ELAConnections

Below are a list of topics celebrated in February that you can use as springboards for reading and writing in your classroom. Students can research these topics, read about them, discuss them, and write about them. They can write short research papers, poems, essays, create bulletin boards, hall posters, or informative announcements for your school. These ideas are great when you need something engaging and different to use when you have a few extra minutes or to incorporate into the regular reading and writing you do in your classroom. Most importantly, have fun and share what you do! We love hearing what works for you!

AMERICAN HEART MONTH since 1963 (www.americanheart.org) – Incorporate this into VALENTINE’S DAY and NATIONAL MEND A BROKEN HEART MONTH. Why is the heart associated with Valentines’ Day? What can you learn about the heart and how to protect it physically and emotionally? Create a class or library book of students’ favorite love poems and articles on protecting/healing broken hearts.

BAKE FOR FAMILY FUN MONTH (www.homebaking.org) – How has baking changed since the internet, Pinterest, and Youtube? How is baking a part of your family? Bring famous family baking recipes to share with the class. Write a story to accompany your recipe. Bind these into a class book to celebrate family baking.

NATIONAL BLACK HISTORY MONTH (www.asalh.org) –Combine this with the BIRTH ANNIVERSARY OF LANGSTON HUGHES on February 1, 1902 and FREEDOM DAY ANNIVERSARY on February 1 of 1865. This is when Abraham Lincoln approved the 13^th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution that abolished slavery. Read, discuss, and model poems, memoirs, and short stories by Langston Hughes and other black writers.

INTERNATIONAL BOOST SELF-ESTEEM MONTH (https://quitandrecovery.org/february-is-boost-your-self-esteem-month/) – this was created to focus on the importance of nurturing and cultivating self-esteem to beat the winter blahs, to boost morale, and to inspire yourself and others to seize new challenges. Since Valentine’s Day can be a self-esteem killer for students and many adults, have students brainstorm what they can do about this to make it the best Valentine’s Day ever!

INTERNATIONAL EXPECT SUCCESS MONTH (http://www.karlabrandau.com/international-expect-success-month/) – Combine this with the INTERNATIONAL BOOST SELF-ESTEEM MONTH and PLANT THE SEEDS OF GREATNESS MONTH for a truly successful month! Have students read success stories and articles, listen to successful speakers, and write “How to be Successful” articles to compile and place in the school or class library (be sure to include articles from teachers, too).

LIBRARY LOVERS’ MONTH (https://www.daysoftheyear.com/days/library-lovers-month/) – Have students brainstorm what they can do to celebrate Library Lovers’ Month. What can they do to let the school librarian know he or she is appreciated and let students know all that is available to them through their school or local library?

NATIONAL TIME MANAGEMENT MONTH (https://www.fastcompany.com/3027809/work-smart/7-time-management-strategies-from-some-brilliant-teenage-prodigies) – This might be a good time to help students review and revise their time management skills. Have students read and share articles on ways they can better manage their time and use that information to create time management reminder cards/posters.

NATIONAL WOMEN INVENTORS MONTH (http://herahub.com/resources/national-women-inventors-month-member-spotlight-on-frances-prado/) – Have students create posters to place around the school listing women inventors and their inventions.

YOUTH LEADERSHIP MONTH – Read/discuss pages from Stephen Covey’s book, 7 Habits of Highly Effective Teens (http://www.seancovey.com/books/7habits/#), or have students research and come up with their own lists of qualities of highly successful teens leaders. Have students locate and share articles of teens who are making a difference in their communities and around the world. Have students create posters of inspirational quotes to encourage teens to step up and be leaders. You can also create posters to highlight student leaders in your school.

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All it takes is one student (or teacher) getting his or her writing published to fuel the writing energy of other students (and teachers). How does a teacher go about this when there is so much curriculum that needs to be covered and state tests that need to be passed? Could it be possible to do it all without spending 24 hours a day at school? Below are some suggestions based on personal experience and a belief that immersing students in real-world writing situations naturally produce higher writing and reading scores.

