Summer Institute 2020 - Day 6: A Kernel of Good News

Shelley Putnam
Columbia High School

At first I was skeptical, but now I believe that with careful planning it is possible to experience community and growth of knowledge within online spaces. This is good news for those repurposing coat closets, household nooks and other crannies as “third-spaces” for online learning. 

For the last seven years I have kicked off my summer by participating in the South Mississippi Writing Project’s Summer Institute. The Writing Project has a unique way of standing firm in its principles while noticing the ever changing educational needs at hand. Therefore, each summer is a new adventure full of purpose and growth. Today, day 6, has been spent simmering the “Magic Sauce” that is the Writing Project Summer Institute: people, planning, principles, protocols, professional reading and production of practical professional development. A new kind of rhythm and a new solace in our synchronous online search is evolving. The magical personal transformation of educators continues as we retreat from our sacred face to face sessions to meet in newly consecrated third-space online communities of intense professional growth. Today we began to identify ingredients worthy of inclusion in future South Mississippi Writing Project batches of “Magic Sauce.” This “Magic Sauce” will be offered as a transformational delicacy for fellow educators, so that they can positively impact virtual classrooms of students in our area. Soon we will be serving up protocols for online discussions, superior professional development for various writing topics, and Science and Language Arts Snapshots.

As tradition demands, we began by writing into the day. Summer Institute Fellows used Google’s comment feature to share our thoughts about passages and words in “The Lost Art of the Unsent Angry Letter.” We crafted responses in the form of a 6 word memoir, a Dear _____, Please ____ letter or a Tweet. Today was the day to share my writing about my beloved coffee; however, heavier topics were on my mind. I wrote about them but like Lincoln's unsent letter, I tucked it away...never sent. Never signed. We discussed the use of this text in classrooms and its service as an instrument in writing for catharsis purposes.

Tracy Gilmer led us in a protocol using a “Kernel” format to study kernel essays. After reading the articles, “Kernel Essays” and “Find the Kernel, Expository”, we used the following kernel stems to guide our thoughts and discussion: at first I thought, then I learned, now I think. From the reading and pursuing discussions, the following ideas were highlighted. Allowing students to form their own kernels was a new thought for me. I can’t wait to have my students notice a science lab report and form kernels for each section. I know it will help them do a better job in the future. Others shared their experiences about how kernels helped their students get organized in a way tailored for the writing at hand. The Kernel Essay is a great improvement for the five paragraph essay.

Tic Toc, the clock just won’t stop. We are realizing that time functions differently in online spaces, and this foe may be a giant stumbling block for some. Lessons going over the time limit is a trend, so we have added it to the protocol response ritual so facilitators can give their thoughts about the adjustments they had to make. This will be valuable information in future planning and in sharing processes with others.

Lori Johnson led a protocol peeling back the layers of understanding in regard to Formative Assessment. We began by reading Formative Assessment as a Compass and using a questioning protocol to dig deeper. The questions included: what role should assessment play in professional development; what questions arise when thinking about the use of writing as a formative assessment in professional development; and, what problems or push backs could occur with teachers using writing as a form of formative assessment in professional development? In answering the questions through discussion we better understood the value of studying student work samples as a means of guidance for future instruction, not only in a classroom, but also in professional development. Professional Development for teachers can be created based on the needs reflected in student work. Sharing student work and revealing our weaknesses in instruction is a scary thing for many; therefore, the safety net of protocols is used in Writing Project Professional Development to create a safe environment where trust and professional knowledge can flourish.

We closed the day discussing our inquiry questions and considerations of things we can make that will help teachers be able to make something. We discussed many topics like creating community in online spaces, and creating lasting products that can be used to bring students outside the classroom into the community. Robin posed the question, “How much synchronicity is required to build community, and how much asynchronous work can be part of the process?” SMWP PD typically begins with three consecutive days to kick off a cohort in order to build community. Our experience supports the notion that meeting in an online space daily, adhering to a routine and moving in and out of chat rooms along with established breaks seems to create a feeling of safety and community in the online space. The use of protocols eases vulnerability and is at the core of Writing Project Professional Development.

I miss seeing everyone around the table, but am happy we live in this age of technology which allows us to continue to move forward. 

