My Writing Inquiry 2013

Beginning Term 4
There has been an improvement in assessments in writing for this group - moving into solid Level 2. They have been enjoying the shorter writing involved with Poetry, focusing on descriptive language, especially action words. We have had many interruptions due to Term 4 school life so it has been challenging to keep writing going at times although one student is keen to write in his free time! Judith is coming to visit next week so it will be good to share some of the student's latest pieces of writing and start making plans for next year (two students are staying in the Year 5 & 6 team) as we have some Well Below and Below writers coming into our team in 2014. 


3/09/13 - Term 3 Week 6
Judith (RT:Lit) came in today and I "noticed" her working with my target writing group. She was focusing on helping the students look at two pieces of their writing (Term 1 and Term 2 Writing Samples) and gathering their thoughts on how they are progressing. It was great to hear the students speak with 'horror' their lack of capital letters at the beginning of a sentence, spaces where there shouldn't be, one long sentence instead of smaller sentences that make sense.

I was moved by how much they realised they had progressed and the changes that they have made to make their writing 'worth' reading. 
From this discussion Judith introduced "Editing Fans" (Sheena Cameron) and how they might like to use them. A suggestion was made that a copy of the Term 2 sample is made the the students use their new Editing Fans to make more improvements.

Our next step is to look at Super Sentences, building a visual resource for the students to access. I am also keen to include an online version that will be added to the Weekly Reading Must Dos to help other students easily identify what makes a super sentence.

Judith is coming back to visit us again in Week 8 - can't wait for the group to share their Super Sentence Wall with her!

19/08/13 - Term 3 Week 4
Met with Judith (RT:Lit) today about next steps for my focus writing group. She recommended Jeff Anderson's book "Mechanically Inclined" as a fabulous resource that would help me move my students along in their learning. She has suggested I look at   Mentor Sentences:  "A text that can teach a writer about any aspect of the writer's craft." (Jeff Anderson, 2005).  Judith is coming in to model a session with my students in Week 6 where she will be asking the question - What does this author know about writing? This in turn will lead to discussions about expectations of self as a writer and expectations of me as the teacher. By the time Judith models this I will have got lost inside Jeff's book and have some knowledge behind me. 

23/07/13 
In Week 9 of Term 2 Brenda and I were lucky enough to visit Takapuna Primary to visit their Year 5 & 6 teachers focusing in the area of Writing (me) and Reading (Brenda). Our visit was very beneficial as it made me realise that our online learning environment is a powerful way of engaging and motivating students but there is still a place for wall displays, both of examples of writing features (surface and deep) and what good writing looks like. This is something I had neglected in my room thinking that the online examples would suffice - I was wrong. 

We observed a Reciprocal Reading session where a small targeted group of students worked alongside the teacher. One of the students led a session where the focus was on comprehension and vocabulary exploration.
Our second observation was a whole class brainstorming/planning session based around a character description of a Goldie painting. Key areas were identified and this scaffolded the students into developing paragraphs based around key ideas.
Our last session was with Jo (Lead teacher) looking at students self assessing their writing against the National Standards. They had clear criteria to assess against and a coding system that they used to identify and support their findings. I think this would be useful to develop in our classrooms.

Many thanks to Jo, Nikita and Tjiske for welcoming us so warmly and sharing their resources with us!

I shared my discoveries with my students and they were excited to see what I had seen and how we were going to develop our Writing Wall. On the Writing Wall are examples and posters of the various sentence structures, paragraphing, vocabulary, showing not telling and rich descriptions. Included are the main areas of the Writing Progressions as indicated at Level 3 - all nice and large to enable students to easily refer to them.

• Firstly I asked each student to choose the piece of writing they were most proud of and printed this out, displaying it in the classroom. Most choose their cameo writing, including the target students who wrote their cameos as well as their photo writing.
• Next I met with each student, discussed their terms writing and what they were proud of and what their next goal(s) would be. These were recorded on each writing clubs doc.
• From the goal(s) discussed they identified one that they wanted to focus on and placed their name on the appropriate chart on the Writing Wall. A very visual reminder that the students are keen on.
• Placed around the room are the steps involved in producing a piece of writing: Plan, Craft, Proof Read, Rework and Present. The students put their names on the appropriate poster and stand beside it so there is a very visual reminder of what they are focusing on.

Next terms goals!

• Moderate writing from end of Term 2 and update each student's Writing Matrix.
• A key element of Level 3 is paragraphing so I want to focus on developing paragraphing using 4 key areas and 4 points (becomes as minimum of 4 paragraphs).
• Move Target Students onto adding more detail independently. Prompt cards from Judith to be used here.
• Devour Sheena Cameron & Louise Dempsy's "The Writing Book". An awesome new resource that explores all of the key areas in writing.
• 'Notice' another writing session.

12/07/13

Target Group moderation writing.

Each student planned their writing well with a beginning, middle and end identified and key ideas. 

