What to Look for in the Teaching of Writing, Grades 3-8
Writing Workshop
  • The writing workshop is held at least four times a week. During every writing workshop, students write independently for 30-40 minutes.

  • Students write at home at least three times a week, producing roughly the same amount of writing in one night’s session at home as they produce in a day of writing at school.

  • Every student has a writer’s notebook anda writing folder containing drafts and mentor texts for that unit of study, as does the teacher.

  • Form and genre are important, and it is important that a writer knows the difference between narrative writing, opinion (essay) writing, and informational writing. Usually, it makes sense for a writer to work over a sequence of days on one of these types of writing, developing stronger muscles within that genre. This means that as one turns the pages in a writer’s notebook, one is apt to see one piece, then another, then another, all written within a particular genre. It will not usually be the case that on one page in a writer’s notebook, the writer produces a one-day, instant fiction story, and then on the next day, a one-day, instant essay, and then will go back to a one page, instant fiction story. Instead, if a writer is working on fiction, a few pages may contain kernels of stories, then a few pages of character sketches, scenes, leads, and drafts.

  • Most teachers ask students to do an on-demand piece of writing at the start and finish of a unit.

  • Each student has a writing partner and meets with the partner during many mid-workshop interruptions and share sessions (and probably it is the partner with whom a writer talks during the minilesson.)

  • Writing partners draw on a growing repertoire of ‘Ways Partners Can Help Each Other.’ For example, partners read the draft aloudnoting places in need of revision, jotting marginal notes of where the writer’s voice is particularly strong and can be built upon, and getting the writer to set the text aside and to story-tell (or argue persuasively) in ways that generate content and voice. These strategies aim to reintroduce the writer to vital questions such as, ‘What is this piece really about?’ and ‘What do you want readers to feel?” and “What are some possible ways you can imagine for making this much better?”

Writing Volume
  • The volume of writing that students do increases steadily over time, with the first on-demand writing showing the volume of writing that the student can produce in one sitting at the start of the year, and the per-day volume increasing from that starting point.

  • By third grade, students are expected to write at least one page a day. In higher grades, students are expected to write substantially more (2 pages/sitting for the Common Core.) By extension, this means that if units of study are a month in length, third grade writers will write, per unit, approximately 18 pages in their writer’s notebook (including drafts and revisions of those drafts.)Writers in grades 4-8 will produce closer to 25-30 pages in the notebook for each unit of study, plus several drafts of a text.

  • Just as one would expect a class of readers to be reading across a range of text difficulties, so, too, one would expect writers’ work to represent an equally wide range of text difficulties. Differences in volume of writing will be especially obvious. Presumably, students who read higher levels of text difficulty will write substantially more.

  • Students produce at least one published piece per unit.If the unit is extended, lasting as long as six weeks, then each writer publishes several pieces.

Entries
  • Early in a unit,when students are generating ideas for topics, the process of listing possible ideasshould take about five minutes. After this quick list is generated, studentswill write at least one elaborated entry for the day. There should not be days in writing workshop when writers produce nothing but a list of topics.

  • There may be reasons for a writer to use a graphic organizer to plan his or her writing, but this can be done on a page in the writers’ notebook. There are few reasons for students to use ditto sheets as planning devices. There can be exceptions, but in general it is unusual to see students writing on ditto sheets during the writing workshop.

  • Writers make decisions as they write, reaching for ideas from the repertoire of strategies they have been taught. This means that writers are not waiting for the teacher to dictate which strategy he or she will use on any one day. Over time, the writer will reread what he or she has written, assess, imagine what he or she wants to say, and reach for appropriate tools to accomplish this task.

  • The work that students do as they write will vary based on writer’s choices as well as their skills. More advanced writers should be encouraged to draw uponall of the work they do as readers. For example, students who are thinking about symbolism as they read should be encouraged toincorporate all of theirthinking about the symbols into their narrative writing.

  • On any one day, a writer will do far more work and use many more strategies than addressed in the minilesson. For instance, if the minilesson focused on lead-writingand lead-writing is relevant to the writer that day, the writer would probably try this work.Then, after a bit of time, the writer would finish working on leads and would resume drawing upon his or her wider repertoire of strategies and skills.

