Improving Student Writing Katie Bain English Language Fellow

“We learn to swim if there is a body of water available and usually only if someone teaches us. We learn to write if we are members of a literate society, and usually only if someone teaches us.” Eric Lenneberg psycholinguist, 1967 (Brown, 2007, p. 390)

Objective Participants will be able to identify principles for teaching writing skills ways to assess writing strategies and activities to teach writing AND Participants will discuss how writing principles could influence their classroom practice. Participants will review the updated Writing Portfolio assignments and discuss ways to guide students to complete the assignments successfully.

Considerations for Writing Process versus Product Authenticity Voice and Identity

Process vs. Product Discuss: What is “a process approach” to teaching writing? Do you see resistance to this in your classrooms? How so? Are there alternatives to teaching writing as a process?

Authenticity What types of writing are your students most likely to do in the “real world?” Forms, emails, letters, job applications, resumes, etc. What are other types of writing that are important for your students? Writing for Academic Purposes, essays, journaling, storytelling, etc.

Reasons for Writing Writing improves communication skills. Writing helps students review and remember recently learned material. Writing helps educators assess student learning. Writing encourages creativity and exploration. Writing is essential for self-understanding. (Walker, 2012)

Voice and Identity Voice: The individual writing style of an author. Identity: Students discover themseves more fully in writing and express themselves. How do we help students to develop a voice and identity? Let them draw on their own experiences and creativity, and give them LOTS of opportunities to write!

Other Writing Considerations

Permanence Once a writer publishes or sends a written message, it is gone! The power to amend has left! (Brown, 2007)

Production Time The battle between the quick nature of classroom writing tasks and the need for TIME to develop writing skills. (Brown, 2007)

Distance Writers need to be able to understand their audience…their anticipated background knowledge, cultural, age, interests, etc.

Complexity Good writing is usually different than speaking. Writers have to think about avoiding redundancy, combining sentences, and syntactical variety.

Writing requires a higher development of vocabulary than speaking.

Form The conventions of different forms of writing must be understood. Describing, explaining, illustrationg, defending, arguing, criticizing, etc.

Principles for Teaching Writing Teach, model, explain practices of good writers. Think about your students’ backgrounds. Make connections between reading and writing. Authenticate writing as much as possible. Get students used to the steps of process writing. Be kind but specific when giving feedback. Give clear instructions on form or types of writing. (Brown, 2007)

1. Teach, model, explain practices of good writers. Write a lot! Are not afraid to write their thoughts freely. Edit and revise. Think about their audience. Think about the format and know its structure (but are not married to the structure).

2. Think about your students’ backgrounds.

Make connections between reading and writing. Students can write about what they read. Students can write in similar ways that authors have written, on a sentence or structural level. She raced fast, determined, her lungs bursting. He moved slowly, afraid, his heart pounding. High School Grammar Guide.pdf

Give students authentic writing opportunities as much as possible. Think of ways that students can write for “real” audiences. Brainstorm how!

Get students used to the steps of process writing.

Be kind but specific when giving feedback. Recognize their voice, and praise it. Focus on a couple of key aspects to grade. Be clear about what you want.

Give clear instructions on form or types of writing. 11Major_forms_of_Writing.pdf

Assessing Writing RUBRICS!!!!!! Self-evaluations Peer evaluations Informal discussions about writing Responding in written form to student writing

RUBRICS/Checklists Rubric.pdf W5LS-M-Rubric.pdf Writing_Rubrics.pdf http://rubistar.4teachers.org/ EssayWritingChecklist.pdf Draft1Evaluation.pdf Draft2Evaluations.pdf FinalDraftEvaluationRubric.pdf

Activities for Students Writing MODEL, model, model Free writing Journal Writing Assess writing samples as a class Writing contests Create a class book or newspaper Exit slips Writer’s workshop Learning Logs

More Activities Comics Picture sequencing Storytelling Summarizing (WHO, WANTED, BUT, SO) Re-write lyrics to a song. Write the script for a TV episode (or portion of) that you watch in class. Write new endings for stories or movies. Tutoring

Graphic Organizers for Pre-Writing http://www.eduplace.com/graphicorganizer/ cluster.pdf sandwich.pdf storymap1_eng.pdf wheel_eng.pdf

A Writing Lesson Plan writing lesson plan.docx personal_narrative_organizer_to_finished_paper_sample.pdf Personal Narrative Rubric.pdf Personal_Narratvie_Example_2.pdf PersonalNarrativeSampler.pdf Personal Narrative Rubric.doc

What other ideas do you have that you have used or could use?

Writing Portfolio Review Agenda Look at Writing Portfolio documents as a whole group to get a general idea. Work in groups to examine assignments more closely. Choose one writing assignment for your group. As a group, write a lesson plan to determine how you will guide your students to be successful with this writing assignment. One person from each group will present your lesson plan idea.

Writing Portfolio Files Level 1 Level 2 Level 3 Level 4 Level 5 Level 6 Level 7 Level 8 Level 9 Level 10 Level 11 Level 12

Writing Portfolio Review Agenda Look at Writing Portfolio documents as a whole group to get a general idea. Work in groups to examine assignments more closely. Choose one writing assignment for your group. As a group, write a lesson plan to determine how you will guide your students to be successful with this writing assignment. One person from each group will present your lesson plan idea.

Presentations!

Sources Brown, H. D. (2007). Teaching by principles: an interactive approach to language pedagogy. (3rd ed., pp. 390-419). White Plains, NY: Pearson Education, Inc. Jones, R.E. (2012) “Creating a Storytelling Classroom for a Story Telling World.” Forum. V. 50 N. 3 Walker, S. (2012, February 23). 5 reasons why your students should write every day. Retrieved from http://www.scilearn.com/blog/5-reasons-students-should-write-every-day.php

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