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Establishing Partnerships to Foster a Strong Writing Community 

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Establishing Partnerships to Foster a Strong Writing Community 

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This time has unsettled us. This time has unnerved us. This time has ripped away so much of what we once took for granted. But if history is to act as teacher in any way, it is only when we, as humans, band and work together toward a common purpose that we overcome adverse times such as these. In our blog series this week, the team at Two Writing Teachers hopes to support you in the common purpose of building community in your classrooms, however those classrooms may look this year. I believe one important building block of community is helping kids feel connected to other kids. Human beings are social creatures. One way to help them feel connected is through partnerships.
Why Partnerships?
As humans, we tend to get better at something when we are striving alongside another person. Sometimes this person is a coach or mentor. But even more powerful can be the valuable presence of and ongoing input from another individual who is actively seeking to further the skill set you are working to further. In a writing workshop, partnerships are crucial for a variety of reasons. One important reason for establishing partnerships is, of course, to create an instructional support structure that serves to help kids become stronger writers. As Lucy Calkins, author and Director of the Teachers College Reading and Writing Project in New York City, writes in A Guide to the Common Core Writing Workshop (2014), (p. 50). "[Partners] are two people who can work together to help each other raise the level of their writing"

But beyond the goal of raising the levels of writing, partners can play a key role in laying the foundation for a connected writing community. As we all know, this year will bring levels of uncertainty not previously experienced by any of us in our lifetimes. Will in-person instruction be possible? Sustainable? Will we all be relegated to remote instruction for another period of time in order to maintain safety of students and staff? Will some of us be teaching in some type of hybrid model? At the time of the writing of this post, these questions are weighing heavily on the minds of all stakeholders. But one thing remains certain: As educators, we will want our kids to feel connected to part of a community. And in a writing workshop, that means a community of writers. Just think about the power of having someone (or perhaps a couple of someones) in a community that is your person - your partner. Facilitating that sense of connection is our goal: Each writer feel s seen, valued, and heard.
Forming and Supporting Partnerships During the Age of COVID-19
One of the important pillars of effective writing instruction is choice . We recognize choice as an important element to engagement with writing. We ask:

We know voice and choice matter not only for engagement, but for equity, as stated by Dr. Deirdra Preis from Northeastern University College for Professional Studies in a recent antiracist teach-in event. The same holds true for partnerships. We can ask:

Ask writers to consider what that might mean. Perhaps it could mean someone who would push them to get better? Perhaps it means someone who would be good at helping them with ideas? Perhaps it means a friend with whom they already feel comfortable working? Consider organizing opportunities early in the first unit for writers to "try out" different partners- at a six-foot distance or on Zoom. These brief interactions, either during active involvements or partner shares, can give writers a sense for how a partnership with this person might go.

Whatever way we choose to form partnerships, it is important that they are not just "assigned" without input from our writers. If our goal is to build community, then incorporating student voice must be a baked-in, integral part of the process - even if it means occasionally negotiating a partnership or triad for a student who may struggle with social interaction.

Once partnerships are formed, how, in this current state, might we support them? Without the certainty of in-class writing workshop, how will partners stay connected? This is a consideration worthy of thoughtful planning. A few ideas I am imagining could be useful:

In-person/Socially distant -The Center for Disease Control recommends seating that is separated three to six feet apart and facing the same direction. During a minilesson (presumably not in a meeting area during COVID-19), partners turning and talking may need to turn the volume up on their voices. Perhaps teachers can assign A and B partnerships for this. If this seems undoable due to muffling caused by masks, consider using whiteboards (if feasible). Even gestures might be encouraged for partner communication.

Google - Since sitting close together, nor exchanging papers will likely not be options this fall, consider providing some direct instruction (or guided practice) on how to use the feature in Google Docs. This useful function allows partnerships to share ideas without risking close proximity or human contact. Another handy Google feature worthy of consideration is . As my TWT colleague Amy Ellerman pointed out recently, Google Chat is a way writersGoogle Chat could stay connected, messaging back and forth- perhaps in whole group, small group, or between individuals. If kids need partners to cheer each other on, check in, or ask questions (not attached to a specific doc), this tool might prove helpful.

