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Connect with educators around the world!

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

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sarah@erinkentconsulting.com
Twitter: @srvshannon

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Components of Balanced Literacy with Video Links EKC

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P3&P4: Inquiry-based Minilesson Planning Sheet

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EKC

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Jennifer Serravallo's: The Writing Strategies Book

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could be written about in an essay (Think could also work to support different modes of writing in a variety of genres. An of a (dragged)

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Jennifer Serravallo's: The Writing Strategies Book

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could be written about in an essay (Think could also work to support different modes of writing in a variety of genres. An of a (dragged)

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I promise to support your learning wherever that may be!

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I promise to support your learning wherever that may be!

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- To love learning.
- To be supportive of whatever level they are at.
- To ensure that they are motivated.
- To provide agency.
- To ensure that they make the maximum progress.
- Reach their potential.
- Love reading and writing!
- To provide a platform to excel.

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A fun, safe and caring environment where children feel it is okay to make mistakes.

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A fun, safe and caring environment where children feel it is okay to make mistakes.

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I promise not to give you answers but allow you time to figure them out.

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I promise to work in partnership remembering that I can learn from you, just as you can learn from me. 

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I promise to work in partnership remembering that I can learn from you, just as you can learn from me. 

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To keep them motivated, enthusiastic and challenged without them feeling overwhelmed.

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To keep them motivated, enthusiastic and challenged without them feeling overwhelmed.

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- listen to and respect your ideas and opinions (voice, choice, agency!)
- support you to stay motivated
- create a safe environment to learn and never hinder your curiousity

You are important and you will be heard!!

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I promise to slow down and teach towards your needs and not what I need to teach. 

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I promise to slow down and teach towards your needs and not what I need to teach. 

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- don't fall under pressure of time constraints.

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1 Differentiatied teaching and materials.
2 Scaffolding for different leanirng needs.
3find out their learning goals and support them.
4 Avoid killing time ,keep remind them.

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-We will have fun!
-Your voice matters and is important
-You will become more independent
-You will explore your passions and interests
-You will feel safe and supported
-

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I promise to listen to your feelings on what you have read. More communication will occur between us after you read.

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I'm excited to try out the planner! Really looking forward to the next session, thank you for all the useful tips :)

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Seeing a mini lesson in action really helped me visualise and comprehend how it works. I will now use the mini planner and challenge myself to give it a go with less fear.

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It was really helpful to see the mini-lesson in action and get an idea of the structure and strategies that you can use. Knowing the four categories in advance that I should think about whilst watching the mini-lesson meant that I really honed in on specific teaching methods.
Thank you for a great session and I look forward to the next one.

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Being in that mini lesson with Sarah made me want to start writing! I enjoyed how simple yet empowering it is for the pupils. What a wonderful session to end the week with, looking forward to the next one.

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Use the resources below to plan a minilesson with brevity, clarity, and IB core values in mind.

Share an artifact below (a picture of a chart/teaching tool you made for the lesson; a demo piece of writing your shared with kids, a teaching point you crafted into a question, etc...)

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EKC

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Jennifer Serravallo's Writing Strategies Book

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P3&P4: Inquiry-based Minilesson Planning Sheet

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We have been working on shortening our teacher talk in preparation for our mini - lessons and when we integrate the other elements after the next sessions.

Using the strategies have been beneficial.

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P3&P4: Inquiry-based Minilesson Planning Sheet

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Possible Strategies to Lean Into #1 (Generating and Collecting Ideas)

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Possible Strategies to Lean Into #1 (Generating and Collecting Ideas)

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Jennifer Serravallo's Writing Strategies Book

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Possible Strategies to Lean Into #3 (Revising)

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Possible Strategies to Lean Into #3 (Revising)

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Jennifer Serravallo's: Writing Strategies Book

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Teaching Tip Younger writers will likely choose the most important part based

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Possible Strategies to Lean Into #2 (Generating and Collecting)

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Possible Strategies to Lean Into #2 (Generating and Collecting)

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Jennifer Serravallo's: The Writing Strategies Book

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on a notebook page or large piece of paper. Write the

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of the story. Go back Create a timeline, including each five- to ten-minute event that was

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Gots: Loved seeing a mini lesson in action.

Wants: I would love to see what differentiation of a mini lesson might look like to support pupils with additional learning needs.

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Having the time to actually try planning one that we can use was super valuable.

