Leveling Up in Writing:
Tools & Strategies to Help Students
Develop as Writers
Rita & John
•ritaplatt@hotmail.com
• john.wolfe@mpls.k12.mn.us
•http://www.weteachwelearn.org/tag/rita-platt/
• http://mplsesl.wikispaces.com/Home+Page
• @ritaplatt
• @johnwolfe3rd
•
•
Rita Platt is a Nationally Board Certified teacher. Her experience includes teaching
learners of all levels from kindergarten to graduate student. She currently is a
Library Media & Reading Specialist for the St. Croix Falls SD in Wisconsin, teaches
graduate courses for the Professional Development Institute, and consults with
local school districts.
John Wolfe is a teacher on special assignment for the Multilingual Department at
the Minneapolis Public School District. He has worked with students at all levels as
well as provided professional development to fellow teachers. His areas of
expertise include English Language Learners, literacy, and integrated technology.
Relax … Everything (and more) is on The Wiki
http://www.mplsesl.wikispaces.com/
Leveling Up: Ground to Cover
1. Why it’s okay to Hack the ACCESS Writing Test
•
•
•
•
•
Success Criteria & Visible Learning
Discrepant scores
WIDA’s “theory of language development”
Deliberate Practice and mastery
Deliberate Practice and “chameleon pedagogy”
2. How to Hack the ACCESS Writing Test
•
•
•
•
Understanding the scoring (hacking the anchor papers)
Developing Practice Prompts
Helping student focus
Meaningful Peer Editing
3. WIDER than WIDA: Where from here?
• Combining WIDA with Six Traits or other Learning Schemes
• The Converging Research: The Daily, Separate ELD at ALL Proficiency Levels
“Leveling Up on the WIDA ACCESS test.”
Why it’s okay.
John Hattie on …
1. Success Criteria
Success criteria relate to knowledge of end points –
that is, how do we know when we arrive?
“Just Drive.” Imagine if I
were simply to ask to get in
your car and drive; at some
unspecified time, I’ll let you
know when you’ve arrived (if
you arrive at all). For too
many students, this is what
learning feels like.
2. Discrepant Scores
(Writing as a Lever for Leveling Up)
Think of this as the
Iron Law of
High-Stakes
Testing: What’s
tested is taught;
what isn’t tested is
neglected.
3. WIDA’s Theory of Language Development
1 – Entering 2 – Emerging
3 – Developing
4 – Expanding 5 – Bridging
Linguistic
Complexity
Single words
Phrases, short
sentences
Series of related
sentences
Moderate
discourse
Vocabulary
Usage
Most
common
vocabulary
High frequency
vocabulary
General and
some specific
vocabulary
Specialized & Specialized &
some technical technical
vocabulary
vocabulary
Language
Control
Memorized
language
Errors inhibiting
communication
Meaning
overrides errors
Language
w/minimal
errors
Control as
Cohesion
Opportunistic
(you say what you have
words for)
Complex
discourse
Language
comparable to
English peers
Increasingly Planful
(You have enough language that you
can organize and hold ideas in your head.)
Basic Law of Learning:
4. Deliberate Practice
Visible teaching and
learning occurs when there is
deliberate practice
aimed at attaining
mastery of the goal,
when there is feedback given and sought,
and when there are active, passionate, and
engaging people (teacher, students, peers)
participating in the act of learning.
5. Avoiding “Chameleon Pedagogy”
Part II: How to Hack the Writing Test
1. Understanding the Scoring
(study the anchor papers)
If sample
responses clarify
expectations for
us, isn’t it
reasonable to
provide similar
guidance to the
students?
Complexity
Vocabulary
Control (Correctness)
Cohesion
Step 2: Provide practice opportunities
http://tiny.cc/mldPrompts
The WIDA Prompt
We know what the
prompt looks like … a
15-20 one-page
writing task on a
bizarre academic
challenge.
How often do
students have a
chance to practice
this over the course
of the year?
Would it be useful to
them to do similar,
content-related
tasks?
Download all the W-APT stuff at the ELL2 Google Apps Site
https://sites.google.com/a/mpls.k12.mn.us/ell2/w-apt
Anatomy of a WIDA Prompt
Academic
Language
task will “ride
on a story” to
avoid the
huge syntactic
complexity of
decontextualized
language)
Graphic &
visual
supports
Note: In
WIDA,
“graphic”
means
“written
information
radically
stripped
down”
Often a
“narrative
frame” (the
Prompt
supports
language
about
thinking,
reasoning
A “solved
problem”
Vocabulary box (which
Level 1 to lower 3 will
ignore – as they should.)
Is this harder than a WIDA prompt?
Maybe … because
this was designed
to do “doubleduty” as a content
assessment.
Anatomy of a WIDA Prompt
Academic
Language
avoid the
huge syntactic
complexity of
decontextualized
language)
Graphic &
visual
supports
Note: In
WIDA,
“graphic”
means
“written
information
radically
stripped
down”
Often a
“narrative
frame” (to
A “solved
problem”
Vocabulary
box
Prompt
supports
language
about
thinking,
reasoning
Anatomy of a WIDA Prompt
Teachers say they need multiple prompts …
3. Help students focus
Bonus:
Meaningful
Peer Editing!
WIDER than WIDA: Taking it further
Combined with
ELD
Leveling Up: Ground to Cover
1. Why it’s okay to Hack the ACCESS Writing Test
•
•
•
•
•
Success Criteria & Visible Learning
Discrepant scores
WIDA’s “theory of language development”
Deliberate Practice and mastery
Deliberate Practice and “chameleon pedagogy”
2. How to Hack the ACCESS Writing Test
•
•
•
•
Understanding the scoring (hacking the anchor papers)
Developing Practice Prompts
Helping student focus
Meaningful Peer Editing
3. WIDER than WIDA: Where from here?
• Combining WIDA with Six Traits or other Learning Schemes
• The Converging Research: The Daily, Separate ELD at ALL Proficiency Levels
Hack or not? You decide