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Planning Process

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Add your reflections here!

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EKC & American School of Barcelona
jenny@erinkentconsulting.com

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180 Days by Penny Kittle and Kelly Gallagher

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180 Days by Penny Kittle and Kelly Gallagher

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Section One: Planning Decisions

1. Start with Beliefs

2. Establish Daily Practices

3. Map a Year of Reading

4. Map a Year of Writing

5. Balance Feedback and Evaluation

Section Two: Teaching Essential Discourses

1. Narrative

2. Informational

3. Argument

4. Multigenre Research Projects

This book is divided into two sections. Section 1, "Planning Decisions," takes you through the process we used-and you might consider-to plan a year of teaching. The section includes five chapters:

1. Start with Beliefs

2. Establish Daily Practices

3. Map a Year of Reading

4. Map a Year of Writing

5. Balance Feedback and Evaluation

Section 2, "Teaching Essential Discourses," begins with an introduction that explains the general framework for planning a unit of study in a specific writing discourse. Then, in the four chapters that follow, we detail the decisions we made in four discourse studies: narrative, informational, argument, and multigenre. Our hope is that by reading about the decisions we made as we planned together, you will be inspired to reimagine the beautiful possibilities for your teaching.
- Introduction

This book is a brilliant work of architecture-the making of an English course. How do you shape the movement of the 180 days, balancing open space and structure, individuality and assessment, breadth and depth (not to mention managing the damn thing). Two of our country's most innovative teachers, Penny Kittle and Kelly Gallagher take on this challenge in a cross-country collaboration, exploring the art of the possible. This book-and its amazing video accompaniment-illustrates not so much the fixed course everyone should teach (even they don't totally agree on that), but how to think through the making, and the principles that should be its foundation.-Thomas Newkirk

Spending 180 days on the job and in the world with Penny Kittle and Kelly Gallagher is like apprenticing yourself to a year in the kitchen with two master chefs who speak honestly and passionately about the challenges we face and the choices we must make every day in our own classrooms. I learned something new on every page, verbally annotating just about every suggestion with a mental "Yes!" or "Try this!" At every turn, they acknowledge and address the constraints, especially of time, we all face in our classes-then show us how they manage to teach their students so much and so well despite those constraints.-Jim Burke, author of The English Teacher's Companion

"This book is everything. I mean this whole-heartedly and without exaggeration - this book is everything. It is everything I needed when I began teaching, and it is exactly what I need now to reflect on my practices, my curriculum, and my kids. The depth of knowledge and experience here, living alongside the breadth of thinking across the time and space of a school year, takes my breath away. Thank you, Penny and Kelly. May my children have teachers who have read and used this book."--Kate Roberts, author of A Novel Idea

Who among us hasn't wished to be a fly on the wall of Penny's and Kelly's classrooms? In 180 Days, we aren't just flies-we are invited into their brains, their plan books, and their friendship as they answer the question that plagues every teacher: how to do it all in one year? This book is not about how to find time where time doesn't exist. It's not about turning 180 days into 200 days so you can fit everything in. This book is about making decisions about what really matters enough and how to make the most of the time we are given with our students. It honors teachers as decision-makers and reminds us of the power of professional collaboration to change not only our students' learning but also our own professional lives.-Allison Marchetti and Rebekah O'Dell, coauthors of Writing With Mentors and Beyond Literary Analysis

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180 Days represents the collaboration of two master teachers-Kelly Gallagher and Penny Kittle-over an entire school year: planning, teaching, and reflecting

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A Lifetime of Learning About Writing, Reading, and Adolescents

Special Offer: Save 30% off our list price automatically when you buy 15 or more.

"The third edition of In the Middle is my invitation to English teachers, both veterans and novices, to understand writing and reading from the inside and recognize our potential to influence our students' literacy for a lifetime. Like the two that preceded it, this edition represents my current best set of blueprints for how I build and maintain a writing-reading workshop-the expectations, demonstrations, models, choices, resources, rules and rituals, pieces of advice, words of caution, and ways of thinking, planning, looking, and talking that make it possible for every student to read with understanding and pleasure and aspire to and produce effective writing."

