Thursday, April 5, 2012

7:01 PM - No comments

Six Traits (Plus One)


  • Ideas
  • Organization
  • Voice
  • Word Choice
  • Sentence Fluency
  • Conventions

  • Presentations




Burke considers the Six Traits writing rubric to be "a powerful road map and the tools needed to improve not only writing but also the teaching of writing."











Ideas & Content

As you begin your paper you generate ideas.  Your ideas and content are the reasons for writing a paper.  Every paper should convey a message and be easy to follow. 

Some thoughts to get you going:
What is my message and is it focused and clear?
Did I include important details relevant to my topic?
Did the reader learn something new?
Is my paper interesting and easy to understand?

Organization

Organizing your ideas helps a reader move through your paper in a meaningful way. 

Some things to keep in mind as you write your paper:
Does my beginning hook my reader?
Is my paper easy to follow? Did I choose the best way to organize my story?
Do my ideas link to a main message?
Do I have a strong conclusion that wraps up the story?

Voice

Your voice is what gives your writing personality, flavor and style.

Questions to think about as you write your paper:
Can you tell I am enthusiastic about my topic?
Does this writing sound like me?
How do I want my readers to feel?
Will my story hold readers' attention? Will they want to hear more?

Sentence Fluency

Fluent writing has rhythm.  Sentences vary in length and structure.  It is easy and pleasurable to read aloud. 

It is important to think about:
Is my story easy to read?
Do my sentences begin in different ways?
Did I use some long and some short sentences?
Does my paper sound smooth as I read it aloud?

Word Choice

The specific words that you choose create images, capture a reader's attention and make your story memorable.

Look at your paper and decide:
Have I used some strong verbs or colorful phrases that grab my reader?
Have I chosen the most precise word?
Have I used any unique words?
Did I repeat common words too many times?

Conventions

When the first draft is finished it is time to start editing for conventions.  These include spelling, punctuation, grammar, capitalization and paragraphing.  Proper use of conventions make your story easy for others to read.

To begin editing ask yourself:
Did I leave spaces between words and sentences?
Did I use a title?
Did I use correct punctuation?
Did I use capital letters in the right places?
Have I proofread for correct spelling and grammar?
Have I indented any new paragraphs?




    Tuesday, April 3, 2012

    2:00 AM - ,,, No comments

    Digital Writing Workshop


          Troy Hicks

    Digital Writing, Digital Teaching





    There's no such thing as a free lunch.

    digitalwritingworkshop.ning.com



    Troy Hicks' NING.com site is offline -- probably because the site started charging money. The lesson here -- and it's a very important one: if you are not using your own site with your own domain, you are not in control. None of these so-called "free" third-party sites are adequate on their own because users are at the mercy of the web host. Sites like NING.com are fine to use as webware but they must be housed at a secure server. Google (Docs and Blogger) are free and of course very stable, but things change quickly -- so "free" is a relative term. You must own the digital content in order to manipulate it and preserve it The cost of a protected domain name and server space is minimal, and, importantly, it allows for maximum control over what web page content is private -- and what content can be scanned, read and repeated by search engines.

    Troy Hicks Wiki
    digitalwritingworkshop.wikispaces.com

    Hicks' Twitter account is @hickstro



    International Society for Technology Education
    National Educational Technology Standards
    http://www.iste.org/standards.aspx


    NETS-S Implementation Wiki
    http://nets-implementation.iste.wikispaces.net/


    What happens in the writing workshop when
    we introduce digital writing tools and processes?



    The Workshop

    Teacher researchers such as Donald Graves, Donald Murray, Lucy Calkins, Nancie Atwell, Katie Wood Ray, Jim Burke, Ralph Fletcher, and Penny Kittle -- among the countless numbers of us who have employed their ideas in our own classrooms -- have developed the writing workshop into a theoretically sound and pedagogically useful model for teaching writing.

    While we each can and should make our own list of particular ideas about what constitutes the philosophy of the writing workshop in our own classroom, I feel that we can generally agree that it relies on a core set of principles that center on students as writers, where we “teach the writer, not the writing” (Calkins 1994), as many of the aforementioned authors would remind us. There are a number of core principles that proponents of the writing workshop approach advocate, and I offer my summary of them here:


    • student choice about topic and genre active revision (constant feedback between peer and teacher)
    • author’s craft as a basis for instruction (through minilessons and conferences)
    • publication beyond classroom walls
    • broad visions of assessment that include both process and product




    Blogging and BookMarking

    We have learned from our writing workshop mentors that inquiry and choice drive the workshop approach. With RSS and social bookmarking as ways to share and gather information, students’ individual choices are highly malleable, and students can easily add to and subtract from their interests.

    With a blog, their writing is archived and searchable, open for comments, and ready for presentation in a final portfolio. Combined, the ability to capture, share, and write about information through RSS, social bookmarking, and blogging provides students in the digital writing workshop an opportunity to write, revise, and reflect on their work in ways not possible with spiral-bound notebooks or even word-processing documents alone.

    Once students understand the basics of blogging, they can begin to use blogs and two additional tools of the read/write web—wikis and collaborative word processors—to engage in productive writing and conferring practices.

    BookMarkers:

    Scribefire
    http://www.scribefire.com/
    Site is updating. Not needed or recommended.


    Zotero.org
    http://www.zotero.org/
    Fine for what it is. Not needed or recommended.

