Melville Brainstorms

Essay Map

From www.readwritethink.org - April 21, 9:47 AM

"The Essay Map is an interactive graphic organizer that enables students to organize and outline their ideas for an informational, definitional, or descriptive essay.

Expository writing is an increasingly important skill for elementary, middle, and high school students to master. This interactive graphic organizer helps students develop an outline that includes an introductory statement, main ideas they want to discuss or describe, supporting details, and a conclusion that summarizes the main ideas. The tool offers multiple ways to navigate information including a graphic in the upper right-hand corner that allows students to move around the map without having to work in a linear fashion. The finished map can be saved, e-mailed, or printed."

Dennis T OConnor's insight:

Using systems that break the writing process into steps helps guide students through to a first draft.  Guidance builds confidece. Well worth a visit and possible wide scale use in your classroom.

Outlining: Before or After? - Choice is the answer~

"One method I use to teach organization is outlining the paper after the first draft. I ask students to write an outline of their paper if it is poorly organized and if they don’t see the lack of organization. "

~ Kathleen Sommers - Teaching and Assessing Writing with the Six Traits, Spring 2013

I responded to Kathleen's post:

Your method of outlining after the first draft makes a great deal of sense. My Eureka Moment is that I (as a student) never experienced this approach. Instead I was always required to write the outline before my first draft.  This never worked for me and permanently put me off outlining. Consequently I never really required/or taught outlining as a teacher. I was a bubbling brainstorming kind of writer and that's what I taught (although I told my kids that if they preferred to outline or list go right ahead.)

Your simple and common sense approach honors the writing process and amplifies the traits approach.

I'm amazed that after all these years this method didn't occur to me. I think had too much scar tissue because of the early demands for outlines before I'd properly generated my ideas and drafted a first splash at the topic.

Anyone else have a similar experience?

This post triggered a cascade of agreement from other writing teachers who struggled with outlining. The simple fix of using an outline after the first draft suddenly seemed self-evident.

Kathleen added a great concluding insight to the conversation:

"I do think it depends on the writer. There are many writers that need to start with the outline first. These writers would be very frustrated if told to write and then outline. It appears the more I learn about writing, the more I am aware there are as many ways to approach writing as there are writers."

I came back with an extension of the idea that wrapped up a very solid discussion.

Kathleen, You make a good point about the need for choice.  Offer your students the opportunity to outline before or after the first draft. Let each writer develop their own process.  The writing process shouldn't be a lock step formula, it's more of a path to help us find our words.

This same approach could be used with any graphic organizer: give the writer a choice, before or after. Building in this bit of organization during the drafting stage is what we are all after.  These ideas make the abstract concrete!

Dennis

Mode + Audience + Voice = Organization

The problem with rote memorization of a writing organizational formula is that it has no context.  The kids don't understand why they are using the form.  They just memorize the basics and stumble on. This usually means they know they need five paragraphs: 1 intro 3 body 1 concluding.  Hardly a universal formula for organizing writing. But that's what is usually taught (and often nothing else.) 

Organization is dictated to a large degree by the mode of writing we are pursuing.  Letters, Poetry, narrative, research, persuasive... all of these modes have forms of organization that we should recognize. 

More importantly, the mode is determined by the audience for the writing.  A reporter isn't going to write a poem about a traffic accident. A research paper isn't going to follow the 5 paragraph format.  

Also, keep in mind that the audience and mode also predict the kind of voice a writer will use.

IF our students understand the concepts of voice, audience, and mode, they will have context for the kinds of organization they need to bring to their writing.  This takes a conceptual understanding of writing, rather than rote memorization of an organizational form. 

Can we teach this? You bet!  We are right now!

Does it make sense? ~ Dennis

InstaGrok Mindmap on the Six Traits

Learn about "6-traits writing" on instaGrok.com

6-Traits Magazine

Most of my posting is now taking place on my new curated magazine! 

Primary Conventions:

In answer to the quesiton: Is correcting a student's conventions errors effective teaching? Primary teacher Mary had this to say:

I absolutely agree that correcting is not teaching. Before I began to learn about the 6 Traits, I didn't realize that one of the only things that I evaluated in a child's writing was conventions. When a student would come up to me with a writing piece, I would automatically correct their grammar and spelling.

