Activity:Professional Study Team: Collaborative Grade-Level Writing Program Development:
Instruction Driven by Student Writing Samples
TLC Points: 20
October 1, 2005
Teaching and Learning Cooperative Proposal
Proposal Facilitator: Coleen PittmanWork Location: Canyon View
Phone Number: 484-0981 x3105Email:
Intended Audience: First Grade Teachers at Canyon View
Start and End Dates: October 2005 - June 2006
District Goals Addressed:
K-5 Literacy:Writing
Proficiency For All Students
Anticipated Learning Outcomes
- Build a systematic, grade level writing program for young writers by utilizing the process of collaborative reading, discussion, and reflection while implementing writing strategies and lessons from Units of Study for Primary Writing K-2: A year Long Curriculum by Lucy Calkins.
- Acquire strategies, resources and tools for establishing a comprehensive and differentiated classroom writing program.
- Develop a program that motivates young writers.
- Develop conferring strategies to assist students in editing, development of ideas, expansion of writing, descriptive writing, and techniques to engage the reader.
- Develop a professional community that collects, reflects and shares best practices to drive student instruction and learning.
- Gather and analyze student writing to inform student writing conferences and selection of mini-lessons, increasing student achievement.
- Revisit analyzing and assessing student work gathered using Poway CSR Writing Rubrics. Share rubrics and language with students to develop independent and competent writers.
- Use students writing samples as a piece of evidence to show whether or not a student is meeting standards.
Professional Growth Activities
Acquiring New Learning Activities:
- One Weekly after school meeting, 60 minutes, scheduled throughout the 2005-2006 school year
- Each meeting will consist of:
1. Reflection and pair share from individual reflective journaling and implementations (15 minutes)
a. Discuss high, medium and low student progress in Writing Workshop.
b. Share journal reflections/conferring implementation successes and struggles.
c. Book reflections from assigned chapter
2. Instruction (45 minutes)
a. New chapter introduction and group discussion.
b. Look at student work.
c. Decide next steps for classroom instruction for high, medium and low students.
Scheduled Topics and Time
Week 1– Introduction and Launching the Writer’s Workshop
1. Introduction, overview, and expectations
a. TCL requirements
b. Reflecting/Portfolio procedure
c. Choose high, medium and low student to track through portfolio using district CSR Writing
rubrics.
2. Introduce Writers Workshop and Conferring Practices
3. Decide next steps for instruction
a. Taking care of materials
b. Modeling picture and writing
c. Modeling “When I am finished…”
Week 2 - Working Independently in a Writing Workshop
Week 3 - Using Writing Along With a Picture to Tell Each Story
Week 4 - Writing Longer, More Thoughtful Pieces
Week 5 - Preparing for Publishing
Week 6 – Personal Narrative Writing I
Week 7 - Personal Narrative Writing II
Week 8 – Writing for Reader
Week 9 – Writing with Conventions: Spelling, Spacing and Punctuation
Week 10 – Writing for Partners and Revising with Partners
Week 11-Prepare for Publication and Publishing/Scoring of Published Work with CSR Rubrics
Week 12 – Revision Introduction
Week 13 – Revising By Adding to Text or Taking Away From Text
Week 14 – Learning Qualities of Good Writing
Week 15 – Preparing for Publication and Publishing
Week 16 – Introduce Authors as Mentors- Study and Learn from Angela Might
Week 17 – Working With A New Text Structure-Creating A Many Moments Story
Week 18 – Finding Writing Mentors In All Authors
Week 19 – Preparing For Publication and Publishing
Week 20 – Introduce Non-Fiction Writing
Week 21 – Writing How-To Books
Week 22 – Writing All About Books
Week 23 – Preparing For Publication and Publishing
Week 24 – Introduce Poetry
Week 25 – Listening and Hearing the Music in Poetry
Week 26 – The Language of Poetry
Week 27 – Preparing for Publication and Publishing/Scoring of Published Work With CSR Rubrics
II. Outside Learning Activities
- Reading and reflection on weekly topic before each meeting from Units of Study by Lucy Calkins.
(1 hour of reading before each of the 27 meetings = 27 hours)
- Develop a portfolio of writing from a high, medium and low student in the classroom. Collect one piece of student work for each student for reflecting, scoring, and sharing for each publishing period. Analyze for next instructional steps.
(30 minutes per 6 collections = 3 hours)
- Journal at least one time per week about what worked, what didn’t work, next steps for instruction and questions for further exploration in group discussions.
(30 minutes per week = 14 hours)
Classroom Implementation Activities
Participants will implement and reflect on strategies presented with an emphasis on depth of reflection and goals to reach the needs of a variety of learners.
- Deliver writing mini-lessons and conferences based on new learning from readings and weekly collaborative meetings. (20 minutes per day for 27 weeks =45 hours)
- Monitor, track and analyze the results of the program implementation for a variety of learners. Use for reflection and collegial sharing. (20 minutes per week = 9 hours)
- Implement and manage differentiated writing strategies and assessments.
(30 minutes per week = 14 hours)
Reflection Activities
- Sharing, reflecting and pair sharing exercises built into each session.
- Reflection Journal between meetings.
- Summary of personal learning and impact on student learning at the end of the course of study.
Time Totals
Content Meetings: 27 hours
Outside Learning Activities: 44 hours
Classroom Implementation Activities: 68 hours
Sum Total: 139 hours