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Kristin is the author of the blog, "Talking to Teachers." In this entry she interviews IB teacher Matt Foss. You'll see elements of workshop pop out.

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In this post you will meet Matt Foss-a colleague from my most recent teaching post at the American Community School of Abu Dhabi. Right away you will pick up on Matt's passion and openness for teaching as we discuss his IB Lang/Lit classes. Below is a breakdown of the main topics we covered so that you can zoom in on specific topic at your leisure. After the video, I reflect on the conversation and link to some of the resources mentioned.

Side note: This conversation happened at the beginning of the school year, but everything we discuss has relevance to teaching and learning on a macro level.

Matt discusses his journey of "writing beside" his students: 0:53

Matt talks about how he is switching up his methods of writing conferences : 3:18

Matt's biggest hope for his students as writers...that "their voice matters": 6:18

Matt started the year by making a podcast with his kids by emulating an ode to New York City that The Daily podcast put out...and he explains why and a bit of how: 7:55

Matt shares his thoughts on the benefits of remote learning: 9:52

Reflection Point #1 - Focus on the Positive

In recognizing that he has moved to more of a dialoguing and feed-forward approach to his feedback, Matt started to use the app Vocaroo (integrated into Google Classroom) to leave voice comments on a google doc instead of just written comments. By using Vocaroo, Matt's feedback was more positive, specific, and inquisitive.

A Wondering...

Matt noticed that in a remote learning context he is able to confer more effectively with students 1 on 1. And so I wonder: (1) Are students also noticing this shift? (2) Will this carry over when students head back into the classroom?

A little something extra: Matt also has students fill in a google doc at various points in the formative process to help direct his feedback. Students engage metacognitively with their piece of writing by taking notes on (a) what is going well, (b) what they want help with, and (c) what options/strategies they might use to help them move forward. Not only does this put the students at the center of their learning process through the assessment of their progress, but it also helps teachers to:

1. Engage more purposefully with a student and their writing: When we allow the student to be a part of the process in directing what they want to work on in their writing, this can increase self-directed learning skill sets and confidence.

2. Assess a student's level of understanding of a task: Does a student know what they should be focusing on? Does a student show the ability to access different tools/strategies to help themselves move forward instead of always relying on their teacher.

Make a copy of this Google doc here!

Reflection Point #2 - Voice Matters

Matt's biggest hope for his students is that when they leave his classroom at the end of the year they really feel that their voice matters.

One way he tried to encourage students to use their voice was with a collaborative poem/podcast activity. After listening to a podcast by The Daily (New York Times), students created their own community poem/podcast for Abu Dhabi. Matt talks about this activity in the video (7:55 minute mark). The podcast was published to the ACS Facebook Alumni group and there were many responses from previous students and parents sharing their own nostalgic memories. Matt was able to show his students that they could create something that, once put out into the world, could have an affect on others-that their voice mattered.

Listen to the Ode here!

Matt and I discussed how he could keep this thread of voice empowerment going...how was he going to ensure that from the start of a unit his students would know that what they were creating something that went beyond earning them a grade? And Matt was very forthcoming in his response: "I don't know how I am going to do that?!" Because this is the crux of teaching students who come from different backgrounds, who are interested in different things, who are inspired in different ways...how can we make an activity authentic and relevant to everyone...how can we help each student to raise their voice?

In connection to authenticity and relevance I am reminded of a blog post from Thoughtful Learning. This particular post breaks down how to increase authenticity and relevance at the front and back end of a unit. And Matt is on track with this type of thinking as he provides spaces for two main concepts:

1. He focuses on who the audience is of every deliverable a student creates. He notes that students have a hard time jumping into a piece of writing without first knowing who the audience is: "If they can't answer that first of all, then we shouldn't go anywhere [further]."

2. He ensures that there is an opportunity for students to publish their work-whether they end up doing so or not is up to them.

A Wondering...

What is important to front load in order to get students to really FEEL that what they are about to embark on creating will actually matter outside of their academic life?

Main takeaway

As I was talking to Matt, I thought back to a webinar I attended about Global Perspectives in the English classroom and near the very beginning the following statement gave me pause:

Curriculum is not a checklist-we need to keep the humanity in the humanities. This is about what we value as a society...we value people, we value culture. And it is writing that helps to get us there.
Jennifer Webb

And that is what I see Matt doing. Yes, he is teaching his students in order to help prepare them for their IB exams, but more so, he is showing them how they can contribute and how they can be heard once they are out in the world.

Of course he doesn't have everything dialed-in yet (and he will be the first to admit that)...but as he fumbles and refines his practice, Matt is also modelling real life for his students. As they watch him be vulnerable and invest in helping them be better, they in turn will (hopefully) trust in the process he is presenting and create some beautiful writing along the way.

How do you ensure authenticity and relevance in the work? What are you tips for giving space for one-on-one conferring? What did you transfer from remote learning into your classroom? You can connect with me on Twitter @readwritemore and my website www.readmorewritemore.org
At Moving Writers, we love sharing our materials with you, and we work hard to ensure we are posting high-quality work that is both innovative and practical. Please help us continue to make this possible by refraining from selling our intellectual property or presenting it as your own. Thanks!

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Talking to Teachers: FeedForward Conferring and Student Voice

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In this post you will meet Matt Foss-a colleague from my most recent teaching post at the American Community School of Abu Dhabi. Right away you will pick up on Matt's passion and openness for teaching as we discuss his IB Lang/Lit classes. Below is a breakdown of the main topics we covered so that...

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I'm going to just say this right up front: I hope to challenge some thinking.

I asked some friends for feedback on this post and got opposing advice. I let it rest for half a week. I prayed about it. And then today I read this post by Donalyn Miller, author of The Book Whisperer and Reading in the Wild. I'm not positive, but I'm pretty sure she wrote it in a response to a comment on this post by Amanda Palmer, Secondary Language Arts Coordinator in Katy, TX. I've written about my own students and their experiences as they've grown as readers before at Nerdy Book Club and on this blog; and I've presented on how I advocate for choice in AP English at conferences.

I hope I can be a voice of reason and an inspiration for the good of all students. So, if you'll hang with me here, I've got a case for choice reading in AP English.

"I wish my daughter was in your AP English class," my friend told me. "She has to decorate Kleenex boxes in hers."

We'd had this conversation before: I am an advocate of self-selected reading, and I fully embrace readers and writers workshop in my AP English Language and Composition classroom; Sarah is an advanced reader in an AP English course where the teacher chooses all the texts and assigns "clever" ways for the students to show that they are reading. Anyone who knows Penny Kittle's work, and Donalyn Miller's work, and my work, which is so much about helping students develop as life-long readers, understands that Sarah is not having the kind of experience in her English class that we advocate and hope for all children.
Making the Move to Move Readers
Many teachers and administrators across the country have recognized that students in secondary classrooms are not reading. If students are not readers, they tend to struggle in all academic subjects - not just English. Schools adopt interdisciplinary practices, whole school vocabulary instruction and stop-everything-and-read programs in an attempt to improve reading scores on standardized tests. Many have moved to readers and writers workshop, where choice-independent reading is key, instead of the traditional secondary-English pedagogy where the teacher selects all the texts, usually classics, and all the writing topics a student is expected to write about for class. Those who have made the move will tell you that choice matters, along with time to read and write, when it comes to student engagement and real movement in our teenage readers and writers.

However, from what I've seen and heard, most of this choice is happening in general education classes - not honors and AP English. The teachers in most advanced classes I know of are still making all the choices. It's like we do not trust our high-achieving students to move themselves into complex texts. We focus on the literature instead of the literacy. And we rob children who already have a grasp of language, who already have many of the study skills they need to pass English classes, with the opportunities to grow as much as they are able.