• I was disappointed with J as he wrote one sentence that did not make sense so there has been no movement in his achievement. I will meet with Barbara (his RTLB/SLS teacher) about where to next. 
• L had some great ideas and his writers voice came through strongly. Reworking and correcting spelling are areas he needs to continue focusing on. He is keen to write all the time which is exciting! 
• There was marked improvement in S's writing, this piece made better sense and sequencing was better. She needs to continue to focus on sequencing and adding detail. 
• A's writer's voice came through nicely in his piece as well. He included a simile and tried to write full sentences, an area he has been focusing on. Adding detail and length are A's next steps.

19/06/13
Judith came and 'noticed' how I work with the Wonder Writers (Target group). I found it extremely beneficial to have another set of eyes noticing how the group responded, shared and feedback to each other and myself. From this observation we have identified the next steps - to introduce different planning outlines and develop more independence from the teacher. The students are great at giving each other feedback and building on vocabulary that can be used in their writing.
What has also been happening is a desire to write at other times during the school day, in particular L who has taking the opportunity to 'free write' as much as he can. He is also planning his writing using the Beginning, Middle, End doc and colour coding his writing to match. 
The test will be this week when they have to write an independent piece for moderation as this involves no teacher input or conferencing.

23/05/13 - Some examples so far...
Over the course of the week my focus writing group has worked on their Photo Prompt writing. They need constant reminding to add detail but I am aiming for independence by the end of this term.

You can see where L has added detail to his initial sentence. 

Here we have also written an emotive response.

20/05/13 Writing Year 1-6: An Introductory Workshop

Spent a motivating day with Murray Gadd, a chap who has been involved in developing the English Curriculum Document and Effective Literacy Practice. He shared his experiences and thoughts on what  makes an effective teacher of writing and we observed Murray leading an instructional writing lesson with a group of year 2 students. Murray provided lots of examples of good writing and plenty to think about in terms of our literacy programmes.
Key ideas were

• "Writing is having something to say!"
• "Are we killing writing by brainstorming the same way every time?"
• Knowing what strategies are used at each stage of the writing process.
• Student's must know the purpose, audience and why a particular text has been selected.
• 'Teacher think alouds' - allowing the students to see inside the writer's head.
• Having enthusiasm, being animated, use of props, and being ENGAGED.
• The importance of questioning, prompting and sharing.
• Building fluency and stamina in writing.
• Write on a range of meaningful, authentic and purposeful writing topics.

My next steps for working with my target students, building on from Judith's visit and Murray's course are:

• follow the 'Fact, Emotion and Dialogue' planning frame over the week
• orally share more examples of good sentences with rich vocabulary
• to simplify the process: idea - possible content (who is the audience) - organisation - vocabulary - feedback. 
• when re-reading, reflecting and re-crafting: is the meaning clear? Need more? Less?  Impact - is it the best word?  Courtesies for the reader - spelling, punctuation and grammar

15/05/13
Writing Clubs have kicked off after a bit of planning, linking and sourcing resources. Thank goodness for Google Docs and the ability to link students' writing, examples, other online writing resources to their writing club doc. The students are responding well to a group meeting and sharing their writing with others to comment on. Our class focus is giving quality feedback rather than 'that's nice' or 'I like the font you chose'. Identifying good examples of feedback using the criteria and example provided will help them develop as writers as well.

19/03/13
Two things happened today - I spent part of my CRT observing Karla in action - facilitating writing club groups and meeting with Judith again. I realise that I have been expecting far too much from my target students and I need to slow down, handing responsibility back to them. I'm not doing anyone any favours by working with them as much as I have been - they have relied on me to push them along and have not owned their writing.

The way in which Karla organises her writing programme places the onus on her students to know their strengths and areas needing support. She provides a supported environment for her students to grow but also places an expectation on them to take responsibility for their goals and 'step up'. Her programme also gives her students space to breathe in their writing.

My meeting with Judith reinforced what I had seen happening in Karla's space. My goal is for my target students to WRITE! To do this I need to back off. I need my target students to think about what they are doing and how it will help their learning.
It will be quite a change for me, going from working intensely with this group on a daily basis  to meeting with them 2-3 times during the week for a maximum of 30 minutes at a time.

Monday - Teacher modeling/ shared writing with a brainstorm and opening sentence (on Docs)
Tuesday - Students work independently on their writing, thinking about their goals.
Wednesday - Share "I wonder..." photo (Jamie McKenzie) where imaginative writing just happens.
Thursday - Target students choose which piece they want to ready for publishing.
Friday - Publish (Blog or Paper)

Judith is coming in the first week of Term 2 to model a session with my target students looking at expanding ideas and sentence beginnings.

Later in the term I want my target students to develop being "Critical Friend". I plan to use the exemplars but presented in a different format and ask the students:
'This writer needs your help...

• "What do you notice?"
• "What feedback can you give?"

to help them become a critical friend to themselves.


