Good Beginnings, Endings

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Good Beginnings, Endings Stuff in Between

• This workshop will assist you with ideas,
  strategies, and techniques that will help
  students craft better writing.
• The Writing Workshop Resource Manual will be a
  great resource for you and your students

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Explicit instruction

• Explicit Instruction helps all students those
  with and without learning disabilities
• Instruction should be explicit about
• Process planning, revising, and helping kids
  learn to monitor what theyre doing
• Goals why kids are being asked to do the
  writing assignment and what they intend to give
  the reader

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Encouraging young writers

• Model the process. The work that goes into
  writing planning, drafting, revising, and
  editing all goes on inside the mind. Make it
  visible to students
• Help make handwriting, spelling, and sentence
  construction routine (automatized, so students
  dont have to stop and think of each word)
• Provide grammar and vocabulary instruction

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Extra attention to the fundamentals pays off

• As a students spelling improves and their
  writing improves, there is a carryover effect
  in
• improved sentence construction
• increased amount of writing
• increased quality of the writing

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Mechanics versus content

• Often interrelated. For example, if you struggle
  writing the words youre going to produce less
  content
• If a kid struggles with mechanics, provide
  focused instruction in letter formation and
  spelling to help kids move past that point. Look
  for alternatives to help the student keep up
  (e.g., word processing software, speech synthesis
  software)
• If a kid struggles with content, sometimes its a
  structure issue or a knowledge issue.
  Instruction should center on how to get ideas and
  ways to organize ideas

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Other effective strategies

• Explicitly teach children how to form sentences
• Use reading as a model for writing
• Have kids do research and ask questions to get
  ideas for writing
• But nothing beats a well-prepared,
  knowledgeable, dedicated teacher in helping kids
  become good writers.

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How to model sentence formation

• Take small, kernel sentences
• Show how to make those into more complex
  sentences
• Have kids work with you to do the same thing,
  then work with each other
• Have them apply the practice in their own writing
  

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The Writing Workshop Resource Manual

• Lets take a look inside to preview some helpful
  ideas, strategies, and techniques that will
  assist your writing instruction in your classroom
  or instructional setting

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Chicopee Writing Rubric Kindergarten Proficient

• Topic clearly stated
• Detailed picture
• 3 sentences on topic
• Appropriate spacing
• Left to right progression
• Complete simple sentences
• Correct word order
• High frequency word use to build sentences

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Writing Conventions Proficient

• Capitalization at start of sentence
• End punctuation
• Correct spelling of high frequency words

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Prewriting

• First step to a great detailed picture with at
  least 3 sentences is organizing your thoughts in
  the prewriting step which helps the writer
• Stay focused on the subject
• Think sequentially
• Form strategies for three sentences that are on
  topic
• Come up with all options before writing
• Write descriptively
• Consider the audience and purpose of their writing

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Prewriting Strategies

• Brainstorming
• Teacher models with whole class, write down ideas
• Topics, nouns, action words
• Keep word list hung up for students to refer to
• Sequencing with storyboard
• Draw pictures in sequence and label

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Prewriting Strategies

• Visuals
• Manipulatives
• Read-Alouds
• Story Starters
• Webs
• Choosing a title
• Writing a list
• Rhyming Words

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Prewriting Strategies

• Establish writing workshop/routine
• Story map
• Who, what, where, when
• Sensory Chart
• Use concrete objects
• Graphic organizers
• Illustrations
• Model, model, model!

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Bold Beginnings

• Lets the reader know what the topic is
• In a narrative, you let the reader know you are
  going to tell a story.
• Describes people, places, and events.
• Describes exactly what happened.
• Describes what was seen, heard, and felt

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Bold Beginnings

• Teaching suggestions
• Display picture and have students orally tell
  what it is about in one sentence List and share
  sentences.
• Read beginnings of different books and discuss
  how stories start. Brainstorm and make class
  list of beginnings. Also share examples of poor
  topic sentences.
• Give sentence starters
• This summer
• My favorite
• Model, model, model! Practice, practice, practice!

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ACTIVITY

• Share your best teaching practices for topic
  sentence development!

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Marvelous Middles

• Ideas in sequential and logical order
• Complete sentences
• Correct word order
• High frequency word use
• Sensory words
• Left to right progression
• Appropriate spacing, indent

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Marvelous Middles

• Detail sentences
• Paint a picture for the reader with specific
  details that are organized and stay on focus
• Have students utilize the prewriting strategies
  to stay organized

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Marvelous Middles

• Teaching suggestions
• Teach transition words to keep story logical and
  sequential
• First, next, last
• Put pictures in order and use transition words.
• Teach complete sentences
• Mix and match subject/verbs (action words!)
• Correct word order
• Write sentence on sentence strip, cut apart, and
  have children work in pairs to put together

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Marvelous Middles

• Sentence variety
• Practice telling, question, and excited
  sentences. Use question cards and sentence
  starters.
• Make word lists together and make available for
  students
• Word wall, writing folder
• Use concrete materials for sensory words
• Practice extending sentences

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ACTIVITY

• Share your best practices!

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Excellent Endings

• The concluding sentence
• What do you want the reader to remember?
• Stay on topic.
• Emotion!

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Editing

• Teachers edit the paper with the student, to
  correct errors in conventions
• Capitalization, punctuation, spelling of high
  frequency words, single/ plural words, spacing.
• Model and practice skills in small groups and
  center activities
• Differentiate instruction

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Revising

• Helpful Hints
• After you have done an example as a class, hang
  it where the students can refer to it during
  their writing process.
• Revise with the student. This makes the student
  understand how the revision process is done and
  what it is they need to fix.
• Skipping lines makes it easier for teachers to
  show students where they need to make
  corrections.
• Make word lists available.

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Final Thoughts

• Give explicit instruction to demonstrate writing
  process and skills.
• Allow students time to practice writing.
• Incorporate it in every aspect of their day from
  morning message to centers!
• MAKE WRITING FUN!
• Santa Maria-Bonita School District