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Join this group!- This group receives special notice whenever a new writing across the curriculum lesson or resource is posted at WritingFix.
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Showing posts with label writing. Show all posts
Showing posts with label writing. Show all posts
May 28, 2011
Writing Across the Curriculum (WAC)!
January 17, 2011
Writing, Technology, and the National Writing Project
Technology & Writing
- Report Spotlights Revolutionary Use of Technology in Teaching Writing - National Writing Project - Annotated tags: writing digital nwp 6-traits technology
- New York, June 10, 2010 – "If school is supposed to help us in the rest of the world, shouldn't school look like what's going on in the rest of the world?" asks 10th-grade teacher Paige Cole, one of nine classroom teachers profiled in Writing, Learning and Leading in the Digital Age (PDF), a College Board–National Writing Project (NWP)–Phi Delta Kappa International (PDKI) report released today on the state of technology resources in the classroom.
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The NWP Digital Is website is a collection of ideas, reflections, and stories about what it means to teach writing in our digital, interconnected world. Read, discuss, and share ideas about teaching writing today.
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October 18, 2010
Effective Feedback: One trait at a time
In terms of effective feedback, offering advice ONE trait at a time is the way to go.
Feedback that is highly focused on a single trait is most effective.
Think of the 'praise sandwich' approach: specific traits based praise for a writing strength is the bread. A focus on ONE area for improvement with a writer's trick is the meat and garnish.
Also don't feel you have to assess for all the traits every time. Scoring many papers is the best way to learn the traits. Scoring one trait at a time is a way to lock in the concept.
Quick feedback on the accuracy is essential as well. That's why the NWREL database of sample papers is such a treasure: http://apps.educationnorthwest.org/traits/scoring_practice.php
In the real world where you have hundreds of papers to consider, assessing all of the traits isn't effective.
When I was teaching I had between 160 -180 7/8th graders. At first I tried to do three full 6-traits assessments a year. Then it was two, at the end, just one.
Why? Because I'd burn out on the assessment and the kids got very little from my efforts. Once something is 'assessed' at that level, it's done and young writers usually won't pay much attention to advice on a finished project.
I decided to put my time into direct coaching and started doing much smaller paragraph level assessments when I absolutely had to have a 'record' for the grade book. I used a modified portfolio system, but it wasn't a commonly accepted method in the very small rural district where I worked for most of my classroom career.
The larger global assessment was usually reserved for the 'publication' pieces. I think back on the huge work of preparing publications and look up on the book shelf at a dozen books created by my classes and just shake my head. It's fine to have something tangible.
Now I wish all of the work was online. The KMSoul project was done about 10 years ago, the last year I was in the classroom. That was back before it was so easy to publish online ( a far more effective way to motivate kids than a bound and printed book because on the net they have a much larger peer audience).
I hope this little personal narrative helps!
Dennis
Feedback that is highly focused on a single trait is most effective.
Think of the 'praise sandwich' approach: specific traits based praise for a writing strength is the bread. A focus on ONE area for improvement with a writer's trick is the meat and garnish.
Also don't feel you have to assess for all the traits every time. Scoring many papers is the best way to learn the traits. Scoring one trait at a time is a way to lock in the concept.
Quick feedback on the accuracy is essential as well. That's why the NWREL database of sample papers is such a treasure: http://apps.educationnorthwest.org/traits/scoring_practice.php
In the real world where you have hundreds of papers to consider, assessing all of the traits isn't effective.
When I was teaching I had between 160 -180 7/8th graders. At first I tried to do three full 6-traits assessments a year. Then it was two, at the end, just one.
Why? Because I'd burn out on the assessment and the kids got very little from my efforts. Once something is 'assessed' at that level, it's done and young writers usually won't pay much attention to advice on a finished project.
I decided to put my time into direct coaching and started doing much smaller paragraph level assessments when I absolutely had to have a 'record' for the grade book. I used a modified portfolio system, but it wasn't a commonly accepted method in the very small rural district where I worked for most of my classroom career.
The larger global assessment was usually reserved for the 'publication' pieces. I think back on the huge work of preparing publications and look up on the book shelf at a dozen books created by my classes and just shake my head. It's fine to have something tangible.
Now I wish all of the work was online. The KMSoul project was done about 10 years ago, the last year I was in the classroom. That was back before it was so easy to publish online ( a far more effective way to motivate kids than a bound and printed book because on the net they have a much larger peer audience).
I hope this little personal narrative helps!
Dennis
April 15, 2010
Big List of Annotated Writing Resources!
Yikes! I just check my Diigo account and realized I have a huge list of writing / 6-traits resources that I haven't shared. I use Diigo to organize my online bookmarks. I love the ability to create annotations and to highlight text on a web page.
Here's my Diigo List:
http://www.diigo.com/list/wiredinstructor/six-traits-resources
You might prefer to see this list as a slide show.
You'll see the home page of each site I've noted.
Just click on the page and you'll land directly on the site that's caught your interest.
http://slides.diigo.com/list/wiredinstructor/six-traits-resources
Interested in Diigo? Join today?
It's free, fine, and filled with good folks and great resources.
Diigo also offers a service exclusively for teachers: http://www.diigo.com/education. The new Diigo Educator Accounts are special upgrades provided specifically to K-12 & higher-ed educators so they can easily make use of Diigo in class and with their students.
http://www.diigo.com/list/wiredinstructor/six-traits-resources
You might prefer to see this list as a slide show.
You'll see the home page of each site I've noted.
Just click on the page and you'll land directly on the site that's caught your interest.
http://slides.diigo.com/list/wiredinstructor/six-traits-resources
Interested in Diigo? Join today?
It's free, fine, and filled with good folks and great resources.
Diigo also offers a service exclusively for teachers: http://www.diigo.com/education. The new Diigo Educator Accounts are special upgrades provided specifically to K-12 & higher-ed educators so they can easily make use of Diigo in class and with their students.
May 28, 2009
Tired of Being a Red Ink Slave to Corrections?
I'm delighted to announce my latest article is now on The Writing Teacher: Tired of Being a Red Ink Slave to Corrections? This article is based on a lecture from my course, Teaching and Assessing Writing with the 6-Traits.
As part of this publication, The Writing Teacher is sponsoring a Free Webinar on June 2, 2009 11:00 am PDT. I'll be online live talking about how editing fits in the writing process; thanks to Wimba and Learning Express e-folio.
Here's the teaser:
Are you burning yourself out offering comments that are ignored? Are you a red-ink slave spoon-feeding your students doses of correctness? The Editing Not Correcting Webinar will help you shift the burden of correcting conventions to where it belongs: on the student. Shift your thinking and help them learn to become editors and assessors of their own writing.
I hope to see and hear you online!
~ Dennis
December 14, 2008
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