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Components of Balanced Literacy with Links EKC

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Email: amberbirchtrujillo@gmail.com

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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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Got -
Want -

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Got - Teaching with a "Forever Stance" The idea that feedback should focus on the process, is specific, and can be used forever and not just today.

Want - Conferring during online instruction

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Forever Stance is something that I got that is a mindset change for me.
I got a great quote "The Best Feedback" that I think I will post as a reminder.

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Gots-I loved the statement-teach the writer not the writer and teach the reader not the book. A huge take away for me. Alos the assign vs teach, vague vs specific
Wants- Would like to see some recorded writers/reader/s workshop videos

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Got - a much clearer overview of the structure of Workshop and how to implement it within my classroom. The importance of feedback and creating the right environment to share this with students.
Want - To understand how to approach the mini-lessons and key language to use to build routine with the students.

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Gots: diving into Writing and Reader workshop online and resources to facilitate that
Wants: digital examples of conferring during distance learning

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Got -
Want -

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Got - forever stance reminder (intentional and specific feedback)

Wants - explore how to teach children to receive and use feedback. (ESP when modelled examples will be lacking due to online content)

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Got - focus on the relationship with students and empowering them
Want - clearer picture on how to apply this to an online start

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got: importance of future-oriented feedback and taking a forever stance on teaching

want: ideas for social distance appropriate mini lessons/ small groups etc.

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Gots - Importance of feedback
- Kids need to accept the feedback before they can use it to improve
Wants - Support with the language needed to best support students in their reading and writing

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Got - feedback types - how to give feedback effectively and how students can use it as they move forward in their writing

Want - How to get students motivated and understanding that doing helps them to improve

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got- the importance of ongoing specific feedback
Want- motivate struggling writer's

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Got - teaching the writer/ reader instead of the writing/book

Want - how to use R&W to foster enthusiam and dynamic in literacy

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Got - A better idea of what is the focus of the Workshop Model.
Want - Ideas on how to meet the students' needs during distance learning.

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Got: A reminder to focus on what students are already doing, or almost doing, instead of what they're lacking.

Want: Practical ideas on how to provide more agency to the students during the workshop and also examples of conferences with students.

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Email:
sevra@eabdf.br

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Email:
tcameron@kis.ac

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email id: pamsek1968@gmail.com

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Read Aloud - Cynthia Rylant

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Tonya Gilchrist from "Amplifying the PYP Through R/W Workshop" online course

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MS Reading Minilesson - Determining PoV in Persuasive Texts

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MS Reading Minilesson - Determining PoV in Persuasive Texts

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TCRWP free resource - Vimeo

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Whole Class Instruction: Analyzing Point of View in Persuasive Texts (5-8)

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Email: mneves@eabdf.br

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Email: bsrader@yismyanmar.com

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Email: michole.church@kaust.edu.sa

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Email: akalapotharakou@ish.dk

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email: knolting@kis.ac

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Email: acollins@eabdf.br

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Email:  bryantc@ics.edu.hk

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Gots: Importance of mini-lesson and importance and use of interactive read-aloud

Wants: Strategies around motivating students who find reading difficult and ways to evidence learning in Gr. 1

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Got - Understanding how I can ensure that my literacy block is still balanced when doing workshop.  The tips for teaching whole class with brevity and clarity.

Wants - Looking forward to creating mini lessons and getting tips on how to ensure they are effective.

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Got - Thinking about what I/We value. Also, ways that classrooms can look.
Want - Support in mini lessons. Looking forward to the next session.

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Gots - The mini-lesson doesn't have to be the main focus
- Lessons are not a must, more of an invitation - Love this!
Wants - More demo lessons like today...so great!

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Got's: Way more of an understanding of the importance of class libraries and how the environment encourages students to be motivated and independent readers.
A better idea of how to structure a read aloud and how this can then lead into a writing workshop.

Want - Further ideas for question prompts during read aloud

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Gots- Organizing the structure of the reader's/writer's workshops. Keeping the mini lesson condenced.

Wants- Looking forward to creating a mini lesson I'll be using for the first week of school.

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Got - A better understanding of what components of balanced literacy are appropriate for each grade level & how to think about trimming down lessons to make them short

Want - Time to practice making a brief but clear mini lesson.

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Gots- How one single book used for read aloud can serve different purposes. Thought provoking, though I have used books like that but never put in thoughts to use it for different purposes. Now will do
Wants: I would like to know how to do mini lessons if we are looking at strategy lessons.

