The Essentials

Hiking in Colorado’s rapidly changing mountain weather teaches hikers the importance of taking essential equipment. While carrying any more weight than necessary is not appealing, neither is being stuck on a mountainside without the necessary supplies.  On a recent hike, we experienced sunshine and 80-degree weather, along with snow flurries and a 20 mile per hour wind. I was very thankful to have thrown in my essential headband and mittens for the cold weather.

Teachers have always been essential workers – but this has never been truer than this school year. Flexibility, always a teacher requirement, is more important than ever.  Teachers are teaching in person, in a hybrid format, or totally online. Routines and schedules that were part of the school day of the past have been shattered. Time, always a precious classroom commodity, is now being used for necessary safety protocols.

With all these demands on teachers and students, instruction goals have to be altered.  With that in mind, teachers are focusing on essential lessons.  What is essential in writing instruction?

Students need purposeful and targeted writing instruction. We do not want our students to continually practice bad habits. Assigning students questions to answer or paragraphs to write without providing them the necessary skills is detrimental to students and frustrating for teachers. The following are essential skills students must have to become successful writing.

·       Recognizing, speaking and writing complete sentences. 

We continually speak with 5th grade teachers who are concerned their students do not write in complete sentences. This foundational skill should be introduced at the beginning of every school year – from kindergarten through 5th grade.

Introduce students to the components of a complete sentence. In Write Now – Right Now, we call this concept Team Complete.  Kindergarten students can learn to recognize complete sentences and orally respond in a complete sentence.  Make speaking in complete sentences an expectation of your classroom, whether you are in person or meeting virtually.

Intermediate students need to review the components of a complete sentence. As with primary students, speaking in complete sentence should be a classroom expectation. Spending time practicing sentence fluency and word choice is essential at the start of the school year.  Insisting on correct conventions at the start of the school year is essential. Encourage students to play with language, experiment with word choice and create interesting writing. When that is done, students will then double check their work for correct conventions. While this is a challenging process for teachers, it is well worth the time.

·       Use planning tools prior to writing.

In the past, we often told students we write like we talk. This is not true, for our speaking is often random and spontaneous, jumping from topic to topic.  Students’ writing will be significantly better if they are taught to organize their thoughts prior to writing. At Write Now – Right Now, we encourage teachers to use only one graphic organizer for all expository writing and a single organizer for narrative writing. Time is better spent teaching students how to use the plan effectively than spending time learning an array of plans.  Students must know the difference between the terms: topic, big ideas and details. Teaching students how to add interesting and relevant details is a skill which leads to effective and  interesting writing.

·       Only assess what you are teaching.

It is difficult for all of us to let go of errors we see in students’ writing.  However, grading will become less frustrating and more productive if you only assess what you have taught. If you are working on complete sentences, only assess that. Once students have mastered that skill, it can then be assessed in every piece of writing.  Planning is an essential skill and can be assessed on its own.  Writing is a process and each part of the process can be assessed separately.

·       Give grace to both your students and yourself.

This year is not like other school years. You may not cover the same amount of curriculum and standards as in past years. Teaching schedules and requirements have changed. Provide grace for yourself and your students and celebrate your successes, big and small.

We are here to support you. Please reach out if we can be of service in any way.

Taming the Grading Monster

“I try to take one day at a time, but sometimes several days attack at once.”

-  Ashleigh Brilliant

This quote can be applied to grading! It’s happened to all of us.  We start school Monday morning feeling all caught up – papers graded, lesson plans made, life in control.  By Wednesday, we have a teacher bag full of papers to grade.  The bag comes home with us in the afternoon, spends the evening in the car or on the family room floor, returns to school the next day, and repeat!  The pile of papers is a constant nagging in the back of our minds, but never rises to the top of the to-do list.  Finally, after two or three weeks, the papers are no longer relevant or needed, and are quietly buried in our home recycle barrel.

As we talk with teachers across the country, we continually hear teachers confess they neglect teaching writing as the grading can be overwhelming.  The following are some tips for keeping the “Writing Grading Monster” under control.

·       Grade writing after students have an opportunity to practice each skill.  For example, students are practicing composing topic sentences.  Provide students instruction, modeling, practicing and sharing while they are learning this skill. After students have had ample practice time, students will then choose the sentence they find most interesting.  Students can edit and recopy that sentence and turn it in as an assessment.  You are only grading one sentence per student (28 sentences), instead of 8 sentences per student (224 sentences.)  You can use this assessment for both a writing and a conventions grade.

·       Grade each part of the writing process.  Writing is a process, not a product. Let me say that again, “writing is a process, not a product.”  Each part of the writing process can be used as a valuable writing assessment.  For example, you may be sorting ideas into categories in your primary classroom.  As sorting is a part of organization, you can use this as a valid writing assessment.  If you are teaching planning, use students’ independent plans for writing grades.  Not only does this simplify grading, but you are able to discover students’ weaknesses and remedy them before they become an ingrained habit.

·       Grade only what you have taught.  If you are teaching planning, assess only planning.  Do not feel you need to grade students on items you have not taught, and they have not mastered.  As you are practicing speaking in complete sentences with your primary students, ask your students what they did at recess as they return to class after lunch.  As students respond, take note on who cannot respond in a complete sentence.  An assessment on speaking in complete sentences is done and graded!

·       Grade on the move.  Post a class list to a clipboard and keep it with you during writing instruction.  Perhaps you are practicing using transition words in big idea sentences.  As you circle the room, read students’ writing.  If a student is confused, stop and help him correct his work and write “NH” (Needs Help) next to that student’s name.  If a student has the skill, check in briefly with positive feedback.  At the end of your writing time, you have a completed assessment.  Any student without an “NH” has passed that skill, while your “Needs Help” are also noted.  You also have a ready-made small group created, showing students with whom you need check in with the next day.

