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A School Can Be The Change: Teaching Writing with a Social Justice Lens

A School Can Be A Place...

Where literacy is more than just a block in the day. More than the standards, pacing calendars, and assessments we check off. Much more than a means of defining and labeling a child, a teacher, a school.

More than something we school can be the place where literacy is a way of living; a means for understanding the world and our place in it, that which shapes perceptions and molds identities.

We do this with words: spoken words, read words, written words - those of our own, those of whom we know, those of whom we do not. School can be a place where words need not live in solitude, nor fear suppression and judgment. Where words do not build walls, rather tear them down through shared pain and triumph.

With words, school can be a place which nurtures identity.

With words, school can be a place where storytelling is a ritual.

With words, school can be a place that empowers all voices.

With words, school can be a place where all are represented.

A School Can Be The Change, If Those Who Lead, Also Learn

Not pictured, alongside each student, is an educator who tried the same kind of work. Alongside each educator is a colleague. They tried the work together.

Together, these colleagues make the community of P.S. 59: a school that truly is a place of great change for adults and children.

The kind of social-comprehension work that is now visible has evolved over years. However, it has grown tremendously following a book study of Sara K. Ahmed's Being the Change (the most-recent yearly reading gift from administrators Adele Schroeter and Nekia Wise) . More than a gift to teachers, Being the Change is a gift to the world. Many of the ideas - identity webs, "Where I'm From" poems, name stories, mini-inquiries and perspective-shifting conversations (to name a few) - portrayed here are anchored in the lessons from Being the Change.

To students, who courageously make yourselves visible; who unfailingly make yourselves heard, thank you. You're already change-makers in this world.

To colleagues, who generously share your thinking, your stories, your beautiful work, thank you. You are a constant source of inspiration.

To Adele and Nekia, thank you for wholeheartedly listening (the silent force of social justice) to seedlings of change each day.

To Sara, we hope you see your footprint in our school. Thank you for showing us the way.

GIVEAWAY INFORMATION:

This giveaway is for a copy of . Thanks to Being the Change: Lessons and Strategies to Teach Social Comprehension Heinemann for donating a copy for one reader. (You must have a U.S. mailing address to win a print copy of this book.)

For a chance to win this copy of Being the Change: Lessons and Strategies to Teach Social Comprehension, please leave a comment about this or any blog post in this blog series by Sunday, February 3rd at 6:00 p.m. EDT. Betsy Hubbard 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 Monday, February 4th.

Please leave a valid e-mail address when you post your comment so Melanie can contact you to obtain your mailing address if you win. From there, our contact at Heinemann will ship the book 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 - BEING THE CHANGE. Please respond to her e-mail with your mailing address within five days of receipt. A new winner will be chosen if a response isn't received within five days of the giveaway announcement.

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A School Can Be The Change: Teaching Writing with a Social Justice Lens

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A School Can Be A Place... Where literacy is more than just a block in the day. More than the standards, pacing calendars, and assessments we check off. Much more than a means of defining and labeling a child, a teacher, a school.

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Essential Thoughts- Building a Community of Writers 

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Essential Thoughts- Building a Community of Writers 

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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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Three Steps to Building a Learning Community 

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Three Steps to Building a Learning Community 

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The year is early, and as I shared in my last post, I am celebrating everything! Our time together, the students in our class, the space we inhabit 6 hours a day, the tools in our midst, the choices we have, and the time ahead.
Envisioning the Year Ahead
I am looking ahead. I know the bravery and naive confidence it will take to write a story, spell hard words, organize writing, use ending punctuation, learn new writing techniques, and new genres of writing. The young writers sitting in our classroom will rise above the fears and struggles of being a writer, but it will take intentional planning, repetitive teaching, daily writing, and reteaching. Writing is hard work. Students don't become writers because we have writing workshop. Writers become writers because teachers have clear intentions and a vision of what's possible.

As a writer, I need a writing community. My community fosters ideas; it's where I feel safe talking about writing, sharing drafts, final copies, giving and receiving feedback. Without my writing community, my stories would remain in my head. They wouldn't be shared beyond my rambling thoughts. Writing brings my stories to life. Sharing my stories allows my stories to live beyond me and change who I am all at the same time. My students need this same feeling of safety and encouragement in their learning community.
Embedded Opportunities
Our learning community, like a writing community, is built with intention and purpose. I offer opportunities for choice, decision making, peer collaboration, and problem-solving throughout the day. I am intentional in embedding these possibilities naturally into our routines and procedures.