Remote, synchronous/asynchronous - At all times, but especially during this time, it will be important to make a big deal about the value of a writing partner. We will really want writers connecting with their partners regularly, whether in-person or remotely. Two possible ideas to consider might be:

Help writers set up time to connect: Partnerships may benefit from a concrete schedule, like the one . Sometimes facilitating partner meetings with a schedule, especially when working in a remote or hybrid model, can help to build writerly relationships by making it more likely that partners can connect. Another useful tool many teachers have found success with is . This platform allows partner one to record short videotaped feedback, and partner two the flexibility to view it when they are able. A type of asynchronous back and forth like this sometimes works better for writers with busy or unpredictable household learning environments.

When planning for synchronous meetings with small groups, schedule some time with partnerships - especially early on. Let writers know you will be inquiring:

By checking in, we can build in a quiet and supportive expectation that partnerships are happening. We can also help to trouble-shoot or answer questions if partners are perhaps experiencing difficulty or need temporary teacher support.
Partnerships: Phases of Community-Building
Many of you reading this post have likely made writing partnerships a regular part of your writing workshop in the past. But if you are like me, you have sometimes felt that much of the potential for meaningful interaction around writing has remained unfulfilled. In other words, kids just aren't great at being writing partners. One possible way to address this challenge is through a little focused teaching on partnership work itself. The following is one possible sequence of phases for teaching into partnerships for building community. I am imagining each phase could be perhaps a week, perhaps longer, depending on your students.

Phase One: Acknowledgement - One of my great mentors once taught me, "If you want to light someone up, acknowledge them." In my own life, I have found this to be true nearly 100% of the time. Want to make a student smile and feel good about their work? Acknowledge them. Want to diffuse and connect to an upset parent? Acknowledge them. In her book, The Power of Acknowledgement , Judith Umlas writes (2006), " (cited ). We can teach writers simple ways to acknowledge each other for efforts in their writing. This simple but powerful move of acknowledgement can not only bring attention to the good work each writer is doing, but it can help build connections between partners, thereby strengthening a writing community. Take, for example, a compliment-only conference structure (that could be explicitly taught): "Truthful, heartfelt and deserved acknowledgement always makes a difference, sometimes a profound one, in a person's life and work

An illustration of this conference might sound like, "Alex, you started your story with action. That's important because it really brings a reader into your story! you're writing a story, you should do this because it really works well!" Formulaic? Yes. But it is a place to begin, and with practice, writers will become more skilled, more elaborate, and hopefully more authentic.

Phase Two: Listening An important part of truly feeling part of a community is to feel like you are being listened to regularly. Unfortunately, listening is not something humans do well naturally. There are many for this, but we can improve with a little training. Now that partnerships know what it means to acknowledge another writer (for something written), consider devoting some teaching to the aural skill of listening. Three tips taken from a 1957 might help: Harvard Business Review article

1. Be aware of how our minds take regular sidetracks - since humans think faster than they speak, our minds tend to take quick journeys to do other things while someone is talking to us. This can take away from comprehending what your partner is telling you.

2. To cope with natural mental sidetracks, work on periodically summarizing what your partner is talking about by saying, "Okay, so what you are saying is . . . Is that right?" Partners can help each other by taking a line of discourse from the following chart or bookmark:

Ultimately, a powerful partner listens not because they are required to do so, but because they are genuinely interested. As Peter Johnston writes in his book Opening Minds (2012),

Perhaps it seems trivial to mention this, but in order to have dialogue, people have to listen to one another. I mention this because really listening to a partner is less common than it might seem, and because there is listening and then there is listening. Listening because you are interested is quite different from listening as a matter of vigilance or responsibility. The more children come to appreciate each other as interesting and as sources of learning, the less they need vigilant listening, which is exhausting rather than enlivening (p. 100).

Phase Three: Feedback - Once writers have had some practice acknowledging and truly listening to their partner, they may be ready to provide some useful feedback. With relationships now somewhat established, partners can begin to play an important role in providing a safe audience from which to elicit reactions, comments, or ideas. Response from others is essential when kids are learning to write, and partners can play an important role in that regard. But again, as stated earlier, most kids are not naturally good at providing useful feedback to another writer. Therefore, partners will need tools , such as student-facing checklists, mentor texts, and exemplars (I wrote a post about partnerships and tools last year), as well as explicit instruction on how to use those tools. In the age of COVID-19, I plan to offer a few ways I imagine we might incorporate tools as part of our curriculum for partnerships in some future posts.
Conclusion
Partners can play an important role in establishing community. They can provide a way to establish community inside a writing workshop in the ways discussed here; but partners can also be a way to connect outside the writing workshop. Last spring, some kids started spontaneously inviting each other to remain online after meetings or instruction. Some chose to "eat lunch together" on Zoom. Without the freedom to get to know one another after school in each other's homes or play together in parks or on teams, kids may have a difficult time creating bonds with new classmates. Partnerships may also serve to create possibility in this way as well.

