Kid Writing: Getting Started on the Road to Literacy

[Notes from a session with Michele Walden-Bell, Dina Portnoy, Diane Waff (Philadelphia Writing Project)]

Website: https://kidwriting.homestead.com/

Reading and writing are interconnected. https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/raising-readers-writers-and-spellers/201703/landmark-study-finds-better-path-reading-success

Program Research Questions

• What are the effects of integrating KW literacy practices and professional development on teacher practice and student writing and literacy learning?
• What are the achievement gains made by children in KW classrooms?
  WHat lessons are learned about engaging parents with KW? WHat supports do parents need to become engaged?
• What lessons are learned about coaching teachers in KW and about school practices to support KW?
• What lessons do we learn about sustaining the program beyond the treatment years?

KidWriting fits within a balanced literacy approach.

Main Components

Step 1: Kids draw their story. Teachers talk

Step 2: Kid writing. Children write on their own

Strategies that are employed:

1. The magic line
2. Stretching through
3. Kid crowns

Step 3: Adult writing (Adult might pick a word or two to teach into conventional spelling, and write the word under the invented spelling) {{Not editing. Not fixing. Teaching.}}

Step 4: Mini lesson and share

Content: Kindergarteners focus on adding problem to their story. Focus on craft and content, in addition to foundational skills.

Kindergarten: (45-60 minutes every day)

1. Phonics/word work as a warmup.
2. Kids start drawing
3. Kids engage in writing
4. Come back at the end for a mini lesson based upon the writing that occurred during the workshop. (Literature craft lessons based on reading literature)
1. Select 3 students to share (author’s chair)
2. Praise, praise, push (Two things that celebrate a kid’s work, AND offer a teaching point)
1. Example: Push could be adding a word to the word wall.

Marking Guidelines from Philadelphia schools:

https://www.philasd.org/curriculum/curriculum-and-instruction/marking-guidelines/

*NWP is collecting anchor papers to help provide a way to think deeper about the “scoring” of writing at these levels.

Program Research Findings:

• Children applied their KW skills to other subject areas.
• KW increased teachers’ expectations of students and students’ writing capabilities.
• KW enabled teachers to address the needs of all students in their classrooms, including ELL and lower level students.
• Parents were eager to learn ways of supporting students learning at home.

Idea: Family literacy mornings (6 times a year): Breakfast with parents:

We’ll provide breakfast and share ways you can help your child.

First thing in the morning on a school day.

Building New Pathways to Leadership: Badges

[Notes from a session at the National Writing Project Annual Meeting]
http://budtheteacher.com/newpathways

Working on a badging initiative:

• Open a network-wide conversation about the mission
• Open a network-wide inquiry into teacher leadership
• An exploration of new approaches and new designs for engaging educators

Social Practices Framework:

• Write
• Lead
• Learn
• Advocate
• Collaborate
• Go Public

Tapping into Creative and Production-Centered Aspects of Composing Today

[Notes from a session at the National Writing Project Annual Meeting]
[Presented by Rachel Bear, Joe Dillon, Peter Kittle, Kylie Peppler, K-Fai Steele]

How might hanging out, socializing, and creating lead to more interest-driven composition?

Theory of action for #clmooc:
If we..

• foreground making and playing
• welcome (and keep welcoming) all corners
• encourage a range of makes
• affirm all participation, even lurking
• distribute leadership and "authority"
• emphasize reflection through writing
• decentralize where activities take place across platforms
• use Connected Learning principles as a lens or framework for reflection

Then we..

