WNYYWS4

During the fourth season of Studio, we are pursuing many different questions, all of which have emerged through our work together over the last several years:

 * What is the difference between creating writers who make a difference in the world and creating students who can produce functional pieces of writing? What are schools about? What should they be about? What is Studio about? What should it be about?
 * How is our vision taking shape? What is the distance between our vision and our current reality?
 * First, when does choice motivate writers and when does it paralyze them? How can we help writers know themselves, their passions, and their needs well enough to set their own goals and pursue topics and ideas of their own choosing without relying on assignments?
 * How can we help writers identify audiences they hope to influence and ways in which they can use their words to serve others?
 * What kinds of directed writing tasks are most helpful to writers? What's worth assigning? What kinds of assignments //empower// writers? What kinds of assignments disempower them?
 * How do we translate the Common Core Learning Standards and ensure they work //in service// to the fellows of our community?
 * How can we use the research and recommendations emerging from the Race to the Top initiative to empower our own learning and work as teachers rather than positioning ourselves as victims who must sacrifice our vision to a perceived mandate?

Resources Provided to Teachers During the 2011-2012 Season:
November 2011
 * Instructional Plan [[file:StudioNov11.pdf]]
 * Draft of Emerging CCLS Unit Plan
 * Writing that Makes a Difference Research Tool and Planner [[file:Writing that Makes a Difference.pdf]]

September 2011
 * [|The Common Core Standards]
 * Access Standards by Grade Level Here, Thanks to Erie 2 BOCES
 * [|David Coleman on Bringing the Common Core to Life]
 * Angela's Wiki for Work as a Network Equivalent Team Member at Lockport City School District
 * [|Links to Flash Fiction resources and samples we studied]

Summer 2011

Tools and Protocols that Support Our Work Together:
We continue to assess the quality of our practice as we work with these tools and protocols.