* Thank you to Larkin Meehan for the featured image artwork in this week's posts.

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GIVEAWAY INFORMATION:

This giveaway is for a copy of En Comunidad: Lessons for Centering the Voices and Experiences of Bilingual Latinx Students by Carla España and Luz Yadira Herrera. Thanks to for donating a copy for one reader. Please note: You have a U.S.A. mailing address - Sorry, no FPOs - to win a print copy of this book.

For a chance to win this copy of En Comunidad , please leave a comment about this or any blog post in this blog series by Sunday, August 9th at 6:00 p.m. EDT. Betsy Hubbard will use a random number generator to pick the winner's commenter number. His/her name will be announced in the ICYMI blog post for this series on Monday, August 10th. Please leave a valid e-mail address when you post your comment so Betsy can contact you to obtain your mailing address if you win. From there, our contact at Heinemann will ship the book to you. (NOTE: Your e-mail address will not be published online if you leave it in the e-mail field only.)

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

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

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Seen, Valued, Heard: Writing Partnerships to Establish Community

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In our blog series this week, the team at Two Writing Teachers hopes to support you in the common purpose of building community in your classrooms, however those classrooms may look this year. One important building block of community is helping kids feel connected through partnerships.

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"It's a great thing in life to find someone who can help you with your writing". Lucy Calkins What is the purpose of reading and writing partnerships? How do they enhance your workshop teaching? Are they necessary to a successful workshop? Is it helpful to be with the same partner...

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In my previous November post about partnerships, three ideas were shared: (1) Study existing partnerships to assess current and potential effectiveness; (2) Teach a replicable process for meaningful revision; and (3) Teach writers how to create process pages. Today I will share just a few more strategies for supporting and strengthening writing partnerships...

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If Then Cards for Writing Partners (Grades 3-6)

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If Then Cards for Writing Partners (Grades 3-6)

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Videos for students to tell them what writing partners are 

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Videos for students to tell them what writing partners are 

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Teacher demonstrating how to use a writing partner 

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Teacher demonstrating how to use a writing partner 

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Writing Partnerships in a Workshop Model

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Grade 1 writing partners working together 

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Grade 1 writing partners working together 

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Lately, I feel like I'm overly relying on students to type their writing pieces and written responses to reading. I know they already have too much screen time, and this requires even more. So, my question is this: What can I do to get kids off their screens as much as possible while also being able to check on their work and provide feedback?

I agree that we should all be concerned with the amount of time students are on-screen. Their devices are crucial for connection, communication, and guided practice, but it's a good idea to use times they are already on-screen for lessons as opportunities to collect information, or find ways for them to turn in work that's quicker than typing. Here are a few options that might support your students in authentic and engaging ways:

Use your whole class time to capture responses from everyone.

There will be times when your class or part of class is all together on screen-such as during a whole class minilesson or mentor text study. If you guide students' practice during the lesson you can ask them to quickly write a response on a white board and hold it up to the camera (later, you can zoom into each person's image and see what they wrote), or ask them to type a response into the chat box and download the chat transcript after the meeting ends. So that kids don't look at each others' work, you can ask them to write and hold onto their board, or type but don't hit "enter/return" until you give a 3-2-1 countdown!

Invite students to work on paper if they choose, and give options for how to share it.

I've noticed that with the increase in remote instruction, there has also been an increase in the use of e-books, digital forms/worksheets, and even digital notebooks. Yes, there are pros to digital composition including a teacher's ability to look at student work instantly, and no concerns around germs living on surfaces. Unfortunately, digital mediums do not always bring out the best work in every student-just like paper mediums might not be a one size fits all, either. Offer students a choice as to what they read and how they write-digital or paper copy-in order to help them find the format that is most engaging and where they get their best work done. If a student working remotely prefers to work within a physical writer's notebook and write in pen, they can share their work during a conference or take a quick photo to upload it to an app like Seesaw or a learning management system like Canvas.

Use your time in conferences and small groups to collect data.

When you're working with a student in a conference or small group, you're not only providing strategic instruction and feedback to the student; it's also a great time to get feedback from students and learn about what they are understanding and able to do from your teaching. While students are working with you, invite them to tell you what they're thinking, read aloud to you, or hold up their writing. If you need to capture and archive their work, you could record the conference or take a screenshot of them holding it up.

