Writer's Workshop: Informative Writing

This year I have decided to implement (my own version of) writer's workshop for my writing instruction.  You can learn more about how I started by reading my post on Launching Writer's Workshop and my first unit: Narrative Writing in Writer's Workshop.  And honestly, each day gets better!  I am loving writer's workshop and can't believe I haven't been doing it this way all along!

I chose to focus on informative writing-(specifically "All About" pieces)-for the month of October and I will give you a summary of how it went!

I chose informative writing for October because this time of year naturally lends itself to learning about spiders, bats, and pumpkins.  Not only are there an endless amount of books and other reading material, but the kids are always so engaged with these topics.  Unlike my narrative post, I'm not going to list the mentor texts because for this unit, I find that you don't need to be quite as selective.  I went to the public library and my own bookshelves at home and pulled every spider, bat, and pumpkin nonfiction book I could find.

So just in case you haven't read my other blog posts (gasp!), the format for my writer's workshop is this:

Mini-lesson with use of mentor text

Modeled writing (concentrating on designated mini-lesson)

Independent writing/writing conferences

Sharing

The first lesson is always an introduction to the mode of writing with a mentor text.  Nearly any informative nonfiction book will do.  We, of course, started with spiders.  Students were then werenencouraged to think of their schema and things they already know about.  They made a chart of ideas to keep in their binders to refer to when starting a new piece throughout the month.

The first several lessons focused on the structure needed for writing an all about piece.  Students learned to have a topic sentence, at least 3 details, and a closing sentence.  Other mini-lessons focused on writing in complete sentences starting with a capital letter and end punctuation.   It was actually so fun for us to read our mentor text and point out every time we saw a capital letter and end punctation.  (They used the hand motions I taught them.)  We had a mini-lesson on strong topic sentences and a lesson on strong closing sentences.  Students referred to the anchor charts we created during these lessons quite a bit throughout the month.  We also had mini-lessons on many of the nonfiction text features (headings, labels, captions, table of contents, etc).  They LOVE labeling and it's so cute when they begin labeling all of their pictures.  I find that my "lower" students really enjoy labeling their pictures because it isn't overwhelming to them.  And they know it is something that real nonfiction authors do because they have seen so many examples in our mentor texts.  

One of the best parts of the writing workshop (I say that a lot though) is the integrated reading instruction that occurs.  We make sure to coordinate our reading block instruction with whatever we are doing in writer's workshop.  So last month while focusing on narrative writing, during our reading we read fiction books and identified story elements, described characters, talked about problem/solution, and retelling the beginning, middle, and end.  For our informative unit, our reading instruction has focused on nonfiction text as we identified nonfiction text features, identified main idea and details, etc.  One of my favorite activities I have done this year has been to let students identify nonfiction text features in books that they are reading.  I do this every year and every year, this lesson gets better as technology improves opportunities for students.  In the past I used to have students cut out examples from magazines or a to z books and glue them in a flip book under the specific tab.  One year I used iPod touches for students to take photos of them in actual books and printed the photos for them.  This year I had students use Seesaw to take a photo of a nonfiction text feature and then use the drawing and microphone tools to identify it.  I mention all of this because much of my instruction on those nonfiction text features was actually during writer's workshops.  Integrating reading and writing instruction strengthens students' understanding.

At the beginning of the unit I decided to introduce writing booklets for my students to use.  They could continue to use a single sheet of our primary lined paper or they could chose to write in a booklet when writing their informative pieces.  The booklet is simply a blank cover and 5 lined papers stapled together.  Most students did chose the booklets.  They liked to feel like they were making real books.  I liked the booklets because it gives a physical space for the topic sentence, details, and closing sentence. It also gave more opportunities to easily add headings, labels, and other nonfiction text features.  I wish I would have done this in the narrative unit to help students have a clear beginning, middle, and end.

