Also, having a peer read another student’s writing piece aloud to the class, with applause at the end, validates writing. Also students can hear what’s effective, or not so effective in the reading aloud.

Other suggestions for this good question are welcome!!
Kay

Since you’re finding you’re successful with one-on-one development of struggling student writing, I’m wondering if you could train some of your higher achieving students in each class to serve as a writing coach, to help individuals extend their writing, by asking questions such as, “Can you tell me more about this?” “Can you explain this better for me?” “why are you stating this?”

Some schools and districts are allowed to train community members or parents as individual writing coaches to help individuals with writing development, expansion. Other schools don’t want parents in. When parents are trained to be confidential and helpful, not critical, this can work well.
~ Kay

Since you’re finding you’re successful with one-on-one development of struggling student writing, I’m wondering if you could train some of your higher achieving students in each class to serve as a writing coach, to help individuals extend their writing, by asking questions such as, “Can you tell me more about this?” “Can you explain this better for me?” “why are you stating this?”

Some schools and districts are allowed to train community members or parents as individual writing coaches to help individuals with writing development, expansion. Other schools don’t want parents in. When parents are trained to be confidential and helpful, not critical, this can work well.
~ Kay

One thing I would be interested in hearing more about is how others help reluctant writers move through the varying stages of the writing process. Many of my students seem to have the idea that “good” writers can write one draft of an assignment and be done. Or my struggling writers take so long to complete a first draft that they fall behind and rush through the later stages of the writing process. I often see real progress when I am able to work individually with students on revisions for solid chunks of time, but i can’t do that as much as I would like with the number of students I have.

My Question: Getting students to create strong beginnings and endings to writing can be difficult, no matter if the writing is Narrative, Argumentative, Opinion, or Expository. What are some strategies you use to help students boost their beginnings to catch a reader’s attention and create strong endings that are reflective of the piece?

It seems to me that a good place to start with this having students working together, could be on working in teams or small groups on having students brainstorm together on the narrative extension asked for on MCAS.

So, for example, in the posted gr 6 Practice Test number 3, students are asked in relation to the brief story “Magic Elizabeth” to “write an original story about what happens when Sally arrives at Aunt Sarah’s house.”

The teacher could first brainstorm with the full class initial ideas to begin this “text-based writing,” writing that extends the text, and then have students work in small groups that would extend the story further. Just developing the narrative first is the hard part of this type of question, so students could generate in each group how the story would continue, then have each group report out on their own story, and comment on each others’.

The test question also asks to use the same setting and characterization. So each group could create first setting details, and then character in behavior in keeping with the passage character, and finally dialogue writing, and report out on these, to see inventiveness from each group. These groups could then together write out their group’s story, with those in the group each contributing.

In this way, as it’s creative, students could enjoy this activity, and learn from hearing others’ contributions, plus be preparing for MCAS! It’s good to take a good amount of time on such a story writing activity, to really give students the time to develop narrative on their own, and continue character.
Once students do well with this type of more creative and fun writing work together, they could then in small groups or effective pairing, work on constructing the more imposing “compare and contrast essay” writing that are in the other two practice tests.
These sample tests are found at
https://parcc.pearson.com/practice-tests/english/

My question: Middle school students thrive on working with their friends. Writing is often a solitary pursuit. Although peer editing can help, what are some other activities that students can do together to allow working with others?
Thank you
Katheleen

How Principals Can Banish Toxic Adult Behavior
By Corey Mitchell
October 16, 2018

Complainers. Freeloaders. Procrastinators. Backstabbers. Know-it-alls. Bullies.

Former principals Stephanie D.B. Johnson and Diane Watkins have seen them all in schools—and not just roaming the halls or slouching in the back of class.

Like any workplace, schools can be plagued by adult slackers or agitators who, whether intentionally or not, can sabotage morale and campus culture.
And principals, especially those new to the job, often need help dealing with those adults hiding in plain sight, working against principals’ proposals and best-laid plans, the veteran educators say.

Takeaways for Principals
Here are some methods principals can utilize to foster a positive school culture:
• Build rapport with all staff in your building, including those have a negative influence
• Don’t ignore the troubling behavior in hopes it, or the problem employee, will go away
• Directly address the behaviors with the employee by clearly stating the problem and listening closely

“On the surface, perhaps some of these troublemakers don’t seem like the most horrible things in the world,” said Watkins, director of assessment and accountability for the Chesapeake, Va., public schools. “But because they slowly erode the morale of your building, they can be.”
What happens in the teachers’ lounge, during staff meetings, and even during group projects can filter down to classrooms, disrupting a schoolwide focus on teaching and learning, Johnson said.
“These people are pulling your time away,” Johnson said. “You’ve got to dig in and find out exactly what it is that’s going on, what’s causing your team not to gel like they should.”
Watkins, along with Johnson, a retired Chesapeake schools principal and an adjunct professor at Hampton University, have hosted seminars on how to manage difficult staff, working with the National Association for Elementary School Principals, National Blue Ribbon Schools program, and others.
Building Relationships
Education Week talked with Johnson, Watkins, and three other ex-principals about how to banish toxic behavior and clean up the culture in schools.
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Four Characteristics of Difficult Employees
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The former school leaders agree the primary goal is to get the difficult staff members on board with their plans, not just boot them out of the school.
That process begins the day a principal takes the job and it requires them to embrace three R’s: relationships, respect, and the realization that you won’t always see eye-to-eye with your staff.
“Every teacher wants to be successful,” said Jayne Ellspermann, the 2015 National Association of Secondary School Principals’ principal of the year.
“How they define success may differ from your definition,” Ellspermann said. “If we focus on students being successful and that teacher’s role in making sure that occurs, you can find a common thread there.”

