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Collaborate & Ground Yourself in the WHY

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Collaborate & Ground Yourself in the WHY

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EKC

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Grade 8/Year 3 - developed from reading and writing progressions

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EKC

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EKC

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IB L&L and I&S Overlaps: Writing/Communicating

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IB L&L and I&S Overlaps: Writing/Communicating

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TCRWP

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Students customize and create their own assessment of learning

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Connect with educators around the world!

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Log into Facebook to start sharing and connecting with your friends, family, and people you know.

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Jennifer Serravallo

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Your Research-based Guide to Developing Skilled Readers. 300+ strategies with learning progressions support 13 reading goals, with each strategy cross-linked to skills, teacher tips, prompts, research, and reading levels—everything from fluency to literary analysis.

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Jennifer Serravallo

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Introduction
A Very Brief Introduction to Principles, Research, and Theory, and How to Use This Book
The idea for a book of writing strategies exists many times over. This one is possible only because of the great books that have come before it. There are books suggesting writing strategies meant for professional writers and college students, such as those by Noah Lukeman, Roy Peter Clark, and Janet Burroway, among others. There are countless examples of excellent compilations of writing strategies in books written for teachers of writing, such as Fletcher and Portalupi's Craft Lessons Series, Barry Lane's After "The End" (1993), Carl Anderson's Strategic Writing Conferences series (2008-2009), Donald Graves' many books, Katie Wood Ray's Wondrous Words (1999) and other titles, Katherine Bomer's books, Georgia Heard's books, Nancie Atwell's In the Middle (2014) and other resources, Lucy Calkins' Units of Study series, and many more. My aim in this book is to offer my favorite, most useful collection of strategies that span all aspects of the writing process, all genres and modes of writing, and that will work well with students in grades K-8. I want to offer you a little bit of everything. I streamlined the language and examples, and I present the strategies in a format that is organized so that the busy teacher can find just the right strategy at just the right moment. Of course, you'll elaborate on the streamlined language and make it your own.

But wait-before you dive in, I'm so glad you're taking the time to spend a few moments with this "Getting Started" introduction. In this introduction, you'll gain a helpful overview of the thinking that undergirds this book's ideas as well as an overview of its organization. You'll learn about strategies and all the aspects that I chose to include to elaborate on them-mentor texts, prompts, lesson language, teaching tips, and more. You'll learn how to navigate the pages of the book so you can find what you're looking for quickly and easily, for this is not a read-every-single-page kind of book (unless you want it to be). You'll get a quick crash course on some important terminology and concepts that will help you use this book to its fullest- thoughts about writing as a process, and modes and genres of writing, for example. And finally, you'll learn how to adapt what's in the book to fit your students' writing time in the classroom, no matter what form that time takes.
Click here to download more of the introduction of this book.
Goal 1: Composing with Pictures

Strategy Go back to your picture(s). Point to the part or picture that teaches something important about your topic. Touch or turn to the next part. Tell what new fact about your topic this part of the picture or this page teaches.

Lesson Language If I wrote or drew to teach, then when I read my writing back I'm going to make it sound like a teaching book. I'm going to tell my reader the facts I wrote about. Let me show you. I drew a picture of a big T. rex. I know a lot about them so I added a lot of details in my picture. I'm going to touch one part and teach what that part says. "The T. rex had very large jaws with big sharp teeth." Now I'm going to touch a new part and teach what that part says. "The T. rex had very short arms. It would only run using its hind legs."

Goal 2: Engagement - Independence, Increasing Volume, and Developing a Writing Identity

Strategy First, identify the problem you're having. Then, check the spot in the room, a resource, or a friend that might help you solve the problem. Try a solution. If it doesn't work, try something else.

Teaching Tip This strategy, like "Use the Room" that appears earlier in this chapter, assumes that there are things in the room that can be helpful, and that you've taught children how to use them. For example, in a primary classroom a word wall may help a writer to spell high-frequency words. If you've introduced and used mentor texts, then having these available for children to reference on their own could help them. Sometimes the problem might be that they need to work in a new spot in the room because of the amount of distractions at their current spot. Brainstorm possible problems with your students, and come up with a list of resources and solutions. Or, this strategy can be like a culmination of past teaching from this and other chapters.

Goal 3: Generating and Collecting Ideas

Strategy Decide on a new place to visit. Go there with no more than a notebook and a set of listening ears and observing eyes. Let yourself pick up on conversation and details of the person. Jot down what you observe, and also what you imagine, about the people you see.

Teaching Tip This strategy will take you outside of the classroom, so it would work well as a whole-class lesson followed by a field trip, or as a suggestion to a student, group, or class for independent writing outside of the school day.

Goal 4: Focus/Meaning

Strategy Think about a memory and all the events that are part of that memory. Think about what's important about that memory, or the big idea the memory leaves you with. Identify the one part of the memory that feels the most important. Write some ideas about what's important about it, and why it's important. Try to write just that one smaller part of the larger moment. Tell it bit by bit.

