Ten Tips for How to Writing

 Ten Tips to Make Your How To Teaching the Best it Can Be!

I am wrapping up a writing unit focusing on How To writing,  and I want to share with you some things that went great and somethings I might change -if I could teach the unit all over again. 

I am teaching first grade and we started the official school year in October with small moment stories. When the genre switched to How To’s, my class was in 

hhh--heaven!  

I think How TO writing is a lot easier than coming up with a small moment story… small moment stories can be challenging. A small moment story requires students to zoom in on one little moment. How-To books are about teaching something. 

  

Although I am using the kindergarten unit from the Teacher College units of study, I am adjusting the lessons to lift the level of their writing so their writing looks and feels like first-grade How To’s. 

So, when I look at the samples in the kindergarten unit, I have to think... How can I make my kids teaching books even better?

TIP#1: One Volume Matters 

 One thing I have learned from my years of attending amazing TC workshops is that our students have to write lots and lots and lots of books in a week. VOLUME MATTERS! Because of the volume of writing matters, my students only use black markers to write and sketch(Paper Mate Flair Felt Pens). When I first started teaching, if you told me I would take markers away at workshop time,  I wouldn’t believe it!  I got into many disagreements with colleagues about letting kids use markers. After attending many TC workshops and conversations with close colleagues, I realized that I needed to make the marker switch. At writing workshop time, I want my students to spend their time writing,  not coloring. If my kids need to color, I’ll provide an opportunity to color at another time of the day. We use black markers to write, and green markers to revise and edit. The only time we take out colored markers is when we pick a book to publish, and we spend a day coloring. It's easy to get kids in the habit of revising and editing with a different color. Now, I know when students are going back to their work.

Tip #2: Tap and Tell 

 
Another thing my students need is a lot of time to orally rehearse, especially the students who struggle with the structure of the genre.  Since this is a HOW to genre the structures will be an introduction, steps that teach, and an ending. This is something that I have to remind myself… kids need to tell their book over and over and over again.  Every time they tell it, it can be an opportunity to make it better, or it can be an opportunity for a child to remember how their book can go. 

 

TIP#3 Shared Writing

Doing shared writing helps students be better writers. 
The teacher and students write a HOW to before you begin the unit. I would select a topic that the class has experienced together. I had my class write about the fire drill. When you do shared writing, the teacher does all the writing, the students help  “tell” the parts. The piece should not be perfect, you want to be able to go back and revise parts. Below you “see the parts” that we added to our text because we changed the color.  Kids need this when they struggle with saying more with language or in their writing, generating ideas, immersing kids in the language of a new genre.

Shared Writing:

• The kids are talking while the teacher is writing. 
• The teacher does all of the writing. 
• The teacher will write in more sophisticated ways. 
• The teacher should make it sound fancier. 
• Kids should keep rereading the text (repeat a few times).
• The teacher can model REVISING the text (green marker)

Tip: Some kids will write their book using the same topic as the class shared writing book... I think that is okay this child might need an extra scaffold. 

TIP#4 Copy the book 

 
Provide a copy of the shared writing for students to read. I like to write my text on 11X18 but you can shrink this down to regular paper size. 

Tip #5 Structure Scaffold 

 
When I was teaching the HOW to unit, I had three students who really struggled with the structure of writing a teaching book. They wrote a couple of books that sounded like storybooks and not teaching texts. I gave the three students HOW to book with the pictures all ready glued onto the pages (example below). The book was HOW to Clean your Desk. During the small group, we turn and touched each page, we practiced together... “How might our introduction go?” The students then wrote the words to match the pictures. This helped the students understand the structure of the genre. 

Tip:

Pick a How-To topic that your students know a lot about. 

How to unpack in the morning.

How to get ready for the reading workshop.

How to play a favorite math game. 

How to get ready for the bus. 

How to make a book. 

How to play UNO.

TIP #6 Make HOW to Videos (kids have access now to I Pads)

 
 I would start the unit with kids making videos or the teacher scaffolding video making.  Before I even have them pick up a pen! 

Making How-To video forces kids to really be able to do the steps. If you are forced to “act it out” it makes it really clear whether or not your teaching book makes sense. During the writing unit, my students were doing a great job with adding tips and warnings but some kids did not have all the teaching steps. Also, it was difficult “acting out” how to’s in a classroom where all students are wearing a mask and maintaining 6 feet! 
 

What I mean by scaffolding a video would be…

At recess yesterday, a group of kids are playing tag. The teacher pulls the group together (six feet apart) and says we are going to make a video to teach others how to play tag… who wants to help me? Of course, the kids will be BEYOND excited to take part in video making!!!