One thing I wasn't sure that would go well is having students all writing about different topics of things they know about and all being at different places.  I have always loved teaching informative writing, but most often we would all write about the same topic.  For instance, we would spend several days reading and learning about bats and then students would each write their own informational piece about bats.  But I knew I was going to keep with the writer's workshop format and that meant students choosing their topics and working at their own pace.  They did GREAT!  I didn't realize how empowered they would feel by choosing their own topics.  They know a lot and they were excited to inform others through their writing.  It wasn't an "issue" at all!  It instead became one of the reasons they did so well right from the beginning of the unit.  They were writing about topics they felt comfortable and passionate about so it allowed them to be engaged and focused on the traits of informative writing.

Below are a couple of my student's very first attempts at informative writing.  I was impressed!

Notice the headings in this one about spiders!

And even if you are done reading first grade writing, you HAVE to read this last one.  It was written by my most "at risk" student.  Yes, I know the mechanics and spelling need work, but I couldn't be more impressed with this piece!  It clearly has a topic sentence, details, and a closing sentence.  She even included some labels!  And the best part is here her sense of PRIDE when she read it aloud.  This is the stuff that keeps me motivated!!!

I know about cats.

Cats have fur.

Cats can lick.

Cats have whiskers.

That's all about cats.

Writer's workshop is a part of the day that my students and I look forward to.  The structure is exactly what I feel my students need.  They learned so much this month.  We are so comfortable with the structure of writer's workshop.  And we even had the opportunity to take the second half of writer's workshop outside on a warm, October day.  They were just as engaged outside in the sunshine!

We ended our all about informative unit with a publishing party of course.  As students shared their piece with their classmates, I took a video to upload to their Seesaw account (digital portfolio.)  Students (and parents) then are able to make comments on each other's pieces.  It is simply amazing and I'm sure I'll do a post about how we are using Seesaw in the near future.  Next month, I will share details about individual goal setting and writing conferences.   November is informative writing with a concentration on "how to" pieces.  So many fun anchor lessons for how to writing...a how to blow a bubble with bubblegum sounds promising!

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Effective RTI

What do you do when you have a student who is far below grade level?  How do you teach that child when he/she is so far below all of the other students?  How do you know if the student should receive special education services?  Perhaps one of the biggest challenges we, as classroom teachers, face is the wide range of students' skill levels within our class.  No matter the grade level, there are students that are far below and far above grade level expectations.  How can we possibly meet all of their needs?  We can start with making sure we have an effective model of RTI (Response to Intervention).

This has been a post I have been meaning to write for awhile.  One of my own personal goals for the past couple of years has been to refine my implementation of  RTI .  My approach and my school's approach has improved with each year.  And although I know there is always room for growth, I feel like I now am doing RTI the way I know I should be.  And the results...a definite increase in student learning.

What is RTI?

Response to Intervention (RTI) is a multi-tier approach to the early identification and support of students with learning and behavior needs. The RTI process begins with high-quality instruction and universal screening of all children in the general education classroom. Struggling learners are provided with interventions at increasing levels of intensity to accelerate their rate of learning. These services may be provided by a variety of personnel, including general education teachers, special educators, and specialists. Progress is closely monitored to assess both the learning rate and level of performance of individual students. Educational decisions about the intensity and duration of interventions are based on individual student response to instruction. RTI is designed for use when making decisions in both general education and special education, creating a well-integrated system of instruction and intervention guided by child outcome data.

The definition above is from the RTI Action Network.  There are many helpful resources on this site. Below is a description from the Center on Response to Intervention website which also offers a lot of valuable information.

Response to intervention integrates assessment and intervention within a multi‐level prevention system to maximize student achievement and reduce behavior problems. With RTI, schools use data to identify students at risk for poor learning outcomes, monitor student progress, provide evidence‐based interventions and adjust the intensity and nature of those interventions depending on a student’s responsiveness, and identify students with learning disabilities or other disabilities. The four essential components of an RTI framework are screening, progress monitoring, multi-level or multi-tier prevention system, and data-based decision making. 

A Shift in Thinking

If I'm completely honest, there has been a gradual, but a very significant shift in my perspective over the years. I remember in my first years of teaching, feeling a sense of relief when a struggling student was identified as special ed.  I believed that once they were identified then they would get the help that they needed.  I know many teachers that felt relief too because these students were now the special ed teacher's responsibility.  The special ed teacher gave the grades and was responsible for their learning and often the general education teacher felt that they were no longer truly their student or responsibility.  In the early days of high-stakes testing, some of the best teachers I know worked so hard to advocate for their struggling students with hopes that they would qualify because a special ed student would receive testing accommodations or in some cases even be exempt.  I know that none of this was done with ill intent.  We were fighting hard to give what we thought these struggling students needed: an IEP, pull-out instruction, and testing accommodations.

