WEBVTT

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[Music]

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Hi, I'm Steve Graham.

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I was the chair of the Practice Guide
Teaching Elementary School Students

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to Be Effective Writers.

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Writing is really essential
today for students.

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It's a flexible and powerful tool.

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We use writing to communicate,
we use writing to inform,

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we use writing to learn,
we use writing to persuade,

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we use writing to entertain, we
use writing to also self-reflect.

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It's essential in terms of a skill that
you need to be successful in college.

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And, increasingly, to have white collar

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or blue collar jobs today,
you have to write well.

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There are four recommended
practices in the writing guide.

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The first is that students need
to write and write frequently,

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and we need to provide
writing instruction to them.

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This is critical, because if you don't
write and you don't receive instruction,

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you're not going to become
a better writer.

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The second is, is that we need to
teach the processes involved in writing

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and help kids write to learn
for different purposes.

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You know, writing is
a thinking activity.

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We need to help students be
good at that thinking part.

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Also, a third recommendation is that
we need to teach the foundational

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or basic skills that make writing go
smoothly, and these are handwriting,

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typing, spelling, sentence
construction, and the use of technology

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as a tool for generating writing.

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And finally, we want writers who
work...And our fourth recommendation is,

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we want writers who are in an engaged
community and engaged writers.

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So it's collaborative, and
students are motivated to write.

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A couple of things that
teachers need to know

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to implement these practices is that,
one, you've got to make time available

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for writing and writing instruction.

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And this could be a time set
aside specifically for writing,

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but it can also be to use
writing as a tool for learning

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in other classrooms like social studies.

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A second thing that's really
important is that we have

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to have balance in terms
of what we teach.

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So we really want to make sure that
kids learn how to think as writers.

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And to do that, what we want
to do is we want to model

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and give students assistance
to do that process.

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So, for example, if I'm getting
kids or helping kids write something

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about a persuasive text, I want to
model where I get my ideas from,

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how I organize those ideas,
the types of goals that I set.

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And then I want to work with them as
they do the same thing, and then I want

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to have them work with peers to do that,
and I'll give assistance as needed.

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On the more fundamental skills
like handwriting and spelling,

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we want to teach those skills
directly but we don't want

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to spend too much time on those.

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So we want to show how to do
it, give kids practice doing it,

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and then we want them to
apply it in their writing.

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When teachers implement these four
recommendations into their classroom,

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what we typically see in kindergarten
and first grade is we see a lot

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of writing done by kids, but a lot of
it is interactive with teacher help.

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We see very simple strategies taught,
like brainstorming, or we might focus

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in on revising on one
or two things like,

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does it make sense and can I add more?

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We also see handwriting taught
in both of those grades.

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We see a lot of invented spelling
so kids can get ideas down on paper,

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and we see the start of teaching very
basic sentence skills like declarative,

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interrogative, and imperative sentences.

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When we move to second and third grade,
we still see a lot of different kinds

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of writing going on, but
writing now is more complex.

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So instead of having a story with a
single episode as in kindergarten,

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first grade, now it's likely
to have multiple episodes.

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The strategies get more
complex at this point as well.

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We might see something like outlining
and combined together with something

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like brainstorming to get ideas.

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And also when we take a look
at revising, now we have five

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or six criteria going on, which might
include sentence structure, vocabulary,

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voice, those kind of things.

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In terms of skill instruction, we
still have instruction at least

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in second grade, maybe into
third grade on handwriting,

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and spelling's really kicking up,
and we also see a good bit in terms

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of compound and complex sentences.

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As we move to grades 4 and 5, then
we're doing a lot of writing again,

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but now the shift is writing
to learn, for the most part.

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And we're also encouraging
kids to take those strategies

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that they've been learning and
combine them in productive ways.

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In terms of the basic kind of
skills that are still being taught,

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we're having more emphasis
on sentence construction,

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but now it's taking the sentence
and making it fit your intentions

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and meanings that you're looking at,
and there's probably still a little bit

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of spelling instruction
going on as well.

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The challenges that teachers
typically face

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in implementing these practices
revolve around three distinct things.

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One is time.

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It's hard to find enough time in the day

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to have kids write a lot
and to also teach writing.

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So one very important solution to
this is not to have writing occur just

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at one time; have writing
occur throughout the day,

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including at home as well.

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A second issue is feedback.

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When kids write more, then there's more
that teachers could give feedback on.

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But I think in terms
of thinking about this,

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it's important to keep a
couple of things in mind.

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One of those things is, you
don't have to give feedback

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on every single piece
of writing that kids do.

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If they're using writing
as a tool for learning,

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you don't need to give
feedback on the quality of that.

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When you give feedback, you
don't need to give tons of it.

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You need to pick a couple of
things that they did really well

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and let them know that, and you
need to pick a couple of things

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that they could do better on and
help them over time with those.

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Giving a letter grade is not
going to be very helpful here.

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Also in terms of feedback,
you've got natural resources

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in the classroom, and that's other kids.

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The other thing that's
very important to think

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about in terms of this is preparation.

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The better prepared you are to teach
writing and the more involved you are

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in writing with kids, you're going to
be a great teacher, a better teacher,

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and it's important to make sure
that you develop those skills.

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[Music]