sentence stalking” to identify any text that can teach a writer about any aspect of writer’s craft.

Look for great mentor text in:McDougal Littell Literature anthologyProfessional writingWell-written student sentences

FINDING MENTOR TEXT

THINGS TO CONSIDERDISTRICT RESOURCES

1. Pacing Guide Week 14

2. Match passages from the literature anthology to targeted skill(s).

3. Consider the End Product

MODEL 9TH GRADE WRITING LESSON

MENTOR TEXT OR STIMULUS TITLE

1. Read and

analyze the

mentor text

STEP 1

Locate the author’s main claim. Find examples of opinion statements and examples where the author supports his claim with experience and observations.

Find 2 examples where Mathabane effectively uses the rhetorical device of parallelism in the essay.

Analyze the essay for persuasive techniques.

Summarize the argument in this article.

READ AND ANALYZE THE MENTOR TEXT

1. Develop a

general idea

STEP 2

Choose an issue you feel strongly about. Write a persuasive essay in which you explain the issue and attempt to persuade your reader to agree

with your point of view.

ACTIVITY: AT YOUR TABLE GROUP DISCUSS POSSIBLE ISSUES.

JOT DOWN IDEAS.

Banning cells phone use on school property

Banning junk food sales on school property

Texting while driving

On your paper identify a Goal – Issue – Audience you would like to write about.

Prewriting Listing

Planning Using graphic organizers Sketching

Beginning Techniques

Ending Techniques

ACTIVITY: DEVELOP A GENERAL IDEA

Goal Issue Audience

 For    

 

Against 

   

1. Narrow the

topic

STEP 3

NARROW THE IDEA

Texting while driving

lol no im nt bsy im only drving

State laws

Traffic accidents

Teenage drivers

Statistics

Examples

Observations

Anecdotes

Quotations

WAYS TO SUPPORT YOUR ARGUMENT

Why do you feel the way you do about the issue?

What facts, statistics, examples, quotations, anecdotes, or expert opinions support your view?

What reasons will convince your readers?

What evidence can answer their objections?

ACTIVITY: ARGUMENTS FOR - AGAINST

For AgainstStatistics

Examples

Observations

Anecdotes

Quotations

Use emotional appeals wisely. Ask a peer reader which of your reasons are strongest and which are weakest.

Underline words or phrases that are so emotionally charged or extreme that they may cause readers to dismiss your entire message.

Body parts were strewn across the highway; the remains of the teens were unidentifiable! What fool would text and drive?

OR…

Two local high school students tragically died this weekend when the driver was distracted by a text message. Clearly, the families are devastated.

USE SOUND REASONING AND EVIDENCE

Single Sentence Syndrome

My first car was the best car in the world. My Mustang was bright blue. It was very powerful. All my friends were jealous when they saw it. They wanted to drive it. I told them they couldn’t. I said that they could be passengers or pedestrians. They didn’t want to walk. They always chose to be passengers.

MINI-LESSON – SENTENCE COMBINING

My first car was the best car in the world. My Mustang was bright blue

Student sentences

Common words

Revision #1

My bright blue Mustang was my first car, and the best in the world.

Single Sentence Syndrome

(1) My first car was the best car in the world. My Mustang was bright blue. (2) It was very powerful. All my friends were jealous when they saw it. They wanted to drive it. (3) I told them they couldn’t. I said that they could be passengers or pedestrians. (4) They didn’t want to walk. They always chose to be passengers.

Possible revision

My bright blue Mustang was my first car, and the best in the world. All my friends were jealous when they saw it, because it was very powerful and they wanted to drive it. I told them that they could be passengers or pedestrians. Since they didn’t want to walk, they always chose to be passengers.

ACTIVITY – SENTENCE COMBINING

1. Plan together

STEP 4

A thesis is the claim you are making either FOR or AGAINST the issue.

The thesis belong in the introduction.

Write a position statement for both sides of an issue.

ACTIVITY: DEVELOP YOUR THESIS

Revisit your cluster diagram.

Who might object?

Possible objections?

My arguments for and against?

TALK TO YOUR PEER READER

Sitting in traffic

Reporting accident

Witness crime

Ability to multitask

Shore up your support. Put [brackets] around statements of your ideas.