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Shelley Putnam is a National Board Certified Teacher and teacher consultant with the South Mississippi Writing Project. She is entering her 22 year as an educator and currently teachers chemistry at Columbia High School.

 

Finding a Voice: How C3WP Helps Students Become Confident Writers Through The Practice of Routine Argument Writing

Elizabeth M. Watson 
East Marion High School

Before C3WP
As an Upper-Elementary and Middle School English Language Arts teacher for several years, teaching writing had always been my biggest struggle. Looking back, I realize now the magnitude of the disservice I did to teaching the art of writing to those students. As my students would complete various writing assignments (informative, narrative, and argumentative), I could always easily identify their areas of weakness; however, I never truly felt like I provided effective instruction to help them improve. I would, of course, always try my best and they would say they understood; however, the same mistakes would frequently surface in their next essays.

At the beginning of the 2018-2019 school year, I was introduced to Robin Atwood, director of the South Mississippi Writing Project. The College, Career, and Community Writers Program (C3WP) was beginning its implementation in our school district and I was a part of the selected group of teachers to participate in its study. I did not fully comprehend, at this time, what a blessing this would be in my life as an educator, but I would soon find out.

Introduction to C3WP
Once I realized the requirements of this program, I was not excited. After years of frustration with attempting to teach writing, I had already decided that I was not cut out to be a writing teacher. Programs and resources I tried in the past were not effective, so why would C3WP be any different? Why should I spend so much time utilizing this particular program when I needed to focus on our state assessment? These were just a couple of the questions going through my mind. Although I was skeptical, I introduced C3WP to my students and our journey began.

A Journey of a Lifetime
When my students completed their first writing piece, I recognized a trend: All of my students struggled with writing nuanced claims (some did not include a claim at all), and the incorporation of relatable evidence from credible outside sources was lacking. While commentary was present, it was not purposeful and failed to connect the evidence to the student’s claim. Through the practice of routine argument writing, I observed each of my students progress from being inexperienced, doubtful writers to being able to confidently respond to a topic while using numerous outside sources from multiple perspectives.

In one of our many professional learning sessions, Robin taught us that routine argument writing consists of regular informal writing practices. These practices are not meant to be scored or graded, as their purpose is to build stamina and capacity for writing arguments while ultimately creating a culture of argument in the classroom. I believe the most important aspect of this practice is conversation. After completing a writing practice, my students were always given the opportunity to share with their classmates. As the year progressed, the conversations did as well. Students who were not comfortable sharing their thoughts in the beginning were respectfully debating the ideas of their peers by the Spring. Others who struggled with utilizing credible sources as a foundation to their chosen claim were defending their thoughts with relevant evidence. By learning how to have respectful conversations with one another and becoming masters of using the conversation starters, one of many valuable resources provided by C3WP, my students were able to transform into articulate, confident writers and finally discovered that they each had a voice of their own.

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Elizabeth Watson teaches 7th grade ELA at East Marion High School, where she also serves as a member of the MTSS Committee and advisor of the Student Council. Libby has been an educator for 12 years.

My Introduction to C3WP: A New Teacher’s Perspective

Amy Reed

West Marion Middle Schoold

I began participating in the National Writing Project’s C3WP i3 Professional Development grant in August of 2018. It was my first year teaching English and middle school, and I remember sitting with the interview team as they told me that we would be a part of this new professional development partnership.  I was nervous about the idea of teaching middle school writing. It was something I really needed to take seriously and think about before signing a contract. I knew by taking the job, though, I would get the professional learning experience I needed to be successful in at least one type of writing, and in that moment, that was good enough for me.  Over the next few months, the South Mississippi Writing Project provided us professional development through which I learned new approaches to writing instruction and was given resources and experiences that I knew would really mold me as a young teacher. We were taught the C3WP materials as the students would experience them, which led me to understand where students would struggle (even before meeting them). We were presented with thought-provoking topics which helped me better prepare to teach my students; through having more background knowledge, I was able to guide them and help them prepare their own opinions.

Having never taught English before, I felt like the beginning of the year was an important time for me to learn what I was up against for the following year. On the first day of class, I gave my students a small informational text to see how they would read and respond. They read it, wrote what they had rehearsed from years prior, and turned it in. There was little thought that went into what they were writing. There was no evidence they were even remotely interested in the issue.  They had no voice.

