Implementing Structured Literacy one step at a time: Step #2 - Writing

As I have said before I am on a mission this year to both successfully implement structured literacy and to keep the create opportunities alive. I jumped in with both feet. No delicate toes dipped in the water, just a giant splash! One way I have capitalised on the affordances of 'create' in writing was to start at the end and probelm solve our way to the start.

By this I mean instead of starting with the exemplars of what a text type looks like, unpacking the structure and language features and exploring the vocabulary needed I tapped into our Inquiry topic of Dinosaurs and challenged my learners to begin by constructing a prototype of the skeleton of their focus dinosaur. 

The prototype... Each pair was given a 1 sheet of coloured A3 paper, 2 sheets of newsprint, a vivid, a pencil, a ruler, a pair of scissors and access to the sellotape. I explained that apart of constructing their prototype I needed them to write down the steps they followed to create their model. This was hilarious to watch! The conversation was rich and purposeful as work arounds for dilemmas were suggested. The outcome, slightly wonky models with some very creatively written steps. 

The teaching... To demonstrate the need for clarity and simplicity in the instructions I asked to use one of the sets of instructions that they would be happy to let me follow in front of the class. My learners had so much fun with this task I ended up having to put names in a randomiser to choose. Everyone wanted their instructions followed. To be fair I let everyone have 15 minutes to fine tune their set of instructions before I started. As always to prove a point I needed to over exaggerate what I was being asked to do. Once again we had so much fun! I did manage to construct a model that resembled a dinosaur but as I had no accurate measurements it looked nothing like the one I was trying to replicate.

The learning... We need to be specific. We need to be clear and our steps need to be written so that they can be followed accurately. We explored the 'bossy' verbs and made our adaptations. All learning that would have taken place had I taken a more formal approach, but wouldn't have been nearly as much fun. Connections to the task were made all round. I need to mention here that this was a whole class lesson for 54 students. I did have Dianne, my buddy teacher and Mat our wonderful TA as well but I led the learning. No extra scaffolding, no simplified work, just pitched at the right level because I know my learners. We used the power of collaboration and the power visual and tactile opportunities provide. Everyone regardless of ability understood the purpose of the task and knew what they needed to do. I noticed at each step of this challenge that my learners were helping each other too.  

The outcome... We made the tweaks to our instructions and repeated the process. This time there was more attention paid to precision and detail. Wording of instructions were road tested on another pair, and more refined models constructed. We then formalised our learning using a scaffold for a procedural text which allowed me to reinforce the structure and language needed to be successful. To add a fun element we then had a go at creating a different dinosaur model following a set of instructions created by another pair.

The process illustrated...

                                                        

          

Engage, Empower, Inspire: 2 words 2 minutes...

2 words 2 minutes is a great way to engage all my learners in writing regardless of ability level. This is my version of an idea I have tweaked from Jeff Anderson's book 10 Things Every Writing Needs to Know. It is a power writing challenge that helps to build writing stamina. Jeff Anderson uses 2 words 1 minute but I have found the extra minute allows for thinking time. For our lower ability writers we use 'teacher minutes' to allow them to find success at their own level.

Before we began I wrote two words on the board generated by my students, ‘Greece’ and ‘athletes’. Students needed to include both words in their writing. To add a fun element I used a randomiser after asking everyone for a word. The topic we chose was the Ancient Olympics. This allowed me to see how much learning they had retained from our inquiry challenge as well as allowing them to recall facts from a known and recently explored topic. 

Before we started we set some norms:

1. Don't stress, just guess! (This took away the need to stop the flow of writing when the correct spelling wasn't able to be recalled).
2. Write as fast as you can.
3. Make sure its makes sense.

We talked about ideas with a partner, then we had 2 minutes to put those ideas into sentences. After the time was up we had 2 minutes to reread what we had written and make changes if anything didn’t make sense or if we had words and punctuation in the wrong place. We did this part in pairs. When we finished checking we had 2 more minutes to carry on writing our descriptions. At the end of each two minutes of writing time my learners counted their words and wrote the number in the margin. 

We added to the challenge by co constructing a list of the language features and punctuation we should include: capital letters, full stops, commas, question marks, simple/compound/complex sentences, adjectives and adverbs. At least one example of each used correctly was expected. 

As we become more familiar with this task I add to this list to include anything we have been focusing on in our literacy lessons and increase the the word and minute count. 