Wow-that is so completely different than how I view the process now.  I have been fortunate enough to be surrounded by very knowledgeable people that have helped shift my perspective.  We now know how to provide our core instruction in such a way that we can meet the wide range of student needs in our classroom.  We know about the three tiers of support.  We know now how to effectively use assessment, provide interventions, and make adjustments based on our progress monitoring data.  And research has shown us that when a student is identified as special education that the pullout method that we used to fight so hard for is actually, in most cases, more detrimental to the special education student's progress.  We know now how to provide support to those that qualify for special education services in a way that will be beneficial.

I'd like to share the process of how I use RTI to help my struggling students because I know I can't be the only one who is still advancing my understanding and implementation of RTI.  I certainly don't claim to be any kind of expert or authority on the subject.  I'm just a teacher inspired by methods that help me reach all of my students.

If you have ever wondered..

When do you find the time?  How do you manage the other students when providing interventions and progress monitoring?  Where do you find the interventions?  How to you track the growth?  How often do you progress monitor?  How do you organize the information?  What do you do if the student isn't making gains?  What do you do if the student is making gains?  How do you manage it all?

...then I'm hoping this blog post will be helpful to you and the students that you serve.

A Classroom Teacher's Steps for RTI Implementation

Step 1: Growth Mindset

Growth mindset is trending right now.  We are working hard at developing growth mindsets in our students.  I also think we need to take the time to make sure we as teachers also develop our growth mindsets.  Do we truly believe that we can reach every student?  Do we truly believe that we can set up our classrooms so that every student learns?  It can be a challenge at times.  We might try things and they don't work.  There might be moments where we think we just can't handle all of the demands.  But just as we tell our students to persevere and learn from their mistakes, we too need to do the same.  Effective RTI doesn't just happen.  And I think reflecting on our perspective and mindset is the first step in making it happen.

Step 2: Universal Screeners & Assessments

The curriculum department in your district will determine which assessments all teachers at your grade level are required to administer.  In my district, we use the Measures of Academic Progress (MAP) by the Northwest Evaluation Association (NWEA) as our universal screener for first grade.  We also do running records, fluency, and a phonics assessment.  You may have the fortune of having curriculum based measure like Aimsweb.  After analyzing the results of these assessments, I determine which students are in need of intervention or considered at-risk.  We also have a fabulous Intervention Assistance Team (IAT) process that provides support and school structure in determining which students are at risk, identifying effective interventions, and providing feedback about the next steps as we progress monitor.

Step 3: Core Instruction

If our core instruction is effective, we will have fewer children identified as at risk.  So for me, I spend so much energy ensuring that my core instruction is as effective as possible.  This step could be an entire blog post on its own, but I will try to give a quick overview of some of the ways I have found to be effective.  My students have individualized learning goals and track their own progress.  I think it's critical that students have clear learning goals and receive frequent feedback.  The simplest way I believe I make the greatest impact on every student learning is that I have abandoned whole class, teacher-led instruction for small group instruction in reading and math.  (I use a writer's workshop model for writing instruction and do more small group inquiry-based approaches for social studies and science in addition to integrating them into my language arts instruction).  For reading and math, I typically spend 10-15 minutes doing some whole class instruction (identifying learning goals, anchor activities, direct instruction, a few guided practice opportunities, etc), but the majority of my instruction is done in small groups.  I find this is the best way for me to really know my students as individual learners.  Instead of "teaching to the middle" I can give each student the type of instruction they truly need.  My struggling students aren't overwhelmed and my higher students aren't bored.  It keeps them all engaged and keeps them all growing.  This differentiated instruction is considered Tier 1 instruction.  Whether you chose to use small groups, tier 1 instruction should be differentiated.  Effective tier 1 instruction means fewer students needing tier 2 or 3 interventions.

