September+15

Our discussion this month is on the introduction and first one or two chapters (depending on which grade level book you have) up to the chapter on Ideas.
Attendance: Pam Foust, Aimee Randall, Jane Spina, Stacie Gulkis, Marcia Morrell, Janette Roberts, Scott Cole, Robin CLokey, Deb Byers, Heather Godin, Ann Lipsitt, Helen-Anne Cafferty, Lee Hollister, Anne Morwood

Sharing of additional resources that accompany the 6+1 Traits: Benchmarks for 6-8 and 3-5, Reproducible Forms for the Writing Traits Classroom Mentor texts that accompany the lessons within 6+1 (Deb will share on wiki) Recommendation to visit the 6+1 Traits webpage to review on-line resources (webcasts, etc.)

link to 39 Clues webinar with Ruth Culham http://www.scholastic.com/decodingwriting/

"All children can be writers" - connections to boys as writers Focused revision - focus on one thing at a time rather than overwhelm kids with so many skills to include page 27 (purple) "Learning to write takes time, practice, and patience..." page 29 (purple)

Teachers need to model being writers themselves - be open to scrutiny - Importance of building a community of writers - that community includes the teacher as a writer and a learner. As teachers experience the challenges of being a writer they can identify with the challenges of writing.

(pg. 34 purple) quote by Donald Graves - remember to go for the feel of your writing and the purpose - writing doesn't always follow the "rules"

Common language (the traits) - developing a common language about writing and what writing entails

(pg. 10 purple) - assessment - finding a common language to talk about the qualities that make good writing

Report card discussion - purpose to provide information about how a child is doing. Middle school report card in reading and writing scores are based on elements vs. units/genres. This can be confusing to parents (and teachers). Report card doesn't provide information about what type of writing students are doing and how they're doing within that genre - teachers need to provide a narrative to explain. Middle school rubric - 6 traits put into 4 - sentence fluency/structure are included in conventions - presentation is not included.

Revision nuggets: Underline the section that you find powerful - something you don't want to change. Circle the section that you can explode the moment Put a star where you think you need dialogue - add the dialogue

Editing: COPS - capitalization, organization, punctuation, spelling Next Time - all read Ideas section of books (Ch. 2 - purple, Ch. 3 - yellow, Ch. 4 - green)