• model open-networked professional learning
• facilitate emergent learning
• facilitate conniptions across networks and digital spaces
• learn about CL principles by enacting and embodying them
• support educators in using digital tools to explore making (including writing) as learning

Table options:
1. Writing how-to guides
2. Meme-making
3. Spark-fun: DIY flashlight to do shadow puppetry play (an to understand how electronics work)
4. Recycling/repurposing electronics to create electronic creatures
5. Remix games: Take the parts and make something new/New rules

Short Circuits: Crafting e-Puppets with DIY Electronics (The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation Series on Digital Media and Learning) 
by Kylie Peppler et al. 
Link: http://amzn.com/0262027836

Make, Write, Compose, Create!
http://bit.ly/1Bqvp3K

Underlying purpose is systems thinking:
-Seeing the world as interconnected components and interconnected systems
-Small changes in a system can make it work or not work

Big ideas in systems thinking:
1. Identify systems
2. Use language that reveals a system's characteristics and function
3. Make systems visible
4. Seek out common system patterns

Part 1:
Step 1: Can you make you LED light up? Can you add another LED? Another yet?
[Apparently polarity matters for LED lights. + side of battery must connect to the + side of the

Step 2: Can you add a switch into your system? Partner with someone to try to figure out how to make it work.

Step 3: Can you add a potentiometer to your circuit? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Potentiometer
What does it do?
[It acts as a dimmer]

Step 4: Can you add BOTH a switch AND a potentiometer to your circuit?

Step 5: Poke holes in cardstock, keeping all of the + sides together. Check: Do your lights still light up? Add your potentiometer and switch to another piece of card stock. Cut 4 pieces of wire to replace the alligator clips.

Step 6: Finish your flashlight
[It was supposed to look like this:]

Part 2: 
Draw the diagram of your flashlight. Be sure to label your diagram with all of the components and note the behaviors of each component.

Part 3: 
Use your DIY flashlight along with previously learned storytelling techniques to create a collaborative performance employing play and shadow puppetry techniques.
1. Research how you can use shadows to tell a story
2. Design your shadow story (script, make lists, etc.)
3. Make simple shadow puppets
4. Perform the shadow play
5. Reflect:
     -What are the important components needed to tell a story with shadows?
     -How could a change to any of the components make a change to the story?
     -What systems did you notice within the shadow plays?

Grant Writing 101

Notes from a National Writing Project Annual Meeting Session (B12)
~Lynne Anderson-Inman, Oregon WP at University of Oregon

The funding is out there. The problem is having the time and the skills to write the proposal.

The Five Major Parts to a Grant Proposal:
1. Significance (May call it: Purpose, Need, Problem, Importance, Outcomes, Expected Impact, etc.)
-They are wanting to know: Why is this important?
-This is the MOST important part of the grant

2. Background (May call it: Content, Evidence, Research synthesis)
-Find out the context in which you are working. Is it a research project? Is it a professional development project and you've previously done similar things?

3. Plan of Work (Goals, Objectives, Activities, intervention, evaluation, measures, etc.)
-What are you going to do? What materials are you going to use?

4. Resources (Personnel, Collaborators, institutional support, matching funds, grant history, experience, etc.)
-Assure them that if they give you money, you will do a good job.

5. Budget
-How much money do you need?
-How are you going to spend it?

-----------

1. Significance = Persuasive Essay
Goal is to persuade reviewers your idea should be funded

• Create awareness of a problem you intend to solve
• Take a position on how to solve it (thesis)
• Present arguments for your position
• Use evidence to support your arguments
• Counter the arguments of opposing positions (Draw attention to how other people have approached this problem but has been inadequate or inappropriate)
• Link your position/solution to your proposal

*Some problems are more compelling than others!

Don't do this:

-Our school is poor and needs money for computers. (Frankly, they don't care.)

Instead:

-Our students need 1:1 computer access to learn 21st century literacy skills. (That's something you can sell!)

Don't:

Teachers need more professional development in writing.

Do:

Students' writing scores in our district have not improved in five years.

Don't:

The number of English Learners is increasing every year.

Do:

Graduation rate for English learners is far below that of non-ELs.

Our turn: Write a problem you intend to solve.

*Using visuals can also be highly beneficial!

2. Background = Classification Essay

Goal is to provide reviewers with context for the proposal. Classification essay breaks complex subject into manageable parts.

• Review existing knowledge or classroom practice
• Organize existing knowledge into categories
• Communicate the classification scheme
• Present the evidence by category
• Show how your proposal builds on this knowledge 

*Numbers are good! It provides a sense of authority on the content.