Drafting
  • When a writer produces a draft, it is usually written fast and furious, taking one day’s worth of writing workshop. It would be highly unusual (and problematic) for a draft to be produceda bit at a time across an entire week. In such an instance, chances are good there will only be one draft—that is, there will be no significant revisions. This would be a real loss. Writers in grades 4-8 typically write several drafts of a piece, with the drafts being substantially different from the previous version. As writers later learn new strategies, they often practice these by returning to “finished’ work from earlier in the year, and seeing if they can attempt and master new work by practicing it repeatedly on one piece, then another and another.

Minilessons
  • A minilesson will be taught every day.The minilesson rallies the class to work around big goals in a unit of study, drawing from what the writers already know how to do. The minilessons support the unit of study.The broad pathway of the unit is usually planned from the start. New minilessons are developed as the unit unfolds. Often teachers collect copies of their minilessons in a unit of study binder, and draw on this binder for help teaching.

  • The teaching points from minilessons are compiled onto a chart, and in any classroom there will be 4-5 charts at any one time. One might be called, “Strategies for Getting Started Writing Essays,” and another, “Strategies for Revising Essays.” The charts are one way that a teacher keeps previous teaching in play within a classroom.

  • Teachers bring their own writing to their minilessons. Usually a teacher works on his or her own writing across the sequence of a unit, writing a few lines (not much more) within a minilesson. The teacher typically carries his or her own piece of writing as he or she moves among the students, holding small group work and one-to-one conferences

Conferring and Small Groups
  • Teachers generally hold a few conferences and a few small groups within one day’s workshop.

  • During a conference, the teacher studies the writer’s work over time to notice how the writer isprogressing. It would beunusual to confer about just the one page which a writer is writing at that moment. The teacher generally begins the writing conference by learning what the writer has been working on as a writer, how the writer has been changing, what the writer has tried to do, what strategies the writer has used.

What to Look for in the Teaching of Reading, Grades 3-8
Readers Read A Lot: Teachers Track Volume and Progress Up Levels
  • Every student has a book baggie/bin, holding roughly a week’s worth of books. For a reader working with L level books, the baggie may contain ten books. For W level baggies, it may contain two or three books. The levels of books reflect the assessed level—with some departures. If, for example, the reader was assessed at R a month earlier, the bin may contain a Q-level book, a few R level books and an S book, with the reader planning to read the latter in a same-book partnership and the teacher planning to read the first chapter or two aloud or give a book introduction and to keep tabs on work in this book.

  • Students read (eyes on print) every day for 35-45 minutes in the reading workshop.Teachers expect them each to read at least 25 pages in that time (strugglers are in easier books so this is applicable to them as well. If they are reading J/K leveled books, they should be finishing a book every 8 to 10 minutes). Students read an equal amount at home each day. Volume is vigilantly watched. If it dips, teachers self-reflect on whether their teaching is denying kids time to read.If that is not the case, work with individual students to devise solutions; consequences if needed. During book clubs, volume is especially important and critical so more reading may be done at home.Some book clubs need to be brief.

  • Students keep reading logs in which they record the number of minutes and pages read in school and at home.These are always on hand during reading time so teachers are able to refer to these in conferences. There is a lot of hype about these logs as scientific records, requiring precision and accuracy. Readers who record 40 minutes each night are challenged to be more precise. Those who record they did not read one day are supported for recording accurate data. Teachers, readers, and partners mine the logs for patterns & developments, yielding goals.

  • Readers are matched to books with 96% accuracy, fluency and inferential comprehension. Teachers re-assess (often with informal running records) in independent reading novels.Most schools ask for more formal running records least 3-4 times a year. Teachers should expect on-level grade 3-5 readers to move up approximately three levels a year, and below-level readers to progress more quickly. Readers who are transitioning to new levels will have books from both easier and harder levels in their baggies, and will read the harder books in same-book partnerships, or with a book introduction, or support from a group. If teachers are in doubt about a book level, they can support the reader in a brief, harder trade book and watch. It is important to note disparities between reading and writing levels. If a strong writer has been assessed as a weak reader, reassess.