Morning and end of day meetings

Self-scheduled media center visits

Tool choice

Workspace choice

Seating choice (floor, table, bean bag, rocker, scoop chair, standing, lapboards, etc.)

Working in isolation or with a peer

As a part of our daily meetings, I choose activities designed to foster safety, encourage risk-taking, teach flexible thinking, promote the giving and receiving of feedback, and provide ample opportunities to be supported by peers.

I recently read an article on Edutopia that described the building of a community block tower.

One at a time, students add a block to the tower. Each choice in block size, shape, and placement lives with the student. Peers watch in suspense and cheer as each block is placed. Even when the structure falls, students offer words of support and encouragement to each other.

Each day we take a few minutes to reflect on what we have learned from building the tower;

"I felt really sad when the tower fell, but I knew my friends had my back."

"You have to build a solid base before you can go tall, or it will fall over."

"Wow, I thought it was going to fall. You were brave!"

"If you go too tall too quick, your tower will collapse. It needs a base."

And, the glory, I am beginning to hear students connect what they've learned to the academic parts of our day.

"Reading pictures is like having a base to learn to read hard words."

"Sharing your story on Twitter was like adding a tall block."

As I've watched my students build and rebuild the block tower, I have learned so much about who we are as peers, learners, friends, and leaders.

Our learning community has constructed a strong base; we are a community where each and every learner can thrive and take risks knowing their friends will have their back. We have developed a common language and experience. Students have built a learning community much like my writing community; a group of peers who will foster ideas, offer support, provide feedback and help us bring our ideas to life. My student's thoughts will now live beyond who they are and change who they will become.

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3 Steps to Building A Learning Community: Vision. Intention. Purpose.

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The young writers sitting in our classroom will rise above the fears and struggles of being a writer, but it will take intentional planning, repetitive teaching, daily writing, and reteaching. Writing is hard work. Students don't become writers because we have writing workshop. Writers become writers because teachers have clear intentions and a vision of...

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It's the time of year when our classrooms are full of students who are as eager to know us as we are to know them. Getting to know our students and building a community, is the most important job we have in our classrooms. As teachers who write know, we understand the power of connecting through writing.

At this time of the year, when the classroom community is new, collaborating and sharing with others can be intimidating for students. Creating unique ways for students to share stories and connect with peers allows for writers to generate topics, develop story details, and find a writing community.

Gathered at my feet, 25 scared and timid faces look up at me, I ask students what they like to do. We talk about sports they play, their pets, hobbies, vacations they took over the summer, and any other idea that will get students talking. The goal here is to get students thinking (and talking) about their lives and finding classmates who share their interest. It's not long before our chart is full of ideas from sports, to baking, to games, and ideas I would never have imagined.

As our chart fills, students can't help but shout out when they hear a connection.

"I think I played you in soccer!"

"I have a goldfish, his name is Five."

"My family went to the beach, I got stung by a jellyfish."

"Me too!"

Students share and I add their ideas to the chart, creating a web. (The web shown here was created in Google Docs using the drawing feature.) Once the topics are recorded, I begin adding the student's names, connecting students who share interests.

This is the start of a new writing community.

Once the chart is bursting, unable to hold another word, I begin moving the students into small groups by interest. As the students settle into their groups, I give each group a sentence strip and markers. I encourage students to add their names to the strip and illustrate their shared experiences as they talk.

While students work I confer with the groups, feigning excitement, telling them I can't wait to read their stories. The room is a buzz of clamoring voices as each storyteller competes to captivate the audience. I am making a note of these tidbits, I know these will be the story ingredients needed to engage readers.

I pay attention to the noise level of the room. As it begins to rise, I know the work is done, and conversations are veering off task. I start to collect the now decorated sentence strips created by the writers. Each group now a writing community with shared interests who students can turn to help build future stories.

We gather on the carpet again. Communities share the product of their time together, still, each member jostling to spin their tales. The audience watches interjects, adds their narrative, and extends the writing community with each voice.

