Have your heard...

This week I was introduced to a piece of, well a , um it's kind of a framework of sorts. Actually it's called a framework. It's a collaborative effort by the National Writing Project (NWP), Council of Writing Program Administrators (WPA), and the National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE). The document (I'm still not sure what to call this) is titled Framework for success in  post-secondary writing. I know what you are thinking... it's probably the EXACT same thing I thought when the first slide hit the screen.... I teach kinder so why am I thinking about this. Well the answer came very quickly as Sherry (the presenter) drilled down this document to the simplest of terms. In the post-secondary world students need to be able to write and not just transcribe ideas but write well. Since we know that writing development (not transcription development but more of what Katie Wood Ray calls compositional development) takes place over time with increased opportunities to write in classes across the curriculum, teachers of the very young need to understand and possibly embrace the ideas in this Framework for Success in writing. Yep I left out the post secondary part, mainly as I think that these are outcomes for that age but I think the frameworks themselves are vital to all students.

So I started to get really excited about this framework but more specifically the habits of mind that it lays out for us. First let me define what I mean by habit of mind... a habit of mind refers to ways of approaching learning that are both intellectual and practical and that will support student's success in a variety of fields and disciplines. Ok stop and think for a minute.... approaches to learning that are both intellectual and practical... um... isn't that what we are all doing? is it important for our (little kinders) to be successful in a variety of fields and disciplines? So if it is expected of our little people to be able to have these habits of mind when they are big college people, wouldn't it be important for us to know about them? us being the teachers in elementary and secondary???

So after I got over my moment of anger in knowing all about the CCSS(common core) but knowing nothing about this document, I started asking where this document came from... as in how old is it, not who wrote it (that part I already knew). Sherry calmly explained that this is new and only introduced this January and will be rolled out at different conferences throughout the year. With my anger gone, I dove into the habits of mind. Let me list them: curiosity, openness, engagement, creativity, persistence, responsibility, metacognition. I won't define each of these but instead give you a link to check them out: Habits of mind

Here is where I got excited... the habits of mind are something that can be used in my classroom. They foster things like critical thinking. How cool... right? I also started thinking about Katie Wood Ray and Matt Glover in the book Already Ready. They talk about composition being a habit of mind. And I think that this idea is supported through the Frameworks list of habits of mind. For a child to compose (create) they need/use curiosity, openess (to look at new ideas or ways of doing things), the engagement is very high when they are allowed to be creative, they learn to be persistence, take ownership and are responsible for their work. WOW folks!! Talk about college bound kinders!

I'm really getting excited about teaching writing this year. I get a little worried that I might over do it and forget about the other subjects ;)

1

Ripping off bandaids... LRWP workshop

Today was an emotional day for me in writing camp (AC and Jax have started calling the Summer Institute that and I like it!) Our first workshop was presented around the idea of writing letters. The kick was that Caleb, the teacher presenter, was really interested in the idea of letter writing as a means to heal. And boy did I rip off a band-aid and let the healing start! I think I cried more this morning than I have in a long time about the subject that I wrote about. (sorry to personal to share here and it doesn't really speak to what I wanted to share about the workshop). We meet daily in writing groups and today ours was more a therapy group. Such a close bond is happening through writing. WOW... anyway this idea of writing letters got me really excited about using letters in my classroom. Now thinking about little people land and the lack of transcription skills at the beginning of the year, I am working to come up with a way to use pictures or illustrations to "write" to someone... or maybe starting as a group project that is used to create the what we want to know about section of a KWL chart. I see it working with my author and illustrator studies. It almost makes me want to teach older children, so that we could really explore this idea of writing letters.

I got kind of excited about the idea of researching a person and then writing letters to them. For example, writing to Rosa Parks about her not giving up her seat on the bus but in bigger terms how she found the courage to stand up against the norm. Or writing to the president to ask about policy and how it effects the future of the students. Of course the idea is not to mail the letter but to have students learn enough about a person to ask questions that would then drive them to find the answers. (see how cool this could be???)

I am working to complete the readings that I want to be finished with by the end of next week- when writing camp ends...sad. I have so much that I want to read and not enough time to complete it, or at least it seems that way! LOL... If you have not looked in the National Writing Project (NWP) and your local chapter then you simply MUST!! NWP was created for teachers to lead teachers into best practices in writing... and to create a community of writers. I never saw myself as a writer... not sure if I still do but I know that I am loving exploring the writer side of me. I know as a blogger I should feel like a writer but I had never thought of myself that way. As I work through what is my new position on writing in my classroom, I'll post snip it's here and see if you guys have ideas or thoughts on what I want to bring back to my classroom.

