A Workshop on Writing Instruction

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A Workshop on Writing Instruction
Grades 3-4 Session II Presenter Amy Benjamin
Todays visuals are available to
you at www.amybenjamin.com
February 25, 2008 Mount St. Marys College,
Newburgh, New York
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A Workshop on Writing Instruction
Todays Topics What have you tried? How has it
worked? Problem-Solvers Writers Workshop Review
of the model St. Patricks Day ideas for
writing Four kinds of questions Homonym help More
spelling help About your Word Walls Personalized
proofreading guide created by students Writing
introductions and conclusions Book report
alternatives A Brainstorming-Organization
Technique ReadWriteThink.org resources The Six
Traits Guide
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Problem-Solver Student writing
When my students (mistakenly) write this
and I want them (instead) to write this
Here is what I might suggest
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Writers Workshop Model
Students have open flexible time (usually about
forty minutes each day, three or four days a
week) for writing. Students design their own
writing program, with help from the
teacher. Topics, form, and format are chosen by
the student. Students draft several pieces, and
then choose one of their drafts to take
through the remaining phases of the writing
process (revision, editing, publication) Revisi
on Peer readers respond to the draft Editing
With teacher assistance Publication Copied
neatly or typewritten illustrated displayed or
published in a book student sits in the
Authors Chair and reads his or her piece to
an audience
How is your writing class similar to/different
from this model? What might you like to adapt?
Based on Lucy Calkins model from The Art of
Teaching Writing
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Ten Great Writing Activities for St. Patricks
Day Categorizing Letter-writing Report-writi
ng Story-writing Story summary Story
finishers Lists Questions Who? What? When?
Where? Why? How? Word banks and vocabulary
development Rhymes
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Teaching Students to Write Different Kinds of
Questions

• Topic_________________________
• Yes/No Questions Require a yes/no answer

Begin with Is/are/was/were
Do/did/does
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Teaching Students to Write Different Kinds of
Questions

• Topic_________________________
• Inch or centimeter questions Require an
  answer of one or two words

Begin with Which one?/ What kind?/How many?
Who is?/What is?
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Teaching Students to Write Different Kinds of
Questions

• Topic_________________________
• Foot or meter questions Require you to read
  a passage and state it in your own words

Begin with Explain Summarize Tell about
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Teaching Students to Write Different Kinds of
Questions

• Topic_________________________
• Mile or kilometerquestions Require you to
  find the answer by looking at various
• sources and draw your own conclusions

Begin with What if? What do you think about?
Why do you think? Would you want?
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Homophones The Substitution System
There vTheir Theyre
The substitution for THEIR is HIS
Their house is next to our house..
Their
His

their
his
The Wilsons keep dog inside a fence.
their
All students should be respectful to
bus drivers .
his
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Homophones The Substitution System
vThere Their Theyre
The substitution for THERE is HERE
is a big truck parked outside our house.
There
Here
Please put the candy over
there
Here
there
We expected some friends to meet us at
six oclock.
Here
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Homophones The Substitution System
There Their vTheyre
The substitution for THEYRE is THEIR
moving into the house next door..
Theyre
They are
theyre
I saw that training a new puppy.
theyre
theyre
Sometimes, not happy.
theyre
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Homophones The Substitution System
vYour Youre
If you can substitute HIS, use YOUR
mother is calling you on your cell phone.
Your
His
Get to know the children in
your
his
class.
your
Introduce me to friends.
his
ITS/ITs works the same way.
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About Your Word Wall

• The best word walls are
• Dynamic
• Useful
• Organized for a purpose
• Generated and created by students
• Written with words on cards, for easy
• change
• Attractive

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• Spelling Steps
• Look at the word. See the letters in it and think
  about what
• the word means
• 2. Say the word. Hear the vowel and consonant
  sounds. Spell
• the word out loud. Find its rhythm.
• 3. Think about the word. How is each sound
  spelled? Look for
• any
  prefixes, suffixes, or word parts that
• tell you
  the meaning.
• 4. Find groups of letters that go together in the
  word.
• 5. Write the word in the air with your arm
  straight out.
• 6. Close your eyes and see the word in your
  minds eye.
• 7. Write the word just by remembering how it
  looked. Form the
• letters carefully as you write. Feel the word
  in your hands.
• 8. Check the word. Did you spell it correctly? If
  not, notice what
• part you got wrong. Start over.

close your eyes see the shape of the word
say
look
think
find
air-write
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2
3
5
1
4
check
write feel the word in your hands
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Spelling Instruction