Teaching Tip The amount a writer will be able to reflect on the overall significance of a small moment will depend on her maturity level and experience with writing. For younger children, you may want to suggest choosing a small moment that will make a good story, rather than one imbued with a deep or heavy significance, or simply encourage them to narrow down the window of time

Goal 5: Organization and Structure

Strategy Before beginning to draft, visualize the shape of what you're going to make. Create some sort of quick visual, in pictures or in words, to represent the overarching structure. As you write, check back to see where you are in your plan.

Teaching Tip This is going to be most helpful after students have learned a variety of ways to structure their pieces and have been introduced to a variety of graphic organizers that would help them to organize, or shape, the information into a structure.

Goal 6: Elaboration

Strategy Think about the subtopics for which you'll want to collect information. Write each of your subtopics as a heading on a notebook or booklet page. As you find new information for your topic, think, "What page in my notebook should this go on? Which subtopic does it provide details for?"

Lesson Language I just found this interesting fact: Ballerinas really wear out their shoes. Many go through as many as 2-3 pairs per week! I'm going to look across the pages of my booklet to see where this would best fit. Would it belong in the section called "Types of Ballet Positions?" No, that's not about the positions. Would it go in the section called "Famous Ballets?" No. "What Ballerinas Wear?" Well, I do talk about pointe shoes in this section, so it might be cool to add this fact about how many pairs of pointe shoes the average ballerina needs. I'll keep the fact here.

Goal 7: Word Choice

Strategy Find all the action verbs in your piece. Focus on any that you think aren't as clear, precise, or exact as they could be. List several options for what might replace that word (use a thesaurus if you need it!). Choose the word that best matches your meaning.

Teaching Tip For this strategy to work, children will need to understand what an action verb is, so identification of verbs is a first step in this strategy. Many teachers weave in some instruction during other balanced literacy components such as word study, read-aloud, and/or shared reading. You could also plan to teach direct minilessons to the class or small groups for those who do not understand parts of speech.

Goal 8: Conventions - Spelling and Letter Formation

Strategy When trying to spell a word, try to visualize where you've seen it written and how you've seen it written before. It may help to close your eyes. Then, in a margin or on a piece of scrap paper, write how you think it's spelled. Try it a second or maybe even third way. Look back at what you've written and ask yourself, "Which of these tries looks right to me?"

Prompts

Check off the parts that look right to you.

Write the word as you think you've seen it before.

Which parts look right? Which part looks off?

Do you think there are some letters missing?

What part of that word is tricky for you?

The part you're trying to spell is also in the word _______. Does that help?

Goal 9: Conventions - Grammar and Punctuation

Strategy Find two sentences that talk about the same topic. Think about the relationship between those sentences. Choose a connector word and try combining the sentences into one. Reread and decide if you like the combined way or original way better.

Lesson Language Here's one spot in my draft where I have two sentences that I
think go well together. I wrote: "A dog is something that can keep you company. A dog
can cheer you up." What's the relationship between those two sentences? They both have
to do with something that is positive about owning a dog, so I think they are related. I'm
adding more information on. I'll try using and to combine those sentences: "A dog can
keep you company and cheer you up." Here's another spot: "I would love to have a dog.
My mom won't let me have a dog." What's the relationship between those two sentences?
The second sentence gives more information that feels in contrast to the first. I'll combine
them with however: "I would like to have a dog, however my mom won't let me." The
new sentence I made seems clearer and more to the point.

Goal 10: Collaborating with Writing Partners and Clubs

Strategy Talk with your partner about your goals (for the writing period, for the week, and/or for writing work to take place at home, and so on). Discuss together how you might get that work done. Write the goal, and make the promise...then check in with your partner soon.

Teaching Tip Reflect on your own life and goals you've set out to accomplish. Now think about how successful you've been and whether or not you made your goals public ahead of time. I know that when I share my goals with my partner, my friends, my colleagues, my editor, I am more likely to get things done. The built-in accountability, the opportunity to celebrate together, the lifeline of support in case something does not go according to plan-these are invaluable.

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Writing Strategies Book by Jennifer Serravallo.

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Collection of strategies that span all aspects of the writing process, all genres and modes of writing, and that will work well with students in grades K-8. Organized so the busy teacher can find just the right strategy at just the right moment.

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EKC

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EKC

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TCRWP

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TCRWP

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TCRWP | MS/HS

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EKC

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IB

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EKC

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EKC

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Kylene Beers and Bob Probst

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"Disrupting Thinking is one of the best books I've read about the power of books to disrupt complacency and promote change and the role teachers play in that disruption. Skillfully, these authors address the continuum of education K-12, making this book ideal for colleagues to read and share horizontally and vertically across grade levels."
-- Sarah Mulhern Gross, English teacher at High Technology High School, contributor to The NY Times Learning Network

"We're living in a world of social media and fake news have the potential to shape who we are and what we believe. Through the strategies presented in Disrupting Thinking, teachers see clearly how to help students become active participants in constructing meaning, as they respond, question, and challenge, so that in the end they become more responsible citizens in our world."

