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. 

Summer Institute 2020 - Day 5

Author: Lori Johnson
Petal Upper Elementary

I would normally be making the fifteen minute commute on the back roads of Mississippi from Petal to Hattiesburg to see my fellow SMWP TCs at the University of Southern Mississippi. The mornings would start with grits, southern delicacies, and my excuses with why my breakfast food did not make it to the table...a curse every year. I now open my computer on a makeshift desk in my children’s game room, login to Zoom, and enjoy my cup of coffee as everyone joins in at 8:45 to talk about the happenings in our lives, our towns, and in the world.

One thing that has remained the same to start the day is our Writing into the Day that Robin creates. Today was a different day; it was filled with music and no need for prompts. We read the lyrics as we listened to Kate Campbell sing “Look Away.” As the song came to an end, we all added comments to the lyrics that spoke to us. Sadness was found in lines with the realization that not all children that grew up in the south spent their days gazing at the magnolia blossoms and their nights catching lightning bugs. The poem brought out the shared emotions we have all been experiencing...a realization that this is not a time to look away.

Voice Muted. Video Muted. 5 Minute Break.

When the videos were turned back on, I led the the discussion from Bad Ideas About Writing that was edited by Cheryl E. Ball and Drew M. Loewe. Reading and Writing are not Connected by Ellen C. Carillo and Reading is Not Essential to Writing Instruction by Julie Myatt Barger were the chapters read outside of our meeting to maximize our time together on Zoom. The protocol used for our time of discussion was a modified Triangle Square Circle that is normally used as an exit slip in classrooms. We started by independently selecting and pasting “3 points” from the chapters by a triangle image. We then wrote about how these points “squared” with our beliefs next to a square image. Next, we went in groups of two into breakout Zoom rooms where each person discussed each point with their thinking partner and how it squared with their beliefs. We all came back to the whole group where one person in each group shared

the takeaways from the conversations had in the breakout groups, and then we wrote out of the session with what was still “circling” around in our minds by a circle image. We talked about the disconnect that we are still seeing between reading and writing. There are still too many schools teaching reading and writing in separate classes; the explicit instruction for reading and writing has to occur, but we must also explicitly teach the connections between the two. At the conclusion of the protocol, we went into our Canvas accounts to reflect on the protocol like we had each day before to better understand how to build community while online.

Voice Muted. Video Muted. 5 Minute Break.

When the videos were turned back on again, Dylan Williams led us into a discussion from Bad Ideas About Writing that was edited by Cheryl E. Ball and Drew M. Loewe. The Five-Paragraph Essay is Rhetorically Sound by Quentin Vieregge and The Five-Paragraph Essay Transmits Knowledge by Susan Naomi Bernstein and Elizabeth Lowry were chapters that were also read outside of our Zoom meeting time. With ease, Dylan led us through the chapters using a modified Block Party protocol. We started in a Google Document where we wrote about our initial thoughts on digital cards that were created with preselected quotes from the passages. We were then divided into groups of four in breakout Zoom rooms to read our quote, share our thoughts, and then have a time of discussion with each Block Party card. During this time, we realized the ties that this discussion had with yesterday’s when talking about formulas and templates that can enhance or hinder writing depending on how they are used. When we returned back to the whole group, an open discussion was held with takeaways from the small group breakouts. With this protocol, we still had the opportunity to listen to different perspectives. When the time came to an end, we again went into our Canvas accounts to reflect on the protocol.

Robin ended the day in a time of oral reflection. Can you establish a community in online spaces? We realized that even if we did not know each other at the beginning, that at this point some sort of community had been formed. We have found that our time as a whole group has kept us calibrated and that our time in the small breakout groups has allowed a different type of connectedness to happen since it is a place where natural dialogue from being unmuted can occur. 

The fifty-three pound puppy is barking in the background and at times escaping to make Zoom appearances, my children do not always remember that a meeting is in session as they run into the room tagging me as their base in a game of hide and seek, and there have been unexpected knocks on the door from friends and family wanting to sit on the front porch to talk about life. The third space that Robin has always talked about has been hard to find at home, but even with all of the distractions, I still have found community amongst my fellow TCs.

See y’all tomorrow! Leave Meeting. 