Ps. Can P3 have your lesson plan from session 1?

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Wondering - I would love to see a whole unit planned out in the mini steps. E.g Writing personal stories - how do you take this step by step?

Takeaways - I enjoyed trying out the planner in a group, I'd like to try running perhaps two or three different workshops with other adults on the same or similar topics and review together what went well/what to do next.

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The session has given me a bigger picture of the writing process. I know understand it's wider context and how I can use trial and error until our next session.

Questions I still have..

- How can I connect it to the unit of inquiry?
- How much time should I spend on each stage of the cycle?

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Useful to spend time planning using the template and thinking about the what, how, why?

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It was interesting to see the importance placed on structuring our language and linking it to real world experiences. For next next time, we wonder how to sequence lessons and how to extend or challenge learners during their independent practice.

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How am I using this to support my teaching point. How am I phrasing it to keep the clarity and brevity.

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I think it will take a bit of practice before I can get my planning down to 10min.

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Is the "why" related more to the how or the what?

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Wondering - I may be jumping the gun but I am finding the 'what' the most challenging part. It would be so great to see an example of mini lessons based around one writing genre etc. How small are the chunks? I love a good example.

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Wondering - I may be jumping the gun but I am finding the 'what' the most challenging part. It would be so great to see an example of mini lessons based around one writing genre etc. How small are the chunks? I love a good example.

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It has been so helpful working through the planning strategy with the prep team. Working together to plan a lesson has really helped me to understand the structure of a writers workshop. I'm excited to try this session out that we planned.

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Post a minilesson artifact below (a minilesson planner, a picture of a chart/ teaching tool you made, a demo piece of writing you shared with kids, a teaching point you crafted into a question)

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I wonder whether if there's an example that can help us plan the mini lesson better for pupils that who's writing skill is very limited.

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Building up the idea of independent writing time! What does it look like, sound like feel like. Class agrees on target amount of writing time.

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EKC

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Common Patterns for 3-8 Writers - Carl Anderson

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Common Patterns for 3-8 Writers - Carl Anderson

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Goal-setting conference - G1 Writing

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Goal Setting Conference -- Writing -- First Grade

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Great examples of conferring and tips.

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From A Teacher's Guide to Writing Conferences of The Classroom Essentials Series
Invite students to have a real give-and-take with you.

Even though in conferences you're a teacher talking to students, you're also a (more experienced) writer talking to (less experienced) fellow writers about what writers do-come up with topics, make a plan for a piece of writing, write a lead, develop a section
with detail, use commas in a series, and so on. In this give and take, you learn about what students are trying to do as writers and how well they're doing it, and the students learn how they can do their work better.

Speak in a conversational tone.

Tone is the foundation of the good relationships you want to develop with students over the course of the school year. Speaking in a warm, friendly manner puts students at ease and makes it more likely they will talk with you about what they're trying to do as writers. What you learn from this talk helps you assess students and decide what you should teach to help them grow.

Sit alongside students, at their eye level.

How you sit with students helps you establish a positive tone in conferences. You might grab a nearby empty seat or sit on one that you carry with you around the classroom. As you sit, it's important to make frequent eye contact with students and make sure that your
facial expressions show an interest in what students are telling you.

Use "active listening" strategies.

For example, give some wait time after asking a question so that students have the time and space they need to come up with a response. Ask students to "say more" about what they tell you. And repeat what children say to check that you're hearing them correctly.
Using these strategies shows that you have a real interest in what students are saying and that you're really trying to understand them. Students will usually respond by talking to you more.

The goal of a writing conference is to teach students something about writing that they can use in the future. If you add to students' writing repertoires in every conference, they become better writers over time.

Learn more at Heinemann.com

Carl Anderson is one of the nation's leading experts on teaching writing to students in grades K-12. He dedicates his energies exclusively as an education consultant and writer.

Carl recently worked for Teachers College Reading and Writing Project at Columbia University as a Lead Staff Developer, providing staff development in the teaching of writing grades K-8. He spent school days in New York City elementary and middle schools demonstrating effective teaching in the writing workshop and coaching teachers. He gave day-long workshops for teachers at Teachers College on launching the writing workshop, conferring with student writers, mini-lessons, and developing curriculum for the writing workshop.

