My ELA classroom

Many of the ideas I had regarding my ELA classroom early in the course still apply but are now more fully developed and extended. For example the ideas I had regarding accessing a wide variety of sources is still valid but I now realize that it is not only exposure to a variety of sources and genres that is important but also providing students with choice in their reading and writing topics. By giving students choices they are personally invested in the reading or writing and is more likely to make it relevant to their lives.

In point form I will present some of the ideas I would use in my classroom to enhance learning and engagement and develop effective writers, readers and speakers.

• Reading and writing workshops are a great way to satisfy the PLOs while engaging students, allowing for differentiated learning and providing effective feedback.
• An effective way to get students thinking about writing is to develop writing territories.
• Mini-lessons can be derived from formative assessment and are an effective way to address problem areas while maintaining engagement.
• Stress that writing is a process, nobody produces excellent first drafts!
• Writing must be authentic and have a purpose to it. Encourage students to have their final drafts published in some way.
• Writers must be supported in the writing process by the teacher and by peers. The metaphor of a growing plant is useful here (seeds: notebook ideas, quick writes, lists, topics, sprouts: whole story written out quickly without concern for spelling, grammar, bud: second/final drafts and bloom: publishing)
• The importance of feedback in the writing process, not just the teacher but also peers. Use conferences and ideas like two stars and a wish for positive feedback.
• Readings can be used as effective springboards for generating writing ideas
• Questions should be set up before reading to the class so the students realize it has a purpose (these can include questions such as: thinking about the theme, characters, how it might apply to their life...).
• many strategies can be used to enhance reading, writing, representation and oracy, several are listed here (first blurt, brainstorm, listen to poems and write your own from remembered words, mind maps, fractured fairy tales, variations on a theme as with Mr. Blueberry, KWHL charts, providing prompts in jars, formal presentations, talking circles, simulations, interviews, town hall meetings, pair talk-share, tea/garden party).
• Technology can be useful for learning and engagement including, but not limited to: music, videos, podcasting and voicethreads.
• Students should be encouraged to experiment with reading and writing in many genres and if having trouble writing about their ideas in one should be encouraged to try in another.
• Cross curricular activities can enhance learning, for example drama is very effective in developing oracy, writing and representation.
• To support students who may have difficulties with writing, reading or oracy alternatives can be used such as high interest low vocabulary books, representing in another form (video, pictures) instead of writing and one-on-one interviews instead of a formal class presentation.
• To enhance authenticity and stress that writing is a process it would be a good idea to invite a real writer to speak to the class and have the students send the writer samples of their own writing from their portfolios.

The incredible number of strategies that can be used to teach ELA will result in an eclectic and diverse learning environment in my classroom. I want my classroom to provide my students with a safe, non-threatening learning environment that presents students with choices. A class where a rich selection of literature covering all genres is available both for reading and as inspiration for writing and expanding and refining the students' writing territories. I would like to build an environment where not only the teacher supports learning but peers also contribute to each others learning and development. The emphasis will be placed on the process of developing writing and oracy. Real writers do not produce excellent, error free first drafts and I would not expect my students to do so either, nor should they expect it. Redrafting and revising are a normal part of the writing process and will be incorporated in my class through peer and teacher review. Constructive criticisms will be stressed with methods such as two stars and a wish. I want my students to produce authentic work that is relevant to their lives and connects with their community and school.

Transforming the Classroom: The Writing Workshop and Habitual Writers

Writing is an idiosyncratic process. If we accept this statement then it should be quite clear that there is not one, best way of teaching writing to students. Students should be exposed to a variety of different strategies and be able to determine which ones work best for them. In my own experience in our class, different strategies have had varied results with my writing. For example, I found with the “first blurt” approach I was able to write a large amount very quickly and had an influx of many ideas. Looking back at the results I realized that some of the ideas could be used and expanded on in a story while others were not as useful. Others in the class did not write very much using the”first blurt” approach and did not find it useful for them. Even with this one example we can see that there is not one approach that works best with all students. To become engaged and successful writers, students must not only have a lot of time to think about writing and actually writing but also must feel that the writing is meaningful and authentic.