Units of Study Teach Readers To Approach Texts Ready to Do New Work—Partnerships and Writing About Reading Holds Readers to Goals & Allows Teachers To Track and Support Progress
  • If one goal is that readers read a high volume, a second and equally important goal is that readers are explicitly taught the skills and strategies they need in order to move towards increasingly proficient work. Post-its are a good window into the work readers are doing. One should be able to look at post-its across the grade levels in a school, and see, for example, first and second graders pause on particular pages to think about character feelings and traits and find evidence of both. Then, by third and fourth grade, readers develop larger theories about the kinds of people their characters are and are able read through the lens of those theories. By fifth grade readers are noting how different characters interact withina setting.Soon they are thinking about the social groups that characters represent. By seventh and eighth grade, readers’ post-its will be more apt to note ways characters carry the texts’ theme, or shifts in power. If palpable progress in students’ thinking about reading is not clear across grades, chances are good that teachers have either recycled kids through units of study written a decade ago, or they haven’t been teaching strong minilessons. As a result, the teachers haven’t been able to engage readers in important new work. Teachers across a grade are supported when they co-construct units of study, drawing from published and co-created resources to make sure their whole class teaching reflects the newest knowledge, and to make sure each day’s minilessons are compelling and memorable.

  • Once a teacher is teaching strong units of study— easily evident in rich, strategy-based charts (use those in the Reading 3-5 Units of Study as examples and compare) then it is a natural next step for the teacher and student to review their work (their post-its and entries) to make sure their work reflects the new teaching, as evidenced on charts. If students are not yet doing the new work that is on the charts, teachers can point this out—Character traits—you’ve done this since 2nd grade. It is important, yes, but what new work are you doing?”) Teachers can rally them to do some now—“Try some NW: new work! Mark a NW on the post-it so I pay attention to it.”

  • Every student has a reading partner and knows who this partner is. Partners are matched by level as relationships often involve ‘swap-book’ and sometimes ‘same-book’ work. Partners generally work together in the minilesson and meet sometimes during mid-workshop interruptions and usually as the share-session for the workshop, providing an audience for each others’ writing about reading. Book clubs are generally comprised of two partnerships. Struggling readers usually work in same-book partnerships and progress in sync through books.

  • Students use post its or very quick page-linked jottings (not summaries!) in reading notebooks to capture the thinking-work that they are doing as they read. Units of study and whole-class instruction set readers up to approach texts with specific lenses or questions or theories in hand, which are sometimes tweaked in conferences and small groups. Readers are expected to have goals for the work they are doing as they read and the discipline of writing thoughts related to that lens makes it more likely that readers deliberately do a few kinds of ‘reading work.’ The reading work a reader does will reflect the whole-class’ unit of study (as in, instruction in interpretation will lead readers to ask, ‘What is this text mostly about?’ and ‘How does this author-decision fit with the text’s main meaning?’) but the text, and the reader’s own thinking and skill-needs will also influence the work the reader is doing. One should be able to look across the trail of writing a reader has done and see 2-3 lines of thinking that have been initiated, developed, coached, extended, developed, and harvested.

  • Teachers, partners and readers themselves study the trails of thought that readers leave, just as people study the writing work in a writer’s notebook, asking, ‘Is this work becoming more mature, more complex, over time?’ ‘Has the nature of a reader’s thinking about, say, characters in fiction or main idea in nonfiction become much more complex and sophisticated over the course of this unit of study?’ This year? Between one grade level and another?’ This, of course, requires that teachers and students help each other develop a clear sense for what ‘better work’ entails—and this comes from studying student work and adult readers’ work and standards and asking, ‘What are we after?’

  • Teachers and students are often prompted to try their reading work again, ramping up the level of it. “Look at your predictions and those of your partner. Have you been predicting not only what will happen next, but also how it will happen? Have you drawn on prior knowledge from earlier in the text? Go back and revise your predictions to make sure your work shows the best predicting work you can do. Put a mentor prediction in front of you and read on, pushing yourself to continue doing that level of work.”

  • It is questionable whether it makes sense to suggest students read for a period of time without jotting and then write for a chunk of time. The key is, it is crucial that the reader approaches the page with the intention to do particular kinds of work, and that the reader is making note as he or she reads of places where his or her thinking has developed. The important thing is that the reader intends to do some work and carries that self-assignment as he or she reads. Simply jotting page numbers or leaving blank post-its when one does related work as one reads, returning to these later, is probably sufficient for some readers. But generally it is not advisable readers to think writing only after they have completed the reading, as chances are not good that such writing will ramp up thinking during reading.