What was exciting to watch was seeing each student find success as they all wrote more words than the first time we did this activity. A bonus was that I was able to use what they had written to see how much of the learning in Inquiry had transferred to Writing. In total we talked for 2 minutes, wrote for 4 minutes with an additional 8 minutes of proof reading (2 minutes per person each time). Then had 1 minute to look at anything we needed to practise or had omitted. This became our personal learning intentions (PLI). This meant the whole activity took 15 minutes from start to finish and definitely is a fun way to increase confidence and build stamina in writing. 

Abstract noun senses poem...

This term I have had the amazing opportunity to be a part of a poetry focus group run by Sheena Cameron and Louise Dempsey. Each week Sheena has worked with a group of students who find writing a challenge, to front load them with the skills needed to find success in a poetry task. I then follow the plans shared by Sheena and Louise with the whole class during our reading and writing lessons. 

I have noticed that the students who Sheena has been working with are empowered and fully engaged in this learning, taking on a leadership role each and every time. The poems below are the end result of a whole class collaborative writing lesson. Our focus here was to use the 5 senses to describe an abstract noun using similes and metaphors.

Adding in the 'fun' factor...

Last week one of our writing tasks was to create Kahoot quizzes with a buddy that would challenge others to recall the deeper and surface features found in an explanation. A learning task that quickly engaged all my learners. As I mentioned earlier, they were working in pairs so there was a lot of collaborative chatter as the thinking evolved. The best part of this was seeing many of the teaching scaffolds and the feedback comments that linked to their own explanation examples being used as reference tools as I had not prompted any of this. 

With the quizzes underway I took the time to step back and observe. Self efficacy was definitely alive in this lesson as my usually shy group had morphed into confident and active participants who were trying hard to recall the answers in the fastest time. No one was reluctant to share their quiz as everyone had the tools and knowledge to complete the challenge successfully. It was great to see the celebrations and praise they were bestowing on each other for making it onto the response podium. What excited me the most however, were the deep conversations that were taking place as my learners were noticing and discussing why their responses were correct or incorrect. 

T1/T2/T3 Comparison of what success in writing look like through the eyes of my learners...

Throughout this year I have focused on growing the self efficacy of group of reluctant writers. As I could only capture 6/8 responses in the T1/2 data comparison I chose to use the data of the same 6 students in T3. Notable changes in responses have been highlighted in yellow. I growth in content specific information that was emerging at the T2 checkpoint has continued to evolve, and there is a general consensus that in order to be a good writer across the learning areas you need to understand what it is you are being asked to do so that you can use your words to talk about and write about your thinking.

Changes I have noticed in class:

Target Students:

• settling to work quickly is the norm
• questioning is for clarity
• increased levels of confidence
• working with a buddy has once again become the preferred option at planning time with active engagement in talk/learning conversations 
• continued positivity towards new learning 
• work completion is the expected norm
• increased levels of risk taking 
• sharing work with class is the norm
• praise is owned and sought
• strengthened connections to the learning through engaged talk

Me:

• positive praise linked to previous success to engage reluctant writers
• overlooking the behaviour that accompanied disengaged learners and focusing on the task ahead. 
• continued explicit instruction
• increased front loading time so that stronger connections could be made
• timetable changes to allow time for work to be completed
• following the same teaching sequence meant familiarity with the process allowed me to reduce the level of scaffolding
• increased talk time for planning
• high expectations
• repetition of content specific language in context

The power of strong connections...

Last week we revisited explanation writing. This is something most of my group find a challenge as they do not believe they are 'good at writing explanations'. We have looked at the language features and structure in a variety of ways this year as I have tried to show them how to use these features in context. However when I said we would be writing explanations I was met with the usual moans and groans that appear whenever this group think something is 'boring'. I have since found out that 'boring' in this setting means 'I don't know how to do that, or I lack the confidence to do that'.

These comments quickly changed when I said we would be writing explanations about how to

make a hangi. Instant connections were made as everyone in my group has eaten

or been to a hangi our umu. I had buy-in because my learners had a 'hook to peg

their knowledge on'. Together we unpacked at a written exemplar, watched a

YouTube clip, looked at a series of images that show the process of making a hangi. With the front loading complete we then co-constructed our vocabulary list so the learning conversations could continue with the words I needed them to use being used in context.

Once again we used the safety net of paired planning but this time the written challenge had

to be done independently. My learners had a scaffolding framework so they could organise

their ideas but the actual content had to come from their plans. I noticed lots of rewindable

learning taking place so that facts could be checked.

The biggest success from this writing challenge was that one of my most reluctant writers

(Student X) was engaged the entire time! For the first time in writing this year his motivation

was intrinsic and he completed and blogged a piece of writing

(I have included this below).

How to make a Hangi

A hangi is a special kind of traditional way of Maori cooking using a pit which has been dug in the ground. Men work together to lay down the hangi. There are several steps to preparing and cooking a hangi.