As each piece is shared, I staple it to the bulletin board. Creating a border that will frame our future writing. The work of today will remind writers of topics, of friends who can support them, and the details they'll use to capture readers.

No longer scared and timid, our work has forged a community of writers.

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It's the time of year when our classrooms are full of students who are as eager to know us as we are to know them. Getting to know our students and building a community, is the most important job we have in our classrooms. As teachers who write know, we understand the power of connecting through writing.

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I have been thinking about this post since the last post I wrote for Two Writing Teachers. It was back when Distance Learning was a bit of a new reality. My school wasn't officially closed for the remainder of the school year. I was caught within a transition phase that was every bit overwhelming as it was hopeful.

A few weeks passed, and I waited to hear how my district would respond as the world seemed to tilt to an angle I've never experienced. I was called to help with the transition, and it became a distraction of necessity to help others navigate the many tools needed within a distance learning plan.

The focus on getting so many tools in place made it difficult for me to process how I was going to utilize the most important tool within any classroom, the community. I started to consider what ways I create that community under the best circumstances. Within this new lens, I had to re-imagine them thriving in a virtual classroom environment.

A Virtual Open House

Part of the community building process always includes the grown-ups of my students. This time around, however, is a bit different. Grown-ups are taking on new roles in their child's education, and I wanted them to feel welcome as well as trusted. I decided to host a few virtual open houses. It would give me a chance to give families a tour of our "classroom" and guidance when navigating the resources. Due to so many schedules, I decided to host three different half-hour sessions, as well as record a short tour to share with those unable to attend the live visit.

Show and Tell

Each week we are having Show and Tell. This was something we would do sporadically during the school year. It was always a great chance for students to share pieces of themselves with their classmates. My hope is it strengthens the bonds they have with each other.

"Email" Accounts

Although my students are in a school district that uses Google Classroom and many of the Google Applications, my third graders do not have access to the email feature. There are good reasons for this; however, in this current situation, I realized email would be a nice way to communicate more frequently back and forth with my students. This led me to create email slides that mimic social media to encourage some authentic writing and communication with my students. It also allows me to stay connected to my students in a way I had been missing.

I continue to be amazed by my colleagues here at Two Writing Teachers and those in my school community. I see many doing amazing work to foster community and celebration with their students from a distance.

I hope to continue to build a toolkit of community building and sharing techniques in this virtual environment. I wish all of you the best as well and would love to hear how you hope to build a community with your students in this challenging time.

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I have been thinking about this post since the last post I wrote for Two Writing Teachers. It was back when Distance Learning was a bit of a new reality. My school wasn't officially closed for the remainder of the school year. I was caught within a transition phase that was every bit overwhelming as it was hopeful.

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Today marks the end of our August Blog series. We hope you are feeling inspired and ready to build communities in your classrooms through a writing workshop. In case you missed a post or want a quick place to grab all the links to this series, I'm sharing a round-up below. Also, don't forget to check out the winner of our giveaway!

On Sunday, Marina shared Name Studies to Establish Community.

On Monday, Melanie shared Honoring Identity to Establish Community.

On Tuesday, Therapi shared Creating Heart Maps to Build Identity.

On Wednesday, Lanny shared Writing Partnerships to Establish Community.

On Thursday, Beth shared The Riskiness and Power of Teaching Personal Narrative Writing at the Start of the Year.

On Friday, Amy shared Leveraging Shared Writing to Build Community.

On Saturday, Kathleen shared Poetry to Establish Community.

On Sunday, Stacey shared Providing Feedback AFTER Establishing Community.

Today, I get to share the winner of our giveaway for one copy of En Comunidad from Heinemann Publishing.

Congratulations to Fran Haley! Fran's comment on Thursday was the winner!

No matter the plan in fall for you, your colleagues, and your students, the co-authors and I at Two Writing Teachers are sending you our best wishes and support for what we know is a challenging year ahead. As educators, you are seen, valued, and heard, and we know you will work to do your best to make the coming months the best they can be.

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Today marks the end of our August Blog series. We hope you are feeling inspired and ready to build communities in your classrooms through a writing workshop. In case you missed a post or want a quick place to grab all the links to this series, I'm sharing a round-up below.