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Lori Johnson currently teaches sixth grade ELA and Social Studies at Petal Upper Elementary and serves as a teacher consultant for the South Mississippi Writing Project. 

Summer Institute 2020 - Day 4

Author: Ashley Felder
Petal High School

We began today much like every day so far: trickling into a Zoom call, sipping our coffee and getting ourselves set for our 9:00 hard start. I find myself missing the camaraderie of our morning breakfast together around the table, making small talk or just chatting about nothing important as we sit in each other’s company before the day really begins. Now, we have our separate breakfasts and immediately mute ourselves when we join the Zoom, meeting a generally agreed upon and necessary Zoom protocol, but losing the easy conversations that would so naturally flow in person.

Promptly at 9, we began our Writing into the Day. Today’s inspiration came from John Donne’s poem “No Man is an Island.” We spent a few minutes silently reading and adding comments to the poem on a shared Google Doc before Robin directed us to begin writing our responses. The question that drove our writing pulled a specific phrase from the poem for our contemplation: what does it mean to be “involved in mankind”? As we shared out when our writing time was up, it became clear that for many of us, this poem and that particular phrase drew our thoughts to recent events. These writings have been essential ways for many of us to process some of the situations taking place in our country at the moment.

After taking our first scheduled five-minute break, we returned to participate in an article discussion led by Catherine Williams about the Preface and Introduction of They Say, I Say by Gerald Graff and Cathy Birkenstein. The protocol for this discussion is a hybrid of two protocols that many of us have used separately before: Two-Column Notes and Finding the Takeaway. We first spent several minutes choosing several quotes from the text and writing brief responses to them individually. We then went into Zoom breakout groups of two to discuss our thoughts with a partner and to come up with an overall takeaway from the reading. I personally enjoyed having the rare one-on-one conversation, since it allowed for both of us to be able to speak and share easily, in addition to letting me talk to someone with whom I had not previously had much direct conversation. When we came back to the whole group, we shared out and discussed our takeaways together. Overall, we agreed that the text was offering tools to help students better engage in the ongoing conversations taking place in our world and that these tools were essential to giving students proper access to academic discourse. After providing feedback on the protocol, which worked beautifully to deepen our understanding and develop our discussion, we took another short (and much needed) break.

Next up on the agenda was a discussion of the Birkenstein and Graff article “In Teaching Composition, ‘Formulaic’ is Not a Four-Letter Word,” led by yours truly. This article is clearly set up as an argument, so I chose a protocol that required a look at two sides of that argument: reasons for using formulas in writing instruction and reasons against using them. We spent some individual time looking back at the article and taking notes on the reasons presented for each side of the argument. Then we broke off into two breakout groups, each group tasked with listing out points for one side of the argument as discussed in the article. Adding their ideas to a t-chart on a shared Google Doc, all participants could see ideas for each side as they were added. Then, we came back together as a whole group to share out. Finally, we ended the discussion by making connections between points on both sides, concluding that formulas in writing instruction in and of themselves are not good or bad. It depends on the formulas chosen and the instruction that accompanies them; teachers have to ensure that a formula is a tool that allows students to enter a conversation, rather than a requirement that isolates them from it.

Ending the day, I am struck by how much of our normal Summer Institute routines and dynamics we have been able to retain in this digital setting that current circumstances force us to utilize. Even though I still miss the easy connections made in the between moments, the conversations during break times and the breakfasts or lunches spent together, I am amazed at the quality of our discussions in spite of distance and distraction (as I write this, I am fighting to focus over the banging of the construction zone that is the house next door). We are still finding ways to challenge each other and help fellow teachers, erring on the side of simplicity wherever possible, trying to keep the multitudes of digital resources from drowning us in possibilities. We are turning our newest difficulty into a focus of inquiry, seeking solutions to benefit our students and other teachers in our service area. This year’s Summer Institute might be unlike anything that we have experienced or imagined, but in the true spirit of the best teachers, we are making it work despite all obstacles in our path.

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Ashley Felder taught ninth and tenth grade ELA at Petal High School during the 2019-20 school year. She will be teaching tenth grade ELA, creative writing, and journalism.  Ashley also continues to serve as a teacher consultant for South Mississippi Writing Project. 

C3WP: The Results Are So Worth It!