You can learn a lot about students and their work by being a fly on the wall and just listening to them talk to their partners. To manage partnership time in a remote setting you have a few options. If you have a group of four, six, or more online with you at the same time, you can create breakout rooms for each partnership and then spend time visiting each one. If you need to monitor them all, create separate individual meeting links and open separate windows on your screen (or use a second device if you have access to one).

Use an app that allows students to demonstrate their understanding in ways they prefer.

One of the Universal Design for Learning (UDL) principles is that children should be offered multiple means to show what they know. Consider using an app that will allow children to send you their work quickly (minimal screen time!) in a format that works best for them (take a photo, read it aloud on video, etc). There are many apps that are child-friendly; the one I'm most familiar with is Seesaw. An added bonus is that you can provide feedback on student work which lets them know their work has been seen, and you could even respond with a strategy, tip, or question to help prompt their continued practice.

Flipgrid is another app that allows for quick "turning in" of work through video, and also makes it possible for students to comment on each others' work, or have engaging asynchronous conversations. If you haven't played with it yet, it works like this: you post an assignment in text and/or a video recording. Then, students post their own video responses to you and/or to each other. Again, it's on-screen but it's not just turning in work-they are collaborating, communicating, and connecting with peers and you can see what they know by watching their video.

After introducing each of these options and giving your students time to submit work through each one, allow students to decide which way they want to submit work for their assignments. Leave it up to them to choose the modality they think supports and showcases their best work.

Jennifer Serravallo is the author of the new Connecting with Students Online: Strategies for Remote Teaching and Learning , which is filled with over 55 practical teaching strategies and many videos of her teaching K-8 students online. She is also the author of the NY Times Bestselling The Reading Strategies Book as well as The Writing Strategies Book , Understanding Texts & Readers and A Teacher's Guide to Reading Conferences, Grades K-8 .

Jennifer was a Senior Staff Developer at the Teachers College Reading and Writing Project and taught in NYC public schools. Find her on Twitter @jserravallo , Instagram @jenniferserravallo , or the web at www.jenniferserravallo.com , and join the Reading and Writing Strategies Facebook Group to have your questions answered.

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Composing, Collaborating, Conferring, Conversing: Keeping an Eye on Student Writing During Remote Instruction

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Lately, I feel like I'm overly relying on students to type their writing pieces and written responses to reading. I know they already have too much screen time, and this requires even more. So, my question is this: What can I do to get kids off their screens as much as possible while also being able to check on their work and provide feedback?

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One thing I can say with a tremendous amount of certainty is that every teacher who is reading this already knows the challenges of remote teaching. You might also know how it can be innovative, exciting, and draining to the core.

I am experiencing all of this while teaching Kindergarten remotely this year. I feel innovative, excited, drained, and challenged. Potentially the largest shift for me was transitioning from third grade back to kindergarten. Also, I had to determine how I would establish routines that intentionally built independence.

I've landed on three important factors that are essential:

Access to Tools

In a remote classroom, depending on protocols, access to physical tools like pens, paper, notebooks, and other tangible tools can be challenging. In my personal situation, the families I serve have one day a week where pick-up and drop-off of materials are permitted. This allows me to supplement students with paper, folders, stapled booklets, and other essentials for kindergarten writers like pens and writing tools.

In addition to tangible tools, students also have access to online tools. Hence, I can innovate and create digital resources to support online independent writing through photos, video, and voice recordings.

In the spring, I made a clickable slide with links to minilessons for students to revisit within a nonfiction unit. This allowed students who were within different parts of the writing process to independently visit instruction on the work they were currently doing.

Over the summer, I developed a toolkit of resources I could use in a middle school classroom that I shared in this post and here as well.

In my current role as a remote kindergarten teacher, I am utilizing live sessions, small group sessions, and asynchronous lessons to provide reusable tools students can access when I'm not right there.

Here are a couple of examples of what I have used this year to support families.

Each day, I share a version of the schedule below in a Google slide.

Besides the daily schedule, I also share the week's schedule for meeting times, which does not frequently change, aside from enrollment or shifts in needs based on individual students.

Having access to tools is important; in addition, knowing when and how to use them is equally important. That's why making your schedule known early and frequently can be a helpful tool for students, families, and you.

When developing independence in new skills, remember, teaching and scaffolding are key to building the bridge bringing students from dependency to independent consistency and confidence.

The following is an example of a digital toolkit I developed for kindergarteners that could be used as inspiration for almost any grade level as you imagine the needs of the student writers you serve.

Click to visit the live Buncee with audio and video lesson links.