    •    One child can say the introduction… Hey, do you want a fun game to play at recess? (this is the teacher scaffold… tell the kids what to say if they don’t know what to say )...This How-To will teach you how to play tag. 


    •    You will need a NOODLE (to tag kids) and kids to play 

    •    Step One…. the person who is “IT” counts to ten.

    •    All the other kids run away….

    •    The tagger runs around the playground to “NOODLE TAG” a person 

    •    TIP… watch where you are going or TIP don’t hit too hard


Tip #7 the TEACHER makes a video 

 
Kids LOVE to see their teacher taking part in the work. 

If you want students' buy-in… I think this is a MUST!  I made three videos for the kickoff to make a How-to video. 

My first one, I made of myself was of me making a peanut butter and jelly sandwich,  my second one I made was of me teaching the kids how to play hide-and-go-seek with my dog (which I really play).  

I revised my video and made one of them even better!  My first dog video had an okay introduction, and it was too short. My second dog video had a few props and gave a comparison in the introduction. I also gave more examples. Kids learn that we revise in writing, and we can revise in video making too!  

The kids in my class LOVE the HOW-TO videos on Epic Books

My class is obsessed! 

 

My friend Dayna gave me the suggestion of using Flipgrid to have students upload and share their How-To videos (optional of course). I was a little hesitant to add another piece of technology, but I have to say it was the best tool I have used so far this year. It was simple to create accounts for each student and the kids love using it. 

Also, the best part is that they can comment on one another’s video. One little girl has made two AMAZING videos. For one thing, it’s refreshing to see a student talk without their mask on. Using videos as a tool to express oneself allows different students to shine. It’s also a great way for kids to connect with one another. So, this week on our one remote day, students will be required to create a home HOW to. I plan to have students brainstorm a list of possible topics

Here are some videos my kids made
    •    playing chess 
    •    building with Legos
    •    getting snarls out of your hair
    •    making a peanut butter sandwich
    •    making your bed 
    •    drawing people

Tip #8

Let kids make HOW to posters. We looked at an example, and kids were able to come up with their own thought.  Click here for How to Poster templates. 

Tip # 9

Create a micro-progression to show students the expectations. The goal should be to get to the next star. It is powerful to build progressions with students. 

Tip #10 

Teach HOW-TO snap words. This is the perfect time to teach these snap words to your students. Have a few places in the classroom where students can find them as a resource.  

Enjoy your student books. I love to take out their books from the start of the unit and marvel at how much they have grown as a writer! If you have any How- TO tips share them in the comments! 

Happy December! 

Melissa 

How To Checklist for Writing

 I created my own checklist to make it easier for my students. This checklist goes with the HOW TO writing unit (kindergarten). I had my students make picture faces (you can see below) for what they were doing and working on. For our next unit, I plan to have my students make tally marks. 

How To Checklist 

click here for download

click (Dropbox link)

Making How To Posters

Dayna and I were finishing up teaching the HOW TO writing unit from the UOS,  and we decided to have our students make HOW TO posters. 

Here is a teacher sample :

TIP: Print the posters on 11x18 paper (enlarge)

How to template one

How to template two

How to template three 

The kids were super engaged because we had them take a topic from a cup (an adult pulled it out because of Covid).  I think it felt a little special. 

The topics in the cup were familiar to all the kids. Some topics were:

How to clean your desk.

How to play tag.

How to wear a mask.

How to learn a snap word. 

How to wash your hands.

How to log onto Zoom.

For the student's first poster, they had to...

1. Turn to their writing partner and orally rehearse the parts together. The kids were able to talk (6 feet apart... yes, it is noisy).
2. Each partner made their own poster but had the same topic. 
3. After the students finished their posters, they selected another topic from the cup and made their own. 
4.  We added a little bit of color to our posters.
5. Last, we delivered posters around the building. For example, we gave the kindergarten teachers HOW TO posters about recess games. 

Click here for the list

If you have some topics to add to this list, leave them in the comment! 

 Have a wonderful Friday!!! 

Melissa

Reading Mats for Reading Workshop

 

click here for the link to the reading mat template

Making Your Teaching Stick

Years ago, a dear friend of mine, Susan, gifted me with a little book called Making Your Teaching Stick by Shanna Schwartz. Unbeknownst to me, this book would begin my love affair with Teacher College, especially Shanna Schwartz. Attending professional development at Teacher College  inspired me to leave the classroom and become a literacy specialist. I wanted to support teachers with workshop teaching.  However, I miss having my own classroom, especially when I go into kindergarten rooms! Although I am a firm believer in workshop teaching, I think there are a lot  of different approaches to teaching our kids. 