Building rapport with staff is key, because the first conversation with a teacher, or any other school employee, should not be focused on “trying to correct something they’ve done wrong,” Watkins said.

“As busy as a principal is, you cannot neglect … getting to know people,” Watkins said.
“You establish that relationship on the front end so that you have a springboard for having conversations, whether they’re good conversations or constructive [criticism].”
Those connections, especially with teachers, aren’t established when principals spend days holed up in their offices, said Todd Whitaker, an adjunct professor of leadership at the University of Missouri College of Education.
“I’m in classes on a daily basis,” Whitaker said. “And guess what I’m doing. I’m complimenting people all the time.”
Since leaving the principal’s office herself, Johnson, the former coordinator of educational leadership at Hampton’s School of Education and Human Development, trained dozens of incoming and aspiring leaders, schooling them on how to nurture morale.
“We talk about creating that sense of family with the whole school,” Johnson said.
Sometimes families disagree.
“I usually pull those people in really close because I do want to help them understand how they are impacting others,” Ellspermann said.
“If you understand what might be causing their resistance, then you’re better able to fill that void between your vision for the school and the direction they’re currently headed.”
Don’t Ignore Problems
The biggest mistake a principal can make when dealing with problem employees?

Tactics Toxic Teachers May Use

Stall
They’ve outlasted previous principals who tried to institute change or deal with their performance issues—and they may try to wait you out too.
Solution
Let employees know you are interested in working with them in the long run for the good of the school. Follow-up frequently to ensure you are working toward your common goals.
________________________________________
Make Excuses
Puts more energy into justifying and rationalizing their unproductive behavior than it would take to change the habits.
Solution
Acknowledge the situation without causing the employee to double down on their thinking or assume you agree with them. Discuss how their short-term approach may not fit with your long-term goals.
________________________________________
Recruit
Encourages other teachers, staff members, and in some cases, community members and parents, to ignore or rally against plans.
Solution
Work with the staff members involved to help them understand what you want to change. While emphasizing that community input is valued, remind your staff that non-employees will not direct day-to-day school operations.
________________________________________
Undermine
Tries to derail new initiatives by not completing assignments or giving their best effort.
Solution
Ensure employees assigned to a task have appropriate training and a clear understanding of your goals. If necessary, have one-on-one meetings to clear the air with people actively working against the effort.
Trying to ignore the troubling behavior in hopes that it, or the perpetrator, will just go away.
Avoidance can foster an environment where toxic conduct thrives and spreads. But ducking difficult conversations is often the default move, Whitaker said.
“Dealing with negative people is never easy. It’s never fun,” Whitaker said. “But if you don’t do it, nothing about your job is fun.”
Instead of looking the other way or addressing the entire staff, principals should go directly to the employee or employees and address the issue early, and, if need be, often.
“If there’s a situation and you’ve noticed it once and then you are able to bring it to that person’s attention lightly, sometimes they’ll go ahead and make the change,” said John Eller, a professor of educational leadership and administration at St. Cloud State University in Minnesota.
“If you wait and let the problem fester, it becomes a really major kind of conversation. The problem with that is sometimes people will say to you, ‘Well, if this was a problem, how come you didn’t alert me sooner?’ ”
During those sessions, school leaders should clearly state the problem, and focus on behavior instead of making the conversation solely about the employee and their shortcomings, the former principals said.
But school leaders may also need to do more listening than talking during the sit-down.
“Take the opportunity to listen to their perspective. Somewhere in there, there’s a grain of truth that needs to be heard,” Ellspermann said.
“When I can recognize and reinforce that, then sometimes I can get them to see another perspective.”
And when principals invite criticism or staff input, they must be ready to listen, and not dig their heels in, Eller said.
“It takes a lot of skill on the part of the principal, because when somebody comes to you and says, ‘I don’t agree with where we’re going,’ it’s easy to take it personal,” Eller said.
“But if you take that as a helpful comment, then it doesn’t become a big issue, it becomes information.”

