We were lucky enough to lear from Dr. Shelley Moore this year. Her professional development and our follow-up worked helped my intern and me come up with 3 steps to share with students to help them find a point they can access classroom writing. Shelley likened this type of planning to making a baked potato bar; planning so that students can choose what toppings they want but ensuring everyone can get a baked potato.
First, we chose the 3 steps we thought were attainable by asking, “What can we expect all students in 2nd grade to achieve? If they achieve this what could they add to increase their quality of work and add a challenge?” We looked at our “I can statements.” We collaborated with the first grade team to think about where their work ended and ours could begin. Finally we came up with our progression that we would present to our students.
The final step we took was presenting these access points to students. We started by working on shared research. We turned that research into sentences and asked the questions like, “Where do you see your work? What can you add to move it up a level?” With these prompts and teaching students writing moves to revise their work students worked across the continuum we presented to them.
Working with these access points allowed all students to understand expectations clearly and participate in self reflection and self assessment. We loved the agency this afforded our students, the success they felt and I will definetly employ this planning and teaching strategy in the future.