Author: Heather Ricks
West Marion Elementary School

Two summers ago, I sat in my first meeting and experienced a small portion of what C3WP brings to the table. I thought that it sounded great, but thought that there was no way that I would have time for that in my classroom. Therefore, I continued to teach writing the same as I always had. I would explain the components of writing, what should be included in good writing, and model for the students, but they were still struggling with writing on their own. 

Then I was told that I would be involved in the C3WP grant the following school year. I was very hesitant, nervous, and honestly scared of what that would involve in the next school year. The professional development that we received from the South Mississippi Writing Project was different than any I had previously experienced. It was very hands-on. We were able to witness the SMWP professional learning facilitators teach the provided lessons and experience the lessons as a student. It also gave us the opportunity to connect with other teachers within our school district and “thinking partners” that were provided by SMWP. Having a thinking partner was a huge blessing to me. We were able to discuss the lessons, teach together, and collaborate to determine next steps for my students. My thinking partner brought a great deal of knowledge to the table and was there for me throughout every step ofthe C3WP process. 

When the school year began, I immediately started including writing into the day into my daily schedule. I expected my students to be hesitant about this, but what I witnessed was the exact opposite. They looked forward to writing into the day! They also learned how to have discussions with their peers in a respectful manner while discussing their thoughts about the writing into the day assignments. This assignment that took 10 minutes of my class time completely changed the way my students approached writing, prepared them for more in depth writing assignments, taught them how to have discussions with people that they didn’t always agree with, and taught them a love for writing. 

  

C3WP has taught my students more than how to write a good paper. It has helped my students become well- rounded thinkers who want to get their voices out there and stand up for matters that are important to them. It has given them the confidence to be able to have discussions in a productive way. For example, my students were very interested in trampoline parks and if they were safe for children. They conducted the research and had the desire to write the local trampoline park to provide suggestions that would make the park safer for everyone. This is the moment when I realized that I had achieved my goal and my students were on the road to becoming productive citizens. They realized that if they wanted something to change, they had to stand up for it.

Yes, C3WP has helped my students, but it has also changed the way that I approach writing in my classroom. Now, teaching writing does not feel like a chore. It has become something that I look forward to doing. I love engaging in discussions with my students and watching their brains churn as they find evidence to support their arguments. I have also witnessed my students change their argument if there wasn’t enough evidence to support their thinking. I have watched my students transform from struggling writers to successful confident writers that want to get their voices heard. 

C3WP has helped my students become more well-rounded thinkers and writers and it has helped me become a better teacher. This program has completely changed my way of thinking about how writing should be taught and because of that I am seeing growth in my students' writing. The program can be scary, but trust the process! The results are so worth it.

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Heather Ricks recently completed her 7th year as a classroom teacher. She teaches ELA to fourth grade students at West Marion Elementary School in Foxworth, MS. She has been teaching 4th grade ELA for 6 years and absolutely loves it! 

My Only Regret, Teaching Students To Write Without C3WP!

Author: Karen Creel
West Marion High School

It was the summer of 2019, and I had just made the decision to change school districts.  In fact, I decided to change entire states, from Louisiana to Mississippi, in the waning summer weeks before school was set to begin.  After agreeing to a job at West Marion High School, my new principal said, largely in passing, “Oh, I almost forget!  You have a C3WP workshop next week.”  I had no idea what C3WP was; my previous state of certification had used many programs and vendors, but C3WP just did not ring a bell.  But as a long-time teacher, I was very used to a lengthy list of acronyms, and I guessed that maybe C3WP was the abbreviation for some “Mississippi” teaching jargon.  I was not really worried, until I walked into the door of the summer professional development and realized that C3WP was a writing program that I would have to implement into my English II classroom.  

I  remember very clearly my chagrin at hearing that I had to incorporate yet another writing program that guaranteed “success” in my English II classroom.  After twenty-five years of teaching, I had seen more than my share of “magic fixes” for what seemed to consistently ail my students’ writing:  irrelevant text evidence, lack of style and voice, and robotic writing.  I pessimistically assumed and grumbled to myself that C3WP would be like all of the other programs I had reluctantly encountered and employed:  it would require my full participation and buy-in (faked!) and take up precious class time that I felt was better spent  doing what I believed my students needed and had beat my head against the figurative wall to accomplish over the years.  Was I ever wrong!  Now my only regret is that I wasted twenty-five years trying to teach my students to write without C3WP! 

