Idea Transcript
Welcome! writing from sources through journeys
2014
Melinea Rubiano sharon hepburn barb kruger maria lowenstein Laura Mccarthy
Table of Contents
Slides 1-2: Housekeeping Slides 3: Shift # 5 and CCSS Slide 4-5: Writing From Sources Slides 6-7: Writing To Text Slides 8-9: Small Group Reading Slide 10: Write-In Reader Slide 11: Reading Adventures Slide 12: Common Core ELA Exemplar Resources Slide 13: Reading Science Slide 14: Common Core Writing Handbook Slides 15: Literacy and Language Guide Slide 16: English Language Learners Slide 17: myWriteSmart Slide 18-21: CCSS Research/FINDS Slide 22: Summarizing Thoughts Slides 23-24: Closing/Questions and Answers
For your convenience in viewing the session, here is a table of contents summarizing the various topics of this presentation.
Today’s Focus
Instructional Shift #5: Writing from Sources Through Journeys
This session focuses on Writing from Sources Through Journeys which is instructional shift #5. Students should read from a variety of texts and digital sources regularly. Reciprocally, they should write about what they have read, showing synthesis of ideas and concepts. Reading/writing activities such as these should include the use of textbased evidence, credible and accurate facts, and precise and purposeful language.
Writing From sources
Writing needs to emphasize the use of evidence to inform or make an argument rather than the personal narrative and other forms of decontextualized prompts. While the narrative still has an important role, students develop skills through written arguments that respond to the ideas, events, facts, and arguments presented in the texts they have read.
Writing From sources
There are three types of writing found in Common Core State Standards and teachers need to devote equal time to all three text types: The first text type is referred to as opinion writing in the lower grades and develops into argumentative writing in upper grade levels, middle school and high school, the second text type is informational writing and the third is narrative writing. Journeys includes lesson plans for writing. Each unit focuses on one of the three text types of writing. There are weekly writing instruction lessons that model the writing process, from prewriting through publishing. These lessons highlight the importance of the traits of good writing. Within these lessons, a wide range of text types and writing purposes are shown, giving students clear expectations about their performance tasks.
Writing to text
Students must write routinely in all content areas and about ideas discovered in text. Students should write more from text and less from background knowledge. Research tells us that writing is often just assigned, however, direct teaching of writing ,which occurs less often, should be taking place within our classrooms. A key to the writing process is what teachers do BEFORE students write. This makes the biggest difference in improving student achievement in writing.
Writing to text
The write about reading section follows each anchor text in the student basal. This task promotes routine writing in response to text, while using text evidence to support ideas, while focusing on the conventions of Standard English.
Writing to text
Journeys’ Features
• Small Group & Flexible Grouping Plan
Small Group lesson plans are found in the Teacher’s Edition. The lesson plans, found behind the Small Group tab, are brief and may not meet the needs of your students. More extensive lesson plans can be found under Readers in the Teacher Resources. Teachers also have a hard copy of these more in-depth Small Group lesson plans.
Writing to text
Small Group Reading
Found in student Book
Found in Teacher guide
Small group plans for Struggling, On Level, Advanced and ELL students can be found under Readers in the Teacher Resources. These plans were developed by Irene Fountas from Fountas and Pinnell. It is suggested that these plans be viewed by teachers so that they may choose appropriate small group activities for their students including writing activities. Writing lessons can be found in the section labeled “Writing about Reading”. Since this is such an extensive lesson plan, teachers need to pick and choose the pieces that fit the needs of their students. It is not expected for teachers to follow the lesson plan in totality.
Write-in Reader
The write-in reader is a research based Tier II intervention that provides extra support for the CCSS. It includes easier text that scaffolds students toward reading more complex grade level texts. The students are given opportunities to write about what they read using evidence from the text to support their answers. The Write-In Reader lesson plans are found behind the intervention tab in the back of each teacher’s edition. The Write-In Reader is also available online in Think Central. The Write-In Reader audio text can be found under the Intervention link found on the left side of the resource page under the Florida title.
Reading adventures
Reading Adventures Student Magazine is the text for Unit 6 whole group instruction in Grades 3-5. It has all the components that were included in Units 1-5. This magazine is another collection of texts that may be used to help students write to sources. In addition, Unit 6 provides a great opportunity for students to begin the practice of writing their own text-dependent questions, as the teacher has modeled this practice in Units 1-5. This practice helps students reciprocally link reading with writing.
Common Core ela exemplar resources
Teachers can find the Common Core ELA Exemplar Resource in Think Central, through the Teacher Gateway, under the Teaching Aids section. This resource was developed to provide instruction for the exemplars found in Appendix B of the CCSS for ELA. Remember these exemplars are organized by grade level bands (K-1, 2-3, and 4-5). This resource may be used to help students routinely write. This resource gives students an opportunity to write, while drawing evidence from the text.