-Nancie Atwell

With 80 percent new material, In the Middle, Third Edition brings Nancie Atwell's methods up to date. Nancie guides newcomers to a rich, satisfying practice while sharing her latest innovations and refinements with those who have made In the Middle their teaching touchstone.

Grounded in her classroom practice and in response to questions and requests from twenty years of professional development workshops, Nancie provides:

detailed procedures for organizing the classroom for workshop teaching and a first-week launch sequence

hundreds of minilessons and reproducibles that make workshop teaching inviting and doable

hundreds of new pieces of student writing to use as mentor texts-many are national prize winners

new, detailed genre studies of poetry, memoirs, reviews, essays, reportage, humor and homage, and short fiction

a new look at writing conferences, including red flags to notice and strategies for responding to them

techniques for conferring with individuals about the books they're reading

a revamping of her widely-adopted literary letters as letter-essays that more than satisfy today's standards for critical reading

This is the chronicle of Nancie Atwell's courageous, compelling journey. Just as the second edition documented her evolution from 1987, this book shows how she continues to shape and refine her teaching, based on her perceptions of what students need and her growing knowledge of literature and the craft of writing. As Nancie describes it, "The third edition of In the Middle is everything I've learned over the past three decades that makes writing-reading workshop the only logical way to teach English."

(click any section below to continue reading)

What Will I Find New to the Third Edition?

In the Middle: What is the 80% new material? Those who have relied on the second edition of In the Middle, have asked us whether they really need to get the third edition. So we asked one of our crackerjack editors to read the second and third editions and report on the new content so that we could share it with you. Her report: fans of the second edition will be missing out if they don't read the new edition.

Here is our editor's full report:

Nancie remains true to her ideals and the workshop approach. Readers of the second edition of In the Middle will recognize the basic workshop elements and find Nancie Atwell's respect for teaching middle schoolers undimmed. Additional years of experience have yielded her new insights into students' writing and reading and produced improvements in how best to develop middle school learners.

PART I, Workshop Essentials

More how-tos: e.g. dialogue to model check-ins that are brisk and brief, topics to teach in memoir, details on how to fit writing-reading workshop into 85-minute blocks or 50-minute periods, minilessons on teaching free-verse poetry

The Daily Poem and Icebreaking: In the "Getting Started" chapter these are now specifically named and described in depth. In the second edition, these workshop routines received limited description. Now Nancie's Daily Poem routine and early-year Icebreaking is given much more depth.

More about reading workshop: Nancie gives reading workshop more importance in the third edition.

She has shifted her emphasis from how she developed reading workshop to the specifics of running the workshop and its benefits for students

Expectations for reading workshop are detailed, including using critical vocabulary, keeping a "someday" list in writing-reading handbook, and writing a letter essay every three weeks

Red flags of writing: The chapter "Responding to Writers and Writing" has been almost completely revised and now features twelve new "red flags" of writing culled from Nancie's many years of reading student writing. Each red flag is named and suggestions are given for conferring with writers to head them in a better direction

Letter-essays: Nancie has replaced her well-known weekly letters in the "Responding to Readers and Reading" chapter with letter-essays that students write every three weeks. She shows how these letteressays, which are about books a reader has finished, reflect her evolving thinking about providing a bridge to expository writing while also easing the paper load.

Handover: This concept has been has been expanded beyond writing to encompass reading workshop and to prepare students to write their letter-essays.

Off-the-page writing: A new concept introduced in the third edition is a way of inserting time and reflection into writing.

