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Revising Checklist-English & Spanish (1)

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Ways to Implement Reader Response in Your Classroom (2)

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Monolingual and Multilingual Perspective on Development of Writing (2)

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Multilinguals perceive the world differently than monolinguals. When emergent bilinguals read, write, learn, and communicate, they draw from linguistic repertoires that are rich in a variety of linguistic features. Students' unique bilingual perspectives must be recognized and celebrated by teachers. In the literacy classroom, teachers must design instruction in ways that encourage students to use their entire linguistic repertoires and highlight their bilingualism as an asset.

In discussing texts, teachers can develop students' identities as bilingual readers and writers by asking a range of questions and setting up activities that bring to the surface the very aspects of bilingual students' identities and experiences that are often left out of the classroom. Setting up opportunities for students to talk about how they bring their unique bilingual readings to a text changes the conversation and brings forth new understandings. This means that students have more opportunities to take ownership of their reading and writing experiences.

The writing process of bilingual students is also enriched when they use multiple modes of language (reading, writing, listening, and speaking), and their full linguistic repertoire to navigate it. It is critical that students use their bilingualism in the writing process, as well as a literary device in their writing.

Click here to access " A translanguaging pedagogy for writing: A CUNY-NYSIEB guide for educators ".

Here are five principles that can guide teachers in designing an environment that fosters students' identities as bilingual readers and writers.

1. Start from students' language practices and bilingual readings of text

No matter the structures of the classroom, teachers can make space for linguistic flexibility when reading and writing with bilingual students. Teachers can begin by modeling how to use their bilingualism to make sense of texts.

Regardless of the language of the text, it is important to encourage students to use their full linguistic repertoire at all times to engage with texts and to provide opportunities for students to bring their bilingual experiences into their analyses of texts, as well as in their writing. For example, when encountering an aphorism, teachers could discuss whether it still makes sense when translated to a different language and then have students share aphorisms with a similar meaning from their home languages. When students write a narrative, they can use dialogue that reflects the language practices of the characters.

It is also fundamental to organize reading experiences so that they are more student-led and collaborative. Since language is so tied to who we are (and who families and communities are), this flexibility also means that students may feel more comfortable sharing parts of themselves and their experiences as they read.
To bring students' language practices into their literacy experiences:

Encourage students to articulate their bilingual readings of texts

Model how a bilingual analysis of texts can allow for more profound enjoyment of texts

Remind students that they can leverage their bilingualism to enjoy a wider selection of texts

Develop students' competence to choose when to use specific linguistic resources

Foster a culture of inquiry, authenticity, and reflection in the classroom

2. Choose Texts Thoughtfully

To foster students' bilingual reading identities, it is essential that students encounter culturally, linguistically, and personally relevant texts. They also need to be exposed to texts that explore and represent a variety of cultural and linguistic experiences. These might include texts that were originally written in the target language, books that contain both English and the language other than English (LOTE), and books that use translanguaging in a variety of languages. Bilingual authors can be students' mentors who teach them how to use their bilingualism to enrich their writing.

Here are some readings that could help educators select appropriate books for their classrooms: https://www.cuny-nysieb.org/translanguaging-resources/culturally-relevant-books-and-resources/

3. Leverage students' metalinguistic & multilingual awareness

It is fundamental to provide opportunities for students to think and talk about language and how it is used. Teachers can start by having students reflect on what they observe about language use in their communities in order to make connections to how authors use language. It is critical that teachers also model questions that encourage students to think about how languages are valued in society.

In addition, as children read and write, they can explore the relationships between languages (Chinese, Spanish, Arabic, Bengali, English). Fostering metalinguistic awareness helps children to develop an understanding of and an ability to talk about language, both within and across language systems. It improves their ability to compare languages in terms of words and sentence structures, as well as their capacity to develop their conceptual knowledge and skills.

For example, teachers can place multilingual versions of texts side by side and ask questions that hone students' metalinguistic awareness and linguistic flexibility.

When reading texts that use translanguaging as a literary device, it is essential to model the kinds of questions that a reader might ask to prompt students to think about the author's choices and to think about how they can use language.

4. Go beyond the text through linguistic and cultural extensions

It is important to encourage students to re-envision texts in ways that align with their bilingual and bicultural realities. In order to do this, teachers should ask students to re-imagine texts using their own language practices and local knowledge (i.e., alternative endings, new points of views, etc.).