Reading Science
The Reading Science resource is found under Teaching Aids in the online resources for teachers. Reading Science provides opportunity to practice close reading of informational text in Science while building a knowledge base. It also provides opportunities for students to write about content area information, which may be connected to future lessons. This resource includes reading, writing, speaking and listening instruction. Graphic organizers are provided to assist students with the planning of their performance tasks. The target skill ties to Active Reading at Grades 3-5 and to the Core Lesson Content at Grades K-2. Comprehension strategies are used throughout this resource as well as vocabulary strategies dealing with prefixes, suffixes and Greek and Latin roots to help students tackle the difficult domain-specific vocabulary. The lessons also include classroom collaboration and performance tasks to monitor the students’ progress.
Common core writing handbook
The Common Core Writing Handbook is only found in digital format through Think Central under Practice & Study Aids. It was designed to complement the writing instruction in Journeys, as well as meet all the Common Core State Standards for Writing. The Common Core Writing Handbook consists of two components: a handbook for students. They can refer to as a resource, while practicing writing throughout the year. It also includes a Teacher’s Guide that supports instruction by providing mini-lessons for every topic within the Handbook.
Literacy and language guide
The Literacy and Language Guide has weekly lesson plans for Word Study, Reading and Writing. The writing mini-lessons connect to Journeys instruction and provide students with additional resources for writing practice during the week. The Literacy and Language Guide comes in digital format only. It is found in the Resource tab of Think Central under the section titled Teaching Aids.
English Language Learners
In the English Language Learners section of Journeys, there are lesson plans for writing. Each unit focuses on one of the three text types of writing. These are weekly writing instruction lessons that model the writing process, from prewriting through publishing, while focusing on the importance of the traits of good writing. This resource shows a wide range of text types and writing purposes, giving students clear expectations for their performance tasks. The English Language Learners tab contains the lesson plans that support ELL students. The lessons can also be found in Think Central, in the English Language Learners tab, to the left, under Florida in the resource page.
myWriteSmart
Journeys’ myWriteSmart is an online digital writing resource that supports Journeys' writing activities with opportunities for peer collaboration. It also provides ideas for performance tasks.
CCSS Research
The Common Core State Standards for writing distinguish the difference between a short research project and a sustained research project. According to appendix A on page 43, a short research project is an investigation intended to address a relatively narrow query in a brief period of time, as in a few class periods or a week of instructional time. A sustained research project is an investigation intended to address a relatively expansive query using several sources over an expanded period of time, as in a few weeks of instructional time.
Short Research project Embedded within each 5 day plan Listed beside Extend the Topic Relates to Unit Performance Task Tie into Inquiry-based Learning
Research and Media Literacy Lessons are embedded within each 5 day plan. These lessons can be found on the page beside Extend the Topic. Additionally, Speaking and Listening lessons are included in the 5 day plan. Teachers can tie these lessons into inquiry-based learning opportunities, where students gain access to useful knowledge through “real” questions. These lessons involve students finding resources to gather information for answering “real” questions, interpreting the information and then reporting the findings in a variety of ways.
Sustained research project
Research and Media performance tasks are found in the Roman numerals pages of each TE. These tasks are tied to the research skills mini-lessons found in the back of the TE behind the Resources tab. Teachers can use these projects to scaffold students in the understanding of the FINDS research process. Project tasks incorporate numerous Common Core State Standards from the reading, writing, speaking/listening and language strands, as well as the NGSSS Science and Social Studies standards.
finds
Lets take a closer look at the instructional implications and the alignment of the FINDS research process model. You can see under each step of FINDS, that the CCSS are woven throughout and the literacy standards for close analytical reading and writing are integrated throughout the entire process.
Summarizing thoughts
Increased Emphasis on:
• • • • • • •
Analytical writing tied to literary and informational text Evidence to support opinion or persuasive argument Informative and explanatory writing Frequent short, focused research “projects” Comparison and synthesis of multiple sources Routine writing Writing in response to text, about text, and from multiple sources
Decreased Emphasis on:
• Writing in response to decontextualized prompts • Writing without tasks, purposes or audiences • Writing only narratives For this instructional shift, there should be an increased emphasis on: • Analytical writing tied to literary and informational text • Evidence to support opinion or persuasive argument • Informative and explanatory writing • Frequent short, focused research “projects” • Comparison and synthesis of multiple sources • Routine writing • Writing in response to text, about text, and from multiple sources With a decreased emphasis on: • Writing in response to decontextualized prompts • Writing without tasks, purposes or audiences • Writing only narratives
Change is possible.
Change requires three things; a vision, a plan, and effort. It requires changing bad habits to good habits. It requires effort even when we don’t feel like working. It requires one step at a time. Santa Clara University http://www.scu.edu/character/subscribers/cbl/quarter-2/
Change is happening now as we move towards the CCSS. It is going to take hard work. Start small where you feel comfortable. Work collaboratively and be sure to have students routinely write in your classroom learning opportunities. Above all, let students do the work.
Q and A
Teachers can find a Journeys Frequently Asked Questions and Answers document in the Elementary Literacy Resources CAB conference. Thank you for your time while learning more about Writing From Sources Through Journeys.