Students CAN Write: Changing the Narrative of a Deficit Model - Michigan Reading Association 2015

1. Students CAN Write
Changing the Narrative of a Deficit Model
Kirsten Melise LeBlanc: St. Paul Catholic School - Grosse Pointe Farms, MI
Beth Shaum: St. Frances Cabrini Middle School - Allen Park, MI

2. Students can’t write because…
In the 1970s and 1980s:
...they’re spending too much time watching TV
In the 1990s and 2000s:
…. they’re spending too much time online
In the 2000s and 2010s:
… they’re texting and tweeting too much

3. Students can’t write. Says who?
“The Media”
Education “Reformers”
Parents
Teachers who don’t write

4. The “need” for data is trumping our need to nurture writers and
readers
“Any one-shot assessment procedure cannot capture the
depth and breadth of information teachers have available to
them. Even when a widely used, commercial test is
administered, teachers must draw upon the full range of their
knowledge about content and individual students to make
sense of the limited information such a test provides.”
-NCTE’s Standards for the Assessment of Reading and Writing

5. Students need writing
mentors

6. This is Just to SayI have eaten
the plums
that were in
the icebox
and which
you were probably
saving
for breakfast
Forgive me
they were delicious
so sweet
and so cold
- William Carlos Williams

8. Lonely With Many
I sit in this laundry hamper all day.
Trying to find my one true match.
Searching through other lost souls
Who can’t find their way either.
I see white all around,
And the smell of Clorox lingers in the air.
Below me, the rolling hum of the tumble dryer
Makes me feel anxious to see
If my match will come out;
The only way I can catch a ride,
Is by a hand that reaches in.
Everyday I see all of my friends
Get pulled up by the hand and
Never
Come
Back
Down
As I sleep in my smushy
space,
Suddenly I am swept off of
my feet,
I come up into the air by the
hand and
There
She
Is.
-Margaret B.

9. Change our mindset…
We can obsess over what our students are doing
wrong, which is an exercise in futility because
developing writers will ALWAYS make mistakes…
… or we can focus on what our students do well
as an entrypoint for helping them improve.

10. Look for more than what you asked for or you might miss
moments of brilliance

14. Is this really the time to teach
him about comma splices or whose
vs. who’s when he just poured
his heart out on the page?

15. “...good sixth grade writing may
have more errors per word than
good third grade writing. In a
Piagetian sense, children do not
master things for once and for all.
A child who may appear to have
mastered sentence sense in the
fourth grade may suddenly begin
making what adults call sentence
errors all over again as he
attempts to accommodate his
knowledge of sentences to more
complicated constructions.” -
Roger McCaig (1977)
“... it is not unusual
for people
acquiring a skill to
get ‘worse’ before
they get better and
for writers to err
more as they
venture more.” -
Mina Shaughnessy
(1977)

16. Errors are a sign
your students are
learning!

17. "But their grammar is so bad!"
● What exactly do we mean by this?
● What rules are we holding sacred?
○ Productive rules that help with clarity?
○ or arbitrary, prescriptive, archaic "rules"

19. A run-on/fragment
in the first
paragraph!

20. Oh
really?

21. “Well that’s all well and good,
but certainly this text messaging
business is ruining the English
language as we know it.”

22. Oh, really?
"[Adolescence] is characterized by its own
language, both as a traditional defense
against outsiders (i.e., adults) and as a
group identity sharing. The latter is
something in which most adolescents have
historically engaged although the shape of it
is varied in different generations."
- Handbook of Adolescent Literacy Research

23. So in the words of my 8th
graders:
“Relax, bruh.”

24. Are we encouraging
risk-taking?

25. “But they have to know the rules before they can
break them.”
How do our beliefs about writing influence the work
students complete?
How we spend our time matters. If we only show
students one genre of writing, i.e., the five-
paragraph essay, then that’s all we can ever
expect. There’s more to writing!

