Common Core Writing Conference

December 11, 2012
Even though the conference was advertised for K-12, I felt that the content was most helpful to middle and high school teachers.

Some key points from my notes:

Half of our students will move during their school-age years and the CC will provide more consistency in instruction.

Teachers should not be preparing students to be novelists. They should be preparing them for college and careers.

Professors are finding students are not prepared for college.

The CC’s emphasis will include nonfiction reading and writing.

Students need to write across the curriculum.

It is reasonable to ask students to complete on-demand writing, as long as they have prior knowledge of the topic.

Teachers should vary demands of writing for audience, purpose, format and discipline.

Teachers should produce powerful rubrics with students.

Correct use of conventions and grammar bring credibility to the message.

My district-wide 2nd grade team has been spending a significant amount of our team-time building rubrics and selecting assessments for the three types of writing.

During our break time I asked Fred Wolff, one of our presenters, his thoughts on K-2 rubrics and assessments. He was rather shocked to find we have been spending time developing rubrics and assessments in a K-2 school. In fact, during lunch he approached me and again asked why my team was focusing on assessment. He gave me his email address and wanted to Skype with my team. He suggested that we spend more of our time together learning how to be better teachers of writing and looking at student work. He said we could use students’ everyday writing to determine the strengths and weaknesses of each student. He suggested that in a K-2 school we should be using a Developmental Writing Continuum and anchor papers showing a progression of writing skills, to assess student work.

During the afternoon session we looked at the sample writing papers from Appendix C. When Kathy Henrikson asked one of the presenters (Lynna Garber Kalna) about the high quality of the student writing samples, she suggested that they were most likely completed with some teacher input during a writing conference with the student. She did not think they were a product of a student assessment. (The wording from the The K-2 standards, under the heading of Production and Distribution: with guidance and support from adults and peers, students will focus on a topic and strengthen writing as needed by revising and editing.)

One of the presenters explained that most adults ask for someone’s input when they want to produce quality pieces of writing, so it is reasonable to ask a teacher or peer for their input during revising and editing.

The afternoon session also provided information on how to increase the use of technology during writing instruction and production. The standards ask students to use a variety of digital tools to produce, and publish writing, including in collaboration with peers.

My take-away:
I typically have my Title I students write daily, however, I only vary the audience and purpose one day a week. My new focus will put an emphasis on varying their audience and purpose. During writing conferences, I will continue to focus on my students’ production of writing clear and concise messages. I will also remind them that correct use of conventions and grammar will bring credibility to their message.