First, if you are new to C3WP , South Mississippi Writing Project, or the National Writing Project, let me reassure you that the summer professional development and the built-in PDs within the school year  will more than equip you to implement C3WP into your ELA classroom.  The professional developments were spot-on for creating a deep knowledge of C3WP resources…and we had fun!  I left each professional development not only informed and confident, but excited to go back to my classroom to implement what turns out to be very common sense strategies and lessons designed to legitimately help my students become college, career, and community writers.  Furthermore, the “thinking partners” assigned to me through the South Mississippi Writing Project, Mrs. Sherry Kinkopf and Catherine Williams, were always available, and when I say always, I mean ALWAYS.  No matter whether my question or concern was big or small or if I texted or called WHILE in my class struggling with a problem, my thinking partners answered and left no stone unturned in coming up with solutions, modifications, lesson plans, strategies, and more.  In fact, my thinking partners served as pseudo-substitutes from time to time, coming in to teach my class (and me) from a particularly helpful resource that was fine-tuned to my specific students based on the UST data from my students’ previous writing cycle.  I can honestly say that I have never had more helpful guidance through a resource or program than is provided by the C3WP and the South Mississippi Writing Project.

My students have thrived under all of the C3WP resources, so it is difficult to decide which one has had the most direct effect on the quality of my student writing.  But if I had to choose one thing that totally changed my students’ writing habits and best addressed those pesky problems listed above, it would be Making Moves with Evidence.   Having had C3WP for a year already with their previous teacher, my students came to me pleasantly prepared to write nuanced claims and even find valid, logical, and valuable text evidence.  So maybe that’s why I was so impressed with the Making Moves with Evidence resource.  But I can honestly say that the quality of my students’ writing improved immensely once they were taught to use the Harris moves that are incorporated seamlessly into the Making Moves with Evidence resource.  Again, my students knew how to write a nuanced claim better than any class I had ever seen, being only one-year veterans of the C3WP program.  They were so adept at finding relevant text evidence to back up that nuanced claim that I felt that I had died and gone to English teacher heaven.  Beyond that, however, my students were unable to put that awesome evidence into anything other than a rote format.  They were literally bound at the pencil with the traditional five-paragraph, claim-evidence-reasoning essay. 

 

Furthermore, their reasoning was simply a paraphrase or summary of the text evidence.  I saw none of what I called my students’ individual writing “fingerprints” within these otherwise excellent argumentative essays.  Frankly, my students (and I) hated essay writing because they felt almost robotic in the writing process.  Just like the majority of students to whom I had taught writing over a quarter of a century, my students’ writing simply lacked style and voice.

Enter C3WP’s Making Moves with Evidence and the Harris moves!  Suddenly, I saw a quickening in my students’ pencils as they began to understand the concept of having a “conversation” with the text and incorporating that conversation into their essays.  By teaching them that rather than just rewording text evidence, they should have a conversation with the evidence, I saw my students suddenly begin to gain an interest in whatever topic was involved:  plastic straws, police use of force, dollar stores…whatever!  You see, they had each done enough research on a topic, albeit reluctantly in most cases, that they necessarily had a personal opinion about the topic, no matter how disinterested they were when we first got started.   The Making Moves with Evidence taught them how to incorporate their own opinions into their writing by doing more than just restating expert evidence found within the text set.  As they illustrated, authorized, countered, and extended, I began to see their own personal style emerge.  This was something that I had struggled to teach over the two-plus decades I had spent in the English classroom.

As my students began to inject voice and style into their writing, I saw another wonderful transformation take place:  instead of groaning as I announced the beginning of another essay process, they actually began to enjoy the whole process.  As they worked through gathering evidence and writing and revising their claims, I saw their wheels of academic and creative thought turning.  Instead of just gathering and dumping text evidence into their essays, they saw each piece of text evidence as an opportunity to voice their own opinions on whatever topic we were exploring.  We all know how much teenagers love to give their opinions!  The Making Moves with Evidence resource allowed my students to voice their opinions, incorporate style and voice, and do all of this while maintaining an appropriate level of academic writing.  It totally revolutionized my students’ thinking and writing.