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Gots - I got a better sense of how to develop and design a classroom environment to support the workshop model. I also gained clarity on the importance and format of minilessons.
Wants - Some clarity on how to connect minilessons and final products that students produce to either a thematic unit or conceptual understandings. I am also interested in how/when student work is "graded" in the workshop model. My school unfortunately still utilizes the simple A-F grading practice.

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Gots - Enjoyed "SLOWER THAN THE REST" and how that experience seemed to contain so much more than simple 'repertoire'...in terms of the power of the text, and also the possible teaching that could be achieved.  Also, enjoyed walking through a "real" classroom again...we live in hope for some of that normal to return....

Wants - thinking alot about how to apply the many components of balanced literacy in a virtual world...synchronous vs asynchronous learning in our contexts of the virtual classroom

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Got: Organising the classroom library by topics and themes  in order to allow for interest led reading

Want: I really enjoyed your modeling. Please keep it up! It helps to visualise what you are talking about.

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Got
- The mini-lesson is not the most important part

Wants
- How to engage EAL learners in the Turn & Talk in the mini-lessons

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Got
How to create a mini lesson.

Wants
How to keep the children's interest and increase the stamina of children reading[pictures.

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Excellent resource for inquiry driven grammar study, even though designed for G1-G5, Middle School teachers also love it.

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Shares example of Shared Reading of poetry with older readers, great ideas on connecting across languages.

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"Here's our book, at last! España and Herrera's engaging narrative, and the voices of teachers and students, remind us that we are en comunidad when we express our care, love, and understanding for emergent bilingual learners of Spanish, English, and all world languages. En Comunidad confirms that students possess intellect, creativity, and imagination across their language assets and repertoires. We educators were waiting for España and Herrera as our colleagues, guides, and seers, and they're here at last. Thank you for guiding us further in our journeys toward literacy, libertad, and equity through your humane work, vision, and practices."-R. Joseph Rodríguez, author of Enacting Adolescent Literacies across Communities: Latino/a Scribes and Their Rites

"It shouldn't be a mystery or a chore to educate secondary Latinx bilingual learners. To this end, teachers need to learn how to center their students' voices and experiences in their classrooms, and in so doing, to make education meaningful to them. Kudos to Carla España and Luz Yadira Herrera for this conceptually rich, beautifully written, and highly accessible text that indeed charts a new way forward."-Angela Valenzuela, College of Education, University of Texas at Austin

"Somehow this book manages to be at once deeply personal and profoundly practical all at the same time. Carla and Luz weave their own stories as Latinx educators and students with concrete, transformative suggestions for making all students feel welcome, honored, and supported in our schools. Each year there is one book that comes out that makes me wish I could go back to my first year teaching and do it all over again - to do it better. This is the book for me this year. How I wish I had had Carla and Luz in my ear, and how glad I am they are here for you now." -Kate Roberts, author of A Novel Approach

"This book centers around how to empower minoritized Latinx students as learners by helping them value their own language, their own history, their own community and themselves in a system that has marginalized them for centuries. En Communidad is not just for Latinx students or teachers who teach Latinx students, but for all American students and teachers who desire to bring real democracy to this country and make this world justice for all people. This is indeed a wonderful book."- Danling Fu, Professor of Language and Literature in the College of Education, University of Florida

"In this incredible book, Carla and Luz remind us that, like in all good teaching, the most effective classrooms place students at the center of teaching and learning. In a mix of critical pedagogy and inspirational practice, they demonstrate ways to build curriculum around students' lives, to avoid the trap of monolithic thinking, and to trust-truly trust-students to fill in knowledge gaps (including our own) through shared discussion and inquiry. Carla and Luz guide us to consider: when classrooms are shared spaces, when children teach as much as they learn, we, as a community, can thrive."-Chris Lehman, coauthor of Falling in Love with Close Reading

"Dr. Espana and Dr. Herrera hit a home-run. Together they beautifully bridge the gaps between theory, policy, practice, and personal experience. Their work evokes untold Latinx histories, and offers culturally sustaining pedagogical approaches to classroom practice. It's clear this work is not only about sustaining Latinx raciolinguistic ways being, rather it's also about sustaining researchers and classroom practitioners as well. This work reminds us that we are here and we belong."- Steven Arenas, English Teacher and Recipient of the NCTE 2016 Early Career Educator of Color Leadership Award

"In this book, grounded in research and lifted by story, Carla and Luz provide compelling rationales and practical ideas for valuing students' and colleagues' linguistic repertoires and identities. As a monolingual teacher, this book exponentially expanded my growing understanding of best practices for teaching all children and for building inclusive and appreciative learning communities in which everyone is seen, heard, and valued."-Kathy Collins, coauthor of I Am Reading