-- Mindy Hoffar, All Write Consortium Director

"Beers and Probst tackle one of teachers' greatest challenges: student apathy. They show us not only how to "teach struggling readers but how to teach readers to struggle." And then they go the next step and show us how to turn the apathetic reader into a lifetime reader. And for both, we are grateful."
-- Danny Brassel, Ph.D., consultant and author. Author of The Lazy Readers' Book Club

"We need students who can do more than answer questions. Tomorrow's leaders need to be able to ASK questions. This is an excellent book for all teachers whether they teach reading, language arts, or science or history. Whether they teach elementary, middle, high school or college, or at home - EVERYONE who is around children needs to read this book. It is short but powerful. I have spent over 30 years in education, and I have taught every level from pre-school through university, and this book brought me back to the WHY and HOW of teaching. It is short and easy to understand for non-teachers. As an educator it reminded me of the good things we do in teaching, but stated in their research that all of this has bee set aside to focus on numbers and passing tests - the bane of a real educator's life. Children start out loving books and reading, but by middle school that hate reading because educators are just having them study vocabulary, answer questions, and nothing more. Most schools have taken away quiet or silent sustained reading, when research shows that it works and is needed. At the same time, many schools still do round-robin reading when research shows that it does NOT work. What works: students must be given choice in what to read, we must increase the amount they read, they must be encouraged to read aloud to a partner or parent, we must teach questioning strategies and model that process, and we MUST let go of the silent classroom and encourage students to talk about their reading with other students. Many teachers believe a quiet classroom is one that is in control, but our students need to talk to each other about their reading and their work. Letting go is a critical skill for educators in this fluid and rapidly changing world. Reading builds the following: knowledge, improves overall achievement, increases overall motivation, increases vocabulary, improves writing, build background knowledge, improves understanding of text structures, develops empathy, and develops personal identity.

Please get this little book, read it, then apply the ideas to the children in your life or classroom. Please." --Texas Rose

Provided via Amazon Vine

"If you haven't read anything by the dynamic duo Bob Probst and Kylene Beers and you are a teacher, you must! Their collaborative writing is highly readable, self-deprecating, witty, and on point. But don't be sidetracked by the entertaining repartee: their ideas about teaching are powerful, disruptive, and do-able. Don't think the double entendre of the book's title isn't intentional. While they propose and illustrate tangible ways in which we can disrupt the thinking of our students while reading (or prompt students out of what we thought were nonthinking stupors--Beers and Probst are passionately clear that we're wrong on that count), the duo is intentionally disrupting modern groupthink about teaching. If you only read 3 professional books this summer, make them: 1) Disrupting Thinking, 2) Notice and Note, and 3) Reading Nonfiction (in that order). Yes, like Star Wars, the third book in the series is really where it all begins. Disrupting Thinking outlines the philosophical underpinnings of their Notice and Note strategies. Without an understanding and willingness to embrace the philosophy behind Notice and Note, the signposts will be little more than another set of isolated reading strategies. Trust me, I taught the Nonfiction Notice and Note strategies as isolated reading strategies the first time (I know, I know, the book is clear on not doing that, but my role was to teach demonstration lessons rather than a daily core class). Like any isolated strategy, it doesn't work; kids won't and/or can't transfer their learning. I thought my flaw was a lack of text complexity. I taught the strategies but then students never needed to use them because they understood the texts without them. After reading "Disrupting Thinking," I understood that the attitude toward reading has to be in place for the Notice and Note signposts to be useful. In other words, students have to CARE enough about the text to use the strategies to figure it out. Disrupting Thinking only has one real strategy, and it is deceptively simple and powerful to the core. They call it: BHH (Book * Head * Heart). It can be taught at any level as a mindset for reading: What does the book say? What am I thinking as I read? What's in my heart while I read? (my paraphase, not theirs) The revolutionary idea is that we have to approach reading as something that changes us. When we teach our students to anticipate that what they read will change them one page at a time, then everything about how they read and how we teach reading changes, too. Simple, right? But how many teachers are out there teaching reading as anticipating change? Yet how many teachers out there read to be changed themselves? TONS. So our job is to come at reading with our students the way we do and make it matter. Somehow this simple yet powerful idea resonated with me in a way that all the book love authors have not. It's more tangible and more realistic than sharing your love of reading. They've pinpointed WHY we love reading: because it changes us. Now just because you've read my sad little synopsis, don't assume you can pass up this book. To circle back, Beers and Probst are incredible authors; their book comes with video links that I haven't even delved into yet, and you need to hear it from the two of them for yourself. You'll learn much more along the way, such as their take on recent education and reading debates, authors they look to, sample conversations to help imagine using the strategy in class, lovely sample anchor charts, etc. Is this book going to give you 24 lesson plans like Notice and Note? No. Is this book going to make those 24 lesson plans work? Yes. Get it, read it, and give it to a colleague to read, too." --Julie

