Strategies for Improving Writing

During my time in education I have worked with a number of school districts. Having been in charge of educational technology during most of my time I have been called upon to provide technological resources that can help these districts improve writing. Teachers and administrators across all grade levels have sought out my knowledge on digital writing resources in order to fill their toolbox, engage students, and increase the quality of writing. While I have successfully curated a number of resources and found success with implementing technology to improve writing, I have concluded that  the best way to improve writing is not high tech at all.

What I believe is that writing can be improved by the following:

Consistency - Writing should be interdisciplinary. The expectations for writing across disciplines should be somewhat uniform. While the expectation of a DBQ writing in social studies may be different from a character analysis in English the fundamental components of a quality written piece should be consistent. Common rubrics, writing mini lessons, graphic organizers  and common vocabulary should be part of inter department collaboration.

Writing Every Day - Students should be provided with an opportunity and expectation to write in every class, every day. Do Now and Closure activities may provide opportunities for reflection or quick writes. Art and Music classes may provide opportunities for reflection and critique. Publishing a class blog or threaded discussion provides a writing opportunity that extends the school day.

Publishing - Here is were technology provides the most value. Students should be given the opportunity to write for an audience. By publishing student work we provide them with an authentic task that is engaging and may be rich with feedback. Google Docs provides opportunities for students to  publish electronically. The documents may be shared for peer review. A class blog or online discussion provides opportunities for students to publish for an audience. Requiring students to publish on online discussion boards, blogs, or just publishing their writing on social sharing sites provides a voice, a global audience and intrinsic or extrinsic motivation to produce quality work.

When a school, not a teacher commits to a collaborative effort to improve writing that is when we can expect change. Professional development and common planning time should be focused on defining good writing, developing and sharing rubrics, graphic organizers,  mini-lessons, and common vocabulary. When teachers are provided such a tool box with time to review and discuss the results we can have an expectation of growth and improvement.

Student Growth Objectives - SMART Goals Without the Collaboration?

The new teacher evaluation plan in NJ and other states across the country are including a measure of student performance called "Student Growth Objectives"

Below is an excerpt from the NJ Department of Education regarding SGO's.

Student Growth Objectives (SGO's) are academic goals for groups of students that are aligned to state standards and can be tracked using objective measures. As part of the student achievement component of evaluation under AchieveNJ, each teacher sets SGOs with input and approval from his or her principal or supervisor at the start of the year. Specifically, teachers and principals /supervisors are expected to collaborate around the instructional content that will be covered and the skills and knowledge that will be measured. SGOs should be developed using available student data and created to be ambitious but achievable.

 

The focus of the SGO's are on student achievement, but the primary conversation at various training sessions is on teacher accountability. The literature provided  is focused  on collaboration between individual teacher and administrator to create, implement, and measure the results of an SGO.

Over the past decade we have been introduced to the concept of professional learning communities (PLC's). An effective PLC  is a collaborative effort between a team of educators with a common interest in student learning. The team will first understand their current reality, establish a SMART goal (specific, measurable, attainable, realistic and timely), establish a plan and an assessment to implement, measure, and discuss the results of progress and incorporate instructional strategies to improve student achievement.

The significant difference between an SGO and a Smart Goal, as presented by state organizations, is the use of collaborative teams.  The value of SMART  goals and PLC's  is the discussion, collaboration, and sharing. Collaborative SGO's  would involve a group of teachers working  together to understand their student  strengths and weaknesses, development of  a goal for improvement, establishing  a common assessment to measure their goal and working  together to discuss strategies, interventions, and curriculum design to reach their goal.

PLC's have proven to be an effective tool for increasing student achievement. The power of a collaborative effort will out perform individual effort when implemented correctly. Given the demands of teaching, time constraints, and limited availability of professional development it only makes sense to have teachers working together to increase student achievement.

Student Podcasts - "This I Believe" Essays

Student's is Ms. McCabe's English 9 classes in Chatham High School have published their "This I Believe" essays as podcasts. Ms. McCabe wanted to have an opportunity for her students to publish their writing for a audience outside of the walls of their classroom.  Students refined their writing with the goal of sharing for a global audience.  This authentic practice resulted in increased student engagement and cultivated their 21st Century digital literacy skills. It was also a lot of fun! Students utilized Audacity to record their narration and our  Schoolwires website to publish them.

Below is an excerpt from Ms. McCabe's website describing the project:

From 1951 to 1955, Edward R. Murrow hosted This I Believe, a daily radio program that reached 39 million listeners. On this broadcast, Americans — both well known and unknown — read five-minute essays about their personal philosophy of life. They shared insights about individual values that shaped their daily actions. A first volume of This I Believe essays, published in 1952, sold 300,000 copies — more than any other book sold in the U. S. that year except for the Bible. In fact, these Murrow broadcasts were so popular that a curriculum was developed to encourage American high school students to compose essays about their most significant personal beliefs.

Fifty years later, This I Believe, Inc., is continuing the mission of inviting Americans of all ages and all walks of life to examine their belief systems and then write and share a 500-word personal essay, a “This I Believe” essay.

In introducing the original series, host Edward R. Murrow said, “Never has the need for personal philosophies of this kind been so urgent.” We would argue that the need is as great now as it was 50 years ago.