They also should provide opportunities to re-present texts (Walqui, 2006) in new genres, using new characters and voices. The process of re-presenting a text requires that students analyze the text and add their own meanings and interpretations as they extend it to create something new. During this process, it is fundamental to encourage students to flexibly use multimodal forms of communication so that they can enrich their re-presentation by using images, sounds, music, and any other semiotic devices that are part of their everyday lives.

5. Foster Bilingual Orgullo (Pride)

At the heart of developing bilingual reading and writing identities is the need to emphasize that being bilingual is a wonderful thing-within and beyond the school setting. In the classroom, teachers should regularly remind students that their bilingual perspectives give them an advantage in reading and writing. Educators must stress how, as bilingual readers, students have an advantage in using metalinguistic strategies to analyze text and, as bilingual writers, they can use their languages as literary devices.

Learning about bilingual authors and their journeys can set the stage to explore students' bilingual and bicultural identities in a way that leads to a deeper understanding of and pride in their own bilingualism.

For more information about Latino authors, see The CUNY-NYSIEB Guide to Translanguaging in Latino/a Literature.

Acknowledgments

This CUNY-NYSIEB resource was created by Gladys Aponte and Laura Ascenzi Moreno. Ofelia García, Kathryn Fangsrud Carpenter, Cecilia Espinosa, Zoila Morell, Kate Seltzer, Ivana Espinet, and Maite Sánchez, served as advisors to the authors. We would like to give special thanks to the teachers and administrators who provided feedback on this resource.

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Developing Students' Identities as Bilingual Readers and Writers

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Multilinguals perceive the world differently than monolinguals. When emergent bilinguals read, write, learn, and communicate, they draw from linguistic repertoires that are rich in a variety of linguistic features. Students' unique bilingual perspectives must be recognized and celebrated by teachers.

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Tool -- The Composing Process in Your Classroom (2)

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Using Mentor Texts to Motivate and Support Student Writers

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Providing students with examples of good writing is vital. Here are tips for using mentor texts in the classroom and ideas on where you can find it.

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Our reflections are the making of deeper meaning and richer understandings. Our reflections are our dreams, our ideas, our questions, our initiatives, our visions - our journeys of lifelong learning and teaching. Schwartz & Bone 1995

Reader Response stresses the importance of the reader's role in the construction of meaning. Readers actively create their own meaning from texts and express their individual responses and understandings. When responding, students are encouraged to reflect on what they bring to the text as readers. This includes experiences, knowledge, emotions, and concerns.

Choosing Texts for Response

Any text that touches the reader in such a way as to evoke a response can be used. This includes literature, short stories, illustrated picture books, poetry, films, photographs, etc. Sometimes the teacher will select the text for reader response, and sometimes students will respond to their own personal choices.

You might look for :

themes and issues that resonate with students

beautiful language

compelling characters

well-crafted plots

well-written nonfiction

evocative images

multiple layers of meaning

Illustrated Picture Books are excellent for eliciting thoughtful responses. When guiding students to deeper responses the best picture books work well because they have universal appeal both in the quality of the images and their interplay with outstanding text.

Reader Response Strategies

When readers respond to a text they weave their personal ideas, feelings, thoughts, and experiences together with the words, images and ideas in the text. There is no one correct response or one 'right' answer but as readers have opportunities to talk with other readers and to reflect on what they are thinking, initial responses deepen and new understandings are uncovered.

Many teachers have students keep response journals. As students write a variety of reflective responses to some of the texts they are reading, they become better readers. Even students who struggle with reading and writing are able to make meaning of texts by recording their thinking in journals.

Response journals help readers :

explore their feelings

articulate and extend their own ideas and knowledge

clarify their understanding of the text

become actively engaged with their reading

Journals can include a variety of entry possibilities such as :

Students can also respond to texts through :

Drama, role playing

Art

Music

Photography

Technology e.g., digital storytelling, book trailers, etc.

The Importance of the Read-Aloud

Reading aloud to students should continue throughout the grades. It has been identified as the most important activity for building the knowledge required to become a successful reader.

First and foremost reading aloud provides an enjoyable shared reading experience- and just might turn some of our reluctant readers on to the fact that reading really is worth doing.

It is a way to introduce students to a broad range of authors and genres they might not discover on their own.

Students get to listen to wonderful texts beyond their independent reading level. This means that they are hearing more complex text structures, more sophisticated literary devices and vocabulary than they would meet through their own reading.

