The Writing Center at East Blasts Off!

3...2...1...LIFTOFF! The Writing Center at East officially opened for business this past Wednesday, and the students who came in for help were very excited and pleased with the feedback and attention they received from the UNC CoachWrite tutors. I am very excited that we are able to offer this service to our students.

As we continue to expand the Writing Center's hours and staff, I wanted to share with you all that the Writing Center will be open ALL periods, as well as lunch, this Wednesday the 4th of February. A sign up sheet is located outside of my office door, Room 268 in upper Quad C, and students can come by and sign up there. If you have a student who you believe could use a little more one on one help with their work, feel free to email me and I will sign them up! We are hoping to have the Center staffed on parts of Monday, all day Wednesday, and possibly some on Friday in the future. The Writing Center is not just for English assignments! The tutors can assist with essay planning and organizing, research writing, creative writing, and more.

Please let me know if you or your students would like to take advantage of this resource! Thanks again for helping to promote the center and its work!

The Writing Center Officially Returns to East!

Hello East faculty!

I am so very excited to say that we are officially opening the East Writing Center, starting next Wednesday, January 28th. UNC-Chapel Hill students, under the services of our district's CoachWrite program, will be here to assist students with ongoing and one-time writing assignments, help students develop their writing style, address issues of clarity and organization and more. Below is a more detailed breakdown of what they do!

The Writing Center Can:

• Assist students with any stage of the writing process, from brainstorming to editing.
• Collaborate with students on developing their critical thinking, as well as their writing style and voice.
• Reinforce the concepts and standards of strong academic and creative writing.
• Discuss with students their teachers’ expectations for writing assignments in any subject areas.
• Provide a non-threatening, even enjoyable, environment to improve communication skills.

The Writing Center Does Not:  

• Seek to “fix” student writing instead of guiding students toward thinking through their own choices and solutions.
• Focus on remediation. Writing conferences can benefit ALL writers.
• Target mechanical errors or flaws in student writing
• Guarantee taking a student from “an F paper” to “an A paper.”

From the UNC Writing Center’s FAQ page:

“We help individuals improve as writers. To this end, we focus on helping writers to develop skills no matter what their writing context. We help writers to make their own choices about a text rather than “fixing” papers for them. We don’t write on students’ papers; we counsel students about the choices they have as writers.

Students who work with a tutor often see improvement in their writing and feel better prepared for courses that require written work. Students may visit the Writing Center occasionally with questions about specific assignments or meet regularly with a tutor to improve their writing habits. They often visit with concerns about developing arguments, organization, evidence, and sentence-level issues.”

Sign up for appointments can be done outside my office, room 268 in upper Quad C. This is NOT just for English teachers! The tutors can assist with writing assignments in a variety of disciplines. I hope you will encourage your students to take part.

The Writing Center will be open in the Media Center during 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, and 7th periods on the 28th, with other dates and times soon to follow!

Exciting Updates at East!

Happy New Year!

I hope 2015 is off to a great start for everyone! We are rapidly approaching the end of the second quarter, and I just wanted to take a few minutes to share some updates, spread some news, and give you some updates on things that are coming up in regards to the support we are all providing to students at East in the areas of literacy.

The Writing Center is FAST Approaching! 

Some who were here a year or two ago will remember that East had a writing center, with tutors from UNC who were part of our district's CoachWrite program serving as staff, that allowed students to sign up for appointments and receive assistance on a writing assignment or ongoing writing work. I am happy to say that it looks like we will be reopening the center soon! I am working with CoachWrite director Stuart Phillips on staffing, hours of operation, and setting up times with the student director soon. Stay tuned for an official announcement and more information!

Tips for PDP Writing Goal Support

So you've updated your PDP with information on how you are implementing one of the Common Core writing standards into your instruction. Now what? You may be stuck on the scope of the standard, how to progress with implementing the standard further, or how to further incorporate assignments and formative assessments that have students writing in a way that feels natural for you. If you would like some assistance with this, feel free to reach out to me and I'll happily support you in this. Even if it's just talking through an idea, just know that support for continually implementing your goal is here!

Learning Focused Lessons/Max Thompson Work
Yesterday, January 8th, was the second round of training on the Max Thompson strategies for the Civics and Biology PLCs. The discussion focused around incorporating higher order thinking strategies and techniques into our lesson planning, and the discussion was heavily geared towards having us review our own practice and consider how we might ensure that we are challenging our students to do higher level thinking and work. Now that everyone has access to the Learning Focused materials, I would encourage you to ask you peers in those PLCs, or any member of the administration or myself, about the material and was that you might check for HOTS in your planning!

Upcoming Professional Development Opportunities! 
I have thoroughly enjoyed the PD sessions I have had with you all this year, and I'm hoping to continue the pattern of offering one a month, during the school day, where teachers have the option to come during their planning period and receive a 45-minute "course" on a particular aspect of literacy instruction and/or instructional support. I am hoping to have one in January (AFTER the beginning of third quarter) either centered on graphic organizers, close reading strategies, or summarizing strategies. All of these will certainly be topics at some point this year. If you have a suggestion for a session topic, please send it my way!

Have a fabulous weekend. Please let me know how I can assist and support what you do!