26. Same writing, different students
“I’ve read the same thing
150 times.”
I’ve yet to read a five-paragraph essay that gave
me goosebumps.

27. Subversion… it’s a Good Thing

28. Subversion… it’s a Good Thing

29. Subversion… it’s a Good Thing
Dear Big Fish from This is Not My Hat,
You are a mean-spirited and evil fish! The little fish did you a favor buddy. The hat you were
wearing was way too small for you. How could you be so mean to Little Fish after you saw how
cute he swam? He was adorable and you, I can't even talk to you right now...
You ate Little Fish! Have you no soul man! All Little Fish wanted to do was to look snazzy with a hat
(that fit properly). Yes, I'll admit it was wrong of Little Fish to steal it, but it was worse of you to eat
him! Now Big Fish, you sit down and think about what you have done.
Please don't get me started about that crab...
- Zoe, 8th grader (2012-2013)

30. Don’t be so quick
to dismiss the
student who
perpetually turns in
work late.

32. “Alright let me explain why i'm not happy, John Green
gets it really easy here. There are people in college
right now that are getting kicked out of their university.
And then there's John Green who gives zero credit to
this girl whatsoever and doesn't get any problems with
the authorities.” - Charles P, 8th grader

33. Ask yourself:
What’s more important - that the
assignment is turned in on time, or that
it’s done with passion and conviction?

34. Quantity Time
Are we giving students:
● enough time to really
commit to a piece of
writing?
● a long enough leash to
wrestle with their own
decision-making?

36. Sacred Writing Time
“There must be
time for the seed of
the idea to be
nurtured in the
mind.” -Don Murray
Three Rules:
1. Write the entire
time.
2. Ignore your
inner critic.
3. Have fun!

37. “I just need
to write
today.”

38. “I wrote all those comments
and my students just ignored
them!”

39. Insanity:
doing the same thing over
and over again and
expecting a different result.

40. It’s not just what feedback you give, but how you give it
that matters
● Are their papers bleeding red?
○ Give them no more than 2 conventional issues to
work on
● Don’t forget to tell students what they did
well
● Ask them questions rather than giving
demands
○ Have you thought about...?
○ I wonder what it would look like if...?

41. Think about WHEN you give feedback, not just what
that feedback is

42. If students can’t write, some of that’s on you.

43. Caldecott Essay Criteria Point Value Points Earned
Mentions title, author, and illustrator of the book at the
beginning of the essay
5
Summary of the story 5
Description of the artwork 5
References the Caldecott criteria 5
Answers why you think it is the “most distinguished”
picture book of 2014
5
Effective reasoning and evidence as to why you think it
is the “most distinguished”
10
Written in multiple, indented paragraphs (preferably
double-spaced)
5
Written in a formal yet conversational style
(i.e., it has voice and personality, yet still adheres to
the proper conventions of Standard English)
10
Total 50

44. Are we celebrating all kinds of authors and books in our
classrooms...
...or only a select
and privileged few?

45. Repositioning Students
Students are writers in the room, too!

46. They know what they need!
“I need to know what other words I could
use except ‘he said’ and ‘she said.’ I need
more descriptive words.”
“I’m not sure how to end it, or even how to
lead to the end. Does it need dialogue?”

47. And they know how to help!
“Other people like my work,
but they said I needed
more details about Chuck
and if he got in trouble by
the store.”
“My peers wanted me to
explain more about Danny.
I only mentioned his name.”
“People seemed to like
how I played with
colors… but they also
said I need to go
deeper into her goals
and hopes.”

48. Write Beside Them
So…
What we discover when
we write with our
students is that this
writing thing is HARD...
… and we begin to show
a little empathy toward
our students’ plight.

49. Write Beside Them
"For years I had expected
my students to go on
swimming without me
while I barked orders from
my chaise lounge." -
Penny Kittle

50. “Mrs. Shaum,
remember when you
said at the beginning
of the year to call
you out if you’re not
writing with us? Well,
did you do the article
of the week?”

