Writing in the Elementary Classroom

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Writing in the Elementary Classroom

• -Writers Workshop
• -The writing lesson plan
• -Six Traits 1
• -Writing Next

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Voice

• Happy Ridiculous Bereaved
• Bizarre Concerned Tentative
• Dismal Horrifying Rude Curt
• Mistrustful Warm Sarcastic
• Thoughtful Revealing Passionate
• Caring Frightful Subtle Detached
• Critical Caring Timid Naïve
• Introspective Clever Gracious Earnest
• Scholarly Profound Flat Thrilled Mean

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Article Discussions
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The Writing Observation Framework

• I am an elementary principal. I am doing a
  walk-through of your classroom. My observation
  today focuses on classroom climate. What will be
  the evidence that this component was observed and
  was judged to be of very high quality?

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A Process Approach
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A Process Approach
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Components of Writers Workshop
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The Writing Lesson Plan
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Mini-lessons (Structure)

• Supplies
• Movement
• Responsibilities
• Peer editing
• Conferencing

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Mini-lessons (Types of Writing)

• Descriptive-describe something through stories,
  poems, and essays
• Expressive-close to normal speech, includes
  diaries, letters, journals, logs

• Narrative-entertain through stories, poems, and
  plays
• Expository-research reports and explanations of
  technical procedures
• Persuasive-essays to argue a position or to
  persuade the reader to do or believe something

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Mini-lessons (Story Elements)

• Beginning, middle, end
• Plot-conflict, climax, and resolution
• Setting-place and time
• Character development
• Message
• Role of the narrator

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Mini-lessons (Non-fiction Elements)

• Expository text structure
• Model research and writing
• Work on a single collaborative piece

• Provide guiding questions or an outline to assist
  individual students
• Follow steps of the writing process to complete
  the research and writing

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Mini-lessons (Autobiographies/biographies)

• Teach about selection of resources
• Teach paraphrasing
• Teach citation of references
• Teach interviewing
• Teach note-taking
• Teach organizing and outlining

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Mini-lessons (Poetry)

• Teach sensitivity to language (exposure, sharing,
  memorizing, choral speaking)
• Teach technical terminology of poetry
• simile, metaphor, alliteration, personification,
  onomatopoeia, hyperbole, oxymoron

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Mini-lessons (Letter Writing)

• Form
• Content

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Mini-lessons (Tools of Writing)

• Handwriting
• Spelling
• Dictionary skills
• Grammar/sentence transformations (363),
• Word substitutions, sentence expansions, sentence
  combining
• Punctuation and capitalization
• Technology applications

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Mini-lessons (Six Traits 1)

• Ideas
• Organization
• Voice
• Word Choice
• Sentence Fluency
• Conventions
• Presentation

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The 6 1 TRAIT Model

• It is a vocabulary teachers use to describe
  their vision of what good writing looks like-any
  kind of writing.
• Certain characteristics make the writing work
  ideas, organization, voice, word choice, sentence
  fluency, conventions, and presentation.

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The 6 1 TRAIT Model

• Assessment drives instruction.
• Students are taught to assess their own work
  also.
• Students are taught right from the beginning what
  writers do to make their work strong. Goals are
  set for improvement, one trait at a time.

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The 6 1 TRAIT Model

• In the mid 1980s researchers from the Northwest
  Educational Laboratory (NWREL) began development
  of six traits.

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The 6 1 TRAIT Model

• The key to assessment is the word itself. It
  comes from the Latin verb assidire to sit
  beside. We are not ranking here. We are sitting
  beside a piece of writing and observing its
  qualities. We are finding a common language to
  talk about those qualities
• Barry
  Lane

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The 6 1 TRAIT Model

• -Weaving assessment and instruction
• -Writing is not a linear process
• -Be crystal clear with students about what you
  are asking them to do and why
• -Use correct terminology
• -Use focused revision

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Six Trait-Definitions

• Ideas make up the content of the piece of
  writing-the heart of the message

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Six Trait-Definitions

• Organization is the internal structure of the
  piece, the thread of meaning, the logical pattern
  of the ideas

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Six Trait-Definitions

• Voice is the soul of the piece. Its what makes
  the writers style singular, as his or her
  feelings and convictions come out through the
  words.

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Six Trait-Definitions

• Word Choice is at its best when it includes the
  use of rich, colorful, precise language that
  moves and enlightens the reader.