• Recommended
• Lists of words that
• students need
• immediately for their
• writing

• Not Recommended

Lists of unrelated words that are not
applicable to immediate writing needs
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Spelling Instruction

• Recommended

• Not Recommended

Memorization through rhythm, patterns,
groupings, and associations
Rote memorization through repetition w/o a
pattern or associations
Ex Twins are two
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Spelling Instruction

• Recommended

• Not Recommended

Considering the difficulty of a word to be
related to the students familiarity with it,
visually and, the non-phonetic nature of it
and, the unusualness of it
Organizing the difficulty of words based on
length alone
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Spelling Instruction

• Recommended
• Not giving students
• negative or
• intimidating signals
• about words

• Not Recommended
• Designating some words as demons
• or problems

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Spelling Instruction

• How to Compile a Great Spelling List
• The 44 sounds of English with the K sound
• Pattern-based lists ough oo tch
• Words related by subject wallpaper,
• paint, carpet, tiles
• 4. Words that are related by form vacation,
• relation, station, imagination

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Spelling Instruction

• How to Compile a Great Spelling List
• 5. Common words that we need all the time
• it, and, the, you, I, me, my, mom, class
• 6. Useful proper nouns United States,
• American, Catholic, Jesus Christ, February,
• 7. Pattern-based rules prefixes, suffixes,
• ie/ei, when two vowels go walking, the first
  does
• the talking

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_____________s Proofreading List

• When I proofread my pre-final draft, I need
• to look carefully at these things, which might
• be problems
• _______________________
• _______________________
• _______________________

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_____________s Proofreading List
Alison

• When I proofread my pre-final draft, I need
• to look carefully at these things, which might
• be problems
• ___Complete sentences____________________
• ___capital letters_____________
• _too many times I say I I I ___________________

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Where do I need help?
Answering the question
Organizing my ideas
Getting Started Writing the introduction
Development
Vocabulary
Writing the Conclusion
Capitalizing Using punctuation
Spelling
Writing neatly and clearly
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5 Techniques for Writing Excellent Introductions
Technique 1 Begin with an anecdote
Example How Are You Being
Controlled? When someone in my family needs
shoes, we go to the Big Box Store. My mom tells
me that before I was born, there were many
shoe stores in our town. But they all closed one
by one when the Big Box Store opened up.
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5 Techniques for Writing Excellent Introductions
Technique 2 Begin with a meaningful quotation
Example How I Solved a
Problem In the Beatitudes, Jesus said, Blessed
are the gentle, for they shall inherit the
earth.
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5 Techniques for Writing Excellent Introductions
Technique 3 Begin with news
Example Cigarette
Advertising to Kids Our guest speaker told us
that ninety percent of American smokers started
as teenagers.
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5 Techniques for Writing Excellent Introductions
Technique 4 Begin with background.
Example Illegal
Drugs in Sports The United States Congress held
hearings to find out about the problem of
professional baseball players who have been using
illegal steroids to make them bigger and
stronger.
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5 Techniques for Writing Excellent Introductions
Technique 5 Begin with an announcement
Example My Brother I
am going to tell you why my brother Kevin makes
our family laugh.
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And a few techniques you might want to avoid

• Dictionary definition
• In this report, I am going to talk about
• Did you ever..? (flat, uninteresting question)

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5 Techniques for Writing Excellent Conclusions
Technique 1 End with an instruction to
the reader
Example How to Care for a
Pet If you follow these steps, your pet will
be safe and happy, and so will you.
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5 Techniques for Writing Excellent Conclusions
Technique 2 End with a prediction
Example How to Care for a Pet I
predict that if you take good care of your pet,
you will want another one soon.
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5 Techniques for Writing Excellent Conclusions
Technique 3 End with a strong, emotional
statement
Example How to Care for a Pet You
promised your parents you would take care of your
pet, so now do it!!!
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5 Techniques for Writing Excellent Conclusions
Technique 4 End with a statement that echoes
your opening statement.
Example How to Care for a
Pet Tippy always greets Jason with a wagging
tail and a happy face because he knows that Jason
loves him.
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5 Techniques for Writing Excellent Conclusions
Technique 5 End with a question that leaves the
reader thinking.
Example How to Care for a Pet Do
you think you are ready for the responsibility
for taking care of a pet?
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A Brainstorming-Organization TechniqueFirst,
brainstorm the phrases. Then, sort them into the
three columns beginning, middle, end. Then, put
the phrases in order within the beginning,
middle, and end. Then, create sentences. Then,
link main ideas together with transitions (and,
but, so).