Why Do Assignments Matter? RED MOUNTAIN WRITING PROJECT BIRMINGHAM, AL TONYA PERRY, PH.D., DIRECTOR KENYA HALL, ED.S, FACILITATOR Co-Director-Red Mountain Writing Project Summer Institute kjhall0713@gmail.com
Why are you here? National Writing Project committed to engaging teachers' knowledge, expertise, and leadership to improve writing and learning (Teachers teaching teachers) Assignments Matter ✓ NWP initiative funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation ✓ a collaborative, knowledge-building and sharing experience open to any teacher who knows that meaningful tasks create powerful results. ✓ invites teachers to collaborate using tools from the Literacy Design Collaborative (LDC) as well as protocols and processes common in the NWP teacher community to create writing assignments for use in their own classrooms and to share with one another. Red Mountain Writing Project is a local affiliate of the National Writing Project, whose motto is “teachers teaching teachers” and whose mission is to provide a forum for teachers of all grade levels and in all content areas to study and develop new and innovative strategies for literacy instruction.
GUIDING QUESTIONS ● What are the tenants and concepts of the Literacy Design Collaborative (LDC) ● Why is it important to craft assignments that matter? ● What makes them “matter”? ● Does this create “pretty” work from my favorite unit or does it address standards and learning goals?
Writing Prompt Think about a time when you assigned one of your classes a task where “what-I-wanted” and “what-I-got” just didn’t match up.
OUR GOALS AS TEACHERS ● Teach students to be adaptable and independent - o Students need to have the skills and the confidence to tackle the variety of “known” and “unknown” tasks ● Help Students Develop Habits of Mind and a Learning Mindset ● Teach students to become better readers, writers, and thinkers
What Skills Are Missing? https://youtu.be/Kq65aAYCHOw
What does the Literacy Design Collaborative (LDC) do? LDC provides a common framework upon which teachers can individually or collaboratively build literacy-rich curricula within their content area and for their focus topics. LDC’s basic building block is a module, two to four weeks of instruction developed in four steps. LDC offers tools, support, and examples and invites teachers to make the professional choices that create effective designs for rich student learning.
The framework is used to design tasks aligned to CCSS when students are writing in response to texts. The writing is text dependent.
The Impact of the Common Core State Standards ● How has the CCSS impacted your teaching? ● How has the CCSS impacted how you design assignments?
Protocol for Examining Sample Tasks Is the task worded precisely to give students a clear purpose for writing? What is the Assyrian accomplishment concerning writing? Based on your reading of “The Assyrian Legacy” describe the various uses Assyrians found for writing.
Protocol for Examining Sample Tasks Does the task represent valuable learning and does it require textual evidence? Do you believe mermaids are real? Would you like to meet one? After reading “Mermaids: Imagination or Reality” and viewing the video clip “Mermaids,” take a position about the existence of mermaids citing evidence from both texts.
Protocol for Examining Sample Tasks Does the assignment lead students to a particular bias in their response? Using evidence from the text, explain why the writing in Catcher in the Rye is so good. Using evidence from the text, explain the qualities and/or failings of the writing in Catcher in the Rye.
Protocol for Examining Sample Tasks Does the task address content essential to the discipline and grade level reading standards? e.g. 6th Grade science After reading “The Ecological Role of Lactobacilli in the Gastrointestinal Tract,” write an analysis of its central premise. After reading, “The Process of Digestion” write a summary of its main points.
Take Away… The language of the template tasks assures the assignment will meet CCSS. Example: Specific verbs (compare, argue, evaluate, identify, discuss, explain, analyze, etc.) guarantee tasks address CCSS.
DNA of Tasks Products Mode Text 16
Mode All LDC template tasks are designed for tasks that involve students writing in response to reading or research. They are clustered by the writing modes described in the CCSS: argumentative, informative/ explanatory, and narrative. Note: In LDC a narrative refers to non-fiction narrative and involves students in applying a journalistic style appropriate to relating an event or interview.)
How can one (or more) of these modes be used to demonstrate learning in your discipline? Turn and talk with your elbow partner. ● Argumentative ● Informative/Explanatory ● Narrative
Text The term “text” refers to a range of artifacts, including print and visual types. The best choices allow students to engage deeply with texts that involve them in concepts, ideas, or questions. These are called “short profound texts” in the form of a chapter, section of a play, or shorter poem or speech. What are some examples of text you use In your classroom?
What text types are relevant in your discipline? ● Short stories ● Maps ● Essays ● Art works ● Speeches ● Timelines ● Short novels ● Poetry ● Data ● Video ● Political texts (laws, ● Chapters policies, etc.) ● Social Media ● Political ● Games Cartoons ● Dance ● Scripts/ ● Other? Storyboards
Products Teaching tasks can engage students in a variety of products. Each product signals a writing context and requires students to adjust language choices and rhetorical strategies to meet the needs of a context for writing, purpose, and audience. Examples: An essay signals a formal situation with an academic purpose and audience. An article for a school magazine signals a less formal context, a journalistic purpose, and a general or peer audience.
What products are relevant in your discipline? ● Essays ● Journalistic products, such as feature ● Reports articles ● Speeches ● Formal letters, as to a State official ● Research ● Memos, to include reports reports ● Presentations to include a speech or ● Critical reviews written product ● Editorials ● Exhibits to include a written product ● Proposals ● Response/Reaction papers ● Lab Reports ● Songs ● Manuals ● Character Sketches ● Interviews ● Everything we just said as text ● Cost/benefit ● Pre-writing analyses ● Mind maps ● Discussions - ● Rants blogs ● Artistic endeavors - drawings ● Videos
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How to Fill In a TASK Template
Jigsaw • Read the article “How to Fill in a Task Template” by Eleanor Dougherty • Sort in groups using the following money codes: $1.00 - Introduction and Theme or Text $5.00 - After Researching Templates and Insert Questions Template $10.00 - Task Choice Points (Insert Text and Product) $20.00 Task Choice Points (Content)
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TASK CONSTRUCTION 3 4 1 5 6 7 2 6 Select your standards and the content, and then determine what you want your students to know and be able to do. Then you will decide: 1. If students are going to inform/explain or argue 2. What cognitive demand students will use (define, describe, explain, analyze, compare, determine cause and effect, relate procedure/sequence, develop a hypothesis and conduct an experiment, evaluate, or problem-solve) 3. If the task will include a question 4. If students will be reading or researching 5. What texts students will read 6. What content 7. What writing product TM page 5 30
The “Answerable without Text” Pitfall What makes for a good father? After reading To Kill a Mockingbird and various informational texts about parenting, write an essay that addresses the question and support your position with evidence from the text(s). Be sure to acknowledge competing views. Possible solution: Build a stronger connection between the text, task and question. …write an essay that explains your criteria for the characteristics of a good father and how Atticus Finch measures up to that criteria. 31
The “Built In Bias” Pitfall Should wolves be reintroduced into the Grand Teton National Park? After reading informational texts and the report outlining the successful reintroduction of wolves into Yellowstone National Park, write an argumentative essay that addresses the question and support your position with evidence from the text(s). Possible solution: Make sure the prompt does not mention the successful reintroduction of wolves to Yellowstone National Park report and select texts that provide balanced perspectives (pros and cons) on the issue. 32
The “False Argument” Pitfall What are the effects of climate change? After reading multiple sources about the impacts of climate change, write an essay explaining the different effects and argue what the United States should do to reduce the threat of climate change. Support your position with evidence from the texts. Use an explanatory template OR: ask students to truly take a position. …write an essay in which you compare two effects of climate change and argue which effect has the greatest impact. 33
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