Provided via Amazon Vine

"This honestly reminds me of things like why children hate reading and schools killing the love of reading, both the subject and titles of articles and discussions in education. As an English teacher who hates to write, but loves to read, this helps me feel better about the process. I love diving into a new book and sharing it with my students. I honestly got started writing book reviews because my students would see me reading something and immediately ask to read it next. It got to the point where I couldn't remember who was next and what that particular book was about because I had moved on to something new. Writing little book reviews on my classroom webpage and having a wait list made it easier for me to keep track. Knowing that we read for pleasure far more often than we read for any particular literary device or testing strategy is far more important for building lifelong literacy. I love that Beers addresses this and focuses on talking about the relationship of book and reader to engage in comprehension. Trying to figure out motivations and connections to the literature helps me connect and I have always wanted to share that with my students. I love that there are books out there that make me feel validated and can easily be shown to other parents or teachers to stress this importance." --Jennifer Miller

Provided via Amazon Vine

"I only wish that this book would be as popular in schools as Beers previous book was. Unfortunately, the education industry does not put priority on personal meaning in learning, so I think that this is a book that will have to be pushed out by individual teachers and leaders in schools, as well as involved parents. Within the first couple of chapters, Beers sets out why reading even matters- beyond the basic ability to find answers in text. After all, the best readers are usually ones that were read to as children, who saw their own parents or other family members reading for pleasure, and who read for pleasure themselves. And why do they read for pleasure? Because reading has meaning beyond their test scores. Going further, Beers also reminds us that contemporary careers and careers of the future do not want employees that can just repeat back information; they want employees that can make meaning out of what they read, make connections, and create their own ideas from what they have read.

This is an enjoyable read for teachers, school leaders, and parents alike. I especially like it as motivational summer reading for teachers that are getting ready to return to school." --Mom to 2 Boys

Provided via Amazon Vine

--This text refers to the paperback edition.

Kylene Beers is an award-winning educator and is the author of When Kids Can't Read: What Teachers Can Do, Notice and Note: Strategies for Close Reading, Adolescent Literacy: Turning Promise into Practice, and Elements of Literature, the literature textbook read by the majority of middle school and high school students across the US. She began her teaching career in 1979 in the Alief School District, outside of Houston. Texas. Since then, she has become an internationally-known and respected authority in literacy education. Beers works tirelessly to help parents, teachers, and national policy makers understand how to best help struggling readers. In 2008-2009, she served as President of the National Council of Teachers of English and in 2011 she received an NCTE Leadership Award. She has served as a consultant to the National Governor's Association Education Committee, was the editor of the national literacy journal Voices from the Middle, taught in the College of Education at the University of Houston, held a reading research position in the Comer School Development Program at Yale University School of Medicine, and has most recently served as the Senior Reading Advisor to the Reading and Writing Project at Teachers College, Columbia University.

Robert Probst, Ed.D., is an author and consultant to schools nationally and internationally. He speaks to administrators and teachers on literacy improvement, particularly issues surrounding struggling readers and meeting standards. Bob is Professor Emeritus of English Education at Georgia State University and has served as a research fellow for Florida International University. He has served as a member on the Conference on English Board of Directors, an NCTE journal columnist, and a member of the NCTE Commission on Reading. In 2004 he was awarded the NCTE Exemplary Leadership Award presented by the Conference on English Leadership.

--This text refers to the paperback edition.

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disrupting thinking: why how we read matters

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teaching methods & materials - language arts

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teaching methods & materials - reading & phonics

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education / teaching methods & materials / language arts

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education / teaching methods & materials / reading & phonics

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teaching methods & materials - language arts

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teaching methods & materials - reading & phonics

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teacher resource; professional development; create engagement; encourage thought

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education / teaching methods & materials / language arts

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education / teaching methods & materials / reading & phonics

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Disrupting Thinking: Why How We Read Matters

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Buy Disrupting Thinking: Why How We Read Matters: Read Kindle Store Reviews - Amazon.com

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Grade Level(s)
Narrative or Information?

Teaching Point (Think: Forever Stance - What + How + Why)

Potential tool idea?

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Time to read and write.
Opportunities to feel success.
Opportunities to fail safely.
Open to feedback between teacher and student.
Teachers and students cultivating a safe environment in the classroom to be able to share freely.
To provide personalized help to students.
Choosing their own book for independent reading.
Choices for class text.