Carl is the author of numerous books including the bestselling How's It Going? A Practical Guide to Conferring with Student Writers, as well as Assessing Writers and the series Strategic Writing Conferences: Smart Conversations that Move Young Writers Forward Grades 3-6.

His latest book, A Teacher's Guide to Writing Conferences, is part of the Classroom Essentials series. Full of classroom video, the book helps teachers understand the underlying principles and reasons for conferring with students, and how to make writing conferences a part of teachers' daily routines.

Follow Carl on Twitter @ConferringCarl

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The goal of a writing conference is to teach students something about writing that they can use in the future. If you add to students' writing repertoires in every conference, they become better writers over time.

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It was great to see writing examples and discuss the compliments and next steps. It would be great to look at examples of children's writing together as a prep level and compare/contrast.

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Concise feedback is important, especially with younger pupils.

Once routines are established over time, conferencing will become easier.

Someone raised a good point about conferencing space. Should this be done in the classroom? Is it distracting for other pupils?

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Practical examples of Shared and Interactive Writing

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Conferring Toolkits: Class Stories, Shared Writing and Interactive Writing

I like to keep my writing toolkits pretty plain and simple. I don't want a lot of extraneous stuff in there cluttering up my folders. So, in order for something to make it into my toolkit, it has to be helpful for a lot of kids, for a lot of reasons.

That's why I find class stories, shared writing and interactive writing to be indispensable tools for conferring.

In case you aren't already familiar with the power of writing together, you can read an older post about shared writing, here. And another post about oral storytelling here. For even more, you should read Interactive Writing, by Andrea McCarrier, Gay Su Pinnell, and Irene Fountas.

Whether it's storytelling, or shared writing, or interactive writing, any piece of writing that your whole class created together is going to be extremely helpful to have at your fingertips while you are moving about the classroom conferring.

I used to do all my shared writing and interactive writing on very large chart paper, so that I could easily display it on the walls and kids would be able to read it from their spots around the room. I still do this-but I've been doing lots of shared and interactive writing lately using regular sized copy paper on a document camera. I can still tape the smaller pieces to a larger chart-sized paper to display the whole story-and I can make photocopies of the work to carry around with me more easily.

Here are a few ways that I use shared writing and interactive writing as part of my conferring toolkit:

Tip #1: When your whole class knows a story, you can easily pull it out during a conference to work on revision. For example, check out this story, written together with kindergarteners (they told me the words, I drew the pictures and wrote).

The original story needed some work, don't you think? In a conference with one child, I taught her about making a beginning that really sounds like storytelling. We used interactive writing: she wrote the word wall words for the new beginning, and I wrote the other words:

In later one-one conferences, the story wound up getting put in a different order, and a new ending was added. Copies of this story still live in my narrative conferring toolkit, and I use it often for adding labels, adding dialogue, and many other teaching points.

Tip #2: When the text is familiar, it makes a great piece to have kids add to or work on during a conference as practice with a new strategy, before transferring the strategy to their own writing.

In a first grade classroom, we started this poem as a group one very warm day in April (the heat in the building wouldn't turn off even though it was 70 degrees outside!).

Then, when I taught a small group that they could use repetition, we did this:

Of course, none of the kids were writing about being hot in their own poems-that is certainly not the point! No! But they did all work on using repetition and comparisons. I added both group poems to my poetry toolkit, to use with future kids - as great mentors for using comparisons, punctuation (or not), and repetition.

Tip #3: I often will manipulate the class writing to intentionally leave parts out, so that you can add those parts in conferring or small group work. Like in this persuasive letter that a group of third graders worked on (telling me their ideas, with me scribing:

Notice the ending is somewhat weak? That was intentional on my part. The kids told it to me that way, and I left it. I anticipated that endings/conclusions in persuasive writing would be something to focus later on in the unit, especially in small groups and conferring, so I decided not to write a strong ending the first time around. I made copies of the letter and stuck them in my conferring toolkit so that whenever I meet with a kid or two and want to teach different ways to write endings/conclusions, we could practice on this letter.

*****

Don't forget to stay with us all week long as we share what's inside our conferring toolkits!

On Monday, May 11, we hope you'll join us for our twitter chat. Just use #TWTBlog to participate in the conversation!

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Conferring Toolkits: Class Stories, Shared Writing and Interactive Writing

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I like to keep my writing toolkits pretty plain and simple. I don't want a lot of extraneous stuff in there cluttering up my folders. So, in order for something to make it into my toolkit, it has to be helpful for a lot of kids, for a lot of reasons.

