Using Writing as a Tool for Inquiry in the Social Studies and Language Arts Classroom

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Using Writing as a Tool for Inquiry in the Social
Studies and Language Arts Classroom

• October 2009

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How did it go?

• Turn to a partner at your table and share your
  experience using inquiry strategies in your
  classroom.
• 1.) What strategy did you use?
• 2.) How did your students respond?
• 3.) What went well and what was challenging
  about using inquiry in your classroom?
• 4.) What are your future plans for using
  inquiry in your classroom?

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Agenda

• Trying Inquiry in our Classrooms
• Study Notebook samples
• Workshop Goals
• 4 As Protocol
• Instructional Framework
• The Writing Cycle
• Reading Like a Writer

• Learning Ledger
• Writers Notebook samples
• Generating Topics/Personal Territories
• Learning Ledger
• Sorting and Ranking Informational Texts
• Next Steps

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Samples from Study Notebooks

• 5th Grade Students studying the Revolutionary
  Era.

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Handout
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Depiction of Boston Massacre Engraved by Paul
Revere
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Milos comments
Handout
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Handout
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Handout
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Julias work
Handout
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Handout
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Handout
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Workshop Goals

• Participants will
• Understand the similarities and differences
  between study notebooks and writers notebooks
• Understand the role of inquiry in writing
• Experience/understand how to use a writers
  notebook
• Be familiar with the components of a genre study
• Experience the writing cycle

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Handouts Protocol p. 7 Reading from Study Driven
pp. 8a-8h
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Immersion and Inquiry in the Teaching of Writing

• Instructional framework for writers workshop
• Gathering Text
• Setting the Stage
• Immersion
• Close Study
• Writing under the Influence
• Handout p. 9

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Gathering Text

• The teacher makes a pile of texts that feel
  similar in some way.
• These serve as examples of the genre of writing a
  class will do together.

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Setting the Stage

• Students are given the expectation of creating a
  piece that shows influence of this study.
• Handout Possibilities for Teaching, p 10
• From Study Driven p. 115

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Immersion

• Students spend time reading and talking about the
  text that were gathered.
• Read text several times
• Notice and take notes about the attributes of
  this type of text
• Create a shared vision of what students are going
  to write

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Guiding Questions of Immersion

• What kinds of topics do writers address with this
  genre?
• What kinds of work (research, gathering,
  reflecting, observing, etc.) does it seem like
  writers of this genre must do in order to produce
  this kind of writing?
• How do writers craft this genre so that it is
  compelling for readers?
• Handout p. 11
• From Study Driven p. 125

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Close Study

• The class takes a closer look at one of the
  examples of text from immersion. This becomes the
  anchor/mentor/touchstone text for your unit.
• The driving question of this part of the workshop
  is, What did we notice about how this text is
  written?
• Isolate, name and practice specific aspects of
  the text that make it a good piece of writing.

Study Driven
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Writing Under the Influence

• Students publish a piece of writing that gives
  evidence of what they have learned in the study.

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The Writing Cycle

• Gathering Ideas
• Creating Entries
• Drafting
• Revision
• Editing
• Publication

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Comparing the Writing Cycle to Schmidts
Learning Cycle
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Deciding What to Teach

• A teacher makes a decision about the focus of her
  unit of study in writers workshop based on
• The interests of the writers in the workshop
• The needs of writers in the workshop
• State or local curriculum objectives or mandated
  assignments
• A desire to bring rigor and challenge to the
  writing workshop
• Handout p. 12
• From pg. 92 Study Driven

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Workshop Outline

• September Using inquiry to learn social studies
  inquiry
• October Using inquiry to learn writing content
• January Writing to convey social studies
  content through a genre previously studied in
  writers workshop

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Reading Like a Writer

• Writers learn about writing, by reading.
• Traits of the genre
• Writing craft what makes writing strong

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What do writers have to say?

• Before you write one poem, you need to read at
  least one hundred.
• Ted Kooser,
• Former National Poet Laureate
• Read widely, read enthusiastically, be guided by
  instsinct and not design. For if you read, you
  need not become a writer, but if you hope to
  become a writer, you must read.
• Joyce Carol Oates

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Ghosts Hour, Spooks Hourby Eve Bunting

• Click HERE to show the picture book

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Ghosts Hour, Spooks HourBy Eve Bunting

• When I woke up it was really dark.
• Something went Woooooo outside my window.
• Dont be scared, I told myself. Its just the
  wind. I slid out of bed.
• An icy wetness touched my toes and I leaped back.
  Eek! What?
• Then I remembered Biff, my big white dog who
  sleeps under my bed at night. Biff has the
  coldest, wettest nose.
• Hi Biff, I said. I felt for the bedside lamp
  and pushed the button.
• Nothing happened.
• I pushed it again.
• Nothing happened again.
• Oh, oh, Biff, I whispered. I dont like this.
  Lets get out of here.

Handout
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Inquiry Strategy Learning Ledger
Handout p 16
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Thoughts from Ralph Fletcher about A Writers
Notebook.