2

The Second week at Summer Institute...

I can not believe that we are half way finished!! This is the most amazing process and I have grown so much. I was asked recently what it is that is making this Summer Institute so wonderful and honestly it's the learning and the friendships that are forming. Each morning we come into classroom on the UALR campus and grab coffee (water for me) and we visit. We visit about our lives, we visit about what we have read... it's a wonderful way to start the day. Then we reflect on a quote or two, we are all taking turns pulling ideas from what we are reading each night. The best part is that we then discuss our responses! It is wonderful to talk through our thoughts and ideas on our new learning. This classroom full of educators all working together to construct best practice and solidify new learning. After our discussion we have 2 teacher workshops. Each teacher is asked to present a workshop showing how they might get kids to the business of writing. Mine was last week and centered around Pete the Cat by Mr. Eric and illustrated by James Dean. We meet in writing groups after a lunch break and discuss what we are writing. Before this institute I didn't write much but I am growing to LOVE writing. I love the writing groups SO much!! This is were I am forming such close friendships! We wrap up together by sharing a "poem in my pocket". This is just us finding poems to share.

I am looking forward to this next week because we are going to be looking at writer's notebooks and portfolios. I haven't used writers notebooks in my room but after listening to Pam (one of our writing project teacher consultants) talk about using them in her room, I'm really EXCITED about using them in my room. So my teacher friends... Do you use writers or writing notebooks in your room?? Please tell me about how you use them. Do you have any tips for me as I get ready to start using them?

2

In Pictures and In Words study ch 1

I hope that it is ok that I take creative license with how I will be participating with this books study. It fits SO nicely into what I am doing through the NWP( National Writing Project) and the summer institute(SI). BUT I want to take it a bit slower than the schedule. I want to share what I am collecting in my SI learning log and my reflections on the important theory and how other writers have tapped into these same ideas. So this post will just be on Chapter one: Illustration Study as a Foundation for Strong Writing.

This first set of quotes hit to the heart of what I think writing needs to be, and something I feel that I fight with everyone over. That is writing for children must be developmentally appropriate. I feel that so many teachers in my district rush to get to an end product. Children must all look like "this" at the end of the year. Let's toss to the way side where these children started or how they come to writing. Lucy Calkins in her book Pathways to the Common Core discusses this very thing, while the Common Core State Standards are the end result, some things might not be attainable for some students. Writing in Kinder is one of the areas she focuses on, and I believe that she would support this idea that illustrations ARE writing! Another support piece to developmentally appropriate writing comes on page 10 in the way of the NAEYC's position statement on Developmentally Appropriate Practice, published in 2009. This piece is crystal clear that the spirit of play, which at 5 years old is developmentally appropriate, matters because through play children develop self regulations as well as language and social competence.

Ok take a second and think about this... a child plays, that is what they do, it's how they are wired as 5 year olds and if we can tap into this play as educators we have hit the gold mine. Katie Wood Ray wrote another book called Already Ready with Matt Glover talking about how children come to school already ready... because they see writing as play. It's just one way to tell about something. Just one way to share their thoughts and feelings. Matt Glover went on to write Engaging Young Writers. He also speaks volumes to the idea of writing as play and adds to it that children need entry points into writing. I believe that sharing good quality illustration study would be one of those entry points.

To sum up this chapter is for me is about tapping into children's natural love of play. I also believe that it's about children using illustration as an entry point into writing and valuing what that child is bringing to the table.

To see what others think of this chapter (actually the first 6- remember I am stretching mine out ;) ) goto Mrs. Wills Kindergarten blog: In Pictures and In Words book study

2

Writing Project Summer Institute

There are so many things that I want to say about the National Writing Project and the summer institute. I can not believe that the week has flown by. Each day we have workshops presented by those who have come through the institute. The are all teachers and serve as teacher consultants for the Little Rock Writing Project. Then each of us in the institute this summer will also present a workshop. Mine was today. After lunch we meet with our writing groups or inquiry groups to talk about writing or best practices in writing. It is SOOO wonderful. I have grown so much as a writer and the theory that we discuss backs up what I want to be as a teacher of writing. I thought I would share with my blog buddies some of the books that we are reading, in case you want to read more about best practices in writing instruction.

