Lecture Notes: The Writing Road Book Study - Chapters 9, 10, and 11

Introduction

Speaker: Dr. Pam Kastner, Hosting the book study.
Focus: Chapters 9 (Critical Thinking, Summary Writing), 10 (Critical Thinking, Writing from Text Sources), and 11 (Putting It All Together).
Next Session: Final book study on Chapters 5 and 6, December 21st.

Founder of Keys to Literacy, a literacy professional development organization.
Experience: Over 40 years in literacy as a teacher, administrator, and trainer.
Programs: Key Comprehension Routine, Key Vocabulary Routine, etc.
Education: M.E.D. in reading from Harvard University, B.A. from Boston College.

Main Idea: Importance of summarizing for comprehension and writing.
Key Concepts:
- Summarizing is crucial for both comprehension and writing improvement.
- A summary is always shorter, focusing on main ideas or events.
- Difference between summarizing, retelling, and paraphrasing.
- It’s an important life skill.
- Use of summaries as formative assessments.
Teaching Strategies:
- Use a sponge metaphor to teach the concept of summarizing.
- Employ scaffolds such as simple texts, providing steps, and using two-column notes.
- Utilize summary templates for students.

Main Idea: Writing from sources improves comprehension and writing skills.
Key Points:
- Writing organizes thoughts and clarifies relationships among ideas.
- The importance of writing about reading for comprehension.
- Responding to prompts involves comprehension and writing skills.
Research Highlights: Summarizing and writing about reading improve both comprehension and writing.
Strategies:
- Guiding questions for personal responses to narrative text.
- Develop clear writing prompts and use wag (Writing Assignment Guide) for clarity in writing tasks.

Reflection and Integration:
- Reflect on strands of the writing rope and teaching principles.
- Ensure writing instruction covers all components of writing proficiency.
- Avoid "assumicide" - assuming students have mastered skills.

For Middle School Teachers:
- Increase student writing opportunities through quick writes.
- Use content writing tasks relevant to subject areas.
- Introduce writing prompts and guide students through stages of the writing process.

Big Ideas:
- Writing is a complex skill requiring integration of multiple strategies.
- Instruction should be explicit, integrate TAP, and avoid assumptions about student proficiency.
- Utilize templates and scaffolds to support student writing.

Note: These notes serve as a high-level summary and learning reference from the lecture on The Writing Road book study session.