Example: Research Review:

Organize research by categories

-Related research has examine three major interventions...

-Existing research has revealed three major influencing variables...

-Work to date has addressed the needs of three different student populations...

3. Plan of Work = Technical Writing

Goal is to convince reviewers you can do this work.

• Emphasis is on objectives and activities
• Be specific: strategies, techniques, tools
• Make an outline of information needed
• Use language that is clear and concise
• Go from whole to part
• make effective use of lists
• Explain all acronyms
• Use charts, graphs, and tables

4. Resources = Expository Writing

Goal is to provide information about your site's capacity.

• Break section into topics or subsections
• Provide overview statement

Finding Funders

Federal (www.grants.gov is great for finding grant competitions)

-US Department of Education

-National Science Foundation

Institute for Education Sciences http://ies.ed.gov/funding

National Science Foundation http://www.nsf.gov/funding

National Endowment for the Humanities http://www.neh.gov/grants

National Writing Project Michigan Retreat- Day 1

National Writing Project Michigan Summer Retreat: Day 1

During the keynote address, given by MSU's Danielle Devoss, the concept of writing as digital was presented. As she put it, "Writing IS digital." Through her presentation, Danielle highlighted eight components of what digital is:

1. Digital is networked.

2. Digital is collaborative.

3. Digital is multimodal.

4. Digital is re-mediated.

5. Digital is remixed.

6. Digital is policed.

7. Digital requires critical thinking.

8. Digital can be democratic.

Digital is Networked

Danielle showed us several staggering statistics, including the number of content postings every day on Facebook, Twitter, Flickr, and several other social sites. As she put it, "the innovation isn't the tool, the innovation is in what educators are able to do with the tool." Paul Allison tells us that the networking ability of writing in digital environment amplifies the writing instruction effectiveness.

Digital is Collaborative

My favorite thing Danielle showed us is the Lol Cats Bible Translation Wiki. I'm slightly familiar with the icanhascheezburger LOL cat, but it is hilarious that large teams of people are spending their time translating the Bible into LOL cat language. 

Digital is Remediated

If you look through YouTube, a common thread is the remediation of writing, where a media object is taken and moved into another medium. An amazing example comes from angryalien.com where they take feature films and retell them in 30 seconds, using bunnies.

                              "March of the Penguins in 30 Seconds"

Digital is Remixed
Julian Marsano, a teacher from Brooklyn, creates public service announcements with his students as a way to teach media literacy. By identifying an important message that students want to address, such as global warming, students write a script and determine how to ethically incorporate photographs, music, and other created media with their script to create an effective message. On YouTube, there are several remixed clips, including the Scary Mary Poppins in which clips from the movie are set to the Psycho soundtrack, giving a completely different (and humorous) message.


Digital is Policed
There are several examples of videos from YouTube that have been forcibly removed after copywritten material was reposted. The fact is, authorship is an important struggle with the ease of information. She asked the question, what happens if students use media in the creations for which they do not have permissions? It's important to teach acceptable use policies, similar to blogger BudtheTeacher's policy. The Center for Social Media is a good resource.


Digital Requires Critical Thinking

Click for larger image.

This was my favorite point. Danielle emphasized the need for teaching media and visual literacy. Not everything we see is necessarily true, therefore critical skills are necessary as we consume media. A perfect example is the picture of Faith Hill in the 2007 Redbook magazine. The original image was released, and the differences between the two are staggering. This reminds me of the Dove commercial where they show the process of a photoshoot.


And without giving too much away, check out the website for the new Pomegranate Phone website. 


Digital can be Democratic
There are many great examples of digital media providing a level of democracy to users, as the control lies with the users and not any particular power. A perfect example was during a media blackout in Iran. CNN reporters were told not to leave their office, under penalty of law, yet thousands of Iranians used Twitter to tell the world what was going on. In our own country, voices were given to students during the NWP's Letters to the Next President letter campaign, or the CNN YouTube Debates in which citizens posed questions to Presidential candidates. 


I just have to say, wow. Danielle is a genius.