A quick overview of writer's craft, process, and the dispositions that produce great writers. These slides were used to help teachers navigate the tension that exists between alignment and engagement in classrooms that attend to the CCLS

1. Empowering Writers
As We Pursue the Common Core Learning
Standards
Angela Stockman
WNY Education Associates
stockmanangela@gmail.com

2. PROGRAM OUTCOMES
• Teachers will use the Common Core Learning Standards as a
starting point for our exploration of best practices for
teaching and assessing writing.
• They will learn how to bundle standards together to create
powerful writing experiences for learners.
• They will explore protocols for adapting the New York State
Curriculum Modules and Domains in order to enrich writing
experiences.
• They will use what is learned to draft one potential
adaptation, which will be submitted for peer review.

3. Coming Together as a
Community

4. Photo Credit: Used with Silvia Rosenthal Tolisano’s Permission

5. We Connect Through Our
Stories

6. So…what’s your
story?

8. We are born writers.
http://tinyurl.com/27u6wa8

9. We use our words to leave our mark on the
world.
http://tinyurl.com/28xbnyz

10. What is the difference
between authentic writing
and….

11. http://www.flickr.com/photos/sean002/2510540027/
functional writing?

12. WHERE
DO
YOU
INVEST
THE MOST ENERGY?

14. THE MOST
IMPORTANT
WRITING
INSTRUMENT
TO
PUT
IN
THEIR
HANDS

15. BALANCE
BUILDS
BETTER
WRITERS
Being vs. Doing

16. How do we help
students
BECOME
writers?

17. WE ACT AND WRITE
WITH COURAGE

18. WE SEEK UNDERSTANDING BEFORE DOING

19. WE PERSEVERE

20. WE COLLABORATE

21. WE SHARE OUR EXPERTISE

22. WE GIVE OF OURSELVES
AND ACT WITH KINDNESS

23. WE REFLECT ON WHERE WE’VE BEEN, WHERE WE ARE
GOING, AND HOW WE PLAN TO GET THERE

24. WE KNOW THAT WRITING
IS OFTEN A SLOW PROCESS

25. WE TRY TO DEVELOP BETTER AND BETTER AND BETTER STRATEGIES
FOR IMPROVING OUR OWN WORK AND HELPING OTHERS

26. WITHIN COMMUNITIES, WE ARE ALL WRITERS AND LEARNERS

27. AND ALL OF US MUST TEACH.

28. http://www.flickr.com/photos/jefield/1119389/
Writers, Writing, and Dispositions of Practice

29. http://www.flickr.com/photos/whatmegsaid/3172360305/

30. http://www.flickr.com/photos/notsogoodphotography/770557316/
UNDERSTANDING

32. R
E
F
L
E
C
T
I
O
N
http://www.flickr.com/photos/tonythemisfit/3223459074/

33. http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3461/3196112134_aa09fbfefa.jpg?v=0
EXPERTISE

34. http://www.flickr.com/photos/stuartpilbrow/3102888961/
They are….
CONNECTED
COLLABORATIVE
ENGAGED

35. Community Fellows Strive
to Embody Certain
Dispositions
Which Support the
Writer's Process
Allowing for the Development of
Writer's Craft
•Courage and Initiative
•Understanding
•Perseverance
•Reflection
•Expertise
•Cooperation and Collaboration
•Prewriting
•Drafting
•Peer-Review
•Editing
•Revising
•Publishing
• Compelling Ideas
• Engaging Voice
• Effective Word Choice
• Clear Organization
• Fluent Sentences
• Proper Use of Conventions
But Then…Where Do Process and Craft Fit In?
Envisioning a Year of Writing Together

36. Unit 1
Big Idea:
Courageous ideas are great
ideas
Dispositions, Phases of the Process and Elements of Craft
to Explore with Depth:
Pre-writing
Idea Development
Courage
Unit 2
Big Idea:
We use mentor texts to
seek understanding about
organization
Dispositions, Phases of the Process and Elements of Craft
to Explore with Depth:
Pre-writing
Drafting
Organization
Understanding

37. Growing the Good
What do you currently do to
support young writers well?
Consider:
Curriculum
Instruction
Assessment
Management

38. Draw
Your
Writin
g
Proces

39. A WRITING PROCESS
Prewriting
Drafting
Peer-Review
Revision
Editing
Exhibition
Which parts of the
process show up
most in your
classroom?
Least?
Why?
Writing is a Process

40. Make time for
tinkering!

41. Traits to Focus on During
Pre-Writing:
IDEAS
ORGANIZA
TION

42. IDEAS
• Invite or inspire pre-writing activities.
• Come from our experiences, our connections, and our
previous understandings.
• May be generated from artifacts, photographs, movement,
music, conversation, guided brainstorming and more…..
• Require good writers to select appropriate MODES and to
define their PURPOSES.
• Move readers from general to more refined topics.
• Inspire careful observation.
• Require independent use of higher level thought.

