Writing

One of the things that makes me unique as a teacher of writing is that I am a writer; in fact, I am an essayist. While many of my Language Arts and English colleagues appreciate the written word, most do not write for publication. I do and I design instruction with this real-world idea of audience in mind at all times. I believe in the writing process because I use it, and I believe every writer creates and uses his/her own process. The reading-writing connection for me is visceral; I read in order to write, analyzing others' styles in order to improve and extend my own, finding allusions, envisioning ideas, and I write to be read and add insight and clarity to what has been written by me and by others. These ideas are the foundation of my writing instruction. Much of the rest is a result of watching my students and coming up with ways to create writing and thinking habits in ways that will serve them well, not just during my class, but for the rest of their lives.

In the design of my writing instruction I am indebted to the work of the National Writing Project and process/workshop-oriented writing teachers like Lucy Calkins, Peter Elbow, Ralph Fletcher (especially Walking Trees: Teaching Teachers in New York City Schools, Heinemann, 1990), Donald Graves, Kenneth Koch, Marie Ponsot and Rosemary Deen (start with Beat Not the Poor Desk, Boynton/Cook, 1989). When it comes to the uses, misuses, and good ideas for for grammar instruction I look to Constance Weaver, Harry Nodin, and newer folks like Jeff Anderson and Vicki Spandel (Mechanically Inclined: Bringing Grammar, Usage, and Style into Writer's Workshop, Stenhouse Publishers, 2005).

Tools for Teachers
Writing Group Procedures
Writing Group Reflection Sheet
Peer Review Sheet

5-Paragraph Outline Guide
Narrative Planner
Model Analysis Sheet
Writing Process Checklist
with rubric and reflection questions

Writing Mini-Lessons
Check out Cottonwood Press and the Teachers & Writers Collaborative. They produce a lot of great material for writing mini-lessons. For several of the lessons below, I used Brian Backman's book, Thinking in Threes (Cottonwood Press, 2005).

Writing Process
Spelling
use with Can You Read This?
What Makes Prose Good
Essay Leads
Essay Introductions and Conclusions
Organizing an Essay
Essay Supporting Evidence

Grammar Mini-Lessons
What I came to after 12 years of teaching was the realization that students need to construct grammar knowledge and rules from examining correct samples (preferably from big chunks of authentic text) in the context of their own writing for audience and purpose.

Using Dialogue
Using Quotations
Using Commas
Subject-Verb Agreement (sentences only)
Works Cited (On-line Sources)

However, don't think I didn't try the traditional routes - notes of various types, sentence correcting and analysis, worksheets, tests, etc. - before I learned that this type of grammar instruction took up a great deal of time without impacting most students' writing or speaking in any significant way. If you want to teach grammar in a traditional, systemic way, I like Michael Clay Thompson's program, The Magic Lens: A Spiral Tour through the Human Ideas of Grammar (Royal Fireworks Press). I used The Magic Lens in many of the designs below.

4 Levels of Grammar
     38 pages of Notes
     Grammar Terms list
     Grammar Graphic Organizer
Subject and Predicate Notes
     Interactive
          (student sheets and transparencies)
     Traditional

Grammar Assessments
     2006-07 Vocab/Conventions Assessment
     Every two weeks or so, I had my eighth graders
      write a paragraph using several of the self-selected
      words from their independent reading. I assessed for
      use of vocabulary and for grammar (formally or
      informally depending on what had been taught).
     2000-01 Quizzes
          1 - Subject Predicate
          2 - Subject Predicate
          3 - Subject Predicate
          4 - Sentence Type
                 (compound sub and pred)
     1999 Grammar Rubric
     1997 Grammar Pretest

SAT Material
When I started at Mid-Carolina High School in the fall of 2007, I decided to use the SAT scoring rubric to guide my English 2 and English 4 students' writing. It's a good rubric for essay writing in general, matches up to the state exit exam's writing rubric, and most of my students planned to take the SAT or ACT at some point, anyway.