• Writers are like other people, except for at
  least one important difference. Other people have
  daily thoughts and feelings, notice this sky or
  that smell, but they dont do much about it. All
  those thoughts, feelings, sensations, and
  opinions pass through them like the air they
  breathe.
• Not writers. Writers react. And writers need a
  place to record those reactions.
• A Writers Notebook Unlocking the Writer Within
  You

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Katie Wood Ray says there are four ways writers
use a notebook to support a writing life

• 1.) Random gathering (with a sense of
  possibility)
• 2.) Specific gathering (for a project or kind of
  writing)
• 3.) Planning
• 4.) Trying things out
• The entries in a writers notebook are examples
  of writing to learn.

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Sample pages from writers notebooks

• What can you learn about each writer?
• How was this writer using his or her writers
  notebook?

Student work samples -- Handout pp. 17-21
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Similarities between Study Notebooks and
Writers Notebooks

• Both Study Notebooks and Writers Notebooks
• Set the stage for new learning
• Keep track of student learning
• Help students acquire content knowledge
• Are a tool to use for reflection to deepen
  understanding
• Both Study Notebooks and Writers Notebooks
  are examples of writing to learn. The only
  difference is the content of the writing.

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So how do I assess a study notebook or writers
notebook?

• Look for evidence of student learning new and
  developing ideas
• Look for stamina of writing and a sense of
  self-directed discovery
• Look for how students are using the tool are
  they going back through their notebooks and
  reflecting on their learning?
• Elements of grammar and punctuation can be
  set a expectations, but students should not be
  marked down for poor grammar or punctuation.

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Writers workshop teaches the content of writing.

• Students need to understand how to write well in
  their own, familiar topics before they are asked
  to write well about a social studies topic.
• How would you feel if we asked you to produce a
  good piece of informational writing about the
  Aztec Indians?

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Ways to Generate Topics in a Writers Notebook

• Resources that writers create might include
• Personal territories
• Expanding a personal territory
• Best and Worst Lists
• Time line

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Personal Territories

• All writers write best about topics they care
  dearly about.

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Expanding a personal territory

• Living in New York
• The view from my window
• Using the subway
• Playgrounds everywhere
• The feel of different neighborhoods

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Using lists to generate topics

• Best List
• My children calling me Mama
• Traveling to new places
• Visiting a bookstore or library

• Worst List
• Running late
• Watching my missed train roll out of the station
• Scratchy clothing

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Personal Timeline Summer when I was 9

• Calamity Kid
• Broken finger
• Volleyball
• Cast off
• Dunked in a pool
• Cast
• Your ankle is the size of a watermelon!
• Duck-Duck-goose
• My first ride on horse
• Learning to groom a horse
• Going to Acadian Farms Camp

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Ways to organize a personal timeline

• Start with an important date
• A school year or calendar year
• A significant season
• A special weekend or vacation

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• Generating entries
• writing from your territories.

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Inquiry Strategy Learning Ledger
Handout p. 16
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Immersion into Informational Writing

• The Great Temple text think aloud
• Handout p. 22
• What do you notice about the writing?
• Start a page in your notebooks called Noticings
  about Informational Texts

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More Immersion

• Now on your own Read Atlantis Did This Lost
  City Really Exist? Handout p. 23
• and
• Keep adding to your Noticings list.

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Sorting and Ranking

• Read the three remaining texts - Handout pp.
  24-29
• Continue to add to your Noticings Chart.
• With a partner, rank these texts!
• Which is the best, and why all the way to the
  worst.

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Ranking Share Out!

• Which is the best? Why?
• Qualities of Great Informational Writing

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Define the Genre

• From the Noticings chart and the Qualities of
  Great Informational Writing chart, come up with a
  definition of the genre.
• Informational Writing is

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Handout p. 22 from Study Driven p. 130
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Handout p. 22 from Study Driven p. 131
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Experimenting with the Genre

• Go back and look over your writers notebook
  entries from the day.
• Are there any entries that could be turned into
  informational writing?
• Take one entry and begin to plan/play with it
  using the Qualities of Great Informational
  Writing chart as a guide.

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Next Steps

• Before now and our January meeting, please do one
  or more of the following in your classroom
• Have your students do personal territories in
  their writers notebooks
• Have your students collect entries in their
  writers notebooks
• Model your own writing in front of your students
• Choose a genre to teach and collect 3 samples of
  that genre
• Bring samples with you to our next session!

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Registration, Evaluation, Sign In/Out Sheets,
and UC Credit

• You MUST register on MyPD or you will NOT receive
  credit Course 700.1757
• Please fill out the on-line evaluation
• Remember to sign-in/out at your school on the
  list provided as per ODE directive
• Content Specialists must send sign-in/out lists
  to Sonia Milrod at Mayerson Academy by October
  26, or no credit can be given
• UC Credit is available for participation please
  contact Sonia Milrod by email on StaffNet or call
  475-4145