Reading aloud and the discussion that surrounds the reading builds background knowledge and may encourage students to continue reading and researching.

During a read-aloud a teacher can target particular reading skills and strategies to meet the needs of her students.

Adapted from Steven L. Layne.

Additional Resources

Wilhelm, Jeffrey D. Not for Wimps ! Using Drama to Enrich the Reading of YA Literature. (1998)

Some teachers will enjoy the wider variety of responses that are described in 91 Ways to Respond to Literature

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Our reflections are the making of deeper meaning and richer understandings. Our reflections are our dreams, our ideas, our questions, our initiatives, our visions - our journeys of lifelong learning and teaching. Schwartz & Bone 1995 Reader Response stresses the importance of the reader's role in the construction of meaning.

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Community is defined by Merriam Webster as:

a group of people who live in the same area (such as a city, town, or neighborhood)

a group of people who have the same interests, religion, race, etc.

a group of nations

When I think about developing a community of writers I consider how we will learn together as a classroom of writers and how we will learn and collaborate beyond our classroom. Being a part of a community builds confidence, inspires new ideas, and teaches perspective.
What is a Writing Community?
A writing community is a group of writers who are working together to learn more about the life of being a writer. They work to understand how writers get ideas, how they capture small moments, how writers collaborate, and how they share their work, just to name a few.

Through reading and collaboration, writers find fresh ideas, give and receive feedback, and study the work of authors. Writers are free to find their own process and techniques with the support of their community.
Writing Community Decisions?
Writing communities work with common beliefs about what it means to be a writer, how we take care of ourselves, our space and each other. As a classroom community we spend time discussing our needs as writers and we consider the needs of our peers. In our first six weeks of school we make time to consider each of the following in developing our community:

Time-How much time do writers need to think, plan, compose, and share?

Space- What type of space do you prefer to work in?

Noise level- What is and is not an acceptable volume level during writing time?

Sharing- Who is my audience? Who do I choose to share with? Why do I share my work?

Use and sharing of tools- What tools help to best create my message?

Common language- understanding and using common terminology to improve communication and understanding.

Common and Individual goals- class goals and Individual goals to improve skills and practice as a writer.

Mindset- Work ethic- (We do hard things and we work to solve problems.)

Conferring- Am I ready to conference? Who will I confer with, why?

Celebrations- How can I celebrate my process, my work and when do I choose to celebrate?

Establishing a Community of Writers
As we learn about ourselves, our peers, and our community we begin to establish common expectations for our classroom. We discuss, chart, and role play our expectations. We discuss what our expectations look like and what they don't look like. I have found that contrasting the behaviors we expect helps students not only develop a clear understanding of what is appropriate, but it also helps the students understand why these expectations are important. I often create T charts with the students. One side of the T-chart is labeled "Writers DO... and the other side Writers Do Not..." This chart provides students with a visual reminder of our conversation to refer to when needed.

During the first six weeks we also learn what it means to be collaborative and HOW to be a listener. I have found students are frequently directed to listen, but few are TAUGHT what it means to be a listener. We begin each day with a morning meeting . We gather in a circle where each and every student is visible to everyone. We begin by passing good morning greetings around the circle. As students share their greetings, we practice looking at the person you are speaking to. We learn to use voices that can be heard around the circle and to look at others as they are speaking, even when it isn't our turn.

Collaboration requires a deeper level of listening. Listeners are required to think about what the speaker is saying, to connect their thoughts, and ask questions when we are confused. We learn to comment back to the speaker, maintaining the topic of conversation. These skills are difficult for adults, but essential in a community of learners so we take time to define them, teach them, and practice them every day.
Knowing the Writers in the Community
Collaboration is just one element of our writing community. Knowing each other as writers is also important. Knowing the interest of our peers, their writing preferences, and the voices of the writers around us enables us to bond as a community.

At the start of the year, each student creates a paper doll adorned with pictures, uniforms, costumes, buttons, ribbons, glitter or whatever families choose. We refer to these paper dolls as "mini-me's". Each item placed on the paper doll represents an interest of the child. As these are returned to school the students share the doll and tell the group all about themselves and their interests. As the child is sharing with the class, I record the conversation in VoiceThread. I snap a photo of the paper doll and record the sharing so we can refer to the conversation and ,if desired,leave a comment asking for more information or to share a common interest. Students love revisiting this recording throughout the year and will often leave new comments as the year progresses. Once mini-me's are shared they are hung on the wall in the room. As kids are writing they can refer to their mini me's or those of their peers for writing ideas and writers with shared interest.