We make changes in our pedagogy that allow our reluctant and struggling learners to grow but not our proficient kids? Where is the sense it that?
Evidence that Readers and Writers Workshop Works
One day last week, I sat and listened to my district's ELA director share our state re-tester data. I usually hate this kind of meeting, but our gains are huge - due in large part because of the redesign of tutorial lessons, many of which teachers have adopted into their mainstream instruction. The ELA director changed the model and worked closely with North Star of TX Writing Project to produce writing workshop lessons (most of which came out of my classroom and pedagogy) that broke the mold of Response to Intervention. The dramatic increase in re-tester scores (an average of 200+ point increase per student) proves the lessons are working to move student readers and writers. Workshop-style writing lessons and a campus-wide, district-wide commitment to independent reading is working.
Making the Move in Advanced English Classes - or Not
The next day I sat in a meeting with the AP English team on my home campus. (Important note: The same day that in second period a young woman asked me to recommend her a book of classic literature because she wanted to read something more complex. She and I stood in front of my "Challenge Yourself" shelf, and in about six minutes while the rest of the class read silently, I taught a mini-lesson on Gothic literature and the Regency Era and book talked the Bronte sisters' books and Jane Austen. Rebecca left class with Pride and Prejudice, a book she chose to read because she wanted a romance that sounded interesting.) In that vertical alignment meeting, the conversation bounced around to what students must know and returned a few times to the books "all students must read." After a while, someone asked me what I thought.

"Is it really about the book, or is it about the reader?" I asked.

"Well, it's both," two teachers answered.

"Then why does the book matter as much as the students' abilities to read the books?"

"Because they will never read these books on their own, and they have to read a storehouse of canonical texts in order to write on the AP Lit exam," they said.

"So you're basing the reading lives of all pre-AP students in 9th and 10th grade on one open-ended question on the AP exam their senior year?"

"Well, they also have to analyze a passage," one teacher added.

"Yes, and that's like studying lists of SAT words hoping students learn the few out of 5,000 that might be on the SAT exam. It's a total crapshoot.

"Shouldn't we be more concerned about students being able to read at complex levels than deciding which books they must read?"

Another teacher joined in "I want my students to be prepared for the kinds of reading they will be expected to know when they go into college classrooms. That is providing equity. If they know The Iliad, Beowulf, Dante, they will be on equal footing as those classmates who read those things at the affluent schools across town."

"Shouldn't the equity be in the skills our students possess? Can they read and understand complex texts like the students across town?"
How Do We Know If Students Are Reading
I know that many, if not most, of those students at other schools are not reading those books. Few high school students read the assigned texts in English classes. Ask them. I have student writing from the past five years that tells me in their own words about their reading habits in high school. And there are plenty of well-researched articles like this one from the English Journal that concur. It is true: few high school students read the assigned texts in English classes. Why doesn't this matter to their teachers?

"How do you know they are reading the independent reading books you let them choose?" a teacher asked me.

"Because I talk to them about what they are reading," I answered.

"I do that, too, about the books I assign," she said, but I am pretty sure that her idea of talking about books with students and mine are very different. I call it conferences. She calls it lectures.

I felt disheartened and sad for the honor student at the outcome of that vertical alignment meeting: AP teachers deciding what four books teachers in preAP 9th and 10th grade must teach in order to prepare students for Advanced Placement in 11th and 12th grade.*

I fear that students will be just as prepared as they have been, which in my one-semester at this campus is not much. At the most, they will read four books a year, and the only students who will read the assigned texts are the ones who are readers anyway, who are studious enough, or care about their grades enough, to do what the teacher says. Everyone else will read a little and Sparknotes a lot, listening in to class discussions, and learning enough to pass exams that cover the conflict, plot, symbolism, and theme of the assigned text. Few, if any, will grow as readers who fall in love with words and characters and the beauty and the texture of carefully crafted stories. It happens over and over and over again.

We deprive the students who take advantage of the College Board's open enrollment policy, the students who voluntarily agree to more rigor, and we allow them to make it through high school English without growing as readers. I would argue that in many cases, there is high probability that they regress as readers.

How does that make any sense?
Looks Like the College Board Advocates for Readers Writers Workshop
The College Board provides course descriptions for each of the 34 AP courses and exams it offers. The descriptions reflect the course material that might be taught in a comparable college course. This makes designing a curriculum relatively easy for many of the courses taught. Biology and World History, for example, have definite knowledge-based skills that must be covered throughout the course. AP English courses are another story. Since first-year college composition courses are so diverse and vary from college to college, the structure of these classes on high school campuses can be diverse as well. AP programs, and even individual teachers, may design their courses based on their own interests and desires. Of course, the AP classes must reflect and assess college-level expectations, but that's pretty much the only requirement. There are no prescribed essays that students must write, although there are suggestions of form. There are no required novels to read, although there is a suggested list of authors. Suggested being a key word. Teachers have a great deal of freedom in how they design their courses and what they put on their syllabi. See
AP English Language and Composition Course Overview AP English Literature and Composition Course Overview
We can still read texts spanning from the 1600's to the 21 century. We can still read literature that we deem important to our literary canon. But do we have to make all the choices in our Advanced Classes?

We can foster literate lives if we will take the same approach to literacy that is working in thousands of classrooms across the country: Readers and Writers Workshop where choice matters and time to read and write mean deep and lasting learning.
So What's the Real Deal
After talking this over with several of my peers, I've decided on a few reasons why honors and AP English teachers refuse to "drink the Kool Aid" (Isn't that a nice derogatory way of describing readers/writers workshop? I hear it often):

Some teachers loved the experience they had with literature in their high school English classes. This is the reason they chose to be English teachers. (I am one of these teachers.) They want to duplicate those positive experiences for their students. A worthy ambition. However, I wonder if they have considered how many of their classmates experienced the same excitement at reading (or not) the literature that the teacher mandated.

Some teachers are not readers themselves. They love the books they've chosen to use in their classes, but rarely do they read anything from a best-seller list, or an awards list. They want to stay with what is known and comfortable. Many times these teachers mistake their duty: to teach the child and not the book.

Some teachers believe that certain pieces of literature must be read by every student on the planet. "If I don't teach this book, then these students will never read it" is a statement I've heard many times. My answer is always "Yes, but many are still not reading it when you teach it." We ruin the the taste of great literature for many students when we force books on them that they are not ready for. I've asked all of my students this year about their reading in 10th grade. Not one of them has said they love To Kill a Mockingbird, one of two books they had to read last year. Why would we want to turn students off of a much beloved book like TKMB?

Some teachers believe that 10 to 15 minutes of sustained silent reading at the beginning of class is the same as instruction with choice reading. Sure, this reading time, especially if students are reading books that they choose, is important. It is a step. But it is not the same as structuring instruction around readers workshop where students not only read books that they choose, they think about them, talk about them, learn within them. They confer with a teacher intent on moving the reader in the best differentiated instruction possible.

Some teachers are afraid of giving up control. They fear that if students are all reading different texts they won't know how to manage the class or guide the learning. This is a valid concern, but it is also something they can learn how to do. Many of us are doing it. We are happy to share how.

I am sure there are other reasons, and really, I mean no disrespect. I know my colleagues are hardworking and loving educators. I like them a lot. I respect them for the work they do, and I am sure that their students are learning in their classes. I know this is true for many other teachers and classrooms across America, too. I just really want to challenge some thinking.

What if we can do more?
Let's Allow all Students the Advantages of Choice
More than anything, I want all students to have opportunities to rise above the norm, and maybe, just

maybe, we will see many more students, not just our struggling ones, immersed in books they love, and thinking about their reading in ways we've never imagined. Their engagement will improve. Their growth will astound us. They will develop as critical thinkers, accomplished writers, and as empathetic individuals ready to take on the challenges of college and their world.

I mentioned at the beginning of this post that I shared a draft of it with my writing partners. This response from Shana is important:

"I was an AP Lit kid, and an Honors English kid. I SparkNoted The Scarlet Letter, Beowulf, Iliad, Catcher in the Rye, and the rest. I never read a bit of it. In fact, I didn't read ANYTHING that was assigned to me simply because of the fact that it had been ASSIGNED. I was stubborn like that. And I got A's all the way through. And a 5 on the AP test. All the while tearing through John Grisham, Elizabeth Peters, and the entire Bestsellers section of my public library outside of class.