 

The most important approach is the one the that works for you and your students!  Like many teachers all over the world, the spring semester of teaching was challenging. I spent hours upon hours, with no materials provided, making asynchronous videos for grade-one teachers. My Screencastify account has over seventy or eighty videos. I will no longer allow any teacher in my building to tell me they can’t teach a TC lesson in less than ten minutes because it is absolutely possible!  

 

I can show them how it is done and support them as they too turn their unit of studies  into learning lessons that STICK!

Okay, now we are heading into a new school year. Next week, I am meeting with all grade level teachers to make plans for the upcoming school year. Massachusetts has a delayed start,  so students will not be starting school until the end of September. Since many of us are heading into uncharted waters with remote learning, I thought it would be helpful to remind myself and the teachers in my building of Shanna’s stickiness principles.  

 

 Funny enough, I am reading an adult book on learning called Limitless by Jim Kwik and many of his suggestions for adult learning are very similar.  

  I think we can all relate to teaching a class something and the next time you return to it (like the VERY NEXT DAY next day), the class is looking at you like, “What are you talking about?” So, the question is, how can I teach my class something that they will remember and then apply One thing we have to remember is that learning is not linear. A teacher can teach something and kids will forget it or not know how to apply it yet. Shanna reminds readers that teachers should expect many stops and starts from students in their learning. 

 

This means that a child will learn something and then seem to forget it.  

 Below are the stickiness principles:

 • In order for teaching to stick, children have to be ready to learn. 
 

 • Children learn best when they are engaged and active participants. 
 

 • Children need something to remind them of what they learned. Children benefit from the physical representation of the new learning.  

• Repetition is an important ingredient to reaching students because they learn through repetition and they love it. 
 

 

So now the question is how can we bring these four principles together for remote learning?  Over the next few weeks, I’ll explore each principle in depth and think about the implications for remote learning.  

 

Ironically, I just found out that I will be teaching in a classroom, so not only be talking about this in theory, but I will be using these principles in my classroom and truly putting them to the test!  

Have a terrific week! 

Opinion Writing Grade One

I am working on an opinion unit of study for grade one. Here is a Padlet of resources that I am planning to share with kids. My goal is to find things that are kid related to writing reviews. I am new to using Padlet's but I think you can add to it too.

Small Groups During Writing Time

Recently attending a writing institute in New York, the staff developers shared a new structure of small group from Teachers College. Lucy Calkins has a whole chapter in her recent publication Teaching Writing. 

Principles of Small group Time: 
    •    Helps with efficiency 

    •    Gives more feedback to kids across the day, week and unit

    •    Gets kids to practice right away

    •    Should be ten minute or less 

    •    Less teacher talk and more kid talk

    •    Utilizes partnerships more 

    •    Four kids is ideal if you have a large class six
    •    Coach kids as needed

    •    Equal does not need to be equitable 

    •    Give students multi-step prompts so they are not waiting for you 

    •    Should not feel like back and forth between teacher and student 


   
An Example of the New Small Group Structure

Rally: During small group time the kids are gathered together for a pep talk. They can be given a compliment and a reason WHY they are together. The WHY is the teaching point

For example the teacher may say: When we edit our stories it makes our teaching books easier to read.  Editors are detectives, looking for mistakes that are hiding.

Activate: The kids are shown a familiar anchor chart that relates to the WHY. Let’s look at our editing checklist.

Launch: The kids are in partnerships and may practice editing on a “demonstration” piece of text that the teacher made. Can you please help me fix this piece so it’s easier to read?  Kids are supporting one another while the teacher may be giving little tips. For example, read it nice and slow like a detective. Place your pen under the words as you read. Is that a sentence? Reread that again.  Go slow, be careful.

Challenge:  The kids take out their own writing and look for parts that need to be fixed or partners work together on a piece.

Teach for Tomorrow: The teacher connects this work to other parts of the school day. Boys and girls you can do this kind of editing during science or social studies. When you finish your science entries go back and reread. Ask yourself, Is my writing easy to read? Do I need a capital or ending punctuation?

( I changed some of the wording to make it less complicated for teachers )

Let’s think of small group teaching from the following sports scenario:

My son Finn plays lacrosse. When I drop him off at practice, the coach often gathers the kids together, and they do a little pep talk. This pep talk could be called a RALLY. The coach is telling them what they are going to learn at practice.

Activate: The kids do some running laps around the field. This is super easy, and they don’t need any help.

Warm Up Round One :
Next, the kids throw the ball back and forth. The coach may walk around and give little tips. For example, the coach may say, “raise your arm higher.”  The kids are working with a partner.

Warm Up Round Two: The coach throws the ball long. The kids practice throwing, running, and shooting. The coach yells out tips when needed. “Clancy, move faster!”

Warm Up Round Three: The kids scrimmage four against four. The coach gives quick feedback. This is the hardest part of the practice because the kids are putting it all together.