"This book is a radical departure from every other professional development book I've read about teaching about emergent bilinguals. Carla and Luz's embrace of each student they work with and their staunch belief that every child brings an abundance of value to our classrooms, not in spite of, but because of their linguistic heritage, feels revolutionary in this day and age. Then they went one step further and made those ideals tangible by providing engaging, practical lessons about language, identity and literacy. Every educator who reads this book will be changed by it. And perhaps most importantly, so will our students."-Colleen Cruz, author of The Unstoppable Writing Teacher

"As a scholar who seeks to challenge racial and linguistic hierarchies in the education of Latinx children, the most common question that I receive from teachers and administrators is how they can work to dismantle these hierarchies in their day-to-day practice. Now the answer has become more simple: En Comunidad. In this book, España and Herrera treat seriously the idea that the cultural and linguistic practices of Latinx children are legitimate and should be made central to their educational experiences. It is a must read for all educators who work with Latinx students."-Nelson Flores, Ph.D., Penn Graduate School of Education

"En Comunidad pushes beyond the common notions of learning language, using language, or having language. Authors España and Herrera send the invitation to live language. When we are safe to live our languages inside classroom spaces, we can live a more represented, connected and liberated life. And I can't imagine a greater gift to give students. Thank you, Carla and Luz, for writing a book that not only offers an insightful course on language, but helps us take the power off the page and into the classroom with a series of researched, dynamic lessons."-Maggie Beatty Roberts, coauthor of DIY Literacy

"Have you ever wondered what bilingual education would look like if it were intentionally designed to sustain the rich practices and identities of Latinx children, families, and communities? If so, you will definitely want to read En Comunidad. In this engaging book, you will be introduced to a critical bilingual literacies approach to curriculum and teaching. Intentionally centering bilingual Latinx voices, values, practices, and experiences, this approach invites us to consider robust pathways for engaging in teaching that honors bilingual Latinx students' full identities. En Comunidad offers us powerful lessons for transforming the education of bilingual Latinx students in the pursuit of justice."-Mariana Souto-Manning, Teachers College, Columbia University

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En Comunidad brings bilingual Latinx students' perspectives to the center of our classrooms, and offers classroom-ready lessons that amplify the varied

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Please describe Leo from the read aloud...

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Email: evan.bryceland@kaust.edu.sa

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Gots:
- Architecture of a mini-lesson & conference
- skills to improve clarity and brevity

Wants:
- I like the merge of input from you and output

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Got: A better understanding of how to confer with students.
Want: Just how we can set up a Virtual Bookroom.

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Got - practice in creating a mini lesson and conference

Want - time to create a lesson we could use in the classroom (grade specific) and practice delivering it.

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Got: There is power in addressing our students as readers and writers.

Want: I would like to continue to learn about the architecture of different aspects of workshop.

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Gots: It was great to practice planning a mini lesson with others. I also got a far greater understanding of the process of conferring and how important this part of the workshop is.

Wants: If possible to have any more questions/prompts or resources like the prompts from Tanya which promote student agency within the workshop environment. If possible suggestions of any other blogs or people to follow who are strong in this area. At G3 level this is an age where I want the students to be developing that agency as much as possible.

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Got: Importance of active engagement during mini-lessons

Wants: more examples of guided inquiry in RW/WW
ideas for keeping the workshop model functioning smoothly (eg. keeping students engaged while teacher is conferring, how to structure a unit, etc.)

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Got - clear structure of a ML
Want - some more examples,videos for specific ages

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Got: A better idea of the architecture of the ML and conferring.
Want: More resources, if possible, to refer to in the future.

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Gots - Conferencing is very powerful and not as intimidating as I once thought.
Wants - More examples of online support in Readers and Writers Workshop; especially in forever language.

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Gots - A clear sense of how to plan a mini-lesson and the architecture of an effective conferring session.
Wants - I want to understand more about how mini-lessons fit into and connect to bends and units.

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A clear understanding of the architecture of conferring is a great takeaway for me.
Wants: More videos to watch minilessons . The vimeo from TC were very good. Can we have more?

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Breaking the Cycle of Mistrust: Wise Interventions to Provide Critical

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Make a copy. Design your small group. Post to the padlet.

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HOMEWORK - To support planning for ML

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Got - practice writing a mini-lesson with the lens of what time of "teaching" is happening...
Wants - The Virtual Lens...with forever learning stance.  Would love some prompts for conferring too to help "practice" a more efficient forever type conferring style.

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Got - A great sense of creating a mini-lesson and the components that should be included.