"Then, my freshman year of college, when I took a workshop class in which I was allowed to self-select what I read, I chose the Scarlet Letter and thought it was the most beautiful love story I'd ever read. I finished it and read it again. Since that day, when I realized that because I was one of those AP kids and I COULD read those works, I've discovered that I LOVE them. But I never read a single one of them until after high school. My well-known love for Jane Austen didn't emerge until I wrote a paper on Pride and Prejudice and A Midsummer Night's Dream for my Shakespeare capstone. I just read Mockingbird last summer for the first time ever. [Note: I read it when I was 40.]

"I was never allowed to choose for myself in AP or Honors English, but had I been allowed to...I would have read all of those books, and arrived at a deeper level of love and reverence for literature, much earlier in my reading life.

"One thing I might add - I totally disagree with that AP Lit teacher saying that students needed to draw from classic lit for the test. Many of my AP kids who got 5s wrote about modern classics... Oscar Wao, Life of Pi, whatever. You don't have to know CLASSICS to ace the Lit exam...you just have to know how to write authentically about complex texts, and that's what we do in workshop, and what kids should be doing in AP classes."

I know there are others who have made the shift. I got this in an email message just today from Jeannine in CA. We had a nice chat at NCTE: "Thank you for our November communication. I have altered much of my instruction to incorporate choice reading. The students are soaring!!!"

Another AP English teacher trusting herself and her students enough to make a change and see where it takes them.
Why, Yes, There's Research to Support This Pedagogy
I mentioned Donalyn's post at the beginning of this long one. It is all about the research, the theory that outlines and supports what it takes to grow readers. Allington, Atwell, Krashen, Moss, Fisher, Ivey, and Kittle, and Gallagher and more.

I add another: Last summer at the University of New Hampshire Literacy Institute Penny Kittle had us read Making Meaning with Texts, Selected Essays by Louise Rosenblatt. Rosenblatt's research spans decades and is just as applicable today as when she wrote it years ago. I challenge every English educator to read the whole of Rosenblatt's essay "The Acid Test for Literature Teaching, published in 1956. Or, at least to respond honestly to Rosenblatt's conclusion. Odds are you will make the shift to choice, if you haven't already:
"As we review our current high school programs in literature, we need to hold on to the essentials, or take the opportunity as re-adjustments come about, to create the practice that will meet the acid test: Does this practice or approach hinder or foster a sense that literature exists as a form of personally meaningful experiences? Is the pupil's interaction with the literary work itself the center from which all else radiates? Is the student being helped to grow into a relationship of integrity to language and literature? Is he building a lifetime habit of significant reading?"
*In an email after I'd written this post, I received the notes from that meeting, and I am happy to say that there were no specific book titles listed, just the admonition that students in 9 and 10 grade preAP classes read 3-5 whole class texts of a complex nature. And students need to read 15-20 books a year to grow as readers. (Yes, I did throw in that bit of research while in that meeting.)

©Amy Rasmussen, 2011 - 2015

Tagged: AP English, choice reading, Readers Writers Workshop, Reading research

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Aim Higher: A Case for Choice Reading and a Whole Lot More in AP English

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It's like we do not trust our high-achieving students to move themselves into complex texts. We focus on the literature instead of the literacy. And we rob children who already have a grasp of language, who already have many of the study skills they need to pass English classes, with the opportunities to grow.

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Shana, Jackie, Erika, and I will be presenting at NCTE in Washington, D.C. on Saturday at 2:45 pm. Penny Kittle is our Chair. We are session J.44. Please, come and join the conversation.
Readers and Writers Workshop was a mystery to me for a while, literally. I didn't even know about it. I'm still puzzled that I made it through my teacher education program without learning about it.

My first three years of teaching, I pretty much taught the same way I was taught in high school. I chose the books we read. I chose the topics students wrote about. I was queen of my classroom, and I decreed that my preAP freshmen would read Dickens. They hated it. No, that's not right. They hated trying to read it. So they didn't. Gratefully, at least a few of my first-year students don't hold it against me. We got together this summer for dinner, and Cara and Marcus relieved my growing guilt.

When I finally came to understand how Workshop could revamp my instruction, that guilt grew. I wasted so much time. I could have done so much more to help my students become readers and writers.

I am different now.
My goal as an educator is to foster the literacy skills in my students that will provide them with the confidence and the capability to contribute to our community and our world.
A week ago I sat in a department meeting and listened as the department manager explained the direction our district is moving in terms of English instruction: Readers and Writers Workshop. Skills-based instruction. Exactly the instruction I believe in. Exactly the instruction I try to provide my students every day.

I sat there stumped when one veteran teacher began to fidget. His face turned red. His hands twitched on the desk. Finally, he spoke up when the conversation turned to assessments and the need for skills-based exams to match skills-based teaching, not exams based on the content in books read (or not read) in class.

"What's the point then? We might as well not even call it an English class then," he said, and several other heads nodded.

What?!?

Because you are being asked to foster a love of reading in your students, allow them choice in reading materials, encourage them to write about their reading, model the life of a reader, and do something similar in the way of writing instruction, you think that is not an English class?

I remembered a conversation I had with someone struggling with letting go of only reading classic novels with their students. I asked what her number one question was. She said, "Equity. Shouldn't our students be reading the same timeless texts as so many students do in wealthier areas?"

Shouldn't the equity be in the literacy skills our students possess more than the books they have read?

With the College Board and school districts and schools promoting more and more students take advantage of Open Enrollment in Advanced Placement classes, in my experience, many of those students do not have the prerequisite skills to be successful in an advanced English class. Many of the students I have this year have not passed their state-mandated English I and English II test, and now they are expecting to be successful in a college-level course. I am all for differentiation, but it gets difficult when students are on so many levels, struggling to the exceptionally talented gifted student.

Readers and Writers Workshop has helped solve a lot of my challenge. I teach the reader not the reading. I teach the writer not the writing. And every student is different.

So many students are hurting, and isn't it part of our job as teachers of teens to help them learn about what it means to be human: empathetic, kind, compassionate, intelligent, courageous? All the characteristics we learn from the best protagonists in the best literature. That is what I tell my students: We read literature to learn what it means to be human in a world that would like us to forget. Books in hand make us slow down, quiet our minds, embrace moments of stillness - something we so badly need in this social-media, speed-of-light world.

Read this entry in a student's notebook. She gave me permission to share. It's raw and frightening.

We were brainstorming topics for a narrative we'll write soon. I asked students to think about their lives and write to the question

"What if ______?"

Can you even imagine?

Every day students face challenges, fears, and troubles that no child should have to face. I believe teachers can be healers. We can be healers when we value the student more than our content. When we embrace the individual and focus on her needs, academically and emotionally.

Three of my students cried as they told me of their worries before second period was over on Friday. I am honored that they trust me.

Community matters.

Conferences matter.

Mentor texts and Modeling matter.

Choice matters.

TIME matters.

All students, advanced or otherwise, need teachers who are willing to let them make choices that lead to profound learning, relieving their worry sure helps that happen.

Watch this clip of some of my students sharing what they like about our Readers and Writers Workshop instruction:

And here's my slide presentation for NCTE. I will only talk about a tad of what I wrote on this post there. I hope that if you are in Washington, D.C. you will come to our session. And if you are not, join the conversation on Twitter beginning on Saturday at 2:45. #NCTE14

©Amy Rasmussen, 2011 - 2015

Tagged: #NCTE14 Readers Writers Workshop, AP English

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#NCTE14 J.44 The Landscape of Workshop in AP English

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Shana, Jackie, Erika, and I will be presenting at NCTE in Washington, D.C. on Saturday at 2:45 pm. Penny Kittle is our Chair. We are session J.44. Please, come and join the conversation. Readers and Writers Workshop was a mystery to me for a while, literally. I didn't even know about it.

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A new friend asked me if I would share any AP testing data that I've gathered since embracing Readers and Writers Workshop. I had to think about it since I rarely think about it. I do appreciate the question though because it led to this post.

I need to tell you right up front: While I appreciate the AP exam as a high-stakes test, I do not lay a lot of value on testing data for many reasons.

So many factors figure into how a group of students tests each year, and looking at figures from one year to the next, and trying to compare numbers with different groups of students has never made sense to me. The only real valid data is the growth I measure from the fall when students walk into my door until they leave me in the spring. However, I can tell you that the first year I implemented Readers and Writers Workshop and gave up whole class novels in favor of encouraging students to read books of their choice and taught skills with short, sophisticated, complex texts, my students' scores were 12% higher than my students' scores the year before.