In our quest to learn about the writers in our community, we also create a border for our writing display board. While in our morning meeting I begin to ask seemingly random questions about popular hobbies or interest in our room. I might ask, "Who in our class likes to cook?" Several hands shoot into the air. I ask them to tell us about cooking and other friends begin to connect and share their stories, after a while the room is abuzz with cooking stories. Now I ask, "Is this something you could write a story about?" The group nods with eyes wide and big toothless smiles! I hand the group a sentence strip labeled "cooking" and ask them to draw pictures of cooking, filling the sentence strip. Once the sentence strip is finished I place the strip on the border the writing board. Now we have a group of kids with a common interest as well as a reminder of our cooking friends and ideas to write about!

Members of writing communities share common language and goals. In our writing community we build language and goals through minilessons, books we share, and classroom experiences. Sharing books, authors, and characters leads to conversations unique to our community. These common experiences and conversations bond our class around story. Writers feel accepted and feel free to take risks in writing and are brave to share with others. These bonds allow writers to seek and accept feedback in a way that will support writing growth.

Because writers of a community are inspired by the work of other authors we make time to learn about authors we admire. When possible we reach out to them on Twitter, visit their web pages to learn about the authors' work space, how they get their ideas, the tools they use, decisions they make, and other interesting information they may share on their websites.
Why a Writing Community is Important
As a member of a writing community, students work with common language and understanding. Students know the writers within the community and feel comfortable asking for feedback and offering feedback that serves to push the writer, not to flatter them. Writers within a community understand the importance of their writing community and work to maintain its existence. Because the students value their writing community, they also feel accepted and free to try new ideas, take risks, and push themselves to be their personal best. They feel encouraged internally and externally.

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Essential Thoughts- Building a Community of Writers

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Writers within a community understand the importance of their writing community and work to maintain its existence. Because the students value their writing community, they also feel accepted and free to try new ideas, take risks, and push themselves to be their personal best. They feel encouraged internally and externally.

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Rationale

The kindergarten teacher begins interactive writing in her class by writing "Today is ..." on a piece of chart paper. She asks for a volunteer to take the pen and write the day, which she has written on a sentence strip and clipped to the top of the chart. Michael raises his hand and the teacher offers him the pen. He comes forward proudly to take it and carefully starts to write "M" for Monday.

The teacher shares the writing experience with young students on chart paper or a whiteboard that is large enough for the whole class to see. Students participate by giving the teacher ideas and also by "taking the pen" and writing words, phrases, or sentences with the teacher's guidance. Older students can participate in shared and collaborative writing as well (Button, Johnson, & Fergerson, 1996; McCarrier, Pinnell, & Fountas, 2000).

Reading literature is an excellent way to initiate interactive writing in the class, and the teacher can continue using literature as the class does interactive writing with any new book that is read throughout the year. The teacher can begin with what is happening that day in class, or a holiday, or a special event in the school. Topics could also be any idea of interest to the students or any interesting event that has occurred: a new class pet, a special activity, a guest speaker that visited the class, a field trip the class went on, a change in the weather (e.g., it rained, snowed, or it was sunny for a change), or something special happened to a child (e.g., they took a trip, have a family visitor, or participated in an after school activity).

This strategy could be modeled on the first day of school, and it could continue to be used throughout the school year daily or several times a day, with other books read aloud during the week or other topics of interest to the students. Mini-lessons can be used to teach writing conventions in the authentic writing context of interactive writing.

Strategy

Read literature that introduces a topic for discussion and interactive writing and do mini-lessons on the conventions of writing as the need for them occurs during interactive writing. For example, for kindergarten, model how to (1) capitalize the first letter or the first word in a sentence and (2) indent the first sentence of a paragraph using the title as the first sentence.
The first day of school is ...
Ask students for ideas to complete the sentence. Remind them of the ideas they shared in response to the reader response questions and prompts. When the class agrees on how to complete the sentence, ask for a volunteer to come to the chart and take the pen to complete the sentence. If a child volunteers and is not yet writing, take dictation for them and write the words as they speak them. If a child is not yet writing but knows the alphabet, spell the words letter-by-letter as they write or write the words in pencil and have the child trace over them with a marking pen. Continue writing the story this way. Ask the students for ideas and for volunteers to take the pen.