Problem Principals?
As principals investigate the source of tension in their schools, it makes sense to conduct a self-assessment.
Sometimes that examination leads to the discovery that they are part of the problem, Watkins said.
“Unfortunately, sometimes the most difficult person in the building is the principal,” she said. “When you walk into a school, and you hear people say to the office staff, ‘Is today a good day to talk to him? Do I need to take his temperature before I come in?’ ”
School leaders must be aware not only of their staff’s shortcomings, but also their own, because the stakes are so high in education: underperforming teachers affect classrooms; poor principals corrupt entire schools, Whitaker said.
“If you’re not effective, you don’t even know the difference between the effective people and the ineffective people because everybody’s questioning you,” he said.
Eller, a former Iowa principal of the year who has taught prospective principals for more than 20 years, encourages school leaders to determine their frame of reference.
“We’ve had situations where there was a problem, but it was because a principal had a negative interaction with a person and they’ve never gotten over it,” Eller said. “Or maybe they have a predisposition against a certain type of teacher, but they haven’t been able to see it.”
“When we work with principals, we really try to help them see, ‘What is it that you bring to the table that could also have some impact?’ It takes two to fight, so in some cases the leadership has also contributed to the issue.”
________________________________________
Four Characteristics of Difficult Employees
John Eller, chairman of the Educational Leadership and Higher Education Department at St. Cloud State University and author of “Working With and Evaluating Difficult School Employees,” outlined some common behaviors of such employees in an interview with Education Week.

Justifies Behavior Based on What Used to Be
“The last principal didn’t have a problem with …”
Possible Remedy
Reaffirm that you are a different principal with different expectations.

Blames Others
In an attempt to mask their behavior, shifts the blame for problems to other employees.
Possible Remedy
Steer conversations toward problem-solving rather than finger-pointing.

Lacks Awareness
Unwilling or unable to see how their behavior affects others.
Possible Remedy
Provide clear feedback to help the employee understand the problem.

Denies
Refuses to acknowledge the problem, even when confronted.
Possible Remedy
Address the problematic behavior directly, leaving little room for misinterpretation.

My Response:
(I’m sure others can thinking of more inventive, fun, lively activities!!)

One response to how to how to get students to vary sentencing is I’d just use the mini-lesson, “focus lesson” steps of teaching a skill:

First break this skill out to present the new skill through direct instruction, then provide many examples of the new skill, have students practice the new skill in pairs or in small groups and share out their new better skill use, give multiple examples, provide an assessment (may be differentiated by reading achievement level), and re-teach in a different way for those not attaining proficient on the assessment.

Once this new skill is taught to mastery level, then students are asked to use the new skill in their continued work, continuing to apply this new understanding in their work, so it’s not lost. The teacher includes the new skill in rubrics and peer edits, and notes when finding good examples in the student writing.

So, in this case, to begin at the most basic level, short simple sentence writing samples are provided, because we start at the simplest level. In the whole class, the class works together with teacher-presented simple sentences, to see what sentences can be combined for more complex sentences. This is done till they “get” it.
Then students work together on this skill of combining some sentences, in pairs or small groups, and report out on this. An assessment is provided to make sure students can transfer the skill to new writing, and without assistance, ind

Next the teacher provides text samples of all complex sentences. As a full class the group decides which clauses or phrases can be effective as a simple sentence. (We’re also learning “grammar,” “conventions” terminology here — clauses, phrases, complex sentences. It’s always good to NAME a skill, to nail it down, and use proper terminology.) The students work together on modifying the abundance of complex sentences to create effective short sentences (This can be done at the upper grades with using newspaper writing samples — sports writing can show way too many complex sentences, also found even in the NY Times front page news articles).

Collections of too many short simple sentences (Hemingway) or too many complex sentences (Faulkner) can also be found in literary text, samples from student writing, teacher written samples. As always, it’s helpful to electronically save samples, for future use, and students are always providing us with good examples and those that need modification.
In one’s spare time, googling “sentence combining” online can provide examples to use for this focus lesson.
Taking the time to teach with first direct instruction, then student application, then assessment and re-teaching as needed will vary in level of difficulty and time needed with the group. Faster learning students can help slower learning students. Celebrating successes, as always, creates confidence, propels learning.
When a teacher reads a student’s good work aloud, even if it’s just two sentences, this is powerful positive reinforcement.

One thing that I’ve found with differentiated instruction and working with teachers teaching English as a Second Language students is to

1) not try to do everything at once and
2) be persistent/have endurance in differentiating!

I teach a regular English class and I was given a fantastic curriculum by a senior English teacher, but almost every handout created by said teacher was completely inaccessible to my ESL students, because they were in words too advanced for my students (think SAT words!).

So I would pick one or two handouts a week that I would redo and type up in simple words for my ESL students, and over 2 or 3 years, I was able to get almost every document. I also prioritized documents that students would look at a lot without my direct instruction, like assignment sheets and instructions for complex essays, or grammar rules reminder sheet.

My first year I also picked and used a few great strategies for any struggling learner–more frequent check-ins, write every direction/important thing you say on the board, pick 1 task for students to do well rather than trying to do 3 or 4 in not enough time and rushing, etc. Once I had those tools in my toolbox, it was easier to expand them in future years and keep adding new techniques for differentiation.

I think the biggest problem is that we so quickly forget to keep adding to our differentiation–not because we don’t care, but because we are also trying to care about other things. I think that if teachers can persist and persevere, keeping up the realistic progress in differentiating they started for a second or third year, it will seem less onerous and daunting than the first year they attempted to differentiate their curriculum.

Best Regards,
Jenna