By looking at how writing is done in real situations, by real writers we can gain insight into authentic ways of how writing is accomplished. As with real writers, students should be encouraged to share their ideas and their writing with others (both peers and teachers). By sharing, their work can be developed and improved from constructive comments, questions and other feedback provided by their peers and teachers. To make writing meaningful, students should be offered a choice in their writing both in topic and genre and should be encouraged to take risks by writing in a variety of genres. The kind of writing environment I am describing, where the writing the students choose to do is: meaningful, authentic, shared, supported, developed, improved, varied, and frequent lends itself well to a writing workshop model.

The writing workshop model also supports the principles of learning as described in the Integrated Resource Package (IRP):

• Learning requires the active participation of the student.

• People learn in a variety of ways and at different rates.

• Learning is both an individual and a group process.

• Learning is most effective when students reflect on the process of learning and set goals for improvement.

The IRP also recognizes that students will be of varied backgrounds, interests, abilities and needs. In a writing workshop, students are encouraged to write about what is of interest to them and about what is relevant in their lives. Their writing is supported by both the teacher and their peers (in the form of conferences with the teacher and other students). In fact the IRP discusses the writing workshop as a way to organize writing so that the teacher can introduce a range of writing strategies, and students can move toward independence at different rates. The IRP also discusses the different strategies used in each step of the writing process:

• prewriting – generating ideas for getting started, often including building criteria and setting goals

• drafting – writing down ideas

• revising – meaning-based refining and polishing

• editing – grammar and style refining and polishing

• presenting and publishing – preparing a presentation or representation and sharing it with others

To generate ideas before writing, Atwell uses "writing territories". These territories are unique to each person and are generated at the beginning of the workshop and expanded throughout the year. They comprise the sphere of interest and areas of expertise of the writers. These territories include subjects you have written about or would like to write about, audiences for whom you write and genres YOU have written in and would like to try. Atwell describes a list of territories representing a self portrait of the writer. This list may at first be quite small but will grow over the year as students write more pieces in a variety of genres for different audiences.

From the initial territories students can then begin drafting from one of their ideas in a chosen genre. These drafts can be reworked and revised after conferring with other students and the teacher. While conferring with students and observing, analyzing and tracking their work, topics for minilessons are generated. These minilessons address what students need to know next. These interactive lessons can vary anywhere from five to twenty minutes and must be thoughtful, appropriate and authentic. Genuine writing samples are used to show, for example, solutions to writing problems. These minilessons address and support student learning during any step of the writing process. From prewriting and setting goals, to drafting, revising and editing and finally to presenting and publishing. These minilessons should be designed to scaffold learning in what the IRP describes as the zone of proximal development; challenging students to learn what they need to know next, to progress in their writing.

Depending on the level of support the students need, various writing strategies can be employed. For example when a high level of support is required the teacher can do modelled writing (which is done with the whole class or group) where the teacher thinks aloud while composing. In this way the teacher is modelling the writing process he/she uses. As support is gradually removed the class can move on to shared writing where texts are composed together to guided writing and independent writing as well as writing share (where students share their writing as it progresses) and writing conferences. The point is the students receive the amount of support they need and this support is gradually removed as writers become more independent. During the writing conferences the students are performing ongoing self assessment where they learn to look at what they've done and what they need to do next. Atwell places self evaluation at the heart of the evaluation process. Atwell accomplishes this in part using questionnaires that enable students to reflect on where they've been as writers and where they are going. The questionnaire also generates hard data in the form of output (how many pieces of writing, genres represented and so on). Students are also asked to choose their best writing and comment on it and also describe new things they tried as a writer. This self-evaluation puts the ownership of writing and learning on the students and helps them to reflect on what they have learned and where they are going. It reinforces the concept that their writing is an ongoing learning process. The teacher evaluation uses these self-assessments along with the full body of work the student has accomplished to come up with fair evaluations that are based on the expectations explicitly stated at the beginning of the term. These evaluations always include goals for the student.

The principles of learning spelled out in the IRP are well represented by a writing workshop model. I believe this model can be used effectively to engage students in the learning process and address the needs of a varied class where students have diverse backgrounds, different ways of learning, different abilities and interests. If implemented correctly this model can deliver the correct amount of support appropriate for each student and will gradually lead students to be independent writers. Learning is accomplished both individually and in groups with feedback from the teacher and peers and self assessment helping students define their strengths and also helping them set their learning goals. By using a writing workshop model to teach writing I believe that students will not only improve their writing but will be more likely become engaged, habitual, lifelong writers.