Other mini-lessons on the conventions of writing can be modeled during interactive writing as they occur in context.

Older students can practice interactive writing by sharing the pen and collaborating with each other on letters, memos, invitations, or any kind of narrative story, as well as on reports in the content areas.

Grade-level modifications

K-2nd Grade

Read aloud a book about school. Off to Kindergarten by Tony Johnson can be used for a kindergarten class. In this rhyming text, a little boy names all of the things he wants to bring to school on the first day of kindergarten, from a sandbox to a chair for his stuffed bear, until his mother assures him that his teacher will have everything he needs. For first or second grade students, use Hamsters, Shells, and Spelling Bees: School Poems in a collection edited by Lee Bennett Hopkins (2008) in his I Can Read poetry anthology series. Lead a discussion using aesthetic reader response questions and prompts: How do you feel about the first day of school? How do you feel about school? What do you wish will happen in school this year?

Tell students they will all share their ideas about school through interactive writing. Students can sit on the rug and form a semicircle facing an easel with a piece of paper on it. Ask students for title suggestions for the piece of interactive writing (e.g., "Today at School," "School," "The First Day of School," or another title that emerges from the discussion of the book). Discuss the title choice with the students and either write the title at the top of the chart paper or whitcboard or ask for a child to volunteer to take the pen (marking pen) and write the title. Provide scaffolding to support the student writer with spelling, capitalization, punctuation, or other writing conventions.

For days other than the first day of school, here arc some topics and sentence starters:

"Today is Monday" (or any other day of the week)

"Today is President's Day" (or any other holiday)

"It's a Rainy Day" (or any other weather)

"We're Going to the Zoo" (or any other field trip)

Plus Technology

Through the use of a Smart Board, take dictation and project students' interactive writing on a screen. Revisions can be made to the writing as students watch the changes made on the screen, and mini-lessons may be modeled as well. The interactive writing can also be in the form of an e-mail message that can be sent anywhere-to another teacher's classroom, other school personnel (e.g., the principal or the librarian), or to family members with e-mail access.

Recommended children's books

3rd Grade-5th Grade

Students can write interactively in response to a read aloud book such as Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing (Blume, 1972). Letters can be written interactively by the whole class to someone who visited the class as a guest speaker, to the author of a book they enjoyed, to another class to join them for an activity, to the principal or other school staff in appreciation for something, to a student who is at home for medical reasons, or to the editor of a newspaper on an issue of concern to students. Students can also form groups and write stories, narratives, or short reports in the content areas interactively.

Students can form more than one group but agree to write on the same topic. For example, in response to a chapter book like Ramona the Pest (Cleary, 1968), more advanced primary students could plan to write their own memoir of school patterned after the book. They could identify a main character together but write separate chapters on different topics such as friends, recess, favorite school subjects, least favorite school subjects, or most embarrassing moments. The groups could meet periodically as a whole and discuss the continuity among the chapters and revise accordingly.

Writing conventions appropriate for Grades 3 through 5, or as needed, can be taught in mini-lessons during interactive writing.

Indenting paragraphs

Punctuation: Hyphens, colons, parentheses, or commas in a series of adjectives

Strong verbs, specific nouns, and colorful adjectives and adverbs

Complete and incomplete sentences

Contractions

Pluralization rules

Plural possessives

Quotation marks and underlining in published titles

Homonyms

Onomatopoeia

Recommended children's books

Differentiated instruction

English language learners

Interactive writing makes the writing process visual to the whole class, and English learners who are not yet writing can contribute by illustrating the interactive writing. Interactive writing is context-embedded instruction that taps the prior knowledge of students. It also involves social interaction and cooperation among students. If an English learner is not yet writing, they could "hold the space" between words as another student or the teacher writes the words.

English learners see writing modeled and can copy sentences into their own writing in journals or stories. Use the interactive writing strategy with small groups of English learners, using primary language support as well.

Needs-based groups can be formed and can write interactively in a variety of ways (e.g., responding to a book read aloud or any previously read text, or writing conventions specifically needed by the group).

Struggling students

Students participate by verbally sharing ideas for interactive writing. Take dictation for students, either by writing their ideas for them or by writing them in pencil first and having the student write over them with a marking pen.

Do interactive writing in a small group of three to five struggling readers and writers while other students write in journals or write stories. The same procedure would be used, but each child would have more opportunity to participate and there would be more time to assess and differentiate instruction for each one.