11/03/13
Had another go with using a picture, drawing sequence boxes below and recording our brainstorm ideas. We did this together on the small whiteboard and used our netbooks to take a photo of our brainstorm. The students then inserted the photo onto their doc, instantly having personal access. 
The brainstorm went well with some great vocab. coming from the group and connections made to the own experiences, but when it came to writing on their doc, momentum was stalled as they deleted more than they wrote. Am wondering if I should go back to using books??

• Have another meeting with Judith next week. I would like her to model a writing session with this group so I can see how I can move them beyond one sentence...

03/03/13
Met with Judith Woodham (26/02/13)
Shared the target students (well below and below) samples I had collected with Judith. Felt that they had been assessed correctly and provided the data needed to sort next steps.
Well below:

• Oral language is of importance and we need to model and practice retelling; highlighting beginning, middle and end, using prompt cards to help organise thinking.
• Follow a planning guide - linking story ideas with beginning, middle, end. Can use Goldilocks and the 3 Bears as a starting point.
• Set up character description/setting links from story plan for students to access when they are stuck for ideas. These can be developed as a group.
• Once beginning, middle and end established students can move onto a Story Web where each idea becomes a paragraph starter.
• Link reading and writing by unpacking a story - Junior Journal stories are good resources.
• Extend vocabulary through oral language and text exploration.

Below:

• Focus on the sequence of ideas (similar to above - beginning, middle and end)
• Look at models, unpack and work on shared writing.
• Support learning/understanding with reading text. Use colour coding (counters or coloured strips) to identify beginning (red), middle (green) and end (blue) when reading text.

We will meet fortnightly to discuss progress, students’ writing and next steps.

From the first session (26/02)

• Using a picture glued onto a large sheet of paper, 5 boxes were drawn underneath where I recorded their ideas drawing out specific vocab (camouflaged, panic). From here I wrote the sentences the students’ came up with; modeling sounding out of words, re reading to check grammar and sense and sequence, referring to the boxes where we had recorded ideas. This session went really well and I will continue doing shared writing for another week before moving onto individual story webs.

Week 4
Disappointing first piece of writing for school moderation especially from Year 5 Target group from 2012 (Year 6 now).Possible reasons are ‘Summer Slide, writing on Netbook or Oral Language. With the Target group (2012) writing was completed on paper so students could not delete text and have nothing to show. Focused on “Think it, Say it, Write it, Read it” for most of last year but there appears to be no evidence of the thought processes in this piece of writing. Levels begin at 1(ii)
Questions to ask:

• At what part of the process are these kids having difficulty?
• What sorts of ways are they using language to describe what they see?
• What is brainstorming?
• Record of Oral Language?
• Is this habitual yet?
• Work one on one?  Common problem? or  individual?

Ideas to try:

• Record of Oral Language
• Use a junior reader, remove text....tell the story, compare to text
• Check out David Wiesner
• RTLit - Judith
• RTLB - Kris

Here at Ngatea Primary School we are exploring our own Inquiry for the year. 
My Inquiry will be linked to a specific area of my teaching; my Writing programme. Publishing my journey through my Blog will provide me with the opportunity to explore, test and reflect.... and hopefully receive feedback from those beyond my immediate environment. 
I want to provide a range of activities, experiences and resources to improve the standard of writing in my class.
Things I want to cover within my Inquiry are:

• Engagement of students - what approach will 'hook' them? Most effective?
• Referral to RT:Lit (Judith) for additional assistance/direction/resources/ideas.
• Resources - Teaching, Learning Buddies/Mentors, online support/activities, examples of Powerful Writing, Blogs for publishing.
• Providing quality feedback, making sure students are familiar with the NPS Writing Matrix, Next Steps.

I need to make sure that my PD Inquiry links with the Ngatea Primary School Appraisal intent:

• Appraisal will be closely linked to staff Professional Development & Learning programmes. Identified needs of staff will be acknowledged and receive support.
• Appraisal will be personalised to meet the needs of the Staff member:meeting a need, setting goals, following an interest, anytime, anyhow, any place, any pace.

• The Appraisal will be purposeful (aligned to student outcomes) and authentic (relevant to teaching programmes).
• Appraisals will be self-directed: Staff member will

o   Identify own strengths and weaknesses, and how he/she best learns,

o   Define the purpose and goals of Appraisal,

o   Seek advice and support from others,

o   Evaluate a range of possible strategies,

o   Develop own action plan,

o   Ultimately take the responsibility of completing the cycle.

• Be curious! Question, explore and develop practice.
• Staff will model Lifelong Learning, which is not necessary improving academic qualifications. Lifelong Learning is also about gaining a better understanding of pedagogy, including the trends in Education.
• Appraisal is about being confident risk takers. Staff need to seek and trial new strategies to maximise student outcomes. Not all strategies will succeed - and this should be be embraced in the NPS appraisal environment.
• Staff will utilise technology and online environments to develop the Appraisal System.
• The NPS Appraisal System will embrace Enjoyment! and Fun!
• The NPS Appraisal System will acknowledge that all staff must lead abalanced life - there is “life after school”

Collegial support will be an essential part of staff development.