Part II, Genre Studies

New emphasis and minilessons on poetry: Vastly revamped because of its increasing importance to her teaching, the "Poetry" chapter details why it is the first genre Nancie's students write in and why it is the basis for many of the craft writing lessons. Free-verse is the "workhorse form of poetry," and there are eight minilessons that teach free-verse poetry and its conventions

More specificity about memoirs: Expanded with more specific and intentional teaching recommendations, "Memoir" now integrates reading and listening to memoirs as models for writing them. In the second edition, there are only lists of memoir titles. The third edition also provides more specific elements of memoir to teach: leads, sensory details, dialogue, balancing elements, time transition, conclusions, and reading as a critic

Micro fiction: Another major innovation is micro fiction replacing the short story in Nancie's "Short Fiction" chapter. Much of students' short story writing was "unmemorable and formulaic" or "heavyhanded and predictable." Short-short fiction helps concentrate the lessons of fiction and "is the genre to hand over to middle school writers of fiction."

New details on expository writing: "Taking Care of Business" narrows the focus to four of the types of expository writing found in the second edition, but each one is now presented with more specifics, structure, and examples in its own section

"Humor and Homage": A brand new chapter to the book that supports not only writing but also close reading and the writer's craft: "Parody and homage stretch students not just as writers but as readers and critics, too. To lampoon someone else's writing requires close reading, attention to detail and tone, and understanding of theme. It may well be the ultimate form of literary analysis."

New student writing samples: All new samples reflect more recent books and topics

Nancie has essentially given us a new book because her teaching continues to change, and because she seeks innovation each day. If you've read the previous edition, don't miss out on her latest practices.

Video

Contents

Part I: Workshop Essentials
1. Learning How to Teach English
My Teaching Story
Finding a Balance
What About Reading?
2. Getting Ready
Making Time
The Room
Folders and Forms
3. Getting Started
The Daily Poem
Icebreaking
The Launch: Writing Workshop
The Launch: Reading Workshop
4. Essential Lessons for Writers
Procedures
Craft
Conventions
Spelling
5. Essential Lessons for Readers
Procedures
Practice
Literature
6. Responding to Writers
Writing Conference Guidelines
Red Flags and Responses
7. Responding to Readers and Reading
Reading Check-Ins
Letter-Essays About Literature
8. Valuing and Evaluating
Self-Assessment
Teacher Assessment
Part II: Genre Studies
A Word About Genres
9. Poetry
Free Verse: Build a Toolbox
Ideas That Matter
Some Forms
10. Memoirs
11. Short Fiction
12. Taking Care of Business
Reviews
Essays
Advocacy Journalism
Profiles
13. Humor and Homage

Appendices
A. Quotations to Inspire Writers, Readers, and Their Teachers
B. Student Writing Record
C. Student Reading Record
D. Individual Proofreading List
E. Editing Checksheet
F. Peer Writing Conference Record
G. Spelling Study Form
H. Thesauri for Writers Who Walk and Look Too Much
I. Editing Symbols
J. Ways Student Writers Can Go Public
K. Nancie's Workshop Cycle
L. Substitute Plans for Writing-Reading Workshop

Samples

Companion Resources

Reviews

"This classic has been reworked with over 80% new material, but one thing remains unchanged: Nancie Atwell has created a masterpiece that walks readers through the intricacies of successfully teaching middle schoolers about reading and writing."
-Jenni Miller, middleweb
"Nancie Atwell is a master teacher, reader, writer, and educational innovator. In this comprehensive volume, she draws on a lifetime of classroom experience implementing her signature writing-reading workshops. Fittingly, the volume conveys the broad overview, the fascinating details, and the indispensable middle."

-Howard Gardner, Harvard Graduate School of Education, author of Truth, Beauty, and Goodness Reframed

"Nancie has written a professional book that will grip your heart like poetry does, will cause you to turn pages with anticipation as if you're reading a novel, and will offer up endlessly practical advice from the sagest mentor you can dream up. Whether you teach kindergarteners or twelfth graders, open your classroom door to Nancy's ideas and you'll create something magical: a place where you really know your students, where you challenge the status quo, where instruction begins from student strengths and interests, and where students in the classroom do what real readers and writers do in the world. The rewards (for teacher and students alike) are well worth the work."

