The other day I had to write a description for my graduate lecture. I had no idea how to do this. Fortunately, the director of my MFA program has compiled examples, and I studied several of them. Although she didn’t rank them, I sorted them by what I liked, what I wanted to emulate. I am a writer who learns by studying the craft of other writers.
One of the pages in my chartbook that I have been using a lot with teachers who are new to grade level shows the ladder of expectations for a narrative beginning.
While this chart makes sense to me, one of my teachers asked me what does this really look like in student writing. What a great question! With the descriptions of graduate lectures in mind, as well as the grade level standards, I wrote increasingly complex beginnings to the same narrative story that I’ve been using as a demonstration text.
In the next class I worked in, I met with a group of four students who were getting ready to begin a new narrative writing piece. I explained that these three beginnings moved up the ladder of writing sophistication, and I challenged them to read all three and discuss as pairs the differences they saw. They were engaged in the work, insightful with their responses, and inspired as writers.
To make my life easier–and I recommend doing this if you have a chartbook (and if you don’t have a chartbook, please think about starting one!)– I doubled up my page for beginnings and ends, and I have the examples on large sticky notes. I made a similar sequence for endings, and now I can interchange the two skills depending on the teaching topic.
When I returned to my four students, their comments included:
- “I need to go revise the beginning I just wrote.”
- “I want to make sure I write a beginning like the fifth-grade one.”
- “Do you have one for sixth-grade?”
More importantly, they really did return to their drafts and included links to the middle and end as well as hints as to the important messages within their stories.
I know and appreciate the debate around whether to share grade levels with students, and I have also presented this continuum to classes as one star, two stars, and three star examples of writing. That being said, when students ask what the grade level would be, I do tell them.
In addition to teaching them about beginnings and endings, these examples provide important lessons about how writers learn by studying other writing, regardless of the skill. If we want to know how to ________, we read, evaluate, and critique ______________. It worked for me, and I’ve submitted my lecture description. Now to find some mentors for the lecture itself!
TWO WRITING TEACHERS 
This was such a fantastic lesson Melanie! Thank you so much for teaching us this strategy. My students and I really enjoyed and understood the progression of leads for a story with the 3rd grade, 4th grade & 5th grade examples. It was so great to see the kids then comparing & evauating their leads and pushing themselves to write something better. I could see an immediate improvement in their writing!
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Oh Melanie, another brilliant post. I love getting a peek inside of your demo notebook and your thinking.
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What a great post! I love seeing the pictures of your chart book and the student examples you created. I imagine that crafting those examples and thinking what exactly moved a sample from one level to the next was extremely valuable work. You’re inspiring me to get back to my demo notebook!
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I think it’s fantastic that you took what you’re learning with your MFA to elevate your coaching work!
Once again, I have chart book envy. I really need to get one of these together — soon!
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Great explanation of up the ladder! I will be sharing this information with my teachers. Thank you!
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I would love to embark on the journey of creating chartbooks with a group of teachers. I love your post. Do you have any other resources or advice to help me get started with them?
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Make them important in your life with your teaching and they’ll become important to the teachers you work with. If you have a budget, think about using money to buy a few–they make great coaching gifts, keep copies of favorite pictures to hand off if anyone asks, and think about having optional chartbook making sessions–you might get some takers. Good luck!
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Love this post – no matter how much I’ve studied or worked with the Writing Progressions, this reminds me there is always more that we can do with them. The work of a writer, or a writing teacher, is never done!
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Melanie,
And here I thought I was the only one. When I was writing book reviews, I sorted book reviews – by the number of stars, by helpfulness to me, and by helpfulness ratings to others. Of course that was pretty muddy but it helped me think about what I thought was important.
And thanks for the ideas about whether to “say” grade levels. I think that’s critical for students who have been working with progressions and rubrics for awhile. However for newcomers with huge gaps because writing has not previously been an instructional priority, I still like the stars!
“It depends!”
Thanks for making me think this morning! Such a crystal clear post! Sharing . . .
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Melanie, this is a powerful lesson. Thanks. We want our teaching to be clear for our students. And to do that, we need to make it clear for ourselves.
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