·       Keep an ongoing list of skills students have mastered.  A Kindergarten teacher we visited used the following list of skills students needed to master, with the first letter of each month in the corresponding box.  As students demonstrated mastery of the skill, she marked the corresponding month.  At a glance, she could see who still needed to be assessed.

·       Combine writing across the curriculum.  As you teach writing short answers (Shining Star Answers), students should practice the skill in all curricular areas.  As students learn to take notes, look for practice opportunities in Social Studies and Science.  Notes taken in Social Studies can be used for a Social Studies, Reading and Writing grade.

Writing instruction and assessment should not feel that it “attacks all at once.”  Continually be on the lookout for ways to improve and streamline your assessment practice.  Remember that timely, specific and productive feedback is the very best for students and for you!

Assessing Assessments

In the last few weeks, I have had two “away from school” interactions regarding the concept of assessments.  The first experience came while visiting a new gym. Prior to taking the complimentary class, I was asked to fill out a goal and health assessment. The instructor said the information would be used to help me plan an appropriate exercise program and chart my progress as I attend classes.

A few days later I was with my 13-month old granddaughter at an ophthalmology appointment.  After performing multiple tests, the doctor determined she needed glasses to strengthen one of her eyes. While making a two-month follow-up appointment, the doctor told us that we would check her progress based on the initial tests he had performed that day.

Teachers may find themselves overwhelmed with student assessments at the start of the school year.   We, at Write Now – Right Now, are often asked if we recommend that teachers have their students complete a writing assessment at the beginning of the year.  If you are debating this question, consider the following questions:

·       Is a baseline, or beginning of the year, writing assessment a requirement at your school? 

·       Do you have a reason or plan for using the assessment results?

·       Can you give the assessment in a reasonable amount of time?

The answers to these questions will help you answer the assessment question.  The following are some tips to make a beginning of the year writing assessment positive for both you and your students.

Determine the assessment’s purpose

Why are you giving the assessment?  Keep this purpose in mind through-out the process. 

A Note to Kindergarten Teachers:  You may choose to do the initial assessment when you believe your students are ready to begin writing instruction.  Consider when the purpose of the assessment will be most appropriate.

Standardize the assessment

This is especially important if you are working with a grade level team.  Prior to giving the assessment, choose a prompt for all students to follow, along with the time constraints provided.  Use or develop a standardized grade-level rubric.

Write a prompt which provides students guidance in what to write

Do you want students to write an expository or narrative piece?  We recommend providing an opinion prompt on a topic which students already know.  In this way, you will be able to assess students’ writing, not their knowledge on a subject area. Include in the directions the number of big ideas or details students should provide in their writing.

Provide enough time for most students to complete the writing task

Teachers give pre-assessments as an indication of skills students already possess.  In a writing assessment, it is not necessary for every student to complete the writing task.  When time is up, simply collect students’ writing.  It is helpful to note both students who rush to completion and those who will require extra time.

Record non-writing behaviors / trends

Do you have students who immediately break their pencil or go to the bathroom as soon you mention writing?  Are there students who stare into space the entire writing time, “thinking about what to write about?”  Do you have students who need constant feedback and reinforcement during the writing time?

Use the “piles” grading method

We recommend first reading each paper and then putting students’ initial writing samples in piles – Good Writing, Writing in Progress, and Need Extensive Help, or whatever category works for you.  As you read students’ work, put the papers in one of these three piles. Remember, you are assessing writing using end of year writing standards.  As these beginning of the year assessments are not used for a grade, this generalized assessment protocol will provide you with all the information you need.

Look for patterns

As you read students’ writing, do any patterns become evident?  Do students use a similar plan?  Are conventions an area of strength or concern?  Are students excited or reluctant to write?  Is student writing organized, did students stay on topic, etc?

Keep writing samples to show students later

We all need to see progress. Keep these initial writing samples to show students later in the year. We recommend showing them to students prior to a midyear writing assessment. It is encouraging for students to see where they have been and how far they have come as writers.

Teachers are busy people!  Taking a moment to assess your assessments, making them relevant, useful and efficient is time well spent.

Informational Writing, Text Structures and Prompts

We have been transitioning from writing opinion to writing informative paragraphs.  As we began our study of informational writing, it was a natural time to review the different types of text structures. A text structure is how the author chooses to organize the information in his/her writing. To help us better understand each text structure, we created the following chart as a class.  We filled in the first three columns together. We listed the text structure, wrote a definition and then recorded signal words which would help us identify each text structure as we found it in text. The last column was left blank for future use.

While reading informational text, we practiced identifying the text structure used by the author. Highlighting clue words and justifying our choice of structure helped solidify our learning.

I now wanted students to stretch their thinking and practice writing informative text in a specific structure.  To begin this process, we needed to identify what structure was being asked for in a prompt. The students were ready for the next step; reading a prompt and determining the text structure they would need to use in response.

We returned to our chart. As we had been exploring trappers and traders in Social Studies, I chose that as the topic of the prompts the students would sort. To focus on the text structure required, I provided the students with five separate prompts. They now titled the final column in their chart Prompts.

After reading each prompt, the students placed the prompt in the appropriate section on the chart. Students discussed their choices with partners, justifying their decision of which text structure to choose. When students reached an agreement, they glued the prompt in the appropriate row. 

The time spent on the chart proved invaluable.  We were ready for the next step – making plans and writing topic sentences!