Wants - more resources for reading and writing workshop

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I notice that my students draw as their form of writing. I would like to help them with adding details such as labels and a simple sentence to their drawing. (Skeleton 😊 start)

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Strategy Lesson Plan-Adding Detail to Drawings

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https://docs.google.com/document/d/103qSQoQPp-BdLPlV7QvizA-i8Zt9CcWvW3u_JT5kz1k/edit?usp=sharing

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Grade 7

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Strategy Lesson for Choosing a Topic - Grade 2

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Strategy Lesson for Choosing a Topic - Grade 2

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Copy of Strategy Lesson Planning Guide - Angeliki

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Create a new document and edit with others at the same time -- from your computer, phone or tablet. Get stuff done with or without an internet connection. Use Docs to edit Word files. Free from Google.

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Create a new document and edit with others at the same time -- from your computer, phone or tablet. Get stuff done with or without an internet connection. Use Docs to edit Word files. Free from Google.

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Create a new document and edit with others at the same time -- from your computer, phone or tablet. Get stuff done with or without an internet connection. Use Docs to edit Word files. Free from Google.

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Gots:
The importance of the 'how', 'why' and 'what' in crafting a teaching point. To cover all 3.

Wants:
When is it advisable to meet students 1:1 and when in a small group, in general

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Gots - Enjoyed designing the strategy group lesson.  Really made me re-evaluate where my focus has been this past year...ML and conf.  And strategy groups have been a lot more sporadic.
Wants - Student examples to practice noticing progressions/next steps

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Gots - I gained clarity around the planning, purpose, and execution of small group strategy sessions.
Wants - I want to understand how these mini-lessons, conferring, and small groups work within an overall unit. What is the big picture or project that we are trying to move forward? What anchors the unit?

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Gots:The difference between guided reading and read strategy lessons.
Organizing myself to plan for possibly areas that the students might have trouble with ahead of time.
Wants: Seeing Strategy lessons for my grade level or just strategies for a reading skill and writing skill.

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Gots: The importance of planning your strategy lessons. Following the structure of the strategy lesson plan helps to stay on track and save time.
Wants: More examples of conferring language and forever language. Samples of the structure would be super helpful.

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Got - A solid format/structure/guideline to follow for working in small groups

Want - Suggestions for how to have this unfold in the classroom - how to teach the kids the routine so that the conferring time is uninterrupted.

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Got - The importance of strategy groups and What-How-Why

Want -

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Gots: Much better idea of how to set up a strategy group. The 3:1 ratio is helpful, especially if starting in distance learning. Also the idea of having tools and resources ready to guide the students and give them prompts to inquire into.

Wants: More prompts for forever language to support this idea of challenging the students. Having a bank of these comments ready to bring to those strategy group sessions.

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Got - The importance of strategy groups and how to effectively create them.

Want - How to get writing level at the beginning of the year while using distance learning?

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Got: I was able to understand the process behind the planning of strategy groups better.

Want: The sharing exchange of ideas to continue. I think the grades level groups help!

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Loved the lesson planning template and the hands on experience i got .
Wants:

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Got: Planning a strategy lesson in a specific time. Loved the practice and the flexibility on choosing a teaching point that we see fit for our students.

Wants:

Resources on text complexity

How to adjust/move students in levels, when they are coming from a play-based kindergarten into Gr. 1.

Assessment ideas in order to document students' learning and fast and efficiently and help them move forward and (hopefully) decide their own goals.

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Got: Strategy groups are such a powerful way to meet the needs of all of your students. Looking at student data drives your groupings.

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Recognize the needs of the students and plan a strategy lesson around the need.
Wants:
Strategies to keep the rest of the class engaged while conferring.

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Our Learning, Ideas, and Reflections - Intro to RW/WW

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Please take a few moments to give us some feedback so we can reflect, grow, and improve.

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Helpful if you use a packaged curriculum like TCRWP. Also can be used to design your own units.

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Example of a toolkit created by G2 teachers to support conferring and small groups.

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Conversation around new book, Writing Workshop Essentials

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How can we create daily structures and routines that support writers?

Today on the podcast we're joined by Heinemann author and Classroom Essentials series editor Katie Wood Ray. We're also joined by Katherine Bomer and Corinne Arens, co-authors of the newest Classroom Essentials book, A Teachers Guide to Writing Workshop Essentials: Time, Choice, Response.