Little did I know that I was turning them off writing. I was focusing on what was wrong and not celebrating what was right (like great voice!). I didn't know any better. It was no wonder I would hear the grumbles as I would ask them to take our their writing notebooks.

It actually was very difficult for me to NOT focus on conventions at first. I had to get used to asking a child if they could read me their piece so that I would not be tempted to correct their mistakes.

I think that having a student edit their own piece it is not as discouraging to a child. Now, I might ask if they could read their piece and show me where there might be a good place to add some punctuation rather than me marking all over their paper.

(For more on editing vs. correcting check out this online lecture.

TED video Lesson: The Power of Simple Words

Long, fancy words designed to show off your intelligence and vocabulary are all very well, but they aren't always the best words. In this short, playful video Terin Izil explains why simple, punchy language is often the clearest way to convey a message. (Launching a series on Playing with Language

THE TYGER (from Songs Of Experience) By William Blake 1794



Tyger! Tyger! burning bright
In the forests of the night,
What immortal hand or eye
Could frame thy fearful symmetry?


In what distant deeps or skies
Burnt the fire of thine eyes?
On what wings dare he aspire?
What the hand dare sieze the fire?


And what shoulder, & what art.
Could twist the sinews of thy heart?
And when thy heart began to beat,
What dread hand? & what dread feet?


What the hammer? what the chain?
In what furnace was thy brain?
What the anvil? what dread grasp
Dare its deadly terrors clasp?


When the stars threw down their spears,
And watered heaven with their tears,
Did he smile his work to see?
Did he who made the Lamb make thee?


Tyger! Tyger! burning bright
In the forests of the night,
What immortal hand or eye
Dare frame thy fearful symmetry?

Tag Galaxy: Writing Prompts from a world of images

Tag Galaxy: Sea

This site asks you to enter a keyword and then assembles a planet of images using Flikr photos. I entered the word writing and then played with a threeD planet of pictures. Click on an image and it floats forward. This could be a great way to prompt journal writing or poetry. Fun to play with! Use it for some idea generation the next time around!

One Teacher's Reflective Journey

This end of course reflection was offered by a fine teacher who contributed greatly to the discussion in our class. I asked her permission to publish this piece. She kindly agreed. ~ Dennis

I became frustrated last year when my school system provided six hours of 6 Traits of Writing Professional Development and expected me to fully implement the traits into writing lessons.  As you might guess, it did not go well as I had hoped.  I started with unbridled enthusiasm and ended with complete listlessness.  Somehow in the back of my mind I new that if I wanted to learn how to “teach” the 6 Traits effectively I had a longer road ahead of me: The road is a story of my experience as both a learner (taking this course and seeking help from other educators) and also a teacher (sharing the knowledge that I gained).  The path that I followed is a path forged by readings, research, discussions, and practice.   I experienced a wide range of emotions throughout the course, and as I think back, I realize that as long as those feelings remain, writing (or any subject for that matter) will be an important part of me as both a learner and a teacher. 

That first week I can honestly say that I experienced fear, frustration, and accomplishment.  Fear...I hadn’t finished my school year, and yet I was tackling an online class when computers definitely were not a strength.  I was unable to log into the class for the first couple of days so when I was able to I felt as though I was behind the eight ball.  I had to learn the system in a crash course given by my daughter who just graduated high school, and I had to read umpteen posts.  Accomplishment... Within 24 hours of beginning this class I had communicated with people all over the world.  It was amazing that we had a common thread... Six Traits.  I enjoyed reading everyone’s post and knew that others had a lot to offer.  I looked forward to the upcoming weeks with excitement and still a bit of unsettledness.

By the second week insights began to surpass the anxiousness (Although I must admit that I began to have some feelings of self doubt and will discuss this a bit further in my reflections).  I began to like the online class format and felt bit less overwhelmed.  Already, I began to compile so many great ideas from all those who participated.  I love the websites which allowed for 6 Traits scoring practice.  I grew from having no skills to becoming somewhat adept at assessing the trait of the week.  It was this week when I recognized the importance of using 6 Trait terminology in the classroom.  I can’t expect my students to use the “lingo” if I don’t use words like “ideas”, “organization”, and “voice” daily.   It was this week when I also began to discover the connections between the traits. One of my biggest insights was the connection between fluency and voice.  When a reader is reading fluently he/she should be using tones and intonations which show the intended voice of the character or author, depending on the piece of writing.