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Allocate reading time,
Offer choices to students with respect to reading material
To support them at their level
to give explicit instruction
to make reading & writing enjoyable
to be heard: eg - conferring
to help develop as critical thinkers
to foster a safe & nurturing environment
challenge students as readers & writers

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Passion for reading & writing
Enjoyment
Command of language for precision in communication
promise to provide resources

-Mousa, Marie, Kim & Robyn

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Students need the chance to complete low stakes reading and writing. Doing these skills for pleasure rather than grade.
We also need to up skill the students in reading and writing based on their needs.

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Choice, challenge, something new, "make it real", support, guidance, materials, build empathy, help them develop in to good people, build ability to communicate, engage with local community, enjoyment, vocabulary to access concepts & texts

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Challenge: I wonder - how can I gain more consistency in conferring? How can I build it in systematically but also make it organic?

Extend: Assessment... of, for, as... learning & four dimensions of assessment.

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Affirm: group characteristics
We wonder about doing this in DL.

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the Challenge to meet the IB criteria for assessment (which is heavy itself) as well as 'of and 'For'

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the Challenge to meet the IB criteria for assessment (which is heavy itself) as well as 'of and 'For'

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Informational

1- notice the writing which isn't part of the main paragraphs
2- what might be the purpose of these small/ additional pieces of writing
3- How might these additional pieces enrich to your understanding of the main points?

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What: identify and comment upon significant aspects of texts.

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What: identify and comment upon significant aspects of texts.

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How: have the students map out the plot on a story mountain. Highlight significant parts of plot or character development

Why: to priovide graphic organiser to su

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Narrative
What: Understanding figurative language.
Tool: graphic organizer with two items compared (How), illustration of that (How), and then "meaning added" column (Why).

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Narrative
What :

Understanding how the text is written in a particular voice?

Potential idea
As a teacher read aloud the text yourself. Ask the students Try the same part. Try to hear this accent whenever you read from this voice

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specific prompts for conferring based on needs of skill development

Want:
logistics of how it works in practice - breakdown of timing and such
-integration within current MYP unit

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The 'Supporting Readers Up Levels' is a very useful resource.

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To look at each strand of criteria and then develop criteria to teach explicitly.

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To look at each strand of criteria and then develop criteria to teach explicitly.

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Great resources to help with understanding text complexity.

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Got                                           The text complexity descriptor is very useful

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Got                                           The text complexity descriptor is very useful

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Mentor text: Narrative, Argument, Information? All three!

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Mentor text: Narrative, Argument, Information? All three!

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Kaylee Byers crouches in a patch of urban blackberries early one morning this June, to check a live trap in one of Vancouver's poorest areas, the V6A postal code. Her first catch of the day is near a large blue dumpster on "Block 5," in front of a 20-some-unit apartment complex above a thrift shop. Across the alley, a building is going up; between the two is an overgrown, paper and wrapper-strewn lot. In the lot, there are rats.

"Once we caught two in a single trap," she says, peering inside the cage. She finds a new rat there, and makes a note of it on her clipboard; she'll be back for it, to take the animal to her nearby van, which is parked near (according to Google Maps) an "unfussy" traditional Ethiopian restaurant. Once inside the van, the rat will be put under anesthesia, and will then be photographed, brushed for fleas, tested for disease, fixed with an ear tag, and released back into V6A within 45 minutes.

Kaylee Byers / Michael Lee

Byers is a Ph.D. student under veterinary pathologist Chelsea Himsworth, a University of British Columbia School of Population and Public Health assistant professor who has become a local science celebrity thanks to her "Vancouver Rat Project." Himsworth started the project as a way to address health concerns over the city's exploding rat population-exploding anecdotally, that is, as no one has counted it.

Prior to Himsworth's work, in fact, the sum total knowledge of Canada's wild rats could be boiled down to a single study of 43 rats living in a landfill in nearby Richmond in 1984. So, six years ago, she stocked an old mini van with syringes, needles, and gloves and live-trapped more than 700 of V6A's rats to sample their DNA and learn about the bacteria they carried.

Her research has made her reconsider the age-old labeling of rats as invaders that need to be completely fought back. They may, instead, be just as much a part of our city as sidewalks and lampposts. We would all be better off if, under most circumstances, we simply left them alone.

Rats thrive as a result of people. The great modern disruptions caused by urban development and human movement across the world have ferried them to new ecological niches. "Rats are real disturbance specialists," says biologist Ken Aplin, who has studied the rodents and their diseases for decades. "Very few wild animals have adapted so well to the human environment without active domestication." Rats invade when ecosystems get disrupted. In terms of the bare necessities, "rats need only a place to build a burrow (usually open soil but sometimes within buildings or piles of material), access to fresh drinking water, and around 50 grams of moderately calorie-rich food each day," according to Matthew Combs, a doctoral student at Fordham University who is studying the genetic history of rats in New York City. In a human-dominated landscape like New York or Vancouver, "It comes down to where rats have found a way to access resources, which often depends on how humans maintain their own environment."

