Writer's Stylus: Transforming Substance into Significance Check out Writersstylus.com for workshop details and dates. The website includes overviews of the course in PDF form. Kevin Washburn of Clerestory Learning has put together an incredibly cohesive writing instruction professional development course using brain-based research. I have participated in this writing instruction workshop three times now, and I would take it again in a heart beat. And I would feel like I was learning even more! We are so glad to be hosting it at our school this summer! The dates are July 14-18. Click here for the flyer with more details. Top 5 Reasons You Need To Attend: 1) Improve Your Own Writing! If we teach writing, we need to know the ins and outs of the craft. This class challenges you to improve your own writing and in one week you will learn more about your own writing than you ever have before. 2) Learn to Teach Writing! We assume it is easy. Show students what to do, then have them do it. But their writing doesn't seem to improve. Why not? This course breaks down how to teach writing so that students comprehend the skills and know how to revise! 3) Bridge the Gap between Grammar and Writing! Grammar is taught in isolation. We never can seem to understand why they don't know how to include a comma in an essay, but they can do it fine on the worksheet. Washburn teaches you how to link the two in a purposeful way and actually teach students how to revise! 4) Learn to be a Writing Coach! We all sit down and conference with students, but it doesn't seem to help. You feel like you have wasted class time. Washburn's approach to formative feedback is an amazing coaching method that with inspire student writers instead of depressing them. 5) Walk away with Materials! When you take this class, you walk away to online access to an entire K-12 writing curriculum that you can pull from. Everything you need to be successful is provided for you. And you don't have to "adopt" a program - you just have access to tons of amazing resources! These are comments from teachers who took the class last year at my school. Several of them NOT English teachers (Art, Science, Math, History etc) and they loved it! “Kevin is an excellent model of teaching practice. He is encouraging and supportive and teaches the course using the same structure that he presents to the class.” “This course was more than just learning how to teach writing. It makes me want to know more about good writing myself. I am inspired to write more and develop my own revision skills and writing style.” “This course confirms how I feel students should be learning and how they learn best based on brain research! It has taught me to be more purposeful and refreshed my knowledge on many different revision skills.” “This is the most beneficial, engaging, and interactive professional development I have taken in years!” “I love how Writer’s Stylus makes clear what is essential in teaching writing and how to teach using research based instruction. It supports what I know to be effective teaching strategies, and it will equip students to be effective writers.” “This has application across the content areas, not just in English classes. I am so glad I attended as a science teacher!” --- Allison Petersen @alcp
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This year my students will have access to Chromebooks, so the idea of Tickets out the Door just got a little more tech friendly. Teaching Channel is one of my favorite resources, and Sarah Brown Wessling shares her teaching idea where students use texting to submit anonymous poll responses. It translates beautifully into a Ticket out the Door or Ticket in the Door scenario. It is also available without using cell phones, which is a plus for me since my students are not allowed access to their phones during the day. The first video shows the teaching idea and the second video is Sarah Brown Wessling explaining how to create the polls using Poll Everywhere. I can't wait to try this in my classroom! Try it in yours this upcoming school year! --- Allison Petersen @alcp I teach 7th and 8th grade English, which means I want my students writing all the time. I use a Ticket Out the Door (TOTD) at the end of every class period as a way to have students write to expand their thinking on the day's lesson.
How it works: Stop students working about three minutes before the bell (or before the segment ends) and ask them to take out a 3x5 notecard. Post on the board a question for their ticket and ask them to answer it thoughtfully. Give them a some guidelines for length, usually about 2 sentences will do, and remind them to write their name on it. Have them hand you the ticket as they leave the room. It's that simple! I require my students to always have note cards with them in their binder, and I have established the regular use of the tickets, so students come to expect a TOTD. This method has been an amazing help to me as a teacher and has transformed my classroom in exciting ways. Try it out and see if it helps you! Six Reasons to Use the Ticket Out The Door/Exit Ticket method. 1) Formative Assessment: Easily check to see how your students are doing with a concept you have just taught. Ask them questions like: What did you learn today about paragraph structures? Or What do you need to work on when it comes to the comma rules covered today? 2) Immediate Feedback: I can immediately getting a sense of the mood of the classroom and reactions from students about an activity or lesson. Often, I ask students for feedback about my lesson so I can see how they liked the methods I used. This provides me with confidence as a teacher when I see them saying that they liked or learned from a teaching strategy. 3) Know Where to Start Class Tomorrow: Having them give me feedback about the lesson helps me to know what information to review in more detail the next day. It also lets me know when they are ready to move on to a new idea because they understand what covered today. 4) Differentiate Instruction: The feedback at the end of class helps me to differentiate instruction easily for each student and tailor to their specific needs. 5) All Students Have a Voice: The quiet students in class can communicate with me directly at the end of each class period. Without these cards, I may never really hear their thoughts and opinions about a topic or a lesson. This allows them to have a voice. I have found that they have plenty to say when they write their tickets. 6) Structured Class Endings: This works as a classroom management technique too! It takes about 2 minutes for students to write a card at the end of class, and they know that it is coming since I am consistent about asking them to write the tickets. They never leave their seats before the bell rings and often write past the bell to finish their thoughts. I also sometimes use it as a start of class activity to get them working quickly when they come into the classroom, especially if I want them to think about an idea we will discuss that day in class. For even more thoughts about Tickets Out the Door, read this post on ASCD by Robert Marzano: The Many Uses of Exit Slips --- Allison Petersen @alcp |
About AllisonAllison is an K-12 Instructional Coach. Her goal is to empower educators to grow continually. Recent Posts#5Tips4LMS Series
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