Writing Professional Development 2015

During this past month, I travelled to each of my four elementary schools offering 3 hour professional development workshops to my Intermediate teachers on writing. When I surveyed the teachers, they all said they would appreciate PD on writing, but they weren't very specific. That's a HUGE subject. Where should I take them? Where should I begin? Last year we discussed the 6 + 1 Traits (see previous post). I knew that I would have to revisit that topic as it was just an overview and I don't think teachers were feeling very confident in that area. So my colleague, the Primary Coordinator, and I started researching and decided we would focus on the implementation and launch of the traits in writing workshop. 

Visit the links below for more information on the 6 + 1 Traits of Writing. 

http://www.smekenseducation.com/

http://www.culhamwriting.com/mainstreet.html

Grammar instruction has been a bone of contention for many teachers. I have been on a quest the past few years trying to figure out the best way to incorporate grammar into the classroom. I have read and learned a lot from the work of Jeff Anderson, the Write Guy. He has written many books, such as Mechanically Inclined and Everyday Editing. However, it wasn't until I saw him at Literacy for All Conference this past November in Providence, RI, that I felt as though I could bring his work to my colleagues. He encourages teachers to show students mentor sentences from real authors and discuss what they notice. It's all about function and application. Students learn why grammar works, how to use it, and apply it to their own writing to reinforce the skill. This would be part two of my training. 

The final aspect of my training would focus on Writing about Reading in reading workshop. I've noticed that often students primarily summarize the book that they are reading and don't share their thoughts about what they've read. I've wondered, why is this? Well...we say share your thinking, but what does that really mean? Students need concrete examples and they need them modeled. Another colleague of mine and former LC shared another great resource, Readers Writing by Elizabeth Hale. In this text she offers 91 different strategies to teach students how to respond using different sentence stems that promote different types of thinking that target specific comprehension skills. 

You can purchase both Anderson and Hale's work on Stenhouse! 

What are you looking to learn more about in writing workshop?