Assessment

Initialing Interactive Writing: Show each child how to initial their writing on the chart. This provides a record of their progress in writing and a means to identify strengths and needs of each child over time. In small groups or writing conferences, provide mini-lessons for each child's assessed needs.

Interactive Writing Record: Use a loose-leaf notebook to keep a record of each child's writing during interactive writing. Word process and print out a facsimile of the form that follows, 3-hole punch it, and include it in the notebook. Use alphabet tabs for last names, and put each child's record under the letter of their last name. Periodically, go through the interactive writing pieces and note the following for each child on their sheet of paper:

Resources

McCarrier, A., Pinnell, G. S., and Fountas, I. C. (2000). Interactive writing: How language and literacy come together. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann

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Interactive writing makes the writing process visual to the whole class. Reading literature is an excellent way to initiate interactive writing in the class, and the teacher can continue using literature as the class does interactive writing with any new book that is read throughout the year.

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Explore annotated writing samples from kids in pre-K through grade 3, and see next-step suggestions for instruction. You'll also learn about writing milestones and different purposes of writing - along with ideas for how to make room for writing during the day.

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"Lift the ball with your right hand, and pretend your right knee is tied to your right elbow." Placing the orange ball uncertainly in my right hand, I glanced over at Mr. Brown, my new basketball coach. Fixing his gaze squarely upon me, he added, "You can do this." It was my 8th grade year, and unexpectedly I had been selected for the varsity basketball team. Somewhere during the first week of practice, I found myself working at one of the side baskets of the court with my coach practicing lay-ups - a basic fundamental of basketball. Working with him one-on-one, my coach was talking me through and showing me - step by step- how to make a lay-up.

In the writing workshop, this approach of working with a single student to support his or her writing repertoire is not much different from the individual coaching I received from Mr. Brown those many years ago.
A Writing Conference: What is it?
One of the important goals of writing workshop is to slow down the process of writing so that feedback is possible the process, not just at the end. Feedback has been identified as having a significant effect on student achievement (for more on this, read ). According to Peter Johnston, the purposes of feedback are to: (1) improve conceptual understanding, and (2) increase strategic options while developing stamina, resilience, and motivation (Johnston, 2012).

One effective way to provide feedback to learners is through conferring. Now, I hear many teachers, when discussing conversations with individual writers, use the word "conferencing." But recalling a workshop I took with author Carl Anderson , I remember him pointing out that when we sit and talk with students about their writing, it is called conferring , not conferencing. Conferring is a means of both assessing and providing targeted individualized instruction to students in a way that no whole class instruction can. It is a means by which teachers can quickly gather information about their students to determine where they currently fall on a continuum of learning, and then begin to help them move to the next level of performance.

Conferences are a powerful way to support each student's growth and independence because teachers are able to meet students right where they are and provide instruction that will potentially have the biggest impact.

During the independent time of writing workshop, we want to pull up next to our writers to confer with them about their writing. A writing conference is a one-to-one interaction between an individual writer and her teacher, and it is arguably the single most effective way to help a student improve. During this time, we as teachers assess the level to which a student is currently writing and select one way we can provide feedback that supports the student in lifting the level of his writing. As teachers, we always want to keep in mind that we are working to teach the writer, not fix the writing.

This approach is starkly in contrast to sitting down to fix up what the student has written, or tell the writer everything she needs to add in order to "make it better." During a writing conference, we are not telling students how to "fix" their writing or what they should or should not do to make this particular piece better. Rather, we are aiming to teach them a transferable strategy they might use in any similar piece of writing.

It is also in contrast to sitting down to be an editor. As author Carl Anderson pointed out in his fall 2016 workshop in New York City,

The old thinking was that if teachers are editors, correct everything, and punish students, they will learn how to write; the fallacy there is that teachers already know how to write. It's not fair to be their editor. We need to be their teacher. So we teach one thing in a conference. We assess and teach one thing (Teachers College Reading & Writing Project Saturday Reunion, fall 2016) .

While the approach of editor may serve to make the particular piece of writing better, it does little to support the student in becoming a stronger, more independent writer. Therefore, we focus our conferring energies on the writers themselves.
The Architecture of a Conference: What to Do
While there is indeed no one way to conduct a writing conference, we have found it helpful to follow a few steps to increase the odds that each conference yields an impactful result. The steps of a Research-Decide-Teach ("RDT Conference"), often called an "architecture," are outlined below. There are other types of conferences as well, such as a compliment conference, but the RDT Conference is a good starting place.

