Units of Study for Teaching Writing

I am intrigued by Lucy Calkins' work in helping teachers improve their writing instruction. She has created two writing programs with her colleagues from the Teachers College Reading and Writing Project in an effort to model good teaching. One is called Units of Study for Primary Writing, and the other is Units of Study for Teaching Writing, Grades 3-5. In each of these programs, Calkins lays out how to establish a Writers Workshop and then provides step-by-step instructions for teaching the many different skills involved in writing.

If you click on one of the above links, you will be taken to a page that lists the units of study. From there, you can click on a specific unit of study to view its annotated table of contents and a summary of the unit. You may also view sample lessons by following the links.

When I was teaching, I proposed buying the Units of Study for Primary Writing to my principal. I thought that one of my colleagues and I could pilot it as a potential writing program for our grade level. He didn't see that there was money in the budget for it (It costs $159), and I didn't have the time to write a grant to obtain funding.

In reviewing the tables of contents again today, I saw some similarities between the progession of my writing program and what Calkins has put together. I guess I shouldn't be too surprised - organizing a Writers Workshop certainly follows some standard "steps," as many books can attest. I wonder, then, if her progression of the units of study might also be a standard progression, and if one might consider her tables of contents as mini-lesson topics and a guideline for developing one's own writing program. After all, as teachers we all borrow each other's ideas and adapt them to fit our teaching style and preferences! Just a thought...

Organizing by Genre

There is a lot of emphasis these days on teaching Writers Workshop, which is a process driven approach to teaching writing. This method capitalizes on student choice and, I believe, requires a very knowledgeable teacher to ensure learning objectives are met. In its strictest form, it is an inquiry model, heavy on student discovery and light on teacher-directed or "authoritative" instruction. It's the old "traditional" versus "constructivist" argument. I think this is why I had so much trouble inititally trying to implement it into my classroom. It seemed an "airy fairy" approach without much structure, and I am very much a structure kind of girl! I think students learn better when the teacher has a defined set of objectives and a reasonable way of assessment. Perhaps "learn better" is not the right wording. I do acknowledge that much learning can take place from the simple act of discovery; indeed, I am seeing this happen daily in the life of my almost 1-year-old! But teaching in a school setting requires certain structures to be in place in order to prepare students for further academia and the workplace.

I was delighted to find this piece from the Journal of Second Language Writing that illustrates this same point and further suggests the need for structures as a necessity for functioning in society (communicating within social norms). The author, Ken Hyland, explains that genre literacy pedagogy was the answer in the 1970s to the process writing approach (what's old is new again...). His lengthy article espouses the merits of teaching genre sequentially while allowing for student choice and authentic writing experiences. Though Hyland is a little wordy and focuses his research on English Language Learners (referred to as L2), his is a very informative and relevant article for inclusive classrooms and a great defense against the current wave of process driven writing. He argues:

By making explicit what is to be learnt, providing a coherent framework for studying both language and contexts, ensuring that course objectives are derived from students’ needs, and creating the resources for students to understand and challenge valued discourses, genre approaches provide an effective writing pedagogy.

He explains that genre pedagogy is:
Explicit – Makes clear what is to be learnt to facilitate the acquisition of writing skills
Systematic – Provides a coherent framework for focusing on both language and contexts
Needs-based – Ensures that course objectives and content are derived from students’ needs
Supportive – Gives teachers a central role in scaffolding students’ learning and creativity
Empowering – Provides access to the patterns and possibilities of variation in valued texts
Critical – Provides the resources for students to understand and challenge valued discourses
Consciousness-raising – Increases teachers’ awareness of texts to confidently advise students on writing. (Hyland, 2004, pp.10-16)

Whether or not you choose to read the article in its entirety, I encourage you to try the following approach to genre study:

1. Introduce the genre by reading many examples. Invite students to list common elements between examples. Add to the list important elements that might not have been mentioned (You need to know what elements characterize the genre in order to do this).
2. Model writing in the genre (can use a mentor text here).
3. Do a shared writing with your students.
4. Invite students to write independently in the genre using the elements listed in #1.