- Jennifer Serravallo, author of The Literacy Teacher's Playbook

"In the Middle is the greatest book on literacy teaching ever written in this country. It is our epic, our Odyssey. In this third edition Nancie Atwell offers us the culmination of her four decades of working with adolescents-the most richly detailed account of a teaching practice we are ever likely to get. This edition retains the bedrock principles of the earlier editions-the emphasis on student choice, the importance of being an "insider" as a reader and writer, and on the power of voluminous practice. But we can see her evolution as well: the new stress on "handover" where there is explicit teacher modeling. We can see how poetry has moved to the center of her practice, along with innovative ways of approaching fiction writing. As readers, we live on intimate terms with her; we hear the introduction to her lessons, her conversation with students. She takes us through her most minute decision making, showing us what intentional teaching looks like. It's a gift, a grand summing up, to which we can only say, Thank you, Nancie Atwell."

- Thomas Newkirk, author of Minds Made for Stories

"I was just returning to teaching when a colleague brought me In the Middle. It was the beginning of the school year, and I stayed up half the night reading, underlining, making notes. I went out that weekend and bought blank books for all my students, revised my beginning-of-school, first days plan, gathered books, and began. I haven't looked back, except to read more, share more of Nancie's work, read all of her books, and share Lessons That Change Writers often. I'm now a literacy coach, and her books are the first ones I share with new teachers. What gifts she has given to the world of education and to students through their teachers."

-Linda Baie, Denver, CO

"My first year teaching, I was not given much guidance or direction. I taught what was familiar, but I wasn't sure it was the right thing, until I was handed a copy of In the Middle. I read it over winter vacation, and was hooked. I immediately started the writing-reading workshop when school started again in January, and knew I would change the world."

-Julia Dubisz, Manchester, NH

"Congrats to @NancieAtwell on soon-to-be-born #InTheMiddle3! This book saved my teaching, my students(!), & forever shaped me"

- Christopher Lehman (@iChrisLehman)
-Lorraine Edwards-Knourek
"In the late 1980s I had a little teachers' store in Brandon, Manitoba. I opened it when my children were toddlers but always intended to go back to the classroom, which I loved. I had quite a few new professional books and one that I read cover to cover was In the Middle by Nancie Atwell. As I eagerly raced through the pages I realized that for the first time I felt that I really wanted to teach junior high students. Her love of literature and language just did it for me. The way Nancie inspired her students and included their voices and work with her own let me inside her classroom in such a relevant way. It took me another ten years of teaching K-7 but eventually our school district in B.C. opened middle schools and I confidently became a grade eight English language arts teacher. Aside from my first year of teaching grade one and two, the last 12 years of my career teaching under Nancie's tutelage (as well as a few experts I met in person) made those the most fulfilling and challenging of my teaching career. Even though I never met her in person I always heard her voice in those chapters and in her later work, guiding me."
-Sara Kajder (@skajder)
"It is the dog-eared, battle-scarred, pages-barely-still-in book that still teaches me to see my students. #inthemiddle3"
-Paige Raney (@PaigeRaney)
"In the Middle helped me understand the power of reading conferences. Every reader, every day."
-Mary Kate Patterson (@teachmkp)
"Thanks Nancie Atwell for giving teachers a tool for collaboration."
-Joan Cansdale (@joancansdale)
"Nancie Atwell completely changed my English class 17 years ago. So grateful."
-Sheila Barnes (@bookworm1959)
"Ditto on In the Middle being monumental in changing the way I teach!"

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Special Offer: Save 30% off our list price automatically when you buy 15 or more. "The third edition of In the Middle is my invitation to English teachers, both veterans and novices, to understand writing and reading from the inside and recognize our potential to influence our students' literacy for a lifetime.

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Use this resource to keep track of potential conferences and conferences you've had.