Review each statement. Is it supported with explanations and details? If not, add facts, statistics, expert opinions, or reasons.

ACTIVITY - ANSWER OPPOSING ARGUMENTS FULLY AND COMPLETELY

1. Illustrate your plan

STEP 5

Now you have a plan!

Revise for more persuasive language. Use precise words instead of vague ones such as really and very.

Craft a strong ending. You may want to make your point one more time in a brief summary statement.

ACTIVITY: ILLUSTRATE YOUR PLAN

1.Write!STEP 6

Finally, it is time to write the first draft.

Check your grammar.

Do you have different sentence structures?

Check that words are spelled correctly.

WRITE!

This assignment could easily be extended into other End Products such as:

Speech

Advertisement

Poster

Multi-media presentation

One-act play

Cartoon

EXTENSIONS

WHAT ABOUT INTENSIVE READING PLUS (IR+)?

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EXPLORING SENTENCE ELEMENTS

MINI-LESSONS

Composing Literary Strong verbs Descriptive attributes Composing and

expanding sentences Specificity - Word

choice

Comparisons Dialogue Sensory detail Voice Sentence variation

When in the writing process do these skills come into play?

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Initial Medial Final

1. The proposal

was rejected in spite of its merits.

2. In spite of its merits,

the proposal was rejected.

3. I will love her forever and ever.

4. Forever and

ever,

I will love her.

SENTENCE ELEMENTS

Simple sentence

Simple sentence with initial phrase

Simple sentence

Simple sentence with initial phrase

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WHAT DID YOU NOTICE?

Initial Medial Final1. Josephine is inclined to put the cart

before the horse.

2. Because she is

under the weather,

Imelda wasn’t interested

in shoes.

3. Father Wilson

intoned “To think well is to live well.”

4. “To think well is to live well”

intoned Father Wilson.

Initial Position

Medial Position

Final Position

Graph the following fragments in the positions they can occupy.

in spite of her behavior

Jose was excitedin the nick of timebecause she was

exhaustedfor love or moneyI will learn

ACTIVITY – STORY ELEMENTS

When it comes to language, nothing is more satisfying than to write a good sentence.

- Barbara Tuchman

Killgallon offers 4 techniques to help students gain practice with mature sentence structures they seldom use.

sentence unscrambling

sentence imitating

sentence combining sentence expanding

4 SENTENCE-MANIPULATING TECHNIQUES

Here’s a list of sentences, all written by professional writers, but with some parts deleted.

1. It went away slowly.

2. The land that lay stretched out before him became of vast significance.

3. However, I looked with a mixture of admiration and awe at Peter.

Now compare those sentences with the originals. Notice that the additions account for the distinctiveness of the original sentences. The boldfaced phrases are appositives.

1a. It went away slowly, the feeling of disappointment that came sharply after the thrill that made his shoulders ache.

Ernest Hemingway, “Big Two-Hearted River”

IDENTIFYING THE APPOSITIVE PHRASE

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2a. The land that lay stretched out before him became of vast significance, a place peopled by his fancy with a new race of men sprung from himself.

Sherwood Anderson, Winesburg, Ohio

3a. However, I looked with a mixture of admiration and awe at Peter, a boy who could and did imitate a police siren every morning on his way to the showers.

Robert Russell, To Catch an Angel

Appositives are noun phrases that identify adjacent nouns or pronouns. They can occur as sentence openers, subject-verb splits, or sentence closers.

CHARACTERISTICS OF THE APPOSITIVE PHRASE

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A Sentence Opener is any word, phrase, or clause—or mixture of words, phrases, or clauses—at the beginning of a sentence.

OPENER, subject – verb.

A Subject-Verb Split is any word, phrase, or clause—or mixture of words, phrases, or clauses—between a subject and verb.

Subject , SPLIT, verb.  

Appositives are noun phrases that identify adjacent nouns or pronouns. They can occur as sentence openers, subject-verb splits, or sentence closers.

A Sentence Closer is any word, phrase, or clause—or mixture of words, phrases, or clauses—at the ending of a sentence.

Subject – verb,

CLOSER.

However, I looked with a mixture of admiration and awe at Peter, a boy who could and did imitate a police siren every morning on his way to the showers.