Firstly the pits needs to be dug in the ground.Then volcanic rocks and irons are lit and the fire needs to burn for about 2 hours.While the fire burns a Karakia is said to pray for the environment and protect the native trees, bless the food and pray that it is cooked nicely.

Once the fire has been burning for about 2 hours they break it down and dig out the

ashes to remove some embers. This helps stop the food from getting too smokey

and acrid (better tasting).

Food gets wrapped in cabbage leaves.This keeps the food from drying out and

keeps the dirt from going in the hangi after the wrapped food is put in basket. Meat like chicken goes in first and then veggies are put on the top.

Cabbage leaves and sacks soaked in water then put on the hot irons. The baskets

are carried over to the pit and then covered with wet sacks to keep dirt out.

Finally it is all covered with canvas. They let it cook for about 3 and a half hours before they remove the sacks and the baskets of food.

Hangi food is still cooked on special occasions the same way it has been done

for many years.

The power of strong connections to the learning, using realia and tapping into the

cultures of our learners is huge.

Innovation, Creativity and Success #2...

I have realised that the more enthusiastic I am about our learning the more enthusiastic my learners are, so with that in mind I introduced our pick-a-path story challenge. We began by exploring an interactive advertisement that gave my learners, who were working in pairs, a choice of which path to follow. I knew I had picked the right hook as the initial giggles were quickly replaced by excited chatter as the outcome of each choice became evident. We then went on to explore some pre-made pick-a-path stories that allowed a wider choice of options.

                                   

Once I knew my learners were hooked we began planning our own versions. We began by planning our ideas in pairs as I knew the discussion around the storylines would be richer if we did this. However the final piece of completed work was done independently as each person was given the freedom to add their own twist to their shared planning. the I used a planning template that Matt Goodwin shared with me to help us organise our ideas. The screenshots below show our twist with this. We found we needed to colour code the ideas that went with each other as this helped us organise our responses on the google form. 

We had a few hiccups linking between the sections on the google form. The pictures below show one pair's problem solving strategies.

 . 

Te Pounamu is happy for me to share his pick-a-path story. He has done this with other teachers and classes in our school and absolutely loves reading the response sheet. This YouTube clip is a great resource that explains the process using google forms.

 

Te Pounamu said on his blog post 'I like this story because it was a new experience and I want to do this again because it is fun, new and interesting. It is a awesome way to do a writing lesson. I think everyone should have this experience and have fun.'

What I noticed most of all during these writing sessions was that everyone was engaged and motivated. There were even moans when we had a change to our timetable that meant writing wasn't going to take place one day! When I think of what we did through the lens of self efficacy, I can say that on this occasion the boxes were well and truly ticked. My challenge as the teacher is to now capture this so that we can hopefully transfer the same level of self belief to our next writing focus.

Innovation, Creativity and Success...

This is a celebration post and one I am extremely proud of! The clips below show the end result of our pechaflickr style challenge. You will see that they vary in recording style but when you listen to the story that accompanies each clip you will hear sentences that make sense, links between paragraphs, risk taking with vocabulary and the voices of collaboration. To preserve the anonymity of my target students I have shared a selection of DLOs from my group.

When I reflect on this learning challenge from start to finish I know I began with a huge level of motivation as this was (my twist on) one of the ideas I brought back from ISTE, and I was excited to try something new. I think that captured my learner's interests initially, but it was the fun element and the chunked bites of success that kept it going. As I had not given my learners a specific topic they enjoyed the freedom of being able to explore and be creative. The oral language component set everyone up for success because the storylines had been trialled a few times before becoming scripted text. This meant that ideas that didn't fit could be explored and easily eliminated.

Throughout the lessons I made myself available for 'learning chats' that were specific to the content of each pair of learners. I made sure I approached the new in a gentle way as this year has shown me that is what works with these learners. We celebrated the positives, shared our own exemplars of great ideas and each lesson set a focus together for the next. 

The challenge for me as the teacher is to retain the level of interest shown in this challenge as we move on to the next. I learnt a lot about what I need to do to help the levels of self efficacy continue to grow. External factors like ongoing absence and withdrawal group support mean not all my learners have the same opportunities to complete the work, so my next challenge is to ensure everyone is able complete the task.

                  

Success comes with completing a task...

Our writing session today was the most focused and on task my group have been all year! A big statement to make but also one that is very true. Last session we created our own pechaflickr style slideshows and had created the simple storyline plan to accompany these images, so today it was all about fleshing out the details. 

