Welcome back!
We are in week 4 of a five-part series on generating teaching points. We hope this series has exposed you to LOTS of genres in narrative and informational writing, allowed you to see the power in reading like a writer and given you loads of ideas for teaching points.
We are now going to turn to craft and process studies. Before we do, we want to give a shout out to Matt Glover whose book Craft and Process Studies: Units that Provide Writers with Choice of Genre has transformed engagement and proficiency in writing in many classrooms. I had the pleasure of working with Matt for four years on this topic. Our students had a dramatic increase in writing engagement and our teachers found a love of teaching writing–something they thought may never happen. And, a by product, was increasing our state percentile ranking 27 points through this work, along with other professional learning.
So, what are craft and process studies? That is the focus of this post. Next week, we will get into teaching points for craft and process studies.
A key tenant of both craft and process studies is that students get the opportunity to CHOOSE THEIR genre. The main goal of a craft or process unit can be applied to any genre. For example, if you are studying illustrations (a craft unit), your students could apply many illustration techniques in a personal narrative, realistic fiction, how-to, or all-about book. At the upper elementary level, you can study revising techniques that could be applied in a fantasy, historical fiction, review or feature article.
This ability for students to choose their own genre allows for a dramatic increase in excitement for writing as students are given agency over their learning. They may choose a genre that they love to write in at home, but never get to at school. Or, maybe they choose a genre that aligns with their reading preference, such as fantasy. Whatever the case, excitement will abound.
One of the biggest advantages of a craft or process unit, as Matt Glover explains, is that your student authors will get better at the craft or process moves they are studying at a quicker rate when you have a unit focused on it. See the image below. The black line represents units that are oftentimes typical in elementary schools–all genre units. The students in this scenario would incrementally get better at revising throughout the year. The purple line represents a district that had a process unit focused on revising for their second unit. The ability of their kids to revise rose dramatically in that unit. By the end of the year, their ability to revise was significantly higher than the other district. The time you spend on a craft or process unit is SO POWERFUL!
Craft Studies
Craft studies are those units where you study qualities of writing. Examples include punctuation, structure, paragraphing and illustrations. It could also be a unit where you are focused on a particular author and the craft moves they make, such as Oliver Jeffers.
A craft unit is focused on what appears on the page and how authors use techniques to make their writing clear and engaging. We see evidence of craft on the page.
Below is an example from a kindergarten craft study. The unit was on how to structure a book. They learned about different structures and then chose one to write in. The mentor texts they studied are below. Notice they are from different genres. This is vital as you will have kids who are writing in different genres in this type of unit.
Here is a student sample. This student chose to write in days of the week structure.
Process Studies
Recently, we attended a PD where this thought was shared: Perhaps, we inadvertently, focus too much on the products how student authors create versus the PROCESS they develop.
We developing life-long writers is the goal, or at the very least, writers who write for reasons beyond a standardized test or assignment, we have to focus on process.
Process units are those units where you directly teach a component of the writing process. Examples include reading like a writer, finding topics, use of a writer’s notebook, planning or revision.
Process units are focused on the skills of the WRITER to navigate through the process of writing. Evidence can be on the page, such as a revision unit, but it’s not always. For example, if you’re studying coming up with ideas in your unit, you may not know how the author of a particular mentor text came up with their idea. So, the question is, what do you use for mentor texts? One source is Matt Glover’s site, authortoauthor.org. Matt has compiled videos of authors talking about how they revise, find ideas, etc. These are a GREAT starting point in a new process unit. You are still learning from mentors, but in a different way. You will also be using YOUR OWN teacher mentor text. You should be writing books, articles, etc just like your students are and you will use think alouds as you model how you come up with ideas, revise, use your notebook, etc. You could also use peer models.
There is SO MUCH more we could share about craft and process studies. Look for future blog posts on the topic.
For now, grab the FREEBIE below that outlines some possibilities for craft or process studies along with when you might want to use that type of study.