1.      Provide various opportunities for students to publish their work. Keep a bulletin board dedicated to a variety of writing contests; these are all over the internet, and I will be sending you information on different contests as I get them. Keep this information updated and continue to remind students of the different deadlines. This is a constant reminder of the possibilities for recognition of writing.

2.      Get and keep a visible copy of the annual edition of the Writer’s Market (or the Children’s Writer’s and Illustrator’s Market which publishes writing for and by kids, ages 5-18) published by Writer’s Digest Books. You can also ask your librarian keep 1-2 copies in the school library. Show this to your students and tell them it is full of places that publish writing. It tells what kind of writing companies want to publish, how to go about submitting your writing, and how much they will pay for your writing. Tell students they have to write in your class; they might as well try to get paid for it. It’s amazing how this sparks student interest!

3.      Create local writing contests for students. You can have a school-wide expository essay writing contest (or any other type of writing). You can pair up with a teacher from another school, or you can team up with a local business to host a writing contest. Allow students to do all the work: set up guidelines, set due dates, solicit prizes, and organize the announcement of winners and prizes. If you select a state-writing genre, use state rubrics and have each class review essays and score them according to the rubric. You will be amazed at how much they learn from this. Once they narrow down the best essays, they will select the winner and runners up, and present them with their awards. Create a book of award-winning essays to keep in the school library, announce winners over the school PA system, and create a hall display of winners and their writing. Remember, you’re the coach, let the students do the work!

4.      Use class time for students to work on writing for different contests. Be sure to include lots of student and teacher feedback during editing and revising stages. You can do mini-lessons based on problems you notice on essays.

5.      As the teacher, be sure to write with your students and submit your writing as you have opportunity. You might even join a school or city writing club. It is incredible how much this will improve the way you teach writing.

6.      Invite local published authors or newspaper columnists to share tips on getting published or to lead some writing workshops during class or before/after school.

NCTE offers some wonderful writing contests: http://www.ncte.org/awards/student. Check out the “Writing for Promising Young Writers” for 8^th grade students, and “Achievement Awards in Writing” for 11^th grade students. Writing must be submitted for both of these by February 24, 2017.

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So often we do not see a lot of tangible writing growth among secondary students. I knew Writing Workshop was the solution to this problem, but it took me several years to master the art of using Writing Workshop with large numbers of secondary students.  Below are a few things I did at the beginning of every year that set the stage for our Writer’s Workshop and student writing success.

1.      Get a baseline writing sample. Do this the first few days before you do any writing instruction. Tell students to do their best so you can see where they are coming from as a writer and so you will know how to best help them.

2.     Start a “Strengths/Goals” sheet (T-chart) for each student. Take every baseline writing sample and list everything each student did well on the “Strengths” column. This is more difficult for some students than others. List everything no matter how small or insignificant: “puts heading on paper,” “begins first sentence with a capital letter,” “ends essay with a period,” etc.  Then select 1-2 skills to add to the “Goals” column. These must be skills that can be quickly and easily accomplished (capitalize the personal pronoun “I,” vary the beginning word of every sentence, etc.).  Refrain from listing vague goals or goals students may not be able to accomplish quickly such as, “write in complete sentences.” Every day when students write, they must have this sheet on their desk as a reminder of what they are trying to accomplish and how you can help them. As students accomplish a goal, mark it off the “Goals” column and move it to the “Strengths Column.” Then add a new goal. Each chart is individualized for each student with small achievable goals, and it is extremely motivating as students begin to see their list of writing strengths grow. See sample chart: http://tinyurl.com/jx76h8z

3.     Begin an “Ideas for Writing” sheet or journal. At the beginning of every year, I focus a lot of time on developing students’ ideas for writing. When this is the focus of student writing journals, the journals become something really special and personal. This results in students treating their journals with care instead of carelessness. Each day the first few weeks of school, give students 1-2 topics to brainstorm in their journal. Then have them choose one topic for a quick write. After they have several incomplete quick writes, have them select their favorite to complete and share. Some personal sample topics include: family members, friends, favorite places, favorite music, favorite foods, most special memory, most embarrassing moment, etc. Some other sample topics include: friendship, jealousy, freedom, decisions, war, education, etc. Once students start to develop their ideas journals, you will never again hear, “I don’t know what to write about.” In addition, on the state writing test day students will have tons of ideas to draw from thus increasing their chances for success. It is a win-win all the way around!