Robert Russell, To Catch an Angel

CHARACTERISTICS OF THE APPOSITIVE PHRASE

Subject – verb, CLOSER.

OPENER, subject – verb.

One of eleven brothers and sisters, Harriet was a moody, willful child. Langston Hughes, “Road to Freedom”

Subject , SPLIT, verb.

Poppa, a good quiet man, spent the last hours before our parting moving aimlessly about the yard, keeping to himself and avoiding me.

Gordon Parks, “My Mother’s Dream for Me”

ACTIVITY: IDENTIFY THE PATTERN

3. A short, round boy of seven, he took little interest in troublesome things, preferring to remain on good terms with everyone.

Mildred D. Taylor, Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry

4. A man, a weary old pensioner with a bald dirty head and a stained brown corduroy waistcoat, appeared at the door of a small gate lodge.

Brian Moore, The Lonely Passion of Judith Hearne

ACTIVITY: IDENTIFY THE PATTERN

Directions: Each scrambled sentence has one or more appositives. Identify them. Then unscramble the sentence parts and write out the sentence, punctuating it correctly.

1a. an old, bowlegged fellow in a pale-blue sweater

b.the judge

c.and was reading over some notes he had taken

had stopped examining the animals

on the back of a dirty envelope

Jessamyn West, “The Lesson”

2a. went over to Tom Willy’s saloon

b.in the late afternoon

c.Will Henderson

d.and editor of the Eagle

e. ownerSherwood Anderson, Winesburg, Ohio

PRACTICE 1 - UNSCRAMBLING

Directions: Unscramble both lists of sentence parts to make two sentences that imitate the first model. Then, imitate the same model by writing your own sentence. Finally write imitations of the other models, making all of your sentence parts like those in the model.

Scrambled Imitation 11a. president and

valedictorian of the senior class

b. by the podiumc. intelligent and composed

and smilinge. scholarly Henrietta stood

Model: Beside the fireplace old Doctor Winter sat, bearded and simple and benign, historian and physician to the town.

John Steinbeck, The Moon Is Down

Scrambled Imitation 22a. beaming and

affectionate and happyb. bride and groom in their

fineryc. they dancedd. under the canopy

PRACTICE 2 – IMITATING

Model: Among the company was a lawyer, a young man of about twenty-five.

Anton Chekhov, “The Bet”

Sentences to Be Combined

She was near the statueShe was an obvious tourist.She was an oriental lady.She had a Kodak camera.

Imitation

Combination

PRACTICE 3 – COMBINING

Directions: At the slash mark, add an appositive phrase. In sentences 1-2, the first few words are provided and the number of words omitted from the original is noted in brackets after the slash mark. Approximate that number in your expanded sentence. In sentences 3-6, add whatever seems appropriate.

Out in the distance the fans of windmills twinkled, turning, and about the base of each, about the drink tank, was a speckle of dots, a herd of cattle / [13].

Glendon Swarthout, Bless the Beasts and Children

Perhaps two or three times a year we would come together at a party, one of those teen-age affairs which last until dawn with singing and dancing and silly games such as “Kiss the Pillow,” or “Post Office,” the game which / [18].

Henry Miller, Stand Still Like the Hummingbird

PRACTICE 4 – EXPANDING

What applications do you see in your classroom?

What scaffolding needs to occur before you can try some of Killgallon’s techniques?

How are you currently teaching more sophisticated composing skills?

ACTIVITY: DISCUSSION

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Writing takes many forms. Sometimes an author uses jokes and humor to entertain the reader. Other times, the writer employs idioms, puns, and satire to poke fun.

Jesters are stereotypically thought to have worn brightly colored clothes and eccentric hats in a motley pattern. Their hats were especially distinctive; made of cloth they were floppy with three points, each of which had a jingle bell at the end. The three points of the hat represent the donkey’s ears and tail worm by jesters of old.

Jesters assumed the role of either a natural fool or a licensed fool to compose nit-witted, moronic performances. Escape now from the hard work of serious composing to laugh, mock and enjoy the many forms of writing.

For a few moments, become a jester, a wit-cracker or buffoon as you explore your creative side with mock marotte (prop stick or scepter) in hand.