It's not hard to understand why humans often think of the rat lifestyle as a parasitic response to our own. But that's not entirely true. "I have to stop myself sometimes because I want to say that rats have adapted to our cities," says Combs. The reality is that rats were perfectly positioned to take advantage of the disruptions caused by human settlement long before we arrived. They've been on Earth for millions of years, arriving long before modern humans evolved, about 200,000 years ago. Before cities were even a glimmer in our eye, rats were learning to become the ultimate opportunists. "They were likely stealing some other species' food before ours," Combs says. Even in the still-remote mountain habitats of New Guinea, says Aplin, "you tend to find rats living in landslides or along creek systems where natural disturbance is going on." Walk into a lush, primary, intact forest, "and they're pretty rare." It's not that rats have become parasitic to human cities; it's more correct to say they have become parasitic to the disturbance, waste, construction, and destruction that we humans have long produced.

Flickr

Which brings into question the constant human quest to disrupt rats and their habitats. As much as rats thrive in disrupted environments, Byers says, they've managed to create very stable colonies within them. Rats live in tight-knit family groups that are confined to single city blocks, and which rarely interact. The Rat Project hypothesized that when a rat is ousted from its family by pest control, its family might flee its single-block territory, spreading diseases that are usually effectively quarantined to that family. In other words, the current pest control approach of killing one rat per concerned homeowner call could be backfiring, and spreading disease rather than preventing it.

The diseases that rats might be spreading aren't just their own. Himsworth likes to say that Vancouver's rats are like sponges. Their garbage-based diets allow them to absorb a diverse collection of bacteria that live throughout their city, in human waste and in our homes. "So it's not like the presence of harmful bacteria are characteristic of the rats themselves," she says. They get that bacteria from their environment, and when they move, they take these place-specific pathogens with them.

Rats were perfectly positioned to take advantage of the disruptions caused by human settlement long before we arrived.

When "stranger" rats come into contact, Byers says, territorial battles ensue. "They urinate out of fear and they draw blood," she says-perfect for expelling and acquiring even more bacteria. It's during these territorial brawls, Byers and her colleagues believe, that bacteria can converge, mix, and create new diseases. "The rat gut acts as a mixing bowl," says Himsworth, where bacteria that would otherwise never interact can swap genes and form new types of pathogens.

One example is a strain of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, or MRSA, that Himsworth found in V6A's rats. It included a piece of genetic material from a very closely-related superbug called methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus pseudintermedius, or MRSP, which is often only associated with domestic animals like pet dogs. It seems that rats pick up human MRSA from the sewers or the streets, and canine MRSP from our yards, then mix them in their guts. These new human-rat bugs could then potentially spread back to people via the rat's droppings and saliva.

In V6A, it's hard not to notice the litter around us. Garbage has bubbled out from under the lids of trashcans and a pile of empty syringes surrounds a parking lot trap. Walking across this landscape of debris, cracked concrete, and weeds, Byers stops at another trap, which is set on what she has named "Block J." She and two student assistants are heading the project's second phase, which involves tracking the real-time movement of rats, using ear tags. Once these trees are mapped, she will begin to euthanize individual rats, and see how their family responds. Part of her Ph.D. work is to understand how human-caused disruptions, pest control in particular, affect how rats move throughout V6A. The hypothesis is that the disruption will send communities scurrying for new ground. With nearly 100 cages to check today, Byers moves hastily to a trap on Block 8. No rat here, but this one did catch a skunk.

A significant finding from the project's original phase, Byers tells me, is that not every rat in V6A carried the same disease. Rat families are generally confined to a single city block, and while one block might be wholly infected with a given bacteria, adjacent blocks were often completely disease free. "Disease risk doesn't really relate to the number of rats you're exposed to as much as it does which family you interact with," says Robbin Lindsay, a researcher at Canada's National Microbiology Lab who assisted the Vancouver Rat Project screen for disease. If those family units are scattered, diseases could potentially spread and multiply-something Byers is hoping to figure out through her Ph.D. work.

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If that's true, a city's rat policy should include doing the unthinkable: Intentionally leave them where they are. "It might be better to maintain local rat populations that already have some sort of equilibrium with the people who live there," says Alpin. Many of the diseases that we share with rats are already part of a human disease cycle established over centuries, he says. Seen this way, rats are irrepressible-"a force of nature, a fact of our lives." Rather than focusing on killing them, we need to try to keep their populations stable and in place-and that includes managing rat immigrants.

