Writing Kiosks Unveiled

I am having such conflicted feelings this week. First, holy bagumba! (Have you read Flora and Ulysses by Kate DiCamillo? If not, do it!) I can't believe it's already almost Thanksgiving Break! And second, holy bagumba! Why isn't it Thanksgiving Break already?! Ha! Seriously, though. I really do need a break. It has been a fantastically and amazingly challenging year so far. So many things are going well, and yet, so many things are extra difficult. I guess that's the way it goes.

This week I had one of the successful experiences, so I thought I would share. I have posted about the idea of writing kiosks before, but this is a post about my actual kiosks and how I use them. Now, they are nothing pretty, but I can tell you that all 60 of my students find them engaging.

Here is what they look like:

They are made from tri-fold presentation boards cut into thirds. The side pockets are just card stock taped on the edges with clear packing tape. In the middle goes the title and reference material. In the side pockets are various ways to practice the targeted skill. I use materials I either make myself or find from the awesome teachers on Teachers Pay Teachers. I use everything from task cards to photos to the students' own writing in the practice.

First of all, there has been direct instruction in the form of mini-lessons on every topic. Writing kiosks are NOT for teaching new material. They are for practicing targeted skills, because we all know that practice makes perfect...or at least better writers.

As I unveiled the kiosks to the sounds of oohs and ahhs (seriously, you'd have thought fireworks were going off in the classroom), I made sure to set clear expectations. I had already put students into groups of 2-4 and assigned them a starting kiosk. My set of expectations looks something like this:

1. Stay in your assigned kiosk.
2. Complete the activity at your kiosk.
3. Voice level at a 1 or 2.
4. If you finish the activity early, work on your own writing.
5. Turn in your kiosk work to your class tray.

I went over the expectations, told the students their starting kiosk, and was ready to monitor and redirect like crazy. But something pretty amazing happened. It was nearly silent. EVERY student (and I do mean every student...even that really reluctant one) was in their assigned kiosk and working intently on an activity. There were a few questions here and there, but lots of excellent practice was happening. The activities I have included in these are designed to take about 20 minutes to complete, so we did 20 minute rotations.

Now, the students are asking to do them again and again. We will be doing kiosk this whole week so everyone can get to all the kiosks. But they will certainly make additional appearances throughout the rest of the year. I will change up topics and activities as needed, but I do believe we have discovered a successful strategy! And for that, I am truly thankful.

A New Twist on Literacy Stations

Don't you just love when you get to go to a conference and you are presented with so many excellent ideas, you don't even know which one to do first? Me too! It makes me feel so inspired and rejuvenated (which I know we all need this time of year).

I had the opportunity to attend the Abydos Writing Conference in San Antonio, Texas. Abydos is the Texas version of the New Jersey Writing Project. I got so many ideas (and I promise I will share others), but the one that was my true a-ha! moment of the conference, the one that is just hands-down brilliant, was the concept of the Reading and Writing Kiosk presented by super genius teachers from Donna ISD, Sylvia Vela and Maritza Park (who also credit Dr. Joyce Carroll in giving them ideas to get the ball rolling). Since these are not my ideas, copyright prevents me from just recreating blackline masters to distribute to you. However, I am happy to share photos I have taken so you can recreate them in your classroom.

A kiosk is essentially a portable, targeted, skill-based literacy station (although I see no reason you couldn't do them for math, science, and social studies as well). The presenters had theirs created on trifold poster boards, but the samples they gave us were made from two file folders glues together. I am toying with the idea of making mine on trifolds, but cut down so they are not so big and bulky to store.

So, instead of your more general literacy stations, you have kiosks that each focus on a skill you have already taught. It is important that it be something the student can practice independently or with help from a partner. The kiosk has two basic parts: the anchored reference information that students may need to remind them how to complete the practices, and the actual practice parts. Most of the kiosks we saw had two or three practices for the targeted skill.

The teacher's role is that you assign specific kiosks to specific students depending on what skills they struggle with. The possibilities for skills on kiosks are endless...you choose based on what your standards are, what you have taught, and what your students need to practice. These are three that the Donna ISD ladies shared with the attendees, and that I will share with you.

The first kiosk they shared was for Inferencing. What student at any grade level doesn't need practice with inferencing? Here are photos of the anchored reference parts (obviously this would change based on your grade level and standards and your strategies for teaching the skill):

The practice parts on the inferencing kiosk really focused on images, but you could also do passages or even something they had been reading in class. One side had them look at an image, glue it down and complete an OWI chart (as seen in the references). The other side had them look at an advertisement and complete a sheet making inferences.

The second kiosk shared was on Hexagonal Writing. Hexagonal Writing is a strategy devised by Dr. Joyce Carroll, who heads up Abydos. This strategy alone is brilliant to get students thinking more deeply about their reading...and the strategy double dips as a prewriting strategy. In this strategy, students think about six comprehension sections after reading a piece: plot summary, personal allusions, theme, analyze (for literary devices), literary allusions, and evaluation. Students can complete this after reading any material...even a short poem. Again, this should only be a kiosk AFTER you have taught students about Hexagonal Writing, explaining all the parts. Here are the anchored references in the kiosk:

The activities in this example, were based on poetry. The poem was included in the pockets, and then materials would be available for students to complete the hexagon. And as shown in the "Oranges" example, it doesn't have to be a true hexagon. It could be theme-based.

The last one the Donna ladies share was on Transitions for Writing. The writing kiosks had a slightly different format. Yes, they still had the anchored reference material, but the practices were always in three parts: Find It in My Reading, Find It in My Writing, and Revising and Editing. The Find It in My Reading was based on a reading passage, and you could have students highlight what they are looking for or even color code the different types. In Find It in My Writing, students use a piece of their own writing to look for the skills (and add it in if it is missing). And finally, in Revising and Editing, students  look at another student's piece of writing and look for the skill in their. Again, they could highlight, color code, or even cut apart the writing and put it back together using the skill practiced.

My jaw was on the floor the whole time during these presentations. My brain was spinning out of control thinking of the possibilities. The Donna ISD ladies cited that this kiosk strategy has improved their reading and writing scores tremendously... not to mention made their students better readers and writers!

I have two more weeks until Spring Break. I know over those next two weeks, I will be really honing in on what exact skills my students are missing...and then over Spring Break, I will be a kiosk-making fool!