Guided by the research-based belief that children learn to write best when provided a predictable, daily writing structure, Katherine and Corinne introduce the basics of Writing Workshop, and suggest small, incremental steps towards implementing them.
Below is a transcript of this episode.
Katie: So I'm here today talking with Katherine Bomer and Corrine Arens about their book in the classroom essentials series, A Teacher's Guide to Writing Workshop Essentials: Time, Choice, Response, really focusing in on those three things. Yes. Congratulations to you both on having the book out in the world for a while now. And I just want to get right to talking about it.

It is very focused on those three essentials: Time, choice, and response. And those are big idea concepts and yet I'm struck by how much incredibly practical support there is in the book. It's not a theoretical book, even though it's very grounded in the theory that that's what writers need. So, I wonder if you could each just say which practical part of the book are you most excited about and do you think will help teachers a lot?

Katherine: I love that question.

Corinne: Wow. Yeah, that's a great one. Katherine, do you want to go first?

Katherine: Aren't you sweet. I definitely have my choice and I also have my choice for you. How about that?

Corinne: Okay, okay.

Katherine: Talk about taking away choice.

Well, okay, let me just say that I think you helped so much in the time session because you were so deeply embedded in actual schools. I don't have the opportunity of being in a school every day and you are in schools, multiple schools, every day. And so you're really are right in the heart of dealing with a school schedule and time and noticing what teachers have and feel that they don't have and what are some of the answers for that in terms of crafting a special uninterrupted bubble of time, that we call it in our book, for writing. So does that feel like something you would like to talk about or have I totally taken away your choice?

Corinne: No, I do think that ... Well, thank you for that first of all. And I do think that time ... I was actually going to talk about the different ideas that we give them in terms of writing partnerships.

So, that was actually the first thing that came to my mind. So, if I could speak to that first and then I can circle back around to time, would that be okay?

Katherine: Yes, please.

Corinne: The work that I ended the year in Blue Springs this spring was so centered on writing partnerships. And what I found is that there's a misconception that they are like peer editors. And so then we have second graders who are trying to edit someone else's writing, and that doesn't really seem fruitful all the time. But it also gets to be a little bit deficit thinking in terms of, "Oh, well, I've got to pair people by ability. I've got to have a low writer talking to the high writer." And when we think about it in terms of us correcting each other's work.

And so we really, what I'm so excited about, and every time that I was in a classroom, I was like, "Man, I wish the book we're outside could give teachers these resources of just how to teach kids how to speak to someone as a partner within their writing." So, I really love that part of the book. And I feel like that's going to be really helpful to teachers as we start to continue to grow our writing partnerships or to launch them. If you've never had kids write or talk to each other about their writing. I love the dialogue and the talking stems in that part of the book.

Katie: Something I was thinking about in relation to this question too, is in section on choice, I think you really open up the idea of all the different ways that kids can have choice and it really got me to thinking about how hard it is to teach writing as a process if kids don't have choices. If you just tell them what to do, there's nothing to teach into. And so really the heart of teaching, the process of writing, is giving kids choices and I think it really illuminates that in a powerful way.

Katherine: Well, yes, our choice section is rich. It is rich with possibilities. We just pushed on each other's brains and looked around at all the classrooms and just said, "What are the multitudinous ways that we can give choice over to kids?" And choice means more than ... The first thing to think about, of course, is the utter importance of topic choice when kids are writing about what they want to write about, even if it's things that don't necessarily interest us as adults, as teachers, or things that we think are not really school appropriate, like video games. When we let kids choose that to write about, it's as if you all gave them red bull for a snack. They suddenly are on fire to write.

And that just makes sense, that when you're writing about something that brings you joy, you're going to want to do it. But besides topic choice, we just found all these amazing different ways that kids make choices of where to sit and who to sit with and how to sit. Literally some kids are on their bellies on the floor and then just choice being also the ability to make decisions.

So, there's choice/decision-making. So making a decision of what genre do I want to write in, and if I'm writing a poem, for instance, do I want it to be all one chunk of words? One big block of, of words, that's one way poems can look. Or do I want to put white space in between 20 different stanzas?

There are just a million different decisions to make as a writer, including when am I finished? And so in classic traditional classrooms, when you were handed a product, there was definitely a task, an assignment, and a time that you were supposed to be finished. I've just recently been going through boxes of old ancient pieces of paper from my mom's attic or the garage or something, I think. I'm, first of all, moved that she kept these pieces of student class work all the way from kindergarten, because they're really, really boring. Because all they are is spelling words and handwriting practice over and over and over. And there's nothing to look at to see a person in there. I'm like, who was I when I was a child? All I was was copying and getting a grade on it.