I love to see my students finding good text evidence and deeply analyzing which Harris move would be the best use of that evidence.  They view each text within a set as an opportunity to provide personal support or firm rebuttal.  They love to find evidence that they can either defend or destroy!  They now become involved in a true and confident conversation with the “experts” who have written the texts.  The Making Moves with Evidence has validated my students’ own opinions in ways that has created writing confidence in even my weakest writer.  

I also love to read my students’ essays now, because finally I see the individual student in his or her writing.  Not only are my students investing more in their writing as they make those moves with text evidence, but grading those student essays has become much more of a delight than a chore.  

Perhaps the best advantage of the writing grant material made available through C3WP is that it changed my own thinking, planning, and expectations as an English educator.  I used to believe that I was climbing an insurmountable writing mountain - the Mt. Everest of instructional mountains, in fact – and that I was destined to never have students who could write the way I dreamed they could write:  full of voice, style, and passion while maintaining an academic tone. The C3WP resources,  especially when used in conjunction with the UST, creates an inspiring and optimistic instructional situation that is an individualized step-by-step climb up that mountain.   In other words, my students and I are now able to clearly see what they each do well, and then build up that ability by adding the components of the C3WP that each individual student needs.  Neither my students nor myself are overwhelmed by the task of researching and writing an essay!

Even though my district will not be an official part of the writing grant next year, my students will remain a part of C3WP by default because the resources are just what they need to make them informed, capable, and confident community and college writers.  As a teacher, I am so excited to continue to use the C3WP resources to create a steady stream from my classroom of capable and compelling community, college, and career writers.

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Karen Creel has been a certified secondary English teacher for over twenty-five years. Her grade level experience covers grades six through twelve, with most of her years focused on grades ten through twelve. She has taught Advanced Placement English Literature and Composition for the past five years. She has also taught Dual Enrollment English 101 and 102 for the same number of years. She taught both remedial classes and advanced classes of between twenty and thirty students, so I have experience with all learning levels and styles.

Summer Institute 2020 - Day 3

Author: Tracy Gilmer
South Forrest Attendance Center

Going into today, I actually felt a little more comfortable with using video conferencing (Zoom) for our purposes unlike the first two days where it felt a little awkward seeing so many eyes just over a foot from me. This seemed to be a common consensus among the other participants as well. This gives me confidence in knowing that it is possible to keep at least some sense of community in a virtual environment. 

We began the day as usual writing into the day with the poem A Contribution to Statistics by Wislawa Szymborska, one of the prompts from our Share Your Writing Website. We really focused in on the last question of the prompt, "How does this poem relate to your current experiences?" We began with a read aloud then a quick response using the comments feature in a Google Doc. As always, there were many different perspectives and focal points by each of the TCs. Some focused on their experiences with students in the classroom while some focused on our current experiences of unrest in our country as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic and protesters following the death of George Floyd. Still, others reflected on their own internal place within the statistics. We followed the comments with oral discussion using Zoom then transitioned into a time of writing and sharing of writing. I can't think of a better way to build community than sharing openly about internal thoughts and emotions. 

Because teachers teaching teachers is at the core of the National Writing Project as well as South Mississippi Writing Project, an essential part of the Summer Institute is to provide a time for each TC a time to lead an article discussion using one of a variety of protocols. Of course, in a digital platform the protocols must be adjusted. Dylan Williams led first using the Save The Last Word For Me protocol as we discussed NWP Core Principles. Other than some technical inexperience with leading breakout rooms using Zoom, the protocol was effective. Dylan opened with a focus for reading the article: What does this mean for us as members of the writing project? We did a deep dive into the text to find what most stood out to us in the text then discussed in small break out rooms using the mentioned protocol then returned to the whole group to further discuss. Though we had all read this article before, everyone agreed that the discussion took us all do a deeper understanding of what it means to be part of NWP. 

