Informed by the work of the WNY Young Writers' Studio, Ruth Culham, Theresa Gray, Steve Peha, and Communities for Learning: Leading Lasting Change, this powerpoint was shared with teachers at Enterprise Charter School in August of 2012.

1. Nurturing Young Writers in Every Content Area:
Dispositions, Process, and The Six Traits
Angela Stockman
WNY Education Associates
stockmanangela@gmail.com

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

3. Photo by Silvia Tolisano

4. TODAY’S AGENDA
• Defining our guiding questions Please peruse today’s agenda.
about writing instruction
• Understanding and nurturing a
writer’s dispositions What needs, questions, or concerns
emerge?
• Strategies for supporting the
writing process and craft across
the curriculum How can I make this day more
• Connecting dispositions, process, meaningful for you?
and craft: planning a year,
planning a unit
• Approaching assessment
• Quality feedback
• Rethinking rubrics

5. We Connect Through Our Stories

6. We All Need to Leave Our Mark on the World
http://tinyurl.com/27u6wa8

7. What Will Yours Be?
http://tinyurl.com/28xbnyz

8. What is the difference
between real writing
and….

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

10. WHERE
DO
YOU
INVEST
THE MOST
ENERGY?

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

13. BALANCE
BUILDS
BETTER
WRITERS
Being vs. Doing

14. What I’m learning about being a good writer:
WE ACT AND WRITE WITH COURAGE

15. WE SEEK UNDERSTANDING BEFORE DOING

16. WE PERSEVERE

17. WE COLLABORATE

18. WE SHARE OUR EXPERTISE

19. WE GIVE OF OURSELVES
AND ACT WITH KINDNESS

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

21. WE KNOW THAT WRITING
IS OFTEN A SLOW PROCESS

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

23. WE ARE ALL WRITERS AND LEARNERS

24. AND ALL OF US MUST TEACH.

25. “Real Writers”
and “Real Writing”
Have Certain Dispositions in Common....
http://www.flickr.com/photos/jefield/1119389/

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

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

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

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

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

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

33. Writing is a Recursive Process
IDEAS
Prewriting
ORGANIZATION
Drafting
Peer
VOICE Review
WORD CHOICE
SENTENCE FLUENCY
CONVENTIONS
Revision
Editing
Publishing
PRESENTATION
CONNECTION/REFLECTION
EVOLUTION

34. THE WRITING PROCESS
Prewriting
Drafting
Peer-Review
Editing
Revision (throughout)
Publication
Writing is a Process
Which parts of the
process show up most
in your classroom?
Least?
Why?

35. PREWRITING
What does this look
like?
Strategies for Support:
Problems
Labs
Tasks to Reflect On
Research Questions
Writing Prompts
Artifacts
Pictures
Music
Video
Movement
Equations
RAFTS
Conversation
Web Tools

36. Traits to Focus on During
Pre-Writing:
IDEAS
ORGANIZATION

37. IDEAS
• Invite or inspire pre-writing activities.
• Come from our experiences, our connections, and our previous
understandings.
• May be generated from problems to solve, dilemmas to
consider, 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.
• Require writers to use facts, evidence, and/or details in order to support

38. Considering MODES and PURPOSE
COMMON TEXT TYPES (MODES) COMMON PURPOSES FOR WRITING
Narrative Text To Persuade
Expository/
Informational Text To Describe
Procedural Text To Inform
Poetic
To Think
Functional
To Connect/Collaborate
Hybrid
To Build Collective Intelligence

39. What is Digital Writing?
• When we take our writing digital, we share ANY of those forms online.
Typically, they blend when we do so.
• This requires us to learn how to connect them to the ideas and work that
others have shared.
• How does happen?
– Linking
– Curation
– Social Networking and Social Learning
• Why is this important?
– Collective Intelligence

40. How Do We Help Writers Generate
Their OWN Innovative Ideas?
#1
By Helping Them Establish AND Maintain a Writing Territories List
Strategies to Try:
• Loop and Zoom
• Exploring the Estate
• Listing
• What Do You Think? Why Do You Think That?
• What Did You Write? Why Did You Write That?

41. How can we intervene
when writers struggle to
generate their own ideas?
Directed Writing vs. Choice
The Power of Reflection
Creating a Container
Inquiry-Style Writing

42. 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
Winnie the Pooh

43. Organization
• Requires that writers develop an INVITING lead for that provokes
questioning and curiosity.
• Inspires a body of work that attends to these questions and
curiosities in a logical manner.
• Purposeful sequencing is critical.
• Relies upon smooth transitions and the articulation of turning
points and resolutions.
• Requires a conclusion that satisfies the questions and curiosities
provoked by the lead and may inspire new ones. It does
not, however, introduce new information.

44. ORGANIZATION
WHAT IT IS…. HOW WE SUPPORT IT…
A lead that “hooks” reader and Models and mentor texts
provokes questions.
Consuming and “Mapping” Text
A core that provides details in
a logical manner and Story boards
transitions between them
smoothly.
Graphic organizers
An ending that satisfies the
questions raised within the
work.

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

46. 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.

47. 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.

48. Exploring
mentor texts
leads
endings
in-betweens

49. Writers Need STRATEGIES That
Help Them CRAFT Voice
• Hearing Voices
• Give-Aways:
• Add-Ons
• Messing With Sentences

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

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

52. GIVE THEM WORDS!
• Sentence Frames
• Smart Words
• Word Walls
• Playing with Precision

53. Post-It Poetry

54. 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
consonant sounds effect fluency.

55. Beyond
Peer-Conferencing:
Peer Review
Processes
Modeling With Fishbowl
Assessment
Intervention
Coaching With Push/Pause

56. Traits to Focus On During Peer-Review
IDEAS
VOICE
ORGANIZATION
WORD CHOICE
SENTENCE FLUENCY

57. EDITING
How are YOU strong
as an editor?
Differentiating the
peer-editing
process

58. Traits to Focus On As We Edit
 IDEAS
 VOICE
 ORGANIZATION
 WORD CHOICE
 SENTENCE FLUENCY
 CONVENTIONS

59. 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.

60. PUBLISHING
What does
this mean to
you?
How is the
definition
shifting?
What
opportunities
are available?

61. Approaching Assessment

62. What Does Effective
Assessment of Writing Look Like?
What Does it Feel Like?
What Makes for Adequate Practice?
What Makes for Suitable Practice?

63. Providing Quality Feedback:
Criteria and a Protocol

64. Rethinking Rubrics
Popular Practice vs. Promising Practice

65. Let’s Play
Use the materials provided to explore and
design instructional approaches that
will meet the needs of your students.
Be prepared to share your work during
peer-review, gather feedback from your
colleagues, and share your growing
expertise with others.

66. References
Culham, Ruth. 6 + 1 Traits of Writing: The Complete Guide, Grades 3 and Up. New York: Scholastic, 2003.
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
Peha, Steve. “Writing Across the Content Areas.” Retrieved August 1, 2012 from http://ttms.org/
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.