4.     Write with students and share your writing. Students will learn so much more about writing, and the importance of writing, if you do this. They need to see you struggle as a writer and how you work through your struggles. Spend a few minutes writing while students write before walking around to help them with their writing.

5.     Purchase a copy of this year’s “Children’s Writer’s & Illustrator’s Market.” You can also get your librarian to purchase a copy. Share this with your students. It has hundreds of listings of where and how students can sell their writing and illustrations. Encourage students to submit their writing for publication outside the classroom. It is a great way for students to see how writing extends beyond the classroom and how they can actually make extra money with their writing. In addition to this, keep a bulletin board of different writing contests students can enter throughout the year.  

More on Writing Workshop with Secondary Students in future blogs. Feel free to post your questions or what has worked for you. Also, feel free to contact us if your school or district needs training in Writer’s Workshop.

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From an NCTE Blog by Penny Kittle about Misconceptions of using Writing Workshop with Secondary Students:

I find that one of the biggest misunderstandings about writing workshop is its origin. Many do not realize the early research of Donald Murray with freshmen composition students at UNH and Jane Emig in grade 12, and instead attribute the thinking all to Donald Graves, who worked in early elementary school after Murray & Emig (and others) began publishing the results of using the process approach to teach writing. The resistance from secondary teachers is often to the idea that someone is "pushing" elementary workshop into middle and high school.

The original pedagogy of writing workshop was grounded in 'what if we treat students like writers--show them how writers work--' and Murray found that conferring regularly with writers, showing them how he wrote himself, and giving students time and space to find topics that matter to them engaged and challenged them to learn a process that would lead to their best work. It is still the only way I know to empower all students to write with independence and increasing skill. Those interested should read Learning by Teaching--a collection of Murray's early, wise articles or The Essential Don Murray, edited by Tom Newkirk and Lisa Miller.

Check out my next Blog on “The First 5 Steps in Establishing a Successful Writer’s Workshop with Secondary Students” based on my own personal experience in the classroom: http://www.elaconnections.com/ELAC_Blog.html?entry=the-first-5-steps-in

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My favorite professional development the last few years has been Twitter. It’s simple, short, convenient, and personalized. I've gotten some of the most wonderful reading and writing ideas while I’m waiting in the grocery line, needing to kill a few minutes in between projects, or sitting on the toilet—well, you get my drift! It’s there for me whenever I have a few minutes.

If you don’t have a Twitter account, get one now before summer break! It’s quick and easy. The best advice I have for you is to only follow the best in ELA education. This will keep you from having to weed through a lot of information that doesn’t apply to you. This will also ensure there will be something that interests you every time you check it. To get you started, here are some of my favorites:

GENERAL: edutopia, Scholastic Teachers, WeAreTeachers, Education Week, NCTE, Blevins_Cindy  (I retweet my favorites from all of these if you want to start by following me)
LESSON PLANS: ReadWriteThink
PROFESSIONAL BOOKS/AUTHORS: Heinemann Publishing, Stenhouse Publishers, Penny Kittle, Kelly Gallagher, Carol Jago, Ralph Fletcher, Stephanie Harvey, barryLane, Cris Tovani, Ruth Culham
READING: goodreads, YALSA, Teri Lesesne, Donalyn Miller, Amy Rasmussen, SchoolLibraryJournal, Teen LibrarianToolbox, Shannon Miller
WRITING: Writing Project, The Writer Magazine, Writer’s Digest, Writer’s Relief, The Write Life, Advice to Writers
TECHNOLOGY: TCEA, Google for Education
COLLEGE PREP: The College Board

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