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Six Trait-Definitions

• Sentence fluency is the flow of the language, the
  sound of word patterns-the way the writing plays
  to the ear, not just to the eye

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Six Trait-Definitions

• Conventions represent the pieces level of
  correctness-the extent to which the writer uses
  grammar and mechanics with precision

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Six Trait-Definitions

• Presentation zeros in on the form and layout-how
  pleasing the piece is to the eye

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Six Traits Discussion
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Writing as Part of Balanced Literacy

• Shared writing
• Interactive writing
• Guided writing
• Independent writing

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Writing Next

• Writing differs from reading. While readers
  form a mental representation of thoughts written
  by someone else, writers formulate their own
  thoughts, organize them, and create a written
  record of them using the conventions of spelling
  and grammar.

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Writing Next

• Scores on the NAEP and ACT show evidence that
  adolescents need interventions to help them
  become better writers.
• Writing proficiency has become critical in the
  workplace.

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Writing Next

• Writers must use strategies to plan, evaluate,
  and revise text to accomplish a variety of goals
• Writing is a tool for extending and deepening
  students knowledge as they learn subject matter.

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Writing Next

• 11 key elements to improve writing achievement in
  grades 4-12 have been identified through
  meta-analysis of experimental and
  quasi-experimental studies in a variety of
  contexts.
• The elements are interlinked and can be
  integrated into everyday writing curricula.
• The elements are ordered according to their
  effect size.

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Writing Next-Element 1

• Writing strategies
• Self-regulated strategy development
• Students are active collaborators in the learning
  process
• Instruction includes six stages
• Develop background knowledge
• Describe it
• Model it
• Memorize it
• Support it
• Independent use

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Writing Next-Element 2

• Summarization
• Explicit, systematic teaching (rule governed or
  intuitive approaches)
• Models of good summaries
• Fading models of good summaries

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Writing Next-Element 3

• Collaborative Writing
• Work together to plan, draft, revise, and edit
• High level(Helper)tutor, low level(Writer)
  tutee
• Teacher monitors, prompts, and praises

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Writing Next-Element 4

• Specific Product Goals
• Identify purpose of the assignment (persuasive)
• Identify characteristics of the final product

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Writing Next-Element 5

• Word Processing
• Has a consistent positive effect on writing
  quality
• Collaborative work or under the guidance of the
  teacher
• Produces neat and legible script
• Allows writers to add, delete, and move text
  easily

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Writing Next-Element 6

• Sentence combining
• Teaching students to combine to create
  increasingly complex sentences enhances writing
• Use connectors like and, but, and because
• Embed adjectives, adverbs and clauses
• Is an alternative to traditional grammar lessons

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Writing Next-Element 7

• Pre-writing
• Help students generate or organize ideas for
  writing
• Improves the quality of their writing
• Includes
• Gathering information for a paper through reading
  
• Developing a visual representation
• Group and individual planning
• Planning

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Writing Next-Element 8

• Inquiry Activities
• Engage students in activities that help them
  develop ideas and content for a particular
  writing task by analyzing immediate concrete data
  through comparing, contrasting, and evaluating
  evidence)
• Activities have clearly specified goals
• Analyze data before writing

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Writing Next-Element 9

• Process writing approach
• Involves creating extended opportunities for
  writing writing for real audiences cycles of
  planning, translating, and reviewing personal
  responsibility and ownership of writing high
  levels of student interaction supportive writing
  environments self-reflection and evaluation
  individualized attention systematic instruction
• Teacher training is a factor in its success

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Writing Next-Element 10

• Study of Models
• Analyze examples to emulate critical elements,
  patterns, and forms embodied in the models

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Writing Next-Element 11

• Writing for Content Area Learning
• Writing to learn was equally effective for all
  content areas (social studies, math, and science)
• In a writing to learn approach the teacher
  assigns writing tasks but does not provide
  explicit instruction in writing skills
• Writing to explain
• Writing to elaborate
• Communicating understanding
• Describing a change in thinking

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Writing Next-Grammar

• A negative effect was found for grammar
  instruction
• Although grammar instruction is important,
  alternative procedures, such as sentence
  combining, are more effective than traditional
  approaches for improving the quality of students
  writing

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Writing Next-Discussion

• Writing proficiency develops over time
• Free association of ideas
• Growing knowledge of stylistic conventions
• Awareness of process
• Awareness of audience
• Writing becomes a tool for transforming ones own
  experiences and knowledge
• Lower level skills (handwriting, keyboarding,
  spelling, grammar, punctuation) assist in higher
  level writing strategies (planning, generating,
  and revising text)
• Match writing intervention to the needs of
  students (assessment and diagnostic teaching)

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Review