Research- One of the goals of the research phase of a writing conference is to nudge kids to talk at a higher level about their writing. Initially, conferences often begin by asking the student an open-ended question, a question that gets them to say a lot about their writing. I'll often initiate a conference by asking, "What can you tell me about the work you're doing as a writer today?" And then listen. Often, students will need further prompting, so we may need to ask a few assessment questions to instigate more talk on the part of the writer, nudging them to provide us with more information about their work (see suggestions below). If we are returning to a student, perhaps from earlier in the week or last week, we want to be sure to check our conferring notes to follow-through on previous conferences. To do this, we might say, "Last time we met we worked on____... how's that going for you?" or "Would you show me a few places where you tried it?"

In addition to listening, the research phase is also a time to read of the student's work. You don't have to read all of it! Frequently, it pays to read the part about which you and the student are conversing. While reading, look for how the student is doing or progressing in the area of writing upon which your discussion is focused.

Compliment- After researching students, we provide them with feedback. And we begin with a compliment. This compliment should be authentic, specific, and serve to acknowledge one thing the writer is doing you would love for them to continue doing. Now, they may not be doing it elegantly or perfectly! But perhaps, they are on what Peter Elbow calls "the edge" of doing it. So compliment them on it!

One way to light someone up is to acknowledge them for something. And a compliment should do both: Light the student up (try to make them smile!) and acknowledge them for a writerly move they are already demonstrating.

Lucy Calkins once said, "A good compliment can accelerate achievement." And when students know they'll be receiving feedback that is positive, they will be glad to see us sit down next to them.

Teach- Following the compliment, writing workshop teachers will often ask, "Can I teach you something?" At this point, we have silently selected in our teacher minds one thing, one method or move, that would benefit this student in his or her writing. This is often in the form of a tip or strategy that we are now going to take some time to teach the writer. It is important to remember that this tip should be something that is (a) within the writer's zone of proximal development, and (b) transferable to pieces of future writing.

So we begin by stating what the writing move or convention is and explaining it. Many times, I'll rely on two basic steps to teach students during a conference:

(1.) Step One: Use a mentor text - Most of the time, I'll begin by saying, "One thing that helps me..." and I'll show the student by way of my own writing (or sometimes I use another writer's text) what it is I am attempting to teach. During this process, it's important to break down the writing move, convention, or strategy into replicable steps that a student can follow.

(2.) Step Two: Ask the student to try - After teaching the student, ask them to try it in their own writing piece. You may ask them to physically write it in front of you or "write it in the air," which means to say what they write, while not physically writing. This often saves time and allows us to assess whether or not students actually understood what it was we were attempting to teach.

Link- Essentially, the link is a recap of what we just taught the writer. Writing workshop teachers often end conferences by saying the words, "So today, and everyday, when you are . . ." and restating the teaching point. It's helpful to leave an artifact, if possible. This may by a post-it with the strategy written on it, or perhaps a copy of a mentor text we used during the conference.
Quick Tips

Aim for three to four conferences per workshop- As a teacher, especially when we are just getting started, it is helpful to set a goal for how many conferences we want to hold during a workshop. This will, of course, depend on our time structure and how many students we teach. Middle school teachers often hold fewer individual conferences and rely more on small groups.

Avoid questioning the conference away- Carl Anderson recommends conferences be around 4-7 minutes long. Be careful not to spend this entire conference time asking students questions! This will negate effectiveness and begin to intrude on actual teaching time (which is a main point of conferring). A few high-leverage assessment questions might sound like:

"How's that going?"

"Can you say more about that?"

"Can you show me where you tried that in your writing?"

Do your homework ahead of conferences- Research often starts by observing the student from afar, looking through past conferring notes and by taking a tour through their notebook/folder/on-demand ahead of time, and/or while they are still writing. Walking into a conference "prepared" can help us feel more confident about how to best support a writer.

Think about what's easy and what's going to be tricky for this writer- Conferences help build important relationship between teachers and writers, so as we get to know our students, we can begin to anticipate what strengths and needs each student has within his or her writing as we approach each conference.

Confer with students, even if you don't feel like you are "good at it" - It takes time to become good at conferring- years, even! But realize that even by the sheer fact that we are sitting down next to students to talk with them about their writing, we are sending a positive message that helps nurture a crucial element to teaching: relationship with student.