Throughout the lesson I could hear a lot of negotiation taking place as each new paragraph was created. To clarify here my learners were creating a collaborative piece of writing. As I have mentioned earlier, I work with a large group of reluctant writers so for us collaboration is the way to go when we are unpacking new learning. 

Our initial drafts show great promise but what I was most proud of was the efficacy that is growing within this group. No one was 'too shy' to share and feed forward was well thought out and constructive. Developing links between paragraphs was the guided teaching component. I found the best way to do this was to work with three pairs at a time. In each guided session I began by asking for an exemplar to use and this time I was most definitely not at a loss for volunteers. 

With permission I made a copy of the exemplar text and shared it so we could all help make the links between the paragraphs. This style of editing our work was really well received because it was safe. I noticed smiles and elements of dialogic learning conversations emerging. This meant when I left the group they were able to continue the process and help each other to make connections and links between their paragraphs.

Self efficacy remains the focus and I have learnt that patience and gentle praise on my part have gone a long way towards growing this. The final part of this challenge is that each pair will present their narrative alongside their pechaflickr style slides to the class.

Innovate and Try #4...

This lesson gave me the chance to build on from our pechaflickr introduction from last week. We began with a revisit of how to participate in a pechaflickr challenge. This is always an important step with my target students as it allows connections to be made with information that may have been overlooked previously. Once again the room was a buzz of chatter with the creation of the narratives to match the randomised images.

Today we personalised our pechaflickr style challenge. Each pair made a copy of the google slide template I shared in my previous post and chose an idea to build a story around, then set about finding a series of images to tell that story. To add a written component I introduced a template so the sequence of ideas was clear and links between each image could be made. We will use these later to flesh out what will become the paragraphs needed for our narratives.

What I noticed when I stepped back to look and listen was that everyone was on-task. Why? Probably due to the 'fun' element of our challenge, but also because my learners could connect to their learning. Each pair chose a topic that linked to their own prior knowledge which meant the vocabulary was richer as the words and ideas flowed more easily. Interesting to note here is that despite knowing what they wanted to say, a number of students struggled to access the content words they were searching for. I could hear frustration in their voices as they found themselves settling for what they were able to recall, so I stepped in to give them the words they were searching for as I wanted to keep the momentum going. 

Student voice continues to play an important role in my quest to grow self efficacy so at the end of the lesson I asked my learners what they liked about our learning today. Here is a snapshot of the feedback: 'The slides we created helped us think about the emotions of the image.... People's faces made us think about how they were feeling.... It helped us check that the story made sense and linked with the photos.... It was fun and interesting because we had pictures to help us with the writing.... I learnt to link an idea in one picture with an idea in the next picture'. 

I am looking forward to seeing how this writing challenge unfolds. We have the foundations in place and now need to tap into my learner's awareness of linking ideas and exploring feelings in our guided sessions using the exemplars we have created.

T1/T2 Comparison of what success in writing look like through the eyes of my learners...

This year I have been focusing on building student self efficacy in writing. Why? Because I have a large group of reluctant writers. I know that no-one finds something they have success in boring so I have tried hard to be creative in my task design.

This DLO reflects the comparison of responses to questions I asked my target students in both Term 1 and Term 2 - (6/8 students were questioned at both checkpoint times so only these responses have been compared in this DLO). Notable changes in responses have been highlighted in yellow. I can see more content specific information emerging in their answers overall, but the part that excited me the most was that half of these target students are now seeing members of their own writing group as 'good' writers. 


Changes I have noticed in class:

Target Students:

• settling to work more quickly
• increased levels of confidence
• working with a buddy is no longer the 'go to'
• positivity towards new learning
• increased work completion levels
• increased levels of risk taking
• more willing to share work with class
• ownership of praise
• strengthened connections to the learning

Me:

• finding more opportunities for praise
• increased use of learner created exemplars from this group
• paying closer attention to explicit instruction
• calmer voice tone
• increased awareness of when I need to repeat/reinforce my instruction
• increased use of content specific language 

Innovate and Try #3

One of the sessions I attended at ISTE explored different ways of encouraging creativity in writing. The link to my previous post is here. With my inquiry focus of exploring ways I can build student self efficacy in mind I decided to start the term off creatively using the 'pechaflickr' idea. 

I knew most of my reluctant writers would not have done much written work over the term break so finding a fun way to get them to use the skills we have been developing over the year would be the hook I needed. As this was a completely new activity for us I wanted to maintain a level of control over which images were being used so I created my own versions using a google slide template sourced from here. You can make a copy of this template by clicking here. It's fantastic as all the settings have been done for you.