On day two, we began to interact with the text. We did a few exercises that consisted of reading, talking, and writing a short bit. Of course, the students struggled, even through the first few months, because whenever we read, I required them, as I had been shown, to think through the text and respond by forming their own opinions.  

By the end of the year,  I began to hear the kids make comments  like, “When are we going to write another argument?” and “Oh! I saw this in the news last night. I did research. This makes me think…” It was amazing to see how these children who had no voice a few months prior to C3WP learned to speak and engage with the world around them. They learned how to have civil conversations with other people who had opinions opposing theirs. Students interacted with other points of view to challenge or confirm their own thoughts.  They became more successful with getting their ideas on paper and thoroughly explaining them. 

Fast forward to the next year. It was my second year of implementing C3WP in my classroom. My new class had already been taught using the C3WP resources the year before. On the first day, I gave a similar assignment as I did the year before just to see where they were in their writing skills. Wow! The transformation was incredible! They began at a similar place compared to where my students the year before had ended. 

Throughout the year, I was able to teach many of the same C3WP lessons using different texts that paired with what we were reading or in connection with school activities. Of course, we used the informational texts that were given to us, but I quickly realized I could engage them even more by exposing them to texts and topics beyond those in the resource guide. Time spent with the C3WP resources in the year prior helped give my students and me the confidence to apply these skills to other areas of writing and subject matter, such as science and history. My kids began taking the skills they were learning in the argumentative setting and transferring them over to the fiction we would read in class.  All of a sudden, they had opinions about characters in the stories. They would make claims and state reasonings as to why the characters should or should not have done something. It was not uncommon for my kids to read a passage, get frustrated at a character, and bring or email me articles the next day proving why something should be different.  I had a conversation with the science teacher one day as students were working on a project using a controversial topic.  The students had used the skill of analyzing different viewpoints and applied it to the science lesson. The science teacher was amazed, and I smiled knowing my kids were growing. The environment in my room (and others) was much different than the year before. I had to learn new management techniques because all the students had found their voices. Some students were better at writing their views, while some of the students were better at having conversations until they could pinpoint the exact words to use. Some of them had to learn how to express their ideas in appropriate ways, which led to interesting and necessary conversations.

C3WP is rich with instructional resources that guide students to becoming more mature, thoughtful writers. As with any instruction, sometimes students need different accommodations that are maybe not included in C3WP, which is where teacher judgement and autonomy are important. One also has to be willing to pause and fill in the gaps before jumping too far ahead, and C3WP provides supplementary resources for these moments in the writing and revision processes. With the current and engaging texts and teacher support, C3WP gives students their voice- a skill that lasts far beyond high school.

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Amy Reed just completed her second year of teaching eighth grade English Language Arts in the rural town of Foxworth, Mississippi. 

How the South MS Writing Project Changed Writing in My Classroom

Author: Angela Forbes
West Marion Elementary School

I remember the email well, "Mandatory Upcoming Summer C3WP PD Required for ELA Teachers of Grades 4-10." Something about the words "mandatory" and "summer" did not sit well with this tired teacher. I do love writing, and I love new ways to teach writing; however, I do not love attending any workshop that is just another person standing in front of me telling me what I already know. Since this professional development was required, I decided to face the situation with a positive attitude and make the best of the three days of training.

Tuesday, July 9, 2019, was the first day of the professional development sponsored by the South Mississippi Writing Project and led by SMWP site director Robin Atwood.  The meeting began at 8:30 a.m. and would end at 3:30 that afternoon. Seven hours in a workshop makes for a long day when you are a teacher in summer mode. However, I was ready to tackle the training and hoping that this would be the workshop I longed for as a writing teacher.  As it turned out, the minute I walked into the training location, I could tell something would be different about this professional development. Within an hour of listening to Robin speak on what was known as C3WP, I was both overwhelmed and excited to be participating in such an excellent writing program. 