Keep records of your conferring - It is helpful to write some things down after each conference. This allows us to both remember what we taught in previous conferences, as well as assess as to what degree our previous teaching "stuck with" our writers.

Next Steps

In your conferences, work to establish multiple lines of inquiry with writers. You might ask, "So that's one thing you're working on. What else are you working on?" Or, "Tell me about how punctuation will help us read this part here?" Or, "Can you say a little about how this part fits with what you know about this type of writing?" Establishing multiple lines of inquiry can help determine what the most appropriate or needed teaching point might be.

Work on building a conferring kit. Often kits include samples of teacher writing, mentor texts that students are familiar with, post-it notes, copies of checklists and/or rubrics, and lists of possible assessment questions.

Link Roundup from TWT Suggested Reading
GIVEAWAY: RENEW! BECOME A BETTER AND MORE AUTHENTIC WRITING TEACHER, BY SHAWNA COPPOLA

This giveaway is for a copy of Renew! Become a Better - and More Authentic - Writing Teacher.Many thanks to Stenhouse Publishers for donating a copy for one reader. (If the winner has a U.S. address, you may choose a paper or eBook. If the winner has an international mailing address, then you will receive an eBook.)

For a chance to win this copy of Renew! Become a Better - and More Authentic - Writing Teacher,please leave a comment about this or any blog post in this blog series by Monday, August 7th at 5:00 p.m. EDT. Beth Moore will use a random number generator to pick the winner's commenter number. His/her name will be announced in the ICYMI blog post for this series on Tuesday, August 8th.

Please be sure to leave a valid e-mail address when you post your comment, so Beth can contact you to obtain your mailing address if you win. From there, our contact at Stenhouse will ship your book out to you. (NOTE: Your e-mail address will not be published online if you leave it in the e-mail field only.)

If you are the winner of the book, Betsy will email you with the subject line of TWO WRITING TEACHERS - RENEW BOOK. Please respond to her e-mail with your mailing address within five days of receipt. Unfortunately, a new winner will be chosen if a response isn't received within five days of the giveaway announcement.

For more than 29 years, Lanny has taught, coached, presented, staff developed, and consulted within the exciting and enigmatic world of literacy. With unyielding passion and belief in the possibility of workshop teaching, Lanny has worked to support students, teachers, and school administrators around the country in outgrowing themselves as both writers and readers. Working first as a classroom teacher, then as a coach and TCRWP Staff Developer, Lanny is now a literacy specialist, working and living in the great state of Connecticut. Outside of literacy, he enjoys raising his three ambitious young daughters with his wife, and playing the piano. Find him on this blog, as well as on Twitter @LannyBall. Lanny is also a former co-author of a blog dedicated to supporting writing teachers and coaches that maintain classroom writing workshops, twowritingteachers.org. View all posts by Lanny Ball

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"Lift the ball with your right hand, and pretend your right knee is tied to your right elbow." Placing the orange ball uncertainly in my right hand, I glanced over at Mr. Brown, my new basketball coach. Fixing his gaze squarely upon me, he added, "You can do this."

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Sentence Activities for Building Syntactic Knowledge - English and Spanish

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Building a Sentence with Parts of Speech

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Activities for Ongoing Convention Practice

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Explicit and Systematic Instructional Checklist

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Sentence Anagram Lesson - Spanish & English

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Additional Suggestions for Integrating Writing Across the Curriculum

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Suggestions for Writing Across the Curriculum

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Planning for Author’s Purpose, Audience,  and Genre

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Prewriting for How-To Texts-English & Spanish

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Writing a Story with a Beginning, Middle, and End English

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Teaching Revising Strategies Engl & Span

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The Difference Between Revising and Editing

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Ideas for Supporting Student Planning_English and Spanish

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Gr 2-3 Personal Narrative-English & Spanish

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K-1 Personal Narrative Rubric-English & Spanish

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Gr 1 Expository Rubric-English & Spanish

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Kinder Expository Rubric-English & Spanish

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General Writing Rubric (English & Spanish)

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Using Booklets to Draft (English-Spanish)

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Planning Writing Lessons Using Mentor Texts

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Gradual Release of Responsibility for Writing Lessons

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Collaborative Writing to Scaffold Instruction

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Lessons for Expository Writing - English

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Ways to Implement Reader Response in Your Classroom

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Gradual Release of the Brainstorming Strategy_ ies Practice Guide

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Planning Template Gradual Release of Responsibility

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Oral Language Leads to Written Expression_Ch1