Scoring Rubric
Sample Scored Essays
     for use with students to teach rubric
Sample Scored Essays
     with explanations of scoring
Peer Review sheet with checklist
Peer Review sheet with analytic rubric
Essay Evaluation Sheet
     with reflection and suggestion checklist
SAT Prompts
     - Book
     - Fiction
     - Perfection
     - Personal Characteristics
          prep with Postsecondary Planner
     - Symbol
          prep with Symbol Webquest

Writing Rubrics

Writing Process Reflection and Rubric
Revision Reflection and Rubric

I joined the NC Standards and Accountability Consortium as a first year teacher in 1997, so I grew up as a language arts teacher immersed in the idea that writing should be tied to state standards and assessable, especially with a good holistic rubric.

Morrison 1999-2001 Rubrics
     Audience Impact
     Structural Organization
     Persuasiveness
     Historical Justification
     Essay Structure

During my time with Charlotte-Mecklenburg, NC state testing evaluated writing at grades 7 and 10. When CMS started standardizing and mandating "non-negotiables" in 2003, including school-wide quarterly cold prompt assessments at all grade levels with complicated and time-consuming administration and evaluation requirements, I found myself fighting and designing to make district prompts and requirements relevant to Piedmont's students and instructionally useful to teachers.

2003-04 Quarterly Checklist
     by Jen for use by Eighth Grade Team; each
     essay each quarter was required to have
     been evaluated by two teachers
2003 Grade 8 Cold Prompt - Trips
     developed by Jen based on CMS format;
     CMS prompts were generally irrelevant to
     our students, such as "Write about
     a good day at school"; we needed better
     prompts for student buy-in
2006-07 Writing Rubric
     by Jen based on revised CMS rubrics
2006-07 Portfolio Tracking/Reflection Sheet
     by Jen based on CMS requirements

Daybooks
The daybook became the central organizing, inspiration, and creative writing tool of my classroom after I participated in a month-long Summer Institute held by the Writing Project at UNC-Charlotte in 2002. Much thanks go to Nodgia Fesperman and Pat English for guiding me to the daybook.

Explanation for students and parents
Evaluation Sheet (Jen's Completion Rubric)
Ideas for Going Beyond
Student Table of Contents sheets
Teacher Table of Contents transparency
Freewrite Explanation
Freewrite Time transparency

Other Assignments

Cover Letter and Resume
(MCHS English 4, 2009)
     Assessment/Task sheet
     Article - "When You Need a Cover Letter..."
     Cover Letter Guide (by Katie Kidd)
     Resume Template
     Resume Guide (by Katie Kidd)

For me writing has always been connected to reading. Early on, I saw how it could be an assessment of reading. Then, I came to see how it could deepen reading through
reflection and writing to learn. At the end of my 12 years, I focused on helping students become better writers by examining texts as models for their own writing. Luna, Luna: Creative Writing Ideas from Spanish, Latin American, and Latino Literature edited by Julio Marzan (Teachers & Writers Collaborative, 2000) is a terrific text for helping students write poetry with both professional and student models.

Memoir (MCHS English 2, 2009)
     Assessment/Task sheet
     Brainstorm

Poetry
     General Study a Poem (POMS, 2007)
     Lucinda Grey model (MCHS 2009)
          Assessment checklist
          Analysis/Reflection sheet
               completed by student author on own
          Grey poems: copies, transparencies
          Morrison's Demo (MCHS 2007)

What Makes Me Who I Am? (POMS, 2001)
     Assessment/Prompt sheet
     Blank 5-Paragraph Outline Guide
     Peer Review Sheet
     Peer Editing Sheet

Identity Essay (POMS, 1997)
     Unit Material
          Contract
          SQ3R Helpsheet
          SQ3R Film Analysis
          Internet Search Form
          Lab/Media Center Passes
          Identity Poem prompt
          SQ3R Performance Task
     Essay Assessment/Prompt sheet
     Writer Self-Evaluation
     Rough Draft Checklists
          1 (student) then 2 (teacher)

Comparative Essay (POMS, 1997)
     Assessment/Prompt sheet
     Journey Comparison sheet
     Outline Guides 1 or 2
     Rough Draft Checklist
     Writer Reflection

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