On day one, Robin gave an overview of the program and introduced us to the website with all of the writing resources provided by the writing project. The program offered anything and everything a writing teacher could want or need to teach argument writing, lesson plans, and a PowerPoint for classroom instruction. I couldn't believe what I was hearing. This program was exactly what I had been looking for as a classroom teacher of thirty years. Could I be dreaming? Keep in mind, I have been teaching a long time, and I have attended numerous writing workshops throughout my career. I knew immediately that something about this workshop/professional development was unlike any I had ever attended.  Ms. Atwood walked us through each resource step by step as if she were the classroom teacher, and we were the students. She modeled what we should do to be successful in teaching argument writing using the resources provided. As the day continued, I became more and more motivated about the potential of using resources in my classroom that I knew the children would love. By the end of the first day of training, I was excited about everything I learned in such a short amount of time and could not wait to return Wednesday morning. By the end of day three, I was eager to get back into my classroom and start teaching! 

The rest of the summer, I spent numerous hours reading and researching the resources hoping to be as prepared as possible when the students arrived in the fall. Thoughts of time entered my mind, knowing that I had to teach reading and writing in a seventy-minute class. I became overwhelmed at the thought of teaching the writing mini-units while teaching my reading standards at the same time. Then it hit me; these are my standards. Everything in these mini writing units, provided to me in lesson plan format, can also be used to teach my reading standards. Not only did I have a wealth of information in my hands, but I also had a learning partner (a teacher who had already been through this writing program) who would be available to guide me through the process. 

Finally, the children arrived, and I could not wait to tell them what we would be doing this year in writing. As I began, I heard a student in the back row say, "I hate writing." Of course, I had to ask him why. He responded that writing was boring. He said he never knew what to write about or where to start. I replied, "You have never had me as a teacher, and you have never participated in this writing project." Although that was not the answer he was expecting, he did sit quietly and listen to the rest of my passionate pitch on writing. Then, I gave each student a notebook that would be used throughout the year to house all of their writing. We began with "Writing into the Day," and I knew the children were hooked. They loved being able to put their thoughts down in their notebook without worrying about the writing being graded or judged. The first day I asked if anyone wanted to share what they wrote, I only had a few volunteers. By the end of the week, so many students wanted to share that I had to start selecting one or two a day from each group. I could see the confidence building in them already, and they begged to write more.

Around the middle of September, we were ready to begin our cycle called Joining a Conversation in Progress. Our first cycle was on the topic of drones. To be honest, I knew very little myself about drones. I printed off all of the available articles and any other information the students would need for the assignment. Divided into groups, students read articles, with each group focused on one particular passage they would share with the class. After a class discussion, students decided if they were for or against the use of drones. I have never seen students so engaged in an assignment.  They used vocabulary from the text and communicated with their peers as if they were experts on drones.  Students who were for the use of drones quoted information from the text as to why they believed drones were important. Students against drones could also back up their view with evidence. As we continued through the resource, we had a visitor the day the students began drafting. My SMWP Thinking Partner Sherry Kinkopf taught the students, and me, all about using the "Kernel Essay" for writing. I soon realized this valuable tool would help my students organize their writing and become confident writers. Students who had no idea how to use evidence from one text were now learning to use evidence from various text sets while making sure the evidence all connected to the topic. At the end of this mini-unit, both my students and I had a wealth of knowledge on drones.  I was amazed at what I saw and heard in my classroom after just one cycle. Suddenly, I loved teaching writing again, and I could see students beginning to love writing.  As we continued through each cycle, I saw students starting to blossom as young writers. Children who never volunteered to read their essays were now the first ones with their hands in the air when I asked if anyone wanted to share. I saw confidence in my students that I cannot explain. Students who struggled at the beginning of the year with where to start writing, no longer struggled. Students who were already somewhat confident with their writing were now writing pieces that made me feel like a proud mother.

Throughout the year, additional professional development days occurred at the end of each cycle led by Robin Atwood and her team at the  South Mississippi Writing Project. During these follow-up days, we analyzed students' writing papers using the National Writing Project's Using Sources Tool. After each cycle, papers from the same students were evaluated using this formative assessment to track their progress and plan the next steps for instruction. 

Through professional development provided by the  South Mississippi Writing Project participating in this program was the best experience I have ever had in my thirty years of teaching. Step by step guides, text sets, PowerPoints, and other valuable tools are available with one click. Using these resources and professional development, I learned to effectively teach argument writing so that students not only understand but also enjoy writing.

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Angela Forbes is a fifth grade teacher at West Marion Elementary School.