The best I can do to respond to your question is to quote Stephen Krashen in the article "Free Reading:" ". . .research strongly suggests that free reading is the source of our reading prowess and much of our vocabulary and spelling development, as well as our ability to understand sophisticated phrases and write coherent prose. The secret of its effectiveness is simple: children become better readers by reading."

And... "Research has . . .shown that SSR is at least as effective as conventional teaching methods in helping children acquire those aspects of reading that are measured by standardized tests, and pleasure reading provides a great deal that these tests don't measure."

The first two years I taught AP, I tried to do it like I learned at my APSI. I assigned the traditional novels taught in American literature: The Scarlet Letter, Huckleberry Finn, The Great Gatsby, The Awakening, The Grapes of Wrath - because the other AP teacher on my campus did. I can tell you, my students did not read. They even told me later that they didn't - lots of joking about that on Facebook a few years after they left me. They knew how to play the fake-reading game perfectly.

I know Krashen's research centers on much younger grades than our students in AP English; however, reading is reading, and students gain skills by doing it - skills that improve their lives far beyond those tested on one day in May as they sit for the AP English exam.

My students just wrote end-of-year reading evaluations on their blogs. Here's a few of the highlights about reading this year in their own words. This is the kind of data I value:

"Being apart of a reading community has benefited me deeply within my entire life. Even though I didn't read as much as I wanted to, the reading that I did do was very beneficial. Reading helped me expand my vocabulary a lot. Sometimes when I would speak to my mom I would use a word that I learned from the book I was reading and she would just look at me like she didn't know who I was. Reading also helped me become a better writer. So many different books that I read helped me use different structures, understand how to use rhetorical devices, and use my upper level vocabulary." DeDe, currently reading Thirteen Reasons Why by Jay Asher

"Being part of a reading community as a student opened my mind how others thought of the book we were currently reading together. Occasionally, I'm an ostrich that's always in the ground; thoughts to myself, ideas to myself, and the "this is what this means" mentality. I've slowly learned how to use the point of view of others by implementing it into my own work. In addition, this year's English class did not feel like a burden compared to previous years. The freedom of choice we were given provided us with the decision to pick a book we enjoyed." Doreen, currently reading The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt

"I believe the place I need to improve as a reader is being able to find the hidden meanings or putting everything together in order for me to understand a book. Sometimes without me noticing I just read to read and I forget what I read and have to read the paragraph or page again in order for me to understand it. I need to read and take everything under consideration and understand what it is that I'm reading and at the end put it back together. Maybe my problem is that I try to read too fast." Johnny, currently reading T he Alex Crow by Andrew Smith

"Being part of a reading community benefited me because I always felt like I needed to be reading a book. It felt splendid being a part of something, especially something I would of never thought I would be a part of. I understood the importance of reading. The more you read, the better writer you will become. I realized what genre of books I liked and which ones I didn't. Most importantly I explored a different variety of books and read a minimum of 12 books. Something I had never done before. Usually I would read a minimum of 3 books every year." Lizbeth, currently reading Playing Dead byJulia Heaberlin

"My journey began with Escape From Camp 14. I moved through different genres and difficulty levels thereafter: Anna and the French kiss, Allegiant, High School Bites, The Glass Castle, The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, Where'd You Go Bernadettte, The Art of Secrets, The Hot Zone, Little Bee, The Joy Luck Club, Down the Rabbit Hole, Room, Incendiary, The Wright 3, and most recently, Y. During this time, I abandoned The Kite Runn er, The Thirteenth Tale, Ready Player One, Saving Fish From Drowning, Telegraph Avenue, and Station Eleven. Even I find it odd, that out of the entire list, I enjoyed The Joy Luck Club more than any other. I say this because I'm not the patient type- I like constant action, fueled excitement. The Joy Luck Club almost counters that expectation, and if I had to describe it, I might even consider calling it boring." Nawoon, currently choosing - just abandoned Station Eleven

This evaluation by Jasmine is too good to not share the whole of it. And this one by Shaniqua.

I just need to share one more thing, a little gift I got today as I read student reading evaluations. I know most teachers get these at one time or another.

It is the thing that keeps us going.

Laura wrote:

"I still need to improve on not judging a book by it's cover. For us to GROW as people, we must get out of our COMFORT ZONE and pick up a shattered book because it needs someone to appreciate it's language. As much as reading conference were sometimes nerve wrecking for me, they helped me get a second opinion on my progress in class as a human and not merely as a student. I can never thank Mrs. Rasmussen enough for dedicating chunks of her life to her students. Positivity in a world were criticism is many people's issue is so rare and pure. She truly cares about each of us and sees past our struggles and attitudes and tries her best to help us understand it's okay to have emotions and display them for others to see. I've learned it's more important to turn our conflicts into beautiful gifts instead of becoming a bitter person."

Don't you think that is better than any testing data?

©Amy Rasmussen, 2011 - 2015

Tagged: AP English, AP English Language and Composition books, AP exam, AP Literature, Conferring, Readers Writers Workshop, reading

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A new friend asked me if I would share any AP testing data that I've gathered since embracing Readers and Writers Workshop. I had to think about it since I rarely think about it. I do appreciate the question though because it led to this post.

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The question took me by surprise.

I'd just spent an hour or so sharing how I facilitate readers and writers workshop in my AP English Language classroom. I'd shared a video that showed my students testifying to how much they like having a choice in the books they read and why they feel like they will learn through choice reading this year. I'd shared a mini-lesson on how I teach skills using the books students choose to read, even when they are reading 30 different texts. I'd answered a variety of questions asked by pre-service teachers in Dr. Leavell-Carter's master's class at the University of North Texas and started to pack my things.

"What about your AP scores, did they go up?" one young woman asked, "I mean, I just think that would be a double benefit," she said with a smile.

They say there are no bad questions, but I'll go to the mat arguing that this is one we really need to stop asking.

I answered as honest as I could: "No. . .well, yes, when I began facilitating writer's workshop, my scores increased double digits, but I don't put much stock in AP scores, any standardized test scores, really, there are so many variables, you know; the students and their abilities differ from year to year, and since I've only taught in Title I schools where open enrollment is an invitation for all students to take AP classes with no prerequisites or even any preparation for the rigorous coursework, it's difficult to prepare all students all the time at the same level of learning..."

Then I kicked myself all the way home. Why was I trying to justify my test scores? I've written about this before. I have much better proof that workshop works than any kind of testing data:

1. Many of my students read more during the nine months they spend in my class than they do in
all of the 10 years of school they've had prior to coming to me.

2. Almost all of my students read more books the year they spend with me than they read the year before.

3. Many students read their first book cover to cover their junior year in my AP English class.

4. Most students move into complex reading on their own because choice not only gets students reading; it gets them reading critically.

5. Students tell me every year, "Thank you for allowing me to love reading again."

6. My readers learn to see themselves, and to see beyond themselves, by participating in book clubs with peers in non-threatening conversations about literature.

7. My writers take ownership of their writing and compose beautifully and skillfully crafted texts.

There is no test that measures what my student come to appreciate as readers or what they come to realize as writers.
Sure, I want my students who choose to take the AP exam to do well, but I do not believe it shows what they come to understand about language. (And after scoring essays in Kansas City in June, I believe that even less.) Sure, I'll keep encouraging my students to take the exam, but I believe most of them will benefit from taking freshman comp in college - even if they read and write well enough to score a 5. At least one English professor agrees with me:

"AP-credits are not always an accurate gauge of student learning. High AP scores in chemistry, for example, may indicate that students understand the basic concepts, but that doesn't mean they know what to do at a laboratory bench." (Bobby Fong, college dean and English professor).

I say what's true for chemistry is also true for English. That doesn't mean they know what to do when writing an essay for graduate school or a blog post for their employer or reading a report for their business or a decree in a divorce settlement.

Let's focus on the skills our students need to be successful in the lives that lay before them.

For me, readers and writers workshop helps me do that.