Next, it was my turn to facilitate. I decided to use an adaptation of the Making Meaning protocol in leading a discussion on Mozartians, Beethovians, and the Teaching of Writing by Diane Christian Boehm, a seminal text for SMWP Summer Institute reading. I chose this protocol because it provided lots of flexibility. The protocol begins with asking four questions: 1. What do you see in the text? 2. What questions does this text raise for you? 3. What is significant about this text? 4. What are your thoughts about ways this particular text might influence your work as an educator? I decided to use Padlet as a means of collecting and sharing the responses for each of the questions. Having everyone post to a Padlet wall allowed for everyone to easily see and reflect on the responses of others. We ended the protocol with an oral discussion using Zoom. The discussion started out much deeper than it may have otherwise been because each participant's thoughts had already been seen and reflected upon allowing us to move right into the more fruitful discussion. Of course, each of the facilitated discussions would not be complete without a time of reflection and response because we're always looking for ways to make our practice more effective, and that cannot take place without reflection. 

I know that I appreciate this time together (even at a distance) to collaborate and practice through the process of taking the writing project principles into the virtual classroom. When we suddenly switched to distance learning in March, I know I was unaware of what to do. I have training in using many digital resources, but I was not prepared to go 100% virtual. Now that we have the opportunity to think about what distance learning can look like, I feel much more confident that I can teach my students in a digital fashion while building and maintaining community. 

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Tracy Gilmer is a South Mississippi Writing Project Teacher Consultant and currently teaches eighth grade ICT2 and seventh grade ELA at South Forrest Attendance Center in Brooklyn, Mississippi. 

Summer Institute 2020 - Day 2

Author: Dylan Williams
Oak Grove High School

Going into the second day of the Summer Institute (SI), there was an uneasy optimism that seemed to fill our digital space, and I believe that this uneasiness stems from the familiarity of the tasks set before us and the unfamiliar means through which we have to complete them. Regardless, we began our day as we always do with small talk which segues into writing into the day. On day two of our digital SI, we read “If I Were in Charge of the World” by Judith Viorst. We read through the poem as a collective to see what jumped out at us. Robin then modeled the notice, name, apply, share, extend protocol about what she would change and get rid of if she were in charge of education in Mississippi. We fellows followed suit to complete our lists and poems.

As I typed, I found myself wishing that I had a physical journal dedicated to the institute like the previous year. When I type, I find myself getting a lot more out quickly, but I also find myself deleting more than normal too. I spent so much time typing and erasing that I wasn’t able to construct my list into any type of poetic structure to mirror the model poem. When time was called, we did as we always do: share. We concluded by discussing the interdisciplinary applications of the activity. Carrying our discussion further, we debriefed to reflect on what we liked and didn’t like about doing this digitally. Overall, this writing into the day went really well. Where I struggled with typing rather than writing, others viewed this as a boon. So, by the end of our writing into the day, we had effectively settled in, written, held a dialogue, and self-assessed the elements of the day thus far. By the end of our first activity, I did realize that the uniqueness of the environment of the SI was still preserved to a degree. It is bland in comparison to being in person, but I still find myself sitting quietly and listening intently trying to absorb what the fellows say in the same way I did in person.

Even with the physical distance between us, the desire to grow the site and progress individually was clear. This fact became most evident in our discussion of Jim Gray. We looked at a shared document that many site leaders compiled of qualities they believe represent the “it” quality that effective teacher consultants possess. The group that has gathered in South Mississippi displayed many of these qualities on our second day. They give well thought out and meaningful insight into the topic or concept under focus, they are intentional and thoughtful in their criticisms, and they are willing to work hard because they recognize the value of the site's work and the importance of propagating its values.

Our progression continued with the immersion into National Writing Project (NWP) culture through reading and discussing NWP Building New Pathways badge Framework. This proved beneficial by focusing us on the importance of our work and distracting from the fatigue which accompanies long Zoom meetings. We read together and we worked in a shared planning document writing our thoughts as they relate to the ISI social practices. I read some thoughtful comments, but that number of people working in one document came with some difficulties: trying to type where someone else is, making space for your thoughts, and deleting others writing accidentally (while they were working on it even) were some of the issues I faced. However, I still felt as though I had a better understanding and increased focus concerning the work that we will be completing as we move into the rest of the SI.

As is too often with online meetings, time ran out. We moved quickly toward the end, but the close of the meeting was focused on the work to come. It was reflective in the elements that worked and those that didn’t from the previous two days. The expectations were clearly stated, and there is a clear path moving forward. So, we are doing something old with a twist, and it is coming together as smoothly as could be expected during a pandemic accompanied with a slew of other national and international crises. Our SI having to transition online in a period of weeks highlights the quality of our site. We communicate. We adapt. We overcome.