Instructional Routines

Just as routines give comfort, reassurance, and rhythm in a traditional face-to-face classroom, the same speaks true of remote classrooms. Having routines that repeat within the weekly schedule as well as within your daily routine is important.

In a remote environment, when students transition to their independent writing time, we may not know exactly what they are transitioning from. Therefore, our instructional routine needs to become instinctual. When it is, it will support the independence of your writers.

If your writing lessons are always live and students' independent writing time occurs within the space of that live meeting, consider beginning each writing session with a song, chant, or set-up checklist.

A set-up checklist might be an assignment completed earlier in the year as you built the community together. You could consider having students include a photo of what their writing space looks like, where they have charts located, and how they sit. Visual tools, such as these or catchy songs, can help students flip the switch to writing. Therefore, if writers just came in from their backyard, their favorite youtube channel, or lunch-their brains can transition to writing instruction with little time lost corralling their attention.

The same can be said for a recorded lesson. Beginning the lesson with statements, songs, chants, or a checklist can successfully set the writer's mind toward writing.

Opportunities to Share

As a remote teacher, finding time for students to share their writing with an audience can be an obstacle. There are options like blogs, Padlet, Flipgrid, and Google Docs that allow students to share and comment on their peers' writing. I found that my third graders really enjoyed using these tools. Here is one example using a Flipgrid poetry share from the spring.

For my kindergarten students, as we continue to learn what being a writer looks like and feels like, they are enjoying sharing videos and voice recordings in their Seesaw Journals. Not only does this allow me to hear them and see them, but it is also motivating for students to independently accomplish writing so they can share their writing!

Click to hear this student tell a story.

What I really appreciate about video and voice recorded examples of sharing writing is the student is center stage. I can sense how enthusiastic, certain, and satisfied a writer is based on how they share the work with me or their classmates.

I've also found saving five minutes following a live lesson, regardless of the content, can be a wonderful routine opportunity to allow students who want to share the work they are doing. This allows for community building and trust within the group atmosphere.

Personally, I have not been able to experiment with video breakout rooms via Zoom or Google Meets Plus Pro within my district. However, in my conversations with fellow remote kindergarten teachers in other districts, it seems that breakout rooms can allow for wonderful partnership opportunities or one-on-one sharing with students in the midst of a writing piece or ready to publish.

As you consider how you will measure the independence of the students you serve, first think about:

Have you been able to allow these three essential elements to become a rhythmic part of your remote workshop environment? If not, what supports do you need to fulfill these essentials? Leave your questions and comments below.

Let's support each other in this time.

GIVEAWAY INFO:

This giveaway is for a copy of ONE of the following books (winner's choice): A Teacher's Guide to Writing Workshop Essentials: Time, Choice, Response by Katherine Bomer and Corinne Arens, Every Kid a Writer: Strategies That Get Every Kid Writing by Kelly Boswell, or Joy Write: Cultivating High-Impact, Low-Stakes Writing by Ralph Fletcher. Thanks to Heinemann for donating one of these to the winner of this giveaway. (You must have a U.S.A. mailing address - Sorry, no FPOs - to win a print copy of the book of your choosing. If you have an international mailing address, then you will receive an electronic copy.)

For a chance to win this copy of one of these books, please leave a comment about this or any blog post in this blog series by Sunday, November 8th at 6:00 p.m. EST. Marina Rodriguez will use a random number generator to pick the winner's commenter number. Their name will be announced in the ICYMI blog post for this series on Monday, November 9th.

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

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

Published by Betsy Hubbard

Daughter, sister, wife, mother, teacher, and writer. View all posts by Betsy Hubbard

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Developing Independence in a Remote Classroom: Meeting Writers Where They Are

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One thing I can say with a tremendous amount of certainty is that every teacher who is reading this already knows the challenges of remote teaching. You might also know how it can be innovative, exciting, and draining to the core. I am experiencing all of this while teaching Kindergarten remotely this year.

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(Grades K-2) Could be adapted for 3-6

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Sharing Writing When Teaching Remotely or Hybrid

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Sharing Writing When Teaching Remotely or Hybrid

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Providing Tools for Writing and Sharing Writing Through the Pandemic

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Calling all primary writing teachers. Today Janet Ahn shares how she worked with her Kindergarteners to continue thrive in writing workshop through the pandemic. These young scholars continued to draft pieces, engage in conferring, collaborate to mark up mentor texts, and publish their writing through online platforms. Their dedication to continuing the writing workshop virtually...