©Amy Rasmussen, 2011 - 2015

Tagged: AP English, AP test scores, choice reading in AP English, Readers Writers Workshop, secondary readers writers workshop

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7 Reasons to Stop Asking about AP Test Scores

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The question took me by surprise. I'd just spent an hour or so sharing how I facilitate readers and writers workshop in my AP English Language classroom. I'd shared a video that showed my students testifying to how much they like having a choice in the books they read and why they feel like they will...

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Actually this is for AP and others who are worried about whether or not workshop prepares students for college

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Actually this is for AP and others who are worried about whether or not workshop prepares students for college

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I've been asked this question in several different ways: How do we do this for college prep courses? How does workshop work in an AP English class? If I'm not teaching books from the canon, how am I preparing students for college? And we've written about it a lot on this blog. (See here and here and here and here and here and here for starters.)

Sometimes I think we have misplaced ideas about what is expected of students in college - especially if we were English majors, and our students may not be - and perhaps some skewed ideas of what rigor looks like when it comes to high school English classes.

I first clued in when I read Readicide by Kelly Gallagher. No doubt, I killed the love of reading - and the love of the literature I loved - the way I "taught" the books I expected my students to read. (Most didn't.) Since then, I've studied, practiced, implemented, revised, and stayed up late thinking about how I need to revise my instruction in order to best meet the needs of my students. All of my students - not just those in a college prep or AP English or those going to college - but every student in every English class in preparation for the rest of their lives. I want them to be fully confident in their literacy and all the gifts that will give them in whatever future they choose.

My students, not just those in advanced classes, or on a college-bound track, need to know how-

to think critically about their ideas and the ideas of others

to articulate their thoughts in writing (in multiple modes) and orally (with clarity and confidence)

to support their thinking with valid sources

to revisit their ideas and revise them when they encounter viewpoints that require them to extend, modify, or change their thinking

to verify sources, and identify and analyze bias

There's power in these skills, opportunity and freedom - for our students and for ourselves. We do not need a list of "AP suggested novels" to teach them.

What we need is to build communities in our classrooms where students feel safe to engage in inquiry, share their thoughts, receive feedback, and give themselves to the learning process. Study guides, worksheets, TpT lesson plans, and the same ol' same ol' approach to teaching the same ol' books will not cut it. Just because a book is considered of literary merit does not make the learning around it rigorous. Rigor is not in the text but in what students do with the text. (For more on this, see Jeff Wilhelm's article "Teaching Texts to Somebody! A Case for Interpretive Complexity ")

What we need is to to know our state ELA standards or the AP English Course and Exam Description as provided by College Board. (I think the AP English Course descriptions scream "workshop.") Then, begin thinking about and hunting for mentor texts, written in a variety of modes, that 1) prompt students to think in different ways about a different topics, 2) engage students in inquiry and class discussion, 3) spark ideas for research, and all along the way, invite students to write beside these mentors: What do you think? What do you notice? What do you wonder?

At least this is the genesis of answering the question: How does workshop work to prepare students for college? There's so much more to it.

Resources that have helped me: Write Beside Them and Book Love by Penny Kittle, Dr. Paul Thomas' blog. Currently reading: Why They Can't Write by John Warner, and the #1 on my summer reading list Handbook of Research on Teaching The English Language Arts 4th edition, edited by Diane Lapp and Douglas Fisher.

I once did a two day workshop, helping a district coordinator move her teachers into the readers-writers workshop model. In a reflection after our training, one teacher-participant wrote: "I've been teaching for 24 years, and feel like I've been told I've been doing it wrong all along." Nope.

But. . .

What if we could do instruction better?
Amy Rasmussen lives in North Texas where she thinks, ponders, and writes about how to motivate, engage, and teach today's adolescent readers and writers. She will be spending a lot of her summer facilitating PD focused on readers-writers workshop in secondary English classes. Follow her @amyrass - and she'd love it if you follow this blog!
Tagged: AP English, honors English, rigor

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Q & A: How does workshop work to prepare students for college? (Or I love teaching these books) #3TTWorkshop

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I've been asked this question in several different ways: How do we do this for college prep courses? How does workshop work in an AP English class? If I'm not teaching books from the canon, how am I preparing students for college? And we've written about it a lot on this blog.

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From Julie Swinehart, an international teacher

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From Julie Swinehart, an international teacher

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I recently asked my eleventh grade AP Language and Composition students to share with each other their "favorite" books from the school year. I explained to them that they didn't have to choose just one, and they didn't have to pick the top book of the year if they couldn't decide. They just had to list some favorites. They were happy to oblige!

The variety of topics and genres was a lot of fun to see on the list.

Some of the nonfiction that was popular wasn't necessarily a surprise. I've loved some of these titles, too.

I read The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks last summer and loved it so much that I bought four copies for my classroom library. I thought it was a great book for many reasons - it appeals to students who love science, history, ethics, and great writing. Several of my students have read it this year, and it made the list of favorite books.

One of my students read Inventing Human Rights during the first half of the year, and she's still not over it. She went on to read A World Made New: Eleanor Roosevelt and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights because she was feeling inspired.

Another one of the titles that I have heard several students talk about this school year is Peggy Orenstein's Girls and Sex.

Because of their interest and thoughtful conversation about this book, I ordered a copy of Orenstein's new book, Boys and Sex for next year's new classroom library books.

My students aren't just reading nonfiction, even though that is the primary focus of AP Lang.

and are some classic thrillers that some students have nearly inhaled, they've read them so quickly. All the Missing Girls is a more current well-loved title, and it's not just a thriller; it's written so the timeline is backwards, which makes it a bit more complicated to follow, and I love that my students are tackling this kind of challenge.

Another work of fiction that doesn't ever seem to be on my shelf - it's always checked out - is Crazy Rich Asians. I made sure to order another copy as well as the rest of the trilogy, so next year I'll have some happy students.

There are quite a few titles that have made the list of favorites, and most of them are from my classroom library rather than our main school library. I truly believe that the immediacy of availability along with the daily book talks are what have made these books interesting and intriguing enough to my students that they try them out, take them home, and declare them as favorites.

Immediacy of availability along with awareness of their existence, plus the expectation and option of student choice become a powerful combination. Authentic readers like wildly different texts sometimes, and other times love the same titles, but are ready for them at different times. The poster with the titles is helpful for this because students can find recommendations as they are ready for them, and can choose their own timing.
Julie has been teaching secondary language arts for more than twenty years, spending the first fifteen in rural Central Oregon, four in Amman, Jordan, and the most recent school years in Managua, Nicaragua. Follow her on twitter @SwinehartJulie
The fact that sixteen and seventeen-year-old students have favorite titles makes me happy. The fact that these titles are smart, thoughtful, and challenging is even better.

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AP Lang Students Read a Variety of Texts: Student Voice and Student Choice Increase Both Volume and Love of Reading

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I recently asked my eleventh grade AP Language and Composition students to share with each other their "favorite" books from the school year. I explained to them that they didn't have to choose just one, and they didn't have to pick the top book of the year if they couldn't decide.

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Kristin Bond interviews Matt Foss Part 2

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Kristin Bond interviews Matt Foss Part 2

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This is a follow-up conversation with Matt Foss, the IB Language and Literature teacher from the American Community School of Abu Dhabi. I spoke with Matt in a previous post where he focused on three main topics: (1) writing beside his students, (2) how remote learning has shifted how he confers, and his goal of having students feel that theirvoicematters.

So, I wanted to check in with Matt on how all of the above was going. In our first conversation he was equally excited and unsure-how was he feeling now?

Disclaimer: This post will look a little different than previous "Talking to Teacher" posts as due to time zones and just life in general, I wasn't able to talk to Matt directly. Instead, he recored his thoughts to some questions I provided and it is clips of his responses that I will thread throughout this post.

Reflection Point #1 - Writing Beside Them

First off, "Writing Beside Them" is Penny Kittle's beautiful idea-and her book titled something similar is one I often reach for. The simple strategy of doing the work beside your students is a game changer. And eve as Matt talks about being busier than ever in the chaos of a hybrid learning context, he still finds time to write beside his students-he understands the power of it.