Over the next couple of weeks I learned that the format for the class really was well suited for my learning.  I enjoyed doing the reading on my own and then listening to the same thing in lecture format.  This provided great background knowledge to stem a thought provoking discussion.  Unlike a live classroom, I was able to think and research before I wrote anything.  Sometimes the pace of a classroom is so quick that remarks are made without much thought.  I am thrilled with all the ideas that I will be able to bring into my classroom. 

As I reread my weekly reflections I noted how my feelings had changed on “free writing”.  I had seen other teachers use free writing but never really saw the benefit.  I do hope to implement it into my classroom this year.  Free writing helps to generate ideas and alleviate writers block.  A common thread throughout my reflections of the middle weeks was the importance of read alouds.  So many times this past year I said, “We don’t have time for a story today.”  I had forgotten that Read Alouds are much more than a story.  Read Alouds are an effective teaching tool.  I can use them to model effective writing: superb word choice, great titles, leads and conclusion, sentence fluency, etc.

All of this new knowledge did not come without a bit of self doubt.  I thought a lot about my current writing program and now perceived it as somewhat ineffective.  Of course I was having my students write; however I realized that they wrote with little instruction.  I was only using read alouds sporadically.  My modeling was limited, and my mini lessons were inconsistent and somewhat scattered.  Fortunately I found comfort in the words of a past science professor.  She believed, “Effective teaching does not come from complacency.  The best teachers are life long learners.”  This redirected me to why I chose this class...  I wanted to improve my writing curriculum.  I am a life long learner as well as a teacher and life long learning does not come without hard work.

         I have taken away so many wonderful ideas from this course.  I will implement some slowly over time; however, others will be a mainstay of my classroom from day one this fall.  Here are some crucial points which I learned. 

• First, modeling and read alouds are imperative for student success in writing.  
• Second, the Traits should be taught singularly but with the understanding that they are intertwined.  All opportunities to show case the traits must be seized.  
• Third, peer work is important.  I learned from my peers just as my students can learn from each other.  “Ideas come from ideas.”  
• Fourth, “conventions” is not the end all be all of writing.  Conventions has its place but is only one piece of the writing puzzle.  
• Lastly, strong writing will be evident through year long teaching, assessing, and revising using the traits as a guide.  With this, the grades will come. 

            Some of the other ideas which I would like to try at some point during the year involve technology.    I never have been very confident using computers; however, I began to use computers in the classroom last year when my school bought a rolling cart of 30 laptops, and I had a lot of success.  This course allowed me to take the time to explore various new ideas such as voice threads, blogs, and other audio recording sites.  I am excited to introduce them to my colleagues and to try them with my students. 

            After reflecting on my own sense of confusion, frustration, wonder, and excitement as a student, I was reminded of a couple of important prior discoveries about teaching.   Enthusiasm is catchy.  When I am enthusiastic my students and the teachers who surround me will be enthusiastic.  After a day at the beach, the veteran teacher next door to me recently said that she was envious of my excitement to teach writing this year.  She is looking forward to sharing ideas so that she may renew her enthusiasm as well. I hope many of my students will join the bandwagon this fall. Also, it is important to realize that feelings of confusion and frustration are natural and often part of the learning curve, but feelings of satisfaction and success must be there to keep us on the correct path in the journey of learning.  We are all life long learners and so are our students. 

Word Choice Classic: Bury Dead Words

A classic classroom word choice exercise is to 'bury dead words'.  I used to do this at Halloween, creating a tombstone bulletin board where we'd nail up all those useless, deflated, overused, words that make writing flat and colorless.


Here's a clever classroom rendition of the idea: RIP Overused Words

An Amazing Trickeration?: Banished Words For 2012. This short audio and written piece from NPR highlights an old tradition at Lake Superior University, an annual list of useless words (useless phrases would be more exact).  Lake Superior State University 2012 List of Banished Words.

Burying useless phrases feels like a great fit for any writing class room. Which words or phrases would you consign to the grave?

