Tuesday, August 25, 2015

Lucy Calkins’ Writing Pathways: Performance Assessments & Learning Progressions, K-8

Part 1 Chapters 7-9 Highlights

Ch. 7 Teaching Informed by the Learning Progressions
  •  Catching teachable movements or the best way to move a young writer forward is not easy but Lucy’s 7 learning progressions really do help
  • Using the writing genre checklists while conferring is a powerful tool
  • Lucy’s “Principles of Conferring” on p. 82 and the chart to “Pump up Writing” on p.84 are dynamite
  • Finally, the “Making Small Groups Effective” teacher chart on p. 86 and the “How to” student chart on p. 87- priceless!
Ch. 8  Supporting Transference across the Content Areas
  • Using Reading-Writing Checklists & making connections to build close reading skills was a favorite on p. 94-95

Ch. 9  Designing Reading-Writing Performance Assessments
  • What sparked your interest?  

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Monday, August 3, 2015

Lucy Calkins’ Writing Pathways: Performance Assessments & Learning Progressions, K-8

Part 1 Chapters 4-6: Highlights that jumped out at me… 

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Chapter 4 Using Early Results to Plan and Adapt Your Writing Curriculum
  •             Wow!  Doesn’t that title grab your interest?  Powerful stuff!
  •     Yes, levels early in the year may be disappointing.  Recalling the 1st day of school, "kinders" told me they’d like to learn how to tie shoes or button pants.  It was so disappointing that they didn’t instead  say, “I want to learn how to read and write!”
  •      Lucy’s basic levels of differentiation through coaching in mini lessons, conferring and small group instruction is doable and makes success reachable!  Wish this book was on my shelf "back in the day!"


Chapter 5 Self Assessment Checklists: The What, the Why, and the How
  •            Loved Lucy’s findings that checklists are more kid friendly than rubrics
  •      Also loved Lucy’s modeling on how to introduce, adapt when needed, and use the checklists


Chapter 6 Tracking Data: On-the-Run and Formally
  • Having students invent a record keeping system along with you is invaluable!
  • What did you take away? Can’t wait to hear from you!

Cheers,
CRA Past President Lynn Gurnee