And so with, with student writing, when choice is there, you read student work and you feel like, "I hear you. I see you. I can find a person inside there because you have the personality of the child there." I totally lost track of your initial question, Katie.

Corinne: I think I can circle it back around because what she said was ... When I felt a, "Oh yes" moment when you were talking, Katie, was when you said, "There's nothing really to teach into." When we make all the choices for the kids, then it's just an act of compliance. Can they follow directions is essentially what I'm assessing. Not really tapping into their compositional thinking. And so that was the thing that struck me more than anything. And Katherine, all of those handwriting sheets and things, manuscript has a place in the world and everyone needs a John Hancock.

However, if we're really talking about compositional thinking, that's not giving us intel. That's not a formative assessment. That's strictly just, can they do it or can they not? And no wonder you would shy away ... I would shy away from teaching writing if that's what I felt like my writing instruction was.

Katie: And you have this gorgeous ending. "I'm the kind of writer who ..." That really shines a spotlight on these two young boys who've been co-authoring, Jackson and Tate. Choice is also the essence of identity. If you don't have any choices, you don't have an opportunity to know yourself in that particular way.

Katherine: Exactly.

Katie: And it's really what it all comes down to, isn't it? Is kids being able to walk away from this process with a sense of who they are in the world when it comes to writing. So, I think that's really powerful.

Katherine: So the section on response is another really rich section because we talk about response being not only from the teacher in the form of conferring, but also from peers in the classroom, the writing partnerships, and from certainly audiences that we can invite in with celebrations of writing and also now of course we are learning so much about how to be online and sharing our writing online. So many kids are going to come into the classroom in August and say, "I've got this. I am sharing my writing to someone in Egypt. So, I'm good with this." But the conferring piece is I want to just give a nod to the books that have come before mine, both Katie, your book with Lisa Cleveland, and also Carl Anderson's book on conferring and writing, and also Jen Serravallo's book on conferring and reading.

So there is a lot of information and a lot of great resources out there about conferring. But one thing that I love about our book, the part about conferring has wonderful videos attached to it for conferring. And what I love about those videos is that I think that I would share those videos right now with the parents that I know who are trying to homeschool, the parents who are reaching out to me and saying, "How do you do this? I have respect for teachers now, because I can't even ... How do you talk to your kids about writing without showing them that they don't have periods in their writing?" Which is, of course, what most adults think of when they think about talking to children about their writing, they think they've got to correct it. Correct the spelling and make sure that they put their periods and capitals, and that's all super important, yes. But it is not how to talk to kids about writing.

And so I think the videos in the book are really little visions for what conferring can look and sound like. And they are about, specifically, they show the kind of tone that we want to have with our kids, the kind of leaning in and number one, listening, the number one thing to do when you're with a child who's writing is to listen to what they're saying about their writing and how to ask open ended questions like, "What are you working on your writing? Talk to me about your writing." And how to talk about kids' writing process, what they're thinking and the decisions they're making as they write. Rather than just going straight for, "You need paragraphs."

And that's a very hard. I have all empathy and understanding for that being the first thing that comes into your mind when you're with a child, because that's how we were all taught and so of course it's the default position. But I think the videos and the information that's inside the book around conferring is going to help people, help teachers and parents if they want to check out the book, really know just how to just relax and lean in and listen to their children talk about writing.

Katie: And you mentioned, let's talk about the videos for a minute. Because there are 15 videos connected to this book, all of which captured in your district, Corrine. And actually, I was just looking at the overview. Really only three of them are your exquisite conferences with children. Every time I watched those, I just think I wish every child in the world could sit next to you, Katherine. [crosstalk 00:12:36]

But the other videos are different. They're not like the normal videos that are attached to a book. We've got a video that's about prioritizing time. We have one that's about the value of response. One about teaching into small group work. And can you just talk a little bit about your vision for the videos? What you hope they do? How they are different from more traditional videos about teaching?

Corinne: Well, I don't know, Katherine feel free to jump in, obviously, but I just feel like so much of this, if I could just see it and I could see what was possible, then I could so much more easily translate it into my own classroom. And I think that that is the gift of how these videos are crafted. They are in the moment. They are real time. They give such a strong ... I don't know another word than visual of what this can look like, when is it living and breathing within a classroom, what does it look like?

And I think that-

Katie: And across classrooms, that's one of the things that strikes me, right? It's not just a single classroom. You show routines in action in kindergarten and routines in action in sixth grade.

Corinne: Yes. And it's so funny to me. Thank you for highlighting that. Because I live in such a vertical world. I could be in kindergarten in the morning and then third grade and then back to kindergarten and fifth grade and first grade. And so I live in a vertical world, but that is exactly ... The gift of my job is embedded within those classrooms in terms of seeing things in and out of all different classrooms.