If you do choose to read the article, you will find that Hyland suggests a way to organize your writing instruction through genre study. You can see how I used his method to frame my teaching in first grade in my next post.

PROJECT WRITE: A Look at Children's Writing, K-5

Here is a look at a writing "continuum" at one elementary school in Massachusetts. In this short essay, you can see what genres students study and when, as well as examples of writing at each grade level.

Below is an excerpt. Please click here for the whole article.
In this essay, I will focus on an examination of students' writing (kindergarten to grade five). All of this writing was completed by children who attend the Hardy Elementary School in Arlington, Massachusetts, and who participated in Project WRITE, which was sponsored by the Hood Children's Literacy Project. As I share these children's writing, I will point out the different purposes for which these children wrote. I will explain what classroom teachers and college professors who were associated with the Hood Children's Literacy Project learned from these students' writing, and I will describe the criteria we used to evaluate these students' writing. Finally, I will share with you the conclusions we drew from Project WRITE.

Scope and Sequence for Writing Instruction

For several years I have been looking for a scope and sequence for teaching writing, specifically for a first grade classroom. Unfortunately, I have come up with next to nothing. I have found developmental guides that show the progession from writing scribbles to representing ideas in words, but nothing that suggests how a year of writing should look in the classroom.

When I was teaching first grade, I implemented a modified Writers Workshop in my classroom. I worked with diverse learners (at one time I had 7 English Language Learners in my classroom speaking 4 different languages) and had multiple classroom management issues. Besides the challenges of working with young children (short attention spans, limited life experiences from which to draw, physical difficulty in forming letters), I had students in special ed, students taking first grade for the second time, students with ADD and ADHD, and students with a wide variety of home situations. I did not feel like a Writers Workshop in which students had complete control over their topics, genres, and revision process would be successful in my classroom. So we did more of a Guided Writers Workshop, where I taught mini-lessons and presented many teacher demonstrations and shared writing lessons, and then students were given an opportunity to write on a topic or in the genre of my choice. During their independent writing time, I would walk around and provide scaffolding for students as needed (writing for those who were in the "tracing" phase, encouraging more advanced writers to elaborate, etc.). We always celebrated each other's writing at the end of our writing time. Sometimes we took our writing through the entire writing process, but many times we did not. Students were free to explore topics and genres of their choice during their journal writing time (their entry task each morning), and often I was pleased to see them experimenting with what they had learned in our more formal writing lessons.

Because I chose the mentor text, topic, or genre for the day/week/month, I was able to come up with my own scope and sequence for the year:

First Trimester
Generating Ideas for Writing (2 weeks)
Basics of Writing (6 wks)
Narrative Writing I (5 wks)

Second Trimester
Expository Writing (6 wks)
Retell (4 wks)
Generating Ideas for Writing (1 wk)
Friendly Letter (2 wks)

Third Trimester
Research Report (3 wks)
Narrative Writing II & the Writing Process (5 wks)
Poetry (4 wks)
How-To Writing (1 wk)

I used this outline in combination with a skills-based sequence (My Integration of the Six Traits) to help organize my teaching. It is vague enough to allow for varying mentor texts, author studies, and across-the-curriculum links, yet structured enough so that I knew when I would "cover" each of the required genres. It also follows somewhat of a developmental sequence (My first graders were not ready to do a research report or write thoughtful poetry at the beginning of the year, although I know several first grade teachers who have been successful with teaching poetry first.). Additionally, it allows me to select anchor papers throughout the year from each genre to put into student writing portfolios and to guide in assessment.

I know not all teachers like following such a structure, but there is something to be said for teaching the same thing at the same time. When everyone at a grade level is teaching narrative writing, for instance, it makes collaboration that much easier: sharing ideas, discussing grading, forming and assessing rubrics.

I don't think a strict writing curriculum is the answer, but I also don't think Writer's Workshop in any form can succeed without specific teacher training and tools such as a writing scope and sequence so that teachers are knowledgeable about the process of teaching writing and have the support of their colleagues as they teach.