Spring Update Vol. 1 Issue 2

Then and Now

HHSD Writing Committee

In January 2016, the HHSD Writing Committee met to commonly score student work from the Fall 2015 LDC pilot.  Pilot teachers walked the committee through the instructional planning and delivery of their pilot modules.  Then, teachers from across grade levels and content areas spent the morning norming student work using the LDC rubric.  During the February district in-service days, the secondary Social Studies, Health and Physical Education, CAR, and Science teachers dove deeper into Collins Type One and Type Two.  Artifacts were collected from across departments that showcased student writing for Type One and Type Two.  KV Math received an introduction to Type One.  The Penn Literacy Network (PLN) teams recently completed their coursework through The University of Pennsylvania. The KV Team published a course in Canvas entitled “Collins Writing and PLN in the HHSD Classroom”.  It will be made available to teachers near the end of the year.  As we round out the year, the writing committee is excited to have new members joining the collaborative discussion about curriculum articulation and instruction in our district.  

FCAs: Focus Correction Areas

What’s next for the HHSD Writing Committee?

Focus Correction Areas (FCAs) are a powerful tool to help students target areas of improvement and allow teachers to grade papers quickly and efficiently. Focus correcting is a selective approach to grading student writing that allows students to concentrate on a few growth areas at a time out of hundreds of possibilities.

There are four categories to FCAs- content, organization, style, and conventions.  FCAs are used in Type Three, Type Four and Type Five writing. Three FCAs are assigned to each writing activity. One of the FCAs is always content, another is organization, and the third is always your “wildcard”. The FCAs are very clearly outlined for students so that there are no surprises.  They are refined, practiced, usually for one to two months, and spiraled throughout the year.

The shifts set forth from PA Core require writing instruction across content areas to step up instruction and assessment in order for students to be able to meet the demands.  The HHSD Literacy Frameworks support the skills and understandings that all students must demonstrate.  At the April committee meeting, teachers will begin to dialogue about the articulation and instruction of FCAs for our students.  The committee will be studying the tenants of FCAs with the goal in mind of drafting a comprehensive district guidance document for grades 3-12.  The district is exploring the opportunity to have Joe Ginotti, from The University of Pennsylvania’s PLN, work with teachers next school year.

Collins, John. “Focus Correction Areas.” Collins Education Associates. N.p., 2015. Web. 05 Apr. 2016.<http://www.collinsed.com/fca.htm>.

Penn Literacy Network University of Pennsylvania Graduate School of Education Resource Book. Philadelphia: Penn Literacy Network, 2014. Print.

Winter Update Vol.1 Issue 1

Then and Now

HHSD Writing Committee

Last year the HHSD Writing Committee developed a plan to achieve greater articulation for writing across grade levels.  Decisions and pilot efforts from that committee resulted in the adoption of specific practices for writing workshop at KVMS and instructional practices for “writing to learn” across the curriculum.  Writing initiatives were shared with secondary ELA, Social Studies, Health and Physical Education, and Science teachers this September and will be supported all year.  Instructional practices for writing have been drawn from the partnership with Penn Literacy Network and other research- based best practices.  The HHSD Writing Committee met in October to monitor progress in implementing writing goals and plan follow-up initiatives. 

Collins Type One and Type Two Writing

Recaps and Quick Tips

Type One writing by definition is getting ideas down on the paper.  The audience is the student writer and the teacher is a quick evaluator (i.e. Did the student write for (blank) lines for (blank) minutes?).  It’s a low-risk environment centered around generating ideas and questions.

Tip!

My favorite follow-up to a Type One writing assignment is the below-the-line activity.  In this activity, the students draw a line across the paper where the Type One writing has ended.  They then partner up with another student and share each other’s writing, adding a specified number of additional written lines “below the line,” thus adding to their original list.  I find that asking students to “add three additional lines of information or questions that you did not have on your original list” focuses the discussions and makes the students more accountable than just asking students to share (Collins, 5).

Type Two writing has a correct answer to a specific question or prompt.  The audience is the teacher who is concerned about the quality of the content and should be able to skim the response for correctness easily.  It’s helpful to have a number quantity as part of the question or prompt to aid in quick evaluation. 

Tip!

Ask students to write down two questions that can be asked at the beginning of tomorrow’s class (Type One) and record any great questions in your plan book to create a quiz for tomorrow’s opener (Type Two).  Keep your grading simplified by rotating which row of papers you collect and grade—keep it random!  You can usually grade these quizzes while your next class is taking their quiz or checking homework.  This technique of creating questions at the end of class and asking one at the beginning of the next encourages note taking, daily review of notes, ongoing formative assessment, and a check to see if the class was clear—a terrific payoff! (Collins, 12)

Resources 

Google Presentation: http://bit.ly/1ik8b7W

Padlet: http://bit.ly/1O8pFgx