Step 4: Create a Plan

When I have identified a student at risk, I analyze what specific skill needs to be addressed.  I use the information from our universal screeners, but also combine that with information from all of the assessments I give to form a more accurate understanding of the child's deficits.  For example, in early first grade, this often begins with letter sounds and one to one correspondence in math.  I record the baseline data and set a goal.  I determine the research-based intervention to be used and the intensity of the intervention.  (No, resources on Teacher Pay Teacher – TPT- is not where I turn.  I'm all for using TPT resources in my instruction, but I will only use research-based strategies for the RTI interventions.)  Think Central and The Florida Center for Reading Research are my go to sites for interventions.  When choosing an intervention it needs to match the skill.

Step 5: Provide Interventions & Progress Monitor

This sounds simple enough but is often the part that can be difficult for teachers to do.  We as teachers are constantly providing reteaching opportunities and intervention.  When we give a unit assessment we are working more with the students that didn't do well and giving them the opportunity to demonstrate their learning again.  We pull small groups of students over who demonstrated difficulty on our exit slips or guided practice.  So we feel like we are constantly meeting with our struggling students.  But with RTI, we need to focus on ONE skill for the 6-8 weeks.

It is important that I point out that these interventions are in addition to the core curriculum.  A student receiving tier 2 or 3 interventions should not be missing any instruction to receive the intervention.  That's why small group instruction or a school-wide IE time can be effective structures to ensure that the students are receiving the interventions without sacrificing other learning opportunities.

We have so much on our plates that it is easy to not do RTI with integrity.  Instead of our at-risk student receive 15 minutes of intervention four times a week on that one specific skill with the research-based intervention, we pull them for a few minutes once or twice.  And we provide interventions for the curriculum that they are constantly struggling to keep up with.  When we progress monitor, it shouldn't be surprising that they aren't making the gains we would have hoped.  However, if we can organize it all so that the (research-based appropriately matched) interventions are done with the intensity and consistently as needed, then we will typically see much greater gains.  Students that you thought would be needing that tier 3 intervention really might need tier 2 done correctly. The other piece is to progress monitor weekly.  This means you are assessing the one identified skill every week.

Both pieces need to be done consistently.  We can't just collect the weekly data from progress monitoring and return to our IAT hoping for support when we haven't done the interventions consistently.  And we can't just do the interventions collecting one or two data points along the way and return to our IAT when we haven't gathered weekly information to show progress.

This is why setting up your classroom to deliver core instruction in small groups can be helpful.  Not only does it meet the needs of all of your learners, but it gives you the structure needed to do interventions and progress monitoring.

I have a binder for each student that is considered at risk.  To hold myself accountable, I keep a log to document the interventions and a place to record the weekly progress monitoring results.

Step 6: Adjust Interventions

As you look at your progress monitoring data you then can make adjustments.  If the student is not being successful yet, it doesn't mean we test them and determine if they are eligible for special education services.  It means that we need to look and ensure that the intervention is a good match and perhaps try a different research-based intervention.  It might mean increasing the intensity of the intervention.  What if a student is making gains?  If I have a student that is making gains demonstrated by one or two data points, I still need to progress monitor.   If I have several strong data points, I may decide to lessen the intensity of the intervention, but I will continue to progress monitor that same skill.  After 6-8 data points, I would progress monitor that skill every 2-4 weeks.  If the student makes gains and the original goal could be raised, then that would also be another appropriate option.

Step 7: Start Again!

When my students meet their identified goal after receiving tier 2 interventions, I typically develop a new plan for that student and begin the process again.  I often have many of the same students I monitor for most of the year, but the skill and goals change.  For example, I have a student who was receiving intervention for letter sounds.  After scoring above 90% for 3 weeks, I decreased the intensity of the intervention.  He is still receiving the intervention, but significantly less.  I will progress monitor weekly until I have 6 data points and then will progress monitor monthly to ensure the student doesn't regress.  At the point when I felt he was secure enough to lessen the intensity of the intervention, I developed a new plan for reading CVC words.  This makes sense that a student needing intense intervention for letter sounds would then possibly be behind in reading CVC words.  Eventually, I am hopeful that he with all of this support he will be meeting grade level expectations and no longer will need the tier 2 interventions.