And it also, what I love about the videos, is that each of our teachers, you can feel a sense of continuity in what they are doing, but it is so individualized to who they are as teachers. And so I love the different, the ways that we've been able to capture that you can own this and it can look however you need it to look within your classroom and put your own stamp on it, but still knowing that you are valuing the principles of what we know to be true for writers. I think that's beautifully showcased within the videos.

Katherine: I absolutely agree with that. Going in, we really wanted to include so many different styles. Just so teachers know they can be themselves. We wanted for people watching the videos to know, "Oh, so I can be the kind of teacher who stumbles over her words a little bit." Or, "I could be the kind of teacher who every sentence that comes out of my mouth feels completely focused."

You can hear my own language, how it stumbles a little bit, and I'm that kind of person when I speak out loud. But there are other people who don't talk like that. And that's okay. We all have our different personalities and styles of teaching. And we were trying to capture that.

But also the main thing about the videos that I want to say is that they are fun to watch. They're actually little tiny mini Ken Burns documentaries. They've got-

Katie: Actually, they're Michael Grover documentaries.

Katherine: Yes, of course. Thank you, yay, Katie. Yes. Shout out to Michael Grover.

Katie: The wizard of documentary work at Heinemann.

Katherine: He is. He's a magician. But he put together these from a ton of raw footage. But what we knew we wanted was we have a couple that you could watch as just a straightforward mini lesson or straightforward conference and also there are ones that are more like that are like a vision. They're visionary, they're around big ideas. There's one about writing notebooks, and so you just get this vision and all the possibilities for what writing notebooks can be and look like along with a little bit of music in the background.

And we've got amazing teachers talking about their teaching. Oh my goodness. I love their testimonials. We've got children talking about their writing.

Corinne: The children's testimonials, oh.

Katherine: They'll melt your heart. And all of that's put together in these very small, easy to digest it, easy to watch, little movie-ettes.

Katie: Another feature that I really appreciate in the book, you have spotlights on both beginning writers and also bilingual and multilingual writers. What is it that you would most want readers to understand about those particular writers in their classrooms?

Katherine: Well, this was a big decision to add this feature into the book because we have to. There's nothing that I do in my work anymore that does not include or try to include everyone who sits in our classroom. That's just a mission in my life and I know it's a mission in Corrine's life also. And so we wanted to make sure it was a part of the book.

We make sure to give a nod, or what we call take a bow, to people who are more informed about teaching multilingual students than we are. But we also wanted to make sure that we can again, bring back to these foundational ideas and say, "Once again, these work for everyone." I will argue with anyone who says, "But these kids can't, or my kids can't because, fill in the blank." Because they're this or they're that, or we live here, or we live there.

No. The answer is always time, choice and response. And so, one thing we argue is that actually one thing we know from research and experience is that people who are learning another language, learning English as another language, need time. They need time to be using that language. And so in the writing workshop, kids have time to both write and talk a lot about what they're working on. And that is going to help anybody learning English as another language.

Kids who have choice of what to write about and so feel comfortable writing about their abuela or writing about whatever is important to them in their home life or their school life, are going to feel more comfortable trying out English because they have the choice. And kids who have encouraging response through conferring and peers and audiences are going to just want to keep trying and wanting to do better and learning more than if we just handed them a worksheet and said, "Fill in a line."

I'm just going back to those wrinkled moldy papers I've been finding in these boxes. These fill in the blanks with the correct phonetical word. It was okay for me. I managed to make 100s or 92s, but that one made me cry. But think about the difference between that, sitting in a classroom and doing that, or sitting in a classroom and being able to write about the party that you're having on Saturday with all your family coming over and how you're going to celebrate together and being able to use words that you do know in your own language. And that that's good and okay as far as learning language in the writing workshop.

Corinne: Yeah. And I would say that this is the most important part of the book in so many ways, because this work is universal. And just like Katherine said, for the multilingual students, there feels a need to over scaffold. And when we over scaffold, we are not truly understanding what they are capable to do if we didn't scaffold. And there's a fear that if we don't, so we're like preemptively rescuing them, right. Like I'm going to give you the graphic organizer because I think it will make it easier for you. And I'm assuming that this is going to be what you need when really, when we engage the children with the time to tell us what they know, and responding in a way that's not right or wrong, so many of the kids in some of these settings feel as if they're not good at X, Y, and Z. And this work allows them to be successful in ways that perhaps they haven't had a chance to feel in other areas. So, I think it's one of the most important parts of the book.