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Dylan Williams is a 10th grade teacher at Oak Grove High School and a teacher consultant for the South Mississippi Writing Project. 

Summer Institute 2020 - Day 1

Author: Catherine Williams
West Marion High School 

The South Mississippi Writing Project kicked off its 2020 Summer Institute(SI) with a Zoom meeting Monday morning that involved both synchronous and asynchronous activities. Since all work must be done online this year, only returning fellows were invited. 

The meeting began with each participant taking a moment to type a sentence or two in a shared Google Doc about what they were thinking or feeling. Next, in typical writing project fashion, participants engaged in a Writing Into the Day activity, which was pulled from the SMWP Share Your Writing website. Each participant responded to a prompt in which they were asked to analyze the things that they miss about face-to-face teaching and which of these losses they were grieving the most; an excerpt from “Be Our Guest”, a song from “Beauty and the Beast”, served as the anchoring text. Participants then engaged in the typical sharing session, but an additional vein of sharing and discussion was added: what did we retain and/or lose in completing this activity online?

After the conversations, it seemed clear that, even though the structure was maintained, the connections and relationships between participants suffered from distance sharing. This realization led the meeting into the inquiry questions for this summer session: how do we make something that helps others to make something? Can we/ How do we create and/or retain community in online spaces? To guide us in this inquiry, we examined an idea from Paul Lemahieu’s work Learning to Improve: How America’s Schools can Get Better at Getting Better —“disciplined inquiry”. In order to ensure that we are improving as practitioners and that our work itself is improving in quality, we will use his principles of Plan, Do, Study, Act, which means that we will use rapid cycles of creating, sharing, evaluating, and refining in order to learn quickly from our own failures and, in doing so, help others using the knowledge that we have created together.

With these principles in mind, we transitioned to examining our ultimate product goals, which include adding teacher writing to the Share Your Writing website, creating an online or hybrid Invitational Summer Institute, building a Canvas course for the C3WP launch (and possibly some fall work) in Covington County (our i3 late start district), offering a website for the Covington County work that links students and teachers in both Covington and Marion (our i3 early start district) counties in order to build capacity and relationships at both schools, and publishing the SI anthology, which will include personal writing and participant blogs. Each product will also work towards creating a larger footprint for both SMWP and NWP, which is an important goal of the national organization.

To end the meeting, we discussed the article “Moving Teachers to the Center of School Improvement” by Edit Khachatryan and Emma Parkerson, which was published in the March 2020 issue of Phi Delta Kappan. Participants had already engaged in asynchronous reading and annotating of the article in a shared Google Doc, so we began the reading by revisiting the article and reading everyone’s comments in order to decide on our biggest takeaways. We used the Written Discussion/Block Party protocol in a Padlet to each copy and paste our biggest takeaway, write the reason that we each chose this quote for our takeaway, and then respond to the choices and insights of others. For the debrief, we mostly examined the impact that technology had on this protocol and our discussion of the article. This again led us back to our original inquiry questions, and we ended the day’s meeting pondering and brainstorming ways to address some of these considerations.

Seeing fellow TCs and collaborating together like the “good old days” was a breath of fresh air during a time of uncertainty and change. It is exciting and professionally invigorating to work with my colleagues again on these new projects. We have all experienced the transformative power of the SI and the writing project network, so we are in a unique position to analyze how technology impacts our experiences and how we can preserve our core principles while adapting to this new normal.

It was clear from the start that we are all grieving over many of the same “losses” in this transition to distance learning— classroom culture, face-to-face interactions with students, and simply writing in a room with others, just to name a few. However, just the act of putting these feelings on paper and then voicing them aloud to each other helped to reinforce the professional relationships that we had already made. Through writing together, we learned to properly name and address these concerns, and we built up stamina and dedication to tackle some of these issues together. While I desperately missed the coffee, breakfast, inside jokes, and physical presence of my colleagues, I felt a warmth just knowing that we were working in the same digital space as a team once again.