If a student continues to not be successful with tier 2 interventions, the team may decide to consider eligibility for special education services.  This may be determined by the data gathered through RTI or the team may decide to conduct an ETR.  If the team determines that the child is eligible for special education services, in most cases the most effective models are push-in rather than pull-out.  The special education teacher provides support to the student in the general education classroom.  Often it is a co-teaching model where the special education teacher is working with students needing these tier 3 supports as well as the general education students.  When this is done effectively, all students can benefit.

Clarification on the Questions

Just to be sure my steps above addressed the common questions I think we as teachers all have considered at one point or another, I answered them below based on my experience.

When do you find the time? How do you manage the other students when providing interventions and progress monitoring?  

Because I spend weeks at the beginning of the year establishing routines for small group instruction, it is easy for me to provide those interventions and progress monitor.  My students already know what to do when I'm meeting with small groups or individual students.  I designate a day each week for progress monitoring so it doesn't get forgotten.  As for the time, I make it a priority.  I believe in the RTI model and don't view it as something else that administration requires me to do.  I see the value in it for my students.  Meeting the needs of all of my students is my top priority so to me it isn't a sacrifice of time in any way.

In addition, our building principal has developed a schedule for our entire building that supports the RTI process.  We have an Intervention-Enrichment (IE) block.  During this time we have other staff members that are available to take groups of students.  So as a first grade team, we group student and  plan lessons/interventions to meet the needs of the students.  This has been a tremendous help this year!

Where do you find the interventions?  

As I mentioned intervention central and Florida Center for Reading Research is where I find mine.

How to you track the growth?  How often do you progress monitor?  

Weekly progress monitoring tracks the growth of each student.

How do you organize the information?  

I have a binder for each student with the intervention log and materials for the interventions.  I also have a google doc that I created where I input all of the scores (not just RTI) and notes for any at-risk student. EasyCBM is another site to check out for organizing and tracking progress monitoring data.

What do you do if the student isn't making gains?  

Carefully consider if the intervention is an appropriate match and possibly change interventions and/or increase the intensity of the intervention.

What do you do if the student is making gains?  

Be sure that you have enough evidence of the gains and be sure to progress monitor, just less frequently.  Determine if the student has another deficit.

How do you manage it all?

I think because I view the whole model as something that truly benefits my students, it helps me know I can manage all that it takes to do it effectively.   Doing small group instruction already makes managing it that much easier.  And knowing that I'm not alone helps too.  I have an incredible support team in my building.  We meet monthly to discuss the progress of each student and work through any issues that might come up.  There is a team supporting these students and it makes a difference.

Effective RTI

As with anything in education, the way something is carried out varies widely from school to school.  In the Education Week Spotlight issue on Response to Intervention, there is an article summarizing some recent research finding that RTI isn't as effective as we would hope.  In my experience, it has been extremely effective.  I truly believe in the framework and find it to be a simple way to ensure we are meeting the needs of all students.  I can easily see RTI not working because they are so many variables. If a district or school doesn't take the time to give professional development on effective RTI, the students most likely won't see the benefits like discussed in the article.  It is my hope that sharing my experience as a regular classroom teacher using RTI in some way helps another teacher and the students in that classroom.

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Narrative Writing in Writer's Workshop

So, we made it!  And I have to say I'm so proud of my little first grade writers and all that they learned this month!

During the month of September our writer's workshop focused on narrative writing.  (You can read about how I launched our writer's workshop in my blog post here.)  I think the hardest part for me was forcing myself to move onto our next mode of writing when October rolled around.  I loved the narrative writing unit and didn't want to stop!  They were making so much progress and I had so much more I wanted to show them.  However, I forced myself to stick with my plan and we will get to return to narrative writing in December.   In all of my years of teaching writing, I was always a bit too nervous to start with narrative writing.  I usually started with journal writing or writing to a prompt.  But all of my research over the summer proved to be true.  Beginning with writing about things that happened to them was the perfect mode to start with.

If you haven't jumped right in like this with both feet, you may be asking how can first graders be writing stories when they can't write in complete sentences?  They can't even form all of their letters correctly!   What about the spacing and punctuation? Shouldn't we just be instructing how to write one complete sentence before jumping into narrative writing in the first weeks of school?!  Giving them sentence starters seems like a more appropriate task right?

