Teachers College of Columbia University Summer Writing Institute

Spending the past five days at the Teachers College Summer Writing Institute in New York City has lifted me as teacher of writing to new levels! My school sent five elementary teachers, the elementary literacy coach, and four of the six of us middle school teachers to the Institute this year. Going as a group was such a gift; we spent the week buzzing about new ideas, talking through what was a tweak to our practice, what was brand new and whether we could teach it now or later or never, how to share our new learning with our colleagues, and how to support each other as we take risks as teachers this coming school year.

I first attended this institute in 1995, and then again in 1999. Since then, I have worked with Writing Workshop in my classes, read countless professional books, and led professional development workshops on the topic. I felt pretty confident going into this institute, but I was still ready to lift the level of my teaching, so I kept an open and curious mind.

I leave with layers of new thinking on top of the concepts about which I felt confident and form the base for Workshop teaching. I heard about the power of writing every day, about how Gladwell’s finding that it takes 10,000 hours of practice to reach greatness really carries weight when it comes to writing. Ok, we can’t expect 10,000 hours in schools, but research shows that students make dramatic gains in writing proficiency when they write with volume and stamina and regularity. My middle school colleagues and I are committed to daily writing, even if it is only a 10-minute quick-write in their notebooks.

I leave with new thinking about Mentor Texts and the research finding that nothing lifts the level of the quality of student writing more than using Mentor Texts. My colleagues and I are committed to setting aside professional development time to sit together and read texts like writers, continuously asking ourselves, “How did s/he do that?” so that we are ready to show our students how to read like writers themselves.

I leave with new thinking about the precise art of the mini-lesson: the architecture, the example text, the importance of taking risks as a writer in front of your students. I understand the power of being a writer to teach writing, but I learned how to re-work story parts to use as examples for the lesson. This makes so much sense, but it was not something I had done before. I will add this to my repertoire.

I leave with new thinking about on-demand writing: how it can be used as a pre-assessment data point to guide my teaching through a unit, how it can be used as a post-assessment to show all the learning that occurred during the unit, and how laying the two side by side is a celebration of growth to show my students. This layer comes with many questions, however, mostly to do with time, and will need some further study before I can really wrap my head around how this can work in our school.

I am looking forward to beginning Writers Workshop with renewed energy and the support of my Middle School colleagues. Thanks, Teachers College and ACS for invigorating me!