Matt also understands that with the chaos of this year (less resources, less time, more preps, new IB curriculum) he has to do it in "smaller bits and pieces"- a paragraph here, an outline there. He has decided to focus on modelling the work depending on the students needs in a given unit and piece of writing. And this, ultimately, is the point of everything: What do the students need at a given time? What knowledge, skills, or strategies do they need to be successful? What parts of the process need to be modelled to help them move forward? When is beneficial for them to see something modelled in real time vs when it is enough to provide a completed exemplar?

These are the questions Matt asks himself every day so that he can maximize the time spent in class to move students forward in their writing AND their thinking about writing. Although, when you read between the lines of what Matt is saying, it is this 'thinking about writing' that he is more consciously nurturing. Students need to see themselves as writers and to do that, they need to be taught and encouraged to think as writers. They are capable of this metacognitive approach to their writing process. If teachers always see themselves as the experts and students are always waiting for external input on how to revise a piece of writing, then we are doing them a disservice-then we are not preparing them to be successful beyond our classrooms.

Reflection Point #2 - Conferring

My Moving Writers colleague, Hattie Maguire, wrote a post recently about how she is helping her students to see themselves as writers. And one way she works on this is to have writing conferences be more student led-focusing more on what she calls a " help me conference " (as opposed to a "show me conference"). Unless students are directly taught strategies and given time for revision, they are apt to wait for a teacher to tell them what they need to improve on and what is going well. This is not only an unreasonable expectation of teachers, but it also takes a lot of the responsibility or 'doing the work' off of the student.

Matt has noticed a shift in his conferences since remote (and hybrid) learning began-he is naturally using strategies that give more responsibility to (and space for) students to talk about their writing-he is showing them what writers do. I love how simple it is sometimes to create that space and Matt's phrase of "re-read this" is that perfect simplicity.

Having students read a section out loud and talk about what they hear and what is going well or might need improving is an empowering and habit forming move. We want students taking more ownership over the revision process-there is always going to be skills they can work on, but letting them guide us sometimes to what it is they are interested in improving on will benefit their overall engagement and learning.

However, since students don't yet have all the knowledge of the features writers employ, Matt will sometimes ask a specific question about a given section. This is a beautiful way to invite a student into seeing their writing in a new way, into learning about a new writing feature, and into exploring their writing from a new perspective.

Matt noted that even with his students back in a hybrid model where he sees them half the time in person, he still opts for the one-on-one conferences. He knows they are a critical aspect of teaching and learning this year. And although he didn't say this directly, I am 100% confident that a big part of that is the social/emotional connection that is taking place in those one-on-one's. By keeping the online conferences, Matt ensures that he is meeting with his students consistently. And yes, the main focus and intention might initially be on their academics, but these conferences have the opportunity to be leveraged for social/emotional checkins as well.

Side note: Hattie Maguire (mentioned at the beginning of this section) and another Moving Writers friend, Mike Ziegler are presenting a webinar all about conferring. It will focus on:

Student-driven writing conferences in both virtual and face-to-face spaces

Independent reading engagement through formative book chats

Supportive, low stakes classroom dialogues for student (and teacher) social emotional wellness

Personal interaction that supports student growth while maintaining relationships - yes, even in a virtual space!

Oh...and it takes place on the 18th-so soon! You can sign up for it here!

Reflection Point #3 - "Your Voice Matters" (Or does it?)

In the video above, Matt explains the dichotomy of his senior and junior level classes-how one is feeding and one is hurting his soul.

Let's start with the good news first and turn our attention to Matt's juniors. Thankfully, he is finding joy with this group as the curriculum lends itself to having more opportunities to find their voice (there is more choice automatically built in). Matt explains how a in a recent editorial unit, a student wrote to the school board in relation to worker's rights. She had a specific audience, message, and goal for her piece and that all came through in the final piece. Choice and voice for the win...and hopefully some new policy for the new school campus!

However, there is some not so good news, too-the seniors. Matt doesn't feel that his goal of students feeling that their voice matters is happening in the current context of the seniors. With their IB exams coming up in May and one 1.5 hour writing assessment being worth 55% of their final grade (which matters for university entrance), the focus right now is on that one piece of writing. A piece of writing that can be written in a rather formulaic manner with no voice needed to achieve top marks. And Matt notes this doesn't feel great... that it isn't a great model for education... nor for real life.

Ugh-the struggle is real (and the extra layers of this pandemic year is not helping). Finding ways to keep the work authentic and relevant, yet strongly connected to the exam is a fine balance. But anywhere we can include even some choice helps to crack open the "testing to the exam" box-and it is through the cracks that the light gets in!
In looking back through some past Moving Writers posts, I found a few ideas to consider during exam crunch time to help let in some light (with the IB Paper 1 in mind):

Write a pastiche with annotations. Ask students to identify literary devices and analyze their effect on texts and readers to demonstrate knowledge and understanding of a text, organize ideas in a cohesive manner, select words carefully, and employ conventions effectively and consistently. (Original post link)

Provide a variety of texts (or let students choose) what they want to analyze. The more interested they are in a text, the more meaningful the practice will be.

Asking students to write LIKE an author rather than ABOUT the author's choices helps them to be more attentive to craft and its effects. If students are made to analyze something they haven't tried to make, the writing will feel distant. If they dig in and "do," they'll understand how the text works better. This can be done in small quick writes, it doesn't have to be a full response each time. (Original post link)

Letting in the light is not easy-it takes time to create, the risk of doing something different, and the transparency of the skill transfer to the students-but it is also definitely worth it.

Main takeaway

I have been using the Glennon Doyle's quote, "just do the next right thing", as a personal mantra a lot over the past year. It is a great coping strategy for when life gets a little bit overwhelming or when I am feeling a little lost. And as I watched Matt respond to my questions, I felt that this quote would resonate with him, too.

I continually see Matt doing the next right thing as he navigates the uncertainty of this crazy year and he does it with passion, humility, and intention.

Just do the next right thing.
The thing that will help the students and you stay connected to the work and to each other.

How are you staying connected and "doing the next right thing"? How do you let the light in? How have your conferences shifted during the pandemic? You can connect with me on Twitter @readwritemore and my website www.readmorewritemore.org
At Moving Writers, we love sharing our materials with you, and we work hard to ensure we are posting high-quality work that is both innovative and practical. Please help us continue to make this possible by refraining from selling our intellectual property or presenting it as your own. Thanks!

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Talking to Teachers: Finding Time to 'Write Beside Them' and Confer (in an IB Classroom) (during a pandemic)

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This is a follow-up conversation with Matt Foss, the IB Language and Literature teacher from the American Community School of Abu Dhabi. I spoke with Matt in a previous post where he focused on three main topics: (1) writing beside his students, (2) how remote learning has shifted how he confers, and his goal of...

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Series of blogs on workshop in IB from Paper Graders

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Series of blogs on workshop in IB from Paper Graders

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I've just completed my first year teaching AP Lit since years ago, in a different school, in a different state (with me as a different teacher). I am a reading/writing workshop teacher now. My experiences in that first year back to AP Lit after becoming a workshop teacher make up this blog series.

1. A Workshop Teacher Takes on AP Lit, 28 July 2017

2. A moment of clarity that helped my AP Lit students see exactly why I don't put grades on their writing, 2 September 2017

3. The Importance of Writing With Your Students, 2 March 2018

4. Inviting Students to Read Required Books in AP Lit, 31 May 2018

5. Focusing Class Discussion on What Students Want to Talk About, 1 June 2018

6. Sharing the Feedback Load With Your Students, 4 June 2018

7. Writer's Notebooks in AP Lit, 5 June 2018

8. Where I Want to Improve my AP Lit Reading/Writing Workshop, 6 June 2018

Related posts since I published the blog series:

Attempting to #DisruptTexts in AP Lit, 10 June 2019

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I've just completed my first year teaching AP Lit since years ago, in a different school, in a different state (with me as a different teacher). I am a reading/writing workshop teacher now. My experiences in that first year back to AP Lit after becoming a workshop teacher make up this blog series.

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Kristin Bond's blog: interviewing Matt Foss

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Kristin Bond's blog: interviewing Matt Foss

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This is a follow-up conversation with Matt Foss, the IB Language and Literature teacher from the American Community School of Abu Dhabi. I spoke with Matt in a previous post where he focused on three main topics: (1) writing beside his students, (2) how remote learning has shifted how he confers, and his goal of having students feel that theirvoicematters.