We have four common reading books. We will not read all of them, but the parts we have read so far have been wonderful. Two of our books are by the National Writing Project:

  Because Writing Matters really lays the foundation for why we do what we do! It's wonderful

Because Digital Writing Matters is a more recent publication but it focuses on adding the digital element to writing. I must be honest this book is a dry when it comes to reading. But the information is really good.

A Writer's Book of Days is a wonderful book. It's an easy read and I have had some real connections to this book. It's secret feature is that it is divided by months and with in each chapter there are as many writing starts as there are days. I'm not sure I want to call them writing prompts anymore... that feels so high stakes testing. I kind of like writing starts. We'll see...

This last books is my favorite of the common readings. I have laughed and cried and gotten really upset while reading this book. I am beginning to thing that it is a must read for ALL teachers, especially in light of the common core.

We each have a personal inquiry that we are working on. Mine is teaching writing with the very young. I keep adding books that I want to read during my inquiry reading. I am reading a LOT of Katie Wood Ray and Matt Glover. Here is the list minus one that I don't have a picture of- Already Ready by Katie Wood Ray and Matt Glover.

Here are my teacher choice or inquiry books:

This is the book that started as my focus book, but as I am reading I am pulling in others, or Glover makes references to others that I, of course, feel that I need to read too.

I love this book!! There is a blog study that is starting on June 22 for this one. I can't wait to see what other teachers think about this book.

I haven't started this book yet but I am really excited to see how it ties into the ideas that are already forming in my head about talking and drawing and writing. I am getting SOOO excited about teaching writing. I think that some of my posts this summer will be from my SI (summer institute) learning log. I think it might be cool to get my blog buddies thoughts on the quote.

I need to get back to my reading... I still have quite a bit and I want to get caught up on my learning log. I want to spend more time with Katie Wood Ray and Matt Glover.

4

Writing Growth... WOW!

As I have shared before... teaching writing is what I feel is my teacher weakness. So I've been doing everything possible to improve that. My current favorite resource book is "In Pictures and In Words" by Katie Woods Ray. This book really got me excited about teaching writing through illustration instruction. That is, the illustration is just as important as the words themselves. I can't say enough about switching from a focus on words to a focus on both words and pictures!! At first, I wondered about what would happen if we spent time discussing illustrations first and then focus on words. Ray says that it's hard for us adults to remember just how hard it is for five year olds to sound out and write words while trying to remember what they want to say. So that the ability to draw a detailed illustration gives them a strong foundation to build from. Ray also says that many of the same processes we use to write are the same in draw an illustration. WOW!! So with this new understanding in hand, I spent much of the spring talking about illustrations and what they have to offer us. We started with the book Tuesday by David Wiesner.

Here is what I love about this book... the illustrations are AMAZING!

Look at those frogs... the whole story is in the pictures...amazing pictures!

We stopped here and talked about what the dog must be thinking... did he know they were frogs... was he running from them...was he scared of them... great conversations!

After we look at this page, the kids were sent to their tables to come up with what happened next. I LOVED seeing them work. I had them work in groups on a large piece of chart paper. One group had the frogs going to jail, another group had the lillypads coming back to life and fly around.

Take a look at four of my students work from the beginning of the year and at the end of the year.

Student 1 is an average student in my room. She entered the year not being able to write her name. As her beginning of the year sample shows, she was in scribble stage of writing.

Here is her end of the year sample. She is now able to form letters and understands what happens when you are writing a story and run out of room. She also knows that a sentence starts with a capital letter.

Student 2 is probably my lowest student. Through some of our kindergarten testing we determined that this child's IQ shows that she will need further testing and probable placement in SPED. Our RTI team also decided that she needs to move to first grade to get that testing, something that our district will not do in kinder. Oh the frustration that I have with knowing that I must send children on who need testing and SPED placement but I also know how they will struggle. Here is the end of the year work for this student.

LOTS of growth!! I'm not sure if you can see the writing but there are still some numbers in this writing. But WOW...

This is my highest student. They left kinder reading on a DRA 8.

Ok this is where illustration study is SO amazing!! Look at those details!! This child worked and worked on this picture. With all the details in place, they were able to write about it. She told me that she wanted to write more but we had to leave for PE and could she work on it later if there was time.

This sweet little one goes to speech for processing and articulation. At the beginning of the year, he struggled with one step directions. He spent tons of time on this drawing but struggled to go any farther. Now look at what happened by the end of the year...

I love this!! Remember this child has trouble processing heard information into actions. I love how he sounded out cheetah...

Now here is the part that gets me really excited... my student population might change year to year, but the level at which my students enter school will not. By starting with illustrations, the children are able to communicate and make their own stories!

4