Writing Instruction

Writing Instruction

1. Stages of the Writing Process

   • Planning/prewriting
     • Explore and organize ideas to write about
   • Composing/drafting
     • Develop topics and translate ideas into written form
     • Use Track Changes feature of word-processing program: To see what has been changed
   • Revising
     • Make the “big changes”
     • Reexamine content, word choice, and organization; rethink writing style
   • Editing
   • Publishing
     • Forms of celebrating, sharing, and disseminating writing:
       • Enhance it with visuals, sound, and an attractive cover
       • Classroom bulletin board or school showcase
       • Actual book format
       • Class or school newspaper

2. Troubleshooting

   • No confidence
   • No ideas or too many
   • Unfamiliar organizational patterns
   • No interest in writing

3. How Writing Instruction Has Changed

   • Once: Students would write one draft, which was graded primarily on spelling, grammar, and handwriting.
   • 1970s: New research on how the process of writing impacts thinking.
   • 1980s/1990s: Students began to adjust to new purposes/audiences and to revise thoughts and ideas.
   • Today: Moving toward increasing students’ abilities to generate thoughts and ideas and to communicate them in written form.

4. Writing Workshop

   • Students and teachers in a partnership for learning
   • An ongoing set of tasks that develop differently in the context of different classrooms
   • Two or three times a week, often alternating with readers’ workshops or literature circles
   • Three or four centers/writing stations, through which students rotate to complete the writing stages
   • Parts of a Writing Workshop
     • Minilessons
     • State-of-the-class conferences
     • Writing and conferencing
     • Group sharing

5. 6 + 1 Traits of Effective Writing

   • 1. Ideas
   • 2. Organization
   • 3. Voice
   • 4. Word choice
   • 5. Sentence fluency
   • 6. Conventions
   • +1 Presentation

6. Inspiring Students to Write

   • Help students become engaged writers who write for authentic purposes
   • Dialogue journals
   • Narrative pieces that are longer and more comprehensive than the ordinary story writing assignment
   • Writing poetry through the use of literacy scaffolds
   • Writing informational text

7. Enhancing Writing Using Technology Tools

   • Digital Writing
   • Social dynamic
   • Greater variety of tools for self-expression