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Guiding Questions:

-What experience can I anticipate setting the context for this work?

-How might this look in my classroom?

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Amanda small group on information writing

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Small Group/Strategy Lesson Planning  Malvern

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Since our last workshop, myself and Morgan have been working on setting up our classroom for writer's workshop and conferencing with the pupils to help them eventually choose and publish a piece of work. These photos show the various stages we went through. From editing through conferencing to choosing and publishing a final piece.

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Malvern College HK - 2021 Q4 - Conferences - Prep 3 - Abigail

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This is a picture of a pupil's first recount that she recently went back to and added more information to help the reader.

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3 Things I Learned
2 Things I want to Try
1 Wondering I Have

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Login - Heinemann | Publisher of professional resources and a provider of educational services for teachers, kindergarten through college

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Heinemann is a publisher of professional resources and a provider of educational services for teachers, kindergarten through college.

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3 things we learned-
How to structure a conference, involving pupils in research phase of the conference, students participation in a shared write

2 things we want to try-
tracking pupils progress across lessons
using the tracking to inform groups

1 wondering-
When to implement interactive writing, can it be part of conferencing, or should it be a mini-lesson or have it's own separate lesson?

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3 - the structure and format of a lesson, how to conference effectively, the importance of brevity.
2 -shared writing between classes, creating a conference schedule
1 - how to implement r/w workshop effectively into our units of inquiry. So far, I've found that pupils aren't as enthused about unit related r/w workshop lessons. They are much more enthused when it is free.

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3 - Kat and Michelle Make a timetable for conferencing, conferencing can be in the moment or retrospectively, routine for writers workshop is super important

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3 - Kat and Michelle Make a timetable for conferencing, conferencing can be in the moment or retrospectively, routine for writers workshop is super important

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2- Shared interactive writing more often, some of the strategies I saw on the PDF
1 - I wonder how seedless grapes grow

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3.I have learnt about the interactive writing, making observational notes and the key things in minilesson

2. I will try to construct a conference with the link and teaching point.

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Things we have learnt:
-The structure of writer's workshop
-Having a key message
-Importance of conferring and sharing

Things we want to try:
-Tracking our conferring and doing group conferring
-During a shared write, have all the pupils working alongside on their own whiteboard to give them ownership of the piece

Our wondering:
Where can we find more teaching aids, anchor charts etc to help build a tool box?

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I learned:
Brevity is important but sometimes tricky!
How to plan an effective mini lesson
The difference between shared and interactive writing

I want to try:
tracking my conferencing effectively
conferencing in small groups to meet with more pupils

I wonder:
Where can we find some examples of good feedback for writing conferences to draw on?

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I've learnt how to keep brevity into my lessons but still provide clarity on the skill or ambition for the lesson. I've learnt how to get pupils invested in their writing time (not all the time) but pupils are becoming prouder of their achivements as a class and individuals - wanted to improve and track their improvements. I've learnt how to begin to improve the quality of my conferences.

I would like to try getting my shared writing back off the screen. I would like to try being braver with a group conference.

I am wondering what my teaching practise will look like in January. How my attitude and my personal confidence in delivering the workshop model changes, thinking how this enables me to be braver with both delivering lessons but conferencing and using my data to move forward with rewarding and useful learning engagements.

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3 - Keep taking risks and trying things; Art of conferring(teach, coach, link); planning a mini-lesson with brevity and clarity.

2 - Stop overthinking; connections through teaching and coaching more small groups.

1 - How I could support children from different cultural backgrounds with approaches to writing when it is so far from what they are used to.

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3. I have learned the architecture of conferencing, the need for scheduling, and lots of resources for writing.
2. I want to try conferencing with small groups with similar goals, and class writing
1. I wonder how to realistically schedule to conference with every student effectively

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3 things I learned:
1 Good example of Personal  Meetings and interactive Writing examples across Preps
2 Precious experience about interactive writing.
3 Make the writing process visible.

2 things I want to try
1 Mini-lessons for interactive writing
2 Gradually build the routine for interactive Writing.

1 Wonder I have
The gap between speaking and writing in Chinese may cause more problems in Writer's workshop.

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3: generating ideas (big heart)
strategies of one on one conference
interactive writing
2: conference with one and small groups
implement "shared pen" with
the student I am working with in
language lessons