So, I wanted to check in with Matt on how all of the above was going. In our first conversation he was equally excited and unsure-how was he feeling now?

Disclaimer: This post will look a little different than previous "Talking to Teacher" posts as due to time zones and just life in general, I wasn't able to talk to Matt directly. Instead, he recored his thoughts to some questions I provided and it is clips of his responses that I will thread throughout this post.

Reflection Point #1 - Writing Beside Them

First off, "Writing Beside Them" is Penny Kittle's beautiful idea-and her book titled something similar is one I often reach for. The simple strategy of doing the work beside your students is a game changer. And eve as Matt talks about being busier than ever in the chaos of a hybrid learning context, he still finds time to write beside his students-he understands the power of it.

Matt also understands that with the chaos of this year (less resources, less time, more preps, new IB curriculum) he has to do it in "smaller bits and pieces"- a paragraph here, an outline there. He has decided to focus on modelling the work depending on the students needs in a given unit and piece of writing. And this, ultimately, is the point of everything: What do the students need at a given time? What knowledge, skills, or strategies do they need to be successful? What parts of the process need to be modelled to help them move forward? When is beneficial for them to see something modelled in real time vs when it is enough to provide a completed exemplar?

These are the questions Matt asks himself every day so that he can maximize the time spent in class to move students forward in their writing AND their thinking about writing. Although, when you read between the lines of what Matt is saying, it is this 'thinking about writing' that he is more consciously nurturing. Students need to see themselves as writers and to do that, they need to be taught and encouraged to think as writers. They are capable of this metacognitive approach to their writing process. If teachers always see themselves as the experts and students are always waiting for external input on how to revise a piece of writing, then we are doing them a disservice-then we are not preparing them to be successful beyond our classrooms.

Reflection Point #2 - Conferring

My Moving Writers colleague, Hattie Maguire, wrote a post recently about how she is helping her students to see themselves as writers. And one way she works on this is to have writing conferences be more student led-focusing more on what she calls a " help me conference " (as opposed to a "show me conference"). Unless students are directly taught strategies and given time for revision, they are apt to wait for a teacher to tell them what they need to improve on and what is going well. This is not only an unreasonable expectation of teachers, but it also takes a lot of the responsibility or 'doing the work' off of the student.

Matt has noticed a shift in his conferences since remote (and hybrid) learning began-he is naturally using strategies that give more responsibility to (and space for) students to talk about their writing-he is showing them what writers do. I love how simple it is sometimes to create that space and Matt's phrase of "re-read this" is that perfect simplicity.

Having students read a section out loud and talk about what they hear and what is going well or might need improving is an empowering and habit forming move. We want students taking more ownership over the revision process-there is always going to be skills they can work on, but letting them guide us sometimes to what it is they are interested in improving on will benefit their overall engagement and learning.

However, since students don't yet have all the knowledge of the features writers employ, Matt will sometimes ask a specific question about a given section. This is a beautiful way to invite a student into seeing their writing in a new way, into learning about a new writing feature, and into exploring their writing from a new perspective.

Matt noted that even with his students back in a hybrid model where he sees them half the time in person, he still opts for the one-on-one conferences. He knows they are a critical aspect of teaching and learning this year. And although he didn't say this directly, I am 100% confident that a big part of that is the social/emotional connection that is taking place in those one-on-one's. By keeping the online conferences, Matt ensures that he is meeting with his students consistently. And yes, the main focus and intention might initially be on their academics, but these conferences have the opportunity to be leveraged for social/emotional checkins as well.

Side note: Hattie Maguire (mentioned at the beginning of this section) and another Moving Writers friend, Mike Ziegler are presenting a webinar all about conferring. It will focus on:

Student-driven writing conferences in both virtual and face-to-face spaces

Independent reading engagement through formative book chats

Supportive, low stakes classroom dialogues for student (and teacher) social emotional wellness

Personal interaction that supports student growth while maintaining relationships - yes, even in a virtual space!

Oh...and it takes place on the 18th-so soon! You can sign up for it here!

Reflection Point #3 - "Your Voice Matters" (Or does it?)

In the video above, Matt explains the dichotomy of his senior and junior level classes-how one is feeding and one is hurting his soul.

Let's start with the good news first and turn our attention to Matt's juniors. Thankfully, he is finding joy with this group as the curriculum lends itself to having more opportunities to find their voice (there is more choice automatically built in). Matt explains how a in a recent editorial unit, a student wrote to the school board in relation to worker's rights. She had a specific audience, message, and goal for her piece and that all came through in the final piece. Choice and voice for the win...and hopefully some new policy for the new school campus!

However, there is some not so good news, too-the seniors. Matt doesn't feel that his goal of students feeling that their voice matters is happening in the current context of the seniors. With their IB exams coming up in May and one 1.5 hour writing assessment being worth 55% of their final grade (which matters for university entrance), the focus right now is on that one piece of writing. A piece of writing that can be written in a rather formulaic manner with no voice needed to achieve top marks. And Matt notes this doesn't feel great... that it isn't a great model for education... nor for real life.

Ugh-the struggle is real (and the extra layers of this pandemic year is not helping). Finding ways to keep the work authentic and relevant, yet strongly connected to the exam is a fine balance. But anywhere we can include even some choice helps to crack open the "testing to the exam" box-and it is through the cracks that the light gets in!
In looking back through some past Moving Writers posts, I found a few ideas to consider during exam crunch time to help let in some light (with the IB Paper 1 in mind):

Write a pastiche with annotations. Ask students to identify literary devices and analyze their effect on texts and readers to demonstrate knowledge and understanding of a text, organize ideas in a cohesive manner, select words carefully, and employ conventions effectively and consistently. (Original post link)

Provide a variety of texts (or let students choose) what they want to analyze. The more interested they are in a text, the more meaningful the practice will be.

Asking students to write LIKE an author rather than ABOUT the author's choices helps them to be more attentive to craft and its effects. If students are made to analyze something they haven't tried to make, the writing will feel distant. If they dig in and "do," they'll understand how the text works better. This can be done in small quick writes, it doesn't have to be a full response each time. (Original post link)

Letting in the light is not easy-it takes time to create, the risk of doing something different, and the transparency of the skill transfer to the students-but it is also definitely worth it.

Main takeaway

I have been using the Glennon Doyle's quote, "just do the next right thing", as a personal mantra a lot over the past year. It is a great coping strategy for when life gets a little bit overwhelming or when I am feeling a little lost. And as I watched Matt respond to my questions, I felt that this quote would resonate with him, too.

I continually see Matt doing the next right thing as he navigates the uncertainty of this crazy year and he does it with passion, humility, and intention.

Just do the next right thing.
The thing that will help the students and you stay connected to the work and to each other.

How are you staying connected and "doing the next right thing"? How do you let the light in? How have your conferences shifted during the pandemic? You can connect with me on Twitter @readwritemore and my website www.readmorewritemore.org
At Moving Writers, we love sharing our materials with you, and we work hard to ensure we are posting high-quality work that is both innovative and practical. Please help us continue to make this possible by refraining from selling our intellectual property or presenting it as your own. Thanks!

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Talking to Teachers: Finding Time to 'Write Beside Them' and Confer (in an IB Classroom) (during a pandemic)

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This is a follow-up conversation with Matt Foss, the IB Language and Literature teacher from the American Community School of Abu Dhabi. I spoke with Matt in a previous post where he focused on three main topics: (1) writing beside his students, (2) how remote learning has shifted how he confers, and his goal of...

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Of course, my AP students write essays....

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Of course, my AP students write essays....

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Julie Swinehart shows us how writing workshop principles are important in an AP class.

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1. Create time and space for students to read: we use the first fifteen minutes of every class for independent reading. It is an expectation that students come into class, find a seat and open a book. We have begged and borrowed sofas and beanbags from various people in order to create comfortable spaces for reading in every classroom. It is a very calm, focused way to start class, which students (and teachers) really appreciate.