Our group understands the importance of personal relationships and classroom culture, so we are all dedicated to ensuring that these facets of education are not lost in times of social distancing and digital connections. While bureaucrats push to move more learning online and into pre-packaged programs, we recognize the importance of the face and heart of a teacher in all aspects of work with students. I am excited about the process of adapting protocols to meet online needs and creating a new set of routines. Our focus on failing and adapting quickly in this new space will push us to create modules and learning options that embrace the true spirit of good teaching. When teachers teach teachers, great things are sure to happen.

Trying out “new” protocols in a digital space (and adapting to occasional lost links and network connectivity problems), makes it clear that, while we still have much to celebrate in our ability to retain the spirit of learning and collaborating, there also come several new losses to grieve. However, it is comforting to know that I am not in this alone. I know that my colleagues will be there to support me as I fail quickly in order to learn quickly. Because we have all been part of the writing project before, we share in its unique collective identity. We all find hope for the future of education because we are part of a network that ensures teachers like us are always a central part of improving the practice and education at large.

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Catherine Williams is a South Mississippi Writing Project fellow and has been teaching for five years. Currently, she teaches 9th grade English at West Marion High School and is a co-sponsor of the Art Club.

More Than an Assignment: How C3WP Changes the Dynamic of Writing

Author: Matthew Stafford
East Marion High School

When assigning the task of writing in class, most teachers can already see students rolling their eyes and hear their groans from around the room. What I normally hear from students, after the groans, are quotes such as, “I don’t like writing,” to which I always ask, “How often do you write?” The usual responses I receive range from none to almost never, so I go on to explain to the students that writing is like anything else in life: to be better at it, you have to practice.

But even with that philosophy in mind, students all have different entry points when it comes to writing. Some have the mindset already for cohesive writing, while others need in-depth modeling and multiple forms of instruction along the way. That’s where C3WP comes in! The professional development provided by the South Mississippi Writing Project was unlike any I had experienced so far in my teaching career. The individuals running the sessions were fellow teachers who have already implemented these strategies into their classrooms, so it is not as though they had unrealistic expectations for a classroom environment. The interactive, hands-on lessons were explained thoroughly from beginning to end so that it was clear to all what the end result should be.

Most students look at writing as its own means to an end. Complete this, get the grade, and move on. C3WP creates ownership in writing. For instance, my favorite thinking tool to use in class is called "Say, Mean, Matter" wherein students take a quote, further explain said quote, and then add their own commentary, extending the conversation at hand further than they themselves thought possible. An essay is no longer just a graded assignment, but an entrance into a conversation that they would have never broached otherwise.  This writing process helps put an invested opinion on paper. In my experience teaching junior high English for the past four years, I know for a fact that students like to argue. Students are naturals when it comes to social discourse in the classroom; however, C3WP creates a way for them to use that energy in a constructive way, a way in which students are not shooting baseless information across the room, but rather they find themselves immersed in conversation and civilly discussing multiple perspectives grounded in research and thoughtful reflection.

The program helped me establish routines quickly in my classroom. The Routine Argument resources, like Writing into the Day, helped create the foundation for the rest of my writing instruction. Students were able to see basic steps in order to help their writing begin to grow. 

Even though all students are working on the same C3WP resource, it allows each student to work at his or her own pace. The resources are each designed with specific writing goals in mind that can be monitored throughout. The students with a better understanding of the nuances in writing are not held back, and the ones not as confident in their skills aren’t being left behind without learning anything. However, this isn’t to say that it is all individual work. Students are asked to collaborate with one another throughout the process to strengthen their ideas and possibly alter their perspectives as they gain more knowledge about the argument at hand. One of my favorite parts of a C3WP lesson sequence is to have a group of students embody the perspective from an author and have an in-class discussion on whatever the topic may be. It is always fascinating to see the commentary students have to add to the facts. Enabling students to put their own spin on the information presented and own their perspective is exactly what the lessons were all designed to do and exhibits such a high level of understanding.

I believe that the C3WP was well worth the time invested. Writing is something that comes naturally to me, and I was even able to take valuable information away from each lesson. As an adult, a teacher, and lover of writing, I saw how this program reaches every learner wherever they are. I plan to continue using these lessons in my classroom and look forward to inspiring students further by implementing C3WP resources!

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Matthew Stafford teaches 8th grade English at East Marion High School where he also coaches junior high and high school football and archery. He's been teaching for 5 years.