I thought carefully about the topics I chose as I knew my learners all needed to be able to make a connection to the images they were seeing. For our introductory session I used the subjects of 'dogs' and 'friends'.

The initial plan was that my students would work in pairs using the 'pechaflickr' slides on their Chromebooks to co-construct their narratives, however this wasn't to be. Just as we were about to begin we lost the internet so I had to use my phone to display the slides on the tv. This worked a treat and all I could hear around the room was the buzz of talk as stories were being created!

I noticed the usual ever present initial shyness but this was soon overcome as confidence levels grew and the risks being taken were paying off. Today was very much an oral language activity so my next step is to introduce the recording aspect to allow my learners to apply the skills they have been practising in context.

Afterwards I asked my learners for feedback and found that this task was well received by all my learners. One student said, 'l Ioved hearing people giggling about their stories to each other because it meant they were practising their learning.' One of my target students said he thought, 'Our lesson was really good today and everyone was focused because they were all communicating with their partners.' Another said, 'It was fun to take turns to come up with ideas and try and turn the ideas into a story that made sense'. 

On the flip side another targeted learner said, 'It was fun Miss, but it was a bit hard to make up a story that made sense when we both had different ideas. I had to listen really hard to my partner's idea then add something that made sense with that.' I see this feedback as positive and I am excited to see where our next writing lesson takes us as everyone found success in our learning today.

ISTE 2018 - Expo Hall

The Expo Hall at ISTE is huge! There was a wide variety of stands where delegates could explore the new technologies available. Alongside these hands on opportunities was the option of joining in a learning session. 

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I really enjoyed learning about the new direction Lucid Charts is going in. There are now lesson plans and chart templates ready for use in the classroom. One idea I am planning to implement is their idea for narrative writing where learners use the charts to choose their own outcome by creating a pick a path story. This is shown in the images below and I am hoping will be seen as a 'fun' way to continue to grow the efficacy of my target students.

ISTE 2018 - Elevate Thinking, Writing and Creativity With Technology Resources

Presenters: Julie Jaeger
http://sites.google.com/site/jjaegerconsults/home/elevate-thinking-and-creativity-technology-resources

This was a creative writing session and with my COL inquiry focus this year, right up my alley. Below are the notes of my main takeaways from this session but the website link above details these in more detail.


Ian Byrd - use 2 topics and create analogies between the two - ref to pic 1
How expensive is it to fill your car with gas v other things eg: milk’ juice, coke... which is more expensive? Choose car model and insert image - link to measurement - research - smart searching - convert to same measurement using conversion apps

How long would it take to drink your swimming pool? Link to 8 glasses a day
XKCD.com - submit a ridiculous qu and the site accepts the challenge
Use ‘What if...’ Randall Monroe - deep thinking problems posed in text

Pechaflickr - 20 secs per slide tells your photo story - chains of conversation - each persons explanation of pic must carry on from last - not planned and creative - the fun is that the kids don’t know what’s coming - T pre finds the pics but kids don’t know this - after 1 pic per paragraph = instant created narrative
Type in a word eg: clown choose number of slides ... 2 people tell story in context linked to pics. Pechakucha is the research presentation where content must be known and timed

Visual Connections

Yesterday I was in Karen Ferguson’s class at Tech and was immediately drawn to the display she had on her back wall. Karen has created a 5ft x 3ft google drawing that breaks down the structure and language features of an explanation. Her display is specific to her graphics class but as I could see the potential connections that could be so easily made by my learners I immediately asked Karen if I could use her template to create an example specific to my learners. I have seen a lot of displays in classrooms and online that teachers have created to help their learners make connections, but the content, layout and size of this one completely nailed it!

                                    

The link to Karen’s blogpost where she explain her thinking behind this resource is here. As always Karen was happy to share work so my next step is to create my own version to help my learners cement their own connections to the structure and language features needed in explanation writing.

Innovate and Try #2

Following on from the use of a mentor text I knew that collaboration was the safety net needed to preserve the student self efficacy that was beginning to emerge. The series of photos below reflect the learning pathway we followed to strengthen our connections to the learning and stem from some of the ideas suggested by Aaron Wilson to help break down the barriers my target group have of not knowing what to write.

Retelling the mentor text using text maps

Using new or interesting vocabulary noticed in the mentor text to create word clines

Using the text maps and word clines to create a simple plan 

Using the plan to create a collaborative orientation

Implementing 5 -7 -10 timed writing challenge

Giving each other feedback and feed forward

All these images were snapshots of opportunities for learning talk to take place. I noticed there was no lull in the conversations as my learners took ownership of their new knowledge. The clip below shows some of the talk that helped my learners use their words in context.