Teach for Tomorrow: The coach gathers the kids together and talks about the upcoming game and how today’s  practice connects to “Game Day”.  Kids are ready to beat the Boston Bears on Saturday. Today’s work on defense will help the team from this day forward.

 Reflection:

The new structure of small groups get kids working right away. The first part the RALLY and Activate should take less than two minutes. When kids do the first warm up, it’s should feel easy . Each practice round gets a little harder. Lucy shared with us that when Teacher College was piloting the phonics lessons they realized that kids did a better job when they practiced with something easier first before the harder part. The LAUNCH, gets the kids ready for the harder task.

The other emphasis was on kids being in partnerships. When kids are working with kids, it is less teacher talk. The teacher is there supporting but it should be minimal. The teacher moves back and forth between each group. The ending is teaching for transfer. Letting kids know that what I just taught you can help you in other parts of the school day.

Hopefully, you will try this small group structure in your class.
Melissa 

Doable Data

When I was a primary teacher, I never taught  small groups at writing time. I couldn’t fathom how that would go.  It never crossed my mind that I should be teaching small groups. I  just conferred with writers.  Even as a coach, I know that small group teaching sounds great in theory but how do you actually get students  in these groups and how can I support teachers with that work?

 In the next few blog posts I will share with you some steps I have taken to unpack small group instruction in my building. I’m fortunate to have some amazing educators who are willing to open their classrooms and try some of this work. At times it can be really “messy’ and that’s okay. I believe you can’t get better at this work if you are not willing to practice and learn from the messiness.


Doable Data

 At the start of workshop time, the teacher and I have been taking five to six minutes to gather  “Doable Data”. This is a recording sheet that we can take quick notes on possible teaching points. When Dana and I move around the room, we try not to talk to the children. We just travel from kid to kid quickly, reading through their writing booklets and jotting notes. We may look through their folders too. If we can’t read the book, we may ask the child to read it to us. We try not to have conversations with the children. You can see below what these quick notes look like.



Looking at Notes

We share our notes and divide the students into groups. Some of the groups may be kids struggling with topic development and some students may benefit from adding more details.  Although we are doing this together, the implication is that Dana will be able to do this on her own. Once she gets her kids working independently, she can collect quick notes and start to work with kids on the rug. We are trying not to overthink small groups.

What to Teach
Of course, we have some ideas of what kids may be struggling with. For example, if it’s the start of a unit, kids often struggle with the new genre.  At the start of new units, lots of kids benefit from oral rehearsal. You can easily pull a group of kids over who could tap and tell each page of their booklet.

Who’s in the Group

When we are thinking about small groups, it is not always assessment based. Once you start teaching groups during writing time, two things start to happen. The kids are looking forward to being  in your group and you are working with more children in a workshop  than you may have thought possible.

In October, I attended a TC institute on feedback. Lucy Calkins and the staff developers did a lot of talking about the “New Thinking” their organization was having around small group. The biggest takeaway for me was that small group time should provide ample opportunities for kids to practice.

My next post will talk about the new small group structure I learned at TC.

Below are some checklist we have been creating for some of the units of study. Since the are in a Google sheet, you can make a copy and edit for your classroom needs.

Enjoy the day!
Melissa





narrative checklist
nonfiction checklist 
blank checklist 
name checklist
 

Why I {HEART} Teacher's College

I am lucky to work in classrooms where teachers are implementing the Teachers College units of study in writing. Over the last five years, a professional priority for me has been to attend TC’s  workshops. Luckily, I have a few colleagues (and very close friends) who make the journey to New York with me in October and March.  Twice a year, we attend the Reunions, and we also have a fabulous time visiting the city (I love New York). There’s a lot of learning and laughing that happens.

   Personally, I believe Teacher College has the very best professional development.  It’s helpful to hear about the curriculum from the people who created it. I also love that the staff developers are always rethinking the work. For example, I recently attended a writing institute with Lucy Calkins. She had the audience members look at a video that TC created (can be seen on their Vimeo site) and she had us focus on who was doing all the work in the lesson. The audience certainly talked about the strong delivery of the lesson from the teacher, but you couldn’t help but notice that the teacher did most of the talking. The kids were not doing the majority of the work. Lucy’s point was that the Project was rethinking the work around small groups. Small group work interests me because I find it’s what teachers mostly want help with.

For the next few weeks, I’ll be working in a first grade classroom helping the teacher implement some of the small group lessons suggested in the unit. We often spend so much time on the planning of the mini-lesson that the thought of planning small group feels overwhelming!

Hopefully I’ll share some of the lessons we implement and maybe it may help you provide small group instruction in your classroom too.

Happy Monday!
Melissa

P.S. Tip for the day... when working with children the person who is doing all the talking is often doing all the work!