Toolbox

Our Toolbox of Ideas and Strategies:

​ Mentor texts (Wilfrid Gordon McDonald Partridge) Frameworks (Where I'm From) Copy Change (The Important Book) Golden Lines Point and Question/ Star and a Wish Sentence starters for peer conferencing/writing groups Cracking it Open (geode, apple, Transformer, square vs. cube) Conferencing/revising one thing at a time Students come to conferences with an identified (self-chosen) focus Being explicit about the purpose of a piece Think/Pair/Share Letting students know beforehand when they will be sharing their work Freewrite (Inkshed), then choose 3 words to write from Post-its (to manage conferences, gathering details, organizing ideas, using to revise) OR sentence strips Managing conferencing with index cards and a clipboard Whiteboards- students sign up to avoid interruptions during conferencing Taking pictures of students working (to maintain focus) Listing what we read/write (shows the many forms reading/writing can take) As a writer I need (3 x 5 cards, drawing pictures) Creating a toolbox with your students (a compilation of what they know) Sharing- sharing our work with our students Being explicit about WHAT we are learning and WHY A copy of work for each writer in the writing group to mark on Google Docs to track revisions Using post its to comment on students' work (respecting students' work by not writing on it) Concept Circles It's okay to be directive (specific) in conferences! Giving choices for revision in conferencing Generating writing ideas (write about what's in your HEART) Links in conferencing to mini lessons Author's chair Writing Circles Giving choice in assignments (different but equal) Exit slips (I was confused by. . ., what did you like about today? three things you learned today. . . ETC.) Asking students permission to address something in their pieces Involving community members with revision (perhaps a carefully selected individual) Writing with our students (or writing ahead of time so we can share with our students) Writing in the forms that we ask our students to write in Journaling- writing back and forth with a child OR having children write a letter to someone at home who could write back to them Daily/weekly logs Writing a collaboratively composed letter home to parents Using other students' work as exemplars (mentor texts)- for example Teen Ink Whip Around- everyone shares one line of what they wrote Making writing time sacred- a set apart time Creating an environment conducive to writing (atmosphere- lighting, music, etc.) Allowing students choice in WHERE they write Dialectical notebook (pull out quote from reading and then write a response to the quote) Focused reading strategies (checkmark, ?, !) Cheat books (a book of strategies students can use)- ELA strategies, Code Book Motivation/Stamina Authentic Audience Authentic Purpose primary pad (for collaborative writing) digital writing Collaboratehere-wiki spaces student podcasts of written work student writing posted on wiki (for peer editing, conferencing, revision, editing, to publish for students/parents/community) adding links changing font, size, and color copy, paste, editing navigating cyberspace publishing through podcasting using wikis as bulletin board Class generated ideas for discussion using wiki Maintaining of Wiki to support class concepts, management