Yes, we should be working on letter formation,  spacing, and writing a complete sentence with a capital letter to start and end punctuation...BUT, these young writers have stories to tell!  We can't wait until all of the mechanics are in order before giving them daily opportunities for authentic writing.  (By the way, all of those mechanics make for great mini-lessons.)  Just as we don't deny them opportunities to enjoy literature (even though these books are full of unknown words and graphemes they haven't yet mastered).  We let them read using the pictures and be captivated by the books we place in their little hands.  After all, we are teaching so much more than capitalization, punctuation, adjectives, and narrative writing.  We are teaching and instilling a love of writing.  Let go a little bit and watch them soar!

Mentor Texts & Mini-Lessons

Like I mentioned in my first post about writer's workshop, the use of mentor texts to teach specific writing traits is one of the ways in which writer's workshop is an improvement over other methods I've used in the past for writing instruction.  Below are the mentor texts we used. A couple of the books were used technically during reading instruction.  We make sure to coordinate our writing and reading instruction.  So while learning to write a narrative with characters and a setting we make sure we are talking about how the author describes characters and settings during our reading instruction.   Believe it or not, there are actually many more books that I would like to use but ran out of days!

Great for introducing the concept of what a narrative is.

 Good for small moments

 Small moments

 Small moments

Small moments 

Descriptive characters and theme/lesson

Describing characters

Clear beginnings

Fun way to introduce dialogue

Clear beginning, middle, and end

Small moments & clear beginning, middle, end

Small moments 

Revision and editing process

I can't express how important and valuable using mentor texts in writing has been for me.  If this is something you haven't done before, it does definitely help to have suggestions for certain traits you are teaching.  However, if you aren't able to get your hands on a specific book that was recommended, don't be afraid to pull out any familiar narrative from your library and point out what that author did well in their writing. Or if you have an extra few minutes in your day for a read aloud or during your planned read aloud that might not be part of writer's workshop, don't be shy in pointing out a writing trait.  It's important to have well-thought out purposeful lessons for this (during writer's workshop), but any additional "mentioning" you can do will give your students even more opportunities to improve as writers.  I found that my students were making these reading-writing connections during their independent reading time.  They have been shown that we learn to be better writers during our reading.  How awesome is that?!

Small Moments

Although this month was filled with many mini-lessons, I know that most of these young first grade writers don't fully grasp those ideas and integrate the traits into their writing.  However, every day during the independent writing/conferences block, I would notice a student applying one of the mini-lessons into their writing.  It wasn't always on the same day as the mini-lesson was taught and it was never all of the students, but this was something that I was prepared to accept (see my initial writer's post about letting go of some control).  So I celebrated whenever I noticed even one student trying out one new trait!

Our main goal was for students to truly understand what a narrative is and how to write about small moments.  So I made a pretty big deal about our initial small moments lesson.  I used Lucy Calkin's watermelon metaphor and we refer to this anchor lesson a lot.  So of course I had to bring in a watermelon to make it super concrete!  I used the story Wash Day as my mentor text and followed it up the next day using Fireflies.  If you aren't familiar with the watermelon metaphor, it's just the idea of teaching students to zoom in from big topics (watermelon stories) to the small moments (seed moments) when choosing a narrative topic.

Listen to this first grader explain it.  I swear this was not scripted.  She just "got it!"  At the end of the lesson, I was trying to have them summarize our learning for writer's workshop and this is what she said.  I grabbed my phone and asked her to say it again!  Future teacher right?!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4wZEGDMrivk …

At the end of the month we had students look through all of their narratives in their writing folder and select one to publish.  We had our first popcorn publishing party!

And as I write this we are well into our next mode of writing: informative (all about) pieces.   Our  writer's workshop structure of a mini-lesson with mentor text, modeling, writing/conferencing, and sharing is now solid and established.  I've always loved informative writing and felt fairly confident with how I have taught it.  But I'm always trying to improve and the methods I'm using in writer's workshop is definitely beneficial.  I'm looking forward to sharing my experience when we finish up the unit at the end of the month!