WHO SAYS THAT WRITING IN HIGH SCHOOL CAN’T BE FUN?

REBUS PUZZLES

The task is to illustrate differences between males and females.

This may take the form of a chart, diagram, illustration, or a how-to-manual.

G.I.S.T - MALE VS. FEMALE

G.I.S.T - MALE VS. FEMALE

EATS SHOOTS AND LEAVES

Dear Jack

I want a man who knows what love is all about you are generous kind thoughtful people who are not like you admit to being useless and inferior you have ruined me for other men I yearn for you I have no feelings whatsoever when we’re apart I can be forever happy will you let me be yours  

Jill

PUNCTUATE THIS LETTER

Dear Jack,

I want a man who knows what love is all about. You are generous, kind, thoughtful. People who are not like you admit to being useless and inferior. You have ruined me for other men. I yearn for you. I have no feelings whatsoever when we’re apart. I can be forever happy – will you let me be yours?

Jill

Dear Jack,

I want a man who knows what love is. All about you are generous, kind, thoughtful people, who are not like you. Admit to being useless and inferior. You have ruined me for other men I yearn. For you I have no feelings whatsoever. When we’re apart I can be forever happy. Will you let me be?

Yours,  

Jill

PUNCTUATION CHANGES MEANING.

Home Talk – Benjamin

Thomas: Hey, brudda. How come you got such got such good grade. Huh?

Benjamin: Nah. Nah. Uncle. My grades not that good.

Thomas: You betcha. Goo. Jes kidding, man. I know you jes smart. You got da brain, no lie. An you use it too. It not jes restin gaint da bone. When you was a kid, you kind screw round, and junior high, everting was football. Football. Now in high school, you got serious. And dat’s good. But I worry sometime your serious ways get between you and your friends because they still screw ups, you know. Well, not toally, but not school boys. You know what I mean? Is dat trouble?

School Talk Directions: Rewrite the dialogue between

Benjamin and his Uncle Thomas using a more formal style.

Thomas: Hey, brother. I see you got good grades. Nice job!

Benjamin:

Thomas:

HOME TALK - VOICE

Carnival in Italy nobleman pompous drunk insult, revenge rare wine cold, damp vaults chained “a very good joke

indeed” loud and shrill screams “may he rest in peace”

Ask for 10 volunteers from the class to come forward.

Instruct the group to stand in a straight line.

Give each student a word or phrase, but not display the entire list before beginning the activity.

Begin with the phrase “Carnival in Italy” to create a story beginning.

Each participant repeats their original sentence as the next volunteer adds a sentence or two to the story line using the given words/phrases.

Encourage as much elaboration as possible.

STORY IMPRESSIONS

This 7 slide PowerPoint was created by a 10th grader to “advertise” a good book.

Right CLICK on the image

Scroll to “Present Object”

CLICK “Show”

DIGITAL BOOK TEASER

Ever been forcefully taken away from your

family?

This 60 second digital example was created to show the destructive force of tornadoes.

DOUBLE CLICK on the image to start the video.

DIGITAL STORY TELLING

Click on the rectangle to start this 25 second video entitled “Struggling Dinosaurs.

DIGITAL STORY TELLING

Directions:1. Direct students to create

and maintain a portable word wall containing both implicitly and explicitly taught vocabulary.

2. Encourage students to add words to the chart from all content areas (math, science, social studies, health, arts).

3. Students increase fluency when they have enough vocabulary to build oral and written conversations.

PORTABLE WORD WALL

A-B C-D E-F G-H

I-J K-L M-N O-P

Q-R S-T U-V WXYZ

RESPONSIBILITIESSCHOOL-SITE FOLLOW-UP

Share the Planning for a Rigorous Middle School Writing Lesson with administrators, Literacy Leadership team, and Language Arts department.

Model and implementation the Writing Process with 7th and 8th grade teams.

Share and plan with grade level peers.

Provide support to grade level peers for implementation.

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DIVISION OF LANGUAGE ARTS/READING

Dr. Sharon Scruggs-Williams Instructional Supervisor

North & North Central Region

Dr. Erin Cuartas Instructional Supervisor South Central & North Central Region

Laurie Kaplan Instructional Supervisor South Region

305-995-3122

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