51. Visit the EMWP website:
http://emichwp.org/wp/
A place to
start writing
beside them

52. “Writing is how we think our
way into a subject and make it
our own.”
~ William Zinsser

53. Students Can’t Write in Math...
● Writing has no place in the math
curriculum.
● Elementary students are too young to
express their thoughts in writing.
● It’s too hard.

54. Are We Sure About That?!

55. “If I can think about it, I can
talk about it. If I can talk
about it, I can write about it.”
~ Lucy Calkins

56. In Order to Own the Concept...
Students need to be given time to:
REFLECT
DISCUSS
WRITE
about the concept at hand, in their own words.

57. Let Me Think About That
Thoughtful reflection is an integral part of the
math classroom.

58. Let’s Talk Math!
A meaningful discussion leads to in-depth writing.

59. Write Now...A Window to their Thoughts
Wrap up discussion with written responses.
Allow students to apply, analyze, evaluate
and create!

60. Writing Samples…Direct from a 3rd Grade Math Class

62. The Progression of Learning
“Tell me and I forget. Teach me and I remember. Involve me and I learn.”
~ Benjamin Franklin
“I don’t know.” “I don’t get this.”
“Do you mean…?
“No, wait...I got this…!”

63. I Got This!
● Created a multistep
story problem.
● Identified strategies
needed to solve it.
● Broke it down into
manageable
diagrams.
● Solved with detailed
explanation of
thought process.
● Presented final
answer in a
sentence.

64. “There will always be an error, a
refusal, an inadequate paragraph. Student
writing will never be perfect. We live
among the mess. We can choose to
wallow in the doom. Or we can choose
joy.” - Ruth Ayres

65. Contact us
Find this presentation on Slideshare
Kirsten Melise LeBlanc - keleblanc92@gmail.com
Beth Shaum - bethshaum@gmail.com

66. Bibliography
Ayres, R., & Overman, C. (2013). Celebrating writers: from possibilities through publication. Portland, Maine: Stenhouse.
Christenbury, L., Bomer, R., & Smagorinsky, P. (Eds.). (2009). Handbook of adolescent literacy research. New York: Guilford
Press.
Kittle, P. (2008). Write beside them: risk, voice, and clarity in high school writing. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.
McCaig, R.A. (1977). What research and evaluation tell us about teaching written expression in the elementary school. In C.
Weaver and R. Douma (Eds.), The language arts teacher in action (pp. 46-56). Kalamazoo, MI: Western Michigan University.
Distributed by the National Council of Teachers of English.
Shaughnessy, M.P. (1977). Errors and expectations: A guide for the teacher of basic writing. New York: Oxford University
Press.
Sheils, M. (1975, December 8). Why johnny can't write. Newsweek, p. 58.
Weaver, C. (1996). Teaching grammar in context. Portsmouth, NH: Boynton/Cook Publishers.

67. Bibliography - Math References
Chapin, S., O’Connor, C. & Anderson, N. (2009). Classroom Discussions Using Math Talk to Help
Students Learn. Sausalito, CA: Math Solutions.
Smith, M. & Stein, M. (2011). 5 Practices for Orchestrating Productive Mathematics Discussions.
Reston, VA: The National Council of Teachers of Mathematics.
Van de Walle, J. & Lovin, L. (2006). Teaching Student Centered Mathematics Grades 3-5. Boston,
MA: Pearson Education Inc.

68. Trade Books Referenced
Gaiman, N., & Young, S. (2013). Fortunately, the milk. New York: Harper.
Levine, G. C. (2012). Forgive me, I meant to do it: false apology poems. New York: Harper.
Lloyd, N. (2014). A snicker of magic. New York: Scholastic.
Winter, J. (2011). The watcher: Jane Goodall's life with the chimps. New York: Schwartz & Wade
Books.