6-Traits Resources: Digital Magazine!

I invite all readers of this blog to also visit my new curated 6-Traits Digital Magazine.  This new effort casts a wider net over all aspects of writing, the writing process, 6-traits, Common Core Standards and more.  Just click an image below to see what I'm talking about! ~ Dennis

Video: Common Core for English: Read like a detective and write like a conscientious investigative reporter!

View this thought provoking video about Common Core Standards. 

Read like a detective and write like a consceintious investigative reporter!

This high end lecture presentation on the shifts required to meet the Common Core Standards for English Language Arts.  

Shifts promoted by the CC Standards

Major move toward reading informational texts at all levels is the main message.

Writing at the high school is dominated by personal opinion / narrative?   The shift is to writing that conveys an arguement that can be supported with facts.  Narrative is not eliminated, but takes second place to informative writing.

As a heart and soul writing teacher I've taught writing in the context of personal narrative. Using this mode remains the best way to teach fundamentals.  However I have to agree with the lectures statement that in general "People don't give a shit about your opinions."  His point being that writers should be able convey information and support their opinions with facts.

I don't worry about writing being sidelined. That's already happened after years of distorted emphasis delivered by NCLB.

I hope that the CC standards will help us shift our teaching to the point where critical thinking and being able to 'write like a conscientious investigative reporter' becomes a more common reality in classrooms across the country.

I wouldn't be a teacher if I didn't have an enormous capacity for hope. ~ Dennis

Digital Writing Workshop: The Writing Process Evolves

Troy Hicks, author of the Digital Writing Workshop (Heinemann, 2009), offers an overview of the five principles guiding writing instruction in the 21st century:http://www.heinemann.com/products/E02674.aspx



The digital writing workshop ning Troy mentions at the end of this broadcast is no longer online.  For a vibrant online community investigate Jim Burk's English Companion Ning.

Also this blog post from the Enhanced English Teacher will give you more information and ideas about Troy's Digital Writing Workshop

NEW! 6-Traits Resources Digital Magazine

I've launched a new digital magazine as part of my ongoing project to broadcast great resources about writing and the 6-Traits. This magazine format is easy to read and will open your ideas to many new sites and ideas.  Below is a brief glimpse at the latest topics I've posted.  Visit and click follow if you'd like to be informed when new content is posted.

I hope all of the loyal followers of this blog, also become followers of the new magazine.  I'd also love to get suggestions from all of you.

Here's where you can contribute:

• Here on the 6-Traits Resources Blog
• 6-Traits Resources Digital Magazine
• 6-Traits Resources Facebook Page

I hope to hear your voice!  Here, there,everywhere!  ~ Dennis

Word processing taught me how to spell.

I overcame a severe spelling problem thanks to spell check.

I discovered (on my own) that spell check was providing me with individualized feedback on my spelling.

I was missing the same words over and over again. (Just as I'd done with spelling lists all through school.)

By paying attention to spell check feedback I was able to get a visual fix on most of my problem words.  Eventually I could tell by sight when I was misspelling something.  Overtime the number of errors decreased and my sight based error recognition improved.

To this day I have trouble spelling, especially when I'm tired.  I still misspell 'receive' about half the time.
(photo: NEO Loaner Program)

Main point: Let's explicitly teach our students how to improve their spelling by seeing spell check and grammar check as individualized instruction from a slightly crazy robotic tutor.  We can't always trust what the machine says.  However it does give us a series of learning opportunities.

I recall arguing with English teachers when word processing first became widely available.  Many were convinced it was the end of writing (and civilization).  For me it was a technology that changed my life.  (Now, as a Certified Geezer, I still depend on my word processor and spell check to make my living.)

Dennis, who is blurry eyed in Valley Center

 (Five spelling errors corrected when I first checked. Several more after I revised. This did not include three spell check prompted stabs at receive.) 8-)

Synesthesia, Painting, Poetry, Sentence Fluency, Rhythm with Toby Lurie

Poetry - Painting - Song 

Later in my teaching practice I started writing grants to bring writers and illustrators to my school district. This helped me build a relationship with painter, musician and poet, Toby Lurie: http://www.tobypoet.com.