Listen to period 3 essays

Listen to period 4 essays

Listen to period 6 essays

Flipped Classroom Strategy For Extra Help

How can we provide opportunities for extra help while preserving planning and preparation time for teachers? Utilizing a hybrid instructional model that includes flipped learning resources may help.

Teachers may post copies of class notes, instructional materials used in class and homework online or within a school email system. This provides access  to the information for students who were not present in class that day. The expectation is that students will download and review the materials and attempt the homework. If a student requires extra help, her or she will approach the classroom teacher with specific questions about the notes or homework.

While the above scenario sounds great it is typically not how the events occur. Many times students come for extra help having not reviewed the information posted. They are looking for the teacher to re-teach the entire lesson. Unfortunately this is not always possible given the time constraints and the number of students who may require assistance on various topics or components of content at the same time.

By developing a library of video tutorials and instructional materials for each topic you may provide an opportunity for students to receive direct instruction remotely. Teachers may consider linking to video tutorials in the Khan Academy or possibly creating their own tutorials or recorded lectures. Over time this library will grow. Students may access and review these recorded lesson prior to seeking extra help. They will receive the benefit of direct instruction in a format this is familiar, has the ability to pause, stop and rewind, and is mobile.

While full implementation of the flipped classroom requires a paradigm shift in "what happens in the classroom", a hybird model like has an easier point of entry and can be a valuable intervention resource for all students.

 

 

Responding to Student Needs With Instructional Strategies

A number of established and best practices in education emulate the principles of inclusive education.  Educators today are better equipped to facilitate meaningful and inclusive education for students at risk.  However, a holistic and comprehensive school plan is an integral component of a school wide effort to provide all students with the education they are entitled to receive.  We must continue to enhance and expand the continuum of options available to our students.  Principles of this systematic plan include staff that is trained in successful instructional strategies, committed to teaching and progress, reflective on student performance, and responsive to the needs of all students.

In looking at instructional strategies, a comprehensive review of the lesson framework and the selection of strategies and practices contained is the first step. We can best meet the needs of our students by designing a classroom environment that provides opportunity for all. Do we design lessons that provide individuals the opportunity to connect prior learning, assess their understanding of content, collaborate with peers, ask questions and explore new learning?

When designing instruction to meet the varying needs of our students the instructional strategies we select are the first step to level the playing field. My colleague and I have designed an interactive pyramid of intervention to provide a toolbox for teachers. This toolbox aides in lesson design, instructional strategies and targeted interventions.  An exploration of the interactive Lesson Framework provides teachers with a toolbox of instructional strategies for each area of the framework.

Math Interventions with the Khan Academy

I have written numerous posting on the benefits of the Khan Academy as well as the positive attributes of a "flipped classroom" The Khan Academy now has mapped all of the common core math standards. Within each standard are links to instructional videos and practice exercises.

Students may use these videos and exercises to review topics covered in class, or to view lessons ahead of their teacher in order to establish prior knowledge. This may also be a great resource for a student who needs to build foundation skills in a particular area.

https://www.khanacademy.org/commoncore

Enjoy!

(Image Credit: http://dumais.us/newtown/blog/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/math_intervention.jpg)

Active Reading Strategies K-12

I have had the opportunity to work with students and faculty across all grade levels K-12. This experience and exposure has without a doubt made me a better teacher, observer, and most importantly filled my toolbox.

My visits to early elementary classrooms offer insight into differentiation and independent learning at a level of depth that is difficult to duplicate in higher grades. Many of the schools I have worked in implement balanced literacy programs with a focus on Guided Reading, Centers, and Reading / Writing workshop. During these early years of literacy instruction there is an emphasis on the skills of what good readers and writers do. Students are grouped by reading level and afforded the opportunity to work with their peers in small groups to learn and apply these skills.

During this time students learn pre-reading strategies such as activating prior knowledge, defining a purpose for reading and identifying text structures.  They also build skills to be implemented while reading such as questioning, making connections, managing speed, predicting,  how to infer and attack vocabulary. After reading students learn strategies such as "how to review", summarizing, and most importantly clarifying questions to ask.

These strategies, while taught as skills in early elementary, are proven to be vital for reading comprehension and learning. They are skills that should not be limited to a Language Arts classroom. Application of these skills should be integrated into all subject areas. As students move to higher grades the focus shifts from skill based literacy instruction to mastery  of content and analysis of text.

During my time coordinating I&RS teams I have worked with a number of students who struggle with reading comprehension. While the struggles manifest themselves in a variety of ways, the consensus is to develop reading skills to aid in comprehension. For that purpose i have found that the instructional strategies and skills taught in early elementary have a place in grades 6-12. All of our teachers would benefit from receiving direct instruction in "what good readers and writers do" in order to integrate these skills into their courses.

One of my favorite books regarding the teaching of reading comprehension strategies is Mosaic of Thought. While this book is typically found in elementary PD sessions or book clubs, it would be well placed in a high school as well.  US History II teachers would benefit in turn-keying instruction in monitoring meaning, activating prior knowledge, questioning, drawing inferences, imagery, and analyzing text structure.

As schools look towards increased differentiation and the elimination of levels our teachers need to fill their toolbox with strategies to reach all learners.  Recognizing that the teaching of reading strategies transcends grade levels and subjects is a great first step.

I have developed an active reading strategies chart that we share with teachers and students to aid in the development of comprehension. Active Reading Strategies Chart