2. Invest in classroom libraries: we use a significant part of our budget on this, with each teacher ordering a selection of books for their own classroom library, often after some discussion of requests and recommendations from their students. If money is tight, then ask students and parents for donations, trawl second hand book sales etc, do whatever it takes to get a good selection of books in your classrooms.

3. Book talk: use the fifteen minutes of independent reading time to conference one-to-one with students about what they are reading, aiming to speak with two or three students each class. Not only does this reinforce the expectation and make students feel like you have an interest in them beyond academics, it will also enable you to get to know your students far better, as readers and as people. Run regular book talks: talk to students about what you are reading, get individuals to talk to the class about books they have read and would recommend. Just making books part of the daily conversation really raises the profile of reading.

4. Give students role models: starting with yourself. Despite the impression they may give, most students do listen to their teachers and if you recommend a book I guarantee at least one fo your students will seek it out. In addition, get older students to talk to younger students. We had Grade 12 readers talk to Grade 10 about their reading lives and how important they felt it was they had maintained these, despite the pressures of the IB. Play them the John Lewis clip above; show them articles such as this interview with Barack Obama about the importance of reading in his life; put quotations about reading up in classrooms or in corridors, for example:
"Books are the way that we communicate with the dead. The way that we learn lessons from those who are no longer with us, that humanity has built on itself, progressed, made knowledge incremental rather than something that has to be relearned, over and over."
5. Appeal to pragmatism and self-interest as well as idealism: as English teachers we can get a bit dewey-eyed about reading which can be counter-productive when it comes to persuading more reluctant and cynical students about why they should read more. Therefore, quotations such as those by Neil Gaiman and John Lewis above should be balanced with some more factual information such as the following:

"Earlier this year the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development revealed that the strongest indicator of the future success of a child was not which school they attended or whether their family was wealthy, but if they read for pleasure at 15."

The Times, November 13th 2013

We also got our University advisors to come and talk to Grade 10 about what universities expect from students in terms of reading, both in terms of seeing evidence of independent reading when looking at applications and interviewing candidates, and in terms of the weekly volume of reading for all university courses, something students need to be prepared for.

6. Communicate with parents: we send a letter every year to parents of students joining High School in Grade 9 as well as those about to start the IB in Grade 11. In the letter we include information such as the above as well as outlining our expectations for all students to have independent reading lives. Most parents are delighted to have this in writing and see this as an important partnership between school and home. We send the letter just before the long summer break, with links to our library's suggested reading lists and also include this quotation from Richard Allington:

"What we know is that children who do not read in the summer lose two to three months of reading development while kids who do read tend to gain a month of reading proficiency...This creates a three to four month gap every year. Every two or three years the kids who don't read in the summer fall a year behind the kids who do."

7. Read Book Love: Developing Depth, Stamina and Passion in Adolescent Readers by Penny Kittle and buy copies for your department. Use her passion, anecdotes and ideas as inspiration for improving the reading culture in your school.

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IB English A Literature: "Read, my child. Read."

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Watch the short video below of civil-rights campaigner and congressman John Lewis accepting America's National Book Award for young people's literature last year. He won the award for the third volume of his graphic memoir, March. A short clip like this can have an big impact on students, especially when put in the context...

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Writing Workshop and the literary analysis paper

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Writing Workshop and the literary analysis paper

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and, yes, this connects to I.B.

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Last Friday, I dismissed my fourth period IB English class early. We simply couldn't go on.

They filed out, sniffling, wiping away tears, heads down. Some were silent and left alone; most found a friend or two and whispered as they left, arms around shoulders.

They had just finished sharing their first piece of workshop writing.

You see, a few weeks ago, I simultaneously hit a wall and had an epiphany - one that I suspect had been brewing underneath the surface for quite some time. My IB seniors were all competent writers, I already knew that they will perform well on the IB exam, but I was bored teaching them (unlike my ninth grader workshoppers) and they were just going through the motions, totally turned off of writing (unlike my ninth grade workshoppers).

For years I have tossed around ideas about how full-fledged writing workshop could work in an IB or AP class. (Amy Rasmussen (@amyrass) at threeteacherstalk.com has done a lot to cause these thoughts to ferment and bubble over.) But, I had never acted on them. Not until a few weeks ago when, frustrated with not being the very best teacher I knew to be, I decided to leap. All in. All the way.

After all, I reasoned, if I truly believe that writing workshop is the best way to develop, deepen, and inspire passionate lifelong writers, how could it be wrong?

In broad terms, my IB students, now fully immersed in workshop life, do two kinds of writing studies - literature-based writing studies and technique-based writing studies. All of which require critical thinking and literary analysis. All of which will help them score well on their IB exam and wow their professors next year in college. But, far more importantly, all of which challenge them and push them and engage them in the process of great writing craft. All of which drive them to create pieces of writing that matter to them.

That's why we had to end class early last week - because my students' writing mattered so much to them that reading it aloud brought them to tears. And seeing so much emotion poured into and out of and through the writing of their peers, other students cried with them.

In the next few days and weeks, I'll share the process nitty-gritty with you. I'll tell you about the writing studies we've done so far, I'll share the mentor texts I used and how I used them, I'll show you how this instructional approach and the writing it yields more than meets the requirements of AP and IB programs, and I'll show you the results of the students' labor.

For now, I'd like you to hear from my students. These quotes come from their author's notes for a recent workshop paper that asked them to write about two texts side-by-side.

I have seen the power of writing workshop to transform struggling and disengaged writers. Recently, I have seen that it is just as powerful for students who can already check the right writing boxes but thirst for something more.

Dear Mrs. O'Dell,

I thoroughly enjoyed writing this paper much much more than all of the boring papers in the past. I felt as though I was actually a writer working for the New York Times. I felt passionate about what I was writing because I could actually speak to the reader and express my opinions in a way that was actually enjoyable. I think that next year you should tell your students to write all of their papers this way...Thank you for giving us this opportunity Mrs. O'Dell, it has made me enjoy writing much more! - Harrison

"This is one of my favorite papers I have ever written, which is definitely not something I expected to feel at the end of my senior year. I'm glad you forced me to push my writing to something different." - Seth

"I really really enjoyed writing this paper! Seriously, this might be one of the first times I've ever had fun writing a paper" - Fletcher

"I had a blast and a half writing this paper. I don't think it was necessarily easier to write this paper than other English papers, but I do think it was a more enjoyable experience...Thank you for widening my knowledge as a writer and pushing me to write to the best of my ability." - Alex

In conclusion, I have a confession: writing is an incredibly difficult task for me. I enjoy doing it, but words don't flow out of my mouth and brain the way some people's do. I struggle with word choice as well as run on sentences; it seems like my sentences can last forever at times. But I honestly did enjoy this paper. Last night I was about to go to bed after finishing my paper that afternoon, then decided to go back one more time to make sure that I loved what I was saying and that you would be happy with what I wrote. I can't say that I have done that on many English papers. (I'm just being honest.) Don't get me wrong, I enjoy English. I just struggle with analyzing pieces of writing, and specifically, comparing two pieces. But I was satisfied with what I wrote. I feel that I took risks in many aspects of my paper, specifically with tone and structure, but also with the general format of what I chose to say. I'm happy with my paper, and I hope you enjoy it as well. - Kathryn

Connect with us in the comments below & on Twitter @rebekahodell1 and @allisonmarchett.

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Writing Workshop Transforms Literary Analysis, Too

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Last Friday, I dismissed my fourth period IB English class early. We simply couldn't go on. They filed out, sniffling, wiping away tears, heads down. Some were silent and left alone; most found a friend or two and whispered as they left, arms around shoulders. They had just finished sharing their first piece of workshop...

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Even though this article focuses on the work of Teachers College, the article clarifies why IB and workshop are compatible.

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Reading & Writing Workshop and The IB PYP Are They Compatible?

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Original post 15/11/2015 Tokyo International School ​I work at Tokyo International School (TIS) an IB World School. TIS is a rare breed: it is one of only three, PYP authorized schools in the world which are also officially recognized by Columbia University Teachers College (NY) as a 'Reading and Writing Project School' (TCRWP).

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Not necessarily about workshop but one AP teacher's resources for supporting AP teachers and learners.