Monday, November 8, 2010

LA - Writing

 WRITING:

 Gary Soto:

  • "He was crying a raincloud."
  • "A writer has to see and hear things."
  • "If you don't read, you can't become a writer...or a lot of things."
  • "No poet works without another poet."
  • "No writer works without another writer."


Literacy = reading, writing, speaking, listening & viewing


ARTICLES:


Writing Next - secondary writing needs
Let's Stop Teaching Writing - Ed Week article calling for an end to formulaic writing instruction.

INSTRUCTION:

Best site I've seen in a long time! Writing Fix site - great connections to 6 traits
Argument:
Quick read with resources:  "How to Switch from Persuasion to Argument" - from Eye on Education

Argument is an important part of the CCSS in both the reading and writing - "...argument is one of the guiding beliefs of the CCSS - both being able to recognize it in text and then producing it in writing."   An argument essay will be a field test writing prompt this year on the PAWs test AND they are considering adding a field test question/writing prompt to the science PAWs test.

We've been talking about supports and scaffolds used to allow 100% of our students to be successful at all tasks in all of our studios.   

Here are a couple for writing argument essays:

1.  Sentence frame for argument:

In discussions of _____________, one controversial issue has been

___________________________. People who believe____________

claim that________________________________. On the other hand,

those who believe _____________________________ assert that

______________________________________________________.

My own view is __________________________________________


2.  Structuring a Writing Task:  3 parts

Part One: State what you want the students to do, carefully choosing your
                task verb. Be sure the students understand the task verb (analyze,
                explain, describe, compare, tell a story…) 
(Clear directions allow for independence from the teacher!  It also supports students who are not auditory by nature.)


Part Two: Provide a short word bank (list of 5-10 words that will work well in
       this writing task, but that the students would probably not have thought of
       by themselves:
(The words chosen can be differentiated OR higher writers can get the words, others can get words with definitions and/or pictures...)


Part Three: Provide 2 or 3 sentence frames that will work well in this writing task:
(Expectations for use can vary:  is it voluntary? used to plan and then revised out if possible? used.)

5 Types of Writing (Collin's Writing Project)

  1. Capture Ideas
  2. Respond Correctly - knows something about a topic, correct answer to specific question
  3. Edited for Focus Correction areas - reread to see if answers question, is easy to read, meets standards
  4. Peer Edit then author edits formally.
  5. Published - writing is error free and publishable quality
Kelly Gallagher's 6 purposes for writing:
  1. express and reflect
  2. inform and explain
  3. evaluate and judge
  4. analyze and interpret
  5. take a stand/propose a solution

WRITING Process:

GATHER:  Writer's Notebooks

PLAN:
F - format
A - audience
T - Topic
P - Purpose
P - Publish (White Between the Lines, Place to Publish - online anthology...

  • Anthology of Poetry, Inc / PO Box 698  / Asheboro NC 27204-0698
  • poetry@AnthologyOfPoetry.com
G - Goal
  • Website with many lessons about all topics in writing.
  • Barry Lane - is he good? Writing lessons
  • Great lesson on character....
  • Writing Rituals - more ways to share
  • Bio Poems - (surprise, someday poems, I remember, etc...) Great to use for community building, to consider self, time, place, characters, etc...
P - prewrite
O - organize
W - write rough draft
E - Evaluate using 6 traits
R - Revise

W - wait
R - read aloud
I - input and feedback
T - tackle final flaws
E - end with a perfect final copy

WRITE:

  • One fun formula for writing FEATURE STORIES or ARTICLES presented by former People Magazine author, Kate Klise.  
  • Nemonic:  California Teenagers Buy Overpriced Clothes (or, if you prefer, California Teachers Buy Overpriced Coffee):


    • Color - Open with a colorful scene or anecdote
    • Tell - Tell why you are telling this NOW.  What makes this newsworthy or important?
    • Background - Put background information in here.
    • Other Voices - Bring in quotes from other people who can lend an interesting perspective.
    • Close - Close the story looking toward the future.  What's next?


REVISE:
EDIT: Give this stage of the writing process equal time!



i keep crossing out words lines whole passages
until nothing is left
except  You.


CONTENT:

  1. Poetry: Lessons based on type of poetry or author, Sport Poetry and Sound poems,
  2. Fairytale stories: read Bound, Link with ideas
  3. Teach Theme: Give them a quote and write a story around it (theme definition)
  4. Short Story components (from Literary Visions)

Historical Fiction:
  1. Ideas for historical fiction, rubric, other...:
  2. Biographies about 1,000,000 people?
  3. possible Rubric to use
  4. Definition of Historical fiction + Rubrics from Read, Write, Think
  5. Unit with Lit Circles and writing
  6. Not sure about this - might be good??

Sequence Essay:

  1. Lego Instructions - 6th grade idea


Book Review:

Unless it Moves the Heart by Roger Rosenblatt

Poetry:
Harvey "Smokey" Daniels discussed how arbitrariness (frame poems) can be our friend.  Examples such as I am...  and I am from... poems that become powerful simply from having an arbitrary start.  Another example given: exquisite cadaver - make a list of  opposites (10 things that are hot and cold ) - then create a poem.


We write to make suffering endurable, evil intelligible, justice desirable and love possible.

--Roger Rosenblatt



To see the interview, click here.

Notes from the the interview:

"Noun is the speaking language of things..".



"There is no clock to being a writer. ...You never learn to be a writer.  With every new (project) you are starting over again. ... I've learned over the years that praise is very important ... if you encourage more than you discourage, the water eventually rises. "


"What you write must be useful to the world. ... It's the only standard."

"After all parts are put together... we strive for anticipation rather than surprise, imagination rather than invention, and to write with precision and restraint.... we write to make the world a better place."
  --Roger Rosenblatt
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