ELA Writing Committee 1/23/08

ELA-Writing Committee
Meeting Minutes
January 23, 2008
3:30 - 5:00 P.M.

Committee Members in Attendance: Thanks everyone for a wonderful meeting!!!!

Rie Kittredge
Patricia O’Connor
Tiffany Cockrell
Jolaine Galibois-Barss,
Mary Jo Stevens
Patsy Adams,
Judi Morin
Susan Folsom
Debra
Butterfield
Judy Jamison
Donna Whalen

Members Absent: Sarah Brown

! Guest Speaker: Susan Trask, Auburn Literacy Specialist
o Brief overview of how the writing prompt developmental continuum was created
o Shared revised continuum (does change the benchmarks slightly)
o Auburn double scores a % of papers. This is done by a group of “table leaders”
o With this system they now have 5 yrs of system wide data collection (follows grade/students thru the years)
o Students graph their results, this follows students thru the years
o Teachers feel that scoring papers is professional development
o K-2 issues were discussed
o Susan shared a rubric exemplar for K-2 students
! Discussed emailed comments
o Auburn currently is putting Lucy Caulkins Units of Study k-6 into place as their writing curriculum
o They still have concerns with MEA scores. (The reason for the current push for Lucy Caulkins) Their writing instruction has been inconsistent from teacher to teacher and building to –hence the need for a common curriculum. Lucy Caulkins raises the bar and supports the growth

o Middle School version of Lucy Caulkins is coming soon. Support materials are online for free.
o Conventions are imbedded in the continuum because of growing control regarding length and complexity of tasks. Conventions hold a more prominent importance for upper grades. Hence, Middle School convention scores are in addition to the continuum.
o When thinking about how conventions affect scores, look at the amount of interference to balance the scores. See Anchor paper # 9 Water Country (to be distributed)
o Don’t need all the bullets in the continuum to get the score
o Developed before Write Traits, but is compatible due to the 6 traits being the standard for excellence in writing
o Anchor papers are key for deciding scores. Mediating those papers in question
o Why the big difference between a 4 & 5? Have not heard that as a problem. **Multiple anchor papers need to be used to show a range in score points.
o Anchors developed how? Tight process of identifying anchors- small committee to do this
! Program Review
o Grade level groups worked in teams
! Needs:
o “Table leader” training for writing committee building reps
o Publish the “rules”
o Create process for anchor paper adoption
o Develop a list of dates for future meetings

Respectfully submitted,

Judi Morin, ELA-Writing Chair

Judith M. Morin, Principal
River View Community School
821 River Road P.O. Box 9
South Gardiner, Maine 04359

"If we always do what we always did,
we'll always get what we always got.
If we're not happy with that,
something has to change.