Katie: Okay. One last question. This book is beautiful to look at.

Corinne: It feels gorgeous.

Katie: And one of the most beautiful things is it's just filled with really exquisitely beautiful student writing. And it occurs to me when I just do sort of a flip through of that writing, is that there's a message there. There's something to take away from all the student writing in this book. And I wonder in your own words, what do you hope the message of all the student writing that I see in this book is for readers?

Katherine: Can I say the first thing I want is for people to be delighted by student writing. The two boys that you talk about, Katie, at the very end, Tate and Jackson. When Corrine and I first encountered the writing that they're talking about, these little tiny, teensy, tiny chapter books. They're just little, teeny, tiny, not even three by five size. And though they were writing those on their own and by the dozens, and the teacher brought them to the library and we're all standing around reading them to each other. And we were cracking up.

Adults after school reading students chapter books and cracking each other up. We were just delighted by the writing. And that's the first thing I would love people looking through this book and looking at the student writing is to just take delight in the humor, the originality, the creativity, the things that they write about that you would never in a million years think to write about. If we told them what to write about, never would we have anything as delightful as these little tiny chapter books that Tate and Jackson create.

Corinne: And that's one of the time savers, Katherine, is you're done having to search for the cutest newest thing because kids will not disappoint. Kids will always be more creative and have cooler things to say, then whatever we can find.

But this is what I want to say on behalf of the children. If the kids within these pages could talk to the audience, I think they would say things like this: We are here, we are capable, and we will knock your socks off given the opportunity.

So, get out of our way a little bit.

Katherine: Yeah.

Corinne: Honor the big principles and let us shine. I feel like if the kids could talk, those are some of the things they would say.

Katie: Oh, that's beautiful.

Katherine: That is beautiful.

Katie: I love that.

Katie: Well, thanks you too, again. Thanks to you both. Congratulations to you both. It's a beautiful book. I'm just so happy to have it as a new classroom essentials book. I think it absolutely fulfills the mission of these books, which is to bring people into foundational work, remind people about what is foundational about the work they've been doing for years. So, I'm thrilled that it's out in the world.
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Learn more about The Teacher's Guide to Writing Workshop: Time, Choice, and Response at Heinemann.com

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Katherine Bomer, author of The Journey Is Everything, Hidden Gems,and Starting with What Students Do Best,is one of the field's most gifted writers as well as one of its most gifted teachers of writing. In more than two decades of teaching and consulting, she has used her writers' eye to focus on how craft isn't just an instructional goal but an instructional tool that allows writers to grow well beyond the range of most publicly available assessments. An internationally-known consultant and frequent keynote speaker, Katherine began her consulting career with the Teachers College Reading and Writing Project. In addition to Writing a Life, she is the coauthor of the Heinemann title For a Better World(with Randy Bomer) and delivers on-site PD through Heinemann Professional Development Services.

A published poet and essayist, Katherine is also coauthor (with Lucy Calkins) of A Writer's Shelf. She began over fifteen years ago as a professional developer with the Teachers College Reading and Writing Project. A classroom teacher for ten years, she now works with teachers in elementary and middle schools throughout the country. As a frequent speaker at conferences and institutes, she combines a teacher's practical advice, a writer's love of language, and a powerful plea for social justice.

Corinne Arens, Ed.D., is a district-level Instructional Coach for Writing in the Blue Spring School District, Blue Springs, Missouri. She is a teacher consultant for the Greater Kansas City Writing Project and has served on multiple state-level committees.

For many years as the author of bestselling Heinemann books such as About the Authors, Study Driven, Already Ready, and In Pictures and In Words, and as a member of Heinemann's Professional Development Services, Katie Wood Ray gave teachers resources and PD that transformed writing instruction and helped children discover a lifelong love of writing.

In 2014, Katie "moved to the other side of the desk" and joined the dynamic team of editors at Heinemann where she works closely with authors to craft powerful professional books on a range of literacy topics. Katie is also the series editor for the newClassroom Essentialsbooks from Heinemann. Tasked with bringing foundational, progressive practices to a new generation of teachers, Katie works to ensure that the sharp focus and enhanced design of each book best serve the content. She also teamed up with her longtime collaborator, Lisa Cleaveland, to write one of the first books in the series, A Teacher's Guide to Getting Started with Beginning Writers.

You can find her on Twitter at@KatieWoodRay

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On the Podcast: Writing Workshop Essentials with Katie Wood Ray, Katherine Bomer, and Corinne Arens

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How can we create daily structures and routines that support writers?