The Writing Tutor Develop knowledge Develop motor skills Prewriting activities Simple sentences Proofreading Motivational writing

Motivational writing How do we encourage writing? Some techniques Journals (Write-teach approach) Start with pictures (Language Experience Approach) Manipulatives (Sentence strips)

Develop motor skills Many physical aspects of writing may interfere with the writing process and frustrate students’ productivity. Involved Some handwriting techniques are: Arm and finger movements Wrist and body positioning and strength Fading dotted lines Sentence strips Talking through the process

Prewriting activities Students are poor in planning skills (Graham & Harris) Check students’ knowledge of subject Talk with students about the paper development and genre Diagramming the potential paragraph or paper

Simple sentences Sentence structure needs to be developed systematically (outcome often matched to memory) Inventive Spelling Steps to sentence development Teacher gives sentence – student identifies formula Teacher gives sentence – student states formula or nonsentence Teacher gives formula and opening – student finishes the sentence Teacher gives formula – student gives sentence

Proofreading Poor reading makes it difficult to check one’s writing. Avoid excessive corrections Self-check questions Did I include my information? Are the paragraphs purposeful? Are the paragraphs developed adequately? Are the paragraphs varied sufficiently? Does each sentence match the point of the paragraph? Is each paragraph needed?

Summation Name two ways to build writing motivation. Name one activity to improve handwriting. Name one prewriting activity. Why should we teach sentence formulas? Name one idea for correcting a student’s work.