    Social Bookmarking

    http://www.diigo.com/
    http://clipmarks.com/
    http://delicious.com/





    Weblogs and Wikis

    EduCause
    7 Things You Should Know About Blogs
    http://www.educause.edu/ELI/7ThingsYouShouldKnowAboutBlogs/156809



    Common Craft
    How Blogs Work
    http://www.commoncraft.com/video/blogs


    EduBlogs
    http://edublogs.org/

    Class BlogMeister
    http://classblogmeister.com/

    ThinkQuest
    http://www.thinkquest.org/en/




    Each of these pages offers general lists of wikis that educators have created and are using in a variety of ways:

    Educational Wikis
    http://educationalwikis.wikispaces.com/
    Free Wiki Spaces
    http://www.wikispaces.com/


    Sunday, April 1, 2012

    4:00 AM - ,, No comments

    WRiTiNG POWER REMiX


     
    An Annenberg Learner Video Jazz Essay


    The following composition is an improvisational remix of phrases and quotes found on the soundtrack of Making Writing Meaningful - part two in the Annenberg Foundation’s “Write in the Middle” video series. Although rearranged and re-assembled, all of the following verbiage was taken verbatim from the video’s interviews of Linda Rief, Damond Moodie, Allen Teng, Jenny Beasley and Gloria Hamilton. The implication of this novo liberati translatus is that the urban writing classroom is uniquely positioned as a potentially electrifying place of personal empowerment for diverse learners. Authentic purpose, student choice, and subjects drawn from personal experiences make for engaging and meaningful writing assignments that motivate learners to think in new ways – about themselves and their world – through writing.

    AUTHENTiCiTY | R e l e v a n c e 

    Real reasons. That’s the beauty of writing. Well, I mean you have to get excited about what you’re writing about. You have to relate to what you’re writing about. Music helps engage students in thinking and learning. You have to feel like there’s a purpose. A major concern of middle school teachers is motivating their students to write. Real audiences. We have a responsibility as teachers to help students connect to their writing and understand that this is something very real. This is not an exercise they’re going through in school that is going to end when they’re done. You can write to newspapers. You could write to your government. You could write, just a letter to a friend, just to get it off your chest. So, that’s the beauty of writing. You have this opportunity to truly express your opinion. To grow as writers middle level students need real reasons for communicating. Real audiences for real reasons.


    CHOiCE | E n g a g e m e n t

    The recurring question though is -- how to tap into that energy and help students to use it productively? There is the importance of choice in motivating students to write. Choice creates excitement. We need to let them educate us. Young adolescents are full of energy and enthusiasm. The student-centered classroom – it’s where all students feel free to express themselves as writers and thinkers. It takes more energy to be aligned with their interests but – to be an effective educator – well, my best learning happened when I was actively involved, when I cared, when I wanted to participate. Pay attention to what they wear, to what’s on their binder – what they talk about when they’re not talking to you. They’re all interested in music. They’re all interested in each other . . . anything that somebody else is interested in so . . . I find the best thing is to just start with brainstorming and things come out that I never would have expected. Certainly, music. If they’re going to buy into the fact that – ‘I can change people’s minds. I can change the world when I write’ – then they have to understand that in middle school. They have to know that – ‘I have a connection with this, it’s important to me, and I want to change something.’ We have to let them buy into that by letting them choose topics. Choice creates excitement. Excitement creates the product.


    SELF-EXPRESSiON | E m p o w e r m e n t

    The key to meaningful writing is its connection to self. We interview each other. I have the kids write out a biography of the person they interviewed or they could do their own autobiography. I try to pull them into themselves because I think that’s where they are to begin with, and then start to broaden them out. How well do I know those kids – so I can encourage them to write about things they really care about? I try to get them to think for themselves. The beauty of writing – or one of the beauties of writing, in my opinion – is that you don’t have to feel helpless.  When you feel like something has gone wrong in your life, or something great has happened, you can write about it to get that expression out. You can validate them. They need to see themselves as creative and viable members of a community of writers. They need to believe that their ideas and perceptions are important. They need to have ownership of their writing and they need to realize that writing is power – that it can be a catalyst for change, both in their immediate environment and in the world at large.



    Write in the Middle (2004). Making writing meaningful. Retrieved from 
    http://www.learner.org/workshops/middlewriting/prog2.html 

    3:00 AM - , 1 comment

    Urban Writing Classroom Framework


    Culturally Inclusive Framework

    for the Urban Writing Classroom



    Core Theme: Community

    Core Practice: Foster and maintain a safe and respectful environment where young people are free to be themselves, free to take chances, and free from fear of making mistakes.

    Core Theme: Cultural Relevance

    Core Practice: Locate the curriculum in learners’ lives through content that is personally and socially relevant to them. Make the classroom a place of personal empowerment.

    Core Theme: Conversation

    Core Practice: Find ways to promote and sustain an ongoing class conversation. Encourage personal reflection through writing and discussing.

    Core Theme: Routines & Rituals
     
     Core Practice: Establish familiar classroom writing routines, group-building rituals and room rules.

    Core Theme: Feedback / Critique 

    Core Practice: All students are capable of brilliance. Carefully measure critique, illuminating their gifts instead of burying learners in corrections and rules.
     
    Core Theme: Teacher Sharing

    Core Practice: Thoughtfully-chosen, pointedly shared writing from the instructor can be beneficial to understanding the writing process and building community.

    Core Theme: Spatial Justice

    Core Practice: Design flexible floor plans that accommodate diverse young learners and facilitate communication during a variety of individual and group activities.

    Core Theme: Professional Development

    Core Practice: Stay current on the best research-proven strategies of great writing teachers.















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