An established rat society in a neighborhood makes it a much less viable destination for other rats, for example those entering through ports. Exotic rats can be more of a threat than those adapted to the region because each rat community evolves with its own suite of unique pathogens, which it shares with the other vertebrates in its ecosystem. New rats mean new diseases. The big question now, Aplin says, "What happens when these different pathogens come together? This is something that I'm just starting to think about now," he says. If the local rat population is suppressed, if you're actively getting rid of it, then you're also actively opening up niches for these foreign rats to enter."

Bobanny / Wikipedia

In Vancouver, this is a fact of life. "One important thing we do have right over there," says Byers, motioning with her left hand, "is Canada's largest shipping port." Vancouver sits on Vancouver Harbor, which houses the great Port of Vancouver. In one of Himsworth's earlier studies, she found mites on the ears of rats that live by the port and compared them to rats that take up residence around V6A. Port rats had malformed ears full of a strange breed of mite previously unknown to Canada-"an exotic species that's found in Asia," Himsworth says, which happens to be where Vancouver gets the majority of its imports. These foreign ear mites were not found on rats from any other block.

"So I think Aplin's theory has a lot of merit," Himsworth says. "It seems that the established rat population at the port acts as a buffer." Himsworth wonders if this is precisely what has kept an otherwise highly contagious mite from spreading throughout V6A.

The current pest control approach of killing one rat per concerned homeowner call could be spreading disease rather than preventing it.

Disruption, of course, doesn't come from just ports and pest control. It is part and parcel of modern civilization. Vancouver's population is growing steadily (by about 30,000 residents each year), bringing housing development, demolition, and more garbage. Even our love of birds can be a problem. Two years ago, for example, rats invaded a playground and community garden in East Vancouver, a bit outside of V6A. Several media sites reported on the visitors, which were evidently drawn in by birdseed dropped a single individual. The area soon became known as "Rat Park." The City of Vancouver urged the garden's coordinator to put up signage asking people to avoid feeding the birds and to pick up their overripe vegetables. An exterminator was hired, as well-adding more disruption still.

Himsworth hopes the new science will sway Vancouver's existing policy on rats, which, she stresses, is currently "essentially nonexistent." This bothers her a lot. "I know that Vancouver Coastal Health essentially has the standpoint that, 'Well, we don't see the disease in people so we don't worry about it,' " she says of the region's publicly funded healthcare authority. Homeowners with rat infestations can ring 311, Canada's "411," to report an infestation, but that's not a preventative response. "Rats are pests, and we don't spend healthcare dollars to track pests," said media officer Anna Marie D'Angelo of Vancouver Coastal Health. It was a message echoed by Issues Management Communications Coordinator Jag Sandhu of the City of Vancouver: "The City of Vancouver does not track the rat population." To Himsworth, this is shortsighted. "They're not taking the rat disease risk seriously because they haven't seen it in humans yet-but that's not where diseases start." She also believes the issue is, in part, one of social justice. Rats typically affect poor areas, like V6A, that have little political clout.

Back inside one of Byers traps in V6A, needle-like nails are lightly scraping on the metal. "It's a black rat," Byers tells me-the famed carrier of the Black Death. Byers says she isn't concerned about bubonic plague, which, in North America, is mainly carried by prairie dogs. But there were 13 rat-driven bubonic plague outbreaks in seven countries between 2009 and 2013. And there are plenty of new diseases cooking.
Becca Cudmore is a science journalist.

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university of british columbia school of population and public health

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The Case For Leaving City Rats Alone - Issue 38: Noise - Nautilus

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Kaylee Byers crouches in a patch of urban blackberries early one morning this June, to check a live trap in one of Vancouver's poorest areas, the V6A postal code. Her first catch of the day is near a large blue dumpster on "Block 5," in front of a 20-some-unit apartment complex above a thrift shop.

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TCRWP

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TCRWP

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Story Matters: Teaching Teens to Use the Tools of Narrative to Argue and Inform

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Story Matters: Teaching Teens to Use the Tools of Narrative to Argue and Inform

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Liz Prather

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Teaching Teens to Use the Tools of Narrative to Argue and Inform

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Minds Made for Stories: How We Really Read and Write Informational and Persuasive Texts

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Minds Made for Stories: How We Really Read and Write Informational and Persuasive Texts

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Thomas Newkirk

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This groundbreaking book challenges the assumption that narrative is an “easy” type of writing, by inviting readers to imagine narrative as

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TCRWP - for K-8 writing progressions, student checklists, and more.

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"These assessment tools make progress in writing as transparent, concrete, and obtainable as possible and put ownership for this progress into the hands of learners, allowing students and teachers to work toward a very clear image of what good writing entails."
-Lucy Calkins, Writing Pathways
Lucy Calkins' groundbreaking performance assessments offer instructional tools to support continuous assessment, timely feedback, and clear goals tied to learning progressions that have been aligned with world-class standards. Originally published as part of the bestselling Units of Study in Opinion/Argument, Information, and Narrative Writing, grades K-8, Writing Pathways is ideal for writing workshop, but suitable for any writing instruction context or curriculum.