Toby is an amazing, creative, and unpredictable guy. (The link to his site will introduce you to his work. He shares many QuickTime audio clips of his work that trigger creativity.) It is fun to find him on the Internet after all these years.

I recall meeting him for the first time. Toby was wild white bearded poet with a dangerous gleam in his eye. One look at him and I realized that he was going to draw some lightening.  I was the language arts coordinator for a conservative Nevada school district. I knew Toby was going to make waves and I was glad to aide and abet in a little artistic subversion.  We were at the district's biggest high school.  I'd planned a full school assembly, but an uptight vice principal sand bagged me and side tracked us to a remote spot in the school where they kept the 'tough' kids.

As I was about to introduce Toby to a huge class of hyper-active alternative ed high school kids.  I didn't have a clue what he was going to do. The rowdy group had the bored vibe of caged cats.  I was sure this crowd of edgy and angry adolescents would tear us apart. 

Just as I introduced Toby, he whispered in my ear, "Tell them I don't speak any English."  I followed his lead and got out of the way.

Toby proceed to emote with sounds and facial gestures and within seconds he captured everyone's attention. He spoke gibberish but it didn't matter. This guy knew how to communicate with sound alone, words were an afterthought. The kids were riveted by the odd man capering and grunting in front of them.

By the end of the assembly everyone was up moving and chanting,  found poetry echoed off the walls and we were all swimming in Toby's unique tone patterns.  Sometimes it's good to be in alternative ed!

To really appreciate Toby's work you need to hear and see him. This new video Synesthesia Part 1 will give you a taste. 

Synesthesia part 1 from Terrence Vaughn on Vimeo.

Choral Reading, Toby Style

Several years later on one of his return visits, Toby taught me a great method that ties perfectly into the concepts of rhythm and sentence fluency. After a writing session, Toby had each student pick a single line from their work. Then he called 6-8 volunteers to come to the front of the room. They lined up shoulder to shoulder and started to read their lines in order from left to right. The first boy read. Then the second. Suddenly Toby would point back to the first and have him repeat the line. Toby would would mug and gesture and flail his arms like a demented conductor, all to draw more emotion and voice from the reader.

We soon understood that Toby was conducting a word orchestra and hearing special music.

The kids began reading their lines louder or lower, deadpan or angry, happy or weeping. Once the whole group of young ones had read once, Toby layered together a sound poem based on the melodies of repeated lines and varied voice.

Sometimes Toby had the same student read two or three times in a row or come back to one particularly powerful line repeatedly. No one in the chorus knew when they'd be called on and everyone was amazed at the nuances and lunacies that spilled out of it all.

Toby created a wild reader's theater  of word choice, sentence fluency, voice, organization, and ideas all wrapped in a spontaneously generated poem. It was hilarious, energizing,  fun. Everyone loved it.

All of this points to the powerful mix of music, performance, and poetry that supports sentence fluency (and all the other traits as well).

I  used this method myself two or three times a year for the rest of my classroom teaching career. I got so I could conduct a pretty good sound/word poem, but I could never top the Maestro!



Synesthesia part 2 from Terrence Vaughn on Vimeo.

Writing Across the Curriculum - Writing Lesson of the Month Network

• Writing Across the Curriculum - Writing Lesson of the Month Network
  
  
  
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    Writing Lesson Of the Month Network: 16,000 + members and growing!

WritingFix Search Trick

I love to search the Internet.  It's one of my passions. I've got an entire website dedicated to searching and evaluating online resources: http://21cif.com.

Here's a WritingFix search trick: 

Use any search engine or go directly to the WritingFix homepage and use the search box in the upper right hand corner.

Seach term examples:

• writingfix primary
• writingfix elementary
• writingfix middle
• writingfix high school

Second keyword suggestions:

• ideas
• voice
• organization
• word choice
• sentence fluency
• conventions
• tone
• mood
• style
• brainstorming
• grammar
• writing process
• mentor texts
• expository
• narrative
• persuasive
• poetry
• research
• raft
• wac
• science
• social studies
• math
• history
• lesson plans

The WritingFix site is so incredibly deep and rich, you're bound to find something on almost any writing topic.

If you're ever stuck for a good lesson, give it a try!