Building Better Writers Through Strong Minilessons...Building Better Writers Through Strong...
Transcript of Building Better Writers Through Strong Minilessons...Building Better Writers Through Strong...
Building Better Writers Through Strong Minilessons
Presented by
Betsey Kennedy-Olotka [email protected]
Elizabeth Marsili [email protected]
Essential Questions
• What are the key components of a strong minilesson?
• How do I design minilessons that impact writers in brief amounts of time?
Writing Workshop Instructional Framework
Minilesson Closing
Work Session
• 5-10 minutes • Whole Class • Teacher-led • Specific Teaching Point • Mentor Text • Develop Teaching
Charts/Anchor Charts
The 5 W’s of Minilessons
• Who?
• When?
• Where?
• What?
• Why? Explicit instruction
Authentic Learning
Attention Spans
Community
Gradual Release
The Big Question:
A Closer Look at the Architecture of a Minilesson
1. The Connection
2. The Teaching Component
3. Active Involvement
4. The Link
The Connection
• First 2-3 minutes
• Connect to the ongoing work
• Intimacy and Immediacy – Personal Stories/Student Examples
– Work is important today and everyday
• Specific Teaching Point & Procedure – “Today I’m going to teach you ____,
by ________.”
Teaching Component
• Revisit familiar read-alouds
• Demonstrate (Think Aloud)
• Teach small
• Have students think along with you
• Remind students that they should try this too
Active Involvement • 2-3 minutes of practice
• Children may be asked to: – Continue the work on the next part of the
demonstration text – Try the strategy on another text – Try the strategy on their own writing – Find and mark a place in their own writing
where they could try the strategy
• Every child is actively involved, not just listening
The Link
• Restate what children should have learned
• Remind students that this will always be important for writing
• Add teaching point to anchor chart
• “Off you go.”
Keeping the Minilesson Mini • Keep your topic focused
• Avoid asking questions to the whole class and calling on students to answer
• Assign long-term minilesson/closing partners to students for Turn-and-Talk
• If you model writing, keep it very short
• Don’t read entire texts, choose carefully
• Accept that you will only be able to listen in on one or two partnerships during the active engagement
How do I know what to teach? Think about your own writing
How do I know what to teach? Read your students’ writing
How do I know what to teach? Issues we notice during writing conferences
How do I know what to teach? Read mentor texts and think about teaching points
How do I know what to teach? Consider Cobb County’s writing rubrics and
learning progressions
How do I know what to teach? Consider Units of Study genre checklists
How do I know what to teach? Consider other resources
Units of Study in Argument, Information, and Narrative Writing
PICASSO Units
Craft Lessons by Ralph Fletcher
The No-Nonsense Guide to
Teaching Writing
Developing Ideas for Minilessons Examine one of the following:
• Sample student writing
• Units of Study genre checklist
• Cobb writing rubric, writing progression
Make a list of minilessons that could be taught based
on what you saw.