43. How Do We Help Writers
Generate Their OWN Innovative
Ideas?

44. And how do
we intervene
when writers
struggle to
generate
their own
ideas?

45. Organization
“Organization is what
you do
before you do
something
so that when you do
it
it’s not all mixed up.”
http://blog.wired.com/geekdad/books/index.html

46. ORGANIZATION
WHAT IT IS….
A lead that “hooks” reader and provokes questions.
A core that provides details in a logical manner and
transitions between them smoothly.
An ending that satisfies the questions raised within the
work.

47. Traits to Focus On As We Draft
IDEAS
ORGANIZATION
VOICE

48. VOICE
• The “sound” of the writer or the speaker.
• Tone that is appropriate to the task.
• Commitment to the piece—involvement.
• Attention to the topic.

49. Voice
• Requires that writers shift the way they
speak in response to MODE and PURPOSE.
• Invites diversity and complexity.
• Built when students take RISKS.
• Thrives in a comfortable atmosphere.
• Suffers when we overemphasize formulaic
processes or models.

50. WORD CHOICE
“The race in
writing is not
to the swift,
but to the
original.”
----William
Zinsser

51. Word Choice
• Original words
• Precise words
• Engaging words
• Varied words
• Attention to dialect and formality

52. Sentence fluency
• Fluent sentences appeal to the ear and the
eye.
• They vary in length and structure.
• They convey character, emotion, and reveal
voice.
• Rhythm, rhyme, and repetition of vowel and

53. CONVENTIONS:
THE LAST CONVERSATION
• Attending to conventions happens
at the END of the writing process.
• Effective writers understand why
editing is necessary. Strong
writers know that editing isn’t
merely about “fixing up” writing.
• Edits are intentional, effective,
and do not strip the work of
voice, ideas, or fluency. They
BUILD it.

54. Coaching Creative Theft

55. Find the Assessment

56. What Does Effective
Assessment of Writing Look
Like?
What Makes for Adequate Practice?
What Makes for Suitable Practice?

57. What’s your current
reality?
How did it come to be?

58. Grappling with the Tension
Adopting, Adapting, or Ignoring
Programs

59. Adapting Your Program
What it is….
Pursuing alignment to content
and literacy standards with
VISION.
– Upgrading assessments to
promote greater learning and
authenticity.
– Differentiating instruction to
attend to needs of learners
surfaced from evidence.
– Attending to engagement.
– Balancing your literacy block.
What it isn’t…
Pursing alignment to vision
while evading content and
literacy standards.
– Abandoning or replacing
assessments without studying
alignment.
– Differentiating or lowering
expectations before gathering
evidence of capacity and
needs
– Confusing engagement and
entertainment

60. Protocols
for
Thoughtful Program Adaptation

61. Designing Powerful
Writing Experiences with
the Common Core

62. References
Gray, Theresa (2006). Slideshare. Writing Frameworks. Retrieved January 21, 2009 from:
http://www.slideshare.net/TGray/writing-frameworks
Martin-Kniep, Giselle O. Communities That Lead, Learn, and Last: Building and
Sustaining Educational Expertise. California: Jossey-Bass, 2008.
National Board for Professional Teacher Standards. “What Teachers Should Know and Be
Able to Do: The Five Core Propositions.” Retrieved Aug. 21, 2008 from
http://www.nbpts.org/the_standards/the_five_core_propositions
Stockman, Angela (2008-Present). WNY Young Writers’ Studio. Presented at Daemen
College, Amherst, NY and the Kenan Center, Lockport, NY.
Unless otherwise noted, all photographs were taken by Angela Stockman, who was given
permission to use them by the subject and parents, when necessary.