This practical guide includes:

Learning progressions for opinion/argument, information, and narrative writing, which map the specific benchmarks students will master for every grade level

On-demand writing prompts that support schoolwide performance assessment

Student checklists to help students set goals and integrate crucial self-assessment into their work

Rubrics to support individual teachers and professional learning communities as they evaluate mastery and plan instruction within and across grade levels

Student writing samples that illustrate different ways students have exemplified standards and highlight essential features of each writing genre

Annotated exemplar pieces of writing on the same topic for every grade level that highlight the traits you can expect to see at each level of the learning progressions.

Who needs Writing Pathways?

Educators who are not yet ready to implement the full Units of Study curriculum can use Writing Pathways to get started with Lucy Calkins' proven approach to writing assessment and instruction.

Coaches and administrators who are supporting implementation of Lucy Calkins' Units of Study will find Writing Pathways to be an ideal resource to guide their work.

Who doesn't need Writing Pathways?

The content in this stand-alone edition is the same as in the previous editions found in Lucy Calkins' Units of Study (K-5 and 6-8 are combined in this new edition). Teachers who have the Units of Study do not need this new edition.
For more information, visit UnitsofStudy.com.

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"These assessment tools make progress in writing as transparent, concrete, and obtainable as possible and put ownership for this progress into the hands

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Thank you for sharing several strategies to plan mini lessons and conferring.

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A good understanding of how to structure a strategy group. Resources to help develop teaching points.

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specific ideas about how to support students at different levels of expertise

Wants:
some specific examples of how this looks in a lesson. I'm looking forward to seeing you model this with a student

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Great to see real student work and to discuss it

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Great to see real student work and to discuss it

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Pathway progression is explicit--helpful.

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great to talk to the teachers who are teaching different languages and we have common opinions and concerns.

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I got some good ideas for running small group workshops while DL.

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Reminder of the forever stance! Will help me to refocus on the process and reviewing my units to make them more linked, flowing, relevant.

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I really like the writing progressions chart.

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I really like the writing progressions chart.

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Got: thanks for the progressions , they are very useful! 

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Got: thanks for the progressions , they are very useful! 

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wants: examples of how LL teachers from different languages allign their to allign

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Why might this "warm-up" phase to a conference be necessary during distance learning? What purpose might it serve?

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Jennifer Serravallo

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Jennifer Serravallo

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Writing: Developing, Drafting, and/or Revising

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Writing: Developing, Drafting, and/or Revising

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Jennifer Serravallo

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MYP From Principles into Practice

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MYP From Principles into Practice

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EKC

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lots of specific ideas to try out

Wants
to see more examples of how this looks

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Thank you for the architecture or structural templates for creating a mini-lesson, with an example.

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Thank you for the architecture or structural templates for creating a mini-lesson, with an example.

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Want:
I am still thinking about how to integrate this effectively with MYP units. (timing and such.)

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I love the quote from the beginning by Liz Prather "...writing is frustration..."
The architecture of a mini-lesson is a helpful reminder to be concise, strategic and allow the time needed for the awesomeness to happen!

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I wonder about the Profile Attributes (Valuing, etc). Are they from the PYP? I don't recognize them.

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I wonder about the Profile Attributes (Valuing, etc). Are they from the PYP? I don't recognize them.

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The suggestions of the authors of books for writing is really helpful.

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EKC

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Conferring to Amplify Inquiry & Honor Agency

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Conferring to Amplify Inquiry & Honor Agency

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EKC

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Tonya & Lucy (TKS G8) - Research, Decide, Compliment

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How do you best balance reading and writing when the unit you are focusing on may be a 'book' unit/summative or a 'writing' unit/summative?

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Is there a reading progressions chart?

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Is this something you would do in every unit? How do you fit in the MYP units?

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Gots Excellent session  well balanced,  Gives a better idea on how to organize our of mini-lessons 

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Gots Excellent session  well balanced,  Gives a better idea on how to organize our of mini-lessons 

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Conferencing architecture is super helpful. 

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Conferencing architecture is super helpful. 

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Our school's policy is to have a minimum of 3 people in a meet. How do you suggest we open up conversing and next steps etc when a student clams up if they are uncomfortable sharing with others present?

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More guidance on conferencing language was very helpful. Great reminders and some new points to consider.

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Having the opportunity to break out with partners to talk about how we would plan a lesson using the workshop mini lesson architecture.

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Will this work in Distance Learning without the opportunity for students to read in class?

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EKC

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EKC

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EKC

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Tracking 1:1 Conferences & Small Groups When Time is Tight

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Tracking 1:1 Conferences & Small Groups When Time is Tight

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EKC

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EKC

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Carl Anderson

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Jennifer Serravallo

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Stacey Shubitz