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Tips to Remember for Teaching with a "Forever Stance"

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Tips to Remember for Teaching with a "Forever Stance"

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Article summarizing feedback study. (Original Study embedded)

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Every teacher or coach worth their salt knows that there's no moment more important than the moment feedback is delivered. Do it correctly, and the learner takes a step forward. Do it poorly, and the reverse happens.

The deeper question is, what's the secret of great feedback? We instinctively think that effective feedback is about the quality of the information - telling the learner to do this and not that. But is this true, or is there something else going on?

A team of psychologists from Stanford, Yale, Columbia, and elsewhere recently set out to explore that question. They had middle-school teachers assign an essay-writing assignment to their students, after which students were given different types of teacher feedback.

To their surprise, researchers discovered that there was one particular type of teacher feedback that improved student effort and performance so much that they deemed it "magical." Students who received this feedback chose to revise their paper far more often that students who did not (a 40 percent increase among white students; 320 percent boost among black students) and improved their performance significantly. (See the study here.)

What was the magical feedback?

Just one phrase:
I'm giving you these comments because I have very high expectations and I know that you can reach them.
That's it. Just 19 words. But they're powerful because they are not really feedback. They're a signal that creates something more powerful: a sense of belonging and connection.

Looking closer, the phrase contains several distinct signals:

1) You are part of this group.

2) This group is special; we have higher standards here.

3) I believe you can reach those standards.

The key is to understand that this feedback isn't just feedback - it's a vital cue about the relationship. The reason this works so well has to do with the way our brains are built. Evolution has built us to be cagey with our efforts; after all, engagement is expensive from a biological standpoint. But when we receive an authentic, crystal-clear signal of social trust, belonging, and high expectations, the floodgates click open.

I think the lessons for teachers and coaches are pretty simple:

First, connect: like John Wooden said, they can't care how much you know until they know how much you care.

Highlight the group: seek ways (traditions, mantras, fun little rituals) to show what it means to belong in your crew.

Don't soft-pedal high standards. Don't pretend that it's easy - do the opposite. Emphasize the toughness of the task, and your belief that they have what it takes.

If you have any ideas, stories, or examples to share about how coaches and teachers achieve this kind of connection, I'd love to hear them.

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The Simple Phrase that Increases Effort 40% - Daniel Coyle

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Every teacher or coach worth their salt knows that there's no moment more important than the moment feedback is delivered. Do it correctly, and the learner takes a step forward. Do it poorly, and the reverse happens. The deeper question is, what's the secret of great feedback?

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Reading and Writing Workshop in International Schools

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Reading and Writing Workshop in International Schools

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Great group focused on literacy in International Schools!

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

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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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Ideas for curating powerful libraries and bookrooms.

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It's All About the Books - Mulligan, Landrigan

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How to Create Bookrooms and Classroom Libraries That Inspire Readers. A practical yet detailed guide to creating a system where classroom libraries and bookrooms work seamlessly to make it easy for teachers to find books to engage and scaffold all students in a school community.

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Kate Roberts Minilessons and Conference Examples

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Kate Roberts Minilessons and Conference Examples

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When I first started teaching reading and writing workshop, the hardest part was that I couldn't picture the classroom, the work. I couldn't see it. This was some of my internal dialogue. I was pretty skeptical. It was only by seeing people like Kathleen Tolan, Carl Andersen, and Mary Ehrenworth do the work of workshop in front of me that I began to become a believer.

As my editorial team and I worked on A Novel Approach, we realized that a set of videos might help. All of these videos-and many more-are available within the book. You will find them called out in special sidebars.
via GIPHY
I want to share a few of them here for anyone to see and use and discuss. They are not perfect - scratch that, I am not perfect. If I could, I would change a bunch so that I look like a perfect teacher, I am full of critique. In making these videos we wanted to capture some specific ideas in workshop teaching and in the book but we also wanted them to feel as authentic as possible with a boom mike and a film crew. So we tried not to cut too much, not to redo, we tried to keep things as real as possible. You will see imperfection. You will see me stumble. You will see some lessons land and some that only begin a journey. But I think there are moments that capture something kind of nice. Like this conference, with Charlotte.

In this conference, Charlotte and I work together to help her take the next step in her interpretation work and while we struggle at first, there is just a lovely moment when Charlotte turns a corner and knocks it out of the park. I think there are moves I make here to help her that you could do too:

This conference is similar - Jalissa and I have a good conversation, and we are able to find some work around language specificity that led her to some interesting places.

Or this mini-lesson in Peg Bruno's 6th grade classroom. It builds off of the work done before, pushing kids to use what they already know and go a bit further. It's pretty short, and pretty clear. I think if you are looking for a mini-lesson that does the parts of a lesson well, and that delivers a strategy clearly and succinctly, this is a good one to use. I also love that we see a boy totally unengaged in the lesson and in the "active engagement." This is what that part of the lesson is for - to look for kids who need some guidance.

Or this Read Aloud in Caine Schekner's classroom. I love here that while the kids don't seem super into the read aloud as like a whole class, when they talk to each other they are thoughtful, engaged, and pretty brilliant. I like that I work here to listen, take what they are doing well, and offer strategies to clarify, complicate, or multiply their thinking.

Each of these videos shows a way of teaching that can help kids access and practice the skills and strategies of a unit of study. I hope that they also show how these methods of teaching, this pedagogy, can help offer opportunities to connect to our students, and allow our goofy, scattered, quiet, or determined personality to come through our teaching. I became passionate about teaching workshop because I saw kids grow and move closer to their dreams, and because the ways I taught when I taught workshop helped me to see my students and truly listen to what they were telling me. I give myself a B/B+ in these videos for those relationship-building goals. But the point, to me, is that these methods of teaching help me to talk less, listen more, and teach rather than tell.

I hope they help you do the same.

♦ ♦ ♦

Thank you to Heinemann's Sherry Day, Michael Grover, Tobey Antao, and Dennis Doyle for the two-day photo shoot, and to Peg Bruno and Caine Schekner for the time with their kids.

KATE ROBERTS is a national literacy consultant, top-selling author, and popular keynote speaker. She taught reading and writing in Brooklyn, NY and worked as a literacy coach before joining the Teachers College Reading and Writing Project in 2005, where she worked as a Lead Staff Developer for 11 years. Kate's latest book, A Novel Approach, asks how we can teach whole class novels while still holding onto student centered practices like readers workshop. She is also the co-author of Falling in Love with Close Reading (with Christopher Lehman), DIY Literacy (with Maggie Beattie Roberts), and she co-wrote two Units of Study books on Literary Essay. Her work with students across the country has led to her belief that all kids can be insightful, academic thinkers when the work is demystified, broken down and made engaging. To this end, Kate has worked nationally and internationally to help teachers, schools, and districts develop and implement strong teaching practices and curriculum.

Follow Kate online.
Twitter:
@TeachKate Pinterest: /
Blog: IndentBlog KateAndMaggie.com

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A Peek at A Novel Approach Videos: Mini Lesson, Conferring, and Read Aloud with Kate Roberts

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Here, Kate Roberts shares just a few extended classroom clips from her book, A Novel Approach. In this blog, you'll get a chance to watch Kate confer with two different students, and see how Kate structures a mini-less and read aloud.

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Stack of Synthesis Notes Related to Theme

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Stack of Synthesis Notes Related to Theme

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EKC Asynchronous MS/HS Reading Workshop Jamboard Reflection - Google Jamboard

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EKC Asynchronous MS/HS Reading Workshop Jamboard Reflection

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Digital Read Aloud Text

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Digital Read Aloud Text

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Digital Read Aloud Text

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by Kate Roberts

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A practical framework for creating units that combine whole-class novels and independent reading to truly help students grow as readers. Take a deep dive into the troubles and triumphs of both to find a student-centered, balanced approach to teaching reading.